guidance and consolation. Then when the hour is darkest some prophet is born, perhaps in a lowly hamlet, to solace the heavy-laden and lift their thoughts to a brighter and happier world. A signal instance has been remarked by historians. Judaea was smarting from the tyranny and cruelty of Herod when he whom the most advanced races of the world call the Messiah was born.
The Gurus too appear to have been of the opinion that God sends a divine guide whenever required by the condition of the age and country. Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, wrote:—
When the world is in distress, it heartily prayeth.
The True One attentively listeneth and with His kind disposition granteth consolation.
He giveth orders to the Cloud and the rain falleth in torrents.
That is, the Guru comes by God's order and gives abundant instruction to all who may be prepared to receive it. Indeed several events occurred during the Muhammadan conquests of India in the Middle Ages to force the Hindus to consider life in a serious aspect. Though many of the followers of Vishnu, Shiv, and the other gods of the Hindu dispensation adopted during that period the faith of the Arabian prophet, as the result of force or with a view to worldly advantages, yet others whose minds were powerfully directed to religious speculation sought safety from persecution and death in the loneliness of the desert or the retirement of the forest, and lived single-minded investigators of religious truth as in the primitive golden age of their country.
We shall here give, from the written accounts of Muhammadan historians, some examples of the treatment of Hindus by Muhammadan conquerors of India.
Shahab-ul[1]-Din, King of Ghazni, the virtual founder of the Muhammadan Empire in India (1170–1206), put Prithwi Raja, King of Ajmer and Dihli, to death in cold blood.
- ↑ The l is generally silent in such combinations.
