The First Object of Religion

As I have stated above, the first object of religion relates to four questions, and I shall, therefore, state what Islam teaches concerning each of these questions.

The first question is, what does Islam teach concerning the person and attributes of God? Islam describes God as a Perfect Being, possessing every excellence. The opening verse of the Holy Quran runs.

‘All praise is due to Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of all the worlds.’1 As God has created all things, and all things depend on Him for their sustenance, He alone deserves all praise for the beauties and excellences to be found in different things, for all these beauties and excellences are derived from God. The beauty of a scene, the charm of a voice, the fragrance of a flower, the softness of a bed, the daintiness of a dish, in short the beauty and charm of all that pleases and appeals to the senses of man, is created and bestowed by God.

The verse then proceeds: al-Rahman al-Rahim i.e., God has, out of His pure grace and bounty, created all those things the need of which was to be felt by man; for instance, light and air; fire and water; different kinds of food and medicines; timber; iron, stones, etc. He has created so many things for the use and the exercise of man’s faculties that whichever way man turns he finds enough to occupy his attention and is afforded countless opportunities of improving and perfecting his knowledge and capacities. In fact, man cannot possibly feel any need which has not been met and provided for before his birth. All this has been done under God’s attribute of Rahmaniyyat.

Again, He has been called Rahim in the Holy Quran, that is to say, He rewards all labour and effort according to its deserts. Man’s effort is never wasted, and he is ever rewarded in true proportion to its merits.

Again, He is called Malik-e-Yaumid-Din, i.e., He is the Master of the Day of Retribution. In other words, apart from the operation of the laws of nature, and the rewards and punishments which are meted out contemporaneously, He has fixed the limits of every action, and as soon as those limits are reached, final judgment is passed on each action whereby the good are rewarded, and the evil ones are punished, subject always to this, that under His attribute of Malikiyyat it is always open to Him to forgive and to remit the punishment.

Again, He is called Qadir, that is to say, He has fixed the nature and properties of all things. If this had not been so, there would have been constant confusion and disorder in the world and the affairs of the world would soon have come to an end. If men had not been certain about the nature, effect and properties of things, they could never have entered upon any enterprise, not knowing what it might lead to. For instance, a man who desires to cook food lights a fire in the certain belief that fire would generate heat. If the generation of heat had not been the fixed property of fire, and the extinguishing of fire had not been the fixed property of water, if fire had sometimes generated heat and at other times had caused cold, if water had some times extinguished fire and at other times had set it alight, nobody could have derived any benefit from them, and men would have lost heart in despair and would soon have perished.

God has also been described as ‘Alim, that is to say, He has knowledge of secret as well as of manifest things. He is aware of the secrets of a man’s heart and knows all hidden things. He is acquainted with the hidden secrets of man’s nature of which the latter is not even himself aware. Things buried under the earth and those placed on mountain tops are equally within His knowledge. He knows that which is past and that which is to come.

He is Sami‘, that is, He hears everything; the slightest whisper does not escape Him and the sound of a crawling ant, and of the blood coursing through a man’s veins reaches Him.

He is Quddus, that is, He comprises in Himself all aspects of purity and holiness.

He is Muhaimin, that is, He guards all things. It is under the working of this Divine attribute that man is guarded from evils and sufferings, of the approach of which he may not even be aware. He is very often saved from a disease or a calamity by secret influences which have been working in his favour. As soon as a disease attacks the human system, counter influences begin to destroy germs of the disease. So long as a man does not persist in acting rashly and breaking the laws of nature, he is saved from many of the evil consequences of his conduct. God says in the Holy Quran:

‘That is, if God were to start punishing men for all their irregularities of conduct not one of them would be spared.’2

In short, He possesses all perfect attributes and His mercy encompasses all things, as He says:

In other words, His attributes of anger and punishment are governed by His attributes of mercy.

He is Ahad, that is, nothing is His equal; He is Wahid, that is, all things had their origin in His command and He is the first cause of all creation. Many other attributes of His are mentioned in the Holy Quran, which show that Islam teaches a perfect conception of God as possessing attributes which create love on the one hand and fear on the other, both of which are indispensable for a perfect relationship between man and God.

A moment’s reflection will show that perfect unity and perfect obedience can be produced only either by love or by fear. No doubt, love is the higher and the more perfect relationship, but there is equally no doubt that some natures are affected by nothing but fear. A religion, therefore, which does not emphasize the Divine attributes both of mercy and of punishment can never be universally beneficial. In considering the sources and causes of human conduct, a religion must have regard, not only to the motives which influence the more highly developed sections of society, but to the motives governing the actions of all classes and conditions of men. In fact, the higher sections of mankind are generally naturally inclined towards good. The greater part of our attention must, therefore, be devoted to those who have fallen low and have wholly forgotten their duties as human beings. This class of people, with rare exceptions, is amenable only to fear, and no moral or spiritual reform can be effected in this class unless it is faced with the prospect of loss or pain. A religion which claims to bring all mankind in direct relationship with God, must, therefore, have regard to this characteristic of human nature. In describing the attributes of God, Islam has so balanced the different attributes that no more perfect combination could be imagined which could attract and control men of widely different natures. The attributes both of love and anger have been emphasized, subject to the assurance: ‘My mercy encompasseth all things,’ that is, that mercy overcomes anger, for the object of the latter is to reform and not to inflict pain.

This is a supreme and perfect conception of God, and completely answers the real object of religion. Yet it is not distinctive of Islam. Most religions ascribe similar attributes to God, with slight differences. This causes superficial observers to wonder why different religions should be opposed to each other. The fallacy, however, that all religions present a similar conception of God, arises from the fact that most people, when considering this question lose sight of the workings of human nature. It is a characteristic of human nature that it accepts or rejects certain things as a matter of course, without any external aid or interference. These things are said to be self-evident, and although some thinkers may not accept them as such, the mass of the people accept them without question as they become a second nature with them, and nobody can hope to obtain any support for an assertion to the contrary. One of these things which is almost unanimously accepted by mankind is that God is a Perfect Being Who is free from all defects, and no religion which asserts that God lacks perfection or is subject to shortcomings can ever hope to obtain a hearing. Therefore, there cannot be much difference between the names or attributes which various religions ascribe to God. Differences, however, arise in the manner in which the followers of different religions explain these names and attributes. The apparent agreement as to these names is not due to the fact that all religions are agreed as to the attributes of God, but to the unwillingness of the mass of the people to accept any other names in place of them. In comparing the merits of different religions, therefore, one must consider the explanations which each religion puts forward in interpreting these names or attributes.

For instance, all religions are agreed that God is the Creator of the universe and that He enables each created thing to progress within its own circle, but vast differences are revealed between the teachings of different religions with respect to this attribute of God. As I am explaining the teachings of Ahmadiyyat, I proceed to state what Islam teaches concerning this attribute. It is obvious that this attribute means that God is not the Creator and Sustainer of any particular class or nation, but that He is the Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe, and that, so far as the attribute of creation is concerned, all men are equal and no nation can claim any particular relationship with God. He provides for the people of Asia in the same manner as He provides for the people of Europe, and He looks after the people of Africa, just as He looks after the people of America; and as He provides for our physical needs, so does He provide for our spiritual needs. On the basis of this principle, the Holy Quran, at a time when the spirit of national exclusiveness was rife, and political prejudices were at their height and the people of one country were not even aware whether people of other countries had any conception of prophethood, proclaimed:

‘There has been no people in the world but that God raised among them a Prophet for their guidance.’4

‘Verily, We have sent Prophets to every nation with the message, “worship God and do not listen to the wicked and the rebellious,” and some of them believed by the grace of God, and others remained in their error. So travel round the world and you will find that God has sent His Prophets to all nations and you will learn the end of those who had rejected the Prophets.’5

It is related in one of the traditions that the Holy Prophet (sas) was once asked whether God had revealed anything in the Persian tongue and he replied, ‘Yes, God spoke to a Prophet in Persian.’

Consider, therefore, how Islam has, by offering this explanation of the expression Rabbul ‘Alamin, which is common to the followers of all religions, discovered to the world a new truth, and laid the foundations of the common brotherhood of man. Thereafter a Muslim can have nothing but reverence for the founders and leaders of other religions. For him, Krishna (as), Ramchandra (as), Buddha (as), Zoroaster (as) and Confucius (as) are as much the Prophets of God as Moses (as) and Jesus (as), the only difference being that as the latter are mentioned in the Holy Quran, there is a greater amount of certainty concerning them. This fact fundamentally affects the attitude of Islam towards other religions. As soon as a Muslim hears of an old religion of which he was not aware before, or learns about an old Prophet of whom he had never heard before, he is not troubled, as if another rival had appeared in the field, but welcomes the discovery as a fresh proof of the truth of Islam and a fresh confirmation of the teachings of the Holy Quran. Does not Islam teach that God is Rabbul ‘Alamin and that His bounties are not confined to Arabia and Syria, and that as the physical sun lights up every corner of the world, so must the Word of God illumine every valley and give light to all nations?

It may here be asked, that if all religions have a Divine origin, why should we not accept all of them as true and believe that every one of them leads to God? This question has been answered by the Holy Quran in the following verses:

‘We swear by our Ownself, that We sent Messengers to all nations before you, but the wicked people engaged them (i.e., the nations) in other pursuits and such people are their friends today; they shall suffer a grievous punishment. And We have not revealed to thee the book but that thou mayest make clear to them that in which they had differed, and as a guidance and blessing for those who believe.’6

This verse indicates that the integrity of all previous books and teachings had become doubtful and extraneous doubts and errors had found place in them before the advent of the Holy Prophet (sas) so that in spite of their Divine origin they had become unworthy of practice and could no longer offer the guarantee that by acting on them a man could attain to God.

Another question concerning God which it is the duty of religion to answer is, why cannot we see God if He exists? It is easy to assert that God exists, but the difficulty is to prove the various attributes of God. The Holy Quran recognizes this responsibility and furnishes proofs of the various Divine attributes. For instance concerning the last mentioned question it says:

‘God cannot be seen with the physical eyes but He reveals Himself to the eyes of man. He is too subtle to be seen by the eye of man, but He is aware of everything!’7

What a brief but comprehensive explanation! Subtle things, for instance, air, electricity, ether, etc., cannot be seen by man. How can he then see God, Who is more subtle than the subtlest thing and is not made of matter however subtle, but is Himself the creator of all things? On the other hand God knows that man is restlessly seeking His union and is impatient for His meeting. He, therefore, Himself comes to man and reveals Himself to his eyes, that is to say, manifests Himself through His powers and attributes and thus man is enabled to see Him with the eyes of reason.

‘Blessed is He in Whose hand is the kingdom and Who has power over all things, Who has created life and death to ascertain which of you is best in deeds. (That is to say, He has created life for actions and death for compensation, for perfect compensation could not be awarded in this life, lest faith should become a thing of no value). He is the Mighty, the Forgiving. He has created the seven heights, each supporting the other. You will find no incongruity in Rahman’s creation. Then look and see whether you can discover any defect, and look again and again and your look will return to you unsuccessful and fatigued.’8

In other words, if one considers the entire universe, one will find that every need has been met, and the most appropriate materials for the development of every faculty and capacity have been provided. Some of the needs of the meanest worm that crawls on the earth, are being provided by a planet which is travelling billions of miles away from the earth. Let the contemplation of this circle of the want and its satisfaction teach us that this universe has a Creator, Who has not omitted to foresee our smallest want and has provided the means of satisfaction of every yearning and every true desire.

Another question which is sometimes asked is, if God is a Beneficent Creator, why has He created things like wild and savage animals, worms and reptiles, pains, troubles, ailments, and pestilences, etc. Islam offers an explanation of this also. For instance, the Holy Quran says:

‘All praise is due to God Who has created the heavens and the earth and has made the light and darkness, and yet those who deny the truth associate others with Him.’9

That is to say, all things that are troublesome and are called the children of darkness, for instance, reptiles, wild beasts, poisons, plagues, etc., are also the creation of God, and their creation does not offend against the attribute of Mercy but on the contrary proves the Mercy of God. If their true nature is considered, they add to the praise and glory of God and do not in any way detract from it. Yet those who are ignorant of the nature of these things, regard their creation as derogatory to God and associate others with Him, believing that these things must have been created by some other being. See how beautifully Islam has unveiled the truth and has explained the object of creating those things which appear at first sight to be harmful. It teaches that they have all been created for a useful purpose and that man ought to praise God for their creation. Considered in this light the whole position is reversed. Arsenic, strychnia and morphia are deadly poisons, yet how frequently are they used to relieve human distress and to combat disease? Do more men die of these poisons, or are more men saved through them? Millions of men are every year saved from the clutches of death by the use of these poisons. How can it then be said that these things are harmful or even useless? The same is the case with snakes, scorpions and other reptiles. Much attention has not yet been devoted to these creatures, but further research is bound to disclose the fact that their existence is of great value from the scientific and medical points of view. Besides, as it appears from the Holy Quran, the creation of these insects, reptiles, etc., was a preliminary to the creation of man, and they had a large share in the purification of the atmosphere of the earth. These insects and animals were in fact the first links in the creation of man. Not, however, in the sense in which evolution is generally understood in these days, but as indicating and representing the different stages of development through which the earth has passed.

‘One of His bounties is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of all living things between them, and He can do away with them when He pleases, and whatever befalls you is the consequence of your own actions; and God suppresses many evil consequences of your errors.’10

In other words God has created the sun, the moon and the stars and the heavens and the earth and all that is between them to serve man, but if he fails to take advantage of them or misuses any of them and thus suffers loss or injury, it is his own fault. In many cases God averts the evil consequences of man’s errors, and the evils suffered by him are not, therefore, due to God’s action but to man’s contravention of the laws of nature which had been devised for his benefit. Disease is also due to the action of the active and the impressible faculties with which man has been endowed. All man’s progress is due to the action and re-action of these faculties and if these faculties did not exist man would not be what he is. Under a general law of nature man influences all things around him and is in his turn influenced by all of them. Whenever in this process of influencing or being influenced he contravenes any of the laws of nature he exposes himself to the attack of a disease or becomes liable to some other ill or inconvenience. God has not, therefore, created disease, but has created the law of nature which is indispensable to man’s progress, and disease is the result of an infringement of this law. As this law is in itself the result of the beneficence of God, the mere fact that disease may result from ignorance or infringement of it does not in any way detract from the perfection of God’s beneficence.

As with disease, so with sin, which, again, has no independent existence. An infringement of a moral or spiritual law is termed a sin. The existence of sin, therefore, does not offend against the beneficence or sanctity of God. The names which have been used in the Holy Quran to signify sin, indicate either excess or default, none of them being an underived noun, which shows that according to the Holy Quran sin has no independent existence, and signifies merely the absence of righteousness. Excess and default are the direct result of man’s action or omission, his failure to use or his misuse of God’s bounties or his attempt to infringe the rights of others.

No other religious book presents God in this light. It is the Holy Quran alone which asserts and explains that the existence of these apparently harmful and injurious things does not detract from the perfect attributes of God. The Holy Quran does not merely enumerate the attributes of God; it explains and illustrates them in such detail that all doubts and misgivings vanish and a revelation of their beauty enchants the eye, compels admiration and fills the heart with the longing to love and obey. A mere enumeration of Divine attributes, however, is of no great merit.

It is sometimes objected that it is incompatible with God’s mercy that children should suffer from diseases and disorders which they have in no way earned or brought upon themselves.

The answer to this objection is contained in the above explanation, that is to say, God has made a law that all things are influenced by their surroundings, and this law is wholly beneficent. If this had not been so, man could neither have been influenced by external things nor could he have made any progress. Under the operation of this law children are influenced both for good and for evil, by their parents. They get from them both health and disease. If they could not have inherited disease they would equally have been unable to inherit the faculties and capacities of their parents, and man would have been born a mere image of stone, impervious both to good and to evil influences, and the object underlying the creation of man would have been frustrated and his existence would have been worse than that of animals.

The next question is, whether there is any compensation for the loss and suffering caused by inherited diseases and disabilities. The answer given to this question by Islam is that in measuring the spiritual progress of each person allowance will be made for every disability under which he had suffered and which had not been incurred by some fault of his own. For instance, the Holy Quran says:

‘On the day of the final Retribution causes which had impeded the spiritual progress of a man and over which he had no control will be taken into consideration.’11

‘Those of the faithful who do not strive in the path of God cannot be put on the same level with those who strive, except those whose inability is due to some natural deficiency. God will keep their disability in view.’12

‘No believing men or women experience any suffering in relation to their bodies, their children or their property, but that their sins are thereby reduced and they are so purified by the suffering that by the time they appear before God, their sins have been entirely washed away.’13

Although this tradition refers particularly to the believers, the principle laid down by the Holy Quran is of universal application, and the believers are mentioned in the tradition because this explanation was given in answer to their question.

What has been described above is an apt illustration of the teachings of different religions concerning the attributes of God. Islam defines the attribute of beneficence in one way and other religions define it in quite another way. Some of them have had to import the doctrine of transmigration of souls in order to support the beneficence of God. But even a brief consideration would show that the explanation given by Islam is perfectly reasonable and in accord with the laws of nature, whereas the doctrine of transmigration of souls is based on mere suppositions.

The working of the Divine attributes of justice and mercy also requires attention. All religions describe God both as Just and Merciful, but there is a vast difference between their respective explanations of the working of these attributes. Islam says that there is no conflict between these two attributes and that both of them can and do operate simultaneously. Mercy is not opposed to justice but is above it. The Holy Quran says:

‘Whoever does a good deed will have a tenfold reward, and whoever does an evil thing, will be recompensed only in proportion thereto, and they will not be unjustly dealt with.’14

This shows that according to Islam it is not unjust to reward a person in excess of his deserts, but that it is unjust to inflict on a man punishment greater than he deserves.

Surely, injustice means to reward a man in a measure less than that he has earned, or to punish a man in a measure larger than that he deserves, or to give to one man that which is due to another, and God never does any of these things. All that He does is that He forgives a repentant creature who, having realized the error of his ways, gives up his evil course of life and presents himself before the throne of Divine mercy supplicating for forgiveness with a beating heart, trembling lips, streaming eyes, a head bowed with shame, a mind bursting with tumultuous thoughts, and a determination to lead a pure and unsullied life in future. God enables such a person to start on a new course of life. He is like the father whose son goes astray and comes home humbled and repentant after a long time, unable to lift his eyes to his father, who, overcome by natural affection, draws him to his breast, and does not reject him, but on the contrary proclaims his joy at the return of his son. Would this be an occasion for his other sons who had remained at home and served him, to complain of the injustice of their father?

No doubt punishment is one of the instruments of reform, but the tortures of hell are not a greater punishment than true remorse. What the fire of hell can effect in the course of a hundred thousand years, true remorse may effect in the course of a few minutes. When a man appears before God truly repentant and with a determination to lead a pure life in future, the Merciful God must take pity on him. Shall the Merciful and Forgiving Lord turn away from, and reject a servant of His who throws himself down at the door of His mercy, all remorse for the past and hope for the future? Surely, No!

Lastly, I shall refer to the attribute which is better known than any other attribute of God, but concerning which there is greater disagreement among the different religions than in the case of any other attribute, that is, the attribute of Unity. There is not a single religion in existence which teaches plurality of Gods: as a matter of principle all of them proclaim the Unity of God. Nay, the followers of one religion charge the followers of another religion with non-belief in a perfect Unity. I have seen it stated in some books written by Europeans that the Muslims are polytheists, and I am told that many people in Europe and America who are ignorant of Islamic teachings and literature, imagine that the Muslims worship the Holy Prophet (sas). This indicates the general feeling that the doctrine of plurality of Gods is impossible of acceptance in this age. But notwithstanding the agreement of all religions in their professed belief in the Unity of God, everyone of them differs from the others in its interpretation of it, and many of them use the expression only as a cloak to hide their polytheistic beliefs. But Islam is wholly free from polytheistic conceptions and doctrines and has completely uprooted all beliefs and practices which even remotely suggest such ideas. It has defined and explained the doctrine of associating aught with God so exhaustively that nobody is left in any doubt concerning it.

The Holy Quran classifies Shirk (or association of other gods with God) into four kinds. First, a belief in a plurality of gods. Second, a belief that any other being shares, in a greater or lesser degree, in God’s attributes, irrespective of the fact whether such being is or is not called a deity. For instance, a belief that a particular person can create living things or can bring the dead to life amounts to Shirk, although the person to whom such attributes are ascribed be a human being. For here, there is a difference only in name, and the essence of Divinity has been ascribed to another. Third, to look upon a being other than God as worthy of worship although that being is not considered a god, nor is believed to share in the attributes of God; as, for instance, parents were worshipped in some tribes in ancient days. Fourth, to regard a human being as infallible. For instance, a belief that a particular saint or holy person is wholly free from the natural weaknesses of man and must therefore, be implicitly obeyed in all matters, however objectionable his orders may be, and practically to prefer his commands to those of God, although as a matter of belief that person is not regarded as God.

‘O, people of the Book, let us agree in this one matter, which both of us accept, that we worship none but Allah, Who has no partner, and that we associate with Him none in His attributes and that we prefer to Him nobody from among His servants. If they refuse, say, bear witness ye people that we submit ourselves to God in this manner.’15

What a complete refutation of all kinds of Shirk is contained in this one brief verse! In view of what is laid down in this verse when a Muslim says he believes in one God, he means that he worships none but God, that he does not ascribe to any other being any of the attributes of God, that he considers Him free from all earthly relationships, that he believes that God is above assuming human form, that he believes that God is not subject to death or hunger or thirst, that he bows to none except God, that his hopes are centred in no other being, that he addresses his prayers to none but Him, and that although he venerates the Prophets of God, he does not regard them as anything more than human. This is what Islam teaches him and to which he holds throughout his life.

Generally speaking, all religions agree with Islam in declaring the Unity of God, but when we come to details we find that each religion differs greatly from the others.

In short, the conception of God, both in principle and in detail, which is presented by Islam is most perfect and a contemplation of it draws men to God in a manner which is not possible in the case of any other religion. Islam explains every attribute of God in detail and states the effect which each of these attributes produces on the daily life of man. It also describes the inter-relation of different attributes and the limits of their action and reaction. Hence a complete and perfect conception of God is presented before the eyes of man’s judgment, and his heart overflows with love. Other religions may share with Islam only the names of the attributes of God, but none of them shares with it the reality of those attributes. It is obvious that in judging different religions we must consider the reality and not merely the name.

Relation of Man to God

I now turn to the second question relating to the first object of religion, which concerns the relation of man to God. We must remember that it is one thing merely to believe in a thing and quite another to stand in a special relationship towards it. For instance, all educated persons believe in the existence of the North and South Poles, but with the exception of a few who are engaged in polar research, nobody is specially interested in them, and a mention of the Poles does not excite any particular feeling in the minds of the general public. On the contrary the smallest thing connected with a person or thing one is interested in is apt to excite one’s feelings. It is, therefore, a relevant question to ask what sort of relationship between God and man does a religion insist on? The answer to this question and the nature of such relationship would constitute a test of the truth or falsehood, and the success or failure of a religion. If a religion insists upon something which is repugnant to the majesty of God, one would have to conclude that it has no real appreciation of the attributes of God; or if it demands something which, though not objectionable, has in no instance been complied with by its followers, one would have to infer that that religion has failed to fulfil its object. A consideration of the attributes of God, to some of which I have referred above, and which are accepted by almost all religions, would show that our real relationship is with God alone, for He is the author of our being. He has created all things necessary for our comfort, progress and success. Our future life depends upon His grace. Our parents, children, brothers, wives, husbands, friends, countrymen, governments, countries, properties, rank, honour and very lives are not closer to us than God; for all these are His gifts and He alone is the Donor. In truth, once we realize the nature of the attributes that have been described above, we cannot accept a religion as true which does not require man to put the love of God above all other things, to respect and obey Him above all earthly potentates, to be ready to sacrifice all things to His will, and not to tolerate the postponement of His commands for the sake of any other object. A true religion must require man to love God with a love greater and deeper than that bestowed on earthly objects of affection, and to think of Him and remember Him more than any other beloved. He must not be regarded merely as a part of the universe like a river or a mountain in a distant land, but must be realized as the fountain-head of all life, the centre of all hope, the cynosure of all eyes. This is exactly what Islam teaches. The Holy Quran says:

‘Say, O Prophet: If your parents, and your children, and your brethren, and your wives, and your husbands, and your kinsfolk, and your property, which you have acquired with labour, and your trade the dullness of which you fear, and your homes which you love, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and your striving in the path of Allah to gain His pleasure, you have no faith in Allah. Then wait till Allah issues a decree concerning you, and Allah does not guide the transgressors.’16

A person cannot claim to be a Muslim unless he stands towards God in the relationship described in this verse. He must be ever prepared to sacrifice every object and feeling for the pleasure of God, and must prefer the love of God to all other things.

In another verse the Holy Quran describes a sure indication of the love of God in these words:

‘True believers are those who remember God, standing and sitting and when lying down on their sides.’17

They are so possessed by the love of God that every moment they desire to be close to God, and they are utterly lost in His contemplation and remembrance, much more than a lover is lost in the contemplation of his beloved. The remembrance of His bounties and His excellences and the desire to be near Him and the longing to become one with Him possess them every moment. Working or resting, standing or sitting, waking or sleeping, they constantly think of Him. Again, the Holy Quran says:

‘Those alone are believers whose hearts become flooded with the fear of God whenever God’s name is mentioned; and when the Word of God is recited to them their hearts are filled with faith, and they put their whole trust in God.’18

That is to say, they believe that no undertaking can be brought to a successful issue without His aid, and that all success depends upon His grace.

At this stage I desire to correct a misunderstanding which is prevalent concerning the teachings of Islam, namely, that Islam teaches a complete disregard of material means and insists merely upon trust in God. No doubt such ideas are entertained by some people, but this is not the teaching of Islam. The Holy Quran repeatedly states that God has created all things in the world for the use and benefit of man. How then, can it be said that He requires us to disregard all material resources? At one place we are exhorted:

Material means are also the creation of God and a proper use of them in all undertakings is absolutely necessary. Again He says, ‘Collect all material necessary for success,’20 and at another place, ‘When you go on a journey provide for it.’21

On one occasion a man came to visit the Holy Prophet (sas) and the latter enquired from him how he had secured his camel. The man replied that, trusting in God, he had left it in His care. The Prophet (sas) said, ‘This is not trust in God. Trust in God means that you should first secure the knee of the camel and then trust in God,’ meaning that trust in God does not warrant disregard of normal precautions. It signifies belief that God is a living God, and that He controls the universe and that the consequences of all action are regulated by His command. He guards those who believe in Him at times when they are not even aware of danger, and constantly watches over their affairs. Trust in God is the belief that God helps His servants in their distress and helplessness and that without His aid, or in opposition to His will, material resources can avail nothing. In other words, it is an attitude of mind, and not the substitute of physical action or omission.

To continue, the Holy Quran says: ‘The pleasure of God is to be put above all things.’22 Man should not base his relationship with God in the hope of any reward in this life or in the life to come; his sole object should be to win the pleasure of God, for God being the true beloved, it would be an affront to His love to prefer any object or thing to His pleasure.

This brief explanation will indicate the relationship which, according to Islam, must exist between God and man. Every one who truly believes in God will agree that our relationship with God ought to be exactly of the nature described above.

The Way by Which Man Can Express His Relationship With God

I now take up the third question. What are the ways by which man can express his relationship with God: in other words, what are the duties imposed by God on man? Each religion has answered this question differently, and in fact there is greater disagreement between them concerning this question, than with regard to the first two questions. Islam answers this question by saying that man ought to fulfil the object of his creation, that is to say, he should try to become a perfect servant of God and should constantly seek union with Him. This indeed is the only natural answer that can be given. The Holy Quran says:

‘Allah is He Who has created the earth for you containing things necessary for you, He has created the heavens for your protection; He has fashioned you in a form most suitable to your requirements, He has provided you with wholesome food; that is Allah, your Lord; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the universe. He is the Living and bestows life on others, there is none worthy of worship besides Him, so call on Him and worship none besides Him. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the universe. Say: I have been forbidden the worship of those whom you call besides Allah after I have received open signs from my Lord and I have been commanded to submit myself to the Lord of the universe.’23

These verses show that apart from the spiritual relationship existing between God and man, which has been indicated above, God also requires obedience to His commands pertaining to things material. It appears from the Holy Quran that these commands are of several kinds, but I shall here confine myself only to such as relate to worship, that is to say, the principal object of which is to signify man’s own relationship to God and which do not directly concern other men. Islam places such commands under five categories:

(1) Salat, or prayer;
(2) Dhikr, or remembrance of God;
(3) Fasts;
(4) Pilgrimage to Mecca; and
(5) Sacrifices.

Broadly speaking, all religions enjoin such acts of worship, though there are differences relating to the manner in which they are to be performed. As against this, there is the modern tendency to condemn them as mere useless ceremonies on the ground that God could never have meant to confine man within mere formalities. The result is that external acts of worship are now not so common as they used to be, and the followers of other religions are progressively renouncing them. But while Islam, on the one hand, continues to reveal new aspects of its teachings suited to the requirements of every age, it possesses, on the other, the characteristic that the teachings laid down by it in the words of the Holy Quran are unalterable and fixed like a rock which the beating waters can never move from its place. Like nature it is capable of yielding new treasures, but like nature again its laws are immutable for they have been framed by a Being Who knows the hidden and the future and Who has based them on truth and wisdom.

There is no doubt that the heart is the seat of the emotions and that if the heart is corrupt and void of feelings no amount of outward humility and show of sincerity can be of any avail. On the contrary such show is a curse which leads but to the pit of darkness. The Holy Quran not only accepts this principle but particularly emphasizes it. It says:

‘Woe to those who pray but are unmindful of their prayers, and pray in order to be seen.’24

Similarly, it says that those who give charity to be seen and not out of the sincerity of their hearts are:

‘Like a slab of stone on which there is some dust, and the rain comes and washes it away and nothing can grow on it.’25

Such persons, instead of earning any reward for their sincerity, only harm themselves by their lack of sincerity. Mere outward acts of worship, therefore, unless accompanied by sincerity of heart can not be of any avail and are not approved by Islam and Islam requires that not only the tongue and the body but the heart must also join in worship.

The Holy Quran, and the sayings of the Holy Prophet (sas) clearly show that faith is perfected by the heart and the tongue and the limbs joining in proclaiming it. A person whose heart does not accept the truth but whose tongue and limbs proclaim his faith in it is a hypocrite. So also is the person whose heart accepts the truth but whose tongue and whose limbs contradict his heart. True belief is that which is accepted by the heart and is proclaimed by the tongue and the limbs.

We observe that a lover’s face betrays a peculiar emotion when his beloved’s name is mentioned in his presence, or when the beloved appears before him, so that even a stranger is able to perceive his love. Again, although nobody can doubt the love of parents for their children, the former very often demonstrate their affection by kissing or fondling their little ones. Similarly when two friends meet, they express their pleasure by clasping each other’s hands. The people of Europe when they appear before their sovereigns do so with bare heads and kneel before the latter. Why is all this done? Why not the love and sincerity of the heart suffice on such occasions? It would not be correct to say that physical demonstration is needed to indicate the feelings of the heart to the other party who, being human, is incapable of gauging its true state of feelings without some sort of demonstration. We do not fondle a child or greet a friend with the object of demonstrating our affection for them. Do not parents fondle a newly born or a sleeping child? Such demonstration of affection is an involuntary, spontaneous act, not dictated by any ulterior motives.

It is impossible, therefore, that a man who loves God and entertains a true longing for Him, should not seek to express his love and longing by some outward act. This is the secret of all worship. Worship is the physical symbol of the true relationship of man to God. A man who truly loves God, knowing that he daily expresses his love and affection for others by outward signs, cannot object to external acts of worship. Such objections proceed from lack of love.

This would be a sufficient explanation of the external acts of worship prescribed by Islam, but there are also other significances underlying them. One is, that, as the Holy Quran explains, physical acts react on the mind and the state of the mind reacts on the outward condition of the body: It says:

‘It is only right that men should demonstrate veneration for the places where God’s glory was manifested, for righteousness of the heart does naturally express itself outwardly.’26

This refers to the reaction of the state of the mind on the body. At another place the reaction of physical acts on the mind is referred to in the words, ‘Beware, their hearts have been corrupted by what they have wrought.’27 At first they acted against truth to gain material objects, with the result that, in the end, the love of truth vanished from their hearts. This is a truth which has been fully demonstrated by psychologists. I happened to read once in an American psychologist’s book that a professor, who was regarded as a very able man, was appointed the head of an institution, but in that capacity he failed utterly as he lacked firmness in matters of discipline and administration. A friend who noticed that he habitually left his mouth open advised him to keep his mouth shut. Acting on this advice, he discovered that he gained daily in firmness and determination, and in the end he became a very successful administrator. In the ordinary incidents of daily life we observe that physical conditions constantly react on the mind. A man who puts on a frown and exhibits signs of anger begins to feel really angry. If a man in a towering passion is somehow made to laugh, his anger instantly subsides. Tears induce sadness of heart and laughter induces joy. Islam had this principle in view in prescribing outward acts of worship, like the Salat, etc., for when a man assumes the outward appearance of humility and supplication, his heart gradually surrenders itself to love and in the end he is drawn to God as a piece of steel is drawn to a magnet.

Another significance underlying external acts of worship is that they promote a general feeling of love and obedience to God. Children learn to love their brothers and sisters and other relatives by observing that other people do the same. If all feelings of love and affection had been confined to the heart and had never found outward expression there could not have existed any feelings of affection between relatives, for how could a child have discovered whether any person was loved or hated by its parents and other relatives? It is obvious that this can only be discovered from outward demonstration of the different kinds of feelings, which are perpetuated generation after generation by such demonstration.

If, therefore, no outward signs are prescribed for the expression of man’s love for his Creator, and if His Majesty is not constantly and repeatedly proclaimed through external acts, the unborn generations who must receive their first impressions from the conduct of their parents, will not conceive those feelings of love and sincerity for God, which are engendered by constant observation of external symbols of love and respect. We observe that atheism and indifference towards God are on the increase among people who have grown indifferent to outward worship.

Again, in physical worship all those parts of man’s body which are loaded with God’s favours and bounties can join in rendering thanks for such favours and bounties. God’s favours encompass the body as well as the soul, and perfect worship is that in which both body and soul join, for without such combination even spiritual worship cannot be preserved. It is true that the worship and adoration of the heart are the substance and the essence, but the worship and adoration of the body are the shell, and the substance cannot be preserved without the shell. If the shell is destroyed, the substance also is bound to be damaged.

Having drawn attention to the principle that physical acts of worship are indispensable for our spiritual progress, I now turn to the specific acts of worship prescribed by Islam for its followers. The first and the chief of these is the Salat, which may be called the soul of all Islamic worship. Five times a day a Muslim must present himself before God and worship Him in the mode prescribed. He must first perform the Wudu, that is to say, wash his hands, face, forearms and feet in the prescribed manner. This is not only conducive towards physical cleanliness and purity, upon which Islam insists, but also has the effect of guarding, as it were, all avenues through which disturbance or interruption can enter, viz., the five senses represented by the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands and feet, the latter two representing the sense of touch. Owing to considerations of time and space I cannot here enter into details, but those who are given to reflecting over spiritual matters can easily understand this. The very word Wudu indicates both these objects, for it means both ‘cleanliness’ and ‘beauty’. The performance of Wudu promotes physical cleanliness which is indispensable for spiritual purity, and renders the Salat beautiful by preventing and arresting the interruption or disturbance of the worshipper’s thoughts, thus making it possible for him to achieve the real object of prayer.

Having performed the Wudu the worshipper stands with his face towards the Kaaba which is meant to remind him of the sacrifices made by Abraham (as) in the path of God and the vast good that resulted from them. He then repeats certain prescribed passages from the Holy Quran. The first part of these is devoted to the praise and adoration of God whereby the worshipper can perceive, as it were, the reflection of God’s image, and his heart is flooded with love and longing and he is drawn towards God. In the second part he confesses that at every step in the course of his progress he is dependent on the help and assistance of God, and thus perceiving his own helplessness he is impelled towards self-improvement and greater trust in God. The third part contains prayers and supplications, which are the essence of Salat. By prayer man attracts the grace of God, and through the union of the love of man with the love of God in prayer the seed is sown of a new spiritual creation in the same way as a new physical being comes into existence through the union of a male and a female.

In short, Salat is so rich in spiritual benefits that man’s reason is forced into admiration of it. But in order to be effective it must be performed in the manner and subject to the conditions prescribed by Islam.

The external acts prescribed by Islam for the performance of Salat are not without their significance. During the course of Salat the worshipper must at different stages stand with folded arms, bow down with his hands resting on his knees, stand erect with his arms hanging by his side, prostrate himself on the ground and sit with folded legs. All these movements are symbols of perfect humility and surrender among different peoples. In some countries people express complete submission by standing with folded arms; in other countries, by standing with their arms hanging by their sides. In ancient Egypt bowing with one’s hands on one’s knees was regarded as a symbol of deep respect; in India prostration was in vogue and in Europe falling on one’s knees is considered to be a mode of showing reverence. Islam has combined all these symbols in its mode of worship.

Islam enjoins that Salat should ordinarily be performed in congregation, so that the spirit of brotherhood may be fostered. Under this injunction a monarch must stand shoulder to shoulder with his meanest subject to perform the Salat. This striking spectacle affords a striking proof of the fact that Salat is a reality and not a mere form. All who join in it realize that they are standing in a Presence where even a monarch must lay aside his sceptre, and become a mere servant along with his subjects.

It is sometimes objected that the Salat of Islam is a mere piece of bargaining with God, as it is performed in the hope of obtaining something in return. This is exactly the reverse of the truth. Islam is the only religion which repudiates this idea. It teaches that the acts of worship prescribed by it are not the selfish demands of a worldly-minded man. Their principal object is to acknowledge the favours and bounties of Allah and to render thanks to Him for all of them, without doing which a man could hardly deserve to be called man. Their second object is to seek spiritual development. As is said in the Holy Quran:

‘O Men! worship Me, so that I may favour you with My meeting, and render thanks for My favours and be not ungrateful.’28

This shows that the object of worship is to render thanks and to seek spiritual development. At another place it is said:

The Holy Prophet (sas) was once asked why he was so constant in his prayers and he replied, ‘Should I not be a grateful servant of the Lord?’ Again the Holy Quran says concerning Salat:

Through Salat one attains to the certainty of knowledge which dispels all doubt. Hence Salat is a means of spiritual progress just as there are means for the attainment of different objects in the material world.

In short, the institution of Salat is based on profound truths and combines so many excellences that no other religion is in a position to claim the like of them for the acts of worship prescribed by it. It satisfies the objects of worship in every respect and is the only means of attaining righteousness. Those who imagine that they can do without external acts of worship labour under a grievous error. Who can believe that while Abraham (as), with his righteousness, Moses (as), with his sacrifices, Jesus (as), with his humility and meekness, and Muhammad (sas), with his perfection and excellence, could not dispense with such acts of worship and were not content with the heart’s worship alone, people who are engaged in wordly pursuits from morning till night and have no thought to spare for God, may dispense with them and confine themselves to the mere inward remembrance of God? The idea that external worship is a mere matter of form and is of no real benefit is the outcome of laziness. It is encouraged only to drown the voice of conscience. It is a cloak under which people seek to hide their lack of faith.

The second mode of worship prescribed by Islam is Dhikr, or the remembrance of God. Salat, which must be performed in a certain manner and subject to certain conditions, is confined to special periods of time. But as the body needs water or moisture at brief intervals, and begins to feel dry and tired without it, the soul also stands in constant need of spiritual refreshment, for it is apt to be starved when man is engaged in material pursuits. Islam has, therefore, taught that man should, from time to time, in the midst of his pursuits and preoccupations, recall and reflect over the different attributes of God, so that his whole attention should not be engrossed in worldly affairs, and the remembrance and the love of God should continue constantly to refresh his soul like a running fountain. The benefits of Dhikr are similar to those of Salat.

The third mode of worship prescribed by Islam is fasting. This mode of worship is also common to almost all religions, but the form in which Islam has prescribed it is different from that recognized or prescribed by other religions. Islam enjoins upon every adult Muslim the duty of keeping fasts during one month in every year. Those suffering from a temporary illness and those who are on a journey during the month of fasting are permitted to substitute an equal number of days during some other part of the year. Those who are suffering from some permanent disorder or are too old or too weak to be able to keep fasts are exempted altogether. Those who fast must abstain from food and drink of every description, and from marital intercourse from the hour of dawn till sunset. It is desirable that some breakfast should be taken before dawn, so that the body should be saved from unnecessary suffering. Moreover a continuous fast of twenty four hours, without breakfast before dawn, is not approved of by Islam. The Holy Quran describes the object of fasting as,

‘That you may exalt the greatness of Allah for having guided you, and that you may learn to be grateful.’31

In other words, one object in view is that, being relieved from the necessity of preparing and eating food and having more time to spare, men should pay greater attention to spiritual matters and should remember God oftener. Another object is that the pangs of hunger and thirst should help men to realize the true value of the favours and bounties of God which they normally enjoy and should render them the more grateful to God. Man does not truly value that which he possesses, and he learns its true value only when he loses it. Most people never realize that eyesight is a great blessing of God, but when they lose it they realize its value. Similarly, when a man abstains from food and drink during a fast and suffers from hunger and thirst he begins to realize how many comforts God has bestowed upon him, and that he ought to employ a life so blessed in good and useful occupations and should not fritter it away in trivial pursuits.

Again, God says, the object of fasting is that men should attain Taqwa.32 The word Taqwa is used in the Holy Quran in three senses. It signifies security from pain and suffering, security from sin, and the attainment of a high spiritual level. Fasting promotes all these. At first sight it appears paradoxical to say that fasting saves a man from suffering, for fasting itself imposes a certain amount of suffering on man. But a little consideration would show that fasting teaches men lessons which secure their national welfare. The first lesson is that a rich man, who has never suffered hunger or privation and cannot realize the sufferings of his poorer brethren who have very often to go without food, begins through fasting to realize what hunger is and what the poor have to suffer. This produces in his mind active sympathy with the poor which finds vent in measures calculated to ameliorate the lot of the poor, the natural result of which is an increase in the national welfare. It is obvious that the welfare of the nation is bound up with the welfare of the individual. Another aspect of fasting is that Islam seeks to discourage in its followers sloth and laziness and a disinclination to bear hardships. It desires them to be ready and able to accept all manner of privations and inconveniences in times of need. Fasts habituate the Muslims to bear hunger and thirst and to restrain themselves in all their desires and passions, and those who faithfully carry out this command never become lazy or self-indulgent.

Fasting secures one against sin, for sin is born of inclination towards material indulgence. When a man becomes accustomed to a course of conduct it is difficult for him to renounce it. But a man who is able to give up a habit or a course of conduct at will, never becomes its slave. A man who, in order to seek the pleasure of God, gives up for a whole month, all material pleasures, and learns to exercise control and restraint, can easily overcome temptations that lead to sin.

Again, as a man has to wake up during the month of fasts in the latter part of the night for his breakfast, he gets extra opportunities of prayer and worship which speed him on the path of spiritual progress. When he sacrifices his ease and comfort for the sake of God, the latter strengthens his spirit and draws him towards Himself.

The fourth form of worship prescribed by Islam is the pilgrimage to Mecca. Its main objects are similar to those of Salat and the fasts, viz., to accustom a man to leave his home and country and to suffer separation from his relatives and friends for the sake of God. Besides these, the Holy Quran ascribes to the pilgrimage an object which is peculiar to it. The pilgrimage to Mecca is a symbol of the respect shown to places where the will of God was manifested and reminds people of the incidents connected with that manifestation. It reminds them of Ishmael’s (as) being left in the desert by Abraham (as), and how those who make sacrifices in the path of God are protected and honoured; it thus fosters their faith in the power and might of God. Also, the pilgrim, on finding himself near the place which has, from the beginning of the world, been dedicated to the worship of God, is sure to experience a peculiar spiritual association with those who have through numerous centuries been bound together by the love and remembrance of God, and among them he also counts himself.

Besides this, the pilgrimage has a great political objective underlying it. Leading Muslims from all parts of the world who meet together once a year can exchange views and establish and renew relations of love and brotherhood. They have opportunities of acquainting themselves with the problems that confront them in different countries, of benefiting from each other’s experience, and of devising methods of cooperating with each other. I am sorry, however, to observe that no advantage is, at present, being taken of this aspect of the pilgrimage.

The fifth mode of worship prescribed by Islam is sacrifice. Many people fail to understand the significance of sacrifice in Islam. They imagine that the animal sacrificed is supposed to carry away the sins of the person making the sacrifice. This is an entirely erroneous conception of the teachings of Islam on the subject. The equivalent in Arabic of the word sacrifice is derived from a root meaning nearness. Sacrifice is a symbol, the failure to understand the significance of which is responsible for the erroneous conception which people entertain concerning it. In ancient days, the language of symbols was in very common use and in spite of the development of spoken and written languages and the advance of literature in modern times symbols are still extensively used and accepted for the communication of thoughts and ideas, especially in social matters. For instance, when two friends meet they shake hands, and nobody questions the propriety of the action, nor does it occur to anybody to analyse the feelings underlying it. It is a symbol inherited from very ancient days and though its origin has been lost sight of, it is regarded as one of the most useful social practices, for it expresses and promotes friendship and brotherly relations. In ancient times when two men entered into an offensive and defensive alliance they used to clasp each other’s hands to signify that thenceforward the hand of the one would be the hand of the other and that thenceforth they would be allies and would fight and defend together. In course of time this symbolical ceremony became the emblem of the expression of affection and friendship, and nobody would now be prepared to relinquish it. Similarly, kissing is a symbol signifying the desire of the animal nature to draw the person kissed into itself and to become one with it.

These and other symbols are used constantly in our daily lives and numerous benefits are derived from their use. Sacrifice is also one such symbol. If we ponder a little, it is not a small thing to sacrifice a life, and it is bound to create a profound impression on the mind except in the case of those who are accustomed to the taking of life. Some squeamish people have gone so far as to condemn sacrifice as an act of cruelty. There is no doubt that it powerfully stirs the feelings, and it is for this reason that it has been appointed as a form of worship. A man who offers a sacrifice declares in symbolical language that as the animal which is inferior to him has been sacrificed for him, he will, if called upon to do so, cheerfully give up his own life for that which is more precious than his own existence. How profoundly must the man, who understands the true significance of sacrifice, be affected at the time when he offers a sacrifice and how vividly must he remember the significance of it and the responsibility which it lays upon him. He would ever afterwards be reminded of the principle that inferior things must be sacrificed for superior things, and that he must be ready to sacrifice himself in the service of truth or of mankind. The Holy Quran refers to this significance of sacrifice when it says:

‘Neither the flesh nor the blood of your sacrifices reaches God, but it is the righteous motive underlying them that reaches Him.’33

That is to say, your sacrifices will benefit you only if you fulfil the object underlying them, but if you fail to do that you will merely have killed an animal as you slaughter animals for the purposes of food and you will gain nothing by it.

This will show that the significance of sacrifice in Islam is totally different from that in other religions and that Islam has preserved the object which underlies this symbol, whereas other religions have lost sight of it and have invented new objects for it.

The Means Whereby Man Can Attain to God and the Practical Realization of This Object in This Life

The fourth question under the first object of religion is whether man can attain to God and whether there is a religion which claims that this is possible under its teachings. It is obvious that this is a vital question, and the real value of a religion depends upon the answer to it. Every person who is guided by his natural instincts, and who does not wish purposely to ignore them must feel that the only function of religion is to point out the way to God and to lead man to Him. All other questions are subsidiary to it.

If a religion explains the attributes of God, emphasizes His unity, exhorts its followers to love Him sincerely, lays down modes of worship, but is silent as to whether it can lead men to God in this life, its teachings are a mere mockery, and attending to them would be a waste of time. Such a religion would be like a man who causes a proclamation to be made throughout the land with blowing of bugles and beating of drums that a momentous discovery has been made and that people should collect together to be told about it,—and that no man should lag behind, for the discovery is so wonderful that the like of it never was before, and that it is necessary that all men should know of it, as it is useful for all and that its benefits exceed those of any other discovery, and that it would be the height of ill-luck not to take advantage of it,—and when men have gathered from far and near, leaving their pursuits and occupations, in their eagerness to hear of this wonderful discovery, he makes a speech telling them that a new land has been discovered which is so vast that all men can settle in it comfortably, that it lies at every man’s door, that there are running springs and bubbling brooks in it, and that there is such abundance of flowers and fruits and other delicacies that men need not quarrel among themselves, for every one can have as much as he desires, and life in it would be altogether very pleasant; the sun lights up its beautiful surface, and its deep shades afford relief and rest, and a man who enters it once does not desire to leave it again, etc., etc. Thus exciting the curiosity of his listeners who eagerly enquire as to the whereabouts of this wonderful land so that they might proceed thither and taste of its fruits and delicacies and enjoy the pleasant life it affords, he makes answer that the land, no doubt, exists as he has described it, but that he is sorry that he is not aware of its exact situation, nor does he know how it might be reached; that he had read of it in a book which he had discovered in his father’s library, and he could not endure that others should remain ignorant of it. There can be no doubt as to what would be thought of such a man. Yet there are people who daily mock us in this manner and nobody questions them why they do so. They call men to God but those who come at their call find nothing, only their longing and uneasiness are intensified.

Has anybody ever heard of people falling in love with an imaginary beauty, whom nobody has ever seen? Love is excited by the sight of beauty and not by merely hearing of it. How can a man then feel the love which he is expected to have for God, without having seen Him? Love is the melting of the heart, and how can the heart melt when no heat is applied to it? Let men first perceive the glorious face of the Beloved, and bask in its sunshine, so that their hearts may be melted and be filled with love. No religion can create in the hearts of its followers true love for God unless it opens the door to His meeting.

Look around and see how many people love God in their hearts. Surely not ten in a hundred thousand; and even these only imagine that they love God. They merely follow ancient customs and go on treading the path which their ancestors once trod. The world is plunged in darkness. Nobody is willing to sacrifice anything for God. Sacrifices made in the name of religion are prompted mostly by patriotism or nationalism. From the remotest corners of the earth men have gathered to see the British Exhibition, but how many step outside their houses to see God? They think they cannot see Him either at home or abroad, and, therefore, make no effort to find Him.

We cannot afford to trust our spiritual welfare to the life to come. No man is permitted to visit this world twice. If he finds nothing in this life, and in the life to come he discovers that he has all along been in error, where lies the remedy? If there is no God and no future life, he shall have wasted this life in running after a delusion.

Every religion asserts that it can lead men to God in the life to come, but in such a vital matter how can one act on a supposition? We are told to do this or that, but what we want to know is what will God do for us in return? Our acts and conduct are like knocking at a door, but the question is (in the words of a man who lit up the world with his light nineteen hundred years ago) will it be opened to us? If the door is not to be opened to us and our knocking is to be in vain, what has religion taught us? An incongruous noise, which we could have made even without the guidance of a religion! All that it has done for us is that it has created in our hearts a longing which it cannot satisfy! A true religion, therefore, must teach us something whereby we can cause the door to open before we leave this world, so that before our retreat is finally cut off we should be assured that we are following the right path.

I give you the glad tidings that Islam, or in other words, Ahmadiyyat claims to teach the way how the door may be caused to open; nay, it claims that through it the door has already been opened to many who have in this very life entered through it and seen the face and majesty of God, and that, if you so desire, it can, God willing, do the same for you.

Before proceeding to explain the means by which Ahmadiyyat leads man to God, it is necessary to state what is meant by meeting or seeing God. It must be remembered that God is not a material object whom man can see with his physical eyes. He can only be seen with the eyes of the soul. This does not mean, however, that it is a mere trick of the fancy. This spiritual vision of God is as real and as irrefutable as our physical vision by which we perceive physical objects like the sun and the moon, so that no doubt is left in our minds as to their existence. If ten million men were to assert that there is no such thing as the sun, we would believe that these ten million men had gone mad. No doubt would arise in our minds that we had not seen the sun, for we have seen it in a manner which can leave no possible doubt behind it. There is this difference between fancy and fact, that the former is generally the result of the working of one sense only, while knowledge is the result of the operation of more senses than one. For instance, when a man imagines that a certain person is standing before him, while in reality there is no such person standing there, he can find out his mistake if he extends his hand to touch him, for his hand will meet nothing but empty space. But if a man is actually standing there his sense of touch will confirm his sense of sight, and his hand will meet a solid object. It may sometimes happen that more faculties than one are deranged; this however would amount to lunacy and no other person is likely to be deceived by it. There is, however, a further test which can be applied to detect even unsoundness of mind, and that is that a person who is labouring under hallucination may be deceived himself, but he cannot deceive others. He cannot show to others that which he imagines he sees himself. But a reality is capable of being demonstrated to others. Therefore, when I say that through Islam or Ahmadiyyat a man may see God, I do not mean the mere working of fancy as the result of which the followers of most religions imagine that they can and do see God, but I mean the certain meeting of God which can be perceived not only by different faculties but can also be demonstrated to others. Nevertheless this seeing or meeting is spiritual and not physical. In support of the assertion that Islam makes such a claim, reference may be made to several verses of the Holy Quran. In the very beginning of the Holy Quran God says:

‘This is that promised book which is referred to in previous scriptures. There is no room for doubt in it, for it guides the righteous to still higher levels.’ 34

Other religions only claim to make a man righteous but Islam not only does that, but also leads him still higher. Not only does it teach a man his duties but when he has performed all that lies on him, it carries him higher and he becomes the recipient of attention and favours from God, and a mutual relationship of love and sincerity is established between him and God.

This means that those who render perfect obedience to God and His apostle, God will confer upon them one of the four dignities according to their deserts. Those who attain the highest stage of perfection will be made Prophets, and those next to them will be made Siddiques, i.e., favourites of God, and those coming after them will be made Shahids, i.e., those from whose eyes the veil has been removed, but who have not yet attained the dignity of special friends, and those that are next below them will be made Salih, i.e., they will be righteous men who are trying to improve themselves but who have not yet been admitted to the inner presence of God. These are the best companions whose company benefits others. These different stages of development may be attained only through the grace of God, and God well knows His servants. That is to say, God is aware that He has endowed man with the capacity for unlimited development, and has put in his heart the longing to seek the Beloved, and thus it was necessary for Him to provide the means of satisfying this longing, which He has done, leaving it to man to take advantage of them.35

‘Verily, those who desire not to meet Us and are content with material pleasures and material development, and desire nothing beyond this world, and those who are indifferent to Our signs which We show them to draw their attention, inasmuch as they have voluntarily withdrawn from the source of real happiness, will never attain to true happiness and will ever suffer spiritual tortures as the result of their actions.’36

‘Those who recognize the majesty of God, and act in accord therewith, will be given two paradises,’ that is, one in this life and one in the life to come.37

Again describing the blessings of paradise He refers to the principal blessing in the verse:

‘Some faces (that is, those who enter paradise) will be lit up with joy, for they will see God.’38

So that attaining paradise in this life, would mean that man should see God in this life and should experience the working of His attributes within himself.

‘If you remember Me, I shall cause you to see Me, so you should render thanks to Me and should not be ungrateful.’39

That is, you should not imagine that having created every thing necessary for your material development, I would leave your higher needs unprovided for.

The next question is what is the nature of this meeting with God? It is in truth beyond the power of man to describe such an essentially spiritual existence; it may be realized but can hardly be adequately described. He alone who experiences it can understand the nature of it. He cannot convey an adequate impression of it to another, for it is an entirely novel experience and people can understand the nature of only those experiences through which they have themselves passed. For instance, we can describe the taste of sugar to a man who has himself tasted it and when we say to such a person that a certain thing is very sweet he will at once comprehend our meaning. But a man who has never tasted sugar can never fully realize what sweetness means. We can convey to him a poor and imperfect idea of it by distinguishing it from other things which can be tasted, but the only perfect way of making him understand what sweetness signifies would be to put a lump of sugar in his mouth and to tell him that it is sweet. Similarly the nature of the experience of a meeting with God cannot be put in words, but as this is a matter which concerns faith and on which depends the whole spiritual progress of man, God invests those who have gone through it with such attributes that everybody can perceive that they stand in a special relationship towards the Living God. Just as a machine comes alive when it is connected with electric current, and people can at once perceive that some mighty force is working through it, so is the case with those who attain to union with God. Since the beginning of time this fact has been proclaimed in the same manner. The fact that Noah (as), Abraham (as), Moses (as), Jesus (as) and Muhammad (sas) and the other Prophets of God were His favourites was proclaimed to the world only through the manifestation of God’s attributes for them. In no other manner could the nature of the relationship in which each of them stood towards God be understood by another.

The truth is that God being all spirit, His relationship with man can be expressed only through the reflection of His attributes in man. As the Holy Prophet (sas) has said, ‘If you desire to meet God, you must assimilate the attributes of God and must fashion your lives accordingly.’

With beings that belong to the world of spirit a relationship can be established only through perfect understanding and knowledge. The Holy Quran describes this understanding or realization as being of three kinds or having three stages. The first stage is called, ‘Ilm-ul-Yaqin, that is to say, knowledge or realization by inference. In this stage a thing is not itself visible but its effects are visible from which a man can conclude that the thing exists. The second stage is ‘Ainul-Yaqin, that is to say, knowledge or realization by sight. In this stage not only are the effects of a thing visible, but the thing itself is seen, although its nature has not been completely realized. The third stage is the stage of perfect realization or experience, that is to say, as complete an understanding of the nature of a thing as it is possible for a man to have, both through observation of its effects on others and realization of its effects on himself. This is called Haqq-ul-Yaqin, or perfect realization. These three stages may be illustrated by reference to the knowledge and realization of fire. When a man sees smoke from a distance, he concludes that there must be a fire from which it issues, but he cannot be certain, for there is the possibility that his eye might be mistaken and what he imagines to be smoke may be merely dust or mist. But if he draws nearer and sees the flame with his own eyes, his certainty will increase, but perfect realization of the nature of fire cannot be achieved till he puts his hand in it and experiences its burning effect. There are other sub-divisions of these stages of realization, but these are the principal ones, and man is constantly striving to attain them. We find that when a child begins to grow up, he wants to realize the nature of everything and is not afraid to put his hand in the fire to experience its effects. I imagine few children have not, at some time or other, scorched their hands in an attempt to discover the effects and nature of fire.

Islam lays down the same three stages of realization. The first stage is, that a man hears about the manifestation of God’s attributes from others, or reads in books as to how God has dealt with His servants in the past, and he begins to think that there must be some reality underlying it. But this creates no more than a temporary impression on his mind. For, when he begins to strive in the same path himself he at first meets with disappointment and often loses courage, like a man, seeing smoke from a distance, begins to advance towards it, but as he proceeds further and sees nothing but smoke without any other indication of fire he begins to imagine that his eye had deceived him and that what he had seen was not smoke but a speck of cloud or a spiral of dust. Only such persons are satisfied with the records of the lives of holy men as never strive to have an experience at first hand themselves, and whose complacency remains, therefore, unshaken. This, however, is far from being enviable.

Islam does not limit man to the first stage of realization. It keeps the door open to the highest stage, and it claims that any one striving after God in accordance with its teachings, gains in understanding and realization in proportion to his effort, and that there is no stage of realization which was opened to others from which men are now debarred. I have explained that true realization is a purely inward condition of mind; it is that sharpness of spiritual vision by which man begins to perceive the attributes of God in a new light; it is that keenness of spiritual perception by which man discovers himself clothed with the attributes of God. But as every state and experience has an outward manifestation, the perfect realization of God or, in other words, union with God, has also its outward manifestation by which other people as well as the person concerned himself realize his relationship with God. It is obvious that when two things approach each other the peculiar quality of one affects the other. For instance, a person who approaches fire begins to feel its heat, and a person who approaches ice begins to feel cold. Similarly, if a person handles perfume, his body or his clothes begin to emit its fragrance, and if he is near another person who speaks, he can hear him. In the same way, it is necessary that a person who attains to a stage of union with God should manifest qualities which show that he has attained to that state of blessedness. For, if there is nothing more than a mere assertion, how can we distinguish between the claims of an impostor and a righteous servant of God, and what benefit can people derive from seeing or associating with the latter?

Islam has described three stages of union with God, which can be distinguished by their manifestations. They are the proof of a man having attained to union with God, and they are also the means of increasing one’s belief in God. The first stage is that of acceptance of prayer; the second of revelation, and the third in which man becomes a manifestation of Divine attributes.

Islam teaches that acceptance of prayer is a means of enabling men to attain union with God. When a man prays to God his prayers are accepted, provided they are made in the manner, and are continued up to the point, appointed for their acceptance. He says:

‘Then who is He, Who hears the cry of a distressed person, when he calls on Him, and accepts his prayers and relieves his pain, and, removing the oppression of the oppressor sets up the oppressed in his place? Is there, then, another god who has this power? But you derive no lesson from it.’40

This stage is open to all. God hears the prayers of every one who prays to Him in his distress, to whatever religion he may belong, and thus affords an opportunity to all to get into direct touch with Himself and thus to emerge from the stage of doubt and darkness. It is essential that a certain degree of realization should be open to people of every class and condition to make them turn to God, for people turn only to those things with whose importance they are impressed.

The followers of every religion can attain to this stage and can experience the effects of prayer. Many obstacles may be overcome and inconveniences removed by prayer. But this stage of realization is an inferior one, for room is left for doubt that that which has happened after prayer might even have happened without it, or that that which has been averted might not have come about even if no prayer had been offered, for we very often observe that an undertaking which is on a fair way towards being accomplished fails, and that which was regarded difficult of accomplishment is brought about through normal means when no prayer has been offered or even when the person concerned has no faith in prayer. Another element which renders this stage doubtful is that its results bear a resemblance to the results of the operation of certain natural laws, for instance, mesmerism and hypnotism, by means of which several ailments and diseases may be cured and remedied. This may give rise to the doubt that the results of prayer have also been achieved through concentration or some such other cause, and are not due to any Divine aid or intervention.

Though acceptance of prayer in this stage is subject to such doubts, it certainly is a means of attaining certainty for the person who experiences it and much benefit may be derived from it. There is, however, another stage in which acceptance of prayer is not subject to any doubt, but that pertains to the higher stages of knowledge and realization, and will be explained in its proper place.

The second stage of realization is revelation. Islam particularly emphasizes this stage, while all other religions regard the door of revelation as having been irrevocably closed. Reason, however, cannot endorse the doctrine that God, Who used to speak to His servants in days gone by to assure them of His existence, has now ceased to speak altogether. The attributes of God are ever-existing and are not subject to diminution or decline, then why has He been silent during all these centuries? If He has ceased to speak, how are we to assure ourselves that He has not ceased to hear, and that His other attributes remain unimpaired? Would not His silence justify the conclusion that He can no longer see, that He has lost the attribute of knowledge, that He has lost the power to watch over and protect us, and that the universe is now going on of itself ? If His other attributes continue to operate just as they used to, why has He ceased to speak? He is hidden from our sight and is beyond the ken of our physical perceptions. Revelation was the principal means by which men could be assured of His existence. Now that this door is also closed, what means is left to assure us of His existence?

Islam teaches that God still speaks as He used to do; He still talks to His servants as of yore. Like the acceptance of prayer, revelation is not entirely confined to the followers of a particular religion. In order to enable people to testify to, and believe in, the revelations received by His righteous servants, God does on occasion speak to persons who are outside the true faith. That God even now speaks to His righteous servants has been expressly stated in the following words of the Holy Quran:

‘Those who say Allah is our Lord, and then hold fast to it, angels descend upon them with the revelation, “Fear not, nor be grieved but be happy in the realization of the paradise which you were promised. We shall be your friends in this life and in the life to come, and you will receive all that you desire and all that you ask for.”’41

That is, the desire to attain union with God, which is the real desire of every believer, will be completely and fully realized. This verse shows, that Islam regards the door of revelation as ever open, and holds out the promise of revelation in certain cases. It may be imagined how the fact that God speaks to a man direct or through angels will fortify him in his belief and faith in God and what an accession of strength it will be to his heart, for speech is also a kind of meeting. For instance, if one is separated from a friend in a jungle at night and hears his voice in the darkness that he is near, one is as much comforted as if one had seen him. Therefore, a man to whom God speaks believes in Him with as perfect a faith as he has in that which he has actually seen.

This is not a mere empty claim made by Islam. During the last thirteen hundred years Islam has constantly produced men to whom God has spoken. In the present age God has spoken to the Promised Messiah (as) and as the result of holy influence exercised by him, thousands of members of the Ahmadiyya Movement have become the recipients of Divine revelation. I believe that more than half of the Ahmadis have been the recipients of revelation in some form or other, and have had their faith confirmed and strengthened thereby.

It must be remembered that by revelation I do not mean the commonly but wrongly accepted connotation of it, under which any brilliant idea which suddenly flashes across a man’s mind is called revelation. Some people have in their ignorance gone so far as to imagine that God never speaks in words, and that the thoughts and ideas of a Prophet are described as revelation. Islam emphatically repudiates this idea and teaches that revelation is conveyed in words and that God speaks to man as surely as one man speaks to another. A sound similar to that produced by the speech of man is produced in revelation and the recipient of revelation hears that sound as he hears the speech of fellow men in his daily life. The difference is that revelation is far more majestic and glorious than the speech of man and carries in itself such bliss and such a sense of happiness, that the recipient of revelation feels exalted and uplifted as if some great power had absorbed him. The words of the revelation are conveyed to his ears and he hears them, or they are conveyed to his tongue and he recites them, or they are presented before him in writing and he commits them to memory. All this while the sense of exaltation persists whereby he perceives that his experience is a glorious reality and is the direct action of a Superior Power.

There are two other kinds of revelation besides that just described which are conveyed not in words but in symbolical language. One of these is a dream in which something is shown as a symbol of an abstract thing; for instance, milk indicating spiritual knowledge, a buffalo indicating a disease or an epidemic, etc., etc.

The second kind is called Kashf or vision, which is experienced while a man is wide awake, and is engaged in his normal pursuits. In such a condition he is enabled to hold spiritual intercourse with the souls of the departed, or to witness incidents happening at a distance from him, etc., etc.

All these kinds of revelation are referred to in the Holy Quran; a detailed discussion of them here would be out of place. I have stated that Islam does not define revelation as mere chance inspiration. Such definition of revelation is due to entire ignorance of the nature of revelations. If it were accepted as correct, revelation would become a mockery. Every person experiences at some time or other inspired thoughts and ideas. If these were called revelation, every man would esteem his thoughts as revelation. In this sense every speech and every writing could be put forward as revelation.

The Word of God is meant to lead us to certainty and faith and not to land us in doubt and distraction. If our thoughts and ideas were to be called revelation, most people would begin to imagine that whatever passes in their minds is revelation. But Divine revelation must possess distinctive features which are not possessed by mere fancies and imagination, so that men should not be led astray. What, then, is the best test by which a person may judge that a particular idea is his and is not revealed, or that it is revealed and not his, or that a particular writing is his and not revealed, or that it is revealed and not his? If it be urged that his reason will point out the distinction to him, the answer is that if we begin to call ideas revelation, it will not take our reason long to succumb to the fancy that all our ideas are revealed and are not our own.

In fact such ideas do not merely destroy our faith in true religion, but also produce so many doubts and misgivings, and encourage such loose thinking, that people who entertain such ideas begin at every step to fashion new religions and thus to deceive not only themselves but also large parts of mankind. There is no doubt that in some cases of mental derangement a man may be deceived into imagining that he hears certain voices or sees certain sights. But the security against such cases is that they are confined to maniacs and madmen, and no one is put in danger of being deceived by them. If, however, revelation is defined as ideas flashing across the mind, a perfectly sensible man may begin to believe that his ideas are revealed and there would be no means of correcting the misconception. Such a supposition results from ignorance of the nature of true revelation. If people holding this view had themselves experienced revelation they could never have been deceived as to its real nature and would have realized that God speaks to His servants in a majestic and at the same time an inexpressibly sweet voice, which is heard by them as surely as they hear other voices and that there is left no possibility of delusion or doubt about it.

By the grace of God the writer of this paper has had personal experience of revelation and can confidently state on the basis of his own experience that revelation is conveyed in words and is not a mere idea of the mind.

It must, however, be remembered that there is nothing in the Holy Quran to warrant the belief that every dream or vision (Kashf) or revelation is from God. Islam concedes that dreams and revelations may be of different kinds. For instance the Holy Quran says:

‘I call to witness the stemless plant when it falleth.’ That is to say, a plant which has no stem falls to the ground when it grows up and in the same way, a false claimant, whether an impostor or one self-deceived, never triumphs. As such a man’s teachings are not based on essential spiritual truths they contain in themselves the seed of their own destruction. Therefore, when his following begins to increase, signs of decline simultaneously begin to appear, and before such a man is universally accepted, before his movement firmly establishes itself as an independent religion (that is to say, before it assumes such proportions as to justify its being reckoned among the great religions of the world) and before such period of time has elapsed as would justify the claim that his system has survived the test of time, his movement begins to decay and eventually the whole fabric falls to the ground). The verse proceeds, ‘Your companion has not gone astray nor is his claim based on wickedness.’ (i.e., he is neither deceived nor is he an impostor). ‘Nor does he speak from selfish desire.’ (i.e., it is not as if the wish were father to the thought, nor that the things of his imagination are taken by him to be Divine revelation. What he has received is revelation which has come to him from an outside power, and think not that it is the Devil that prompts him). ‘The source of his revelation is the Mighty and Powerful God.’ Who controls everything, and Who will, by His might and power, establish the truth of His revelation; his doctrine will spread like a mighty tree, men of all classes and conditions will accept it, and time will not be able to efface it.42

In this verse, revelation has been described as being of four kinds. First, that, the source of which it is difficult to ascertain, i.e., which is the result of mental derangement. Secondly, that, which is the direct result of a man’s own desires, and which can easily be ascertained to be so. Thirdly, that, which proceeds from an evil spirit and thus contains nothing but evil and impurities. Fourthly, Divine Revelation. Therefore, when I say that Islam describes revelation as one of the means of union with God, I do not mean all dreams or revelation. I admit, and, as a matter of fact, many centuries before the modern psychological view of dreams, etc., took shape, the Holy Quran had explained, that dreams and revelations may be due to mental derangement or to personal desires. By revelation I mean Divine revelation alone which is clearly distinguishable from mental delusions or the fancies born of one’s desires.

Still, as there is yet left some room for doubt and confusion here, revelation is not as perfect and as sure a means of Divine realization as is required for absolute certainty of faith which should exclude every possibility of doubt or misgiving. Islam emphatically claims that this stage of perfect and absolute certainty can be attained through it. It enjoins its followers to repeat in the five daily Salats, about forty or fifty times a day, the prayer, ‘Lord, guide us along the straight path, travelled by those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy favours.’ At another place the Holy Quran explains that those on whom God has bestowed His favours are the Prophets; the Siddiques, i.e., those who are close to the Prophets; the Shahids i.e., those who are not close to prophethood, but nevertheless can, in their persons, demonstrate the operation of Divine attributes, and can on the basis of their personal experience lead people to God; and the Salihin, or the righteous. Unless a man attains to one of the three first-mentioned dignities he cannot attain to perfect certainty of faith.

How can we benefit by Divine attributes? For instance we are told God is All-Knowing. Can we have a certain proof of His knowledge? Until we can see with our own eyes the workings of this attribute, how can we, with confidence, nay, how can we with honesty, say that He is All-Knowing? We are told He quickens the dead to life, but if we have no evidence of it how can we honestly say that He brings the dead to life? We are told that He is the Creator, but we observe that the whole creation is governed by certain laws of nature. How can we, then, believe that God has had a hand in the creation of this universe, and how can we honestly assert that He is the Creator? Again, we are told that all things are in His hands, and all things acknowledge His might, but, when we find that thousands of men deny His very existence, how can we, in the absence of some clear sign of His might, say with certainty, nay, how can we say with honesty, that He controls the universe? The same is the case with all His attributes. Unless we are convinced that the attributes of God manifest themselves in a manner which excludes all possibility of chance or coincidence, how can we believe that those attributes exist at all? We cannot perceive God by our physical senses, but can know Him only through His attributes. If we possess no certain proof of the manifestation of those attributes, how can we honestly say that God does exist and that our universe is not based on the operation of some complex but perfect law of nature?

This doubt is resolved by Islam alone, for it constantly produces men who are manifestations of the attributes of God, first receiving a reflection of these attributes in their own beings and then leading others to the perfect knowledge and realization of God by demonstrating in their own persons the working of those attributes.

In the present age God sent the Promised Messiah (as) so that men might be enabled to attain to a perfect knowledge and realization of Him and be freed from doubt and despair. He was such a perfect follower of Islam that he attained to the stage of prophethood and God raised him to that level of spiritual knowledge which had not been attained even by Abraham (as), Moses (as) or Jesus (as). He manifested in himself the attributes of God in such a certain and perfect manner that all who saw it marvelled, and all who hear of it are filled with wonder. Hundreds of thousands have been restored to new life through the signs shown by him, and multitudes have been healed by his miraculous power. He attained to that perfect stage of Divine realization which excludes all possibility of doubt and misgiving, and found that complete union with God which admits of no separation. He was so imbued with the Divine colour, that all other colours faded before it. He renounced the world altogether and devoted himself wholly to the service of the Eternal Beloved, Who, in consequence of that devotion in turn, became his. He tested each doctrine and commandment of Islam in his own person, found them perfect, and himself experienced their fruits. God clothed him in the mantle of His attributes, and he returned to the world decked in it to lead mankind to God, for only those can proceed upwards who have come from above.

Jesus (as) has said, ‘No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that come down from heaven.’43

To this may be added, no man can lead others to heaven, but he who is sent from heaven. The Promised Messiah (as) whom God had clothed in the mantle of His glory and whom He had sent for the guidance of mankind, was, thus, alone entitled, and able, to lead mankind to God. In support of this, he manifested each attribute of God in his own person, and by bringing God closer to man, brought man closer to God. The Holy Quran says,

This being His way, He has in this age appeared to the Promised Messiah (as) and has through him manifested Himself to the rest of mankind, to show that He is the Living God, and that as He was the God of Abraham (as), the God of Moses (as), the God of Jesus (as), and the God of Muhammad (sas), He is today our God, and has not abandoned us; only we, through our ignorance, had forgotten Him.

It is not possible for me within the time and space at my disposal to explain with regard to each attribute of God how the Promised Messiah (as) manifested and demonstrated it to the world after he had attained perfect Divine realization himself. However, a few of them may be illustrated here.

One attribute of God, which is very widely acknowledged is the attribute of knowledge. All religions teach that He is All-Knowing, but none of them explains as to how we can assure ourselves that this is true of Him. The Promised Messiah (as) has provided us with practical illustrations of this attribute of God. He has discovered for us secrets of knowledge which were either (1) hidden from the eyes of the world, or (2) were acquired by him in an extraordinary manner or (3) were beyond the power of man to acquire. As an illustration of the first of these, I need only refer to his teachings which I have already partly discussed and portions of which I shall discuss later on. Here I shall illustrate the second and the third. Most people are probably unaware that the Promised Messiah (as) was born in that part of India, which was then under the rule of the Sikhs under whom knowledge and learning were at a discount. He never attended school for a single day, but read some elementary books with private tutors. When, however, God raised him to prophethood, He bestowed on him, during the course of a single night, such thorough knowledge of the Arabic language that the learned men of Egypt and Arabia could not rival him in it. He wrote books in Arabic and repeatedly challenged his opponents to produce the like of them if they considered them to be the result of ordinary education and instruction, but none of them dared take up this challenge in India, Egypt, Syria or Arabia. Is this not a convincing proof of God’s Omniscience? Can the acquisition of such knowledge be the result of man’s fancy? The Punjab is so far away from Arabia and is at such a distance from all recognized centres of learning, that it is impossible that the Promised Messiah (as) could have acquired his knowledge of Arabic from other people. But even if it were possible, how did he acquire such knowledge as enabled him to write, in the Arabic language, nearly a score of books, on the basis of which he successfully challenged people learned in it? It must be remembered that persons who have studied Arabic for years in the schools and colleges of the Punjab are scarcely able to write a few pages of it. No doubt, occasionally people like Dante and Shakespeare do acquire an almost unrivalled mastery over their own language, but they cannot be compared to the Promised Messiah (as), for they did not claim beforehand that they would acquire such mastery. They were not even aware of the value that was subsequently placed upon their works. It was only when their works became better known that they were appreciated at their true value. If several persons run a race, one of them is bound to outstrip the others. But such a feat is not regarded as anything out of the ordinary, when, however, a weak and emaciated person who can hardly stand on his legs joins a race, and declares beforehand that he shall win it, and does win it. This will certainly be something out of the ordinary and must be ascribed to the working of some higher agency.

That God manifests His attribute of Omniscience in this manner is borne out by the second chapter of the Acts, where it is written that the disciples were taught the languages of different tribes through the Holy Ghost. The difference between the case of the disciples and that of the Promised Messiah (as) is that the former were taught the languages of the Jewish tribes only and even so they sometimes made mistakes in them, but the Promised Messiah (as) was taught the language of another country and was given such perfect command over it that none of those whose mother tongue it was, could, after repeated challenges by him, rival him in it.

Another proof of the Omniscience of God which we have had through the Promised Messiah (as) is the holding of this Conference of Religions in London. Thirty-four years ago the Promised Messiah (as) saw a Kashf relating to the spread of his Movement in England. He published in his book Izala’-e-Auham, which was published in 1892. The words are these:

‘The rising of the sun from the West (as predicted by the Holy Prophet (sas) of Islam) means that western countries which have for centuries been in the darkness of unbelief and error, shall be illumined by the sun of righteousness, and shall share in the blessings of Islam. I once saw myself (in a vision) standing on a pulpit in London and delivering a reasoned speech in English on the truth of Islam and thereafter catching several whitefeathered birds sitting on small trees, whose bodies resembled those of partridges. I understood this to mean that though it may not be given to me to proceed personally to London, my writings would be published among those people and many righteous Englishmen would fall a prey to the truth. Western countries have so far not been conspicuous for their attachment to spiritual truths, as if, God had bestowed spiritual wisdom on the East only, and wisdom of the world on Europe and America. All Prophets from the first to the last have appeared in Asia, and spiritual men, other than Prophets, who attained nearness to God have also been confined to the Eastern peoples. But God wishes now to extend His beneficence to the West.’45

The meaning of this passage is perfectly clear. Thirty-four years ago God informed the Promised Messiah (as) that Islam would be propagated in Europe through him, that the means of such propagation would be his writings, and that in the end the West will share the blessings of the faith, as it shares today the good things of the world.

No doubt, what he saw in the vision was that he was delivering the speech himself, but as a Prophet is represented by his followers, particularly by his successors (Khalifas) the vision means that he or one of his representatives or successors would proceed to England to call men to Islam, and indicates that Islam and Ahmadiyyat would be preached from a pulpit or a stage and that men will accept it and be blessed.

The fulfilment of this vision is not a mere coincidence. The importance of an event can only be measured when all the circumstances attending it are known. Consider the circumstances in which this vision was published and in which the man who published it was placed.

When this Kashf was published the Christian religion was so powerful that it overawed the Muslims. Not only did European and Christian writers prophesy the complete annihilation of Islam by Christianity in the course of a century, but Muslim writers also had begun indirectly to admit it. Some Muslims, under the guise of religious reform, started a movement of mutual understanding between Islam and Christianity on the basis of the assumption that both were true and of the necessity of avoiding collision between the two, for these men feared that Islam could not withstand Christianity. Others had started writing apologies on behalf of Islam, and tried to explain that certain Islamic doctrines to which Europe took exception, were really no part of Islam and that Islam taught exactly what Europe approved of. They explained that Islam was revealed in an age of darkness when the Arabs were in a very degraded condition, that many of the doctrines and commandments of Islam were meant only to improve the condition of the Arabs and were not of universal application, that these would now be repealed by a conference of Muslim doctors and ulema, that the Holy Prophet (sas) used to preach to the Arabs with due regard to their national and religious prejudices and that his meaning was really different from that which his words would ordinarily bear. In short, the Muslims had begun to admit by their conduct that the days of Islam were numbered. They had lost not merely the power to take the offensive but even the heart to defend Islam. They were ready to surrender, and awaited only the offer of better terms by Christianity, under which they would not be treated as mere savages.

On the other hand the man who saw and published this vision was alone and had no following. He had just proclaimed his claim to Messiahship, which had aroused universa1 resentment and opposition. The Government looked upon him with suspicion, the people were hostile to him. Christians, Hindus and the very Muslims whose faith he championed, were all opposed to him, the last most bitterly of all. His claim was novel and unexpected. The Muslims were expecting a warrior Mahdi, and a Messiah who should descend from the skies. This man claimed to be not a warrior but a peaceful and peace-making Mahdi and taught that the Mahdi and Messiah were one and the same person who was not to come from the skies but was to appear from the earth, and strangest of all, that he himself was the person who was both Mahdi and Messiah, a person who possessed no distinctive mark of learning, rank or honour.

Further, travelling to distant countries requires money, and this man had at the time a following of forty or fifty persons, all of whom, with the exception of one or two who were in comparatively easy circumstances, were extremely poor, earning on an average less than five shillings a week, out of which they had to provide for all the needs of their families and themselves. For in these circumstances, living six thousand miles away from England, in a country which formed part of the British Empire and which was at that time in a condition of extreme political degradation, in a province which was regarded as the least intellectual and most backward in India situated at a distance of several hundred miles from the ocean, being resident of a village which is even today eleven miles from the nearest railway station and which was at that time served only twice a week by the post, the postmaster being also the village schoolmaster, and which could boast of no higher educational institution than a vernacular primary school (for such was Qadian at the time), this man proclaims that God would propagate his doctrine in the West, that it would be preached from platforms and pulpits, and that men would accept its truth and join his movement. All this in fact comes to pass; his movement spreads and men of all classes join it; it reaches, and begins to attract, the truth-loving spirits of the West.

The invitation extended by the organizers of the Conference of Religions to the representatives of different religions bears no particular significance so far as other religions are concerned, for such invitation was bound to be issued to make the Conference a success. In our case it has a peculiar significance, for it has been the means of fulfilling the Kashf to which I have just referred and which was published in very adverse circumstances. If this Movement had followed the normal course it would not have been invited to participate in this Conference for it should have ceased to exist long ago owing to the extremely adverse circumstances through which it has had to pass; but God has, in accordance with this Kashf, caused it to prosper, and, in the end, that which had been foretold has happened. This shows that God is Omniscient, and that He reveals things of which man can have no knowledge or conception and which at the time are regarded by mankind as opposed to reason and common sense.

I cannot conclude this portion of my discussion without quoting one more instance of the demonstration by the Promised Messiah (as) of the Omniscience of God. This instance also pertains to Europe where, and in America, it has exercised, and is still exercising, a profound influence. I refer to his prophecy concerning the Great War and the end of the Czar. This prophecy was published piecemeal and was completed in four years from 1904 to 1908. He prophesied that God had told him that ‘a mighty earthquake was impending,’ and he explained that it did not necessarily mean that the earth would be actually shaken, but that it meant some form of calamity ‘which would cause great loss of life and destruction of buildings, and which would cause rivers of blood to flow and create great consternation among men.’ From the details of this earthquake as foretold at the time it appears that the prophecy foreshadowed a great war, for he says ‘consternation would be caused in the whole world, and travellers would be put to great trouble.’ This clearly shows that the calamity foretold was a war, for an earthquake would not particularly affect travellers. Again, he says ‘rivers of blood would flow and the calamity would come all of a sudden. Young men would be turned grey by the shock. Mountains would be blown up and many people would go mad. The whole world would feel its effects, but the Czar’s plight would be particularly miserable. The foundations of Governments would be shaken; naval fleets would be on the look out for enemy fleets and would scour the seas in search of enemy vessels; there would be naval duels; the earth would be turned upside down and God would appear with His hosts to punish the transgressors and the oppressors. The calamity will also affect the birds of the air. The Arabs will prepare for war and the Turks will be defeated in Asia Minor, but would recover a portion of their lost territory.’ It was also said that ‘signs of this calamity would appear in advance,’ but that ‘God will delay it for a time.’ That in any case, ‘it would overtake the world within sixteen years of the publication of the prophecy, but not during the lifetime of the Promised Messiah (as)’.46

How clearly and powerfully has this prophecy been fulfilled! How terrible was the earthquake which had been foretold and how was the earth shaken by it! As I have already said the word did not mean an actual earthquake for the same word had been used in the Holy Quran, and in the Bible to signify war.47 Every detail of this prophecy was clearly fulfilled. The war broke out suddenly and the whole world was affected by it. The prophecy was first published in 1904, and the war broke out in 1914, after the death of the Promised Messiah (as), which took place in 1908. It affected not only those powers and Governments which joined in it, but also other powers and countries. It brought such terrible sufferings upon travellers which one would not like even to imagine. People who were travelling in foreign countries at the time when the war broke out have long and painful tales to tell of weary journeys, midnight escapes, captivity and starvation. Many of them were unable for years to communicate with those near and dear to them and no exchange of news was possible. Mountains were blown up as if they were no more than mere mounds of earth. Some of the French hills which were within the actual war area were levelled to the ground. So much blood was shed that streams and rivers actually ran red with it. Many people turned grey with shock, and, as had been said, so many men became mad that shell-shock became the name of a new kind of mental disorder, as the result of which thousands became incapacitated for months, and even years. Naval demonstrations and movements of fleets took place on an unprecedented scale. Such vast tracts of land were turned upside down that France has not yet been able to restore its devastated areas. The noise of cannonading and bursting of shells kept the birds flying in the air and prevented them from alighting on the trees so that many of them died of exhaustion and fatigue.

The war was almost precipitated in 1911, when Germany sent the Panther to Agadir, but in accordance with the prophecy, it was then averted owing to the firm attitude taken up by Great Britain and the feeling of continental statesmen that they were not ready for war. The Arabs also joined the allies and deemed it politic to cut asunder from the Turks. The Dardanelles and Iraq were considered to be the chief strategic points with the Turks but the Allies failed in both these theatres and in the end the Turks were defeated in Palestine in accordance with the prophecy and the war came to an end. But the Turks again acquired strength under the leadership of Mustapha Kamal Pasha and as had been foretold retrieved a portion of their lost fortunes. But the most terrible portion of the prophecy concerned the Czar of Russia. Out of all the monarchs concerned in the war the Czar was singled out in the prophecy and it was said that during the war his plight would become pitiable, that is, not only would he lose his throne but would also undergo other hardships, sufferings and privations. The prophecy seemed to indicate that the Czar would not die or be killed at once, but would undergo painful sufferings. The prophecy has been fulfilled in every detail. The Czar lost his throne but his life was spared. Later on he was killed after being subjected to the most painful physical and mental torture. His wife and his daughters were disgraced in his presence while he was powerless to help or save them.

A recital of his sufferings makes one’s hair stand on end and causes one’s heart to weep for him, but at the same time, one’s faith in the Omniscient God is also enhanced when one sees how He had revealed these things twelve years prior to their occurrence, at a time when nobody could even imagine that they could come to pass.

Are these facts not sufficient to prove that the God of Islam is All-Knowing, that Islam alone is the religion which makes one realize an All-Knowing God, and that Islam alone can establish a relationship between man and God?

Another well-known attribute of God which is accepted by almost all religions is the attribute of creation. Most religions claim that the conception of God presented by them includes the attribute of creation. They teach that all matter and man have been created by God and that the whole universe is His creation. But what proof have they in support of that assertion? None! Their claim is based only on a negative assumption. If God is not the Creator of this universe, who is? An atheist has the same data before him. He is, however, a more diligent student of the laws of nature. His world and his religion are a study of these laws and he arrives at the conclusion that this universe goes on of itself and is not controlled by any outside power or agency. When, therefore, those who make nature a life study obtain no guidance from it, how can nature produce certainty in the hearts of those who are mere laymen?

The utmost that nature suggests is that there ought to be a Creator of this universe. This is, however, a mere inference and cannot be a substitute for faith and certainty. Experience teaches us that often when we discover the cause of a phenomenon, of which we were not previously aware, it turns out to be something entirely different from what we had imagined it to be. Is it not, therefore, possible that our belief, that over and above the laws of nature there ought to be a Creator and Regulator of this world, may be due to our ignorance of the nature, properties, and action and reaction of matter? It may be that matter possesses energy and properties which are unknown to us, and which render it independent of any outside control in its working. In view of such possibilities how can we be comforted by the mere inference that there ought to be a Creator of the universe? We need proof which should carry us from the stage of ought to be to the stage of is and should remove all doubts and misgivings. This is possible only if we are able to observe the working of the attribute of creation with our own eyes and thus satisfy ourselves that God does actually create. No religion is in a position to give us certainty as regards this attribute of God. The Promised Messiah (as), however, does lead us to this stage of knowledge. He does not ask us merely to believe that there is a God and that He is also the Creator. He claims to show us the actual working of God’s attribute of creation and to demonstrate that it is not nature that creates but the Creator of nature itself Who creates. There are many instances of this, but I shall content myself with relating only two or three of them.

It must be remembered that a particular result cannot be ascribed to the action or intervention of any being until we are convinced both positively and negatively, that is to say, until we are satisfied that that result can be brought about by that being if it so desires and that it cannot be brought about if it does not so desire. Looked at from the positive point of view, there is left room for the conjecture that there might be other beings who can also effect similar results. The assertion therefore that a certain thing can be done only by a particular being necessarily implies that if that being does not do it, it cannot be done at all. Keeping this principle in mind I proceed to state the positive and negative proofs, which the Promised Messiah (as) has given of the working of the Divine attribute of creation.

I shall first describe those signs which are the positive proofs of the working of this attribute. With regard to the first of them I shall merely quote the statement of the man who is the principal witness of the sign. This man’s name is ‘Ata Muhammad. He is a patwari (i.e., a subordinate revenue official), and his statement is as follows:

‘Before I became an Ahmadi, I used to be a patwari at Winjwan in the Gurdaspur District. Qazi Ni‘matullah of Batala, whom I used to see often used to talk to me of Hazrat Sahib (meaning the Promised Messiah (as), but I never paid much heed to his talk. On one occasion when he was very persistent I told him that I would write to his Mirza asking the latter to pray for me with respect to a certain matter and that if his prayer was heard I would accept him. I then wrote to Hazrat Sahib, saying that as he claimed to be the Messiah (as) and a Wali (i.e., saint) his prayers ought to be heard, and I requested him to pray that God may vouchsafe to me a handsome and gifted male child by whichever of my wives I desired. At the end of my letter I wrote that I had had three wives for many years, but that no child had been born to any of them and that I desired to have a child from my eldest wife, (meaning that as she was growing old there was less hope of a son being born to her). I received a reply written by the late Maulawi Abdul Karim Sahib (who was one of the leading members of the Ahmadiyya Movement and used to act as secretary to the Promised Messiah (as)) saying that Hazrat Sahib had prayed for me and that God would vouchsafe to me a handsome, gifted and well-disposed son by whichever of my wives I had desired but that I must repent like Zachari (as). I lived in those days a life of debauchery, was addicted to liquor and used to accept bribes. On receiving this reply I went to the mosque and enquired from the mullah what was meant by the repentance of Zachari (as). The mullah and the other people in the mosque were surprised to see a vicious man like me in the mosque and the mullah was unable to answer my question. Then I enquired from Maulawi Fateh Din of Dharamkot, who was an Ahmadi, and he told me that the repentance of Zachari (as) meant that I should renounce my evil course of life, should give up bribe-taking, should be regular in my prayers, observe fasts, and should attend the mosque frequently. Accordingly I entirely changed my way of living. I gave up liquor, stopped taking bribes and became regular in my prayers and fasting. Four or five months later, when I entered my house one day I found my eldest wife in tears. On enquiring from her the cause of her distress she told me that I had already had, besides her, two other wives, as she had borne me no children, and that a fresh calamity had now befallen her, namely that her monthly courses had ceased and that there was now left no hope of her ever bearing a child. Her brother used in those days to be a sub-inspector of police at Amritsar, and she asked me to send her to her brother to obtain medical advice. I advised her, however, to consult the local midwife. She did so and asked the midwife to treat her. The midwife examined her and told her that she would have nothing to do with her as in her opinion God had made a mistake in her case (meaning that she had been barren, and now that there were indications of her being with child. God must have made a mistake!) Thus she went out of the house saying that God had made a mistake. I asked her not to say so, for I had requested the Mirza Sahib to pray for me and I thought that this might be the result of his prayer. Some time later my expectations were confirmed and I began to tell people that we would be given a handsome boy. People marvelled at this and said that if this happened, it would indeed be a miracle. At last the time came and the child was born. It was a male child and was handsome. The child was born at night and I at once ran to Dharamkot where my relatives lived, and informed them of the event. On hearing this piece of news many people at once started for Qadian to join the Movement, but there were others who did not go. Some people of Winjwan also joined the Ahmadiyya Movement as the result of this wonderful occurrence, and I too did so. I named the child Abdul Haq. I had been married for more than twelve years and had not had a child before.’48

Can there be a clearer proof of the fact that our God is a living God and that He is also the Creator? If there is no God, or if God is not the Creator how could it be that as the result of the prayers of the Promised Messiah (as), a son should be born to a childless man, who had married three wives in the course of twelve years in order that he may have a child but had remained childless? Not only was a child born, but its birth took place in accordance with the father’s desire and with the conditions laid down by him, that is to say, the child was born to his eldest wife, was a male and was handsome. If there is no God or if He is not the Creator, how did the Promised Messiah’s (as) prayers effect all this? We are further impressed by this wonderful sign when we know that the man who asked for it was informed beforehand that the sign asked for would be shown to him in accordance with the conditions laid down by him. The import of an event must be gauged with reference to the effect which it produces at the time of its occurrence on those who witness it. As has been stated above the effect of this incident was that the man who had asked for the sign as well as many of his relatives and fellow-villagers became Ahmadis and many of them immediately started from their village to join the Ahmadiyya Movement. The child and his father and many of those who were witnesses of this sign are still alive. Any person who wishes to verify the truth of this statement may do so by making enquiries from them.

Many other signs of a similar character were shown by the Promised Messiah (as). Every one of his own children was born as the result of a prophecy, and children were born to many childless persons as the result of his prayers.

Another miracle of his, which also has reference to God’s attribute of creation, happened in this manner. He saw in a dream that he had prepared a chart which related to some future events in his own life and in the lives of some of his friends, which he desired God to approve. He then saw God personified. He placed the chart before Him for His signature. God signed the chart with red ink. Before signing He flicked the surplus ink from the end of the pen with a movement of His hand. Some drops of the ink thus flicked fell on the clothes of the Promised Messiah (as). A realization of the love and graciousness of God in granting his request filled his eyes with tears and with a slight spasm he woke up. A disciple of his, named Miyan Abdullah Sanauri, who was at that time massaging him, drew his attention to some wet drops of red on his clothes. The Promised Messiah (as) then related the Kashf to him in detail. These red drops had fallen on the shirt of the Promised Messiah (as) and on the cap of Miyan Abdullah. (Miyan Abdullah is a revenue official in the service of the Patiala State.) Miyan Abdullah requested that the shirt might be given to him as a memento of this miracle. The Promised Messiah (as) gave him the shirt on the condition that he must in his will direct that on his death the shirt should be buried along with his body lest people should begin to worship it. Miyan Abdullah is still alive and I have enquired of him whether there was any possibility of the liquid having fallen from the roof, etc. He states that the roof of the chamber was perfectly smooth and clean and that there was no such possibility and that as soon as he had observed the drops he had looked up to the roof to ascertain their cause, but had found none. He also states that there was at that time no inkpot or any other similar object in the room. The shirt is still carefully preserved by Miyan Abdullah and the above statement is supported by him on oath.

It must be remembered, however, that we do not believe that God has a physical form or that He signs His name, and uses pen and ink, or that the drops that fell on the shirt of the Promised Messiah (as) were actually the drops of any ink that God had used on the occasion. On the contrary, as I have indicated above, we believe that God has no form or likeness and that He is above assuming the human or any other form. We believe that whatever the Promised Messiah (as) saw was a Kashf and the form in which he saw God was a symbolical representation of the relationship in which he stood towards Him. The act of signing meant that God would cause him to achieve his objects and desires. The ink which actually fell on his clothes and the clothes of Miyan Abdullah, was not ink which had in fact fallen from God’s pen, for God uses neither ink nor pen, but was created by God under His attribute of creation to serve as a sign for the Promised Messiah (as) and for others, so that people might believe in His attribute of creation and understand that God creates out of nothing and that this attribute of His can, and does operate today as it operated in the beginning of creation.

I shall now cite an instance which would show that as God has the power to create, so also He has the power to prevent a thing from coming into existence, if and when He so directs it. It would then be clear that the attribute of creation is peculiar to God alone, and that no other being shares in it. Had not that been so it would have been possible for that other being to bring about that which had been decreed against by God.

A man named Sa‘dullah, who was a teacher in the Mission School, Ludhiana, was a very bitter and foul-mouthed opponent of the Promised Messiah (as). He used to write and publish poems and articles against the Promised Messiah (as), full of such filthy abuse that no decent person would be able even to conceive of the obscenity of the language used by him. The Promised Messiah (as) himself had said that no other Prophet had been abused so much by any man as he had been abused by Sa‘dullah. He had repeatedly announced that the Promised Messiah (as) was an impostor and would be destroyed and that his prophecies concerning his children would not be fulfilled and that his end would be miserable. When his hostility and abuse had exceeded all bounds, and he became the means of preventing people from seeing the truth, the Promised Messiah (as) prayed to God to show a sign to this man. His prayer was heard, and as this man had turned his back upon the truth and had shut the gates of God’s mercy upon himself, God decreed that he should die by the weapon which he had attempted to wield against the Promised Messiah (as). Accordingly, the Promised Messiah (as) received this revelation concerning him: Inna shani’aka huwal abtar, viz., Thine enemy who says concerning thee that thou shalt die childless, shall himself be cut off and his line will become extinct. When this revelation was received by the Promised Messiah (as), Sa‘dullah had a son about fourteen years of age, and he was himself in the prime of youth. There was no reason why he should not have had more children. But God, the Creator, withdrew in his case the operation of His attribute of creation after this revelation. The man was still young and survived the revelation for nearly fifteen years, but no more children were born to him, and he died in 1907, confirming the truth of this revelation. If matters had stopped there, this alone would have been a mighty proof of God’s attribute of creation, but further and even stronger proof was added. When Sa‘dullah died, the enemies of the Promised Messiah (as) objected that the prophecy had not been fulfilled as Sa‘dullah had left a son who survived him. They arranged a marriage for Sa‘dullah’s son in the hope that he might beget children and thus falsify the prophecy that had been made concerning Sa‘dullah. The Promised Messiah (as) replied to his opponents in his book, the Haqiqatul-Wahi, that as Sa‘dullah’s son was in existence at the time when the revelation concerning his father was received, his surviving Sa‘dullah did not affect the truth or fulfilment of the prophecy. The prophecy could only be rendered doubtful if he should beget a child. The Promised Messiah (as) again affirmed that the young man would remain without children and Sa‘dullah’s line would become extinct. It so happened that although the enemies of the Promised Messiah (as) persuaded Sa‘dullah’s son to marry two wives in the hope that he might beget a son, no child was born to him.

Normally it would require great boldness and may even be rash to say concerning a young man that he would remain childless. When the Promised Messiah (as) published this concerning Sa‘dullah’s son, one of his followers, who was a lawyer, and was a man of weak faith, and who stumbled after the death of the Promised Messiah (as) just as some of the disciples of Jesus (as) had stumbled, demurred strongly to the publication of such a prophecy, for, as he suggested, if a child was born to the young man, the Promised Messiah (as) would be placed in a very awkward position, he would be discredited, and might run the risk of a criminal prosecution being started against him. The Promised Messiah (as) replied that he could neither doubt nor turn aside from that which God had revealed to him, and that his disciple’s objection to the publication of the prophecy was only due to the weakness of his faith. So in the end it turned out to be.

Now, consider. If Sa‘dullah’s son had died in his childhood people might have said that it was a pure coincidence, but the fact that his father survived the revelation for nearly fifteen years and had no more children, coupled with the fact that the son grew up to manhood and married twice but had no children, conclusively establishes that all this had happened under a Divine decree, whereby God meant to punish a rebel by making an example of him for his abuse of the Promised Messiah (as).

Will any one who ponders over these signs with a mind free from bias say that the God of Islam is not today the Creator just as He was in the beginning of creation. For, has it not happened that He said concerning one man ‘Let him have a child,’ and the man was given a child, and that He said concerning another, ‘Let this man remain childless,’ and the man remained childless? Then, do not these signs and miracles fill a man’s heart with faith and certainty, and carry him from the stage of there ought to be a creator to the certain and sure stage that there is a Creator? Blessed be Allah, the best of creators!

Next I shall deal with another well-known attribute which is taken advantage of by many people, viz., the attribute of healing. All religions are agreed that God is the Healer. But some people also claim to heal the sick by prayer. A little consideration, however, would show that this healing has nothing to do with God or with prayer, for it is not confined to any particular religion, and the followers of every religion can effect such cures. How can the exercise of this art (for it is no more than an art) be put forward, therefore, as a proof of a man’s relationship with God?

Supposing that the effecting of such a cure is the result of the acceptance of prayer and indicates that the person who had effected the cure stands in a special relationship towards God, are we not entitled to ask why the other attributes of God, for instance, the attributes of creation, knowledge, bringing the dead to life, protection, etc., are not manifested through that person? Those who totally deny the attributes of God would not be concerned with this question, but those who claim to manifest one attribute of God are bound to give a satisfactory explanation of their inability to manifest the others.

The real explanation is that every person possesses certain psychic powers whereby he can influence and control the thoughts and actions of other persons. This process of healing operates through the concentration of the operator’s attention which influences the nervous system of the subject and assumes control over it, so that his actions and conduct become subject to the will of the operator who can direct them in any manner he chooses. But such healing is confined almost wholly to disorders connected with the nervous system. For instance, it is possible that fever, headache, conjunctivitis, etc., may be cured by this means, but it would be impossible to cure by this means any disease or disorder affecting the constitution, for instance, syphilis, leprosy, tuberculosis, etc.

The power to heal nervous or superficial disorders may be considerably developed by practice, and is based upon the ability of the operator to concentrate his attention. It is not necessary that the operator should touch or handle the subject in any way or should make any prescribed movements. If the necessary degree of concentration is achieved, no matter whether by prayer or in any other manner, the desired result can be brought about. Every person can, by a little practice, acquire this art to some degree, and people who avoid the use of liquor and the eating of swine’s flesh can easily become expert healers. But this has nothing to do with the spiritual condition of a man, nor can such healing be regarded as a sign or a miracle. It is an art, like any other art, and advantage can be taken of it as of any other law of nature.

On the other hand, the signs shown by the Promised Messiah (as) as illustrations of the manifestation of the Divine attribute of healing clearly prove that God exists and that He possesses the power to heal. The following incident may be related as an instance.

When the Movement began to spread, the Promised Messiah (as) founded a high school at Qadian, his object being to provide a proper place of instruction for future generations of Ahmadis, where they could imbibe the traditions of the Movement and be imbued with the spirit of its doctrines and teachings. Ahmadi young men belonging to distant places joined the school for secular and spiritual instruction. One of these named Abdul Karim who belonged to a village in the Nizam’s Dominions in the Deccan, nearly sixteen hundred miles distant from Qadian. While at Qadian he was bitten by a mad dog and was sent for treatment to the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli. After he had had his treatment it was supposed that he was out of danger. On returning to Qadian, however, he had an attack of hydrophobia and developed the symptoms and suffered the tortures by which this terrible disease is always attended. He developed contraction of the throat muscles, convulsive dread of water, excess of fear, sleeplessness, fits of mania during which he felt a strong desire to attack and injure those who attended upon him—acts of which he felt ashamed during intervals of relief when he begged his attendants to leave him lest he should do them harm. He grew rapidly worse, and a telegram was despatched by the headmaster of the school to the director of the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli enquiring whether anything could be done for the boy. His reply arrived to the effect, ‘Sorry, nothing can be done for Abdul Karim.’ As the boy belonged to a distant place and the people of that part of the country were illiterate and ignorant, it was feared that his death would have a very ill effect on them. The Promised Messiah (as) was very deeply affected by his condition and prayed to God for his recovery. At last his prayer was heard and Abdul Karim, whose life had been absolutely despaired of and whose sufferings were terrible to witness, was restored to health by God in consequence of the Promised Messiah’s (as) prayers.

Those who are conversant with medical science are aware that once a person is attacked by hydrophobia, no remedy can save him and his death is inevitable. There has not been a single case known to medical science in which a person actually attacked by hydrophobia has been saved, and when the news of Abdul Karim’s recovery reached Kasauli, one of the people there wrote saying: ‘We were very sorry to learn that Abdul Karim, who had been bitten by a mad dog, had been attacked by hydrophobia, but we are very glad to learn that he has been saved as the result of prayers. We have never heard of such a recovery before.’

This is an instance of real healing by prayer which shows that there does exist a God Who has the power to heal. Those through whose prayers such healing is effected, are entitled to say that they affirm the existence and illustrate the attributes of God in a most unmistakable manner.

The Promised Messiah (as) has shown many other similar signs, but they cannot all be detailed here. This paper, however, would not be complete without a brief mention of a challenge that he once offered to Christian missionaries. He wrote to them saying that as they claimed to be the followers and representatives of Jesus (as), who showed signs, and he claimed to be a servant and representative of Muhammad (sas), a way of testing the claims of their respective religions to truth would be to demonstrate whose prayers were accepted by God. The method suggested was that a number of men who had suffered from what were ordinarily regarded as fatal diseases should be selected and divided equally between the Promised Messiah (as) and the Christians by casting lots, and that each party should pray for the recovery of the patients allotted to it, and the result of the prayer of each would show whose prayer had been heard. The Christian missionaries declined to take up the challenge.

Another attribute of God is that He is Quddus, i.e. Holy. All religions are agreed as to this, but none of them tells us how we can assure ourselves of His Holiness. In the first place, all the attributes of God described by various religions are in themselves doubtful. How, then, can we judge, on the basis of these attributes, that He is indeed Holy? But even if we were to take this attribute alone, there is nothing to show that God possesses Holiness. This attribute can be manifested only in one manner and that is that we should be able to see the manifestation of this attribute of Holiness in persons who have acquired nearness to, and union with, God. If this could not be shown, not only would we remain in doubt concerning the Divine attribute of Holiness, but we would also be compelled to deny that man can at all attain to union with God. We observe that a rose leaves its fragrance in a garment to which it has been attached for a short time, or the clothes of a person who sits near another person, who has perfumed himself, begin to exhale the perfume. Then how can we believe that a man should attain to union with God but should not be able to show signs of such union and should remain unaffected by God’s attribute of Holiness, which is really the essence of all other attributes? Only that man can be regarded as having attained to union with God who can manifest God’s attribute of Holiness in his own person by proving that he has himself been rendered holy through the operation of this attribute, and whose life is a model of purity and righteousness.

The life of the Promised Messiah (as) clearly satisfies this test. He illustrated the Divine attribute of Holiness in his own life which was a reflection of the attributes of God. There is no doubt that such manifestation can be effected only in a manner compatible with the person concerned being a human being, otherwise he would become God, which is absurd. But a reflection of these attributes in a man in a manner not incompatible with his being a man, does not, in any way, detract from their value. On the contrary, it is the only clear means of demonstrating the possession by God of His various attributes.

The Promised Messiah (as) manifested the Divine attribute of Holiness in his person so clearly that his bitterest enemies were constrained to admit that his life was absolutely pure and blameless. It must be remembered in this connection that whenever a Prophet appears in the world, his opponents accuse him of many evils and vices, for, enmity renders a man deaf and blind so that even virtues appear as vices to him. Hence in looking at a Prophet’s life from this point of view, his life previous to his claim should be considered. Before he lays claim to prophethood people bear him no special grudge and are not blinded by prejudice, and thus that period of his life can best furnish us with materials for a test of his purity and righteousness.

The life of Jesus (as), who was also one of the Prophets of God and thus belonged to the brotherhood to which the Promised Messiah (as) belonged, fulfilled a similar test of purity and righteousness and he challenged his enemies saying, ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin.’49 But it is obvious that this could only relate to the period of his life previous to his claim of prophethood, for concerning his life after he started preaching, his enemies who had been blinded by hatred and prejudice charged him with excess in eating and a disregard of Divine Commandments and called him a wine-bibber, etc. His life falsified these charges but his enemies had become blind.

Similarly the life of the Promised Messiah (as) was a model of purity and righteousness, a fact testified to by his bitterest enemies, Maulawi Muhammad Hussain of Batala, who proved to be his bitterest enemy after the publication of his claim to Messiahship, wrote concerning him in his paper, the Isha‘at-us-Sunnah: ‘The author of the Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya (this was the name of a book written by the Promised Messiah (as) before he published his claim) has been so steadfast in serving Islam with his example, his energy, his substance, and his pen and tongue that it would be difficult to discover his equal among those Muslims who have gone before him.’ The expression, ‘serving Islam with his example,’ is significant and meant that the life of the Promised Messiah (as) was such a perfect model of good morals and conduct that people who saw it were drawn to Islam and that few such lives could be found among the Muslims who had gone before.

Those who are aware of the tendency of religious writers to exaggerate the virtues and merits of those who have preceded them, can judge what it would cost a Maulawi to have to admit that a certain living man had surpassed all those who had gone before. Particular value attaches to the testimony of this Maulawi for the reason that he was a resident of Batala, which is only a short distance from Qadian, and he was, therefore, familiar with the life of the Promised Messiah (as) from his childhood upwards.

In addition to this testimony of one of his most inveterate enemies, every person who knew him was convinced and bore testimony to his purity and goodness. Men belonging to different religions, Hindus, Sikhs and non-Ahmadi Muslims of Qadian, who are perhaps bitterer enemies of the Promised Messiah (as) than those who live at a distance—for a Prophet is not honoured in his own city—are all agreed that from his childhood up his life was a uniform record of blameless purity. People were so convinced of his righteousness and had such strong faith in it that in their disputes with his family whenever they saw their cause to be just they always expressed their readiness to abide by his award, for, they knew that he would never depart from that which was just and true in his opinion, even if it caused loss to himself and his family.

He was once prosecuted for a technical breach of the postal rules which was liable to be punished with imprisonment and fine. Such breaches of postal rules had become common in those days and the postal authorities were anxious to obtain convictions in one or two cases in order to put an end to such practices. The case, therefore, was being very keenly conducted on behalf of the prosecution. The charge against the Promised Messiah (as) was that he had enclosed a letter in a packet contrary to postal regulations. The only evidence in support of the charge was that of the man who had received the packet. This man was a Christian missionary with whom the Promised Messiah (as) had had several religious discussions and who was, on that account, hostile to the Promised Messiah (as), and to whose uncorroborated testimony, therefore, much weight could not be attached. On the other hand, if the fact could be established, the breach of the regulations was clear, and a conviction was inevitable. The legal adviser of the Promised Messiah (as), therefore, advised him to deny the charge and to plead not guilty, as there was no independent evidence in support of it. But he refused to take this advice and said he would not utter a falsehood, as he had certainly put the letter in the packet under the impression that as the letter only contained formal directions with regard to the contents of the packet there was nothing wrong in placing the letter in the packet. He made the same statement in court and the magistrate, who was a European, was so struck by his righteousness that he acquitted him, in spite of the remonstrances of the postal officials, remarking that he had not the heart to convict a man who could have secured his acquittal by a mere plea of not guilty or by a mere refusal to plead, but would not adopt that course as lending colour to a lie.

I love to listen to the reminiscences of an old Sikh peasant who knew the Promised Messiah (as) from his childhood. He cannot talk of him without tears in his eyes. He says that when he used to go to the Promised Messiah (as), the latter used to ask him to go to his (Promised Messiah’s (as)) father and request him that he should let him (i.e., the Promised Messiah (as)) serve God and the faith and should not insist upon his undertaking the conduct of worldly affairs. This old Sikh always concludes his narrative by exclaiming, ‘He (meaning the Promised Messiah (as)) was a saint from his childhood,’ and on this he invariably bursts into tears.

This simple and natural testimony from the mouth of a follower of another religion who had witnessed all the ups and downs of the Promised Messiah’s (as) life is not without its special value and significance. But this is not a solitary instance. Every man who came in contact with him carried away the same impression, and the more familiar a man was with the mode of his life, the louder he would be in praise of his purity, righteousness and love of humanity. What greater test can there be of the purity of a man’s life than this, that friends and foes alike, who are familiar with the whole course of his life, should unite in praising his integrity, purity and high moral character.

The Promised Messiah (as), like Jesus (as), challenged his enemies in these words:

‘I have spent forty years of my life among you, and you have seen that I am not given to lies and imposture and that God has guarded me against all evil. How is it possible, then, that a man who has for forty years avoided all manner of falsehood, trickery, fraud and dishonesty, and has never told a lie concerning the affairs of men, should suddenly embark on a course of imposture, contrary to his previous habits and ways?’50 And, ‘Which of you can find fault with anything in my life? God has, out of His especial grace, throughout guarded me against evil.’51

These claims and testimonies show that not only was his life free from blemish of every kind, but that it was so characterized by purity and righteousness that even his enemies, who rejected his claim to prophethood, were unanimous in deposing to the purity and beauty of his life. As has been said, sure virtue is that which is admitted by one’s enemies.

His life was thus a clear manifestation of the Divine attribute of Holiness, and having seen him we marvelled as to the Holiness of Him Whose servant had led such a sinless life from childhood to old age, and not only freed himself from all moral and spiritual shortcomings, but was a perfect model of morality and righteous living. ‘Glory be to God; and exalted is He above that which they ascribe to Him.’52

Another attribute of God is the bringing the dead to life. The New Testament repeatedly states that Jesus (as) brought the dead to life, but is there any one in the present age who can bring the dead to life? Ancient recitals of such miracles are not enough to convince us. We can believe in this attribute only if we are shown proofs of it in our age. The Promised Messiah (as) has, by furnishing practical proofs of this attribute of God, renewed and refreshed our faith in it.

Before I proceed to deal with these proofs in detail, I desire to point out that the attributes of God are of two kinds. Some of them are such that they are not manifested in their full glory in this world, as such manifestation would be contrary to the operation of some other attribute of His. These attributes, therefore, are not manifested in this world in the manner in which they would be manifested in the life to come. The attribute of bringing the dead to life is one such attribute. If the dead were actually brought to life in this world, there would be no such thing as faith, for faith can only be beneficial so long as there is some mystery concerning its subject matter, and it loses all merit when all matters concerning it are demonstrated like the formulas of applied sciences. Who would consider it meritorious for a man to believe in the sun and in the oceans? Only those people, who discover the hidden secrets of nature, deserve special rewards.

Those who are physically dead cannot be restored to life in this world. The attribute, however, can be demonstrated in two ways, viz., (1) by conferring spiritual life on those who are spiritually dead, or (2) by restoring those to life and health who are lying at the door of death, but have not actually passed beyond it, as Jesus (as) said concerning the maiden who is mentioned in Matthew, ‘Give place, for the maid is not dead but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.’53

I need not enlarge upon the subject of restoring those who are spiritually dead to a new life of the spirit, for, all of us, who believe in the Promised Messiah (as), are living instances of it. But I shall cite two instances of the second kind of the raising of the dead.

Mubarak Ahmad, the youngest son of the Promised Messiah (as), once fell ill and his condition became very serious. He had a succession of fits till at last he was reduced to such a condition that those who were looking after him believed that he was dead. The Promised Messiah (as) was at the time engaged in prayer in an adjoining room and somebody called out to him that he should cease praying as the child was dead. He came out to the place where the child was lying and placed his hand on him. Within two or three minutes the boy began to breathe again.

Similarly, Miyan Abdur Rahim Khan Khalid, son of Khan Muhammad Ali Khan (who is a maternal uncle of his highness the Nawab of Malerkotla and has settled down at Qadian), once fell ill with typhoid fever. Two doctors and the late Hazrat Maulawi Noor-ud-Deen, who subsequently became the first Khalifa of the Promised Messiah (as) and who was a very eminent physician— having been physician to his highness the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir—attended upon the patient, but he grew steadily worse. At last the physicians declared that it was no use continuing any treatment as the boy had only a few hours to live and could not possibly recover. When the news was carried to the Promised Messiah (as), he at once prayed for his recovery, but received a revelation to the effect that death was imminent. Then he made supplication that if the stage of prayer had passed he would intercede for the boy’s life to be spared. In answer he was told, Man dhalladhi yashfa‘u ‘indahu illa bi’idhnihi, i.e., ‘Who dares intercede with Him without His permission?’ The Promised Messiah (as) says that after this he ceased praying, but another revelation followed saying, ‘Innaka ant-al-majaz.’54 i.e., ‘We give you leave to intercede.’ On this he interceded for the boy’s life and on coming out of the chamber announced that the boy would live as God had saved him from death at his intercession. The boy began to improve from that very moment and was restored to health within a few days. He is still alive and is reading for the Bar in England. His father and most of those who had witnessed this miracle are also alive and can testify that they saw the working of this attribute of God at the hands of the Promised Messiah (as) with their own eyes.

Another well-known attribute of God is that He is the owner or master of the universe. All religions are agreed that He is the owner and master of every atom in the universe but we are not told how that is so. Unless clear proofs are forthcoming in support of this statement it is impossible for us to believe in this attribute, for we daily see signs of other people’s ownership over their property, but we can perceive no sign from which we can conclude that God is the owner and master of the universe. Indeed it may be said that God has framed the laws of nature and that the whole universe is governed and regulated by these laws. But even so, if a man claims to have attained to union with God, he should be able to manifest this attribute, so that it should be a proof of his relationship with God, and men should be able to believe that God is the owner and master of the universe. In the absence of such manifestation, anybody may claim that he is the master and owner of the universe and if such a one were asked why he should then be subject to the laws of nature it would be open to him to reply that he had himself made it an eternal law that this should be so. There have been many instances in which men have claimed to be God, knowing that there is no living proof of the attributes of God and that if their lack of those attributes is pointed out they can retort, saying, that God’s attributes cannot be proved. If, however, the ownership and mastership of God could be demonstrated such persons would never dare blaspheme in this manner and attempt to deceive mankind. For in that case, those servants of God who are, as it were, clothed in the mantle of His grace could be put forward as manifesting this attribute of God, and such claimants of God-head could be called upon to show signs greater than those shown by the former, for they are merely the servants of God while the latter claim to be God Himself. This is the only manner in which such persons can be completely refuted. The Promised Messiah (as), having attained to union with God, manifested this attribute of ownership and mastership in the same manner in which he manifested the other attributes of God, and demonstrated thereby that Islam alone can lead man to God.

One such instance is that when, as had been foretold by the Promised Messiah (as), plague broke out in epidemic form in India, he saw in a Kashf that a wild and savage animal (which he understood to be the personification of plague), whose head resembled that of an elephant, had spread consternation among mankind by the terrible loss of life he had caused by his attacks, and that, after his charges in every direction, he came and settled himself down submissively and obediently before the Promised Messiah (as). He also received a verbal revelation when God put the following words in the mouth of the Promised Messiah (as), ‘Fire is our servant, nay the servant of our servants,’ that is to say, the plague was not only his servant but also the servant of those who sincerely followed him and set a high example of obedience to him in every respect, and that it would not harm them.

Inni uhafizu kulla man fiddar, i.e., ‘I shall protect all those that dwell in this house,’ i.e., from plague. These revelations were immediately published in books and newspapers, and the Promised Messiah (as) challenged his opponents to publish similar assurances of security from plague concerning their own selves and their houses, if they imagined that the Promised Messiah (as) was a mere impostor; but none dared do so.

The plague has been ravaging India for the last twenty-eight years, and that it was at its height in 1901, when these revelations were published by the Promised Messiah (as). The total number of deaths by plague so far exceeds seven or eight million, and in some years the mortality through plague was as high as three hundred thousand. The Punjab has been the worst sufferer from it, being responsible for more than three quarters of the total deaths from plague in India. In such a province and under such conditions it is impossible for a man to assert that he and those who dwell in his house would be saved from plague, especially when the security relates to nearly three or four score of people (for such was the number of inmates of his house) and is not confined to a limited period of time but extends over a period of several years. Can a man dare make such an assertion of his own knowledge and, relying on his own powers, secure its fulfilment? Qadian is a small town where it does not seem to be the concern of the Government or of any other body to pay any attention to sanitation. People who live in Europe or America can scarcely conceive the filthy condition of the streets of an Indian village. It may be compared to that of the villages of Syria where plague has, for a long time, made its home. The house of the Promised Messiah (as) was situated in the centre of the village and was on all sides surrounded by other houses, so that no special sanitary measures could be adopted, nor could a constant supply of fresh air be secured. The house was situated at a level lower than the rest of the village and the sewage of half the village passed under its walls. The village pond was only fifty yards away in which accumulated surplus rain water and other refuse of the town, and as there was no outlet from it the process of decomposition and putrefaction were endemic. (This pond has now been partly filled up). It was nothing short of a miracle for a man living under these conditions to assert that he and those who dwelt within the walls of his house would be secure against plague. This assertion, if borne out, would be an irrefutable proof of the ownership and mastership of God. But thus assurance of immunity was proved in circumstances much more alarming than those detailed above. At the time when this revelation was published, plague had not yet visited the neighbourhood of Qadian. If that tract had continued immune, it might have been said that the soil or the atmosphere of Qadian possessed such properties that the plague germs could not flourish therein, and that the Promised Messiah (as) had published this revelation relying on this circumstance. But soon after the revelation had been published Qadian was visited by plague, and remained subject to its attacks for four or five years. Again, if plague had been confined to other parts of the village and had not visited the quarter in which the Promised Messiah (as) lived, the matter would still have been left open to conjecture, for it could have been said that special sanitary measures and precautions had been adopted in that quarter and that its immunity from plague was due to its superior sanitary conditions and not to any Divine intervention. But the plague visited that quarter of the town also where the Promised Messiah (as) lived and took its toll of all the adjoining houses, but the house of the Promised Messiah (as) remained unaffected so much so that not even a rat died of plague in it.

In other words, the house stood in the midst of a sea of fire which consumed neighbouring houses but left it entire, as if the flames when they approached its walls were extinguished by the action of some Unseen but Mighty Hand. This happened, not once or twice, but continued throughout five terrible years when the weekly number of deaths due to plague in India amounted to not less than thirty or forty thousand. The pestilence hovered round the house of the Promised Messiah (as) but dared not touch any of those who dwelt within its walls, although during the epidemic many families took refuge in his house to take advantage of the immunity promised by the revelation, and the house became so full that living in it would have been dangerous even in normal times.

This is a mighty sign of the Ownership and Mastership of God which the Promised Messiah (as) manifested to the world, and every person who comes to know of it, is bound to acknowledge that a Perfect and Living God exists, and that it is possible for man to attain to union with Him.

Another instance of the manifestation of God’s attribute of Ownership and Mastership carries particular interest for the people of the West, for the sign itself was shown in the West. One Dr. John Alexander Dowie, an American, claimed to be the Elijah or forerunner of the second advent of Jesus (as), and very soon collected a large following. He founded a city, not far from Chicago and called it Zion City, and proclaimed that his movement would spread throughout the world. He claimed to heal people with his prayers and even with his touch, and told them to avoid the use of medicine. When his movement began to spread he announced that God had sent him to destroy Islam and its followers before the appearance of Jesus. When the Promised Messiah (as) was informed of this he wrote to Dr. Dowie that he had been appointed to defend and propagate Islam, and that as Dr. Dowie claimed to have come to destroy Islam, they could easily demonstrate the truth of their respective claims by means of prayer. Each of them should pray that of the two whoever was the impostor may be chastised and destroyed by God in the lifetime of the other. Now, if God really is the Master of this universe, and He appoints a man as the guardian of His garden and another man claims that he has also been appointed for the same purpose and disputes the claim of the former, surely it would be right to expect that God would aid and defend His righteous servant appointed by Him, and thus demonstrate to the world which of the two had been appointed by Him and which of them was an impostor. This would be a clear manifestation of God’s attribute of Ownership and Mastership.

This challenge was sent to Dr. John Alexander Dowie and was also published in English and American papers. In the challenge the Promised Messiah (as) wrote:

‘I am about seventy years of age, while Dr. Dowie (as he himself states) is about fifty-five and thus as compared with me he is still a young man. But since the matter is not to be settled by age, I do not care for this great disparity in years. The whole matter rests in the hands of Him Who is the Lord of heaven and earth and Judge over all judges. He will decide it in favour of the true claimant.’ ‘Though he may try as hard as he can to fly from the death which awaits him, yet his flight from such a contest will be nothing less than death to him; and calamity will certainly overtake his Zion, for he must bear the consequences either of the acceptance of the challenge or its refusal’ (Vide The New Commercial Advertiser of New York).

This challenge was widely published in American papers. We know of as many as 32 papers which published this challenge and it is possible that it might also have been published in others. Some of these papers commented on it, saying, that the proposed mode of decision was just and reasonable, (e.g., The Argonaut of San Francisco).

This challenge was first issued in 1902 and was repeated in 1903, but Dr. Dowie paid no attention to it, and some of the American papers began to enquire as to why he had not given a reply. He himself said in his own paper of December, 1903 :

‘There is a Muhammadan Messiah in India who has repeatedly written to me that Jesus Christ lies buried in Kashmir, and people ask me why I do not answer him. Do you imagine that I shall reply to such gnats and flies? If I were to put down my foot on them I would crush out their lives. I give them a chance to fly away and live.’

But as it had been written so it came to pass; that if he took up the challenge he would be destroyed in the lifetime of the Promised Messiah (as), and even if he evaded it he would not be able to ward off the calamity, and that his Zion would certainly be involved in it. God laid His hand on Dowie. Rebellion broke out against him in Zion. His own wife and son turned against him, and alleged that while he publicly condemned the use of wine he was secretly addicted to it. Many other charges were brought against him and he was finally expelled from Zion, a miserable pittance being allotted for his maintenance. This man, who used to live in greater ease and luxury than is available to princes, was now reduced almost to beggary and was not provided even with the necessaries of life. He then had an attack of paralysis and the feet under which he had said he could crush the Promised Messiah (as) like a worm were disabled. His troubles unhinged his mind and shortly after he died in great misery and pain. His death was also commented on by the American papers. Some of them referred to the prophecy concerning him, which the Promised Messiah (as) had published.

‘Ahmad and his adherents may be pardoned for taking some credit for the accuracy with which the prophecy was fulfilled a few months ago.’55

The Truth Seeker of New York referred to the fulfilment of this prophecy in the following words:

‘The Qadian man predicted that if Dowie accepted the challenge, “he shall leave the world before my eyes with great sorrow and torment.” If Dowie declined, the Mirza said, “the end would only be deferred; death awaited him just the same, and calamity will soon overtake Zion.” This was the Grand Prophecy: Zion should fall and Dowie die before Ahmad. It appeared to be a risky step for the Promised Messiah to defy the restored Elijah to an endurance test, for the challenger was by 15 years the older man of the two and probabilities in a land of plagues and fanatics were against him as a survivor, but he won out.’56

‘Dowie died with his friends fallen away from him and his fortune dwindled. He suffered from paralysis and insanity. He died a miserable death, with Zion city torn and frayed by internal dissensions. Mirza comes forward frankly and states that he has won his challenge.’57

I shall next take the attribute of God which is called Ba‘ith, i.e., the Bringer of the dead to life. This is the attribute of God which so develops the inner and hidden faculties of man as to make him an entirely new man. Islam alone has defined this attribute of God in this form; other religions have only a confused notion of it. Again, there is no evidence as to this attribute unless we are shown a living manifestation of it, nor can we believe that a man has attained to union with God unless he manifests this attribute in himself. As Prophets are raised for the guidance of mankind, it is of the utmost importance for them to demonstrate the existence of this attribute, for unless they can point out to a body of men who had been spiritually dead and who have gained new life through them and thus present the spectacle of a resurrection on a small scale, we cannot believe in the need of the advent of Prophets, and the object of their advent would also remain unfulfilled. The Holy Quran, therefore, in several places describes the success of a Prophet as, Sa‘at or Qiyamat, i.e., ‘the hour’ or ‘the resurrection,’ from which some people have sought to conclude that the Holy Quran does not teach a resurrection after death. On the other hand, there are people who imagine that wherever the word Sa‘at, i.e., the hour, occurs in the Holy Quran it invariably means the day of resurrection. The context, however, would in every case furnish a true indication as to whether the word is used as meaning resurrection or as indicating the success of a Prophet in his mission, namely, the securing of a body of men on whom a new spiritual life has been bestowed.

The Promised Messiah (as) has also fulfilled this test which has been laid down by Jesus (as) in these words:

‘Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.’58

This test as laid down by Jesus (as) means that every tree produces fruit like itself and a true Prophet is he who produces in his followers, in proportion to their respective capacities, the characteristics of prophets and brings about their union with God in accordance with the measure of their natural faculties.

This test does not, however, mean that from the spirit of sincerity and sacrifice of a community we must conclude that the founder of that community was true in his claims and had attained to union with God. A spirit of sacrifice is an indication only of the fact that the members of the community have been able to discover nothing in the life of their leader which would stamp him as an impostor. If people believe a man to be possessed of good morals, or truthful, it only shows that either they are not fully acquainted with the details of his life, or, if they have had sufficient opportunity to study every phase of his life, that he is not a deceiver and that he believes himself to be true in his claims. But it is not necessary that every person who believes himself to be true should really be true. It is quite possible that he may suffer from some defect in his mind or it may be that in conformity with the views of the group to which he belongs he may believe that whatever he says is from God. Such a delusion is quite possible in the case of persons belonging to communities or groups who do not believe in verbal revelation. When a person belonging to such a group or community thinks of the advent of a promised one and sees in himself some of the general signs which may be found in hundreds of men, and is persuaded that he himself is the promised one, it is quite possible, nay, probable, that if he is a man of some influence, no matter however small it may be, he may honestly begin to think that the idea which had occurred to his mind was really from God; and thereafter he may seriously look upon himself as the promised one. As he does not feel the need of verbal revelation, it will be open to him to look upon every idea of his as a revelation from God.

The mere existence of a spirit of sincerity and sacrifice, therefore, only indicates honesty of purpose but does not necessarily indicate a Divine mission. In proof of the fact that a man has been really sent by God, there must be a reflection of Divine attributes among his followers. As a Prophet manifests the Divine attributes of knowledge, creation, bringing the dead to life, healing, providence, mastership, etc., in the same manner those who follow him should in consequence of association with him, be able to acquire a reflection of these attributes according to their individual capacities. That is to say, they should be able to demonstrate on a short scale the coming to life of dead souls, and a reflection of the Day of Judgment.

The Movement founded by the Promised Messiah (as) fulfils, by the grace of God, this test. The glory of God did not depart with the Promised Messiah (as). He has brought a new spirit into being and there are thousands of men among his followers who have found a new spiritual life through him, and by attaining to Divine realization have found a spiritual union with God and have arrived at the stage of perfect faith and absolute certainty. The attributes of God are reflected in them and they serve as the manifestations of those attributes. A majority of the members of the Ahmadiyya Community, some more and some less, have experienced miracles in their own selves. The fountain of Divine grace which the Promised Messiah (as) had caused to flow did not cease to flow with his death; it is still flowing and will, God willing, continue to flow so long as people continue to act upon his teachings.

As illustrations of this I shall mention only two incidents relating to myself. The first of these occurred four years ago. I was informed that an Ahmadi doctor had been killed in a skirmish in Iraq. His parents were very old and had come to see me only a few days before. The news of his death was conveyed by letters sent by his comrades mentioning the circumstances under which he had been killed. I was so affected by the news that there was a strong wish in my mind that it might turn out that he had not been killed, and my heart breathed this prayer several times during the day, although I tried to reason with myself that the dead could never return. In the night following I was told in a dream by somebody that, ‘the doctor was alive and that news had been received that he had returned home.’ I marvelled at this dream, but the nature of the dream was such that I knew that it was from God, although, as I imagined the doctor to be dead, I thought that there must be some other interpretation of my dream than that which was suggested by the words. My younger brother related this dream to a relative of the doctor who lives at Qadian, and who wrote an account of it to the latter’s parents. Some days later a relative of the doctor wrote back saying that they had received a telegram from the doctor that he was alive and safe. It turned out that he had been taken captive by the Arabs in a skirmish in which almost all of his comrades were killed. Now, while on the one hand, God revealed to me in my dream that he was alive, on the other, He so arranged that a party of British soldiers threatened to attack the village in which he was confined by the Arabs, when during the confusion which ensued, the doctor found an opportunity to escape, God thus conferring new life upon him.

The other incident is more recent. During the last decade, plague, which had ravaged the country in accordance with the prophecy, and as a proof of the truth of the Promised Messiah (as), began to subside and the number of seizures during the last two or three years was so small that the Government was able to express the hope that it would be entirely stamped out within a year or two. Early last winter however, I saw in a dream a plague-stricken man and some buffaloes which ran about in the streets. Buffaloes in the language of dreams indicate pestilence. I had the dream published in the Al-fadl, warning the people that a severe outbreak of plague was impending.59 Within a month cases of plague began to occur and in February 1924, it assumed the form of an epidemic. During March, April and May the epidemic assumed very serious proportions and the weekly mortality list swelled to between eight and thirteen thousand. The total mortality has so far exceeded a hundred and fifty thousand which is more than the total mortality of the last five years from plague.

I have cited these two incidents merely as instances. God has, on numerous occasions, revealed to me the knowledge of things hidden and thousands of Ahmadis have had similar experiences with reference to the different attributes of God. It must, however, be remembered that such experiences are vouchsafed to man not at his will and pleasure but out of the pure grace of God in the manner that He pleases, and at the time that He wills. Man cannot at his will obtain access to the different attributes of God but God constantly grants such access to His servants to increase their knowledge and strengthen their faith and to bestow upon them a distinctive mark of honour. We believe that even now if a people sincerely and earnestly turn towards truth, God will, out of His perfect grace and wisdom, manifest His attributes to them, for He likes His servants to be rightly guided and not to fall into error and drift away from Him.

Islam, therefore, presents a perfect conception of God and opens the gates of certainty and faith, so that men may be saved from the darkness of doubt and error. It leads men to the presence of God in this very life, so that death loses all its terrors for them, and they await its coming with all pleasurable anticipations, realizing that they have found the truth and have experienced the manifestation of God’s attributes, and that death hides nothing but opportunities of limitless progress.

1 Al-Fatihah, 1: 2.

2 Al-Nahl, 16: 62.

3 Al-A‘raf, 7:157.

4 Al-Fatir, 35:25.

5 Al-Nahl, 16 :37.

6 Al-Nahl, 16: 64,65.

7 Al-An‘am, 6:104

8 Al-Mulk, 67:2-5.

9 Al-An‘am, 6:2.

10 Al-Shura, 42 :30,31.

11 Al-A‘raf, 7:9.

12 Al-Nisa’, 4 :96.

13 Tirmidhi.

14 Al-An‘am, 6:161

15 Al-e-‘Imran, 3:65

16 Al-Taubah, 9:24

17 Al-e-‘Imran, 3:192

18 Al-Anfal, 8:3

19 Al-Baqarah, 2:190

20 Al-Nisa’, 4:72

21 Al-Baqarah, 2:198

22 Al-Taubah, 9:72.

23 Al-Mu’min, 40:65-67

24 Al-Ma‘un, 107:5-7

25 Al-Baqarah, 2:265

26 Al-Hajj, 22:33.

27 Al-Tatfif, 83:15.

28 Al-Baqarah, 2:153

29 Al-‘Ankabut, 29:46

30 Al-Ra‘d, 13:29

31 Al-Baqarah, 2:186

32 Al-Baqarah, 2:184.

33 Al-Hajj, 22:38

34 Al-Baqarah, 2:3.

35 Al-Nisa, 4:70-71

36 Yunus, 10:8-9

37 Al-Rahman, 55:47

38 Al-Qiyamah, 75:23-24

39 Al-Baqarah, 2:153

40 Al-Namal, 27:63

41 Ha Mim, 41:31-32

42 Al-Najm, 53:2-6.

43 St. John 3:13

44 Al-An‘am, 6:104

45 Izala’-e-Auham, p. 516.

46 Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V and Haqiqatul Wahi.

47 I Samuel 14:15

48 Sirat-ul-Mahdi, compiled by Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad.

49 John, 8:46.

50 Tiryaqul Qulub, (Edition II, page 157-158).

51 Tadhkiratul Shahadatain, p. 62.

52 Al-An‘am, 6:101.

53 Matthew, 9:24

54 Tadhkirah, pp. 464-465.

55 The Dunnville Gazette, June 7, 1907.

56 The Truth Seeker, June 15, 1907.

57 The Boston Herald, June 23, 1907.

58 Matthew (7:15-20).

59 The Daily Al-fadl, November 24, 1923.

The First Object of Religion

The Islamic Conception of God

Relation of Man to God

The Way by Which Man Can Express His Relationship With God

The Means Whereby Man Can Attain to God and the Practical Realization of This Object in This Life