Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 123
123 ing and a means for the soul to attain to excellence, then we ought to consider acrobatic performers to have attained to the pinnacle of divine understanding. The British have progressed even more remarkably in such tricks and acrobatics; but despite their advancements in this field, the level of their understanding of God is that they are non-believers or atheists altogether, and those who do be- lieve in God, deify a weak, helpless human being who was born from the womb of a woman, Mary. These people have left aside belief in One God and believe in three, one of whom they believe was accursed and stayed in hell for three days. O you who are wise, reflect! O you who possess a pure nature, contemplate! If hanging upside down, or musical instruments like the tabla and sarangi were the means by which divine insight and human excellence was attained, why have the British—who are experts in the art, and who produce new and innovative instruments of sound and music—stumbled, either rejecting God completely or subscribing to the concept of trinity, even though they are deemed to possess de- veloped minds in the field of invention and innovation? Moreover, do reflect and contemplate that if this is the means by which understanding of God is attained, then those who perform at theatres, in fact all singers and dancers, must be godly and excellent individuals of the highest degree! Alas! These people have no idea as to what constitutes true understanding of the Divine. They are unaware of what constitutes human excellence and are unable to see the share of Satan in these things. Emotion, Weeping and Lamentation Such people deem that the satisfaction and comfort of the soul lies in shedding a few tears and letting out a few cries. Often, when reading a novel, a person will reach a painful turn in the plot, and even though they know that this is a made- up tale of fiction, they are unable to control their emotions, and at times they will burst into tears. This demonstrates that mere weeping and crying also, in itself, has no value. I have heard that during the reign of the Chughtai Kings, there were people who would wager on the fact that they would certainly make their audience cry or laugh. Now we have a clear example in countless sorts of novels. On reading certain novels, a person will be unable to contain their laughter, while certain others uncontrollably move a person’s heart to feel pain, even though the readers know that these are made-up stories and tales of fiction. This evidently demonstrates that man is susceptible to deception, and this hap-