Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 349
16 September 1905 349 are prohibited. 1 Instead, it would be appropriate to make use of it. The jihad of the sword no longer remains valid at this time, and God Almighty has given us a government which has given us every type of religious freedom. Now is the time for a jihad of the pen, so we can spend it [interest] on propagating the Faith. Condition of Present-Day Muslims Referring to the general condition of the Muslims, the Promised Messiah as said: The condition of the Muslims has become terrible. Every intellectual and practical weakness is found among them, and all forms of sin and iniquity plague them. Professional crimi- nals are mostly Muslims. A visit to the prisons will reveal that the perpetrators of all the most severe and heinous crimes are Muslims. This is a matter of great shame. 1. This text is recorded in Badr: The example of this is that of a person who does not fire a gun to confront a mortal enemy, no matter how unlawful and sinful it may be to fire a gun, because as a result, he will likely perish himself. Did God not say that, for a person who has been hungry for three days, even a pig is not h ar a m [forbidden], rather it is h al a l [lawful]? So, if we use the wealth of interest for God, then how can it be a sin? There is no part in it for people. I am satisfied and say it with peace of mind that spending it to spread the mes- sage of Islam and to save the life of Islam also comes under the verse: ۤاَلَف َمْثِا ِهْيَلَع ۤاَلَف َمْثِا ِهْيَلَع [It shall be no sin for him ( S u rah al-Baqarah, 2:174)]. This is an exception. For the sake of spreading Islam, there are thousands of needs that require wealth. ( Badr, vol. 1, no. 26, p. 4, dated 29 September 1905)