RELIGION OF SLAVES

In slavery ishq and religion are separated from each other; this spoils the taste of life’s honey. \[Ishq: True Love that demands total submission, unflinching devotion and unconditional obedience. Allama uses this word exclusively for the love for Allah and His Messenger (PBUH)\]

What is ishq? It means engraving belief of Tawhid (Allah’s Unity, oneness) on the heart; then face all adversaries steadfastly.

In slavery ishq is mere lip-service; there is no cohesion in words and deeds.

The caravan lacks motivation for journey; it lacks faith, not sure of way forward and wanders without guide (leaderless).

Slave under-values both religion and wisdom; he gives away his soul to keep his body alive.

He has word Allah on his lips; but he worships the might of his ruler.

His (ruler’s) power is persistent falsehood; nothing comes out of him except falsehood.

As long as you prostrate before this idol, this is god; once you rise upright before it, it crumbles.

Real God gives you bread and life; this (unreal god) gives you bread and (in return) takes life away.

Real God is One, this (god) is divided into hundred pieces; He helps everyone and this is hapless.

Real God is remedy for ailment of separation; this god’s word sows seeds of separation (disunity).

This god makes the man intimate with himself and (the slave starts thinking according to this god’s wishes); slave loses the ability to use his own eyes, ears and mind.

When this god captivates slave’s soul; then despite life in his body he becomes lifeless.

Alive and yet lifeless, what is this? I’ll tell you its manifold interesting meanings.

O wise man! Life and death are mere perceptions (relative events).

For the fish mountains and deserts do not exist; for the birds the bed of a river does not exist.

Deaf is dead in the context of a melody; because he is deprived of the sense of sound (hearing).

Blind enjoys the ecstasy of the music; but in the world of colours he’s dead despite being alive.

Soul is alive as long as it has connection with Allah; when that link is severed man is alive as per one perception and the dead according to other.

Only Allah lives forever, He never dies; so, connection with Allah guarantees eternal life.

One who loses connection with Allah is dead; though no one mourns his death.

To his eyes, the seeable things remain invisible; his heart is devoid of any earnest desire for revolution (change for better).

His conduct lacks fire of devotion; his speech lacks heavenly light (spark of vision).

His religion, like his vision, is narrow (blurred); his forenoon is darker than his night (expressed by referring to prayer timings).

Life is a heavy burden on his shoulders; he nourishes his own death in his embrace.

In his company Ishq is afflicted with diseases; his breath extinguishes fire of Ishq.

Worm that lives under soil and never comes out; cannot understand what is moon, sun and the sky.

Do not search in slave the desire for audience with Allah; search not a living being in him.

Slave’s eyes never strive to see the reality; in this world he only ate, slept deep and died.

His master unties one knot; and then ties him in yet another.

Master drafts a charter for slave having numerous knots (impracticalities); then uses that charter to perpetrate more oppression.

He shows the slave his brute power so that fear of sudden death in slave causes (shock and awe).

So that the slave suffers from despair and any desire to be something on his own is extinguished.

Sometimes master grants the slave a silk robe (comfort with elegance); at times delegates a bit of power (use of carrot).

(Like) a cunning chessman (the master) moves his pieces in a way that he raises his pawn to the status of queen making (the slave) helpless.

Master makes the slave addict of easy life; so the slave strives not for better future.

Slave’s body grows (fattens) as master feeds him generously; but slaves soul weakens (becomes) thin like a spindle.

Whereas, it is better that instead of weakening of soul, several abodes of men are destroyed.

The fetter is not on (slave’s) feet, it is on his heart and mind (on his courage and thinking); this is the difficulty, the real difficulty.