Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 299
— Part III 292 record of his life. According to the Holy Prophet sa , when this man will be reconstructed from his apparently irretrievable ashes on the Day of Judgement, he would be quietly questioned by God as to why he did this. His answer would be: 'Only because I feared you'. God would reply: 'I have the power to forgive those who are afraid of me. If I so decide. ' Thus God would forgive this greatest sinner on earth after gaining full command over him. 45 This tradition does not encourage the criminal to commit crimes. It only tells him that God can forgive him if He so pleases, so he should never lose hope of His forgiveness. He should abstain from committing crime as much as he can but he should never permit himself to sink into despair about the crimes he committed, always having faith in God’s limitless mercy. During all this one should never entertain the thought that one can escape God’s punishment by deceiving Him. Such stupid childish endeavours remind me of a young boy whom I once saw saying his prayer in the mosque so rapidly as though he were a hen pecking at grain. I did not have to wait long till he finished. When I enquired as to why he was behaving like this he answered, 'I am only fulfilling an obligation to God. How can He know that I am only playfully appeasing Him? Who is seriously praying— not me!' He was merely an ignorant child, but woe to the so-called great scholars who claim to believe they know the ins and outs of religion but waste their entire