And when the trump of
the angel Israfil shall sound and the Marvel from the Mountain of Safa
doth appear to write 'Mumen'[11] or 'Giaour'[12] on the foreheads of
mankind; and when Al-Dallaja[13] comes to root out the nation of the
Osmanli, and the hosts of Gog and Magog appear to exterminate the
Christians, and drink up the waters of the rivers, and at the last all
things perish before the Mahdi; then when the mountains are rent asunder
and the stars fall from Heaven, when the archangels Michael and Gabriel
open the tombs and bring forth the trembling, death-pale shapes, one by
one, before the face of Allah, and they all stand there as transparent
as crystal so that every thought of their hearts is visible--what then
will you answer, you in whose power it once stood to uphold the dominion
of Mahomet, you to whom it was given to have swords in your hands and
ideas in your heads to be used in its defence--what will you answer, I
say, when you hear the brazen voice cry: 'Ye who saw destruction coming,
did ye try to prevent it?' What will it profit you then, old Vuodi and
ye others, to say that ye never neglected the Abdestan, the Guezuel, and
the Thueharet ablutions, nor the five prayers of the Namazat, that ye
have kept the fast of Ramazan and the feast of Bejram, that ye have
richly distributed the Zakato[14] and the Sadakato,[15] that you have
made the pilgrimage to the Kaaba at Mecca so many times, or so many
times, that you have kissed the sin-remitting black stone, that you have
drunk from the well of Zemzem and seven times made the circuit of the
mountain of Arafat and flung stones at the Devil in the valley of
Dsemre--what will it profit you, I say, if you cannot answer that
question? Woe to you, woe to everyone of us who see, who hear, and yet
go on dreaming! For when we tread the Bridge of Alshirat, across whose
razor-sharp edge every true believer must pass on his way to Paradise,
the load of a single sin will drag you down into the abyss, down into
Hell, and not even into the first Hell, Gehenna, where the faithful do
penance, nor into the Hell of Ladhana, where the souls of the Jews are
purified, nor into the Hell of Hotama wherein the Christians perish, nor
into the Hell of Sair which is the abode of the Heretics, nor into the
Hell of Sakar wherein the fire-worshippers curse the fire, nor yet into
the Hell of Jahim which resounds with the yells of the idol-worshippers,
but into the seventh hell, the deepest and most accursed hell of all,
whose name is Al-Havija, where wallow those who only did God lip-service
and never felt the faith in their hearts, for we pray lying prayers when
we say that we worship Allah and yet allow His Temple to be defiled.
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