Reflections

In other words:

“I am in the service of my Owner. O calamity! If you have come by His command and with His permission, then I welcome you gladly. Without doubt, we shall ultimately return to Him, and this is something we deeply desire. Since He will in the end release us from the burdens of life, you may be the means of that release, and I accept you with peace of heart.

But if He has sent you merely to test how faithfully I guard the trust entrusted to me and how devoted I am to Him, while not willing that I surrender that trust to you, then, so long as I have the strength, I shall never hand over what my Owner has entrusted to me into the hands of one who is not trustworthy!”

Now consider this single example out of thousands, and see the vast difference between the teachings of deceptive philosophy on the one hand and the guidance of the Qur’an on the other.

Indeed, the condition of both the students of the Qur’an and the students of philosophy is as described in this Fifth Note. Yet among those who follow the straight path, just as among those who have gone astray, there are different degrees of understanding and insight. Likewise, heedlessness varies in degree, and because heedlessness veils the perception of truth, not everyone is able to perceive fully, at every level, the reality described in this Note.

In our own time, this veil over perception has become so thick that those who call themselves civilised scarcely feel the anguish of this misery. Yet death itself renews its warning every day, as tens of thousands of human beings pass from this world; and through the advance of technology, news of death and its reality can now reach everyone. In this way, the veil of heedlessness is torn apart.

May endless condemnation and revulsion be directed against those who are led astray by the deception of Western idols and philosophies, as well as against those who blindly imitate and follow them.

O youth of the Islamic world! Do not imitate the Westerners. How can you trust and follow their corrupt civilisation and false ways of thought after all the relentless oppression and hostility you have suffered at their hands?

Those who imitate them in their dissipation do not merely imitate them; without realising it, they join their ranks and thereby betray both themselves and their Muslim brothers.

Beware! Know that so long as you imitate them in this way, you cannot sincerely claim to be working for the prosperity of your religion. Such imitation does nothing but humiliate your religion and expose your Muslim brothers to ridicule.

هَدٰينَا اللّٰهُ وَ اِيَّاكُمْ اِلَى الصِّرَاطِ الْمُسْتَقٖيمِ