Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 291
SuB-Footnote Number Three 291 produce its like. Now, whoever wants to argue the matter justly cannot be unaware of the fact that, in order to compete with the Holy Quran, it is necessary to produce a book that contains the same excellences which are found in the Holy Quran. The Vedas, it is true, comprise poetic imagery and a myriad of met- aphors in the manner of poets. For example, at one place in Rigveda, fire is assumed to be a wealthy man who has many jewels, and its light is likened to a brilliant jewel. At some other places it is likened to an army commander carrying a black flag, and the smoke that rises from the fire is taken to symbolize the black flag. At yet another place, the heat that causes water vapours to rise is likened to a thief, and has been called Vritra, owing to its power of retention. The water vapours are taken to be cows, and Indra, which in the Vedas symbolizes air, and particularly the cold atmosphere, is likened to a butcher in this allegory. It is writ- ten that just as a butcher cuts meat into pieces, so did Indra strike his thunderbolt upon the head of Vritra and shattered it to pieces, so that it melted away into drops of water. Needless to say, such imagery can in no way be compared with the Holy Quran. They are merely poetic ideas, and not so praiseworthy or elegant at that. In fact, they are lia- ble for serious criticism at many places. For instance, the imagery men- tioned above, in which Indra has been compared to a butcher, whose job is to sell beef, is a subject that can never be found in the work of gentle-natured poets, as a poet must be careful not to write anything that people, in general, would find disgusting. In this shurt i , however, this consideration has been overlooked, even though it is obvious that the Hindus, who are the addressees of the Vedas, are averse to hearing the word ‘beef ’, and such talk bears heavily upon them. In the same way, likening Indra—who has been declared to be a great god in the Vedas—to a butcher and describing him with a sugar-coated satire after acknowledging his greatness, is contrary to linguistic decency and implies a kind of disrespect. In addition, the simile also has another defect in that a simile should relate to something that is commonly known and understood. Saying that Indra cut Vritra as a butcher cuts