Footnote Number Eleven

At this point, some foolish people (who are not in the habit of deep reflection) raise the objection that undoubtedly the same words and letters are used in the words of God that are used in the words of man; hence, partnership of man and God exists by necessity as far as letters and words of language are concerned.

The answer to this question, which has been explained at length in the main text, is that the knowledge of language itself comes from God. It was He who taught us individual letters and words. They are not the invention of man’s mind. The only thing that man invents is the use of those words in various combinations. That is to say, all that man can do, out of his own choice and by his own effort, is to express an idea by preparing a composition in which he places sentences in the desired order and employs one syntax or the other, as appropriate. Such a composition may be called his own, but I assert that it cannot on any account be equal to the composition of God. Nor is such equality warranted, for this would necessarily entail partnership of the created beings with God, the Maker.

The fact that man uses the same letters and words that God has used in His revelation does not amount to man’s partnership with Him. Rather, it is exactly like the case where man uses clay—a creation of God—to make different kinds of pottery. However, this does not prove that man is a partner of God; for, undoubtedly, clay is the creation of God, not that of man. A partnership would only be established if man took the same clay and, like God, created animals, plants, and different kinds of gemstones. It is evident that it is not in his power to create what God has created from the same clay.

It is true that the matter used by man in his invention and composition is the same as used by God in accordance with His natural laws, but how can it be true that the inventions and compositions of man are—God forbid—equal to those of God. Even if man tries to compete with God by following an easy course of action, and tries to recreate a living thing from the flesh and bones after its body parts have disintegrated, he cannot do so; in fact, he cannot even recreate the body, let alone give it life.

So how can man, of frail structure, compete with God. He cannot even compete with animals. Rather, he is incapable of competing even with tiny insects. Certain insects, for instance, are far superior to him in their workmanship, for some of them manufacture silk for him, some produce honey for him to drink, and there are others who prepare diverse types of other materials. None of these skills are known to man. Is it not foolish of man to believe that with all these limitations and inabilities, he can compete with God.

Since you cannot even rival a common housefly,
How then can you claim equality with the Omnipotent One.

Shame on you for rebelling against the Creator,
Look at what you are—more worthless than a worm.

Here it should be fully borne in mind that just as the basic elements of the human body are from God, so are the basic elements of language. By the basic elements of language I mean letters, words, and small phrases upon which language is built; for example: God exists, man is mortal, alhamdulillah [all praise belongs to Allah], and Rabbul-‘Alamin [Lord of all the worlds]. All these are the basic elements of language that God has disclosed to man. The work of God was not just to create [man as] a mere shape out of clay and then to step aside. Indeed, it is evident that everything that man has been granted for the perfection of his natural faculties is from God; man has nothing to call his own.

Hence, a seeker after truth must not be misled by the fact that the Word of God and the word of man contain the same letters, words, and simple phrases. He should bear well in mind that these are the basic elements of language that were provided by God. They are used by God as well as by man, with the difference that in the composition of God—which is His composition both in words and meanings—these words and sentences are employed at their proper occasion, in perfect order, with wisdom, precision, and moderation, just as all works of God in the world are done by Him with perfect appropriateness, moderation, and wisdom. Man, in his composition, as in everything else, cannot achieve divine perfection. This is the reason why all the disbelievers, despite being renowned for their eloquence and being hailed as great poets, were left speechless before the Holy Quran, as indeed they remain speechless to this day. And this silence is in itself a testimony to their inability [to respond]; for what is inability, after all, other than the failure to refute the opponent’s argument after hearing and understanding it.

Thus far in this footnote, I have proven the necessity for the Divine Word to be matchless in light of the laws of nature. However, there is another way to prove this, which would be appropriate to explain in this very footnote. There is no doubt that the definite good end of man—whereby he can have real hope of salvation—depends on having perfect certainty in the existence of the True Creator, His Omnipotence, and His promise of reward and punishment. This is a matter that cannot be achieved by the mere study of creation. To attain such certainty, one requires a divinely revealed Book, the like of which is beyond the power of man to produce. To make this statement properly understood, two points need to be elaborated: first, why perfect hope of salvation is dependant upon perfect certainty; and second, why such certainty cannot be attained through the study of creation alone.

So it should first be understood that perfect certainty means a true and positive belief whereby no room for doubt is left, and one’s heart is fully convinced of, and satisfied with, the matter that was to be ascertained. Any belief that falls short of this criterion cannot be called perfect certainty. It can only be called conjecture or, at best, a probable hypothesis.

The reason why the real hope of salvation rests only on perfect certainty is that salvation can be attained only if one gives precedence to his Benevolent God over everything belonging to this world—its pleasures, its comforts, its wealth and riches, its relationships, and even one’s own self. No love should supersede the love of God. But such is the plight of man that, instead of following the path on which his salvation depends, he loves things that necessarily cause his heart to deviate from God. Moreover, he has such an overwhelming love for these things that he believes with certainty that his comfort and well-being depend upon these relationships. Not only does he believe this, but he actually observes and experiences these pleasures with perfect certainty, and has no doubt whatsoever of their existence. So, it is obviously impossible for him to wholeheartedly turn towards God until he has the same degree of certainty about God—and in the pleasure of meeting Him, His reward and punishment and His favours—as he has about the property of his house, the money he has locked away, the orchards he has sown with his own hands, the property he has acquired and inherited, the pleasures he has experienced and tasted, and the enjoyment of the company of his bosom friends. After all, a weak presumption cannot override a powerful conviction.

It is also established beyond doubt that when a person who, having greater faith in this world than in the Hereafter, is about to leave this transitory abode—and the critical time that is called the agony of death suddenly descends on him to sever his ties with this world and its known pleasures that he enjoyed therein, and when death separates him from his dear ones whom he saw every day, and when the time comes for him to leave behind all his riches and wealth which he regards as his possessions—at that moment it is impossible for his thoughts to remain focused on God the Exalted. However, he can do so only if he has the same—nay, greater—degree of conviction about the existence of God, of the pleasure of meeting Him, and of His promise of reward and punishment. If, in the last moments of his life, he does not have such certainty as can help him ward off his worldly thoughts, his end is likely to be an undesirable one.

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. Granted, if it were written somewhere in the heavens in bold, bright letters, ‘I am God, the Matchless and Peerless, who has created these things, and shall reward the good and punish the evil for their deeds,’ the study of creation would then result in perfect certainty regarding God’s existence and His reward and punishment. It would not have been necessary, then, for God to provide any other means of arriving at perfect certainty. But this is not the case; no matter how deeply one may study the universe, one will not find such a writing, and will have to depend on one’s own speculation and nothing else.

This is the reason why all the sages agree that pondering over the heavens and the earth does not provide factual testimony regarding the existence of the Creator. All one obtains is speculative evidence to the effect that the there ought to be a creator; and even this evidence will only be valid in the eyes of those who believe that it is impossible for things to come into existence by themselves. It will not, however, stand in the eyes of an atheist who believes the universe to be eternal, and contends that if nothing can come into existence without a creator, then how can God come into existence without a creator; and if this is possible, why then should it not be assumed that all creation, which no one has witnessed being created, came into existence without a creator. I would like to point out that the reason why an atheist is able to argue with a rationalist regarding the existence of the Eternal God is that the study of creation does not provide factual testimony of His existence; that is, it does not prove that the Creator actually exists, but only that He ought to exist. Thus, evidence regarding the existence of the Creator of the universe, based only on reason, becomes ambiguous in the eyes of an atheist. As such, I have already discussed this point to some extent in Footnote Number Four, where I have proven that reason can at best prove the need for something, not its existence; and that proving the necessity of a thing and to substantiate its very existence are two things altogether different.

Therefore, anyone whose understanding of God is limited to the study of creation alone is in no position to affirm that God actually exists. Rather, the reach of his knowledge extends only to the possibility that He ought to exist, and that, too, if the person is not inclined towards atheism. This is the reason why past philosophers who confined themselves merely to rational arguments fell into grave errors and created hundreds of controversies but passed away without resolving them. Their lives came to such a restless end that they, having harboured thousands of doubts and misgivings, died as atheists, naturalists and heretics, and the paper boat of philosophy was unable to carry them ashore. For, on the one hand, they were overwhelmed by the love of the world, and on the other, they did not possess any definite knowledge of the Hereafter. So they departed from this world in great anguish, having been deprived and far removed from true certainty.

They themselves admit that their knowledge of the Creator of the universe and of the Hereafter is not by way of certainty; rather, it is based on plausibility. That is, their ‘knowledge’ is like the knowledge of someone who, without any factual basis, conjectures that something should be like this, whereas he really does not know whether it is like this or not. Likewise, philosophers first presume that, under given circumstances, certain facts should exist, and then concoct those facts in their own imagination and jump to the conclusion that they do exist. This is like someone saying, for example, that Person X ought to visit him, and then arbitrarily concluding that Person X must surely be on his way. Then he imagines that Person X ought to come on horseback and proceeds to believe that he must indeed have come on horseback. Such have been the conjectures employed by these philosophers. Never did they have the good fortune of being certain that God truly exists. Their intellect, even when it moved in the right direction, could only arrive at the conclusion that the universe calls for a creator.

In fact, even with regard to this weak inference they always remained in uncertainty and doubt, like those devoid of faith, and they never walked the path of truth. Some of them do not believe that God is the Regulator of affairs and the Creator who creates as He wills. Others took primordial substance to be co-eternal with God. Some declared all souls to be eternal and virtually partners with Him—a doctrine advocated by the Aryah Samajists to this day. Others refused to accept the survival of the human soul [after death] or the next life of reward and punishment. Some regarded time to be the prime mover, like God.

Some denied God as being the Knower of everything down to the last particle. Others offered sacrifices to idols and prayed to artificial gods. In short, many of the great philosophers remained in denial of God’s existence and none managed to steer clear of these pitfalls.

Returning to the original subject, let me reiterate that the study of creation alone can never lead to perfect certainty, nor has it ever done so. Rather, what can be achieved, and perhaps was achieved by some, is only the belief that something ‘ought to be’. And this belief, too, is limited only to the existence of the Creator of the universe. The belief in His reward and punishment etc., does not amount to even that much. Having thus failed to obtain perfect certainty from the study of creation, we must choose one of two possibilities: either that God never intended to bestow perfect certainty at all, or that He must have provided some other means of arriving at it. The first proposition is, however, obviously false and no reasonable person doubts its falsity. The second, whereby we acknowledge that God must have provided some perfect means for the salvation of His creatures, is only possible if we believe the perfect means to be a revealed book that is matchless and incomparable in itself and explains every abstract law of nature. If the criteria for this perfect means is that it should be matchless and incomparable, and a bearer of unmistakable written testimony to its divine origin and its religious teachings, then all these qualities can be found only in a revealed book that is without any match. Nothing else can combine all of these qualities, because this merit can only be found in a revealed book, which through its discourse and its peerless nature, can lead to the stage of perfect certainty and perfect enlightenment.

It may be possible for an unfortunate atheist to assert that the heavens and the earth are eternal [precluding the need for the Creator]. But how can anyone who accepts a text to be beyond the power of man to create, have any option but to admit that God, who has revealed the text does indeed exist. And, in this case, the admission of God’s existence is not merely based on conjecture; rather, the Book itself provides testimony to the fact that God exists and to the truth of the Day of Reckoning. Thus, the perfect certainty that a seeker after truth looks for in the earth and in the heavens—and does not find there—is achieved here [in the divinely revealed book]. Hence, to convince an atheist of the existence of God, the best remedy is provided by a matchless book and not the observation of the earth and the heavens.

It should be borne in mind that a person who relies exclusively on rational argumentation has a vein of atheism in him. The same vein becomes bloated and prominent in an atheist, while it remains hidden among the rest. This vein can be severed only by such a revealed book as is truly beyond the capacity of man to produce. For, as I have already mentioned above, people have always arrived at different conclusions from [the study of ] the heavens and the earth. Some have understood it in one way and others in another. Such difference, however, cannot arise with regard to a matchless book. No one, not even an atheist, can suggest that a matchless word has no speaker and has existed by itself since time immemorial, like the earth and the heavens [as he believes them to be eternal]. An atheist will debate about a matchless book only for as long as he denies its being matchless. As soon as he admits that, in fact, writing such a book is beyond human powers, a seed of belief in the existence of God will be planted in his heart. This is because, in this context, there is no room to imagine that the existence of the speaker is hypothetical and not real, since a word cannot exist on its own without a speaker.

Moreover, another excellence of the matchless Book is that it gives within it—in factual terms—whatever knowledge of the origin of the universe and the Hereafter is needed for the complete development of the self. This characteristic is absent in the heavens and the earth because, first of all, one cannot discover the secrets of religion at all from their study alone; and the little that may be discovered is quite dubious, and reminds us of the proverbial mother who alone could understand the sign language of her dumb child. All this goes to illustrate that the uniqueness of the Divine Word is essential not only for the comprehension of the system of the laws of nature, but also because without it, the very concept of salvation remains incomplete. For, if one does not have perfect certainty regarding God, the question of salvation does not even arise. Those who do not believe that the Word of God must be peerless, think ill of the All-Wise, [and imagine] out of sheer ignorance, that although He revealed His Books, they have served no purpose and that He did nothing to help mankind reach perfection in faith. Alas, they do not reflect that God’s laws of nature are so encompassing that He has granted uniqueness even to insects that seem to serve no grand purpose. So would not the wisdom of God be open to the criticism that He held back at the most important stage of His creation, putting the whole ark of mankind in danger of capsizing, and leading people to think that He had no interest whatsoever in granting salvation to anyone.

Considering that it is a great blasphemy to think about God in this way, the opposite, which befits God’s glory and conforms to man’s needs, must be accepted as true; namely, that in order to grant salvation and complete cognition to mankind, God must have revealed a book which, being peerless, would lead to perfect cognition—something that reason alone cannot do. So let it be known that this Book is the Noble Quran, which not only claims such absolute perfection, but also proves it to [one’s] satisfaction.

The Furqan [Holy Quran] is the sun of knowledge and faith,
So that it may save you from going astray and may lead you to certainty.

The Furqan is a strong rope of Allah,
So that it may pull you to the Lord of all the worlds.

Allah has made the Furqan shine like a bright day,
So that it may bestow upon you spiritual light.

God has sent this matchless Word,
So that you may reach the court of the Holy and Glorious Lord.

God’s Revelation is the remedy for doubtfulness,
For it manifests the perfect power of God.

You kill your own soul because of self-conceit,
And remain disrespectful and misguided as ever.

If only your soul yearned for the knowledge of God,
If only your striving sowed the seed of truth.

Think in all fairness and honesty:
How can conjecture take the place of certainty?

For whomsoever the door leading to the threshold of God was ever opened,
It was opened not by conjecture, but by virtue of certainty.

O traitor, you do not realize the worth of the Furqan,
And you know not that you have no helper like it.

The revelation of the Furqan brings the dead to life,
And imparts hundreds of secrets about ‘irfan [the world of cognition of God].

It opens such vistas of the realm of certain knowledge,
Which one cannot find in a hundred worlds.

In this context, the Brahmu Samajists have taken great pains to contrive a few objections to justify their refusal to accept the Divine Book, and to somehow prove that the structure of religion has been left incomplete and imperfect. They do not wish to admit that the Merciful and Benevolent God, who created the sun, the moon, and much more, in order to provide food for the physical development of mankind, also took care of their spiritual development by revealing His Books in order to arrange for their guidance. Since these people accuse the Benevolent and Merciful God of miserliness, unkindness, and mismanagement, and their misguided doctrines contain much that is blasphemous, derogatory, and insulting to Him, I deem it appropriate to address their objections that relate to the subject at hand. Therefore, they are presented, along with their answers, as follows:

First Objection: The question of whether a revealed book is beyond human power [to produce] is only part of the basic question of revelation. It is proven that according to reason there is no need for revelation; and since there is no need for revelation, it is meaningless to discuss whether or not human faculties can produce the like of a [revealed] book.

Answer: I have already dealt with this objection by stating that any thought and reflection about God and the Hereafter, based [only] on rational hypotheses, can never lead to perfect certainty and enlightenment. The kinds of doubts that rattle the minds of those who are in thrall to rational arguments cannot be removed except through revelation. For, even if nature leads us to conclude that the universe must have a creator, who can say that the Creator actually exists. It is true that when we see a building we are convinced of the existence of a builder, but this is only because of our common experience whereby we see both the building and the builder. But who can show us the Creator of the universe. In this situation we can be certain of His existence only if we have sure knowledge about Him, as we do about builders. Even if reason were to testify that there should be a creator of this universe, the same reason would be confounded that if its assumption is indeed valid, why has this Creator not been found so far.

Thus, if reason guides us to some extent to the existence of the Creator, it also waylays and misleads us. It has turned some into atheists and others into naturalists; some inclined to one view and some to another. How indeed can certainty come from mere intellectual inferences that have never been confirmed nor ever will be. If reason reaches as far as proposing that there must be a Creator, who can fully satisfy us that this conjecture is not a delusion and that we cannot explore this matter further. If reason were able to guide us fully, why would it leave us stranded halfway and refuse to lead us further. Is it the upper limit of our enlightenment and cognition of God to be content with the belief that there ought to be a Creator. Can such a conjecture help us attain the eternal bliss that has been prepared for those who have perfect certainty and perfect understanding and for which our souls cry out.

If reason were able to grant us such certainty, we would be justified in saying that there is no need for revelation, as we would have already achieved our goal; but it would be a mark of our misfortune if, despite being ill, we do not seek treatment nor try to find the means for attaining perfect health.

O you who deny revelation,
Your reasoning has brought a bad name even to reason.

You have turned your back to God and are involved in self-conceit,
What kind of religion and faith have you put forth?

Until one turns away from one’s ego,
How can one discover the secrets of Tauhid [Oneness of God]?

So long as you do not crush your ego underfoot,
How can you differentiate between good and evil?

He who follows the Word of God,
Is delivered from indulging in greed and evil desires.

He breaks loose from the bondage of his ego and self-conceit,
And becomes a manifestation of the light of divine favours.

He is far above the norms of this world,
And he reaches such heights as are inconceivable.

We who are the captives of nafs-e-ammarah [the self that incites to evil],
Are totally worthless without God.

When God’s revelation descended for our guidance,
Many mysteries were solved for us.

You and your knowledge on one side, we and our divine knowledge on the other;
See for yourself the difference between the two.

There is one who is in the embrace of the Beloved,
And there is another who is looking towards the door in anticipation.

There is one who sits beside his Beloved,
There is another who wanders in the streets.

There is one who has achieved his purpose,
While another burns with this desire.

You should be ashamed [to speculate] about divine mysteries,
It is a pity that you pride yourself on your intellect.

Your entire work has remained incomplete—what a shame!
What a worthless companion your defective reason has proved to be.

So, my brothers of the Brahmu Samaj!! When God has blessed you with eyes to observe and behold, use them to see whether there is any need for revelation or not. You can read more about this at its appropriate place where a further elaboration is given upon this subject in the context of rational arguments in support of the Holy Quran. If then you fear God, opt for the right path, and let the station of guidance be the prerogative of God alone, this will be a sign of your great fortune. Otherwise, if at all you can, do try to counter these arguments logically, but do not act like madmen who merely keep babbling and do not listen.

I wonder about the countless veils that cover your hearts, which refuse to be lifted even though you are being continuously cut down in all your arguments and at every step you are stopped in your tracks. What sort of hearts are these that do not understand. In what niche have you placed the yardstick of reason, and then forgotten about it, so that you regard right to be wrong and wrong to be right. Anyone can indulge in conjectures; why pride yourself in this ‘gift’. I am at a loss to understand why the doors of your hearts refuse to open, and your eyes are unable to see. Look at how reason has betrayed you, its worshippers, and fled away from you.

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. It is indeed revelation whose truth has been attested to by the seal of the blood of thousands of martyrs. Indeed, it was the magnetic pull of revelation that led kings to wear the garb of beggars and motivated many a wealthy person to adopt the life of a hermit. Through its blessings, countless unlettered, illiterate and old women left this world with the intense zeal of faith. This is the sole ark that carried many over the troubled waters of creature-worship and scepticism, and landed them upon the safe shores of Tauhid and perfect certainty. It alone is the friend of one’s last moments, and is the helper in times of crises. However, the harm done to the world by the veil of reason alone is not hidden from anyone. Tell me what was it that made Plato and his followers deny that God is the Creator? What made Galen doubt the survival of souls after death, and reward and punishment in the Hereafter? What made philosophers deny that God has knowledge of everything down to the last detail? What made great philosophers worship idols? What led to the sacrifice of roosters and other animals before idols? Was this not due to reason unaccompanied by revelation.

It is incorrect to state that there were many people who followed revelation and yet they became pagans and fashioned new gods for themselves. This was not the fault of true revelation. Rather, it was the fault of those who mixed falsehood with truth and preferred the worship of their own evil desires to the worship of God. Yet, divine revelation has not remained indifferent to redressing their errors and has not ignored them. In fact, it was fresh revelation that reformed the matters which had led them astray.

It is equally wrong to suggest that erroneous reasoning is the fault of those of lesser understanding and is not the fault of perfect reason itself. It is obvious that reason cannot function in its absolute totality; for, it is a ‘universal’ and can only be instantiated through particular individuals. Indeed, the nature of ‘universals’ can be known only through their ‘particulars’. Can anyone show us a perfect individual who, by following reason alone, has never erred in his self-conceived beliefs or has not stumbled in his views about theological truths? Where is the protagonist of reason whose belief in the Creator of the universe and in matters pertaining to the Hereafter has reached the level of ‘is’, whose belief in God’s Oneness admits to no form of idolatry, and who has turned to God so completely as to overcome the cravings of the flesh. As I have already said, the philosophers themselves admit that man cannot attain perfect certainty about theological matters through unaided reason; all he can do is draw hypothetical and doubtful conclusions. It is obvious that as long as man’s knowledge remains in the realm of doubt and conjecture, and thus below the level of certainty, he will be as prone to err as a blind man is to lose his way.

To think that unaided reason may lead to error, but the error is always set right upon further reflection, is another one of the mistakes caused by the strange reasoning of the Brahmu Samaj, which they have not been able to dispel. As I have already pointed out, human reason, on account of its deficient insight, is bound to make some errors regarding supersensible phenomena sooner or later. No reasonable person will deny this. However (think carefully for yourself ), it is not necessary that every error will be realized and corrected. It is thus easily understood that what is bound to happen cannot possibly be prevented, at all times and under all circumstances, by that which is unreliable and uncertain. Rather, the only thing that can rectify such an inevitable error is that which, in comparison, possesses greater accuracy and certainty, and possesses the quality described in:

The reason why Tauhid cannot be understood in its pure form without divine revelation, and why one who denies revelation cannot cleanse oneself of the filth of paganism, becomes apparent when one reflects upon the reality of Tauhid itself. For, Tauhid means that we should believe that God’s being and His attributes are free of any association, and that those tasks which can be accomplished by God’s power and might cannot be accomplished by the power of anyone else. Fire-worshippers, sun-worshippers, idol-worshippers, and so on, are called polytheists only because they reject this Tauhid and because they ask their idols and deities for such favours as can be bestowed only by God. Obviously, those who deny revelation believe, like idol-worshippers, that creatures of God are invested with the attributes of God and that the powers of the Omnipotent God are possessed by human beings. For, they imagine that they have discovered God through their reason and also claim that it was human beings who first thought that a god should be appointed; it was by their efforts alone that God emerged from the state of obscurity, was recognized, and accepted as God of the people and worthy of worship; prior to this, He was unknown and no one was aware of His existence and it was through their wisdom that He came to be honoured. Are these beliefs different from those of idol-worshippers? Indeed not. The only difference is that idol-worshippers take other things to be their bestowers and benefactors and these people forsake God and consider their own clouded reason to be their guide and benefactor.

Now reflect further and you will realize that their case seems to be even worse than that of idol-worshippers. The idol-worshippers do believe that God has bestowed great powers on their deities who, by accepting a variety of offerings, bestow upon their worshippers that which they ask for. But idol-worshippers have never alleged that God was discovered by these deities, and the great blessing of recognizing the existence of God was attained through them alone. It was left to those gentlemen alone (who deny revelation) to go as far as including God in their list of discoveries, and to announce with great stupidity that the voice

[‘I am present’] has never been heard from God; and that it was their great achievement that, without being told or informed, they found Him on their own. He was absolutely silent like one asleep or dead and they discovered His track by the exercise of their own reflection and investigation. Thus, in effect, they repudiate any favour from God.

In a way, it is as if they grant a favour to God, in that, without having been informed that God exists and without complete certainty that disobedience to Him would subject them to such and such torment, and obedience to Him would attract such and such bounty, they have submitted to this fictitious god. That is to say, their entire discovery was what they had themselves concocted; but, God was so weak and infirm that He could not announce His own existence and could not provide any reassurance concerning His promises. He was hidden and these people disclosed Him; He was unknown, and they made Him known; He was silent, and they performed His work. That is to say, His Godhead has become known only recently, and that too, through their efforts.

Every wise person would appreciate that such a statement goes beyond even that which idol-worshippers allege. For, idol-worshippers believe their deities only to be their bestowers and benefactors, but those who deny revelation have crossed all limits by alleging that their deity (which is reason) is the benefactor not only of people but also of God, inasmuch as God became known (according to them) through the exercise of reason alone. Hence, it is patently obvious that by denying revelation they have erred, not only because their belief in the existence of God is based on doubtful conjectures and they are entangled in diverse errors, but also because they are deprived of belief in the absolute Oneness of God and are tainted with polytheism. After all, what is polytheism. It is nothing but attributing to others the favours and bounties that have been bestowed by God.

At this point the Brahmu Samajists may counter that they do consider reason to be a gift of God and they do acknowledge His grace and munificence. This, however, is a grave error on their part. It is the nature of man that he attributes to himself all that is under his control and power, or whatever he achieves through his labour. Whatever rights of man are established in the world, their genesis is the thought that everyone who achieves something by his labour, he or she regards it his or her property and wealth. If a person were to genuinely feel that whatever he possesses does not belong to him but to God, and that he has no right over it, why then would he run after a thief, or why would he demand that his debtors return his money. Without doubt, man claims possession of that which he achieves through his efforts. This is the law God has ordained for the functioning of the world and this is how everyone’s nature is inclined. A labourer expects dues for his labour; a servant has the right to demand wages for his services. An unlawful interference in others’ rights makes one a criminal.

In short, it is next to impossible that, say, a person who keeps awake all night without a wink of sleep to irrigate his land in a deserted place, enduring hunger and thirst in extremely cold weather, should be as grateful to God as he would be when, after a deep and comfortable sleep all night at home, he goes out early in the morning to his lands and finds that the clouds formed at night, it rained heavily, and filled his fields with just the required amount of water.

Thus, it is obvious that anyone who does not believe that God—finding man weak, powerless, imperfect, ignorant, overwhelmed by his evil self and prone to forgetfulness and error—mercifully showed him the right way through His revelation, and instead believes that he has come to recognize and find God solely through his own work and effort, cannot feel the same sense of indebtedness towards God as one who believes from the depths of his heart that God showed him the right way by His sheer grace without any labour and effort on his part. He was asleep, God awoke him; he was [spiritually] dead, God quickened him; he was undeserving, God Himself came to his assistance. It is clear from this discussion that the deniers of divine revelation are bereft of the true concept of Tauhid and it is not at all possible for their souls to cry out like true believers and say:

All praise belongs to Allah who guided us towards paradise and showed us the way. We could not have achieved our desired objective by ourselves had He not guided us.

Just look at how these people have ‘revered’ God Almighty: they ascribed to their own reason the very attributes that belong to God; they feigned to possess the glory that should have been proclaimed for Him; and claimed for themselves the powers that are exclusive to Him. Truly does the Gracious God say of them:

That is, the deniers of revelation have not made a just estimate of the holy status of Allah the Almighty, nor have they recognized His mercy, which is stirred at every need of man; this is why they have said that God has not revealed any book to any man.

Your reason always keeps you a captive of arrogance,
Discover the reason which will free you from egoism.

It is much better that we learn divine knowledge from God Himself,
For whatever knowledge we have is full of hundreds of errors.

If God remains silent, who would tell you things better than God would have told you,
If He leaves you, who would come to your help.

Go and make a just estimate of Him and stop arguing and being stubborn,
For the views you express will cause you only trouble.

I positively and categorically say that to follow reason solely, without the aid of revelation, leads not to one but a host of difficulties, as I shall (God-willing) elaborate at the appropriate place.

The Benevolent God, having made everything in pairs, has also paired reason with revelation. The law ordained by the All-Wise is such that as long as something remains separate from its pair, its potential remains hidden and very often it even proves harmful rather than yielding benefit. The same is true of reason. It serves theology in a positive way only if it is linked with its pair—that is, revelation. Without its pair, it is like a monster ready to swallow an entire household and desires to completely devastate a city and lay it to waste. But when it joins its pair, lo and behold, it assumes the most beautiful form and aspect, bringing fortune to the household it enters and removing all woes from those it touches.

Think for yourself. Can anything serve any purpose without its pair? Then why do you go about parading your reason alone, which has so often been put to shame on account of its false conclusions. Has it not fallen headlong repeatedly and suffered massive bruises. Tell me, what has enchanted your heart. How could you have become infatuated with this fairy. Do you not know that it has sucked the blood of countless persons before you, pushed its victims into the bottomless pit of misguidance and killed them. It has devoured many a ‘lover’ like you and disposed of many a corpse. What religious truths have you discovered through reason alone that are not already written in the Holy Quran. I do not ask for many examples, just cite a few. Had you discovered such sublime truths solely with the aid of reason, which were not to be found in the Holy Quran, you would have had the right to boast in your circles that you were such people who had discovered truths that were absent in revealed books. Pitifully, however, your treatises are absolutely worthless, with the exception of a few matters that you have plagiarized from the Holy Quran. Instead of proving your wisdom, they only expose your ignorance, error, and lack of understanding, as I shall, God-willing, clearly elaborate in this book. Such being the measure of your merit and ability, you are truly unfortunate to deny divine revelation, to take upon yourself the role of God, and to think that the revered and holy Prophets had ulterior motives in making their claims. Do not be misled by the fact that reason is beneficial, as all our research is indeed based on reason. No doubt it is an excellent tool, but its true essence is revealed only when it is coupled with its pair. Otherwise, it is worse than enemies in deceiving you, and more treacherous than hypocrites. What a pity that even the mention of its pair irritates you.

Friends! You must realize that nothing works without its pair. It is wonderful how God has created everything in pairs. All around us, we see that everything functions in pairs; we see with our eyes, but we also need the sun; we hear with our ears, but we also require air. When the sun sets, we are virtually blind; when we shut our ears to the air, we become deaf. How can a woman conceive without having relations with her husband; how can a garden that is not touched by water bear fruit. None of this is beyond your understanding. It is the same law of nature that you claim to follow. So now live up to your claims lest they sound like mere rhetoric.

When was it possible for a healthy eye to see without the sun?
When did God make such an eye?

He who has been providing for all needs,
How can you believe that He would not guide you [in matters of faith]?

He who created horses, cows and donkeys,
To free you from carrying a heavy load on your back,

How could He leave you bewildered about the Hereafter?
It is very strange that you claim to be wise, and yet you hold this belief.

O ignorant one! While you have been given two eyes,
Why do you shut one when it comes to seeing?

The One who has manifested all kinds of powers,
How could His power of speech remain hidden.

When all His holy attributes have been manifested,
How could this attribute of His have remained hidden?

Whoever neglects the remembrance of the Beloved,
Can only be cured of his negligence by His message.

Does the message of God surprise you,
O arrogant one! What is wrong with your intelligence and understanding!

When He Himself, out of His kindness, has bestowed on a mere clump of clay [man] the capacity to love,
How could He then forget His lovers?

When He has been gracious enough to bestow His love,
How could He not have provided remedy for this longing?

When He Himself caused the hearts to burn with His love,
Why then should He not speak out of mercy?

A lover’s heart finds no peace if the beloved does not speak,
Even if the beloved is right before his eyes;

And when the beloved is himself behind veils,
How can the lover find a moment’s peace without having discourse.

But only such a one knows these mysteries,
Who arrives at the utmost degree of love by surrendering his heart.

Beauty has close affinity with lovers;
You will never find a handsome one lacking in admirers.

A [true] lover is one who is lost to himself,
It is indeed improper to be in love and still give importance to yourself.

Whoever has experienced the joy of being united with this beloved Friend;
He has experienced this by the blessings of divine revelation.

It was revelation which brought love to the world,
And through revelation did the pain of love erupt like a volcano.

Affection, attachment, love, loyalty, and faithfulness,
Are all made to flourish by revelation.

Whoever found God, found Him through revelation,
Every countenance that shone, shone through revelation.

You are not familiar with the realm of love,
That is why you are surprised at the discourse of the Beloved.

Love demands that the beloved should speak,
Go, ask a lover about this mystery of love.

Do not say that since we are so far from His throne,
Our handful of dust cannot have any relationship with Him.

Whoever has an enlightened soul does realize,
That the search for God is ingrained in human nature.

Man’s heart finds no peace without God,
From the very beginning this has been the nature of man.

Man’s heart is restless without word from the Beloved,
For God has sown this seed in his heart since eternity.

Having given man such a nature,
How would God let this excellence of his nature go in vain?

The work of God cannot be done by man,
How can an insect of a man do what is done by God?

All of us are ignorant, He alone is the Knower of every secret;
We are all blind and He alone is the Ever-Watchful.

Claiming wisdom in the presence of God,
Only shows your appalling ignorance and insanity.

If you turn your back on the bright sun,
And believe that you can produce light from within you,

This belief has made many a people blind,
Casting them headlong into the pit of misguidance.

If indeed you have some intelligence, do not flaunt it with pride;
This intellect is only an idol barring your way.

People’s intellect adulterated with arrogance,
Is mere foolishness which they think is intelligence.

Pride lays to waste the city of reason,
And turns the wise into misguided fools.

How can that which makes you proud and arrogant,
Ever lead you to God, O misguided one!

Self-conceit will land you in idolatry.
Repent of self-conceit, O ostentatious one!

A polytheist is far removed from the true bliss,
And he has been flung far away from the eternal bounty of God.

God can only be found with the help of God,
Not by cunningness, trickery, wile, and deceit.

Humility and submission are the conditions for receiving grace from the Divine,
For none has ever seen water suspending at a height.

God loves meekness, pride is of no avail;
We cannot reach Him with the strength of our own wings.

The Glorious One nurtures the humble,
The transgressors are always deprived and rejected.

O dear one! All you have in your palm is brackish water;
Do not feel proud of it if you have any sense.

You can get life-giving water only from the Beloved;
If you desire it, go and beseech Him for it.

That life-giving water lies hidden away;
No one has found the path to it without the divine lamp.

The ideas you discover through your own reason,
Their light too is derived from God’s revelation.

But since your spiritual eye is not open,
Your heart is not aware of this secret.

You transgress against God thinking that you are wise;
You think you do not need His revelation because you have intellect.

Your errors will render you needy,
And will expose the truth about your intellect in an instant.

Your reason is like a mausoleum—elegantly painted white on the outside,
But what lies underneath? A rotten corpse!

Only God’s teachings lead reason to its perfection;
Each and every truth is manifested only through Prophets.

Whoever achieved any enlightenment achieved it through teaching,
And the face that did not turn away from God shone forth brilliantly.

The signs of the time are warning you,
O man of limited lifespan! Take hold of a teacher.

Imperfect indeed is the nature of those who are born imperfect;
If you have ears to hear, even a single word of advice can suffice.

God is free from error, while you are full of errors;
Do not dispute, therefore, and hold fast to truth.

Your reason is subservient to countless passions and desires,
Only the unfortunate depend on what is subservient.

You go on learning from all and sundry,
But are ashamed of learning from the All-Wise, who is Peerless.

You have abandoned the path of truth because of arrogance;
Oh what have you done! What kind of seed have you sown!

O cruel one! Our Master is He,
Who has gifted to us all the heavens and the earth.

He has created clouds, rain, and the sun and the moon,
And has made summer and winter,

So that, by His grace, we may eat our food,
And remain alive and nourish ourselves.

He who has bestowed so much of His favours on our bodies,
How can He deprive our souls?

The Quranic revelation is the divine force of attraction,
Which draws you awayfrom your self-conceit and towards spirituality.

The Quran cleanses you of hidden traces of polytheism,
So that you may witness God’s sign from Him directly,

So that you may be rid of arrogance, self-conceit, and pride,
And you may be grateful to Allah the Almighty for His favours.

Refrain from arrogance so that He may show you mercy,
Submit to Him, for submission is what He requires.

[True] life is in dying [to yourself ], in meekness and in crying [before God];
Those who die in the path of God, they alone will have [spiritual] life.

The cup of self-negation is in fact the water of life;
Whoever drinks from it is delivered from death.

Wise is he who seeks the Beloved,
And achieves his objective through humility and submission.

Foolishness is better than such reason and cleverness,
That cast you into the pit of pride and self-conceit.

Seek the truth and come out of your ego,
Abandon self-conceit for the sake of God.

I cannot understand what faith and what religion it is,
To boast in the presence of the Lord of all the worlds.

Who are you to stand before the Omnipotent,
Repent, and do not expose such foolishness.

If He were to hold back the shower of His grace even for a moment,
All of creation and the entire universe would come to naught.

O insignificant creature, do not boast with such arrogance;
And do not make any claims that go beyond the due limits of your capacities.

A true servant of God is one who feels as nothing before Him,
And the enlightened is he who calls Him Peerless.

You hold yourself to be pious;
Beware! May God guide you, how wrong is your conception.

Why do you give yourself such great airs?
Do you perchance deny the existence of the Peerless God?

What do you think of the foundation of this worldly existence,
That you are beginning to cherish this transient abode!

Why should the wise attach themselves to this [world],
When they will have to abandon it in an instant.

Beware, this world is a transitory abode;
Become godly, for it is God you will have to face in the end.

If you take fatal poison with your own hand,
How can I believe that you are wise.

Look at those who have been lost to themselves,
And love the Word of God with all their heart and soul.

They care not for their name, their honour, and their prestige,
They have fallen in love with God and are totally oblivious of their personal honour.

Having negated their being, they have become united with the Beloved,
In order to witness His countenance, they care not for their honour and prestige.

On seeing them one is reminded of God,
For they are counted as righteous in the sight of the Magnificent God.

You raise your head in arrogance as if you want to touch the sky,
And you have thereby left the path of the servants of God.

Unless humility becomes manifest in your being,
How can the light of God shine forth in it?

Think for yourself: Unless the seed planted in the earth disintegrates,
How can it grow from one into a hundred?

Negate yourself completely, so that you may receive favours of God;
Lay down your life so that you are given a new life.

Unless you realize that you are helpless, weak and distressed,
You cannot be worthy of the favours of that Guide.

Since you found reason through the knowledge He taught you,
Why then do you turn away from His teachings?

Do not think that your heart is enlightened,
Whatever has light, owes it only to the heavens.

Blind is the eye that is devoid of this light,
The heart that is not free from doubt is just a grave.

The righteous, the truthful, and the God-fearing,
All found the right path through the revelation of God.

Where is the reason that can fathom God on its own?
Only he can understand this, whom God Himself enables to understand.

Without His revelation, your reason is like an idol barring your way,
And you indulge in idol-worship day in, day out.

If this idol were to be manifested before your eyes,
A stream of tears would flow from your eyes.

How unfortunate of you that you lost your eyes to see!
And at last idol-worship led you to make an idol of yourself.

Reason cannot fathom divine secrets at all;
Whatever it attains once in a while is also a bounty from God.

Even when reason arrives at a fine point,
It does not do so on its own, but procures it from a special source.

Because of your reason, you have fallen into utter arrogance,
While we are the devotees of Him who created reason.

Your soul is the prisoner of unfounded conjectures,
While we are ready to lay down our lives to the knowledge of the All-Seeing God.

The pious of heart have an affinity with the righteous,
The ill-natured spit even upon pearls.

Divine secrets are veiled in numerous mysteries,
How far will the weak conveyance of thought and reason take you?

How can this flickering lamp, ever swayed by the force of evil desires,
Lead you through a narrow path?

Revelation of God points the way for you,
And grants you the light that accompanies you until you reach the destination.

Our body and soul have no excellence,
It is only foolish to pitch yourself against the One who is Peerless.

What is faith? To consider oneself as non-existent,
And to completely negate one’s own being.

Whenever you fall down, shouting and crying for help,
There is always someone who will come forward to hold your hand.

The heart of the wise bleeds for the ignorant,
He who can see is kind to the blind.

How then can the Gracious God be outside of this law!
The mercy of God must exceed the mercy of all others.

God, who carries all of our burdens,
And has not held back His mercy from us in the least,

How can He ignore us in matters of faith?
You should be ashamed of such denial and malice.

Give not your heart to this treacherous world;
Do try to remember the acts of fidelity shown to you by God.

It has been proven to you time and again,
That these intellects are prone to forgetfulness and error.

Time and again you have seen this defect of reason,
And often you have failed to achieve your objective because of it.

Free yourself from everything that is useless,
Become selfless so that the mercy of God may descend on you.

And yet it is not easy to abandon one’s ego,
Dying to oneself is equal to death itself.

In reality, there are few who recognize the truth,
Although they are all human as far as appearances go.

Beware! O you who are lying in the bottom of a pit,
And have lost both reason and faith;

Do not seek the Infinite [i.e., God] with the finite [i.e., reason],
Do not make use of smoke in place of clear light.

That which should be sought with humility and prayers,
Should not be sought with arrogance and pride.

What a beautiful principle this is, for the followers of the right path,
A legacy of Maulavi [Rumi], stated in his Mathnawi:

Cunningness is contrary to humility and meekness;
Give up cunningness and adopt humility,
As a distressed, hungry, and thirsty mother,
Wanders, carrying her young child in her lap.

Second Objection: Even if we were to concede that perfect and unique revelation is essential for the perfect cognition of God, it does not necessarily mean that God Almighty has sent down such a revelation, as there are countless things that man also needs in the world but God has not fulfilled all of his needs. For instance, man does not wish for death to come and never to be poor or ill; yet, against his wishes, he dies one day and often suffers from poverty and illness.

Answer: Whereas the perfect and peerless revelation that we required is already with us in the form of the Holy Quran, and its perfection and uniqueness remains unchallenged to date, only those who have lost their vision will deny the existence of something that is already there, and consider the need for it to be hypothetical. The only option you have is to confute, if you can, the arguments for the perfection and uniqueness of the Holy Quran that I have set out in this book. However, if you cannot, and yet you go on advocating your views, it only shows that you are devoid of all attributes of decency. There already exists a perfect and matchless revelation which—by proclaiming its own inimitability—has settled that anyone is certainly free to deny revelation if he first refutes its claim of matchlessness. Thus, would anyone who fails to convincingly refute this claim, yet insists on dismissing the need for revelation to be hypothetical, be considered honest or stubborn.

Moreover, it is a grave mistake to apply the norms of the Hereafter to this world. God has created this world neither for everlasting comfort nor for everlasting misery. Rather, its afflictions and comfort are transient and every one of its cycles will come to an end. The Hereafter, on the other hand, is the abode of everlasting comfort or damnation. This is why every far-sighted person chooses hardship, and endeavours his utmost to obey God for fear of coming to a bad end. He leaves luxury and comfort and accepts adversity and hardship. Now tell me, is it not lack of insight to compare this temporary abode with the everlasting one.

Third Objection: Reason, by itself, may not lead to perfect cognition and complete certainty, but it does provide a degree of knowledge, and that is sufficient for salvation.

Answer: This is a completely biased assumption. I have already pointed out that coming to a good end, without being plagued by doubts and uncertainties, is not possible except with perfect certainty; and that perfect certainty cannot be attained without the aid of a matchless divine book. Likewise, it is not possible to avoid errors without perfect cognition—and one cannot have perfect cognition without perfect revelation. How is it possible then, that, imperfect as it is, unaided reason can lead to salvation on its own.

In particular, the method of divine cognition adopted by the strange reasoning of Brahmu Samajists under the influence of European philosophers is particularly flawed and ambiguous. Far from leading to any degree of certainty, it plunges man into all sorts of confusion and uncertainty, for it reduces God Almighty to some kind of a lifeless puppet devoid of all of His honour and glory. They assert that knowledge of God’s existence does not come from God Himself; rather, He came to be known accidentally through the deliberations of wise men. Their story is like this, that, in the beginning of human existence, people were totally devoid of intelligence like savages, and God gave them no knowledge of His existence. Then gradually it occurred to people that a deity should be appointed. Initially, they started worshipping mountains, trees, rivers, and other objects around them and called them ‘god’. As they progressed, they turned to the wind and the tempests and so on as their all-powerful gods; and later, advancing further, they considered the sun, the moon, and the stars as their gods. So in this way, after profound reflection, they gradually turned to the true God.

Just consider how their explanation casts doubt upon the true existence of the Almighty God and the scepticism it creates about His being the Living and Sustaining God who has the power to do what He wills. This would lead us to believe—God forbid—that He did not give us the news of His existence (as should be expected from a being who exists and is the Knower of the unseen and is All-Powerful). Rather, it was entirely an outcome of human endeavour. One day, out of the blue, man was tickled to appoint a god. He proceeded to deify water, trees, and stones; but eventually began to believe, without any rhyme or reason, that such objects cannot be God; for God must be some other being that we cannot see. Will not this belief create the doubt that if the ‘supposed’ God did really exist, He, like living persons, would surely have informed others of His existence some time or the other.

In particular, when someone with such thinking considers that it is not proper to think of God as imperfect, deficient or mute, and just as it is necessary for Him to have the perfect attributes of seeing, hearing, knowing, etc., so it is necessary for Him to have the ability to speak. He would wonder that if God has the power to speak, where is its proof. If He does not have this power, how can He be perfect. If He is not perfect, then how does He deserve to be God. And if it is right to think of Him as a mute, then why not believe Him to be blind and deaf as well. Man can free himself from these doubts only by believing in revelation. Otherwise, as thousands of philosophers perished by stumbling into the pit of atheism, so will he.

Now every fair-minded person should judge with impartiality as to whether or not this belief paves the way to the denial of the existence of God. 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.

Fourth Objection: If perfect certainty depends upon a revealed book, it would have been better for all mankind to receive revelation, so that they could all directly attain perfect divine cognition and thereby partake of divine grace directly without being dependant on anyone else. If revelation is indeed an established fact, then everyone should be able to receive it; but if not, then no one should.

Answer: Divine revelation is conditional upon the recipient’s potential and eligibility. It is not possible for all people to become Messengers of Almighty God or for divine revelation to descend upon everyone. Allah the Almighty refers to this in the Holy Quran as follows:

This means that when a Sign is shown to the disbelievers to demonstrate the divine origin of the Quran, they say, ‘We will never believe until the Book of Allah is revealed to us directly’. God knows best where and when to confer prophethood; that is, He knows who is and who is not able [to receive revelation]. In other words, He bestows the grace of revelation only upon him who possesses the requisite ability and capacity.

To elaborate, the Eternally Wise has created all individuals different from one another for various reasons, so that the whole chain of the children of Adam resembles a line rising to the loftiest heights on the one end, and descending to the lowest depths on the other. At the higher end are the pure souls whose capacities are perfect in regard to their own distinct ranks, while at the lower end are those who are more akin to animals, devoid of all reason. In the middle are people with average faculties of intelligence etc. Observation of the diversity of capacities in different people is a sufficient argument to prove this point. No sensible person can deny that human beings are divided into different levels with respect to intelligence, righteousness, fear of God, and love of God. Just as the operations of the laws of nature produce the beautiful and the ugly, the seeing and the blind, the sharp-sighted and the weak-sighted, the perfect and the imperfect, similarly, the difference, to varying degrees, in the ranks of intellectual and spiritual powers is also patent and visible.

It is true that every individual—provided he is not absolutely insane or deprived of sense—can make progress in his reason, his righteousness, and his love of the Divine; but it should be borne in mind that no one can grow beyond the limit of his capacity.

Let us take, for example, the case of someone who is congenitally deficient in mental capacity [and suffers from microcephaly—the abnormally small circumference of the head], who in our part of the country is nicknamed by the common people as doulay shah ka chuha; it is obvious that no matter how much effort is put into training and educating such a person, and no matter how great a philosopher is employed as his tutor, he will not be able to progress any further than the limit God has defined for him. On account of his limited sphere of ability, he cannot attain the heights of a man with greater ability. This is such a self-evident fact that I cannot imagine that any sane person who reflects on it would deny it, but I would not be surprised if someone totally bereft of reason did so.

Clearly, if there were no such differences in intellect, why would different people differ in their acquisition and grasp of knowledge, and why would some outshine others. Those belonging to the teaching profession must be well aware of the fact that some students are so intelligent that the slightest hint or gesture is sufficient to make them understand, and some are so ingenious that they even come up with wonderful ideas of their own. Conversely, some are inherently so dull and slow-witted that no matter how much you exert your mental energies on them, they will not understand. Even if they come to learn something, after you have worked yourself very hard to teach them, their memory is so weak that, in a moment, everything is erased from it like a mark of water [on something] which disappears in no time.

Similarly, there is an immense difference in people’s moral capabilities and spiritual enlightenment. Take, for instance, two sons belonging to the same father, who have been taught by the same teacher. One of them may turn out to be righteous and good-natured, and the other wicked and mischievous; one brave, and the other cowardly; and one with a deep sense of honour, and the other shameless. Sometimes, it so happens that the mischievous one is reformed to a certain extent as a result of being admonished; and sometimes the coward, due to some selfish motives, performs a feat of courage—leading inexperienced people to believe that they have deviated from their true nature. But I repeatedly draw attention to the fact that no soul can exceed the limits of its capacity. If one makes any progress, it is only within the sphere of his inherent natural capacities.

Many naive people have fallen prey to the misconception that appropriate practice and training can help develop one’s abilities beyond one’s innate potential. Even more far-fetched and illogical is the doctrine of the Christians, who believe that merely accepting the Messiah to be God brings about a transformation in one’s nature, and that however greatly one may be overwhelmed by the animal instincts and evil desires that are ingrained in one’s nature, or however defective one’s mental faculties may be, by simply professing that Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus] is the only son of God Almighty, one changes his innate nature. However, it should be borne in mind that such thoughts are harboured only by those who have never closely studied natural sciences or medicine, or whose eyes are blinded by extreme prejudice and creature-worship. Otherwise, physicians researching the causes of different dispositions have found, through repeated experiments, that cowardice or bravery, stinginess or magnanimity, intelligence or dullness, weakness or resoluteness, kindness or fury, purity or impurity of thought, are not casual or accidental traits. Rather, the Eternal Creator has Himself made mankind distinct from one another in terms of their chemical ingredients, the proportion thereof, and the structure of their chests, hearts, and skulls.

It is because of these peculiarities that we see such stark differences in people’s mental and moral faculties. This long-held theory has been endorsed by physicians as well. They maintain that when they minutely analyzed the skulls of thieves and robbers, their structure was found to be of a kind peculiar to such wicked people. Some Greeks have gone even further and claim that they can ascertain the inner state of a person’s mind just by looking at his neck, eyes, forehead, nose, and various other organs. In any event, there is no running away from the proven fact that there is a marked difference in the moral and intellectual faculties of human beings, and though everyone may try to improve himself, he can do so only within the sphere of his capacity.

‘God Himself has declared belief in Tauhid [Oneness of God] to be ingrained in the nature of all human beings, as He says:

Meaning that the belief in Tauhid is inherent in human nature and is the foundation of the creation of man. He also says:

Meaning that every soul affirmed the Divinity of Allah and none denied it; this, too, points towards the natural confession. And He further says:

Meaning that, I have created the jinn and the men so that they should worship Me.

This also points to the fact that the worship of Allah is a natural phenomenon for all human beings. Therefore, if belief in Tauhid and worship of Allah is inherent in the nature of all human beings, and no one has been created for transgression and disbelief, then how can anything contrary to the cognition and fear of God also be a natural phenomenon.’

This objection arises from the misunderstanding of a verity drawn from the above verses; namely, that God has sown in man’s nature the seed of turning towards God and acknowledging His Oneness. Where is it mentioned in these verses that this seed is planted equally in every single person. Instead, the Holy Quran makes it clear, time and again, that mankind shares it in varying degrees; in some it is almost non-existent, in others it is present to an extent, and yet in others it is present in abundance. At one place it says:

That is, the children of Adam vary in their natures: some people are wrongdoers, whose inner light has been suppressed by their beastly and aggressive traits; some follow the middle course; and others have excelled in righteousness and turning to Allah. Similarly, regarding certain people, He says:

‘We chose them.’ That is to say, they were the elect of men by virtue of their natural capacities; hence, they deserved to be the Messengers and Prophets of God. And about some He says:

This means, ‘they are like cattle’; their inner light is so dim that there is little difference between them and cattle.

Thus, it should be borne in mind that although God Almighty has declared that the seed of Tauhid is present in every soul, at the same time He has also expounded at various places [in the Quran] that this seed is not of equal strength in everyone. Rather, the natures of some are overcome by their passions to such a degree that this light almost disappears.

It is obvious, therefore, that the innateness of beastly or aggressive traits is not inconsistent with the innateness of belief in the concept of the Oneness of Allah. However much a person may be given to following his desires, and however much he may yield to nafs-e-ammarah [the self that incites to evil], he possesses an inner light to some degree. For instance, take a person who, under the influence of passion or anger, commits theft, murder or adultery. Although this act is a demand of his nature, the light of doing good that is invested in his nature rebukes him at the very time that he indulges in any of these improper activities. Allah the Exalted refers to it in the verse:

This means, God bestows a type of revelation upon every person which is called nur-e-qalb [the light of the heart] and it is the faculty of distinguishing between good and evil deeds.

For example, when a thief commits theft, or a murderer commits murder, God puts it in his heart at the same time that he has done ill and not good, but he pays no attention to this inspiration, for the light of his heart and his reason are weak, and are overcome by his beastly or aggressive traits, and are pulled by his selfish passions. Such natures do exist in the world as well and this is established from day-to-day experiences.

The commotion and agitation of their ego, which is a part of their nature, cannot be subdued, for that which God has imposed cannot be removed by anyone. Yet God has provided a remedy for them. What is that remedy? It is repentance, istighfar [seeking forgiveness], and remorse. This means that if they do evil in conformity with the demands of their nature, or an evil thought occurs to them due to their natural inclination, and then they seek a remedy through repentance and istighfar, God forgives this sin. If they are remorseful each time and repent upon stumbling repeatedly, their remorse and repentance washes out the stain of this impurity. This is the true atonement that is the remedy of a natural sin. Allah the Exalted refers to it in the following verse:

That is, whoever does some evil, or wrongs his soul in anyway, and then asks forgiveness of Allah with remorse, will find Allah Most Forgiving, Ever Merciful.

This verse, which is so profound and full of wisdom, means that as stumbling and sinning are characteristics manifested by defective souls, correspondingly there are the eternal and everlasting attributes of God which are forgiveness and mercy. He is inherently Forgiving and Merciful. His forgiveness is not casual and coincidental, but is His eternal attribute which He loves and which He desires to exercise upon deserving people. Whenever a person turns to God with remorse and repentance at the time of stumbling and sinning, he becomes deserving, in the sight of God, that He should turn to him with mercy and forgiveness.

God’s turning towards a remorseful and repentant person is not limited to one or two instances, but it is an eternal attribute of God Almighty. Whenever a remorseful and repentant servant turns towards God, this attribute is definitely manifested towards him. It is not a part of the divine laws of nature that those who are prone to stumble should not stumble, or that the nature of those who are in thrall to their beastly or aggressive traits should change. Rather, His law—which, since eternity, has been in operation—is that imperfect people who commit sin due to their personal deficiencies, should find forgiveness through repentance and istighfar.

Nevertheless, someone who is naturally weak in certain faculties cannot become strong because this entails a change in his inborn nature which is evidently impossible. Moreover, it is a matter of common observation that a short-tempered person can never become cool-headed; whenever provoked, he inadvertently shows signs of anger, loses self-control or utters some inappropriate words. Even if out of some consideration he shows some restraint, he seethes in his heart. It is foolish to think that some incantation, or the adoption of a particular faith, will change his nature. It was in this context that the Innocent Prophet [Muhammad(sa)], from whose lips flowed wisdom, said:

That is: ‘Those people who were good-natured in the Jahiliyyah [the pre-Islamic period known as ‘Ignorance’] are good-natured in Islam.’

In short, human natures are like minerals of diverse types: some are bright and clear like silver, some are foul-smelling and highly inflammable like sulphur, some are unstable and restless like mercury, and some are hard and sturdy like iron. Just as this diversity of natures is proven and obvious, so is it in accord with the divine order. There is no irregularity in it, and it is not opposed to the laws of nature. Rather, the very existence and continuation of the world depends on it. It is obvious that if all natures had been of the same capacity, different types of work (which call for different grades of capacities) that are essential for human survival would have remained unattended because hard natures are appropriate for hard work, and delicate natures are suited to delicate work. Greek philosophers have also expressed the same view that, as some men are close to animals, reason demands that there should be others who are at the highest level of purity and refinement. Hence, as we observe that some natures descend so low as to approximate to animals, there should be some who are capable of rising so high that they should establish a relationship with the higher world.

Now that it has been established that individual human beings possess a diversity of intelligence, moral qualities, and nur-e-qalb [the light of the heart], this should serve as proof that divine revelation is confined to certain individuals, who are perfect in every respect. It is clear to every reasonable person that each soul can only receive the light of Allah according to its capacity and ability—and no more.

The sun is a brilliant illustration of this principle. Even though it sheds its rays in every direction, not all places receive its light equally. A house, the doors of which are closed, cannot receive any light; and one which has a small window or hole in the direction of the sun receives some light, but not enough to dispel the darkness completely. But a house with all doors open in the direction of the sun, and walls built not of opaque material but of clear and transparent glass, will not only receive the full light of the sun, but will also spread it in all four directions, thereby conveying it to others.

The same is the case with the pure souls of the Prophets. These blessed people, whom God chooses to be His Messengers, are like a clear, transparent, glass palace on account of their removal of veils and attainment of perfect purity. It is therefore obvious that those individuals who do not possess such an absolute perfection can never achieve the rank of Allah’s Messengers. This rank is bestowed by the Eternal Distributor upon those whose holy souls are completely pure of darkening veils, and are entirely free from physical coverings, and whose transcendent holiness is beyond imagination. Such perfect and impeccable souls are the means of guidance for all mankind—just as the bounty of life is conveyed to all the limbs by the heart, the All-Wise has appointed the bounty of guidance through them. For, they alone are bestowed the perfect relationship that ought to subsist between the Source of Grace and its recipient.

It is absolutely impossible that God Almighty, who is absolutely Unique and Transcendent, should bestow the grace of His holy revelation upon people, the greater part of whose nature is dark and opaque, and is also very narrow and constricted, and whose mean natures are steeped in, and polluted by, base impurities.

Unless we are willing to deceive ourselves, we would certainly have to concede that to establish a perfect relationship with the Eternal Source, and to enjoy converse with His Great Holiness, one requires a special ability and brightness, which is appropriate to this great rank and dignity. It is certainly not the case that every person who is in a state of loss, lacks merit, is tainted, and is covered up in manifold dark coverings, should—notwithstanding his low nature and lack of resolve—achieve this great rank.

No one should be deceived by the fact that from among the People of the Book, the Christians believe that the Prophets—who are the recipients of revelation from Allah—do not possess holiness, transcendence, innocence and perfect love for Allah. The Christians [believe so because they] have lost the true principles and have sacrificed all verities, so that somehow Hazrat Masih [i.e., Jesus the Messiah] might be deified and the doctrine of Atonement might find footing.

As the innocence and holiness of Prophets demolishes the edifice that the Christians are erecting, they have been compelled to resort to one falsehood in order to support another. Having lost one eye, they have had to gouge out the other. Thus, they loved falsehood and abandoned truth, insulted the Prophets and represented the pure ones as impure, and proclaimed as opaque and impure the hearts upon which [divine] revelation descended, so that the greatness of their fictitious god should not be diminished and the doctrine of Atonement, which they have contrived, should not be questioned. In the heat of their selfish attitude, little did they think that not only does this defame the Prophets but also raises doubts about the holiness of God, for how can He be holy who—God forbid—established a relationship and held converse with the impure.

In short, because of their overwhelming devotion to falsehood, Christians subscribe to a doctrine that is far from the truth. Now, without any justification, they are trying to keep alive the false doctrine adopted by their creature-worshipping forefathers, even if they have to pervert all established verities, or they are forced to tread a path contrary to truth and rectitude. A seeker after truth should realize that claims by such adherents to falsehood cannot harm the real truth at all. Their ranting and raving cannot change the verity that is manifestly proven. It is they who debase themselves by telling lies and deviating from the path of truth. As a result, they lose all respect in the eyes of the wise.

The fact that perfect purity is the precondition for receiving revelation from Allah is proven by arguments which are not insubstantial, nor is this matter hard for a sane mind to comprehend. Indeed, it is a matter that is substantiated by the entirety of the heavens and the earth. Moreover, it is testified to by every particle of creation, and on it depends the whole system of the universe.

The Holy Quran has set out this matter in an excellent parable that I have put forth below, along with a fine piece of research related to the exegesis of the Quran, which is necessary for the completion of the present discussion. It is as follows:

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.

As compared with this, there is a special grace, which is conditional and is bestowed only upon those select individuals who have the ability and capacity to receive it; namely, the perfect individuals known as Prophets, peace be upon them—the best and highest of whom is Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa [the Chosen One], the personification of all forms of grace, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. This grace is certainly not bestowed upon others. Further, as such grace is a very fine verity, and a fine point of wisdom, God Almighty—after mentioning the general grace (which is self-evident)—has described this special grace for the purpose of expounding the light of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ [the Seal of the Prophets], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. He describes it in an analogy that begins with the verse:

This subtle point has been explained in the form of an analogy so that it should be easily understood, leaving no ambiguity or complexity. Explaining intellectual issues by means of physical and tangible examples makes them easy to understand, even for an individual of low intelligence.

The remaining translation of the above verse is, the similitude of this light (in the perfect man, who is the Messenger) is as if it were a lustrous niche (meaning the illumined breast of God’s Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). In the niche, there is a lamp (meaning wahiyullah [revelation of Allah]). The lamp is contained in a crystal globe of extreme brilliance (meaning the extremely pure and holy heart of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him—which in its very nature is holy and free from all impurity and opaqueness, like a crystal clear mirror, and has no relationship with anything other than Allah). The mirror is as clear as a star of magnificent brightness from among the stars that shine in heaven with great glory and are called glittering stars (meaning that the heart of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ is clear and bright, like a glittering star, so that its inner light is seen flowing like water upon its outer surface). That lamp is lit from a blessed olive (that is, the oil of an olive) tree (the blessed olive tree means the blessed being of Muhammad, which is a perfect and comprehensive collection of diverse types of blessings; and the grace of which is not confined to any place or age or direction, but is perpetually flowing for all people and will never be cut off ). The blessed tree is neither of the east nor of the west (that is to say, the pure nature of Muhammad suffers neither from excess nor from deficiency, and is established upon balance and moderation, and has been created in the best of creative plans). The words of Allah, ‘The oil of the blessed tree by which the lamp of revelation is lit,’ refer to the fine and bright intellect of Muhammad, together with his innate high moral qualities that are nourished by the clear fountain of his perfect reason. The meaning of the lamp of revelation being lit by the high moral qualities of Muhammad is that the grace of revelation descended upon these worthy and refined morals; indeed, they were the requisites of the descent of revelation. There is another indication here, that the grace of revelation was in accord with the refined morals of Muhammad, and was characterized by the moderate temperament that had been ingrained in his nature. To elaborate, all revelations descend in accord with the nature of the Prophet to whom they are vouchsafed. For instance, the temperament of Hazrat Musa [Moses], peace be on him, was characterized by glory and indignation; so, in accordance with this, the Torah was revealed as a majestic law. Hazrat Masih [Jesus the Messiah], peace be on him, had a temperament which was meek and gentle, and so the Gospels teach meekness and gentleness. However, the temperament of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was firmly established on a middle course. His nature was inclined neither to undue leniency, nor to indignation on every occasion. Instead, his was a sagacious temperament that paid due regard to the demands of the occasion. Accordingly, the Holy Quran was also revealed in an appropriate and moderate mould, which combines severity and kindness, awe and compassion, and softness and hardness. In this verse, Allah the Almighty has disclosed that the lamp of the Quran’s revelation has been lit from that blessed tree, which is neither of the east nor of the west, meaning that it has been revealed in accord with the moderate temperament of Muhammad(sa), which has neither the severity of the temperament of Moses, nor the softness of the temperament of Jesus, but is a compound of hardness and softness, of indignation and compassion—displaying perfect moderation—and is a combination of both glory and beauty. The high moral qualities, together with the refined genius of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him—which became the cause of the light of revelation—are referred to in another verse, in which Allah the Almighty addresses the Holy Prophet in the following words:

This means that he was created with such perfection and consummation of high moral excellencies as could not be exceeded. In the Arabic idiom, the word ‘azim [which has been used in this verse] applies to a being that has attained the highest perfection of the species. For instance, when it is said that a tree is ‘azim, it means that it possesses all the length and breadth which is possible for a tree to possess. Some have said that ‘azim signifies a greatness beyond human ken.

Then, the word khulq, when used in the Holy Quran and other books of wisdom, does not merely denote good behaviour, kindness, and gentleness (as is commonly supposed); rather, khalq, with a fathah on the letter kha, and khulq, with a dammah on the letter kha, are two distinct words which are used in juxtaposition to one another. Khalq means the physical body that God, the Bestower of forms and shapes, bestows upon man, whereby man is distinguishable from other animals. Khulq means the inner qualities by virtue of which human nature stands entirely apart from animals. Thus, all the inner qualities which man possesses by virtue of his humanity—and can be extracted out of the tree of humanity, which distinguish the innate nature of man from animal—is called khulq. The tree of human nature is based on balance and moderation, and is free from any excess or deficiency that is found in the faculties of animals. Allah the Almighty points to this by saying:

For this reason, the word khulq, when not accompanied by a pejorative qualification, always means high moral qualities. These high moral qualities, which are the essence of humanity, comprise all the inner qualities found in man, and include the following: clear reason, quick understanding, purity of mind, sharp memory and remembrance, chastity, modesty, patience, contentment, piety, fear of God, high resolve, perseverance, justice, trust, truthful speech, generosity in its proper place, sacrifice in its proper place, benevolence in its proper place, beneficence in its proper place, bravery in its proper place, courage in its proper place, gentleness in its proper place, forbearance in its proper place, indignation in its proper place, courtesy in its proper place, respect in its proper place, compassion in its proper place, kindness in its proper place, mercy in its proper place, fear of Allah, love of Allah, affection for Allah, withdrawal [from all else] towards Allah, etc.

The oil, being so clear and refined, would well-nigh glow forth even though no fire were to touch it (that is to say, the intellect and all the high qualities of the Innocent Prophet were so perfect, appropriate, refined and bright, that they were ready to be lit up even before the receipt of revelation).

, light was bestowed upon light (meaning that many types of light were combined in the blessed person of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and upon these lights descended the heavenly light of divine revelation, and thereby the blessed being of Khatamul-Anbiya’ became a compendium of lights).

In sum, what this signifies is that the very philosophy behind the descent of the light of revelation is that it only descends upon light and never upon darkness, for bounty is conditional upon affinity, and darkness has no affinity with light. Rather, light has affinity with light and the All-Wise God never does anything without taking affinity into consideration. Thus, in bestowing the grace of light, His law is that greater light is bestowed only upon those who already have some portion of it—those who have none, are given none. Only those who possess the light of their eyes will receive light from the sun; the blind will be blind even to the sun. Those whose inner light is dim will receive only a little of the [divine] light, while those whose inner light is greater will receive it to a higher degree.

In the entire range of human nature, the Prophets are those high personages who have partaken of this inner light so abundantly and so perfectly that they have become the very embodiment of light. This is why the Holy Quran calls the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, nur [light] and siraj-e-munir [a lamp that gives bright light], as it is said:

Herein lies the wisdom as to why such light of revelation—for which extraordinary and perfect inner light is a requirement—was bestowed only upon Prophets and was confined to them alone. The clear argument Allah the Almighty gives in the above analogy falsifies the statement of those who, in spite of admitting to the differences in human faculties, insist out of mere foolishness and ignorance that the light of revelation, which is bestowed upon those with perfect natures, can also be granted to imperfect individuals. They should reflect with honesty and fairness on how they are making a serious error about the grace of [divine] revelation. They clearly see that the divine law of nature does not support their wrong idea, yet out of extreme prejudice and stubbornness they persist in holding this false notion.

Similarly, the Christians do not believe that an inner light is required for receiving [divine] light and they allege that it is not necessary that a heart upon which the light of revelation descends should possess inner light. Rather, according to the Christians one can be a Prophet of God and attain nearness to Him in spite of all his vices, even if he is: utterly ignorant and foolish instead of being wise; a coward of the first order instead of being brave; an absolute miser instead of being generous; extremely shameless instead of having a sense of honour; consumed by the love of this world instead of having the love of Allah; a notorious thief or robber instead of having the moral qualities of temperance, fear of God, and trustworthiness; extremely immodest and lustful instead of having the virtues of chastity and modesty; and deplorably greedy and covetous instead of having the quality of contentment. Indeed, according to them, with the sole exception of Jesus, all other Prophets whom they accept as true and whose revealed books they call holy, were, God forbid, bereft of holy perfection—a condition of innocence and purity of heart—just like those described above. The Christians ought to be immensely congratulated on their intellect and cognition of God for coming up with such a ‘sublime’ philosophy of the descent of revelation!

But only those who are benighted and immersed in utter darkness can practise and admire such a philosophy. Otherwise, even a feeble-minded person would not deny the obvious truth, that to receive the grace of light it is necessary that the recipient should possess inner light. There can be no remedy, however, for those who have nothing to do with reason, hate light, and love darkness. Like bats, their eyesight is sharp in darkness but they become blind in broad daylight. God guides towards His light (namely the Holy Quran) whomever He wishes and sets forth examples for the people, and He is well aware of all things (this means that guidance comes from Allah and is bestowed only upon those whom the Eternal Bestower has given the potential, and not upon others. God explains subtle points with the aid of analogies so that they are easier to comprehend. However, He knows full well, in His eternal knowledge, who will understand these analogies and embrace the truth, and who will remain deprived and frustrated).

Hence, the analogy which has been translated above in bold letters tells us that the heart of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, is like a clear glass, that is free from every kind of impurity. This is nur-e-qalb [the light of the heart]. Then, the Holy Prophet’s understanding, comprehension, perfect wisdom, and all the excellent morals inherent in his nature, are likened to a purified, luminescent oil which is the means of illumining the lamp. This oil is nur-e-‘aql [the light of intellect], for the faculty of reason is the source and fountainhead of all inner qualities. Then God has mentioned that heavenly light, which is revelation, descended upon all these diverse types of light [of the Holy Prophet(sa)]. This is nur-e-wahi [the light of revelation]. These three lights, when they converge, become the source of guidance for mankind. This alone is the true principle behind revelation which embodies the Eternal Law of the Eternal Holy God, and this indeed befits His Holy Being.

This inquiry shows that unless a person possesses nur-e-qalb and nur-e-‘aql to a perfect degree, he can never be the recipient of nur-e-wahi. And as I have already demonstrated, the perfection of intellect and the perfection of the light of the heart are not found by everyone, but only certain individuals. Now, by combining these two arguments, we can establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that the gift of wahi [revelation] and risalat [prophethood] is given only to some perfect individuals and not to every human being. This conclusive argument should suffice to utterly demolish the false notion of the Brahmu Samajists, and this is what was intended.

Fifth Objection: Some Brahmu Samajists object that if perfect cognition depends upon the Quran, then why did God not cause it to spread in all countries and in all civilizations, ancient and modern, and why did He deprive millions of His creatures of His perfect cognition and of the true faith.

Answer: This objection is the result of short-sightedness, for it has been made abundantly clear that perfect certainty and perfect cognition are not possible through reason alone. Rather, this magnificent level of certainty and perfect knowledge comes only from the kind of revelation that is perfect and peerless in its nature and effect, and whose peerless nature serves as a clear proof of its origin from Allah. I have also proven in this book that the only peerless book of this kind in the world is the Holy Quran—and none else.

This being the case, the straight path for the seeker after truth is that he should either refute my arguments and show that reason alone can lead man to perfect certainty, and true and certain cognition in matters of the Hereafter; or, failing to do so, should admit the truthfulness of the Holy Quran, which leads to the stage of perfect cognition. If he is unwilling to accept this, then let him cite another book like it, which contains all its exclusive excellences, so that it is proved that even though a revealed book is desperately needed for reaching the stages of perfect certainty and cognition, yet such a book is not found in the world.

However, if a disputant is unable to counter any of these arguments and is reduced to silence, he should judge for himself how far removed from honesty and integrity it is to present baseless conjectures in response to a truth that has been well-established with such irrefutable proofs that he cannot counter or disprove its arguments. It is a universal truth that until a fact, which has been proven with irrefutable proofs, is countered with solid arguments, it stands as a proven fact and cannot be falsified merely by ill-founded premises. Can a house whose foundation, walls, and roof are very solid be demolished with the mere breath of one’s mouth?

It is foolish to ask why God did not cause His Book to spread to all countries, thereby not allowing people of every disposition to benefit from it. If the light of the sun does not reach certain dark places, or if some people shut their eyes like an owl on beholding the sun, would this mean that the sun has not been created by Allah? If the rain does not fall on some arid land, or a saline area does not benefit from it, then would it follow that the rain of mercy is the work of man? To remove such doubts, God Almighty has made it manifestly clear in the Holy Quran that the guidance of divine revelation is not meant for every temperament, but is meant for those pure temperaments that possess the qualities of taqwa [righteousness] and salahiyyat [virtue]. It is only such people who take advantage of the perfect guidance of revelation and are benefited by it. Divine revelation reaches them in any case. In this context, we draw attention to the following verses of the Holy Quran:

From the verses quoted above, one should first ponder over the following verse: 23

. Observe how nicely, beautifully, and succinctly God Almighty has furnished the answer to the above objection. First, God mentions the efficient cause of the Holy Quran, and highlights His grandeur and majesty. He says: 24

, I am Allah, who knows best. That is to say, I—who am All-Knowing and All-Wise, whose knowledge is not to be matched by the knowledge of anyone else—am the One who has revealed this Book.

Then it refers to the material cause of the Holy Quran and announces its greatness in these words: 25

, this is that Book. That is to say, this is a grand and sublime Book, whose material cause is divine knowledge, and about which it has been established that it has its source and origin in the Eternal and All-Wise God.

By using the word ‘that’, which denotes distance, Allah the Almighty has indicated that this Book is derived from the knowledge of that being with lofty attributes, who is Matchless and Peerless and whose perfect knowledge and profound mysteries are far beyond the limits of human sight.

Then the praiseworthiness of its formal cause is described by saying: 26

, that is, the Quran in itself is so well-reasoned with solid arguments that there is no room left in it for any kind of doubt; meaning that, unlike other books, it is not a mere tale or story, but is comprehensive of conclusive arguments and categorical reasoning, and sets forth clear proofs of its objectives and purposes, and is in itself a miracle which operates like a sharp sword for the removal of doubts and suspicions, and does not leave the matter of the recognition of God at the conjectural stage of He should be, but carries the matter to the certainty of He is.

Thus far, God has mentioned the grandeur of these three types of causes. Then despite the grandeur of all these three causes, which greatly brings about an effect and reform, He has confined the fourth cause, that is, the ultimate cause for the revelation of the Holy Quran, which is guidance, to the righteous alone. And it is announced [by Allah]: 27

, this Book has been revealed for the guidance of only those worthy natures who—on account of their pure inner selves, sane reason, firm intelligence, eagerness for the search of truth, and right motives—would in the end arrive at a high degree of faith and recognition of God and perfect righteousness.

This means that those about whom God knows, in His eternal knowledge, that their nature is suited to this guidance and that they are able to make progress in matters divine, will in the end be guided by this Book. This Book will reach them under all circumstances and God will enable them to follow the right path before their death. Observe how clearly God Almighty has stated that those who, in the knowledge of God, are worthy of being guided, and possess the quality of righteousness by their nature, will surely be guided.

The verses written thereafter set forth the details and pronounce that all those who (in the knowledge of God) are likely to believe will gradually become Muslims, though they have not yet joined; and only those will be left out whom God knows well that they will not accept the true path of Islam. And whether they are warned or not, they will not believe, nor will they arrive at the perfect stage of righteousness and enlightenment.

Thus, in these verses, God Almighty has made it clear that only those will benefit from Quranic guidance who are righteous and whose true nature is not overwhelmed by any darkness of their ego. This guidance will surely reach them. However, those who are not righteous do not benefit from the guidance of the Quran, nor is it necessary that guidance should reach them whether they are willing or unwilling.

In short, the reply [to the above objection] is that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who are righteous, seekers after truth, and who accept the guidance; and those who are mischief-makers by nature, for whom it makes no difference whether they are admonished or not. And as I have just stated, the Holy Quran places in the second category all those to whom its guidance did not reach until the time of their death or those to whom it will not reach in the future. Thus, it is foolish to assert, contrary to the Holy Quran, that perhaps those people to whom Quranic guidance has not reached ‘might belong’ to the first category, that is, a group of the rightly-guided people. Because a proof qualified by ‘might be’ is not a conclusive proof. However, when the Holy Quran informs us about something, it is furnished as a conclusive proof, because it has established with conclusive arguments that it is of divine origin and is the true informant.

Therefore, anyone who does not regard this [Quranic] information as being a conclusive proof, the onus is upon him to refute these [Quranic] arguments that prove its own truthfulness, some of which I have also given in this book. As long as he is incapable and helpless to do so, it is only fair and just that he should acknowledge as right and true whatever is disclosed in a book, the truthfulness of which is intrinsically established. For, if a book, whose truthfulness is an established fact, gives news of the actual existence of something that is possible, this amounts to a clear testimony of its existence. It is obvious that to present unreasonable doubts and hold baseless views in opposition to incontrovertible evidence and irrefutable arguments is the sign of foolishness and naivety.

If it is asked, what about the salvation of those who had no access to a revealed book. The answer is, if they are totally uncivilized and deprived of human intelligence, they will not be called to account in any way, because they fall into the categories of the insane and imbeciles. But those who possess some degree of intelligence and awareness will be called to account according to the degree of their intelligence.

It would be an impertinent intrusion into the works of God, which is not permissible at all, to speculate as to why God created a difference in capacities, and as to why everyone was not bestowed such capacities as would enable them to arrive at the stage of perfect enlightenment and perfect love. Any sensible person can understand that God is under no obligation to bestow the same rank upon everyone and to endow all with the best faculties. It depends entirely upon His grace and He is free to bestow or not to bestow on whomsoever He pleases. For instance, God has made you a human, and has not made a donkey human. He has granted you intelligence, but not to the donkey. You have been endowed with knowledge, but a donkey has not been so endowed. This is entirely the will of the Master, and is not a matter of right which you had and a donkey did not. In short, as a clear differentiation of ranks is discernible in God’s creations, which no reasonable person can deny, can such created beings, who do not even have a right to exist let alone a right to be awarded a high rank, raise any objection before the Authoritative Master. It is a bounty and beneficence of God Almighty to bestow the honour of existence upon His creatures, and it is obvious that the Bestower and Benefactor has the authority to regulate His bounty and His beneficence. If He did not have the authority to bestow less, He would not have the authority to bestow more, and in such a case He would certainly not be able to exercise His authority as the Master. It is obvious that if creation were arbitrarily vested with any right against the Creator, it would result in an unending chain of demands. At whatever stage the Creator would place a created being, the latter could claim that he is entitled to a higher rank. Since God Almighty can bestow infinite ranks, and the creation of man is not the end of His infinite powers, the demands of creatures will never come to an end, and at every rank of creation, creatures would have a right to continue making demands ad infinitum. This would be an unending chain of demands.

If the search should be for the wisdom underlying this differentiation of ranks, it should be understood that the Holy Quran has set forth three types of wisdom in that context, which are quite obvious and clear and cannot be denied by any reasonable person. They are as follows:

The first is that the affairs of the world, that is, matters related to human society, may be adjusted in the best manner, as is said:

This means that the disbelievers say that why was this Quran not revealed to some high-ranking chieftain—or a wealthy person from among the chieftains, or wealthy people of Makkah or Taif—so that it should have suited his eminence, and by virtue of his dignity, statesmanship, and expenditure of wealth, the religion could have spread more speedily. Why was this honour instead given to a poor man who had no material property to call his own. (In answer to this, God says) 29

, is it for them to distribute the mercies of the Eternal Distributor. That is to say, it is the doing of the All-Wise God that He limited the faculties and capacities of some and they became involved in the embellishments of this world and took pride in being called chieftains, wealthy and rich, and forgot the true object of existence. On others He bestowed spiritual excellences and divine perfections, and they attained His nearness by immersing themselves completely in the love of the True Beloved and became the favourites of the One God (after this, He mentions the wisdom underlying the diversity of capacities and the differences in the modes of thinking in human beings). 30

, that is, We have made some rich and others poor, some with fine qualities and others dull, some inclined to one occupation and others to another, to make it easy for some to serve and cooperate with others so that the responsibilities may be shared, and human affairs continue to proceed smoothly. He then goes on to say that, compared to the wealth and provisions of this world, the Book of God is far more beneficial. This is a subtle hint regarding the need for revelation. The explanation of this point is that man, by nature, is a social being and none of his affairs can be carried to completion without cooperation. For instance, take bread, which is essential food for life, and consider all the collaboration and cooperation that is needed for its production. From the stage of cultivating the earth to the stage when a loaf of bread is baked and becomes fit to eat, help from scores of workers is needed. This illustrates how much cooperation and mutual assistance is required in all fields of human activity. It was to fulfil this need that the All-Wise created mankind with different dispositions and capacities, so that everyone should delightfully occupy himself according to his capacity and inclination. While one would cultivate the land, another would manufacture agricultural tools, some would grind corn, some would irrigate, some would bake bread, some would spin yarn, some would weave cloth, some would keep shop, some would engage in trade or work as employees, and thus everyone would cooperate and help each other.

Thus, cooperation is necessary, but this involves dealing with each other. These dealings give rise to issues of treatment, compensation, and neglect of duty, which characterize a preoccupation with worldly affairs. This demands a system of law that keeps them from wrongdoing, transgression, rancour, disorder, and neglect of God, so that the order of the universe should not be upset. The entire functioning of society and civilization depends upon justice and the recognition of God. And justice and godliness can be achieved only through a law that lays down the principles of justice and verities regarding divine cognizance with complete accuracy; and such a law has to be free from any kind of injustice or defect, whether intended or unintended. A law of this nature can be promulgated only by the being who is altogether free from forgetfulness, error, wrongdoing, and transgression, and who is worthy of obedience and respect by virtue of His status. This is so because although a law may be good, if the promulgator of the law is not one who, by his rank, possesses superiority and the right to rule over all, and if he is not free from tyranny, vice, error and mistake in the eyes of the people, then the law will either not come into operation, or if it does come into operation for a few days, it would soon thereafter give rise to all kinds of disorder, and would result in harm rather than good. All these reasons call for a divine book because all good qualities, and every kind of excellence, are to be found only in a book of God—nothing else.

The second wisdom underlying this differentiation of ranks is to demonstrate the excellence of good and righteous people—for a good quality is known only by contrast. As it is stated:

That is to say, We have made everything upon the earth a source of ornament for it, so that those people who are righteous may be observed in comparison with the wicked, and so that by the observation of that which is crude, the fineness of that which is fine may become apparent. This is because the reality of opposites is known by comparison with opposites, and the value and appreciation of the good is known by comparison with the bad.

The third wisdom in the differentiation of ranks is the desire to demonstrate a wide array of [divine] powers and to draw the attention of His creatures to His own greatness. He says:

Meaning that, what ails you that you do not admit the greatness of God, in spite of the fact that to demonstrate His greatness, He created you with distinct physical features and differing moral characters. That is, the differentiation of capacities and temperaments was created by the All-Wise so that His greatness and power may be recognized, as He has said at another place:

This means that Allah has created every animal from water. Some of them move on their bellies, some of them on two feet and others on four. Allah creates what He pleases. Allah has the power to do all that He wills.

This is an indication that all these different species have been created by God so that the diverse powers of the Divine might be demonstrated. Thus, the differentiation in the temperaments and natures of different creations is due to these three considerations, which God has set out in the verses cited above.

[So ponder].

Sixth Objection: Perfect enlightenment can be obtained only through something which can be observed clearly at all times and in all ages. This characteristic is found in the book of nature, which is always open and is never closed. Therefore, it should be taken as one’s guide; for something which is closed most of the time and opens only on certain occasions cannot be a guide.

Answer: Considering the book of nature to be ‘open’ as compared to the Word of Allah is the surest sign of blindness. Those with unimpaired vision and insight know well that only such a book can be described as ‘open’ whose text is clear and unambiguous. Who can prove that anyone’s doubt was ever removed by merely looking at the book of nature? Who knows whether it has ever led anyone to the desired objective? Who can claim that he has completely understood all the signs of the book of nature? If it was indeed an open book, then why did those who placed their trust solely in it fall into thousands of errors. And why did they, having read from the same book, draw such contradictory conclusions that some believed in the existence of God to a degree while others denied His existence altogether.

Even if we assume for the sake of argument that one who, after reading this book, does not deem it necessary that God should exist, would be granted a long enough life to discover his mistake at one time or another, the question still remains that if this book is indeed so ‘open’ why did its study lead to such grave errors. Do you consider a book to be open if its readers differ with regard to the very existence of God and start to diverge at the very outset. Is it not true that, having read this book of nature, thousands of thinkers and philosophers died as atheists or naturalists, while others remained idol-worshippers, and only he from among them followed the straight path who believed in revelation from Allah.

Is it not a well-established truth that those who confined themselves only to the reading of this book, despite being hailed as great philosophers, continued to deny God’s Omniscience, creative power, and control over every particle of the universe. They died in this very state of denial. Has God not given you sense enough to realize that if a letter is construed in one way by Person X and in another way by Person Y and in an altogether different way by Person Z, then the text of the letter cannot be regarded as clear and open, but is considered doubtful, ambiguous, and confusing.

This is an obvious truth and not something abstract that requires a profound intellect to unravel. However, what can be done for those who stubbornly persist in describing darkness as light, and light as darkness, and day as night, and night as day. Even a child can understand that the proper method decreed by God Almighty for communicating one’s thoughts is through clear speech. The faculty of speech is the only instrument for expressing what goes on in one’s mind. It is only through the use of this instrument that one person can be informed of that which is in the mind of another. Anything that is not conveyed through this instrument will fall short of the perfect level of comprehension.

There are thousands of matters concerning which it becomes impossible for us to arrive at a true understanding merely with the signs based on the laws of nature; we would be prone to error even if we reflect upon them. For instance, it is obvious that God has made the eye for seeing, created the ear for hearing, and granted the tongue for speaking. This much we can understand by reflecting on these organs and their characteristics. However, if we rely only on these very natural indications and pay no attention to the explanations provided by the divine revelation, then we would be justified in looking at anything, whether lawful or unlawful, to hear anything we desire, and to speak whatever comes to our mind. For, the law of nature indicates to us only that the eye is for seeing, the ear for hearing and the tongue has been created for speech, and it clearly misleads us into thinking that in the use of the faculties of sight, hearing, and speech we are completely free and uncontrolled.

Just imagine all the perils that would arise by following the laws of nature if God did not explain them in detail and clarify their ambiguities through His open and clear Word. It is the Word of God alone that, by its very clear and open statements, lays down specific and well-defined limits and parameters for all our words and deeds, action and inaction, and teaches us the norms of humanity and the way of purity; it alone emphatically stresses upon the safeguarding of one’s organs—like the eyes, ears, tongue, etc.—as He says:

This means that the believers should guard their eyes and ears, and private parts from those who are not mahram and should refrain from seeing, hearing, and doing all that is forbidden. Thus would they be able to foster inner purity. That is to say, their hearts will be safeguarded from diverse types of passions, for these are the organs which primarily incite the carnal passions and provoke beastly traits. Observe, therefore, how the Holy Quran stresses safeguarding oneself from those who are not mahram and how explicitly it urges believers to restrain their eyes, ears, and private parts to avoid any occasion that might lead to impurity.

In the same way, the tongue has been directed to adhere to truth and rectitude, as is said:

That is to say, one should utter only that which is absolutely true, altogether proper, and entirely free from anything vain, frivolous, and false. And then, in order to establish all the faculties on the right course, it gives an admonition in the form of a comprehensive warning that is enough to wake the heedless from their slumber. It is said:

That is, the ears, the eyes, the heart, and all other organs and faculties possessed by man shall be called to account whether they were used improperly; he will be questioned for every shortfall or excess or for taking an extreme course. Just look at how expressly and emphatically the Word of God has directed that all human organs and faculties be employed on the path of goodness and virtue, and the complete and elaborate exposition it gives for the right and balanced functioning of all faculties, so that no ambiguity or confusion is left. Can these expositions and explanations be ascertained by reading any page of the book of nature. Certainly not. Then, think for yourself, which is the open book—this one or that one. And which of them prescribes the limits and the proper use of natural inclinations.

Gentlemen!! Had gestures alone been sufficient why should man have been invested with a tongue. How can He who bestowed the tongue upon you not possess the power of speech Himself, and how can He who has taught you to speak be incapable of speaking Himself. Is it proper to say of Him who manifested His Omnipotence by creating the whole universe without the aid of any matter, and without the need of builders, labourers or carpenters, but only through His will, that He does not possess the power of speech, or that He has the power but, out of miserliness, He has deprived man of the grace of His word. Is it right to think of the Omnipotent God as possessing lesser powers than animals, the humblest of which, with its sound, is capable of making its presence known to another animal with certainty. Even a housefly can inform other flies of its coming by its buzzing. But according to you—God forbid—the Omnipotent God does not even possess the ability equal to a housefly. As you say clearly that He has never opened His mouth and has never possessed the faculty of speech, you might as well say that He is imperfect and defective in that His other attributes are known but His attribute of speech has never been discovered. How can you say with regard to Him that He has bestowed upon you an open book in which He has clearly declared what is in His mind. Indeed your view of Him can be summed up by saying that God Almighty was unable to furnish any guidance, so you recognized Him through your own ability and intelligence.

Besides this, the revealed teaching can be generally described as open in the sense that it casts its influence on the hearts of all. Every kind of temperament and varying types of dispositions benefit from it and every type of seeker receives help from it. That is the reason why many people have been, and continue to be, guided through divine revelation, and very few, indeed almost none, through rational arguments alone.

Even reason affirms that such should be the case because it is quite obvious that when a person, who has an established reputation of being a righteous informant, describes his experience, inquiry, and observation of matters relating to life after death and also explains the rational arguments to support them, he has a twofold advantage at his disposal. First, it is believed concerning him that he has observed the matter which he speaks of and has seen the truth with his own eyes; and secondly, he manifests the light of truth with clear arguments.

The combination of these two types of proof creates a strong attraction in his preaching and advice, which pulls even the hardest of hearts and influences every type of soul. For his exposition is empowered by different types of illustration and no particular standard of ability is needed to understand it; rather, every type of person, whether of low rank or high, whether intelligent or unintelligent, can understand it, with the exception of those who are entirely bereft of reason. He can instantly satisfy every type of person according to the temperament of each and at the level of his capacity. His speech has great power to pull the thoughts of people towards God, to make them discard the love of the world, and to impress upon their hearts a concept of the Hereafter. It is not confined to the narrow and dark concept to which the discourses of the followers of reason are confined. Because of this, its effect is widespread and its benefit is complete. Every vessel [of the capacity of man] is filled with it according to its capacity.

God sends down water (His Word) from heaven and every valley begins to flow with the water of the Divine Word according to its measure. That is to say, everyone benefits from it according to his temperament, ideas, and abilities. Those with exalted natures benefit from the mysteries of wisdom and those who are even higher find an amazing light that is beyond the reach of pen or oration. Those who are lower, observing the greatness and personal perfection of the righteous informer, believe sincerely in what he says so that they also arrive at the shore of salvation by boarding the ark of certainty. Only those are left outside who have no business with God and are merely worms of the earth.

Similarly, from the point of view of effectiveness, the path of following divine speech is found to be the one with greater openness and clarity; because knowledgeable people know well that a speech is charged with blessings, passion, power, greatness, and charm according to the degree to which the footing of the speaker is planted high upon the stages of certainty, sincerity, and fidelity. This perfection, too, can be established only in the speech of a person who possesses the twofold cognition of God. And it is self-evident to every wise person that the fervour of speech, upon which depends its effectiveness, only issues forth from the mouth of a person whose heart is brimming with conviction; and only those words captivate the hearts which surge forth fervently from the hearts of those who believe with perfect certainty. This also proves that, from the point of view of effectiveness, revealed guidance alone holds the key to opening the door. In short, with respect to the vastness and vigour of effect, it is only the book of revelation, and nothing else, that is proved to be open.

It is no less than an established fact that only such a person proves himself to be the greatest benefactor of God’s creatures who combines in himself revelation and reason, and he has the ability to benefit every type of temperament and nature. A person who seeks to draw people to the right path only through logical arguments can produce an effect, if at all, on those who are highly educated and able to follow his learned and profound discourses. The average person does not have the faculties of heart and mind to follow philosophical discourses. Inevitably, the grace of his knowledge is confined to the few who can understand his logic and it can only benefit those who, like him, are familiar with the methods of reasoning.

This issue can be conclusively proven by comparing the successes of unaided reason and true revelation side by side. Those who are familiar with the history of past philosophers know well how those men have failed to impress the hearts of the general public with their obscure and imperfect discourses and could not spread their teachings far and wide. Compare this inferior situation of theirs with the superior effectiveness of the Holy Quran. How powerfully it has filled the hearts of its true followers with the Oneness of Allah, and in what a wonderful manner its splendid teachings have uprooted habits and evil inclinations that had been firmly established for centuries, and how it has made millions of people drink deeply of the sweet beverage of the Oneness of God by removing long-standing customs—which had become like second nature—from the veins and fibres of the hearts of people.

On the basis of the twofold testimony of its outstanding achievement and its excellent and enduring effectiveness, the Holy Quran compelled its worst enemies to admit its peerless excellences. So powerful was its effect on their hearts that even the staunchest disbelievers and those who were obstinate accepted this as testimony to its greatness and, though clinging to disbelief, could not but admit:

It is indeed this [Holy Quran] whose power of attraction overcame deeply entrenched habits and moved the attention of mankind towards God to such an extent that hundreds of thousands of His servants set the seal of their affirmation of the Oneness of God with their blood.

In this manner, from the beginning, it is revelation that has proved to be the architect and guide that has fostered human reason. Otherwise, great philosophers and wise men have found it difficult, even impossible, to discover each and every particular about metaphysical matters so that they should know in what form and manner and with what characteristics these particulars exist. More ignorant and unaware still are those with lesser intellect or those who do not have the opportunity to make an effort or strive in this path. The facilities which God’s true and perfect revelation, the Holy Quran, has furnished to reason, and the confusion from which it has delivered one’s reflection and observation, are facts for which every wise person must be grateful.

Considering that the initial foundation for the recognition of God began through revelation, and that the revival of the cognition of Allah has always taken place through revelation, and that relief from the difficulties in this journey can only be attained with the help of revelation; every wise person will be compelled to confess that the path, which is clear and straight, is always open, and has always led to the goal, is divine revelation. It is absurd and utterly foolish to hold that it is not an open book.

Besides, I have already explained in detail that the recognition of God by the Brahmu Samajists, which is based only upon rational arguments, is limited to ‘ought to be’ and that they fall short of the perfect stage of ‘is’. The present discussion also shows that the clear and open path of the cognition of Allah is discovered only through the Word of Allah and cannot be reached or attained by any other means. Deprive a newborn child of all knowledge and leave him to study the book of nature—which the Brahmu Samajists believe to be open—and then see what enlightenment he achieves and what level of cognition of God he reaches.

Repeated observations have shown that unless people receive knowledge of the existence of God through the sense of hearing, whose ultimate source is revelation, they will never be able to know whether or not the world has a creator. And even if they strive to find the Creator, they will be inclined to take created objects, such as water, fire, or the sun and moon, etc., as their creator and worthy of worship, as has been repeatedly confirmed by the study of uncivilized people.

It was only through the blessings of revelation that man came to recognize the peerless and matchless God as befitted His perfect and flawless being. Those who became uninformed of revelation and had no revealed book to turn to, and had no available means of knowing about revelation, achieved no understanding of Allah, despite the fact that they possessed eyes and hearts. On the contrary, they gradually moved away from humaneness and deteriorated close to the level of dumb animals, and derived no advantage from the book of nature. It is obvious that if that book had been open, uncivilized people would have taken advantage of it and would have achieved equality in enlightenment and cognition of God with those who had progressed in the cognition of God through divine revelation. So what greater proof is needed that the book of nature is closed than the fact that whoever relied solely upon it, and never heard of divine revelation, was altogether deprived of the cognition of God and even remained far removed and bereft of human manners.

If, however, by the book of nature being open it is meant that it should be physically visible, this is a baseless notion that has no bearing on the subject at hand. What does it matter if something is always visible, if it does not provide any religious benefit nor lead man towards God without being guided by divine revelation.

And if they mean to imply that the door of divine revelation was closed at some point in time, this only proves the Brahmu Samajists’ complete ignorance of world history. Indeed they are like a blind person who strays off the road and falls into a ditch and then starts shouting, ‘Who is the cruel person who has dug a hole in the middle of the road!’ Or else, their prejudiced thinking indicates that they are intentionally trying to conceal the truth and knowingly reject something that is there for all to see and know. Otherwise, how can we believe that they are still ignorant, as only a little child can be, of the obvious fact that the concept of God’s Oneness has only spread through revelation and that from time immemorial this is the only path that has always been open to seekers of divine enlightenment.

Gentlemen!! Fear God and do not take falsehood to such lengths. If your insight is imperfect, is there something wrong with your eyesight as well. Do you not see billions of monotheists—the Muslims—whose hearts have been filled to the brim by the clear spring water of Tauhid [Oneness of God], compared to which your beliefs reek of all kinds of idolatry and diverse forms of defect and error.

It is these people [i.e., Muslims] who have benefitted from the Word of Allah, and it is this spring of God’s Word that gushed forth and carried its water far and wide, so much so that it has restored greenery to almost a third of the withered garden of India. The hearts of many of the rest were also affected by this holy spring, for they, too, have been drawn somewhat closer to Tauhid.

The level of misguidance to which the Hindus had fallen before the coming of the Quran is evident from the study of the Puranas and Pustaks39, whose idolatrous teachings had taken the whole of India in their grip, and which had been written just a short while before the Holy Quran. They will show you what your revered rishis thought at the time, and how deeply your devoted ascetics and mystics were steeped in false superstitions as they supplicated before lifeless idols and chanted mantras to invoke them. All this was happening at a time when they were quite well-versed in the rational sciences and, compared to the times of the Vedas, had made considerable progress in rational and logical analysis. Indeed, they were not far behind the Greeks in terms of logic and philosophy, but their beliefs were corrupt, unholy and polluted by the filth of idolatry both in form and substance. In fact, their beliefs did not have the slightest semblance to divine truths and were totally fallacious, groundless, without substance, and useless, which prompted your ‘wise’ forefathers to view everything in the world as their deity. Seeing a tree verdant and beautiful, they took it to be their god; a flame emerging from the earth was to them worthy of worship; and the name of parmeshwar [god] was given to anything that was strange or fearsome in its physical appearance or in its characteristics. There was nothing they did not worship—water, wind, fire, rocks, the moon, the sun, birds, animals, and even snakes.

The truth is that the Vedas had only advocated creature-worship to a limited degree and they did not even refer to worshipping idols, but those who came afterwards and took themselves to be great logicians kept adding footnotes whereby they created hundreds of artificial parmeshwars and some even claimed to be parmeshwars themselves. As a consequence of their thoughts and innovations, they became entangled in all kinds of ridiculous delusions and went so far as to deny the existence of the Omnipotent Creator and all His perfect attributes.

The effect that the Upanishads, Puranas, and Pustaks had on the minds of the Hindus, the superstitions they sowed in their hearts, the paths they established for them, and the objects they led them to worship, is not something hidden or which can be concealed by anybody, nor can it be made dubious by denial. Similar was the case with the Greeks. Being hailed clever as a crow, they also gorged themselves on the filth of idolatry. Thus, at no time in history did unaided reason prepare a community that was established on pure Tauhid.

I have conducted thorough research into the reason for the Brahmu Samaj’s inclination towards Tauhid and I have concluded that from among their religious elders, the founder of their faith had acquired this concept from the Holy Quran. However, it was his misfortune that he could not fully absorb the teaching of Tauhid. This is how the seed of Tauhid, taken from the Book of God, gradually spread among the Brahmu Samajists. If any gentleman from among the Brahmus holds doubts about this finding, then he is under obligation to show us, with arguments, from where else they acquired the concept of Tauhid. Did they hear of it from elsewhere or did one of their founders discover it solely through their intellect. If they heard of it from some other source, then let them explicitly state which book, apart from the Holy Quran, had propagated throughout India the concept of God being One and without partner, beyond the need for family or offspring, free from every form of incarnation or embodiment, and complete and perfect in His person and in all His attributes. Let them give us the name of the book from which they derived the concept of Tauhid. And if they say that their founder did not hear of it from anywhere but reasoned it out himself, then the onus is upon them to prove that—at the time when the founder of the Brahmus was establishing their religion—the concept of Tauhid had not already been propagated in India through the Holy Quran. For if it had, then there can be no question of ‘discovering’, and it will perforce have to be admitted that the founder of the Brahmu Samaj acquired the concept of Tauhid solely from the Holy Quran.

In any event, unless you disprove my view with powerful arguments, it will stand proven that you have indeed acquired the concept of Oneness of God from the Holy Quran. And yet you remain ungrateful and refuse to acknowledge the debt you owe to your benefactor and teacher. Instead of expressing gratitude, you resort to abuse like those who are mischievous and depraved by nature.

In addition to this, all historians know well that in the past whenever someone acquired full cognition of God and His perfect attributes, it was only through revelation. The concept of the Oneness of God was never propagated through rational arguments alone in any age. This is why those whom divine revelation did not reach remained unaware of the existence of God, and were left uncivilized and uncultured like animals. Can anyone show us a book written in the past that spoke of divine knowledge and contained real verities, and yet its author claimed that he did not discover the right path to recognizing God through revelation, nor did he hear of the One God from elsewhere; rather, he discovered God and learned about divine attributes by his own reason, reflection, meditation, and diligence; that he found the concept of Oneness of the Divine without being taught by anyone; and that his mind attained true enlightenment and perfect cognition on its own.

Who can prove to us that there was an age when there was no sign of divine revelation and the door to the holy scriptures of God was closed, and yet the people of such an era had attained true knowledge of God and His Tauhid merely through the study of the book of nature. And who can name us a country whose inhabitants reached God through their reason alone while remaining ignorant of the existence of revelation, or came to believe in the Oneness of God, the Creator, through their own reflection and observation.

Why do you mislead the ignorant masses and—without fearing God even for a fleeting moment—utter that which is deceitful and deceptive. Why do you call that which is open to be closed and vice versa. Do you have no belief in the Omnipotent God who knows well what is in man’s heart, and from whose all-encompassing glance no dishonest person can remain hidden. Alas, the trouble is that your faith is like a narrow and dark place where not even a ray of clear and bright light has reached. This is why your religion is a collection of thousands of types of straitness and darkness, and is so constricted that no part of it can be seen as open and none of the issues seem to be set out clearly and correctly.

As for your faith in God, I have already stated where you stand in that regard. And as for your conviction regarding the Day of Reckoning, and the doors of enlightenment that the law of nature has opened for you about it, suffice it to say that all you possess in this respect is a bundle of baseless speculations and superstitions, let alone certain knowledge of the minute details of the Reckoning. First of all, you are not even sure that reward and punishment are a reality and that God will certainly recompense man for his actions. For if you know this, then please prove by a rational argument why God should be obliged to reward mankind for their righteousness and why He should hold evildoers to account for their sins and transgressions.

Whereas God is under no obligation to grant eternity to the human soul as opposed to the souls of other animals, why would it be obligatory for Him to reward and punish man exclusively and spare the others. Does God derive any benefit from your good deeds or does He suffer pain from your bad deeds, so that He may reward the virtuous for the comfort He received from their good deeds and take revenge from the evildoers for pain He has suffered. And if doing good or evil neither personally benefits nor harms Him, it does not matter to Him whether you obey Him or not. And if that is the case, then how can it be proved with certainty that reward and punishment must be a consequence of actions under all circumstances.

Would it be in accord with justice if someone did something on his own without being asked by another person but then started demanding recompense from the latter. Certainly not. For instance, if Person X were to dig a ditch or erect a building without Person Y having asked him to do it, then, even if we were to assume such a ditch or building were of great benefit to Person Y, the law of justice does not bind Person Y to compensate Person X for his labour and toil, which he carried out of his own accord without any instruction or order from Person Y.

So when our virtues do not benefit God even slightly—and even if the whole world became good and virtuous it would not add an iota to the Kingdom of God, nor would it detract anything if they were all to become sinners and transgressors—how can we then say that He will call us to account for our good or evil deeds, unless He has expressly promised to do so. However, if God has made such a promise, every sane person will be assured that He will certainly keep His promises. Every person, unless he is an absolute fool, knows that a promise and a lack of promise are not one and the same thing. The satisfaction and reassurance that comes from a promise cannot come from mere self-concocted ideas. For instance, God Almighty has promised the believers in the Holy Quran:

Meaning that, God will admit believers who do good works into everlasting paradise. This is a true promise from God and who can be more truthful than Allah in word. Now judge for yourselves whether the ideas that come to your mind can ever equal this specific promise. Can one who has been promised some wealth by a truthful person be in the same position as he who has been made no promise at all by that truthful one. Can one bestowed with good news and one without it be the same. Of course not.

Now ponder over it in your hearts as to which is the more clear, open, and satisfactory course of action—the one in which there is a promise of good reward from God, or the one that is done merely with one’s own will and God remains silent about it. Is there any wise person who would not consider the existence of a promise better than the absence of a promise. Is there any heart that does not yearn for a promise. If God were forever silent, then why would anyone strive in His cause and with what expectation. Can he regard the thoughts of his own imagination to be the promise of God. Certainly not. If His intention is unknown—as to what recompense He would bestow and for what reasons and for how long—then who can have firm hope, just on his own, about what He will do. How can he remain interested in struggling and striving in the face of hopelessness.

Only God’s promises inspire a man’s heart with true zeal and fervour. It is on the basis of these [promises] that wise people turn away from the love of this world and become devoted to God—having severed a thousand bonds, relations, and chains. These are the promises that, once and forever, pull those towards God who are sunk in the quagmire of greed and lust. As soon as it becomes apparent to a person that God’s Word is true and every promise of His is bound to be fulfilled one day, from that very moment his love for the world grows cold; in an instant, he is transformed into a whole new being altogether, and rises to a totally different level.

To sum up, whether in respect of faith, or in respect of action, or in respect of hope for reward and fear of punishment, the only door that is open is that of God’s true revelation and Holy Word—and nothing else.

The Holy Word of God, the Peerless, liberally treats us to the goblets of divine knowledge;
How would he know the sweetness of faith who has never tasted this wine?

That which has spent an entire lifetime in blindness cannot be called an eye;
Nor is that ear worthy of its name which has never heard the sweet words of the Beloved.

Seventh Objection: All verities of divine knowledge cannot be encompassed in any one book; therefore, how can it be expected that imperfect books can guide a person to perfect enlightenment.

Answer: This objection would be worthy of attention if, on the basis of his reason, one of the Brahmu Samajists were to put forward some new verity relating to the cognition of God or another matter relating to the Hereafter which is not mentioned anywhere in the Holy Quran. In that case, the Brahmu Samajists could claim with great pride that all the verities relating to the Hereafter and to the recognition of God are not comprised in the revealed Book, and that such and such verity is left out which they have discovered on their own. If they were to do so, then they might succeed in misguiding some ignorant persons. However, the Holy Quran clearly and explicitly claims that:

That is to say, no verity relating to divine knowledge which is needed by man has been left out of this Book. Again, it is said:

That is to say, the Messenger of God recites holy Scriptures comprising all perfect verities and knowledge granted to people of the earlier ages and those of the latter days. Again, it is said:

Meaning that, this Book has two qualities. The first is that the All-Wise One has set it out in a firm and well-argued manner—that is to say, in accord with wisdom and not merely as a story or a tale; and secondly, it details all the essentials of knowledge of the Hereafter. Again, it is said:

That is to say, this Book resolves all the contentions that might arise regarding the knowledge of the Hereafter and is not just useless or vain talk. Again, it is said:

That is to say, We have revealed this Book so that the differences that have been created by defective reasoning, and by interpolation or omission, may be removed and the straight path might be indicated for the believers.

There is also an indication here that the mischief that has been wrought by differences in human compositions can be set right only by the [Divine] Word. In other words, the disorder created by vain and erroneous texts can only be corrected by the Word that is free from all defects. It is obvious that he who has been misled by words can be brought to the straight path only through the Divine Word.

Mere indications contained in the law of nature cannot settle textual disputes, nor can they fully convince the misguided one of his error. For instance, if a judge does not record the pleas of the plaintiff, nor counter the objections of the defendant with strong arguments, how then would it be possible that the parties should discover the answers to their questions, objections, and pleas, merely through the hints [contained in his judgement]. And how can a final judgement be propounded on the basis of confused hints which do not completely satisfy either side. In the same way, the commandments of God are established to the satisfaction of His servants only when He informs them, through His perfect and truthful speech, of the diverse types of false notions into which they have fallen due to the erroneous statements of people, and makes them aware of their misguidance with a reasoned and clear statement, so that, if they do not mend their ways even after being informed and do not give up their error, they should deserve to be punished. Would it be just on the part of God Almighty that He should seize a person as an offender and be ready to punish him, without first disproving his pleas of innocence through a clear statement and removing his doubts through His unambiguous Word.

This means that the Quran has three qualities. First, it guides people to the knowledge of the faith that they had forgotten. Second, it sets forth the details of such knowledge as had been stated somewhat briefly in the past. Third, it gives the decisive verdict concerning matters over which differences and controversies had arisen, and thus distinguishes between truth and falsehood.

Meaning that, all knowledge of faith has been explained in complete detail in this Book and it identifies the means and teaches the perfect knowledge which should lead man not only to partial progress but to full development. Again, it is said:

Meaning that, We have revealed this Book to you so that every religious verity might be explained clearly and this perfect discourse of Ours might prove to be the means of guidance and mercy for those who submit wholly to Allah. Then He says:

Meaning that, We have revealed this magnificent Book to you, so that you may bring mankind out of every kind of darkness into light.

This is an indication that the Holy Quran removes every kind of doubt and misgiving that passes through a man’s heart. It eradicates all kinds of corrupt thoughts and bestows the light of perfect divine enlightenment. That is to say, it bestows all the insights and verities that are needed for turning towards God and believing in Him. Again, it is said:

This means that the Quran is not a book which could be composed by man. The signs of its truth are patent, for it establishes the truth of previous Books, meaning that with its coming it has proved true all prophecies relating to it that were recorded in the Books of past prophets. And the Quran also provides arguments in support of true doctrines—arguments that were lacking in those Scriptures. It thus perfected their teachings and testified to their truth in such a manner as to establish its own truth as well. The second sign of its truth is that it sets forth every religious verity and states all those matters which are necessary for perfect guidance. This is a sign of its truth inasmuch as it is beyond the power of man that his knowledge should be so comprehensive that no religious verity or the most subtle of religious truths should be left out of it.

To summarize, in all these verses God Almighty has clearly stated that the Holy Quran is comprehensive of all verities, and it is this very magnificent argument which supports its truth. Centuries have passed after this claim of the Holy Quran, but no Brahmu or anyone else has come forward to contest it. Therefore, it is obvious that, without presenting any new verity that might have been left out of the Holy Quran, to put forward baseless, false notions like the insane is strong proof that such people do not desire to seek the truth like the righteous. However, to please their nafs-e-ammarah [the self that incites to evil], they are seeking ways whereby they should somehow be freed from God’s holy commandments, or rather, from God altogether. For procuring such freedom they turn away from the true Book of God, the truth of which is as evident as the shining sun, and they neither discuss any matter in the spirit of decency, nor listen to anything said by the other side.

They should be asked if anyone has ever presented a religious verity in challenge to the Quran and found no convincing answer from the Quran. When, for the last thirteen hundred years, the Holy Quran has vociferously claimed that all religious verities are comprised in it, then how vile is it that, without a test, such a grand Book should be held to be defective, and what kind of arrogance is it neither to admit the claim of the Holy Quran nor to come forward to refute it. The truth is that though the name of God does occasionally come upon their lips, their hearts are full of the filth of materialism. Even when they start a religious debate, they do not wish for its [logical] conclusion and try to stifle it as soon as possible lest the truth should emerge. And such is their brazenness that they sit in the comfort of their homes and try to deprecate this perfect Book which announced in unequivocal terms:

That is, today, having revealed this book, I have perfected religious knowledge to its heights and have completed all My bounties upon the believers.

Gentlemen! Have you no fear of God? Will you go on living like this? Will curses not be cast upon your liar’s face one day? If indeed you possess some great truth which you think you have acquired by sweating blood, working tirelessly, and doing research into the minutest details, and which you believe the Holy Quran has failed to mention, I beseech you to leave everything else and bring that verity before me, and I will show you that it is already present in the Holy Quran. But, of course, in such a case you must be ready to embrace Islam. If you still persist in your scepticism, and do not stop your nonsense, and refuse to engage in direct debate, then what can I say other than:

[‘May the curse of Allah be upon the liars’].

Beware! O you, who are bent on telling lies,
Do not ruin yourself by being so shameless.

How long would you bear enmity towards the elect of God,
Would you ever be ashamed before the Lord of the world?

When something has been proven to be excellent,
It would be foolish of you to find fault with it.

If you are suspicious of the righteous,
People will know that you yourself are of wicked nature.

If you call a bright, shining pearl dull and dusty,
Your poor and weak-sightedness will be exposed.

Foul, meaningless and indecent talk,
Shows only the wickedness of the evil ones.

You only know how to tell lies, nothing else,
But when truth prevails, falsehood cannot flourish.

You do not remember the Peerless God,
And have fallen in love with this despicable world.

Why should anyone love this world,
When one day he will have to suddenly depart from this transitory abode!

The end of this worldly home is nothing but grief and pain,
True men are not deceived by its wiles.

Do not let your heart be polluted with this filth, like the mean,
For the time to stay here will not last long.

Do not be deceived by the glitter of gold, silver, and wealth,
For all wealth will perish at last.

We did not bring anything into the world, nor shall we take anything away.
Empty-handed we came and empty-handed we shall depart.

Do not turn your face away from the Friend,
A single hair of the Beloved is more precious than the whole universe.

You cannot find your way to God, for whom we are ready to lay down our lives,
Unless you follow Mustafa [the Chosen One].

Abul-Qasim [the Holy Prophet] is the sun of the universe,
That has illumined the heavens and the earth.

How could man prove superior to angels,
If there had not been a person like Muhammad(sa)?

Neither have you freed yourself from error and negligence,
Nor have you marched forward in the norms of humanity.

You cannot do the work of God,
Do not dispute it out of ignorance and obstinacy.

Do not regard God as imperfect and dumb like inanimate objects,
And do not forget that He is perfect.

It is you who are imperfect and mean-natured,
So do not accuse the Holy Being of imperfection.

Your absurd thoughts have ruined you,
You have voluntarily walked up to a well and fallen into it.

Your thoughts are plunged into pitch darkness, like a dark night,
And are also covered in a hundred veils of malice.

Do not be happy like thieves upon the arrival of night,
Rather, fear and remember the Day of Punishment.

You would still not be able to destroy the truth,
So you better stop talking nonsense like the insane and the drunk.

He whom God has made a radiant sun,
Cannot be turned into worthless dust by your efforts.

O wretched one, do not torment yourself in vain,
That which is destined to grow cannot diminish by your machinations.

It is the season of spring, and the gentle breeze,
Is playing with the rose and jasmine in the garden.

The fresh spring air, fragrant with rosa canina,
Is scattering its scent all around.

But you, O foolish one, are still languishing in autumn,
And all your leaves have withered like one who is destitute.

Why do you attack the Holy Quran out of enmity?
Have you not seen any goodness in the Holy Quran?

Had not this Word [the Holy Quran] been sent to the world,
No trace of Tauhid [Oneness of God] would have remained therein.

The world was immersed in pitch darkness,
It [the Holy Quran] illumined each and every country.

If you don’t believe it, look at the plight of your elders,
Look at their faith and beliefs with impartiality.

Do not try to fly higher than you can,
If you have no knowledge of medicine, do not practice it.

Rest assured, this [faith of Islam] is God’s work,
Human schemes have no part in it.

By the grace of God this is a noble Faith,
It has nothing to do with fraud, deceit, or coercion.

Because of the impurity of your heart, do not harbour suspicions,
But if you have any clear argument, put it forward.

Show interest with heartfelt love,
Then witness the Omnipotence of the Mighty Lord.

Choose a party from among your own people,
So that we can all reach a settlement.

The grace of the Exalted God is with us,
We do not fear the adherents of falsehood.

Divine grace has stirred my heart so forcefully,
That I wish to break the chains that hinder every seeker.

The doors of the beneficence of God are open,
The fragrant breeze of His favours is blowing.

How can he who violates equity and justice,
Dare to face the truth and rectitude.

The Word of God, with all its glory and majesty,
Always brings the face of the shameless to disgrace.

Of what value is the opinion of a man,
Who has been vanquished by his own selfish desires.

Purity of heart and sharpness of insight,
Are two valuable traits that always work together.

When we pour the elements of purity into our hearts,
We mingle it with the ink that flows from the eyes.

God created you out of a handful of dust,
And provided you with bread lest you perish.

He Himself provided for your every need,
And mercifully opened wide the hands of His generosity.

And do you ‘repay’ His favour,
By claiming to be equal to Him, in your own estimation?

How can you consider yourself equal to God?
Woe upon such intellect, thought, and reason!

When God casts someone into the pit of disgrace,
We cannot get him out of it with our own effort.

We can only render our best efforts,
The result will always be what God desires and deems appropriate.

Eighth Objection: It is disrespectful to suggest that God speaks to man. What relationship can subsist between the mortal and the Eternal and Ever-Existing. What resemblance can there be between a handful of dust and the Eternal Light itself.

Answer: This objection is also baseless and absurd. To shatter it, it is enough to understand that the Benevolent and the Gracious has inspired the hearts of perfect human beings with untold zeal for His cognition, and has drawn them so powerfully to His love, affection and devotion that they have been lost to their own selves. To propose in such a case that God would not desire to converse with them would be tantamount to saying that all their yearning and love is vain and all their zeal is one-sided. However, one must stop to think that this notion is utter nonsense.

Can a seeker of the One who bestowed upon man the capacity to win nearness to Him, and made him restless with His own love and yearning, be deprived of the grace of converse with Him? How can it be that, though it is right and legitimate and in accord with God’s majesty that His creatures should yearn for Him, love Him, and lose their whole being for His sake; yet it should be impossible, illegitimate, and contrary to His majesty that He should bestow His revelation upon the hearts of His true lovers.

Man’s plunging into the limitless ocean of God’s love, and stopping nowhere in that pursuit, is conclusive evidence that man’s wonderful soul has been fashioned for the complete cognition of God. Thus, if it is fashioned for the cognition of God, but is not bestowed the perfect means of cognition, which is revelation, it would have to be said that God did not fashion it for His own cognition.

Even the Brahmu Samajists do not deny that the soul of a right-natured man is hungry and thirsty for the cognition of God. Hence, they should now realize it themselves in view of the fact that a man of pure nature naturally seeks to attain cognition of God, and it is established that the perfect means of attaining it is divine revelation and nothing else. In this scenario, if such means are impossible to attain and, rather, to seek them is disrespectful, then God’s wisdom would be open to the criticism that He bestowed upon man zeal for His own cognition, but did not bestow upon him the means of acquiring it. In other words, He afflicted man with hunger, but would not bestow upon him enough bread to satisfy his hunger; or that He afflicted man with thirst, but would not bestow upon him enough water to quench his thirst.

Wise people can readily understand that this concept amounts to belittling God’s immense grace. Considering that the All-Wise God has tied the ultimate bliss of man to beholding the rays of the divine light perfectly in this world, so that, due to its irresistible attraction, he is pulled towards God, how can one imagine that such a Benevolent and Merciful Being does not wish to lead man towards his cherished good fortune and natural goal. Strange indeed is the logic of the Brahmu Samajists!

Ninth Objection: The belief that God sends down His word from heaven is utterly wrong, for the law of nature does not confirm it, nor do we ever hear a voice coming down from above. Revelation is the name given to the thoughts which arise in the hearts of wise people by the use of reflection and observation, and that is all.

Answer: A truth which is self-evident and has been observed by countless men of understanding with their own eyes, and the proof of which can be found in every age by a seeker after truth, suffers no harm by the denial of a person who is bereft of spiritual insight, nor, the thinking or defective knowledge of a person whose heart is wrapped up in coverings fails to confirm it. Moreover, the truth cannot be considered as being outside the law of nature because of the idle talk of such people.

Consider, for instance, the case of a person who has never seen a magnet and is unaware of a magnet’s power of attraction. If he were to claim that: a magnet is only a piece of stone; that he has never witnessed any such power of attraction in any stone; and therefore, in his opinion, it is wrong to assert that a magnet has such a power—for it is contrary to the law of nature—then would his vain assertions cast any doubt on the well-established quality of a magnet. Certainly not. All that his assertion would prove is that he is absolutely stupid and ignorant and considers his own lack of knowledge to be a proof of the non-existence of a reality and does not accept the testimony of thousands of people who have experienced it.

How can we possibly lay down as a general condition for the laws of nature that they must be personally tested by every individual. God has created the human species with great diversity in their external and internal faculties. For instance, some people possess very good eyesight, while others have weak eyesight and some are altogether blind. When those who are weak-sighted find that those with good sight have perceived a thing from afar—for instance, they have sighted the crescent—they do not deny it; rather, they think that their denial would only humiliate them and expose their weakness. The blind, of course, are totally incapable of saying anything in such a matter. In the same way, those who possess no sense of smell believe it when hundreds of trustworthy and truthful people speak of good smell or foul odour. They do not doubt them at all for they know well that so many people do not tell lies and must be speaking the truth and that without a doubt it is their own impaired sense of smell that prevents them from experiencing these scents first-hand.

Likewise, human beings also differ with respect to their inner faculties. Some are weak and covered in the veils of their egos, while there have always been others who, due to their lofty and pure nature, have been receiving revelation from God. For those who are weak and covered in veils to deny the personal characteristic of those who possess a lofty nature would be the same as if a blind person, or one with weak sight, were to deny the observations of one with excellent sight, or as if a person congenitally lacking the sense of smell were to deny the experiences of one who possesses a sense of smell.

The ways to disprove such a denier are the same in the spiritual realm as they are in the physical realm. For instance, if a person who is congenitally bereft of the sense of smell denies the existence of good and foul smell, and asserts that those who claim to have such a sense are liars or are mistaken, then he can be persuaded to admit his mistake in the following manner. He should be asked to select a few pieces of clothing and rub some with perfume and leave others untouched and then test the sense of smell of a normal person, so that by repeated experiments he would be convinced of the reality and existence of the sense of smell and that, indeed, there are people who can distinguish between that which is fragrant and that which has no smell.

In the same way, a seeker after truth can be convinced of the existence of revelation through repeated observations. When hidden matters and secret mysteries, which cannot be discovered through reason alone, are disclosed to a recipient of revelation, and when a revealed book is found to contain wonders, which are not to be discovered in any other book, a seeker after truth is convinced that divine revelation is an established truth. If such a person possesses a pure nature, he himself, by treading on the right path can, to the extent of the illumination of his heart, experience divine revelation like the auliya’ullah [friends of Allah]. Thus, he learns of wahy-e-risalat [Divine Scriptures] at the level of haqqul-yaqin [true certainty]. In this regard, I myself take the responsibility of satisfying any seeker after truth who shows his readiness to accept Islam with heartfelt truthfulness, sincerity of faith and an unblemished spirit of obedience.

[And if anyone doubts my word let him come to me in all sincerity; for Allah has the power to grant what I say and He is the Helper in every matter].

To think that revelation is nothing other than the insightful ideas that occur to the human mind as a result of deep thought and deliberation is also the product of inner blindness and ignorance. If human thoughts were the same as divine revelation, then surely man would be able to discover unseen phenomena through his own reflections and observations. It is obvious that no matter how wise a person may be, he cannot disclose anything hidden by merely reflecting on the matter. Nor can he exhibit any sign of divine power. Nor can his speech exhibit any of the special characteristics of the Divine. Even if he thinks himself to death, he still cannot discover the unseen, which is beyond his reason, observation, and other senses. Nor can his discourse be so lofty that no human power is able to match it.

Thus, there are enough reasons for a wise person to conclude that whatever a man might think—good or bad—as a consequence of his own reflection or observation, cannot be the word of God. Had it been the word of God, every door to the unseen would be open to man and he would be able to foretell all that only God can tell with His divine power, inasmuch as it is necessary that the work of God and the word of God should manifest the glorious signs of the Divine.

However, if someone has doubt in his mind about the source of beneficial or harmful schemes, deep insights about good and evil, clever thoughts and ideas that flash into the human mind as a result of reflection, and how by thinking about a problem a solution suddenly comes to mind, the answer is that such thoughts are khalqullah [the creation of Allah] and not amrullah [the command of Allah]. There is a subtle difference between khalq [creation] and amr [command]. Khalq denotes that God Almighty produces something through [physical] means and attributes it to Himself because He is the Cause of causes, whereas amr is that which proceeds directly from God Almighty without any intervening cause and cannot be attributed to any cause. Thus, divine revelation descending from the Omnipotent God proceeds from the world of amr and not from the world of khalq. All other thoughts that arise in people’s minds in consequence of observation and reflection proceed entirely from the world of khalq, in which divine power operates behind the veil of means and [human] faculties.

An elaboration of this point is as follows: God has created men in this world of means, equipped with diverse powers and faculties and has subjected their nature to such a law of nature—that is, has invested them with the characteristic—that when they employ their thoughts in good or bad matters their minds alight upon appropriate plans. Just as, with respect to man’s external faculties and senses, it is the law of nature that when a person opens his eyes he can see something, and when he directs his ears towards sound he can hear something. In the same way, when he concentrates his thoughts on achieving a way of success, regardless of whether it is for a good or evil purpose, some plan will arise in his mind. The pious man directs his thoughts to good things and finds good ways, whereas a burglar reflects upon his own craft and invents novel ways of carrying out burglary. So, just as people are inspired with extraordinary and ingenious ideas when carrying out evil designs, in the same way, when they employ their time on thinking of goodness, they come up with wonderful ideas of the same kind. And as bad thoughts—however deep, subtle, and enchanting they may be—cannot be called the word of God, in the same way, his self-invented ideas, which he deems to be good, are not the word of God.

In short, whatever good thoughts occur to good people, and whatever bad thoughts and designs arise in the minds of thieves and robbers and murderers and adulterers and forgers, as a result of reflection and observation, are the products of exercising natural powers and faculties, and because God is the Cause of causes, they are called khalqullah and not amrullah.

These qualities are as intrinsic to man as the qualities to induce purgation, constipation, or other properties are natural to some plants and herbs. Thus, as the Omniscient God has invested other things with various properties, so has He invested man’s power of reflection with the quality that it helps him whenever he requires its help, in a good or bad design. A poet who seeks to satirize someone finds his mind working in that direction and he is able to produce such poetry. Another poet, seeking to praise the same person, has commendatory verses come to his mind. Such good or evil inspirations cannot be the reflection of the special will of God, nor can they be considered His work or word.

The holy word of God is the word which is entirely above and beyond the capacity of mortal man. It is replete with the qualities of perfection, power and holiness. The primary condition for its manifestation and descent is that all human faculties of the recipient, such as reason and insight, should lie totally dormant as though he were like a corpse. All means should be cut off, and God, whose being is actual and real, should cause His word to descend upon someone’s heart by His special design. Hence, it should be understood that as the light of the sun comes only from heaven and cannot be produced inside the eye, in the same way the light of revelation descends only from God and by His will, and does not arise from inside a person. As God truly exists and as He truly sees, hears, knows and speaks, His word should also descend from the same Self-Subsisting and All-Sustaining God, and not that the thoughts of man should be considered to be the word of God.

The good or evil thoughts that well up from within us are only those that dwell within us to the extent of our natural capacity; but how is it possible for God’s limitless knowledge and boundless wisdom to be confined within our hearts. What greater blasphemy could there be than for us humans to think that all the treasures of God’s knowledge, wisdom, and mysteries of the unseen are also present in our hearts and surge up therein. This would be tantamount to claiming, in other words, that we ourselves are ‘God’ and that besides us there is no being, who is self-subsisting and possesses divine attributes, who should be called God. For, if God truly exists and His unlimited knowledge is special to Him alone, of which our hearts cannot be the measure, then how utterly wrong and absurd would be the claim that our hearts are filled with God’s limitless knowledge, and all the treasures of His wisdom dwell therein, as if God’s knowledge is limited to that which is contained in our hearts. Please reflect: What is this if not a claim to Divinity, and is it possible that the heart of man should comprehend all the excellences of God? Is it permissible that a particle of insignificant and uncertain existence should become the sun, whose existence is firmly established. Certainly not, certainly not.

I have just stated that the attributes of the Divine—like His knowledge of the unseen, and the comprehensiveness of the subtle manifestations of His wisdom and other signs of divine power—can certainly not be shown by man. God’s word is that which is characterized by God’s greatness, God’s power, God’s blessing, God’s wisdom and God’s uniqueness. Thus, all of these conditions are found in the Holy Quran, the proof of which I shall—God-willing—set forth at its proper place. Hence, if the Brahmu Samaj still deny the existence of such revelation, which comprehends matters relating to the unseen and other matters pertaining to divine powers, they should study the Holy Quran with full attention so that they should come to know that in this Holy Word surges a whole ocean of knowledge of the unseen and the matters that manifest the power of God, which are beyond human power. And, if they are unable to discover these Quranic excellences themselves due to lack of vision and insight, they should read this book of mine with open eyes so that they might discover, as a sample, some of the treasures of knowledge about the matters relating to the unseen and of the divine secrets with which the Holy Quran is brimming.

They should also know that the existence of divine revelation that descends directly from God and comprehends matters relating to the unseen can also be proven in another way that is open; and it is that God Almighty always creates such people from among the ummat-e-Muhammadiyyah [the followers of the Muhammad(sa)] who are firmly established on the true faith, receive revelation from God, and disclose such matters relating to the unseen—the disclosure of which is not within the power of anyone except God, the One without associates. God Almighty bestows this holy revelation upon only those believers who truly believe in the Holy Quran as the Word of God and act upon it with truthfulness and sincerity and who believe in Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa [the Chosen One], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, as God’s true and perfect Prophet, who is most excellent and superior and more exalted than all the Prophets and is Khatamur-Rusul [the Seal of the Messengers] and accept him as their leader and guide.

Such revelation is not vouchsafed to others, be they the Jews, Christians, Aryas, Brahmus, etc., but rather, has always been vouchsafed to the perfect followers of the Holy Quran. It is vouchsafed to them now and will continue to be vouchsafed to them in the future. Though the descent of wahy-e-risalat [Divine Scriptures] has been cut off as it is no longer needed, the revelation that is vouchsafed to the sincere servants of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, will never be cut off. This kind of revelation serves as a grand proof in support of the truth of wahy-e-risalat, such that it puts to shame and humiliates every denier and adversary of Islam. As this blessed revelation with all its blessing and honour and greatness and glory is vouchsafed only to those honourable ones who are included in ummat-e-Muhammadiyyah and are the servants of the Holy Prophet. The followers of all other religions are completely deprived of this perfect light which carries the good news of the nearness to God and of acceptance by Him and of His pleasure.

Therefore, this holy revelation not only proves its own existence, but also proves that the Muslims alone are the people who are acceptable to God and who base themselves on the true faith; and that all other people worship falsehood are misguided and are in danger of incurring the wrath of God. Ignorant people, on hearing this from me, will say all sorts of things and will shake their heads in denial or will ridicule me like the foolish and the mischievous. They should know, however, that denial and ridicule are not the ways of those who are noble-minded and are seekers after truth, but are the ways of those who are wicked by nature, are mischief-makers, and who have nothing to do with God or rectitude.

There are thousands of things in the world which possess qualities that cannot be understood by reason and which man can only understand by experience. Therefore, it is usually the way of all wise people that when some quality of a certain thing is manifested by repeated experiments they no longer doubt its existence. He who persists in denial after repeated experiments is an absolute fool. For instance, turbud52 is cathartic, and a magnet has the power of attraction, though no reason can be established as to why they possess these qualities. However, since repeated experiments reveal that they definitely have these qualities, every wise person has to admit on the basis of empirical evidence—even if no rational argument has been established—that certainly, turbud is cathartic and a magnet has the power to attract. If anyone should deny this on the premise that he cannot find any rational argument for it, such a person would be condemned as mad and insane by every wise person.

Here, I submit to the Brahmus and other opponents that whatever I have stated concerning revelation—namely, that even now it is the experience of perfect individuals among ummat-e-Muhammadiyyah, is confined only to them, and is not to be found amongst others at all—is not a statement without proof. Rather, it can be demonstrated to every seeker after truth through empirical testing and observation, like thousands of other truths which are being discovered by these means. If anyone should truly be a seeker after truth, it would be my responsibility to prove this statement. The condition is that someone from among the Brahmus or other deniers of Islam should publish a written pledge that, in case of proof, he would accept Islam and should come to me with sincerity and in good faith.

Some people put forward the objection that: considering that there are several groups in the world who claim to reveal the unseen and are able to do so occasionally and, at times, their statements are borne out to have an element of truth—as for instance astrologers, physicians, physiognomists, soothsayers, fortune tellers, people predicting the future based on letters and numbers, augurs, and certain types of maniacs; and that more recently some people have been able to reveal some matters through mesmerism—how can then [the revealing of ] the matters relating to the unseen be a conclusive proof of the origin of revelation [from Allah].

In reply to this, it should be understood that all the above-mentioned groups speak from conjecture, guesswork, and indeed from superstition; they clearly possess no certain or definite knowledge, nor do they claim to have such knowledge. Their prophecies that certain things will happen are based merely on signs and dubious conjectures, which are far removed from certainty; nor are they free from the possibility of mystification, suspicion, and error. Rather, most of their predictions are proven absolutely contrary to facts, baseless, and utterly false. On account of their evident falsehood and lack of fulfilment, those predictions are found lacking in honour, acceptance, triumph, and success.

Those who indulge in those predictions are generally seen to be poverty-stricken, unfortunate, ill-fated, dishonourable, cowardly, mean, unsuccessful, and miserable. They certainly cannot influence the matters relating to the unseen to come into accord with their predictions; rather, in their own circumstance they exhibit the signs of the wrath of God and they possess no blessing or honour or help from God. But the Prophets and auliya’ do not disclose the matters of the unseen merely like the astrologers; rather, with the complete grace and immense mercy of God that always accompanies them, they make such sublime prophecies that the light of acceptance and honour shines in them like the sun, and which consist of good news of honour and divine help, and not that of misfortune and adversity.54

Consider the prophecies of the Holy Quran and you will find that they are not at all like the predictions of the helpless people such as astrologers; rather, they surge with manifest and overwhelming signs of majesty and glory. All its prophecies are characterized by the same pattern—that it declares of its own honour and the disgrace of its enemies, its own glory and the humiliation of its enemies, its own success and the failure of its enemies, its own victory and the defeat of its enemies, and its own perpetual prosperity and the ruin of its enemies. Can any astrologer make such prophecies, or can they be put forth by a fortune teller or mesmerizer. Certainly not. To always proclaim one’s own good and the decline and downfall of the opponent, and to refute whatever the opponent says and to promise the fulfilment of that which is one’s own favour, is surely the work of God and far beyond the power of man.

In order to make this subject clearly understood, I present below as a sample some verses of the Holy Quran which comprise matters relating to the unseen, along with their translation. Wise people who are just and God-fearing should read them with full attention and consider them in their entirety, and decide for themselves in all honesty if anyone except God the Omnipotent can make such prophecies about matters relating to the unseen. These verses with their brief translation are as follows:55

These are the verses of the Book that encompasses the knowledge of wisdom. Is it a matter of wonder for men that We have sent this revelation to a man from among them, saying that you should warn mankind and give glad tidings to those who believe that they have a true rank of honour with their Lord. The disbelievers said regarding this Messenger that surely, he is a manifest sorcerer.

And they addressed the Messenger and said, ‘O you to whom this Exhortation has been sent down, you are surely a madman.’

Likewise, there came no Messenger to those before them whom they did not call a sorcerer, or a madman. Have they made it a legacy to one another. Nay, they are all a rebellious people.

So you should go on reminding them of the path of truth. By the grace of God, you are neither a soothsayer, nor are you bewitched by a jinn, nor are you a madman.

Tell them that if all the jinn and men were to join hands to produce another book like the Quran, they would never be able to produce the like thereof, even if they helped one another.

And if you are in any kind of doubt about the Word that We have sent down to Our servant—meaning, if you think he has forged it himself or learnt it from the jinn, or that it is some kind of sorcery or form of poetry, or if you have any other doubts about it—then, if you are truthful, produce a surah like it, and call upon your helpers, or those whom you worship. But if you do it not—and bear in mind that never shall you do it—then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, which has been prepared for the disbelievers.

And the disbelievers say to one another in secret, ‘What is it about this man, who claims to be a Messenger, that makes him better. He is only a human being like you. Will you then willingly fall into the trap of sorcery.’ The Prophet said that my Lord knows everything whether it is in the heavens or in the earth. And He is the being who is All-Hearing and All-Knowing, from whom nothing can be hidden. But the disbelievers do not listen to the Messenger at all; instead, they say of the Quran that these are but confused dreams. They even say that he has forged it. Moreover, they say, ‘He is but a poet; if he indeed be true, let him then bring us a Sign such as former Prophets were sent with.’

Man is, by nature, made of haste. Soon will I show you My Signs, but ask Me not to hasten.

Soon We will show them Our Signs in all corners of the inhabited world, and Our Signs shall appear among themselves until the truth becomes manifest to them.

Do they say that he is insane. Nay, the truth is that God has sent them the truth, and they are averse to accepting the truth.

And if God had followed their desires, the heavens and the earth and whosoever is therein would have been corrupted. Indeed, We have brought them the guidance they needed, yet they remain aloof from the very guidance that they need.

Shall I inform you of the people on whom the jinn descend. They descend on liars and sinners, and most of whose divinations are false. And as for the poets, it is the erring ones who follow them. Do you not see how the poets wander into every wilderness in pursuit of rhyme and metre—that is, they do not adhere to any heavenly truth, and they say what they practise not.

And We sent down the Quran to fulfil the true need and it has come down with the truth.

It is the Book that shall forever remain free from any tinge of falsehood. No kind of falsehood could stand up to it in the past, nor shall it do so in the future. That is, its perfect verities, which are entirely unadulterated by falsehood, will continue to convict and silence all worshippers of falsehood who came before it, or who will come after it and no opposing view will ever be able to stand before it.

And whoso refuses to accept it will not be able to stop Allah from manifesting His power to prevail and he shall have no protector besides God.

We, Ourself, have sent down this Word, and We, Ourself, will always be its Guardian.

Tell them that the Truth has come, and falsehood shall neither grow any new branches that have not already been repudiated by the Quran, nor shall it return to its original state.

And the disbelievers said, ‘Listen not to this Quran, but when it is recited to you, make noise with your idle talk so that you may have the upper hand.’

And some Jews and Christians said, ‘What you should do is believe in the early part of the day and disbelieve in the divine origin of Islam in the latter part thereof, in the evening, so that people may thus be dissuaded from turning to Islam.’

So We will make them taste a severe punishment. Just as their deeds are exceedingly evil, so will they be requited.

They desire to extinguish the light of Allah with the breath of their mouths; but God will not stop in His task until He has perfected this light, though the disbelievers may dislike it. It is God, the Omnipotent and the Glorious, who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, so that He may make it prevail over every other religion of the world, even though the polytheists may loathe it.

Say to the disbelievers, ‘You shall soon be overcome and shall finally be gathered unto Hell.’

Surely, that which you are promised—the prestigious spread of Islam in the world and the debasement of those who will try to stop it—shall soon come to pass and you shall not be able to stop it.

The Jews said, ‘The hand of Allah is tied up’, that is, everything happens through human schemes and God is incapable of manifesting His omnipotent powers. Therefore, God has forever tied up the hands of the Jews, so that if their views and plans have any worth, let them try to capture the governments and kingdoms of the world.

They have been smitten with abasement. That is, wherever they dwell they shall do so in ignominy and servitude, and it is has been destined for them that they shall not live honourably in any land except in subjection to other nations. Weakness, vulnerability and wretchedness shall always accompany them, for they have been rejecting the Signs of God and killing His Prophets unjustly. That is because they have exceeded all limits in disobedience and transgression.

It is Our law of nature that We help Our Messengers and the believers, both in the present life and in the Hereafter.

God has decreed: ‘Only I and My Messengers shall prevail.’ Allah is All-Powerful, and the Mighty.

Say to them, ‘Seek help from your deities whom you associate with God to try to vanquish me and put together all your plans to try to make me fail [in my mission] and give me no respite. My Helper is God who has sent down His Book and it is His natural law that He Himself undertakes the endeavours of the righteous and helps protect their missions.’

So be patient with regard to the judgment of your God and patiently wait for [the fulfilment of ] His promises. You are before Our eyes.

God will protect you from the evil designs of those who are waiting for an opportune moment to kill you.

And We sent several Messengers before you to their own people, and they too brought clear Signs. So at last We punished the culprits who had rejected these Prophets. And, from the beginning, it is binding upon Us to help the believers; that is, such has been God’s eternal practice that His true Prophets are not left to perish and their followers do not split and disperse; rather, they are granted help.

And the Messengers before you also have been ridiculed and mocked, but the mockers have always been punished for their mockery. Say to them, ‘Go about in the earth, and see the end of those who had been rejecting the Prophets of God.’

And the disbelievers say, ‘Why has not a Sign been sent down to him from his Lord.’ Say, ‘God has the power to send down the Signs, but most people do not know.’

Say, ‘To show you the Sign, He has the power to send chastisement upon you from above you, or make His punishment appear from under your feet or make you taste punishment through the battles with the believers. Behold how We expound the Signs in various ways that they may understand.’

And the disbelievers say, ‘If you are truthful, tell us when will this promise be fulfilled.’ Say, ‘I have no power over any benefit or harm even for myself; and only that which God wills shall come about. For every people there is an appointed term. When their term comes, they cannot remain behind it a single moment, nor can they get ahead of it a single moment.’

Say, ‘O my people, act as best you can; I too am acting, soon shall you know who it is unto whom comes a punishment in this world that will disgrace him, and on whom descends an abiding punishment; that is, the punishment of the Hereafter.’

As for those who disbelieve and forbid people from the way of God, We will punish them in this very world, in addition to the Hereafter, and they shall be requited for their mischief.

And let not the malice of the disbelievers grieve you; they will not be able to harm God’s religion in any way. And Allah has prepared for them a great chastisement.

Their case is like the case of the people of Pharaoh and the disbelievers before them that when they chose to disbelieve in the Signs of Allah, then Allah punished them for their sins. Surely, Allah is All-Powerful and severe in punishing.

And Allah is surely sufficient for you to counter their mischief, for He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

And they say, ‘Why has not a Sign in support of the Faith been sent down to him from his Lord.’ So say to them, ‘The knowledge of the unseen belongs only to Allah. So wait for the Sign; I am with you among those who wait.’

And say, ‘Allah possesses all the perfect attributes; He will soon show you His Signs—such Signs that you will recognize them.’ And God is not unaware of what you do.

We have sent to you a Messenger, like the one who had been sent to Pharaoh. And when Pharaoh disobeyed that Messenger, We apprehended him in a way that ended in his total ruin; that is to say, as a consequence of this apprehension, the Pharaoh was annihilated. How then can you, who are like the Pharaoh, expect to escape Our reckoning while you continue to disobey.

Are your disbelievers any better than the people of Pharaoh, or have the Divine Scriptures exempted or made you immune from punishment and reckoning. Do they say, ‘We are a powerful host that is strong and victorious.’ All these hosts shall soon be routed and will turn their backs in flight.

And as for those who disbelieve, grief of various kinds will continue to befall them until the time promised by God arrives. Allah shall not fail in His promise.

And Our word has gone forth in respect of the Messengers, that it is certainly they who shall be granted help and victory for all times to come; and that it is Our host that would certainly be victorious. So turn away from them, until the time that the promise is fulfilled and show them the way, for they will soon see for themselves.

And Messengers who came before you were also rejected, yet they endured patiently despite rejection. They were persecuted over a long period of time until Our help came to them. And there have already come to you the tidings of past Messengers.

And on a day when you recite not unto them a verse, they say, ‘Why have you not fabricated any verse today.’ Say, ‘I follow only the Word which is revealed to me from my Lord. It is not for me to forge it on my own, nor are His words such that can be forged by man. These are evident proofs from my Lord. That is to say, they are, in themselves, manifest proof of stemming from God; and guidance and mercy for the believers.’

God is about to manifest His will to establish the truth by His Word and to uproot the false creed of the disbelievers, so that He might establish the truth of the true religion and expose the falsehood of the false religions, though the culprits might dislike it.

And remember the time when the disbelievers plotted against you and devised that they might imprison you or kill you or expel you. And they planned and Allah also planned, and Allah is the Best of all planners.

They planned to the best of their ability, but all their designs are under the control of God. And even though their designs be such as to make the mountains move, do not think that God will fail to keep His promises to His Messengers. God is the Mighty, Lord of retribution.

He will bring you back to the place from which you were expelled—that is, Makkah, from where the disbelievers had expelled the Holy Prophet.

O ye who believe! Shall I point out to you a bargain that will save you from a painful punishment. Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your persons as that is better for you. For doing so, God will forgive you your sins, and make you enter the Gardens beneath which streams flow, and will grant you palaces which are in the pure Gardens of Eternity. This is the supreme triumph for man; and another is that which you desire in this very world: help from Allah and a near victory.

Slacken not, nor grieve; and you shall certainly prevail in the end if you remain steadfast in faith.

And you shall surely hear many hurtful things from the Jews and Christians and from the idolaters.

But if you will show fortitude and not indulge in any type of impatience and anxiety, their designs will not harm you at all.

Allah has promised some of those among you who are righteous and are true believers that He will make them the successors of His Beloved Prophet, as He did in the case of those who were before them; and that He will surely strengthen and establish the religion He has chosen for them—that is, Islam—in the earth; and that He will surely give them, in exchange, security and peace after their fear.

This means that at the time of the demise of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ [the Seal of the Prophets], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, the believers shall be in fear lest their religion should perish, but God Almighty in this state of fear and anxiety, by establishing khilafat-e-haqqah [the true succession], will alleviate their fear regarding the ruin of faith and free them from grief and grant them peace. They will worship Me only, and they will not associate anything with Me.

This is the apparent good news, but as is divine practice in relation to Quranic verses, there is also a hidden meaning to it. And the above verses in their deeper meanings point to the khilafat-e-ruhani [spiritual succession]. This means that in every state of fear, whereby the love of Allah has disappeared from people’s hearts, false creeds have spread all around, and people are infatuated with the world and it is feared that the faith will be lost; at such times God will always continue to raise spiritual khulafa’ [successors] at whose hands the Faith shall be granted spiritual support and triumph, and truth shall then be honoured and falsehood shall be brought to disgrace. Thus, faith may always return to its original bloom and the believers may be granted security from the fear of the spreading of misguidedness and the loss of faith.

After this He says that, a section from the Christians and the Jews would fain lead you astray one way or the other. How can they lead you astray when they are leading their own selves astray; but they are not aware of their mistake.

They love to be praised for what they have not done, so think not that they will escape punishment. A grievous chastisement is prescribed for them.

And who is more unjust than he who prohibits the remembrance of Allah in Allah’s mosques and strives to ruin and destroy them. Here a reference is made to the wickedness and mischievous conduct of the Christians who did not give due respect to Baitul-Muqaddas and destroyed it in their fervent arrogance. After this verse, He says that for the Christians who showed such arrogance there is disgrace in this world and a great punishment in the Hereafter.

And already have We written in the Psalms [of David], after the exhortation, that only the righteous shall inherit the land, that is, the land of Syria (Psalms 37).121

Say, ‘O Allah the Great, O Lord of sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whomsoever You please and You take away sovereignty from whomsoever You please. You exalt whomsoever You please and You abase whom You will. Every good that man seeks is in Your hand. You have power over everything.’

Say to the disbelievers: ‘If you do not worship God, why would He care for you; yet, instead of obedience and worship, you have chosen to reject, hence the punishment of this is about to befall you.’

Know for certain that you cannot frustrate the designs of God and that He shall humiliate you.

Help has been ordained for the wronged, against whom you make unjustified wars and plots of killing—and God indeed has power to help them.

The Benevolent and Merciful God has raised among the unlettered people a perfect Messenger from among themselves who, despite being unlettered, recites unto them God’s verses, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, although they had been steeped in manifest misguidance before the advent of this Prophet. Among them are also people from other nations whose entry into Islam has been eternally destined, but they have not yet joined the Muslims. And God is the Mighty, the Wise, whose actions are not devoid of wisdom. This means that those people from other countries will enter Islam when the time arrives that God has decreed for them, in His perfect wisdom.

O ye believers, if anyone from among you turns away from the religion of Islam, then in your place, God will soon bring a people whom He will love and they will love Him. They will be humble towards believers, hard and firm against disbelievers. That is, it is the promise of God that it will always be the case that if anyone of defective understanding turns back from the religion of Islam, then by his turning back the strength of the Faith will not decrease a bit. Rather, in his place, God will cause many more devoted souls to enter the fold of Islam, who will believe sincerely in Him and will love God and be loved by Him.

And all the disbelievers who spend their wealth to hinder and stop the progress of the religion of Islam will surely continue to spend it to the best of their ability, but ultimately it shall become a source of anguish and regret for them, and then shall they be overcome.

God had promised you spoils of many a country. The first of them occurred when He gave you the fortresses of the Jews with all their wealth and resources and provided you security from the mischief of the opponent, so that it may be a Sign for the believers.

And God shall also grant you other kingdoms, such as Persia and Rome. You do not have the power to overcome them, but the powers of God have encompassed them. And God has power over all things.

The prophecies cited so far relate to apparent glad tidings. Then, indicating the hidden glad tidings, He says after this:

The disbelievers and idolaters who die in their state of denial and idolatry will not be forgiven. Nor will God show them the path of His cognition while they are in disbelief. But He will show the way to Hell, wherein they will abide forever.

As for those who believe in God and His Messengers, they are the ones who are the Truthful in the sight of Allah; they will have the reward and the light.

They will be given glad tidings in this very life; that is, they will receive from God the light of revelation and glad tidings in which there will be their betterment, admiration and extolment and God will manifest the light of their truth. All that God has promised shall be fulfilled.134 There will be no kind of change in them. This is the great fortune that is bestowed upon those who believe in the Holy Prophet Muhammad Mustafa [the Chosen One], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

God and all His angels invoke blessings on this Noble Prophet. O believers, you also should invoke blessings on him and salute him with the salutation of peace with deep love and devotion. Allah’s curse, in this world and the Hereafter, is on those who cause displeasure to Allah and His Messenger; in this world [the curse is that] they will be deprived of spiritual blessings and in the Hereafter they will be subjected to the punishment of Hell-Fire, humiliated and disgraced.

In the verses cited above, God Almighty has promised outstanding victory by the perfect glory of His divinity to a humble, weak, poor, powerless, unlettered, unlearned, unaware, and untrained man over the whole world—all opponents, all enemies, all renegades, all the rich and all powerful figures, all kings, all sages, all philosophers and all people belonging to every religion. Can any honest person or seeker after truth entertain any doubt regarding all these promises that were fulfilled in their time, and continue to be fulfilled, that they are the work of a human being.

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. God Almighty had said that He would Himself safeguard His Word. Now, see for yourself. Is it not true that the very teaching that the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, conveyed from God Almighty through His Word is still safeguarded in His Word and ever since the beginning there have always been hundreds of thousands of people who have committed the Holy Quran to memory. God had said that no one would be able to match His Book in wisdom, enlightenment, eloquence, lucidity, and comprehensive understanding of the divine verities, and in setting forth religious arguments. You can see that no one could ever face this challenge. And if there is anyone who disagrees, let him come forward now and produce its match, and let him produce from any other book the equal of the verities, fine points, and wonders of the Holy Quran—which are beyond the scope of human powers—that I have set forth in this book along with the announcement of a reward of ten thousand rupees. So long as he fails to do so, he would remain convicted by the plain verdict of God. God had promised that He would take the land of Syria out of the possession of the Christians and would bestow it upon the Muslims. Look now and you will find the Muslims have continuously remained its inheritors.

All these tidings are accompanied by power and might of Divinity. They are not merely like the predictions of the astrologers that there would be earthquakes, famines, assaults of nations against nations, epidemics, widespread loss of life, etc. By following the Word of God and through its effects and blessings, those who obey the Holy Quran and wholeheartedly believe in God’s beloved Prophet, love him, and consider him better and holier and more perfect and most excellent and superior than the whole of creation, all Prophets, all Messengers, all holy ones, and all that has ever existed or shall exist, they continue to partake of those bounties and they drink and continue to drink copiously, pleasantly and deliciously the same drink that was given to Musa [Moses] and ‘Isa [Jesus] to drink. They are illuminated with the lights of Israel and enjoy the blessings of the Prophets who were descendants of Ya‘qub [Jacob]. Subhanallah [Holy is Allah], again subhanallah. How high is the station of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ [the Seal of the Prophets], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Glory be to Allah. How magnificent is the light that his modest servents, lowest followers and humblest helpers attain the above-mentioned ranks.

[O Allah, send down Your blessings on Your Prophet and Your beloved, the Chief of the Prophets, the Best of Messengers, more exalted than all the Messengers, and the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, and his progeny and his Companions and bestow Your bounties and peace upon them.]

The Christian priests, as well as the Pundits, Brahmus, Aryas and other opponents of our time need not feel bewildered and ask where are the blessings and the heavenly light of which the blessed followers of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, share with Musa and ‘Isa and where is the heritage of the light from which all other people and followers of other nations and religions are deprived and debarred.

To set this doubt at rest, I have stated several times in this very footnote that I am responsible for providing such a religious proof to any seeker after truth who is prepared to readily enter the fold of Islam after having witnessed the excellences peculiar to Islam. In the Sub-Footnote [Number One], under the heading ‘The Second Type’, I have clearly referred to the same. In fact, in the above-mentioned footnote, I have also briefly cited from the same divine promises and glad tidings that are beyond human power, to demonstrate how God Almighty manifests His divine powers, graces and blessings to Muslims; so if any of the Christian priests or any Pundit or Brahmu denies it, on account of his inner darkness, or if any Aryah, or a follower of another faith, is truly and sincerely a seeker after God Almighty, it is incumbent upon him that, like a true seeker, he should discard all pride, arrogance, hypocrisy, worldliness, obstinacy and contention and, seeking only the truth and wishing only for it, should come straight to me like a poor, humble and submissive person and should then be patient, steadfast, obedient and sincere like the righteous, so that by God’s will he might arrive at his objective. If even now anyone turns away he becomes witness to his own lack of faith.

When some people, who lack insight, see that the Prophets of God and [His] Messengers also faced hardships, they end up raising the objection that if the Prophets were supported by the divine authority, which is understood to be the hallmark of revealed prophecies, then why did they undergo hardships and why did they suffer calamities more than others. However, this is a baseless objection that results entirely from their lack of reflection. The prophecies given in revelations signifying the power of God are a matter quite different from the suffering that the Prophets undergo and that in itself comprises diverse types of wisdom. When the truth dawns upon you, you would know that those calamities are not real calamities, but are magnificent bounties that are bestowed on only those whom God grants His grace and munificence. These bounties are such that they benefit the Prophets and the whole world. The fact of the matter is that the Prophets and auliya’ [friends of Allah] are raised so that people should follow them in all their good qualities and that all seekers after truth should tread the same path of steadfastness along which God has made them steadfast.

It is obvious that high moral qualities of someone are conclusively proved only when they are exercised on the proper occasion, and it is only then that they affect the hearts. For instance, forgiveness is worthy of credit and praise only when one has the power to take revenge, and chastity is commendable only when he has the power to fulfil his carnal passions.

God Almighty’s design with regard to Prophets and auliya’ is that every type of their high moral quality should be manifested and should be clearly established. To fulfil this design God Almighty divides their glorious lives into two parts. One part is passed in hardship and under calamities, in which they are tormented and persecuted in every way, so that those of their high moral qualities can be manifested which cannot be manifested except during severe hardship. If they were not subjected to severe hardship, how can it be affirmed that they are a people who are not disloyal to their Lord in the face of calamities, but rather, they continue to march forward. They are grateful to the Benevolent God that He chose them for His favours and considered them worthy that they should be persecuted in His cause. Therefore, God Almighty afflicts them with calamities in order to demonstrate their patience, their steadfastness, their courage, their perseverance, their loyalty and their bravery to the world, thereby illustrating in them:

[‘Steadfastness has a higher status than a miracle’], because perfect steadfastness cannot be manifested in the absence of severe hardships, nor can the perfect degree of perseverance and steadfastness be shown except in the most trying circumstances. These calamities are in fact spiritual bounties for the Prophets and auliya’, through which their high morals, in which they are matchless and peerless, are manifested and their ranks are exalted in the Hereafter. If they were not subjected to these hardships, they would not have attained these bounties, nor would their sterling qualities be demonstrated to the common people, and thus they would be regarded like other people and equal to them. And even if they had lived their short lives in comfort and luxury, they would still have to depart from this transitory world one day. In this way, their pleasantness would not have remained with them, and they would not have attained the lofty status in the Hereafter; nor would their manliness, resolve, fidelity, and bravery have been universally acknowledged, which proved them to be distinguished with no match, incomparable without a peer, unique of the unique, hidden beyond hidden where no one’s imagination could reach, and so perfect and brave as if each of them were a thousand lions in one body and a thousand leopards in one frame, whose power and strength rose above everyone’s imagination and reached the loftiest ranks of nearness [of God].

The second part of the lives of Prophets and auliya’ is the one in which they enjoy the highest level in victory, prestige, and wealth; so that they may be able to demonstrate those essential high moral qualities that can be demonstrated only by one who enjoys victory, prestige, wealth, authority, sovereignty, and might. Possession of wealth and power is an essential condition to prove that someone possesses such high morals as forgiving his tormentors, pardoning those who have offended him, loving his enemies, desiring the good of those who desire nothing but evil for him, not loving wealth, not allowing himself to become arrogant on account of his riches, not to be niggardly and tight-fisted, to be generous and bountiful, not to use his wealth for satisfying baser passions, and not to exercise authority and governance as a tool of tyranny and aggression. These qualities are demonstrated only when a person possesses both wealth and authority. Without passing through a time of trial and misfortune, and also a time of prosperity and authority, these two types of high qualities cannot be manifested. That is why the perfect wisdom of the Almighty God demanded that Prophets and auliya’ should be provided with both these types of conditions, which comprise thousands of bounties.

The occurrence of these two conditions, however, does not follow the same order for all of them. Divine wisdom ordains in the case of some that the period of peace and comfort comes in the first part of their lives followed by a period of hardship; while the life of others begins in tribulation and God’s succour comes to their rescue in the end. In some, the two phases are subtle and not easily defined; while in others they are clearly marked and evident. In this respect the foremost is Hazrat Khatamur-Rusul [the Seal of the Messengers], peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, for both these conditions were experienced by him in their perfection and in such order that all the high moral qualities of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, were illuminated like the sun and thus the meaning of 136

was proved fully.

What is more, the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, having been proved to be perfect in both types of moral qualities, also serves as proof of the moral qualities of all Prophets, because he has testified to their prophethood, authenticated their scriptures and has shown the world that they were indeed Allah’s chosen people. This analysis also completely repels the objection that might possibly arise about the moral qualities of Masih [i.e., Jesus the Messiah]—namely, that the moral qualities of Hazrat Masih, peace be on him, cannot be established to a perfect degree with respect to both of the above-mentioned types; rather, that they cannot be established even with regard to one type. Because the Masih showed patience under distress, the perfection of this quality would have been demonstrated only if the Masih had obtained authority and power over his persecutors and had forgiven his oppressors from the bottom of his heart, as did Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who obtained complete victory over the Makkans and others and after virtually having his sword upon their throats, forgave them their crimes, and he punished only those few who had been condemned by a special decree of Allah the Almighty to undergo punishment. Besides these eternally accursed few, every sworn enemy was pardoned. And having achieved victory, he announced to them:

[‘No blame shall lie on you this day’].

On account of this forgiveness of offences—which had appeared impossible in the estimation of his opponents who, considering their own misdeeds, deemed themselves condemned to death in the hands of their avengers—thousands of people accepted Islam instantly. Thus, the sincere steadfastness of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, which he had demonstrated for a long period under their severe persecution became illumined in their eyes like the sun.

As it is part of man’s nature that the grandeur and greatness of patience is illustrated perfectly only for the person who, after the time of persecution has been dispelled, forgives his persecutors after obtaining power to punish them; that is why the moral qualities of the Masih in the matter of patience and meekness and endurance were not fully demonstrated, and it did not become clear whether his patience and meekness was by his choice or was under compulsion. Because, the Masih did not acquire power and authority so that it could be judged whether he would have forgiven his enemies or taken revenge upon them.

In contrast, the good qualities of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him, were demonstrated and put to test on hundreds of occasions and their truth shone forth like the sun. The good qualities of kindness, large-heartedness, munificence, selflessness, manliness, bravery, chastity, contentment and withdrawal from the world were demonstrated so clearly and brilliantly in the case of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that, let alone the Masih, there never was a Prophet before him who demonstrated them to such perfection. Because God Almighty opened for the Holy Prophet the doors to countless [worldly] treasures, he spent them all in the way of God and did not spend a penny on any kind of self-indulgence. He created no buildings and built no mansions; rather, he spent the whole of his life in a small mud hut that had nothing to distinguish it from the huts of the poor. He repaid evil with kindness and helped his tormentors in their distress out of his own wealth. He usually slept on the floor, lived in a small hut, and had barley bread to eat—and at times nothing at all. He was granted abundant wealth of the world, but he did not soil his holy hands with it and always preferred poverty to wealth and meekness to power. From the day of his advent to the day when he returned to his Companion on High, he attached no importance to anything except to his Benevolent God. Solely for the sake of God, he gave proof of his bravery, fidelity, and steadfastness on the battlefield against thousands of enemies when death appeared a certainty. Similarly did the Benevolent God cause all other moral excellences, associated with large-heartedness, generosity, contentment, courage, bravery, and love of God, to be manifested in the person of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ in such a manner as has never been displayed before nor ever will.

In the case of Hazrat Masih, peace be on him, these moral qualities were not clearly established for they can only be proved in a period of authority and riches and the Masih did not find the period of authority and riches. Thus in his case, both types of moral qualities remained hidden; hence the conditions were not present. However, this above-mentioned objection which can be raised against the deficiency in the case of the Messiah has been repelled by the perfect example of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, inasmuch as his beneficent example perfects and completes the case of every Prophet, and through him whatever had remained hidden or doubtful in the case of the Masih and other Prophets shone forth brightly. Revelation and prophethood came to an end in that holy person in the sense that all excellences reached their climax in him.

[And this is Allah’s grace; He bestows it upon whomsoever He pleases].

Tenth Objection: Some short-sighted people raise the objection that revelation suffers from a defect and shortcoming—that it prevents and obstructs its recipient from arriving at perfect enlightenment, which is indispensable for eternal life and everlasting happiness.137 They explain their objection by asserting that revelation obstructs intellectual development and blocks the progress of research, for those who follow revelation find it sufficient to respond to every question by asserting that the matter at hand is either permissible or forbidden in their revealed book; and they do not use their reasoning powers, as if they had not been bestowed to them by God. The end result [according to the critics] is that: ‘By lack of use, all those powers gradually become weak and, indeed, they almost disappear; thus, human nature is completely changed and begins to resemble animals, the progress of rational faculties, which is the excellence of the human soul, is wasted, and man is thereby deprived of obtaining perfect enlightenment. Thus, the revealed books constitute an obstruction in the way of achieving eternal life and everlasting happiness, of which man stands in need.’

Answer: It should be clear that the objection—that following a true Scripture revealed by God necessitates the abandonment of rational faculties, or that revelation and reason are incompatible and opposite phenomena that cannot co-exist—only arises from the sheer ill-understanding, prejudice, and obduracy of the Brahmus. It is a strange objection with an equally strange composition, consisting partly of falsehood, partly of bigotry, and partly of ignorance. The falsehood is that, despite their knowledge that divine verities have been fostered only through people who have followed revelation, and that Oneness of God has been propagated in the world only through the elect who believe in the word of God, they deliberately make a statement contrary to this known fact. Their bigotry is shown by the fact that in order to support their assertion they have held back the self-evident verity that in theological matters, unaided reason cannot carry a person to the stage of perfect certainty. And the ignorance is that they have regarded revelation and reason as inconsistent with each other, which cannot subsist together, and that they have regarded revelation to be opposed to reason and destructive of it, whereas this fear is entirely unfounded. It is obvious that a follower of true revelation cannot refrain from rational inquiries; rather, he finds that revelation helps him to see the nature of things in a rational manner. By the light and blessing of revelation, he avoids the pitfalls that might come his way in the pursuit of logical investigation, and does not have to waste time like misguided rationalists in inventing baseless arguments and indulging in useless formalities; instead, he sees the clear path of reason and his eyes settle on the real truth.

In short, reason rationally substantiates the phenomenon of revelation; and it is the task of revelation to safeguard reason from wandering aimlessly. Hence, it is obvious that there is no conflict between reason and revelation; and that they are not contrary to or opposed to, each other. Nor is the true revelation, i.e. the Holy Quran, a stumbling block in the path of progress of reason. Rather, it illumines reason and is its great helper, supporter and guide. As the full value of the sun is appreciated by the eye and the benefits of the bright day are disclosed only to those who possess sight, in the same way, divine revelation is fully appreciated only by those who possess reason, as God Almighty has Himself said:

Meaning that, We present these examples for the people, but only those people can understand them rationally who are knowledgeable and wise.

Likewise, just as the benefits of the seeing eye are realized only in the presence of the sun, without which there would be no difference between seeing and not seeing, in the same way, the excellences of rational insight emerge only with the help of revelation, which saves rationality from thousands of types of confusion and points to the shorter path and shows the way which, if adopted, leads to the objective very quickly. Every wise person knows it well that, when thinking through a problem, if one gets a hint as to the right direction to pursue, then this knowledge yields great help to the intellect, safeguarding it from many confused thoughts and unnecessary headaches.

The adherents of revelation not only choose the excellent tool of reason by themselves, but revelation itself stresses the need for sharpening their intellect. Thus, they are drawn by two attractions towards advancement in rationality: first, the natural curiosity that every man displays for understanding the nature and working of things in a precise and logical manner; second, the revealed injunctions which intensify their burning desire. So those who read the Holy Quran even in a cursory manner will not deny the obvious fact that this blessed Word of God places great stress on the exercise of thought and reason, so much so that it describes it as a characteristic of believers, that they constantly reflect upon the wonders of the heavens and the earth and deliberate on the wisdom of the law of God, as is said in one place in the Holy Quran:

That is, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of the night and the day, there are a number of Signs for the wise to prove the existence of the Creator of the Universe and His might. The wise are only those who remember God sitting, standing, and lying on their sides and keep meditating and pondering over the creation of the earth and the heavens and other creations, and their hearts and tongues keep supplicating: ‘O our God, You have not created any of these things in vain and without purpose; rather, everything in Your creation is full of the wonders of Your power and wisdom, and points towards Your Blessed Being.’

It is true that there is an emphasis on adhering to irrational and impossible beliefs in other Scriptures, which have been interpolated and perverted, as for instance, in the Holy Gospels of the Christians. But this is not the fault of revelation; in fact, this too is the fault of defective reason. Had those who were in thrall to falsehood possessed sane reason and had they been in their senses, why would they have followed these interpolated and perverted books; and why would they have permitted such thinking about the Unchangeable, Perfect and Eternal God—that He transformed Himself into a helpless embryo, was nourished on impure sustenance, took on an impure body, was born through an impure passage and came into the mortal world, and after enduring all sorts of torments died in a state of extreme misfortune, adversity and failure, calling out ‘Eli, Eli’.140

Ultimately, it was revelation which corrected this error as well. Subhanallah [Holy is Allah]. How exalted and what an ocean of mercy is the Word which brought the creature-worshippers back to Tauhid [the Oneness of God]. How charming and attractive is that light which brought a whole world out of darkness. Outside of it, thousands who were considered wise and called philosophers remained engrossed in this error and countless similar errors and, until the Holy Quran came, no philosopher had forcefully refuted this false doctrine, nor reformed these ruined people. As a matter of fact, the philosophers themselves were afflicted with hundreds of unholy doctrines. As the priest Davenport has recorded, the Christians in fact adopted the doctrine of the Trinity from Plato, and built a false structure on the false foundation laid by this foolish Greek.

In short, true and perfect revelation of God is not the enemy of reason; rather, defective reason is the enemy of the pseudo-intellectuals. It is obvious, for instance, that an antidote is not in itself harmful for the human body, but if a short-sighted person mistakes poison for an antidote, it is the fault of his understanding and not of the antidote. So it should be borne in mind that it is absurd to think that recourse to a revealed book for investigating everything is dangerous. As I have stated, revelation is a mirror reflecting the truth for the benefit of reason. The greatest testimony to its truth is that it is wholly free from matters, the impossibility of which is established after pondering over God’s Omnipotence, Perfection, and Holiness. In fact, it is the only leader and guide for the frail human intellect in the minute and subtle matters of religious knowledge. Thus, it is obvious that to have recourse to it does not render reason useless; rather, it helps reason to fathom the hidden secrets that were very difficult for reason to reach on its own. Therefore, reason derives great advantage and benefit from the True Revelation, namely, the Holy Quran, and suffers no harm or loss therefrom. And through revelation, reason is safeguarded against dangers and does not fall into them.

Every wise person knows it for a fact—rather, regards it an obvious truth—that there is a possibility of fault or error in research that is based on reason alone, whereas there is no possibility of fault or error in the Word of the Knower of the unseen. Now be the judge and ask yourself: Is it good or bad for that which is sometimes confronted with the possibility of stumbling badly, that it should be furnished with a companion which should safeguard it against slipping and support it where it loses its foothold. Would such a companion help to lead it to its utmost purpose, or would it be a hindrance to attain the utmost purpose. What kind of inner blindness it is to regard a helper as an opponent and obstructor, and to consider that which completes and perfects as harmful. When you reflect on this matter with full attention and for the sole purpose of finding the truth, it will suddenly dawn upon you that God has not harmed reason in any way by appointing revelation as its companion. On the contrary, finding reason perplexed and bewildered, He furnished it with a sure instrument for recognizing the truth, by the pointing out of which, reason is aided in safeguarding itself from straying into hundreds of erratic ways and is not led astray, nor wanders aimlessly everywhere. Rather, it finds the proper way to its true purpose, and finds the exact place of its desired objective and is saved from useless toil. It is like the case of a truthful informant who gives accurate news of a lost person’s whereabouts; that he has gone in a certain direction and is hiding in such and such town, in such and such ward and in such and such location.

It is evident that no sane person objects to the help of such an informant who supplies the needed information about the lost one and points out the simple and easy way of reaching him. Sane people do not accuse him of creating hurdles in their investigation; on the contrary, they are deeply grateful and appreciative to him that he informed them while they were ignorant, and pointed out to them a particular spot while they were wandering here and there, and he opened the door of certainty while they were involved in conjectures. In the same way, those on whom God has bestowed sane reason are grateful to—and praise and eulogize—true revelation and realize fully that true revelation does not obstruct the progress of their thinking. Rather, it safeguards their thinking from confusion and, out of a variety of labyrinth and doubtful ways, shows the desired right path treading along which becomes very easy for reason. It also delivers man from all those deficiencies that confront him on account of his short life, insufficient intellectual capacity, and limited insight.

I have stated time and again that human reason is so imperfect and incomplete in its nature that it cannot cope with any task without the help of a companion. It is incapable of settling, clearly and rightly, any disputes, whether spiritual or secular, on its own unless it is aided by empirical testimony. And whenever reason gets empirical testimony from a reliable source, its task becomes much easier, as if a huge burden had been lifted from its shoulders. When human intellect, by its very nature, is dependant on a companion, how can it make progress in its thought process alone and by itself.

I have repeatedly stated that all the faults suffered by reason in the realm of theology and knowledge of the Hereafter are rectified by the Holy Quran. Not only that, but 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. So, despite the fact that the arguments have been completed by refuting all their objections, why do the Brahmu Samajists not desist from uttering their absurdities. Have they been drugged into a slumber or intoxication, or have all their senses been suspended or destroyed at once so that they do not hear what they have been told, nor understand what has been so clearly explained, nor see what they have been shown.

It should be remembered that their claim that the process of rational investigation continues indefinitely, and at no stage stops, is also completely absurd and nonsensical. It is obvious that had such been the case, no endeavour, whether worldly or religious, would ever reach a conclusion and no judge would be able to decide any case categorically, and a court verdict would be deemed impossible and unwarranted on account of unending doubt. But is it right to believe that the facts concerning all things are never and in no way clearly and accurately manifested, and that there is always room for debate and discussion. God forbid, surely this opinion is not correct.

A fact only remains dubious and is not considered clearly proven only so long as its proof is based on reason alone; but as soon as reason finds one of its essential companions—one of which is wahy-e-risalat [Divine Scriptures] that gives news of the super-sensible phenomena and the Hereafter—rational research is able to reach the level of absolute certainty.

Thus, reason achieves certainty by pairing up with a companion, as appropriate under the circumstances: sometimes with a perfect revelation, sometimes with repeated evidence based upon observation, and sometimes with well-established and reliable historical testimony. But if reason fails to find a companion which is suitable for the path it intends to travel, it then never reaches the state of perfect certainty. Rather, at best, it reaches the level of probability. But when it finds the companion to reach its goal, the companion definitely takes it to the level of complete certainty in a manner whereby141 it does not leave any room for doubt.

Such well-established matters are wont to be doubted only by those people who are insane, phobic or given to sophistry—who by nature are so overwhelmed by their phobia that believing something even to be most probably true is impossible for them, and who always remain immersed in doubts and suspicions. No matter how bright the light may shine, their inner blindness, which is an essential character of their being, as it is of a bat, shows no sign of decline; so much so that they continue to doubt even the existence of God. Thus, the ailment of such blind ones is, in fact, irremediable; otherwise, anyone who possesses even a glimmer of insight can understand that once research and analysis have reached the point at which true facts are fully revealed and clear arguments and decisive testimonies converge from all sides, and are shining like the sun, all investigation and inquiry stops there and then. The seeker after truth, then, has to take a firm stand at that point, for there is no choice for man but to believe it. Obviously, when perfect proof has been obtained and all aspects of the point in question have become apparent like the breaking of dawn and the facts of the matter are manifested brightly, why should then any wise and sane person harbour any doubts about it and why should any sound-minded person not find contentment in it.

Of course, as long as there is a possibility of error, or the truth has not yet been clearly manifested, thought and reflection can be given free rein, and revision after revision can be made. But for someone to indulge in baseless suspicions about proven facts, like a phobic, cannot be termed as the progress of thought, rather, it is only the excess of black bile [i.e., melancholia].

Once the lawfulness or prohibition of a matter has become as evident as the shining sun for someone, he would only be senseless and insane if, despite such perfect disclosures, he continues to harbour the suspicion that perhaps what he knows to be prohibited might be lawful and what he considers lawful might, in fact, be prohibited. However, such questions could arise, and such doubts could trouble the minds, if one were to rely solely on rational ideas; and human reason—like that of the Brahmu Samajists—was deprived and bereft of the assistance and support of its other companion.

But the reasoning of the followers of true revelation is not so destitute and helpless; rather, its helper and companion is the perfect Word of God that leads the process of inquiry to its true goal, and confers the level of certainty and enlightenment that cannot be surpassed. This is because, on the one hand, it clearly explains rational arguments, and on the other, it serves—on the basis of its being incomparable and unequalled—as a decisive argument that produces certainty regarding God and His teachings. The extent to which a seeker after truth achieves true certainty of knowledge by these twofold proofs can only be appreciated by someone who searches for God with a sincere heart; and only those desire it who seek God from the depth of their souls. But how can the Brahmu Samajists, who hold the doctrine that there is no book or person that is not prone to error, hope to attain such a level of certainty until they seek the path of certainty by repenting of this satanic notion.

Considering that, of their own admission, the Brahmu Samajists have neither found nor authored a book which is a collection of teachings that are free from error, it is all too obvious that their faith is still floundering in a whirlpool of doubts. Their doctrine clearly indicates that they do not possess certainty regarding any matter relating to divine cognizance. According to them it is impossible for any book dealing with religious knowledge to be a collection of true teachings. In fact they have openly declared that there is no book that is free from error, or worth believing, even if it totally affirms the existence of God, portrays Him as One without partner, the Omnipotent, the Creator, the Knower of the unseen, the Wise, the Gracious, the Merciful and possessing all other perfect attributes, and even if it were to consider Him to be free from and far above deficiencies, such as coming into existence, mortality, change, mutability, having associates, etc. This is the reason why they also reject the Holy Quran.

It may be noted that the summary of their faith and belief, in the light of their own assertions, is that according to them, even the concept of God’s existence, His Oneness and His Omnipotence are not free from the possibility of error!! In short, when they themselves admit that they do not possess a book that is truly authentic in their view, it becomes evident that their religion is based altogether on suppositions and that their faith is far removed from and bereft of the stages of certainty. This amounts to what I have repeatedly written in this very footnote, that mere intellectual discourses cannot bring about complete satisfaction and contentment regarding the knowledge about God.

Hence, we are in agreement with Brahmu Samajists that no man can reach perfect certainty under the guidance of reason alone. The only point on which we had disagreement was whether, as the Brahmus believe, God has created man with the objective that, in spite of his urge to zealously seek perfect certainty and truth, with which his nature has been invested, he should remain deprived of what he naturally desires to have and that his knowledge should remain restricted to such ideas alone as are not free from the possibility of error; or whether God has appointed means for him to attain perfect knowledge and complete success and whether He has also provided a book to which the above-mentioned principle of the possibility of error is not applicable. So,

[all praise and munificence belongs to Allah], the fact that God has revealed such a book has become evident to us through categorical arguments, and through this commendable Book we have escaped the whirlpool of destruction in which the Brahmus lie like corpses. And that Book is the very same Magnificent and Holy Book that is called ‘Furqan’—which manifestly differentiates between truth and falsehood and is free from all types of errors.

Its very first quality is 142

; it alone has revealed to us that God does not desire to destroy the seekers after truth by depriving them of the degrees of certainty. On the contrary, the Merciful and Benevolent God has bestowed His favour upon His weak and imperfect servants by doing what defective human reason could never do. He has Himself dropped down fruit from the high branches which human hands could not reach and has provided the means for attaining true and perfect certainty to the seekers after truth who are hungry and thirsty for the truth.

Thousands of subtleties of religious truths were lying scattered like particles in the vast stretches of the spiritual heaven, and the water of life, dispersed like dew, was hidden and veiled in the innermost recesses of human nature, and in its deepest secret potential; to bring them all together from the limitless expanses was beyond the rational powers of man. He did not possess any discerning tool that could help him view the tiniest and most hidden points of truth, which were not clearly visible to the physical eye, nor did he have a long enough life span to collect them all. It is this perfect Book that has brought to us all these subtleties of wisdom and fine points of cognition of God, impeccably and flawlessly, through the Omnipotence and power of Divinity and the strength and sovereignty of His Providence, so that by drinking this water we are saved and do not fall into the pit of [spiritual] death. And the wonder of all wonders is that it has combined all these verities so comprehensively that none of the subtle verities and none of the fine points of wisdom have been left out, nor has it let anything enter it which is opposed or contrary to any truth.

Hence, to convict and disgrace the deniers, I have explicitly stated at various places, and have declared it loud and clear that if a Brahmu imagines some statement of the Holy Quran to be contrary to the truth, or believes it to have left out any verity, let him come forward with his objection. By the grace and mercy of God, I will remove his doubt in such a manner that what he regards, in his faulty thinking, to be a flaw will be manifested to him as an excellence. [Continued in Part IV.]

1 Footnote Number Eleven is referenced from the main text. [Publisher]

2 This is a perfect Book; there is no doubt in it (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3). [Publisher]

3 Surah al-A‘raf, 7:44 [Publisher]

4 Surah al-An‘am, 6:92 [Publisher]

5 Surah al-An‘am, 6:125 [Publisher]

6 Surah ar-Rum, 30:31 [Publisher]

7 Surah al-A‘raf, 7:173 [Publisher]

8 Surah adh-Dhariyat, 51:57 [Publisher]

9 Surah Fatir, 35:33 [Publisher]

10 Surah al-An‘am, 6:88 [Publisher]

11 Surah al-A‘raf, 7:180 [Publisher]

12 Surah ash-Shams, 91:9 [Publisher]

13 Surah an-Nisa’, 4:111 [Publisher]

14 Surah an-Nur, 24:36 [Publisher]

15 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth (Surah an-Nur, 24:36). [Publisher]

16 The similitude of His light is as a lustrous niche, wherein is a lamp… (Surah an-Nur, 24:36). [Publisher]

17 Surah al-Qalam, 68:5 [Publisher]

18 Surely, We have created man in the best of creative plans (Surah at-Tin, 95:5). [Publisher]

19 There has come to you indeed from Allah a Light and a clear Book (Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:16). [Publisher]

20 And as a Summoner to Allah by His command, and as a radiant Lamp (Surah al-Ahzab, 33:47). [Publisher]

21 Alif Lam Mim [I am Allah, the All-Knowing]. This is a perfect Book; there is no doubt in it; it is a guidance for the righteous, who believe in the unseen and observe Prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them; and who believe in that which has been revealed to you, and in that which was revealed before you, and they have firm faith in what is yet to come. It is they who follow the guidance of their Lord and it is they who shall prosper. Those who have disbelieved—it is being equal to them whether you warn them or warn them not—they will not believe. Allah has set a seal on their hearts and their ears, and over their eyes is a covering; and for them is a great punishment (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:2–8). [Publisher]

22 He it is who has raised among the Unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves who recites unto them His Signs, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, although they had been, before, in manifest misguidance; and among others from among them who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the Wise. That is Allah’s grace; He bestows it on whom He pleases; and Allah is the Master of immense grace (Surah al-Jumu‘ah, 62:3–5). [Publisher]

23 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:2–3 [Publisher]

24 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:2 [Publisher]

25 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3 [Publisher]

26 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3 [Publisher]

27 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3 [Publisher]

28 Surah az-Zukhruf, 43:32–33 [Publisher]

29 Surah az-Zukhruf, 43:33 [Publisher]

30 Surah az-Zukhruf, 43:33 [Publisher]

31 Surah al-Kahf, 18:8 [Publisher]

32 Surah Nuh, 71:14–15 [Publisher]

33 Surah an-Nur, 24:46 [Publisher]

34 Surah an-Nur, 24:31 [Publisher]

35 Surah al-Ahzab, 33:71 [Publisher]

36 Surah Bani Isra’il, 17:37 [Publisher]

37 Surah ar-Ra‘d, 13:18 [Publisher]

38 This is nothing but clear magic (Surah Saba’, 34:44). [Publisher]

39 Ancient religious scriptures of Hinduism. [Publisher]

40 Surah an-Nisa’, 4:123 [Publisher]

41 Surah al-An‘am, 6:39 [Publisher]

42 Surah al-Bayyinah, 98:3–4 [Publisher]

43 Surah Hud, 11:2 [Publisher]

44 Surah at-Tariq, 86:14–15 [Publisher]

45 Surah an-Nahl, 16:65 [Publisher]

46 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:186 [Publisher]

47 Surah Bani Isra’il, 17:13 [Publisher]

48 Surah an-Nahl, 16:90 [Publisher]

49 Surah Ibrahim, 14:2 [Publisher]

50 Surah Yusuf, 12:112 [Publisher]

51 Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:4 [Publisher]

52 A tropical plant known by the genus species operculina turpethum. [Publisher]

53 But if they turn away, then remember that Allah knows the mischief-makers well (Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:64). [Publisher]

54 Please see Sub-Footnote Number One. In the original Urdu edition of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, the Promised Messiah(as) presented this sub-footnote along with Footnote Number Eleven. For the ease of English readers, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) decided that it should be presented as its own section after Footnote Number Eleven. [Publisher]

55 In the original Urdu edition of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, the Promised Messiah(as) presented these references and their translation side-by-side. For the ease of English readers, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) decided that each reference should be followed by its translation and commentary. [Publisher]

56 Surah Yunus, 10:2–3 [Publisher]

57 Surah al-Hijr, 15:7 [Publisher]

58 Surah adh-Dhariyat, 51:53–54 [Publisher]

59 Surah at-Tur, 52:30 [Publisher]

60 Surah Bani Isra’il, 17:89 [Publisher]

61 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:24–25 [Publisher]

62 Surah al-Anbiya’, 21:4–6 [Publisher]

63 Surah al-Anbiya’, 21:38 [Publisher]

64 Surah Ha Mim as-Sajdah, 41:54 [Publisher]

65 Surah al-Mu’minun, 23:71 [Publisher]

66 Surah al-Mu’minun, 23:72 [Publisher]

67 Surah ash-Shu‘ara’, 26:222–227 [Publisher]

68 Surah ash-Shu‘ara’, 26:228 [Publisher]

69 Surah Bani Isra’il, 17:106 [Publisher]

70 Surah Ha Mim as-Sajdah, 41:42–43 [Publisher]

71 Surah al-Ahqaf, 46:33 [Publisher]

72 Surah al-Hijr, 15:10 [Publisher]

73 Surah Saba’, 34:50 [Publisher]

74 Surah Ha Mim as-Sajdah, 41:27 [Publisher]

75 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:73 [Publisher]

76 Surah Ha Mim as-Sajdah, 41:28 [Publisher]

77 Surah at-Taubah, 9:32–33 [Publisher]

78 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:13 [Publisher]

79 Surah al-An‘am, 6:135 [Publisher]

80 Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:65 [Publisher]

81 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:113 [Publisher]

82 Surah al-Mu’min, 40:52 [Publisher]

83 Surah al-Mujadalah, 58:22 [Publisher]

84 Surah az-Zumar, 39:37 [Publisher]

85 Surah al-A‘raf, 7:196–197 [Publisher]

86 Surah at-Tur, 52:49 [Publisher]

87 Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:68 [Publisher]

88 Surah ar-Rum, 30:48 [Publisher]

89 Surah al-An‘am, 6:11–12 [Publisher]

90 Surah al-An‘am, 6:38 [Publisher]

91 Surah al-An‘am, 6:66 [Publisher]

92 Surah Yunus, 10:49–50 [Publisher]

93 Surah az-Zumar, 39:40–41 [Publisher]

94 Surah an-Nahl, 16:89 [Publisher]

95 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:177 [Publisher]

96 Surah al-Anfal, 8:53 [Publisher]

97 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:138 [Publisher]

98 Surah al-Mu’minun, 23:96 [Publisher]

99 Surah Yunus, 10:21 [Publisher]

100 Surah an-Naml, 27:94 [Publisher]

101 Surah al-Muzzammil, 73:16–18 [Publisher]

102 Surah al-Qamar, 54:44–46 [Publisher]

103 Surah ar-Ra‘d, 13:32 [Publisher]

104 Surah as-Saffat, 37:172–176 [Publisher]

105 Surah al-An‘am, 6:35 [Publisher]

106 Surah al-A‘raf, 7:204 [Publisher]

107 Surah al-Anfal, 8:8–9 [Publisher]

108 Surah al-Anfal, 8:31 [Publisher]

109 Surah Ibrahim, 14:47–48 [Publisher]

110 Surah al-Qasas, 28:86 [Publisher]

111 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:215 [Publisher]

112 Surah as-Saff, 61:11–14 [Publisher]

113 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:140 [Publisher]

114 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:187 [Publisher]

115 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:121 [Publisher]

116 Surah an-Nur, 24:56 [Publisher]

117 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:70 [Publisher]

118 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:189 [Publisher]

119 Surah al-Baqarah, 2:115 [Publisher]

120 Surah al-Anbiya’, 21:106 [Publisher]

121 The term ‘land of Syria’ refers to the region consisting of the eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt called Levant. Nowadays, it consists of the island of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and part of southern Turkey (the former Aleppo Vilayet). [Publisher]

122 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:27 [Publisher]

123 Surah al-Furqan, 25:78 [Publisher]

124 Surah at-Taubah, 9:2 [Publisher]

125 Surah al-Hajj, 22:40 [Publisher]

126 Surah al-Jumu‘ah, 62:3–4 [Publisher]

127 Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:55 [Publisher]

128 Surah al-Anfal, 8:37 [Publisher]

129 Surah al-Fath, 48:21 [Publisher]

130 Surah al-Fath, 48:22 [Publisher]

131 Surah an-Nisa’, 4:169–170 [Publisher]

132 Surah al-Hadid, 57:20 [Publisher]

133 Surah Yunus, 10:65 [Publisher]

134 See Sub-Footnote Number One, to see how this prophecy is also being fulfilled.

135 Surah al-Ahzab, 33:57–58 [Publisher]

136 You do surely possess high moral excellences (Surah al-Qalam, 68:5). [Publisher]

137 Please see Sub-Footnote Number Two. In the original Urdu edition of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, the Promised Messiah(as) presented this sub-footnote along with Footnote Number Eleven. For the ease of English readers, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) decided that it should be presented as its own section after Footnote Number Eleven. [Publisher]

138 Surah al-‘Ankabut, 29:44 [Publisher]

139 Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:191–192 [Publisher]

140 Meaning, ‘My God, my God.’—see Matthew, 27:46. [Publisher]

141 In the original Urdu edition of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part III, Footnote Number Eleven ended here. The remaining portion of Footnote Number Eleven is from Part IV. [Publisher]

142 This is a perfect Book; there is no doubt in it (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:3). [Publisher]

Footnote Number Eleven1