Seventh Matter

We say to those who exhibit excessive patriotism  and negative  nationalism:  if you truly love this nation and feel pity for it, be patriotic in such a way that your pity is directed towards the majority of its people. For to serve the temporary heedless social life of the minority, who are in no need of pity, in a way that is the reverse of pity for the majority, is not patriotism. Patriotic works performed out of negative racialism may be temporarily beneficial for two people out of eight. They receive the kindness  arising  from  that  patriotism,  although  they  do  not  deserve  it.  But  the remaining six are either elderly, or sick, or afflicted with tribulations, or are children, or weak, or pious people turned earnestly toward the hereafter; these people want a light, a solace, compassion, in the face of the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter, with the life of which they are concerned rather than worldly life; they are in need of helping hands that are blessed and patriotic. What patriotism could permit their light to be extinguished,  their  solace  to be destroyed?  Alas! Where  is that pity for the nation, that self-sacrifice?

We must never lose hope in divine mercy. For Almighty God will not cause to perish through temporary set-backs the magnificent army and mighty community of the people of this land, which He employed for a thousand years in the service of the Qur’an, appointing them its standard-bearer. He will once again kindle that light and cause them to continue their duty, God willing!