Lecture Lahore — Page 37
37 Part II Worthy audience, I will now speak about my claim which has been communicated to the people of this country. Both reason and tradition testify that when the world is engulfed by the darkness of sin, the earth is filled with evil and vice, spirituality falls to its lowest ebb, the land becomes polluted with sin, love for the Almighty grows cold, and a poisonous wind blows over the land, at such times Divine mercy desires to resurrect the earth once again. This process is similar to the changing of seasons; in Autumn the trees are stripped of their fruit and leaves and flowers, and seem as unsightly as a man in the last stage of consumption with a bloodless visage, looking more dead than alive, or like a leper whose limbs have begun to wither; and then comes Spring when the same trees take on an entirely different hue and colour, and bring forth fruits and flowers and leaves that are so pleas- ing to behold. Mankind goes through similar phases of light and darkness. Some ages are like Autumn, in which human excellences lose all their shine and lustre, while others are like Spring, in which a heavenly breeze brings fresh life into people’s hearts. These two phases have al- ternately influenced mankind since its creation. The current age can be likened to the beginning of Spring. The deadness of Autumn was seen in the Punjab during the Sikh rule, when ignorance swept the land and religious books became so scarce that they could only be found in the libraries of a few noblemen. This was followed by the