Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/136

accepted of God. The Qazi asked Nanak to state the reason for his conclusion. The Guru replied that immediately before prayer the Qazi had unloosed a new-born filly. While he ostensibly performed divine service, he remembered there was a well in the enclosure, and his mind was filled with apprehension lest the filly should fall into it. His heart was therefore not in his devotions. The Guru informed the Nawab also that while he was pretending to pray, he was thinking of purchasing horses in Kabul. Both admitted the truth of the Guru's statements, said he was favoured of God, and fell at his feet. The Guru then uttered the following:—

He is a Musalman who effaceth himself,
Who maketh truth and contentment his holy creed,
Who neither toucheth what is standing, nor eateth what hath fallen—
Such a Musalman shall go to Paradise.

The whole company of Musalmans at the capital—the descendants of the Prophet, the tribe of shaikhs,^[1] the qazi, the muftis,^[2] and the Nawab himself, were all amazed at Nanak's words. The Muhammadans then asked the Guru to tell them of the power and authority of his God, and how salvation could be obtained. Upon this the Guru addressed them as follows:—

At God's gate there dwell thousands of Muhammads, thousands of Brahmas, of Vishnus, and of Shivs;^[3]

Thousands upon thousands of exalted Rams,^[4] thousands of spiritual guides, thousands of religious garbs;

1. Shaikhs are superiors of darweshes or Muhammadan monks, but the title has now in India a much more extended signification, and is very often adopted by Hindu converts to Islām.
2. Muhammadan jurists.
3. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiv, form the Hindu trinity, and are respectively the gods of creation, preservation, and destruction.
4. Ram Chandar, king of Ayudhia, deified by the Hindus. He and his consort Sīta will be found often mentioned.