The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 426
AT-TABLĪGH-TO HEIRS OF PIRS, DEVOTEES, FAKĪRS, ASCETICS, & SUFIS 425 his claim of asceticism simply because he is lacking the signs of true lovers and is totally bereft of the meanings of the Holy Quran. Every true lover has a zeal to learn the language of the beloved. Therefore, someone who claims to love Allah, but is negligent in learning the Word of Allah, cannot be a true lover, or you may say that his condi- tion is not free from one of the two aspects. [One], He has deliberately avoided learning the meanings and the language of the Holy Quran. If that is the case as I have said earlier, such indifference does not befit the men of God. The men of God have a passionate devotion to the Holy Quran, and the lover cannot bear being away from the beloved. Because of the blessings of the intensity of love, it becomes easy for him to learn the language of the Quran. The paths of acquiring knowledge, which bear hard on others, are easy for them. Since indifference has an element of hypocrisy, this hypocritical characteristic, lethargy and laziness cannot be their trait. The Holy Quran is their life; so how can they be separated from their lives? As a matter of fact, someone who styles himself in the mantle of the men of God, but does not under- stand the meanings of the Holy Quran, nor has an awareness of its veri- ties and insights, is not a lover of the Holy Quran, but is a satanic jester. If the grace of the Eternal God had been with him, he would not have been deprived of this great wealth. Thus, there is no greater sign for a despised and rejected person than that, being called a Muslim, he is totally unaware of the meanings, necessary knowledge, and miraculous Signs of the Noble Quran. [Two] The second aspect of such a one may be that he may be very dull, unintelligent, and close to the animals, possessing very lit- tle of the human faculties of intelligence and deliberation. As such he might be incapable of acquiring the knowledge of the language of the Holy Quran. Such a one can also not be graced with the noble sta- tus of being a Walī [i. e. Friend (of Allah)] or attaining the nearness of Allah. Those who consider such a one to be a Walī are also not any less than wild animals and donkeys. Because of their extreme dullness,