Al-Risala (English), May 1985

Absolute knowledge cannot be communicated by words

1985 5 May 15 Absolute knowledge cannot be communicated by words (16) “If it (the reality) could be talked about, everybody would have told their brother.” (Chuang Tsu)

Both on one Plane

1985 5 May 15 Both on one Plane (304) The daily Telegraph of Calcutta (January 10, 1984) has published a photograph captioned:

“A little Israeli girl using a picture book to teach Hebrew to an Ethiopian boy at Eliat on the Red Sea coast. The boy arrived with thousands of other Ethiopians recently.”

In view of the widespread death and destruction in the wake of the grim and tragic famine in Ethiopia, the Government of Israel formulated a plan to rescue the starving Jews in Ethiopia – the Flasha, numbering about 2500, and at the moment they are being re-settled in Israel. The air service employed for the purpose was officially named ‘Operation Moses’. The Israeli premier, Mr. Shimon Peres, delivered a speech before the parliament on this occasion and said:

“We shall continue this noble and humane rescue act and shall not interrupt it until the last of Ethiopia’s Jews has arrived with us.”

In ancient times the prophet Moses received divine commandments to rescue the Israelites from the clutches of the cruel ruler of Egypt, Pharaoh, and settle them in the Sinai valley. Because the saving of the starving Jews appeared to be on a parallel with religious mission carried out by Moses, the venture was named after him. Obviously this amounts to presenting a nationalistic event in religious terms.

In similar vein, Muslims take up nationalistic and worldly issues and pass them off as religious acts. They flee in order to safeguard their rights and term it ‘emigration’ as being on the same pattern as that followed by the prophet and his companions. They wage war on purely nationalistic issues, but label it ‘Jihad’ or holy war. What is nationalistic worldly in its nature can never have religious value in the eyes of God. In the next world, God will remove the mask of religion, making the reality plain to everyone.