Who is that subtle scholar who has pondered over everything...

Who is that subtle scholar who has pondered over everything and there is nothing about which he is not well-informed? So much so that he knows even those things which the people have not done but have only thought about them. He possesses such a powerful intellect that the knowledge which appeared in the East after him is also associated with him; in fact it is he who is the foundation and the fountain-head of all such sciences.

Have you ever observed so perfect an intellect as should have recognized the greatest reality? And that reality is the basis for social relations, the cause for everyone pursuing his own particular path. It tells why one group follows the right path and the other wrong path. This reality which was understood by Ali thirteen hundred years ago has been made the new subject of discussion by the scholars of the East and the West.

By this I mean the need for the necessities of life, to acquire which the people are following different paths. One group has transgressed its limits. It has ignored the rules of justice and is endeavouring to mislead the people.

In order to achieve their nefarious ends deception is being practised and illogical things are being spread by the capitalists to accumulate wealth, by government officers to get things done gratis and to keep the masses under control and by the innovators to collect obedient followers.

Do you recognize that great sage who established more than a thousand years ago a reality which superseded thousands of superstitions and extravagant ideas and said: “If a person starves it is due to the fact that his share has been taken by another” and added: “I have not seen any excessive bounty which is not associated with a right which has been violated”.

As regards hoarding he wrote to one of his governors: “Prohibit the people from hoarding, because it is something which entails loss to the public and brings a bad name to the rulers”. A great and enlightened person realized the real secret of humanity more than a thousand years ago and concluded that those persons who had no value in the eyes of the kings and the rulers were endowed with virtues and good morals, and every kind of oppression practised upon them was considered by them (i.e.

by the rulers) to be permissible. The Italian sculptor Raphael prepared an image of the Virgin Mary in the shape of an Italian farmer woman and made all good human qualities visible in it.