The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 297
296 Α'ΙΝΑ-Ε-ΚΑMĀLĀT-E-ISLAM-DAFI UL-WASĀWIS that the powers of a false philosophy opposed to it may be broken and reduced to nothing by the Divine power of Islam. I wonder from whom and where you heard and how you came to believe that the principles put forth by the philosophy and science of this age are dominant over Islam. Thoroughly bear in mind, sir, that philosophy merely possesses an incomplete weapon in the shape of rea- son, whereas Islam not only wields this weapon in full, but also many other heavenly weapons. Why should Islam then fear the assault? Hence, I do not know to why you are so fearful of this philosophy? Why do you fall at its feet, and why do you struggle to give a far-fetched interpretation to the meaning of the verses of the Holy Quran? It is a pity that you have accepted a great hoard of those statements of which to believe even one of those statements makes it incumbent to deny all the tenets of Islam, and it is strange that in spite of denying mira- cles, denying angels, denying news of the unseen, denying revelation, denying acceptance of prayer, and other denials, you also accept every- where that the Quran is true, the Messenger is true, Islam is true and everything opposed to it is false; then on account of the fusion of these diametrically opposed ideas, your writings have become likened to that bizarre beast that is forced together in such a way that its mouth is of a man, its tail of a monkey, hide of a goat, claws of a wolf, and the tusks of an elephant for show while the truth inside is altogether different. Again, the extreme extent of pity of it is that like the Shiites, your writings contain examples of taqiyyah¹ —in stating some of your views you make them so ambiguous as not to be the least intelligible. Your words, like the ostrich, are capable of assuming both the forms of a camel as well as a bird. You may perhaps repeat your assertion, which I have just refuted, and say that writings of this kind were the need of this age. You may be 1. In Malfūzāt, vol. 10, dated 10 February 1908, the Promised Messiahas has de- scribed taqiyyah as to 'disavow one's faith wherever overpowered or when one sees his own interest being jeopardized. [Publisher]