The Third Way
Four points from the page of the present, that is, the Era of Bliss. Attention will be drawn to one point in particular.
The First: Consider the following: even with considerable effort a mighty ruler cannot easily eradicate an unimportant custom from an inconsiderable people or an insignificant trait from a small tribe, yet someone lacking power extirpates from the depths of an extremely numerous, bigoted, and perverse people’s spirits their very various, long‑held, deep-seated, and completely ingrained customs and practices with little effort and in a short time. If you don’t agree that this is quite wondrous, I shall inscribe your name in the book of Sophists.
The Second: The formation, or natural growth, of a state – which resembles a collective personality – is slow. And only gradually can a state gain mastery over a former state since submission to the latter has become like second nature to it. In which case, the formation in a short time of a vast, and materially and morally powerful state, and its almost instantly gaining ascendancy over other, firmly established states shows that its customs and practices in both moral and material matters are necessarily extraordinary. If you can’t see this, your name will be written in the register of the blind.
The Third: It is possible to dominate outwardly through force and oppression, but to conquer minds, and be loved by spirits, and command human nature, and permanently preserve one’s rule over consciences is the distinguishing mark of the truth. If you are unaware of this quality, you are unacquainted with the truth.
The Fourth: Employing false or deceptive incentives or threats will have only a superficial effect and will block up paths to the intellect. In which case, to penetrate to the depths of the heart, excite the finest emotions, disclose the bud‑like human potentialities, arouse latent, dormant abilities, fire the passion of the human essence, and reveal the value of human reason must be the mark of the rays of the truth.
Yes, Muhammad’s (UWBP) cleansing their hearts of such things as the live burial of girl‑children, a concrete embodiment of hardness of heart, and his adorning them with such things as kindness to animals, to ants even, which is a flash of tender-heartedness, was such a mighty revolution – especially among those primitive peoples – that it has been endorsed as extraordinary by the perspicacious since it was not conformable with any natural laws. You too will affirm it if you have any understanding.
Now Listen to the Point: History testifies that only the greatest geniuses can arouse a few emotions in people and develop one or two of their abilities and fire their passions, for if their dormant emotions are not awakened, the effects of their efforts will be temporary and go for nothing. Even the greatest geniuses have succeeded in arousing only one or two of the emotions. In Short: A sense of freedom and feelings of zeal and love …
To swiftly arouse and disclose in the nomadic peoples of the boundless deserts of the Arabian Peninsula thousands, even, of elevated dormant, latent, hidden emotions, and to cause them to burst into flower instantaneously was the mark of the light‑scattering sun of truth. For anyone whose mind cannot comprehend this Point, we shall lay out before his eyes the Arabian Peninsula.
Take Arabia: if a hundred of the most eminent philosophers were to be sent there after thirteen centuries of human progress and they were to labour there for a hundred years, could they achieve at the present time one hundredth of what he achieved there at that time?
Indication Whoever seeks success has to be acquainted with and comply with divine practice (âdetullah – the natural laws), creation, and the nature of things. The innate disposition of things will otherwise confound his efforts and he will be unsuccessful; the general current of things casts into nothingness those who oppose it. In consequence, consider the following. You will see the degree to which the truths of the Shari‘a are in conformity with the profound, precise laws in force in creation, which are invisible to the microscope of the mind. Those truths are cognisant of them and in harmony with them. For they have preserved the balance of those laws.
Yes, the fact that the Shari‘a has preserved its truths throughout the mighty unheavals of the long ages, indeed, has caused them to unfold, shows that the way of the Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) is founded upon the truth, which can never perish.
Having grasped these points, listen with a broad, reasoning, and attentive mind to the following:
Despite being unlettered and lacking any outward power or rule or wish for sovereignty, Muhammad Hashimi (Upon whom be blessings and peace) set out with perfect assurance in a most perilous situation, and conquering minds, becoming loved by spirits, and commanding natures, demolished numerous, deep‑seated, ingrained, habitual, and savage customs and mores. Together with instilling elevated morals in their place, so firmly as to mix with the people’s very flesh and blood, he stifled the savage cruelty of a people moribund in the far-flung corners of barbarism, and excited the finest of feelings. Yes, arousing lofty emotions and disclosing the essence of their humanity, he raised them in a short time to the peak of civilisation. He founded in a brief time a vast empire that spread from East to West, swallowed up other empires like a swirling fire or blinding light or Moses’ staff and brought those empires to the point of extinction. He thus demonstrated to anyone whose vision and insight are not impaired his veracity, prophethood, and that he adhered to the truth. If you cannot see this, it will erase you from the book of humanity.