The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 49
48 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS of people being grateful to God Almighty, a hue and cry of intense ingratitude was so fiercely raised that all those verities, fine points, illu- minating subtleties, and divine spiritual insights were deemed state- ments of heresy. My humble self was branded a kāfir [disbeliever], a mulḥid [atheist], a zindīq [heretic], and a dajjāl [deceiver]; rather, I was declared to be the worst of all the kāfirs and dajjāls of the world. The primary instigator of this mischievous propaganda is a shaikh by the name of Muhammad Husain who resides in Batala, in the District of Gurdaspur. Like the majority of today's mullahs who are quick to pronounce edicts of disbelief, and prior to fathoming the substance of any statement, they declare its speaker to be a kāfir, this trait appears grossly inflated in the aforementioned shaikh in comparison to the oth- ers. And from what has been proven to me thus far, it seems certain that the share of understanding, deliberation and goodwill allotted to the shaikh's persona from Qassām-e-Azal [the Eternal Dispenser (of all things); i. e. God] is very scant. This is the reason that this particular gentleman was the first to run around in every direction carrying the proclamation of his fatwa in hand [accusing me of disbelief]. Consequently, Miyāń Nadhir Husain Dehlawi was the first to lift the pen in declaring me a disbeliever and apostate, signing and sealing his attestation of disbelief upon Baṭālawi's fatwa. Miyāń Nadhīr Ḥusain declared my humble self to be a kafir [disbeliever] without any delay or deliberation, even though I had clearly written to him earlier that I do not deviate from any of the agreed-upon tenets of Islam. Among the many reasons that he did so, one reason is that the said Miyān suf- fers from senility. With his unbridled wrath, rage, and fury, he holds no remarkable ability for deep reflection and research. Moreover, if I am not mistaken, his senses are now somewhat close to being lost on account of becoming old and decrepit. Apart from this, it seems to me that, from the very beginning, he has been a man of shallow thinking and by its very nature, his mind is not at all agreeable to sublime verities and profound spiritual insights. In short, the instigator of the petition [labelling me a disbeliever]