The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 17
16 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS Judgment and you, in relation to the honey of Islam, became like an oyster [i. e. closed off and hoarding what was meant to be shared]. O people of falsehood! Be mindful of the Day of Reckoning. You comprehend nothing except the outer meanings of the Quran, and then deny those possessed of its inner meanings. You are content with merely the husk of the Book and your intellect has not touched its essence. You have followed the apparent meanings of the Quran and its periphery, and you presume to have completely exhausted its well- spring. Among you are those who have embellished calumnies, parroted mad ravings, and manifested the beastliness of an untamed she-camel. They degraded human reason with errors and misleading meanderings, inciting every ill-meaning firebrand to pounce on me. They perverted my words and they bit them apart like rats. They hastened towards me with contempt and invective and intended to tear apart my honour like lunatics. They attacked the fortified firmaments of the outer city, as well as its valleys, to destroy them via internal dissension over fundamental and secondary principles. They persisted in their erroneous opinions and so their feet stumbled. They stretched forth their tongues and behaved in a contemptible manner. They frowningly refused to accept the truth and they indulged in their own falsehoods. Every insolent one cursed and abused me; every hyena howled at me, every blind she- camel tried to trample me, and every fighter threw his spears without holding back. Thus, we were rained hard upon until the earth turned into a mire and the strong and the weak alike revolted against us, never ceasing from cursing and condemning us, declaring us disbelievers and disparaging us. They tore apart my honour as rats eat away the pages of the Quran and they attacked me like the attack of the Ethiopian [Abraha] on the House of the Gracious Lord. When I saw that their pot was boiling over for provoking disorder, along with their tendency for falsehood, strife, and excommunication, I betook myself to the Gracious God to seek protection from this attack of theirs that was battering against me like the waves of a typhoon. Then God heard my prayers, humble entreaties, and supplications and