Socio Political Thought Of Shah WaliAllah Rahmatullahi Alaihi

222 Selections from Hujjat Allah al-Bdlighah
for the sake of following the pattern of their predecessors. Sometimes
they begged from the ruler, on the pretext of their being poets
whom the royalty had long been used to patronise and reward. Or
they begged because they were thought to be ascetics or friars, and
it was considered unbecoming of a ruler not to look after them. Thus
they vexed each other, and their living became wholly contingent
upon the company of lungs. These people became dependent on
entertaining the kings, engaging them in pleasing pastimes, and flattering
them. This became the art on which they concentrated all their
thoughts most indulgently and thus wasted their time. As people persisted
in this habit, ugly forms were reflected in their souls, and they
altogether turned away from virtuous morals. If anyone wants to understand
the real nature of this sickness, he should look at a people
among whom there is neither any government nor they are immersed
in the delicacies of food and dress. He would find everyone in control
of himself, and none burdened with taxes beyond his endurance.
Such people can free themselves for religious pursuits and the upliftment
of the religious community. Then he should also imagine
the condition of these very people, if they had a government among
them, and had, through the means of controlling this government,
subjugated their subjects under an oppressive authority.
164. As this curse increased and the malady intensified, they earned the
wrath of God Almighty, and that of the angels in His proximity. God
then willed that this malady be treated by cutting off the sick element.
So He sent a Prophet who was unlettered, who had neither
mingled with the Persians or the Romans, nor had he been influenced
by the customs of either. God made this Prophet the criterion,
whereby it was possible to distinguish the right path of guidance
approved by God from that which He disapproved. Moreover, God
inspired this Prophet to condemn the customs of the Persians, and to
abhor immersion in this material world and exclusive contentment
with it. Further, he was directed by God to prohibit some prominent
practices, to which the Persians had habituated themselves, practices
about which they used to boast to each other, such as wearing silk,
or cloth of flax mixed with silk and the use of purple saddles made
of silk brocade, or the use of utensils and jewellery of gold and silver
(excepting such jewellery of gold and silver in which gold or
silver was in insignificant quantity), and garments bearing pictures,
and ornamentation of houses, etc. Further, God decreed the fall of
their empire at the hands of his empire, and the replacement of their