Page:The Indian Musalmans.djvu/80

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76
A MISSIONARY TREASON SERMON


But everywhere, any attempt by the Muhammadans to return to the first principles of their Faith involves a revolt against the ruling power ; for even the most ortho- dox Musalmdn State has had to mould those principles to the necessities of Civil Government. Mecca itself, the stronghold of Isldm, is the place throughout all the world where the sect is most feared and detested. In the last few pages I have sketched the Wahdbi emissary under his milder aspects ; but many of them are simply men who live by pandering to the fanatical sedition of the lowest classes of their countrymen. The following is a specimen of the harangues by which they perpetuate the old Muhammadan hatred against British Rule. The first duty of a Musalmdn is Religious Rebellion ; and to those who reply that such Rebellion is impracticable under the British Power, they answer that the only alternative is flight. The land, and everything that grows on it, are accursed so long as an Infidel Government rules. I have already given examples of the Wahdbi exhortations to Holy War, in prose and verse. Here are the arguments by which they persuade the ignorant peasantry of Eastern Bengal, that as they cannot rise en masse, the only way to escape eternal torment is to quit their homesteads, and emigrate wholesale from the country of the Infidel : — ^ In the name of God. The merciful and kind God is all goodness. He is the Lord of the Universe. May divine kindness and safety attend Muhammad — His Messenger — and all his descendants and companions. Know ye that all Muhammadans are bound to leave a country which is governed by the Infidel, in which acting according to the Muhammadan law is forbidden by the ruling power. If they do not abandon it, then in the hour of death, when their souls will be separated from