10 The Defender of the Faith

10 The defender of the faith. …But because this is so does not mean that the essence is perverted.

As Barkat Ali says in a letter to SAM, “If we have lost our valour, it does not connote that Islam has lost its vitality. Oh no. Islam has its same glory & impact but we have become worth less.” [I am italicizing what Noor underlined.]

The Caliph Umar when asked how it was going said, “Like being in the middle of an ocean on a ship that is breaking up.” This in relation to the state of Islam two generations after the Prophet. Peace be upon him. So you see that it happened very quickly.

The Prophet, PBUH, is reported to have said that the whole thing would be done in four generations but that there would come strangers out of the west to renew & reinvigorate ISLAM. It is very important not to equate state Islam with the true Islam in the same way that one does not immediately think of the Roman Catholic Church as a particularly truthful purveyor of the true message of Christ. That is why it is necessary to return to the basic which are the five pillars in order to understand the real truth.

When Sam says he thinks Ghandi was more of a saint than Ibn Saud [Abdul Aziz al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia (January 15, 1876- November 9, 1953), the first monarch of the 3rdSaudi state known as Saudi Arabia] it proves nothing. This is where Sufic Understanding enters the picture. It is precisely the living spirit of Islam. It is what gives it life & meaning. Without it Islam becomes a dead body. That is why it is so necessary to write you these letters.