The Victory of Islam — Page 4
4 for the defence of the religion of Islam. In this treatise, I wish to impress upon you gentlemen—with the fullest capacity of speech that God Almighty has Himself conferred upon me—the great - ness of this mission and the need to support this undertaking, that I might be absolved of the duty incumbent upon me to con - vey the message. Therefore, in setting forth this topic, I am not the least concerned with what impact this composition has upon the hearts. My sole objective is to discharge—in the manner it ought to be done—the duty that is obligatory upon me and the conveying of the message that is demanded of me as a mandatory debt, regardless of whether people listen to it with attentive ears or look upon it with aversion and constraint, and whether they think well of me or entertain ill-thinking about me in their hearts. ِ ٌْ �ب ِلْعِبَاد ي ض ُ أَمْرِي ْ إِل َ الل ِّٰ وَالل ُّٰ بَص�ِ ِّ وَأُفَو ِ ٌْ �ب ِلْعِبَاد ي ض ُ أَمْرِي ْ إِل َ الل ِّٰ وَالل ُّٰ بَص�ِ ِّ وَأُفَو [And I resign my affair to Allah, and Allah is Ever Watchful over His servants. ] I now proceed to write the treatise which has been promised above, as follows: O seekers after truth and true lovers of Islam! It is clear to you all that this age in which we are expending our lives is such a dark time that extreme wickedness has permeated whatever exists in matters of faith and deeds. A fierce tempest of vice and depravity rages from every direction. What is called faith has been replaced by a few words of mere verbal profession, and the phenomena referred to as good deeds are deemed to be satisfied by so many rites of ceremony or extravagance, or acts of hypocrisy, whilst being completely oblivious to what true piety is. Even the philosophy and naturalism of this age stand in stark opposition to spiritual well-being. Infatuation with them proves to have an extremely