hing has been offered to charity in memory
of the Prophet. The edifice of religion has crumbled, the foundations of
faiths have been blown to the winds. The carpet of belief has been rolled
up, the tokens of certitude blotted out; the whole world has fallen into
error; when it comes to repelling tyranny all are soft and remiss. Days
and months have passed away, and these villages and estates still belong
to the same owners as they did last year. In this town there used to be
seventy different governments functioning in good order, but the number
has steadily decreased; there are only twenty-five left now, as a memento.
It used to be that two hundred contradictory judgments were handed down by
the same mufti in any one day, now we hardly get fifty. In those days
there were crowds of people who were all brainsick with litigation, and
now they rest in peace; today the plaintiff would be defeated and the
defendant victorious, tomorrow the plaintiff won the case and the
defendant lost it--but now this excellent practice has been abandoned too.
What is this heathenish religion, this idolatrous kind of error! Alas for
the Law, alas for the Faith, alas for all these calamities! O Brothers in
the Faith! This is surely the end of the world! The Judgment is coming!"

With words such as these they assault the minds of the helpless masses and
disturb the hearts of the already bewildered poor, who know nothing of the
true state of affairs and the real basis for all such talk, and remain
completely unaware of the fact that a thousand selfish purposes are
concealed behind the supposedly religious eloquence of certain
individuals. They imagine that speakers of this type are motivated by
virtuous zeal, when the truth is that such individuals keep up a great hue
and cry because they see their own personal ruin in the welfare of the
masses, and believe that if the people's eyes are opened, their own light
will go out. Only the keenest insight will detect the fact that if the
hearts of these individuals were really impelled by righteousness and the
fear of God, the fragrance of it would, like musk, be spreading
everywhere. Nothing in the world can ever be supported by words alone.

But these ill-omened owls have done a wrong,
And learned to sing as the white falcon sings.
And what of Sheba's message that the lapwing brings
If the bittern learn to sing the lapwing's song?(37)

The spiritually learned, those who have derived infinite signifi