Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya-Parts1-2

78 Barahin-e-ahmadiyya
and severity of the illness. If a book fails to adequately address the
problems of its contemporary readers, it is useless and ineffectual;
it does not have the power to penetrate the heart of the sceptics
and root out their doubts. With even a little reflection, our critics
will realize that the forms of corruption that have presently
engulfed the world have no parallel in history. Whereas people
in the past mostly fell prey to blind following, the danger we face
today is the misuse of reason. Whereas people of the earlier ages
were corrupted by senselessly following irrational ideas, they are
now being led astray by false reasoning and logic. This is why
pious and eminent scholars of the past did not have to employ the
kind of arguments and reasoning that we have to employ today.
The new light of our age (woe if this be light) is vitiating the spirituality
of the newly educated. Instead of glorifying God, they
glorify themselves; instead of following His guidance, they take
themselves to be the guides. Today’s youth are generally inclined
towards finding rational explanations and causes for all things, but
on account of insufficient knowledge and wisdom, they end up
being led astray rather than being guided. Perversion of thought
and perception has greatly impaired their power to draw rightful
conclusions. The profusion of divergent thoughts and ideas has
thrown people of lesser understanding into great confusion.
Sophistic rhetoric has further confounded the minds of the
youth. Things that were self-evident and perfectly rational have
become dubious in their eyes and what is totally absurd is hailed
as absolute truth. Actions that are inconsistent with human dignity
are termed as the epitome of civilization, while true civilized
behaviour is downplayed and ridiculed. It was in this backdrop,
and for such self-styled scholars who blow their own trumpet, that