By the All-Glorious! I am astonished to find what a veil has fallen across
their eyes, and how it blinds them even to such obvious necessities as
these. And there is no doubt whatever that when conclusive arguments and
proofs of this sort are advanced, they will answer, out of a thousand
hidden spites and prejudices: “On the Day of Judgment, when men stand
before their Lord, they will not be questioned as to their education and
the degree of their culture—rather will they be examined as to their good
deeds.” Let us grant this and assume that man will not be asked as to his
culture and education; even so, on that great Day of Reckoning, will not
the leaders be called to account? Will it not be said to them: “O chiefs
and leaders! Why did ye cause this mighty nation to fall from the heights
of its former glory, to pass from its place at the heart and center of the
civilized world? Ye were well able to take hold of such measures as would
lead to the high honor of this people. This ye failed to do, and ye even
went on to deprive them of the common benefits enjoyed by all. Did not
this people once shine out like stars in an auspicious heaven? How have ye
dared to quench their light in darkness! Ye could have lit the lamp of
temporal and eternal glory for them; why did ye fail to strive for this
with all your hearts? And when by God’s grace a flaming Light flared up,
why did ye fail to shelter it in the glass of your valor, from the winds
that beat against it? Why did ye rise up in all your might to put it out?”
“And every man’s fate have We fastened about his neck: and on the Day of
Resurrection will We bring it forth to him a book which shall be proffered
to him wide open.”(69)
Again, is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to
the common good? Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than
that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the
prosperity and honor of his fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God! The
highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the
hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and
abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of
God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the
masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve
the general good. “They prefer them before themselves, though poverty be
their own lot.”(70) “The best of men are those who serve the people; the
worst of men are those who harm the people.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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