Bounties of the Gracious God — Page 76
76 that every day the plague is further spreading, rendering useless the method of inoculation and negating all the benefits it was sup- posed to bring; you have already heard about the results of this entire process. The use of medicines, intense surveying of streets, neighbourhoods and other epidemic-hit localities, and destruc- tion of all hazardous materials have been of no avail. All these precautions have been adopted to the best possible extent, yet we find the flames of the plague’s fire to be rising further up, and this deadly illness has not yet subsided and the darkness it created is yet to go away, rather its tempestuous winds are committing wholesale murder everyday while its earthquakes wreak havoc. The minds of doctors are befuddled and their intellect is dazed. This disease is not confined to just the unsanitary localities as was thought in the beginning, rather it has reached filthy localities as well as clean ones, and has permeated all dwellings and tribes, striking the occupants thereof with great grief and filling their houses with wailing and crying. One after the other, its horrible earthquakes and terrifying lightning struck [the population]. It entered city after city with a variety of afflictions, but it was espe- cially pleased to pitch its tent in Punjab so that not a single place was left unscathed by its attack and not a single household was left where from cries of mourning were not heard. And all this was the reward of their actions and their previous words and deeds. And, this tempest has not yet ceased. There is no way one is able to observe patience and find rest and consolation. In fact, how could this tempest of the plague subside while their chests are not yet cleansed of the foul tendencies of evil? They are rather multiply- ing. They surely heard the command of the Omnipotent God, but due to their fury they were unable to control their selves. Hence,