by
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V,
may Allah the Almighty help him with His powerful support
Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part III, was authored by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as) of Qadian and published in 1882. As mentioned in the Introduction to Parts I & II, the purpose of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya is to demonstrate the divine origin of the Holy Quran and truthfulness of the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam. Some highlights of the present part are as follows.
All of the writings of the Promised Messiah(as) are replete with his love and reverence for the exalted status of God as presented by Islam—in contrast to the defective and incomplete concepts found elsewhere. In this book, commenting on Surah an-Nur, 24:36 of the Holy Quran, he writes:
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. That is to say, every light that is visible in the heights or in the depths, whether in souls or bodies, whether innate or acquired, whether overt or covert, whether internal or external, is a bounty of His grace.
This is an indication that the general grace of Hazrat Rabbul-‘Alamin [Lord of all the worlds] encompasses everything and that nothing is deprived of His grace. He is the Source of all grace and the ultimate Cause of all light and the Fountainhead of all mercies. His True Being is the support of the whole universe and the refuge of all high and low. It is He who brought everything out of the darkness of nothingness and bestowed upon it the robe of existence. There is no other being that exists in its own right, or is eternal, or is not the recipient of His grace. The earth and the heavens, mankind and animals, stones and trees, and souls and bodies—all owe their existence to His grace. This is the general grace mentioned in the verse:
This is the grace that encompasses everything like a circle. There is no pre-condition for being the beneficiary of this grace.
The Promised Messiah(as) argues very forcefully that a true concept of God cannot be ‘discovered’ through the efforts of rationalists and logicians. Any belief, based on logic and reason alone is bound to be defective. He writes:
Is there any guarantee of a person’s belief in God, if in his opinion God is so weak that had there not been logicians, there would be no trace of His existence? These ignorant people do not realize that God sustains mankind with all—not just a few—of His attributes; how then is it possible that some of these perfect attributes should be of no use to mankind. Can there be a greater blasphemy than to believe that He is not the complete Rabbul-‘Alamin [Lord of all the worlds], but only a half or a third.
Even studying the works of God is not a way to acquire a true concept of God. In commenting upon the views of the Brahmu Samajists, who maintained that man can achieve cognition of God by studying the book of nature, he explains:
The point that the study of creation alone cannot lead to perfect certainty is proven by the fact that creation is not a book wherein one can read plainly that all these things have been created by God, that God in fact exists, that the joy of meeting Him is the ultimate bliss and that He will reward those who are obedient and punish the transgressors. Rather, when one observes Allah’s creation and finds the design of this universe to be perfect and flawless, one can only conclude, by way of conjecture, that there ‘ought to be’ a Creator of this creation. However, there is a great difference between the import of ‘ought to be’ and ‘is’. There is an element of doubt in ‘ought to be’ and it does not bring about the degree of certainty that ‘is’ does.
When a person says by way of conjecture that such and such a thing ‘ought to be’ he means to say only that it has to exist so far as his reasoning is concerned, but he is unable to say whether or not it actually exists. This is why all those who have restricted themselves to the study of nature have never agreed upon a conclusion—neither do they now, nor will it be possible in the future.
Because logical reasoning and the study of nature cannot grant perfect satisfaction in regards to the concept of God and His existence, has Allah the Exalted provided a means for the guidance of man? The answer is that it is divine revelation that has, since eternity, been providing the guiding light that leads to Him. He says:
Gentlemen!! Think hard and you will realize that to arrive at complete certainty without revelation is not possible. Nor is it possible to escape error, or to base oneself truly on Tauhid, or to overcome one’s passions. It is revelation through which we are able to affirm that God ‘is’, and the whole world is proclaiming that ‘He is, He is’. It is revelation which, from the very beginning, has inspired the hearts with the assurance that God ‘is’. It is through revelation that worshippers find delight in worship and the faithful are satisfied with regard to the existence of God and life after death. It is revelation which enabled millions of righteous people to leave this transient world with great steadfastness and with the passionate love of Allah.
The Promised Messiah(as) was also the recipient of divine revelation. And the intensity and frequency of these revelations increased throughout the writing of Part III. He describes in great detail, the experience of receiving revelation and relates several revelations vouchsafed to him. The subject matter of these revelations included prophecies that were fulfilled in his lifetime and prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. One such prophecy follows:
Remember that a time is coming that people will come to you in large numbers. It is incumbent upon you not to be arrogant towards them and you must not get tired of receiving them in large numbers. There will be people who will migrate from their homes to dwell in your quarters. They are Ashabus-Suffah2 in the eyes of Allah. Do you realize how magnificent in status the Ashabus-Suffah will be? They will be very strong of faith. You will see their eyes shedding tears; they will call down blessings on you. They will supplicate: ‘Our Lord we have heard a Caller, calling people to the faith and a Summoner to Allah and a refulgent lamp. So we have believed.’ Write down all these prophecies for they will be fulfilled in due time.
Having established that divine revelation is required for perfect certainty and guidance, the Promised Messiah(as) presents the Holy Quran as the perfect Word revealed by God for the guidance of mankind—flawless in its argumentation, perfect in its eloquence and complete in its verities. Echoing the love and devotions of all Muslims to their beloved Scripture, he writes:
The grace and beauty of the Quran is the light and life of every Muslim;
The moon is the beloved of others—our beloved is the Quran.
Commenting upon its comprehensiveness, he says:
Furthermore, it possesses the distinction that whatever verities a person might discover by diligence, effort, and devotion relating to religion through the exercise of his own intelligence and perception; or whatever new subtle verities he might discover, and whatever points of truth and wisdom or proofs and arguments he might set forth by the exercise of his own reason; or should he offer, for comparison, the subtlest verity that the ancient philosophers may have discovered through great toil and labour; or should he desire to discover the Quranic remedy for the inner disorders and spiritual maladies from which most people suffer; he can test [the Quran] in whichever aspect and by whatever method he might desire, and he will find that, in setting forth its truth and wisdom, the Holy Quran encompasses everything like a circle and that no religious verity is left out of it. Rather, it completes and corrects the verities that past philosophers misstated due to their deficient knowledge and wisdom. What is more, it describes and brings to light with perfect meticulousness and accuracy the subtleties that never occurred to any sage or philosopher. It articulates clearly all the subtle points of knowledge of the Divine that were written in hundreds of lengthy books and yet remained defective and far from complete. Nor does the Holy Quran leave room for any wise person in the future to come up with a subtle point that it does not already contain.
The Promised Messiah(as) has repeatedly stated that if anyone wanted to test this claim, he himself was ready to provide the proof of this claim, as he writes:
…the Quran also furnishes all rational arguments and guides and leads towards all religious verities. I have also just pointed out that if anyone wishes to verify and study this claim, I take it upon myself to satisfy him; and every seeker after truth can satisfy himself on this account by putting me to the test.
No one took up that challenge, as he says in one of his Urdu couplets:
No one came for a trial, even though,
I challenged every opponent to compete. (see A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 5, p. 224)
Similarly, the existence and Omnipotence of God is manifestly proven by the grand success of the Holy Prophet(sa) despite the severe trials and tribulations he faced. This very success is also proof of the Holy Prophet’s own truthfulness. The Promised Messiah(as) says:
Think about it: a poor, lonely, and humble person announced the spread of his faith and the establishment of his religion at a time when he had nothing with him except a few devotees without any means; and all the Muslims could fit in one small room and their names could be counted on one’s fingers, and a handful of villagers could have done away with them. The enemies they faced were the kings and rulers of the world; and the nations they had to deal with were made up of tens of millions who were unanimous in their determination to destroy and annihilate them. But now look around the entire globe at how God has spread the same few weak people in the world, and how He bestowed on them power, wealth, and kingdom, and how they were bestowed the crowns and thrones that had been occupied by others for thousands of years.
There was a time when the numbers of this community did not exceed an average household and now they are counted in millions.
These are powerful claims, but they are presented with the utmost sincerity, as he says in one of his couplets:
I bear no ill will to you, brothers! This is only humble advice;
My heart and life are an offering for anyone who has a pure heart.
All of the writings of the Promised Messiah(as) overflow with evidence that establish the existence of God, the miracle of the Holy Quran and the truthfulness of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa). All Ahmadi Muslims should make it a point to read and reflect upon the arguments presented in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya so that our hearts and minds are cleansed and filled with the light of certainty. Doing so will not only increase one’s spirituality but will also increase one’s love for humanity. Our two-fold love for our Creator and His creation will then motivate us to present the message of Islam to the entire world under the banner of the Promised Messiah(as).
May Allah the Almighty bless this presentation and make it a source of betterment for the entire world; and may it foster the relationship of mankind with its Creator. Amin.
Mirza Masroor Ahmad
Khalifatul Masih V
London
July 2014
1 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth (Surah an-Nur, 24:36).
2 See footnote for Ashabus-Suffah.