O second corrupted Europe!

Since Western science and civilization had to a degree a place in the Old Said's thought, when the New Said embarked on his journeys of the mind and of the heart, they were transformed into sicknesses of the heart and were the cause of excessive difficulties. The New Said therefore wanted to shake off from his mind that fallacious philosophy and dissolute civilization. In order to silence the emotions of his evil-commanding soul, which testified in favour of Europe, he was compelled to hold in his spirit the following discussion-which in one respect is very brief and in another is long-with the collective personality of Europe.

  It should not be misunderstood; Europe is two. One follows the sciences which serve justice and right and the industries beneficial for the life of society through the inspiration it has received from true Christianity; this first Europe I am not addressing. I am rather addressing the second corrupt Europe which, through the darkness of the philosophy of Naturalism, supposing the evils of civilization to be its virtues, has driven mankind to vice and misguidance. As follows:

  On my journey of the spirit at that time I said to Europe's collective personality, which apart from beneficial science and the virtues of civilization, holds in its hand meaningless, harmful philosophy and noxious, dissolute civilization:

  Know this, O second Europe! You hold a diseased and misguided philosophy in your right hand and a harmful and corrupt civilization in your left, and claim, "Mankind's happiness is with these two!" May your two hands be broken and may these two filthy presents of yours be the death of you!... And so they shall be!

  O you unhappy spirit which spreads unbelief and ingratitude! Can a man who is suffering torments and is afflicted with ghastly calamities in both his spirit and his conscience and his mind and his heart be happy through his body wallowing in a superficial, deceptive glitter and wealth? Can it be said that he is happy?

  Do you not see that on feeling despair at some minor matter and his hope for some illusory wish being lost and his being disillusioned at some insignificant business, such a person's sweet imaginings become bitter for him, what is pleasant torments him, and the world constricts him and becomes a prison for him? But what happiness can you ensure for such a wretched person who through your inauspiciousness has suffered the blows of misguidance in the deepest corners of his heart to the very foundations of his spirit, and because of this whose hopes have all been extinguished and whose pains all arise from it? Can it be said of someone whose body is in a false and fleeting paradise and whose heart and spirit are suffering the torments of Hell that he is happy? See, you have led astray wretched mankind in this way. You make them suffer the torments of Hell in a false heaven.

  O evil-commanding soul of mankind! Consider the following comparison and see where you have driven mankind. For example, there are two roads before us. We take one of them and see that at every step is some wretched, powerless person. Tyrants are attacking him, seizing his property and goods, and destroying his humble house. Sometimes they wound him as well. It is such that the heavens weep at his pitiful state. Wherever one looks, things are continuing in this vein. The sounds heard on this way are the roars of tyrants and the groans of the oppressed; a universal mourning envelops the entire way. Since through his humanity man is pained at the suffering of others, he is afflicted with a boundless grief. But because his conscience cannot endure so much pain, one who travels this way is compelled to do one of two things: either he strips off his humanity and embracing a boundless savagery bears such a heart that so long as he is safe and sound, he is not affected if all the rest of mankind perish, or else he suppresses the demands of the heart and reason.

  O Europe corrupted with vice and misguidance and drawn far from the religion of Jesus! You have bestowed this hell-like state on the human spirit with your blind genius which, like the Dajjal, has only a single eye. You afterwards understood that this uncurable disease casts man down from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, and reduces him to the basest level of animality. The only remedy you have found for this disease are the fantasies of entertainment and amusement and anodyne diversions which serve to temporarily numb the senses. These remedies of yours are being the death of you, and so they shall be. There! The road you have opened up for mankind and the happiness you have given them resembles this comparison.

  The second road, which the All-Wise Qur'an has bestowed on mankind, is like this: We see that in every stopping-place, every spot, every town on this road are patrols of a Just Monarch's equitable soldiers doing the rounds. From time to time at the King's command a group of the soldiers are discharged. Their rifles, horses and gear belonging to the state are taken from them and they are given their leave papers. The discharged soldiers are apparently sad to hand over their rifles and horses with which they are familiar, but in reality they are happy to be discharged and extremely pleased to visit the Monarch and return to His Court.

  Sometimes the demobilization officials come across a raw recruit who does not recognize them. "Surrender your rifle!," they say. The soldier replies: "I am a soldier of the King and I am in His service. I shall go to him later. Who are you? If you come with His permission and consent, I greet you with pleasure, show me His orders. Otherwise go away and stay far from me. Even if I stay on my own and there are thousands of you, I shall still fight you. It is not for myself, because I do not own myself, I belong to my King. Indeed, my self and the rifle I have now are in trust from my owner. I shall not submit to you because I have to protect the trust and preserve my King's honour and dignity!"

  This situation then is one of thousands on the second way which cause joy and happiness. You can conclude the others for yourself. Throughout the journey on the second way there is the mobilization and despatch of troops with joy and celebrations under the name of birth, and the discharge of troops with cheer and military bands under the name of death. The All-Wise Qur'an has bestowed this road on mankind. Whoever accepts the gift wholeheartedly travels this second road leading to the happiness of both worlds. He feels neither grief at the things of the past nor fear at those of the future.

  O second corrupted Europe! A number of your rotten and baseless foundations are as follows. You say: "Every living being from the greatest angel to the tiniest fish owns itself and works for itself and struggles for its own pleasure. It has the right to life. Its aim and purpose and all its endeavour is to live and continue its life." And supposing to be conflict the compassionate, munificent manifestations of the universal law of the All-Generous Creator which is manifest through plants hastening to the assistance of animals and animals hastening to the assistance of man through a principle of mutual assistance, which is conformed to in perfect obedience by all the principal beings of the universe, you declare idiotically: "Life is conflict."

  How can particles of food hastening with total eagerness to nourish the cells of the body-a manifestation of that principle of mutual assistance-be conflict? How can it be a clash and struggle? Rather, that hastening and assistance is mutual help at the command of a Munificent Sustainer.

  And one of your rotten foundations is, as you say: "Everything owns itself." A clear proof that nothing owns itself is this: among causes the most noble and with regard to choice the one with the most extensive will is man. But out of a hundred parts of the most obvious acts connected to man's will like thinking, speaking, and eating, only a single, doubtful, part is given to the hand of his will and is within the sphere of his power. So how can it be said of one who does not own one hundredth of the most obvious acts such as those that he owns himself?

  If the highest beings with the most extensive will are thus inhibited from real power and ownership to this degree, someone who says: "The rest of beings, animate and inanimate, own themselves" merely proves that he is more animal than the animals and more lifeless and unconscious than inanimate beings.

  What pushes you into such an error and casts you into this abyss is your one-eyed genius. That is, your extraordinary, ill-omened brilliance. Because of that blind genius of yours, you have forgotten your Sustainer, Who is the the Creator of all things, you have attributed His works to imaginary Nature and causes, you have divided up the Creator's property among idols, false gods. In regard to this and in the view of your genius, every living creature and every human being has to resist innumerable enemies on his own and struggle to procure his endless needs. And they are compelled to withstand those innumerable enemies and needs with the power of a minute particle, a fine thread-like will, a fleeting flash-like consciousness, a fast extinguishing flame-like life, a life which passes in a minute. But the capital of those wretched animate creatures is insufficient to answer even one of the thousands of their demands. When smitten by disaster, they can await no salve for their pain other than from deaf, blind causes. They manifest the meaning of the verse:

  For the prayer of those without faith is nothing but [futile] wandering [in the mind].{Qur'an, 13:14.}

  Your dark genius has transformed mankind's daytime into night. And in order to warm that dark, distressing, unquiet night, you have only illuminated them with deceptive, temporary lamps. Those lamps do not smile with joy in the face of mankind, they rather smirk idiotically at their pitiful and lamentable state. Those lights mock and make fun of them.

  In the view of your pupils, all living beings are miserable and calamity-striken, subject to the assaults of oppressors. The world is a place of universal mourning. The sounds in the world are the cries and wails arising from death and suffering. The pupil who has absorbed your instruction thoroughly becomes a pharaoh. But he is an abased pharaoh, who worships the most base thing and considers himself to be lord over everything he reckons advantageous. A student of yours is obstinate. But an obstinate wretch who accepts utter abasement for a single pleasure. He demonstrates despicableness to the degree of kissing Satan's foot for some worthless benefit. And he is a bully. But because he has no point of support in his heart, he is in fact a most impotent bullying braggart. The aim and endeavour of this pupil is to satisfy the lusts of the soul, to cunningly seek his own personal benefits under the screen of patriotism and self-sacrifice, and work to satisfy his ambition and pride. He loves seriously nothing at all other than himself and sacrifices everything for his own sake.

  As for the sincere and total student of the Qur'an, he is a worshipping servant. But he is an esteemed servant who does not stoop to bow in worship before even the mightiest of creatures, and does not make a supreme benefit like Paradise the aim of his worship. And he is mild and gentle. But at the same time he is noble and gracious and does not lower himself before any but the All-Glorious Creator. And other than with His permission and at His command, he does not stoop before the lowly. And he is needy. But due to the reward his All-Generous Owner is storing up for him in the future, he is at the same time self-sufficient. And he is weak. But he is strong in his weakness, for he relies on the strength of his Lord Whose power is infinite. Would the Qur'an make its true student take this fleeting, transient world as his aim and purpose while it does not make him take even eternal Paradise as his goal? Thus you can understand how different from one another are the aims and endeavours of the two students.

  You can further compare the zeal and self-sacrifice of the All-Wise Qur'an's students with the pupils of sick philosophy as follows:

  The student of philosophy flees from his own brother for his own sake and a files a lawsuit against him. Whereas, considering all the righteous worshippers in the heavens and on the earth to be his brother, the student of the Qur'an makes supplications for them in the most sincere fashion. He is happy at their happiness and he feels a powerful connection with them in his spirit, so that in his supplications he says: "Oh God, grant forgiveness to all believing men and women!" Furthermore, he considers the greatest things, the Divine Throne and the sun, to be each subservient officials, and servants and creatures like himself.

  Also, compare in the following the loftiness and expansion of spirit of the two students: The Qur'an imparts such a joy and loftiness to the spirits of its students that instead of the ninety-nine beads of the prayer-beads, it places in their hands the minute particles of ninety-nine worlds displaying the manifestations of the ninety-nine Divine Names, and says to them: "Recite your invocations with these!" Listen to the invocations of students of the Qur'an like Shah-i Geylani, Rufa'i, and Shazeli (May God be pleased with them)! See, they hold in their hands the strings of particles, the droplets of water, the breaths of all creatures, and recite their invocations with them. They praise and glorify God with them and mention His Most Beautiful Names.

  Thus, look at the miraculous instruction of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition and see how man is elevated by it-insignificant man who is stunned and confused at some minor grief and tiny sorrow and defeated by a microscopic germ. See how his inner senses expand so that he sees the beings in the mighty world to be inadequate as prayer-beads for his invocations. And although he considers Paradise to be insufficient as the aim of his invocations and recitations of the Divine Names, he does not see himself as superior to the lowest of Almighty God's creatures. He combines the utmost dignity with the utmost humility. You can see from this how abject and base are philosophy's students.

  Thus, concerning the truths which the one-eyed genius proceeding from the sick philosophy of Europe sees wrongly, the guidance of the Qur'an-which looks at the two worlds with two shining eyes familiar with the Unseen and points with two hands to the two happinesses for mankind-says:

  O man! The self and property which you have is not yours; it is in trust to you. The owner of the trust is an All-Compassionate and Munificent One, powerful over all things and with knowledge of all things. He wants to buy from you the property you hold so that He can guard it for you and it will not be lost. He will give you a good price for it in the future. You are a soldier under orders and charged with duties. Work in His name and act on His account. For He sends you the things you need as sustenance and protects you from the things you are unable to bear. The aim and result of this life of yours is to manifest the Names and attributes of your Owner. When a calamity comes your way, say:

  To God we belong, and to Him is our return. {Qur'an, 2:156.}

  That is to say, "I am in the service of my Owner. And so, O calamity, if you have come with His permission and consent, greetings, you are welcome! For anyway we shall return to Him some time and enter His presence, and we yearn for Him. Since He will in any event release us from the responsibilities of life, let the release and discharge be at your hand, O calamity, I consent to it. But if He has ordered and decreed your coming as a trial for my dutifulness and loyality in preserving my trust, then without His permission and consent to surrender it to you, so long as I have the power, I will not surrender my Owner's trust to one not certainly charged to receive it."

  Thus, look at this one example out of a thousand and see the degrees in the instruction given by the genius of philosophy and guidance of the Qur'an. Indeed, the reality of the two sides proceeds in the manner described above. But the degrees of people in guidance and misguidance are different, and the degrees of heedlessness are different. Everyone cannot perceive completely this truth in every degree, because heedlessness numbs the senses. And in the present age it has numbed the senses to such a degree that the civilized do not feel this grievous pain and suffering. However, the veil of heedlessness is being rent through increased sensitivity due to developments in science and the warnings of death which every day displays thirty thousand corpses. Utter abhorrence and a thousand regrets should be felt for those who take the way of misguidance due to the Europeans' idols and sciences of Naturalism, and for those who follow them and imitate them blindly!

  O sons of this land! Do not try to imitate Europeans! How can you reasonably trust in and follow the vice and invalid, worthless thought of Europe after the boundless tyranny and enmity it has shown you? No! No! You who imitate them in dissoluteness, you are not following them, but unconsciously joining their ranks and putting to death both yourselves and your brothers. Know that the more you follow them in immorality the more you lie in claiming to be patriots! Because your following them in this way is to hold your nation in contempt, to hold the nation up to ridicule!

  God guides us, and you, to the Straight Path.

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