The British Government and Jihad — Page 38
38 was also from God but, unfortunately, it is no longer estab- lished on those teachings. It is also disappointing that the Muslims of this era have deprived themselves of the second part of the Divine Law, which is composed of sympathy, love and the spirit of service. It is shameful that they indulge in such barbaric customs despite believing in Tau h i d. I have tried repeatedly to liberate them from these habits. Unfortunately, they are presented with certain political movements that arouse their violent instincts. The writings of some unenlightened priests also have a poisonous effect on them. A number of books have been written that are full of insults and lies about our Holy Prophet sa. The books written by Reverend ‘Im a d-ud- D i n, Reverend Th a kar D a s, and S afdar ‘Al i , the book Umma- h a tul-Mo’min i n, as well as the journal of Reverend Riw a rh i are all of this type. Any Muslim who does not possess a high degree of patience and forbearance will become emotional upon reading this literature because the harsh language it uses in place of scholarly discussion is difficult to tolerate. One honourable priest has written in his Lucknow-based newspaper that if the events of 1857 were to recur it would be due to the books of Reverend ‘Im a d-ud-D i n. It is worthy of note that Reverend ‘Im a d-ud-D i n’s literature is inflammatory enough for an honourable missionary to have expressed this opinion. In light of the high emotions among Muslims, I recently wrote a somewhat stern response to these books so that Muslims might derive some comfort by seeing that their grievances had been redressed. This did benefit Muslims and their pain was eased with these rebuttals. Nevertheless, the problem remains since