The Quran

108

Preface

وَلا تَسُبُّوا الَّذينَ يَدعونَ مِن دونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدوًا بِغَيرِ عِلمٍ ۗ كَذٰلِكَ زَيَّنّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُم ثُمَّ إِلىٰ رَبِّهِم مَرجِعُهُم فَيُنَبِّئُهُم بِما كانوا يَعمَلونَ

Yusuf Ali

Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides God, lest they out of spite revile God in their ignorance. Thus have We made alluring to each people¹ its own doings. In the end will they return to their Lord, and We shall then tell them the truth of all that they did.

A man’s actual personal religion depends upon many things: his personal psychology, the background of his life, his hidden or repressed feelings, tendencies, or history (which psychoanalysis tries to unravel), his hereditary dispositions or antipathies, and all the subtle influences of his education and his environment. The task before the man of God is: (1) to use any of these which can subserve the higher ends; (2) to purify such as have been misused; (3) to introduce new ideas and modes of looking at things; and (4) to combat what is wrong and cannot be mended-all for the purpose of leading to the truth and gradually letting in spiritual light where there was darkness before. If that is not done with discretion and the skill of a spiritual Teacher, there may be not only a reaction of obstinacy, but an unseemly show of dishonour to the true God and His Truth, and doubts would spread among the weaker brethren whose faith is shallow and infirm. What happens to individuals is true collectively of nations or groups of people. They think in their self-obsession that their own ideas are right. God in His infinite compassion bears with them, and asks those who have purer ideas of faith not to vilify the weaknesses of their neighbours, lest the neighbours in their turn vilify the real truth and make matters even worse than before. Insofar as there are mistakes, God will forgive and send His grace for helping ignorance and folly. Insofar as there is active evil, He will deal with it in His own way. Of course the righteous man must not hide his light under a bushel, or compromise with evil, or refuse to establish right living where he has the power to do so.