All praise and gratitude belong to Allah. He created us. He gave us knowledge, intellect, understanding, and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. To guide us to the right path and provide us with leadership, He sent His finest servants. They taught people humanity, taught them to live like righteous people, and informed them of the fundamental purpose of human life. They also explained and demonstrated the principles according to which people can attain happiness and peace in this world and salvation in the Hereafter. May peace be upon them all.
Esteemed gentlemen and ladies!
Allah, who created this world, made the surface of the earth like a bed, and arranged for human beings to live upon it, does not act on the basis of blind guesswork and conjecture. He is not a king who gropes about in the dark without seeing or knowing anything and throws everything into disorder. He has His own laws, firm principles, strong systems, and sound methods of operation. In accordance with them, He exercises absolute authority over the entire universe. Like the earth, sun, moon, stars, water, air, trees, and animals, the whole human race is also organized under His natural laws and rules. His eternal natural laws and rules operate continuously and properly over everything: our birth and death, our childhood, youth and old age, our breathing, our stomachs and blood circulation, our health and illness, and so forth. Besides these, He has another law. Like His natural laws, it exercises authority over the rises and falls of our history, our progress and decline, our advancement and deterioration, and the control of the destinies of individuals and communities—that is, of countries and nations. If, according to Allah’s natural law, it is impossible for a person to breathe through the eyes instead of the nose or digest food in the heart instead of the stomach, then it is likewise impossible for a nation to advance by following the path that, according to Allah’s law, ought to lead to its decline. Just as fire is not hot for one person and cold for another, so actions that are bad according to Allah’s law cannot degrade one person while elevating another. The principles Allah has established for human good and evil cannot be changed or annulled by anyone’s efforts. They contain neither enmity toward some nor favoritism toward others. The first and most important clause of this law of Allah is that He prefers building and does not prefer destruction. As the Owner of everything, He wishes to administer His world properly. He wishes to adorn it abundantly. He wishes to use all its resources, means, strength, and abilities in a sound manner. He never destroys or harms His world. Nor can one hope that He would ever approve of turning His world into a disfigured creation through disorder, wrongdoing, oppression, and injustice. Among those who seek the power to administer the world, only those are competent in Allah’s sight who possess greater ability than others to build this world. He entrusts the responsibility of administering the world to such competent people.
Then He keeps a keen eye on how much these people in power destroy and how much they build. As long as they continue to build more than they destroy, and no one appears in the field who builds more and destroys less than they do, Allah keeps the power to administer the world in their hands despite all their faults and shortcomings. But when they build less and destroy more, Allah removes them from power and gives power to others under the same condition.
This is a completely natural law. Your own judgment and reason will prove that the law ought to be so. If one of you owns a garden and appoints a gardener to maintain it, then tell me yourselves: what can he expect from that gardener above all? He will surely want his garden to prosper continually. Its growth and improvement, cleanliness, beauty, and increased production will be what he desires. He will certainly be pleased with a gardener whom he sees serving and caring for the garden expertly, with great effort, competence, and attention; paying special attention to its arrangement; making the useful plants fresh and beautiful through his effort and care; clearing away weeds, rubbish, and undergrowth; and using his good taste and artistic skill to increase the production of excellent new fruits and flowers. He will love him and grant him high status. He would never wish to dismiss such a suitable, dutiful, hardworking, loyal, and capable gardener. But suppose the opposite happens: suppose he sees that the gardener is incompetent, worthless, lazy, and negligent; that knowingly or unknowingly he is damaging the garden; that the entire garden has become filled with rubbish and undergrowth; that the leaves and branches of the trees have broken and fallen; that water is flowing needlessly in some places while, elsewhere, the soil and plants are drying up for lack of water; that grass, weeds, undergrowth, and rubbish are increasing day by day; that flowering and fruit-bearing trees are being cut down indiscriminately; and that good trees are dying while the garden is filling with weeds. Tell me, how could the owner of the garden like such a gardener? Because of recommendations, pleading, humble appeals and prayers, inheritance, or fabricated rights, would the owner continue to entrust responsibility for his garden to such an incompetent gardener? At most, he might reprimand the gardener and give him one more opportunity to perform his duties. But if a gardener does not come to his senses under any reprimand and continues to damage the garden, what other solution can the owner have besides taking him by the ear, throwing him out, and appointing another good gardener?
If you follow a similar approach even in managing your small garden, then consider how Allah could ignore whether people are beautifying and building His vast earth, which He has placed under human authority with all its resources and means, granting them such power and rights over the world and everything in it. If you continue to build His world beautifully, there is no reason why He should remove you from power without cause. But if you do nothing constructive and continue utterly laying waste to and destroying this vast garden of Allah, then however compelling you may consider your claim according to your own reason and conscience, He will recognize no right of yours in His garden. First He will admonish and warn you, giving you two or four opportunities to reform. In the end, He will certainly remove you from the position of administrator.
Just as the perspectives of a garden owner and a gardener differ in this matter, so too do the perspectives of Allah and human beings differ. Suppose a family of gardeners has worked for generations in one man’s garden. Perhaps one of their ancestors was appointed to the garden because of his competence, knowledge, and intelligence. His descendants also worked well in the garden, so the owner thought: why remove them unnecessarily and appoint another gardener? Since they too are working well, they have a greater right than others. Thus this line of gardeners continued working permanently in the garden. But after some time, the gardeners of this family became completely incompetent, worthless, negligent, lazy, idle, and disobedient. They retained no ability whatsoever to manage the garden. Now they have begun ruining the entire garden, yet their claim is that they have lived in it from the time of their forefathers, generation after generation; that one of their ancestors built up the garden; therefore they possess an inherent right to it, and it can in no way be proper to remove them and appoint anyone else to manage the garden. This is the perspective of those incompetent and worthless gardeners. But can the owner of the garden share that perspective? Would he not say: What matters most to me is the proper and beautiful management of the garden?
I did not create this garden for any ancestor of the gardeners. Rather, I employed one of their ancestors to work in my garden. Whatever rights they have in the garden are conditional upon competence and performance. If they build up the garden properly, all their rights will be taken into consideration. What enmity could I have toward my old gardeners that I would dismiss them needlessly and appoint other gardeners even when they work well? But if you destroy and lay waste to the very garden for whose proper management you were appointed, I will recognize none of your rights. I will give responsibility and authority for managing the garden to others who wish to do this work properly, and you will have to work under them. If even then you do not improve, and prove useless even as subordinates—indeed, if you continue only to destroy—then I will drive you from this garden and appoint other gardeners here.
This difference of perspective exists between the owner of a garden and its gardener, and likewise between the Owner of the world and the people of the world. The various peoples of the world claim their respective regions as their homeland. They and their ancestors have lived there for generations. They believe they have an inherent right to rule their country. Therefore, in their view, the power to govern the country belongs exclusively to them; no outsider has any right to rule there. This is the perspective of the people of the world. But this is not the perspective of Allah, the true Owner of the world. He has never recognized such national rights. He does not accept that the inhabitants of every country possess an inherent right over it and that they may in no way be deprived of that right. He observes what each nation is doing in its country. If a nation is engaged in constructive work in its country, devoting all its strength and capacity to the reform and advancement of the world, resisting every kind of evil and striving to expand the scope of good works, then the Owner of the world says: Certainly, you have the right to remain in power in this country. You have lived in this country from the beginning and are also capable of governing it. Therefore, your right takes precedence over that of other nations. But if the situation is the opposite—that is, if nothing but destruction continues instead of construction, if only immoral and unlawful acts take place throughout the country instead of righteous deeds, and if what Allah created in the world is recklessly wasted rather than put to good use—in short, if the country is destroyed instead of built—then Allah first subjects such a nation to blows, some light and some severe, so that it may become alert and adopt the right path. If it still does not reform, power over the country is taken from it and given at least to a more capable nation.
That is not the end. If the people of the former nation, even after becoming subjugated, show no competence or good qualities, and prove through their actions that they can do nothing except cause corruption, then Allah annihilates such a nation. He then brings another nation in its place. In this matter, Allah’s perspective is always what the perspective of an owner ought to be. In administering His world, He does not consider the inheritance or birthright of claimants and applicants. He looks at who has greater ability to build and less inclination toward destruction. Among the claimants of the same period, those who prove more qualified in this respect are selected to govern the country. Their power to govern is retained as long as their constructive work exceeds their destructive work, or until someone comes forward who builds better than they do and destroys less.
There is blazing proof of all this in history. Allah has always arranged the administration of His world according to this principle. Let us leave distant countries aside. Examine the history of our own country. When the constructive ability and productive power of the peoples who first lived in this country had come to an end, Allah gave the Aryan people the opportunity to govern it. At that time, the Aryans were the most capable among the various peoples. They came here and built an advanced civilization. They discovered much knowledge and many arts. They recovered hidden resources from beneath the earth and put them to good use. They did more constructive work than destructive work. As long as they possessed these abilities, they remained the administrators of this country despite all the rises and falls of history. Other peoples repeatedly came forward to seize power, but they were pushed aside. For while a capable nation like the Aryans remained in power, no other administrator was needed. When the Aryans became unruly and began to follow the wrong path, the foreign attacks made against them may be called warnings sent to them by Allah. But instead of taking warning, they remained engaged in destructive work. They continued to do far more destructive than constructive work. Their moral decline reached such an extreme that you can still clearly see its traces in the leftist movement. They divided humanity and fragmented their own society into castes and tribes. They structured social life like a staircase. The people on each step made themselves servants or slaves of those on the step above and gods of those on the step below. They began to inflict cruel oppression and persecution upon millions upon millions of Allah’s servants. This oppression still exists in the form of the untouchable class.
They closed the path of knowledge and science to the common people. Their scholars and priests sat encircling the treasury of knowledge like snakes. Their upper-class authorities imposed many unjust rights of their own upon the people of the country. Apart from exacting these rights and living luxurious lives while sitting in easy chairs and depending on the labor of others, they had no other work. In such circumstances, Allah took the power to govern the country away from them and gave certain peoples of Central Asia the opportunity to govern it. At that time, these peoples had come into contact with the Islamic movement and acquired a higher capacity for the struggle of life.
They held responsibility for governing this country for several hundred years. Many people of this country also accepted Islam and merged with them. Of course, they too destroyed many things. But they created more than they destroyed. For several hundred years, all the constructive work carried out in India was done by them or under their influence. They spread the light of knowledge throughout the country. They purified thought and intellectual trends. They reformed many aspects of society, culture, and civilization, and used the country’s resources and means for welfare in ways suited to that age. Above all, they established such a sound system of peace and justice that, although far inferior to Islam’s true peace and justice, it was much higher than the conditions of earlier times and neighboring countries. Then they too began to go astray like their predecessors; their capacity for constructive work declined, while their inclination toward destructive activities increased. They too created class divisions based on high and low status and lineage, and fragmented their society and nation. This caused boundless harm in moral, political, and cultural life. They too began to commit much more oppression and persecution than justice. Forgetting the state’s responsibilities and duties, they devoted themselves only to securing personal interests, and in most cases unlawful interests, from it. Abandoning works of progress and reform, they too began to waste the strength and resources given by Allah and use them in destructive activities. They became so immersed in bodily comfort and lust for enjoyment that when their rulers had to flee from Delhi’s Red Fort, their princes—who until the previous day had been claimants to the throne—could not even flee to save their lives. They had abandoned the habit of walking on the ground. The general moral character of the Muslims had reached an extreme decline. From ordinary people to the highest and most responsible figures, no one cared about anything except personal interest. Consequently, nothing remained to restrain them from selling their religion, nation, and country into the hands of others. Millions upon millions of professional soldiers arose among them. Their moral character was like that of domesticated dogs. Anyone could feed and keep them, and then make them hunt as he pleased. They had no sense that the fact that enemies had conquered them with their help, through this despicable profession, had an especially disgraceful aspect. Even a poet like Ghalib spoke proudly of this, saying: “For a hundred generations, soldiering has been the profession of my forefathers.” While saying this, such a great poet could not think even for a moment that professional soldiering is not a matter of pride, but something to die of shame for.
When the Muslims reached such a condition, Allah decided to remove them from power, and an opportunity arose for the governing power of the whole of India to pass once again into the hands of new claimants. At that time, four claimants could be seen in the country: the Marathas, Sikhs, English, and certain Muslim leaders. If, keeping your mind and intellect free and pure from the intoxication of nationalism and unjust bias toward your own people, you examine fairly the history of that time and what followed, your conscience will admit that the English possessed a capacity for constructive work that none of the other claimants possessed, while the Maratha, Sikh, and Muslim claimants possessed far greater destructive capacity than the English. The constructive work done by the English was not done by the other peoples. The others would have destroyed much more than the English destroyed. In general, many countless faults and injustices can be found among the English in numerous respects. But judged comparatively, their injustice and oppression were much less and their virtues and merits greater than those of their contemporary rivals. This is why Allah’s law once again uprooted a man-made principle. People had formulated, without any right, the principle that: “The inhabitants of every country are its owners; they may build or destroy the country as they please.” Through this eternal verdict of history, Allah’s law has proved that no, the country belongs only to Allah. He alone will decide to whom its administration is to be entrusted; this decision is not based on the rights of any lineage, nation, or forefathers. Rather, it is made with regard to which administration contains the greatest overall welfare.
قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَاء وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَاء وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاء وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاء بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ إِنَّكَ عَلَىَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ. – سورة آل عمران26
“Say: O Allah, Master of the kingdom! You give sovereignty to whom You will and take sovereignty away from whom You will; You honor whom You will and humble whom You will. In Your hand is all goodness. Indeed, You have power over all things.” [Surah Aal Imran: 26]
Thus Allah brought a people to this country from thousands of miles away. They never numbered more than three or four hundred thousand in this country. Yet, using the resources and people here, they defeated all the forces of the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others of this country and seized the power to govern it. The country’s tens of millions of inhabitants remained subject to this small number of Englishmen. A single Englishman governed a whole district, and did so without any member of his nation here to strengthen his hand in this work. At that time, whatever the people of this country did, they did as servants, not as agents. We must all admit that the constructive and developmental work carried out in this country during English rule was done by them and through their influence. To deny it would be to prove truth false. Comparing the present condition with the condition in which they took control of the country, there is no denying that, despite their harmful actions, much constructive and developmental work was accomplished. There was no hope that these works would be completed by the people of this country. Therefore, the decision Allah made in the middle of the eighteenth century regarding the control of this country’s destiny was by no means mistaken.
Now observe: the English have built whatever they were capable of building, and little more can be built by them. Whatever they can build now can also be done by others. Meanwhile, the scale of their destructive work has greatly increased. And as long as they remain in power in this country, they will destroy more than they build. The list of their injustices and crimes has become so long that it is difficult to describe it in one sitting. Nor is there any need to describe them, because they are before everyone’s eyes. It is now Allah’s decision to dispossess them of the power to govern this country. They have acted quite wisely by preparing to leave this country straightforwardly of their own accord.
Had they not left straightforwardly, they would have been driven out by force. For Allah’s eternal law is no longer in favor of keeping the power to govern this country in their hands.
We now stand at the threshold of the situation that arises when the true Owner of the world ends one form of administration in a country and establishes another. This is one of the most important chapters of history. From the way the transfer of power appears to be taking place in this country, no one should be deceived into thinking that the decision now being made to place the country’s administration in the hands of its people is final and eternal. You may easily understand the simple appearance of the present situation: those who came from abroad and ruled this country are now returning to their own country. Therefore, naturally, the power of the country should now come into the hands of its people. But that is not actually the case. Allah’s decisions do not work this way. He did not bring these foreigners here earlier without reason, nor is He removing them now without reason. Just as He did not arbitrarily take the power to govern from you in the past, He will not arbitrarily give you this power now. The real matter is that the people of India now stand as claimants to power; Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs are all claimants. Since they have lived in the country from the beginning, they are being given the first opportunity to gain power. But this is not a permanent appointment; rather, the opportunity is being given to test them. If their actions prove that they possess greater ability to build than to destroy, they will be permanently appointed to govern this country. But if they do more destructive work than constructive work, they will soon suffer the consequences. In that event, power to govern this country will be taken from them and another nation will be chosen for the task. After that, they will have no grounds to complain against this decision. Having given clear proof of their incompetence before the whole world, how could they complain? Even if they stubbornly pleaded and begged, who would listen?
Now examine carefully what qualifications, efficiency, merits, and actions the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs of this country have presented before Allah in this test, such that they can hope Allah will again entrust the power to govern His country to them. If the offenses of the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs are brought before the court of morality, they are all found guilty. If I now state them clearly and impartially, I hope you will not take offense. I do not like describing the faults of my own people and fellow countrymen either. In fact, my heart weeps over it. For I seem to see with my own eyes the terrible consequences of all these faults and crimes of theirs. They will soon have to face these consequences and endure extreme suffering. I fear that these faults and crimes will destroy them. Neither you nor I will be able to escape this terrible consequence. That is why I describe these things with pain in my heart. As a result, whoever has ears may listen and consider reforming to some extent.
Judge for yourselves, according to your personal experience and knowledge, what the general moral character of our countrymen has become. What percentage of us are truly people of character? How many of us hesitate to deprive someone of his rights, pursue an unlawful interest, tell a “profitable” lie, or commit a “profitable” betrayal simply because these things are morally wrong? Where there is no restraint of law, or where there is hope and a way to escape the law’s jurisdiction, what percentage refrain from injustice and crime solely through their own moral feelings? Where there is no hope of personal gain, how many treat others well? In such circumstances, how many feel pain at another’s suffering and poverty and sacrifice their own interests? How many fulfill another’s rights selflessly? How many merchants refrain from fraud, deception, lying, profiteering, and unlawful earnings? How many industrialists consider, alongside their own interests, the interests of consumers and of their own nation and country? When storing food grains and selling them at exorbitantly high prices, how many landlords stop to think that through this profiteering they are inflicting unbearable suffering on millions and tens of millions of people by leaving them hungry? How many wealthy people remain free from injustice, oppression, usurpation of rights, and betrayal while acquiring wealth? Among the laboring people of our country, how many properly perform their duties and accept their wages and remuneration? How many government employees refrain from bribery, breach of trust, oppression, persecution, neglect of duty, consuming what is haram, and abuse of power? Among lawyers, doctors, journalists, authors, publishers, national volunteers, and leaders, how many do not adopt dishonest and despicable means to serve their own interests? How many of them feel even the slightest shame at causing physical, mental, moral, and financial harm to people? At most, only five percent of the country are free from these moral diseases; I do not think this is an exaggeration at all. The remaining ninety-five percent are afflicted with this contagious disease. In this respect, there is no difference among Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and others. All are afflicted equally. Everyone’s moral condition has suffered an extreme and dreadful decline. No nation’s condition is better than that of another.
Since most people had fallen prey to such moral degeneration, it was only natural that this moral disease should spread widely throughout society. When, because of the last Great War, passenger trains began to become overcrowded, the first sign of this impending storm appeared. From the selfishness, cruelty, and harsh treatment that people of the same nation and the same country showed toward one another there, it became clear that our general moral character had rapidly deteriorated. Then, amid shortages and high prices of essential goods, hoarding and black-market dealings began on a large scale. After that came the terrible artificial famine of Bangladesh. During this calamity, one community of the country, in order to advance its own interests, left hundreds of thousands of its countrymen hungry and drove them inch by inch toward death. These were the preliminary signs; afterward, an inferno of filth, barbarity, baseness, and beastlike behavior suddenly burst forth. These things had been smoldering deep within this land for a long time. At present, in the form of communal riots, they are burning everything from one end of the country to the other and reducing it to ashes. Since the disturbances in Calcutta, a new chapter has begun in the national antagonism among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Through this, all three nations are parading the display of their vile character.
Our countrymen are now openly committing acts that no one could have imagined any human being capable of committing. Almost everyone in large regions has turned into a thug. Even acts that thugs themselves had never imagined committing are now being carried out by them. Nursing infants have been slaughtered while lying at their mothers’ breasts, and living people have been burned. Respectable women have been stripped naked before thousands of people and publicly subjected to bestial abuse. In front of fathers, brothers, and husbands, their daughters, sisters, and wives have been violated. In expressing their rage against mosques, temples, and religious scriptures, extremely fiendish methods have been employed. The sick, wounded, and elderly have been murdered with extreme cruelty. Travelers have been thrown from moving vehicles. The limbs of living people have been cut off. Innocent and helpless people have been hunted like animals. Neighbors have looted their neighbors and their homes. Friends have betrayed friends. Those who offered shelter have rendered the sheltered homeless. The guardians of peace and security—police, soldiers, and magistrates—have openly taken part in the riots; indeed, they themselves have rioted and have incited riots with their own assistance, sympathy, and supervision. In short, there is no form of oppression, wrongdoing, cruel and merciless treatment, barbarity, or vile conduct that the people of our country have not collectively committed during these few months. Yet their rage has not been appeased. Judging by the signs visible, it seems that riots far more terrible and extensive than these will now occur.
Do you think all this is merely the result of a sudden outburst of excitement? If you hold such an opinion, you must be making a grave mistake. Just now I told you that ninety-five percent of the people of this country have become diseased in their moral character. If such a vast portion of the population becomes corrupt in character, how can the collective disposition and character of the nation remain sound? That is why truthfulness, justice, and honesty now have no value whatsoever among the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh nations. Those who are truthful, honest, and good-natured have become marginalized and weak among them. In their societies, obstructing evil deeds and advising people to do good have become intolerable offenses; they are not prepared to listen to words of truth and justice.
Among them, one nation favors those who advocate its boundless greed, lust, and interests, incite it against others, and become ready to struggle for all its interests, just and unjust alike. That is why they have selectively chosen the people of the most evil nature from among themselves as their leaders. They have sought out their worst criminals and welcomed them into positions of leadership. In their society, the most depraved, corrupt, and conscience-less people have become highly honored in journalism by posing as their spokesmen. Thereafter, these people have been rapidly advancing their respective misguided nations toward destruction. Instead of bringing the conflicting hopes and aspirations of the nations together at a focal point of justice, they have inflamed them so much that they have finally reached the brink of conflict. They have continually intensified the conflict of economic and political interests by mixing into it the poison of anger, hatred, and enmity. For many years they have injected the nations under their influence with inflammatory speeches and writings, agitating them to such an extent that now, in their frenzy, they stand with swords raised, ready to fight like dogs and savage beasts. They have turned the minds of the masses and the educated classes into foul-smelling furnaces of fiendish emotion and excitement and blind hostility. The storm now raging before you is not at all temporary or sudden. It is the natural consequence of the countless causes of corruption that have been active among us for a long time. It will not stop after appearing once; rather, as long as these causes remain active, this corruption will continue to grow. It is like a field full of crops. After years of sowing and irrigation, this harvest has become ready to be reaped. Now, no one can say for how long you and your descendants will have to reap this harvest.
— The End —