Favours of the Gracious God — Page 112
112 proceeded to Makkah and Madinah and their surrounding villages. None escapes starvation even if his staple diet had been merely grain, and had vowed to only eat grain. The enemies do not spare his life even though he begs that may my father be sacrificed for you. There are many who have backed off the path [of faith] after they used to say “There is none worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”, and turned away from their religion, becoming disbelievers, after once having believed and once declared “All praise belongs to Allah”. Thus, we have seen such ordeals during this dark night which made us realise what an enormous calamity this is. And I penned these accounts of the enemy in such a state that I was reciting, “Surely, to Allah we belong and to Him shall we return”, and saying, “There is no power to avoid any evil, or accomplish anything good, except with the help of Allah”. And those who say “We are the learned of Islam, and are the stalwart scholars of the Faith of the Best of Mankind”, we find them to be lazy and indolent, given to eating like cattle. They do not aid or support the Truth through their discourse or through their pens—apart from those special men of God who are few in number—and you will find most of them harbouring malice towards the