The Seventeenth Flash

Because the standpoints of the deniers are all different, their arguments are likewise different. They cannot pass judgment upon the reality itself, for their knowledge extends only to what falls within their own field of vision.

وَ الْعَدَمُ الْمُطْلَقُ لَا يُثْبَتُ اِلَّا بِمُشْكِلَاتٍ عَظٖيمَةٍAnd absolute nonexistence cannot be established except with great difficulties.

is a principle of Islamic methodology.

Indeed, if you wish to establish the existence of something on the earth, it is enough simply to point it out. But if you claim that something does not exist and wish to prove its absolute absence, you would have to search the entire surface of the earth before you could establish such non-existence.

For this reason, the denial of a truth of īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). by unbelievers resembles crossing a narrow chasm or leaping across a deep ravine: in such a case, the strength of a thousand people is no greater than the strength of one, for they cannot help one another make such a crossing.

Those who establish the existence of something and take reality itself as their basis, however, strengthen and support one another, and their proofs converge. The strength of one is added to that of another, just as when a large stone is lifted: the more hands that take hold of it, the easier it becomes.

The Seventh Note

O wretched one who passionately urges the Muslim community to embrace the world, Western ideas, and what is commonly called civilisation! Beware!

Take care lest the bonds of some members of this community with their religion be weakened. For if they foolishly and blindly lose their faith, they may become a grave danger to society, like a deadly poison. The conscience of an apostate becomes utterly corrupted, and he himself becomes a source of poison within society. Thus, in Islamic legal methodology, there is the principle: “An apostate forfeits the protection of life, whereas a peaceful unbeliever living under Muslim rule retains it.” Moreover, according to the Hanafī schoolOne of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) within Sunni Islam, founded upon the teachings of Imām Abū Hanīfah. It is known for its systematic use of reasoning and analogy in deriving Islamic legal rulings from the Qur’an and Sunnah., the testimony of a non-Muslim living within an Islamic society may be accepted, whereas the testimony of a sinner who has turned away from the path of Islam is generally not accepted, because he is regarded as having betrayed Islam.

O wretched sinner who has strayed from Islam! Do not let the great number of sinners deceive you. Do not imagine that the majority share your way of thinking. A sinner does not usually wish to fall into sin; rather, he becomes entangled in sinful conduct and cannot easily free himself from it. No sinner would reject uprightness or wish that his leader were not a practising Muslim—unless his conscience had been corrupted by apostasy and, like a snake, he had come to take pleasure in spreading poison.

O you whose thinking is unsound and whose heart is corrupt! Do you really imagine that Muslims are impoverished because they neglect the world and fail to value it? And do you think they need to be admonished not to neglect their worldly interests? You are mistaken, and your view is false. It is greed that has intensified their poverty. In the case of a believer, greed leads to disappointment and loss. Hence the saying:

اَلْحَرٖيصُ خَائِبٌ خَاسِرٌThe greedy person ends in loss and failure.