Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 439
4 May 1908 439 Messenger s as. Without the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, I truly confess that I am absolutely nothing—not even dust. The honour and dignity of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, so thor- oughly permeates my heart and every vein and fibre [of my body] that they do not have so much as a clue about this stage. Anyone may perform a thousand penances, repeatedly murmur prayers on a rosary, and reduce themselves to a mere fistful of bones through excruciating austerity and toil, but without fol- lowing and obeying the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, no one can ever attain any true spiritual bounty nor is it even possible. Now, given that this is my posi- tion and such is my belief, then what does it matter if they call me a kafir [disbeliever] and a dajjal [deceiver]? It has now been a few days since I received a newly pub- lished fatwa [religious verdict] in which I have been called many names. However, I know those statements can do me no harm. If I am accepted in the eyes of God Almighty, then their fatwas cannot cause any harm. Those who declare me a disbeliever are themselves not spared from [this allegation of ] kufr [disbelief ]. Furthermore, their disbelief is a truly unques- tionable disbelief. It has been written for them that if one of them enters a mosque, it cannot be cleansed by washing alone. The bricks in its floor must be replaced before it can be purified again. For me, at least, this case does not apply. It is a strange phenomenon that of all the pious men of God who have passed away, absolutely none were spared these accusations of apostasy. How very pious and blessed they were! Even Hazrat Sayyed Abdul Qadir Jilani, may Allah shower His mercy upon him, had a decree of apostasy written against him by nearly 200 scholars of the time. Ibn al-Jawzi, who was the Hadith expert of his day, wrote a frightful book about this decree of apostasy against Hazrat Sayyed Abdul Qadir Jilani,