Tell me what is the benefit of khanqahs, Shaikhs, and Tekyes?
Except for teaching laziness and collecting properties and wealth.
They [shaikhs/mullahs] are not tested even once, to find out whether they are poison or opium.
To be put to the touchstone like gold, to find out whether they are bandits or leaders.
Do not follow the shaikhs and the like at all, no man can ensure daily bread to any other man.
You [shaikhs] who are busy with secrets and prayers (“naz û niyaz”), it is Europe’s technology that can work miracles.
The peak of the Eiffel Tower touches the heavens; your journey is confined to the underworld.
They searched all the planet earth, yet your dream is just heaven.
They take your speech today, and return it to you with no error next year.
They add one hundred and fifty words each year to science and technology.
The Chinese are, still, fire-worshipers, dark-faced Buddhists, and faithless pagans,
And yet the prophet says “Seek knowledge even if it is in China”.
There is no male or female in the hadith, if the cleric forbids knowledge [for women] he has no faith.
You come and learn a skill, why should you care if they are pagan, Buddhist, or Jew.
You need to keep turning like a millstone, every century the patterns of living change.
The people of paradise are not shepherds and cowboys, but owners of knowledge.
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Haji Qadiri Koyi
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Haji Qadiri Koyi
