Page:Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din - The Strength of Islam.djvu/12

 8 going into his Mosque of block-ice, you will make but few converts to Islam in that direction.

What is very easy for the Arab, with his loose and inexpensive garments and ample sandy desert surroundings, will be impossible for the busy city man clad in expensive clothes. The idea of kneeling down and prostrating in wet and muddy streets is an absurd one. Such a man will have to consider his tailor s bill, and will not think this sort of thing can be necessary for his salvation—the surroundings are unsuitable, and the acquisition of eternal happiness should not depend upon whether a man is born in Makka or Old Bond Street.

If yauyou [sic] take the puritanical line which forbid coffee and tobacco and looks upon all pleasure as sinful, you will find but little favour amongst those who wish to worship the One and only God and thank Him continually for the use of His wonderful gifts.

A religion which is hide-bound and bigoted can never become world-wide, as we wish Islam to be. There must be great elasticity, so as to