1As far as the belief in God Almighty, the question of metaphors, and the phenomena of here and the hereafter is concerned, the approach of philosophers is very different from that of Prophets.
The main principle followed by the Prophets is that faith proves fruitful only if the unseen is accepted as unseen, and the self-evident testimony of physical senses and absolute mathematical proof is not insisted upon inasmuch as all spiritual merit and worthiness of nearness to the Divine depends upon righteousness, and he alone possesses true righteousness who safeguards himself against the extremes of investigation, multiple denials, and testing every little detail, and is prepared to accept a way that appears safer and preferable to other ways as the truth, out of a sense of precaution. This is faith, and this is what helps open the door of Divine grace and becomes the means of acquiring good fortune here and in the hereafter. When a person establishes himself firmly on faith and then seeks to foster his knowledge through prayer, worship, reflection and observation, God Almighty Himself becomes his Guardian, and, taking him by the hand, leads him from the stage of faith to that of ‘Ain-ul-Yaqin [certainty by sight.] But all this is achieved only through steadfastness, striving, effort and purification of the ego. He who seeks clarification of all details at the very first stage, and is not prepared to abandon his false doctrines and evil ways before such clarification, prevents himself from treading upon the path of righteousness and achieving merit. Faith demands belief in certain matters which are still unseen to some degree, that is to say, they are still in a condition which is not established fully by reason, nor has it been perceived through spiritual vision, but is accepted on the basis of probability.
This is the true philosophy of the Prophets by following which, millions of God’s creatures have procured heavenly blessings and countless people have arrived at the stage of perfect understanding and many more continue to do so. The perfect certainties which the philosophers sought to achieve hastily and daringly, and failed to achieve, have not only all been achieved with the utmost ease by the faithful ones, but they have reached the stage of that perfect understanding which has not been heard or seen or conceived by any philosopher. As against this the false and deceptive philosophy, of which the newly educated are so fond, and the ill consequences of which have ruined so many of the simple-minded, demands, that until the root and branch of everything is fully established and is clearly revealed, it should never be acknowledged, whether it be God or anything else. The greater philosophers among them who held fast to these principles, called themselves research scholars, and they are also known as atheists. The doctrine of these great philosophers, resulting from their basic principle, is that whereas the existence of God cannot be established undeniably through reason, nor is the being of God visible to the eye, belief in such a God is utterly contrary to the established philosophic doctrine. Thus at the very first step they set God Almighty aside, and repudiate the angels as they too, like God Almighty, are not visible. Then these philosophers turned their attention to the existence of souls and expressed the view that there was no satisfactory proof that the soul survives death, for it cannot be seen, nor does it disclose its existence in any perceptible manner. On the contrary, souls, after their separation from the body, leave no sign behind, nor do they produce any effect, and belief in their existence is equally contrary to reason. Thereafter, the penetrating sight of the learned philosophers discovered that the limitations of the law and the distinction between lawful and unlawful are contradictory to the basic philosophical principle and express the view that there is no philosophical reason to support the distinction between mother and sister and wife, or the distinction between that which is lawful and that which is unlawful, except in cases in which the harmfulness of something is established by the harm it does. They also opine that nudism is not in any way opposed to reason, and is hygienically beneficial in some respects.
These philosophers have set forth other doctrines also but the sum or the substance of their philosophy is that they do not accept anything without conclusive proof. In their philosophical view no type of misconduct need be discarded, unless it is proved to be hygienically harmful or socially disturbing. These are the superior philosophers. But those of a lower degree, being apprehensive of condemnation by the community, have, to some degree, softened their principles and profess a somewhat doubtful acceptance of God and the hereafter and other concepts of this kind. The superior philosophers regard them as utterly foolish and cowardly, and a source of disgrace, since they claim to be philosophers but do not adhere strictly to the basic principles of philosophy. Therefore the superior ones do not consider them worthy of the honourable appellation of a philosopher.
[Surmah Chashm-e-Arya, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 2, pp. 83-88, footnote]
I desire to lead these theoretical philosophers, who are unaware of the love for the Divine and are negligent in their appreciation of His Exalted Being, to the straight path through such persuasive arguments as I am capable of. I have observed that their spiritual condition has become very weak, and unwarranted freedom and weakness of faith have seriously undermined their sincerity, religious resolve, and spiritual condition. They have confused truth with falsehood in an odd manner. The roots of the blessings of religion are faith, confidence, goodwill, obedience of true spiritual guides, and the Divine word, but these people misunderstand religion on account of their wrong philosophy.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon them to discard prejudice and self-approval, and reflect in a simple way upon the question: What is faith and why is it expected to confer any benefit?
Be it known, therefore, that faith means a sincere declaration of the acceptance of the message of a Prophet, out of righteousness and as a matter of wise precaution, purely on the basis of goodwill. That is to say, to proclaim acceptance whole-heartedly, finding that certain reliable factors point in that direction, without waiting for perfect and conclusive proof. The stage when perfect reasons and conclusive arguments become available in support of the truth is designated the stage of certainty through knowledge. When God Almighty, out of His special bounty, should in an extraordinary manner bestows the lights of guidance, and should acquaint a creature of His with His favours and bounties, and should bestow reason and knowledge from Himself, and opening the doors of visions and revelation should disclose the wonders of Divinity, and should reveal His beauty as the Beloved, that stage is designated understanding, or in other words, certainty by sight and is also called guidance and insight.
When, in consequence of the profound effect of all these experiences, the heart of a lover of God is surcharged with love and devotion to a degree where his whole being is saturated with delight, and heavenly light totally envelops his heart and excludes all darkness and constraint, so that, on account of the perfection of his love and devotion and the climax of his sincerity and loyalty, misfortunes and calamities become a source of delight and sweetness for him, that stage is designated as the stage of being at rest. It is also called salvation, deliverance or certainty by realization.
All these ranks are granted after arriving at the stage of faith. One who is firm in one’s faith progressively achieves these ranks. But one who does not adopt the way of faith and demands conclusive, certain, and patent proof of every verity before accepting it, has no relationship with the way of faith and can never become the recipient of the grace of that Almighty and Self-Sufficient Being.
It has ever been the way of Allah—and this is a fine point of the appreciation of the Divine over which the fortunate ones should reflect—that merit and heavenly grace follow only upon faith. The true philosophy of this way is that in the primary stage of faith a person should avoid a long series of doubts and denials regarding the acceptance of the Absolute Self-Sufficient One, and His power and His promise, and His warning, and His revelations, and His mysteries. For the maintenance of the condition of faith, on which all merit depends, it is necessary that God Almighty should not display all matters of faith as plainly as other realities become apparent to everyone.
[Surmah Chashm-e-Arya, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 2, pp. 70-80]
Faith means acceptance at a stage when knowledge is not yet complete, and the struggle with doubts and suspicions is still in progress. He who believes, that is to say, has faith, on the basis of probability and likelihood and despite weakness and the lack of perfect means of certainty, is accounted righteous in the estimation of the Supreme One. Thereafter, perfect understanding is bestowed on him as a bounty, and he is given to drink of the cup of understanding after partaking of faith. When a pious one, on hearing the call of a Messenger, a Prophet or a commissioned one of God, does not just go about criticizing, but takes that portion which he can recognize and understand on the basis of clear proof the means of acceptance and faith, and considers that which he is unable to understand as metaphorical or allegorical, and thus removing all contradiction out of the way, believes simply and sincerely, then God Almighty, having pity on him and being pleased with his faith, and hearing his supplications, opens the gates of perfect understanding for him and leads him to perfect certainty through visions, revelation and other heavenly signs.
[Ayyam-us-Sulh, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 14, p. 261]
The Word of God directs us: Have faith and you will be delivered. It does not tell us: Demand philosophical reasons and conclusive proofs in support of the doctrines that the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has presented to you, and do not accept them until they are established like mathematical formulae. It is obvious that if the teaching of a Prophet is to be accepted only after being tested by the canons of current knowledge, that would not be faith in the Prophet; inasmuch as every verity when it is established clearly, becomes binding, whether it is set forth by a Prophet or by anyone else. Even if expounded by a vicious person it has to be accepted. That which we would accept by putting our trust in a Prophet, and by affirming his righteousness, must be of a nature which possesses a probability of truth in the estimation of reason and yet leaves room for a foolish person to incline towards its rejection as false; so that by taking the side of truth and affirming the righteousness of a Prophet we may be rewarded for our well-thinking, penetrating intelligence, respectfulness and faith. This is the purport of the teaching of the Holy Qur’an that we have set forth. But thinkers and philosophers have never followed this way and have always been heedless of faith. They have always been in search of the kind of knowledge which is demonstrated to them as being immediate, incontrovertible and certain.
It should be remembered that God Almighty, by demanding faith in the unseen, does not wish to deprive the believers of certainty of understanding the Divine. Indeed, faith is a ladder for arriving at this certainty of understanding, without which it is in vain to seek true understanding. Those who climb this ladder surely experience for themselves the pure and undefiled spiritual verities. When a sincere believer accepts Divine commands and directions for the only reason that God Almighty has bestowed them upon him through a righteous bearer, he becomes deserving of the bounty of understanding. That is why God Almighty has established a law for His servants that they should first acknowledge Him by believing in the unseen, so that all the problems they face may be resolved through the bounty of true understanding. But it is a pity that a hasty one does not adopt these ways. The Holy Qur’an contains the promise of God Almighty that if a person, who accepts the call of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the basis of faith, seeks to comprehend its reality and strives after such comprehension, the reality will be disclosed to him by means of visions and revelations and his faith will be elevated to the stage of the understanding.
[A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 5, pp. 251-253, footnote].
I affirm repeatedly and emphatically that if religious doctrines had been self-evident like philosophical propositions and mathematical equations, they would certainly not have been considered the basis for achieving salvation. Dear brethren, rest assured that salvation depends upon faith, and faith is related to the unseen. If the underlying reality of things had not been concealed, there would have been no faith, and without faith there would be no salvation. It is faith alone which is the means of winning Divine pleasure. It is a ladder for achieving nearness to God, and a spring for washing away the rust of sin. We are dependent upon God Almighty, and it is faith that discloses this dependence. We are dependent on God Almighty for our salvation and our deliverance from every ill. Such deliverance can be achieved only through faith. The remedy for the torments of this life and the hereafter is faith. When, through the power of faith, we find that a difficulty is not impossible of resolution, it is resolved for us. It is through the power of faith that we are able to achieve that which appears to be impossible and contrary to reason. It is through the power of faith that miracles and extraordinary events are witnessed, and what is considered impossible happens.
It is through faith that we are convinced of the existence of God. He remained hidden from philosophers, and thinkers could not discover Him; but faith leads to God even a humble one who is clothed in rags, and enables him to converse with Him. The power of faith is the means of contact between a believer and the True Beloved. This power leads a poor humble one who is rejected of mankind to the palace of holiness, which is the throne of Allah and, gradually removing all intervening obstructions, reveals the countenance of the Eternal Beloved.
Arise then, and seek faith and burn the dry and useless tomes of philosophy; only through faith shall you achieve blessings. One particle of faith is better than a thousand volumes of philosophy.
Faith is not only the means of achieving salvation in the hereafter, but also provides deliverance from the torments and curses of this life. We find deliverance from soul-melting sorrows through the blessings of faith. It is faith through which a perfect believer finds comfort and joy in the midst of anxiety, agony, torment and sorrow, and when he is confronted with failure in all directions and all the familiar doors appear locked and barred. Perfect faith removes all feeling of distance and separation. There is no wealth that can be compared to faith. In this world everyone, with the exception of the believer, is overwhelmed with grief. In this world everyone is afflicted with the agony of loss and unfulfilled desires, except a believer.
Faith! how sweet are your fruits and how fragrant are your flowers; praise be to Allah, how wonderful are your blessings and what beautiful lights shine in you. No one can reach the Pleiades unless he is inspired by you. It has pleased God Almighty that now you should arrive and philosophy should depart. Nothing can stop His grace.
[A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 5, pp. 270-273, footnote]
It is obvious that the primary task and important step we have to undertake is to recognize God. If our recognition of God is defective, doubtful and befogged, our faith cannot be bright and shining. So long as we have no true experience of the recognition of God, through His attribute of Rahimiyyat, we cannot drink the fresh water of the spring of true comprehension. If we do not deliberately deceive ourselves, we will have to confess that we need our doubts and hesitations to be removed through the Divine attribute of Rahimiyyat, and we need our hearts to be so powerfully affected by the experience of Divine mercy, grace and power, as to rescue us from the passions that overpower us on account of the weakness of our faith, and turn us to the opposite direction. Is it not true that on arriving in this fleeting world, man becomes involved in a dangerous darkness because his heart is not illumined by the powerful rays of Divine recognition? He is not inspired by the search for the joys of the hereafter and of true prosperity as much as he is attracted to the world and its appendages: wealth, powers, and governance. If he were to find some prescription that would enable him to abide in this world forever, he would be ready to affirm that he has no desire for heaven and for the bounties of the hereafter. What is the reason for this? Is it not that there is no true faith in the existence of God Almighty, His power, His mercy and His promises?
Thus it is necessary for a seeker after truth to continuously occupy himself with the search for true faith and not to deceive himself by thinking that he is a Muslim who believes in God and His Messenger, and reads the Holy Qur’an, and shuns associating anything with God, and observes prayer and avoids evils and improprieties.
In the hereafter, only that person will achieve perfect salvation, true prosperity and real happiness who has gained in this life that living and true light which turns a person, together with all his faculties and capacities and designs, towards God Almighty and whereby his lower life dies altogether, and his soul undergoes a righteous change. What is that living and true light? It is the Divinely bestowed capacity, which is designated certainty or perfect comprehension. This is the power that pulls a person with its strong hand out of a dark and fearful pit and places him against a bright and peaceful background.
Before this light is acquired, all righteous actions are by way of habit, and a person is likely to stumble when confronted with the least trial. Without perfect certainty no one’s relationship with God is duly adjusted. He who is granted certainty flows like water and rushes like the wind towards God. He consumes everything else like fire and, in trials and misfortunes, displays a firmness like that of the earth. Recognition of God renders a person insane in the eyes of the world, but sane and wise in the estimation of God. This drink possesses a sweetness which renders the whole body sweet; it is a delicious milk, which relieves him who drinks it of all desire for other bounties. It can be achieved only through such prayers as are offered at the risk of one’s life. It is not acquired through the sacrifice of another’s blood but through true sacrifice of the ego. How difficult is this task. Ah! how difficult!
[Ayyam-us-Sulh, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 14, pp. 244-246]
Those who truly seek God know well that comprehension of God can be achieved only through God Himself, and God alone can bestow full recognition of Himself. This is not a matter of man’s own choice. By no contrivance can man discard sin and achieve nearness to God unless he is granted full comprehension. No atonement can be of help, nor is there any way of being purified from sin, except through that perfect comprehension which generates perfect love and perfect fear. These two alone provide a barrier against sin. When the fire of the love and fear of Allah is set ablaze, it reduces all causes of sin to ashes. This holy fire and the foul fires of sin can never coexist. Man cannot desist from evil, nor can he advance in love, until he is blessed with full comprehension, and that does not happen until God Almighty sends down living blessings and miracles.
[Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, p.7]
Humbleness is like a seed for faith. By discarding all that is vain, faith begins to sprout. When one spends one’s wealth in the cause of Allah, the plant of faith brings forth shoots which strengthen it to a degree. By exercising control over carnal passions, these branches acquire strength and firmness. By safeguarding all branches of one’s trusts and covenants, the tree of faith is enabled to stand firm on its trunk. Then, at the time of bringing forth fruit, the grace of a new capacity is bestowed on it, without which it can bring forth neither fruit nor flowers.
[Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, p. 209, footnote]
Remember, it is never possible to get rid of sin without the certainty of faith. Without certainty, it is not possible to live the life of angels; without it, it is not possible to discard debauchery; without it, it is not possible to undergo a holy change and to be drawn towards God in an extraordinary manner; without it, it is not possible to leave the earth and climb to heaven; without it, it is not possible to have perfect fear of God; without it, it is not possible to tread along the delicate paths of righteousness and to purify one’s conduct of all traces of ostentations. Similarly, it is not possible without this certainty to reject worldly riches and honour, and be heedless of the favour of kings and to believe in God alone as one’s treasure.
[Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 18, pp. 469-470]
Those who submit to God are, in fact, of three types. First, those who, on account of the obstruction of worldly means, are not able to see God’s beneficence clearly, and are not inspired by that eagerness which is generated by an appreciation of the grandeur of Divine beneficence; nor are they moved by the love which is inspired by a concept of the greatness of the Benefactor’s favours. They casually acknowledge God Almighty as the Creator, but do not contemplate the details of Divine beneficence which would impress a true concept of the Divine Benefactor upon their minds, inasmuch as the dust of exaggerated regard for material means creates a veil which prevents them from observing the full countenance of the Creator of the means. They are thus unable to appreciate the full beauty of the Bountiful. Their defective comprehension is confused by their regard for the means, and, as they are not able to estimate duly the bounties of God, they do not pay as much attention to Him as would be generated in their minds by a proper appreciation of His favours. Thus, their comprehension is somewhat misty because they put their trust in their own efforts and in the means that are available to them. They also acknowledge formally their obligation towards God on account of His being the Creator and the Provider. As God Almighty does not require of anyone that which is beyond the limits of his intellectual capacity, He only requires of them an expression of gratitude for His favours. In the verse:
‘Justice’ implies only this kind of obedience.
But above this there is another grade of comprehension which is reached when a person, disregarding the means, clearly observes God’s gracious and beneficent hand and emerges completely out of the veils of material means. At that stage, he realizes the futility and falsity of expressions like: ‘I obtained this success through proper irrigation of my fields;’ or ‘I obtained this success through my own efforts;’ or ‘I achieved my purpose through the favour of X;’ or ‘I was saved from ruin by the care of Y.’ Rather, he beholds only one Being and one Power and one Benefactor and one Hand. Then he views the favours of God Almighty clearly without the least obstruction resulting from associating means with the Benefactor. This view is so clear and certain that in his worship of the true Benefactor he does not contemplate Him as being absent but conceives Him as being present. Such worship is designated by the Holy Qur’an as Ihsan. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has himself attributed this meaning to Ihsan, as reported in Bukhari and Muslim.
There is yet another grade above this, which is:
It means that when a person continues to view Divine favours, without the association of material means, and worships God conceiving Him to be present and to be the direct Benefactor, he begins to have personal love for God.
The continuous contemplation of beneficence necessarily generates in the heart of the beneficiary love for the Benefactor, Whose unlimited favours surround him on all sides. In such a situation he does not worship the Benefactor merely out of an appreciation of His bounties, but out of personal love for Him like the love of an infant for its mother. At this stage he not only views God at the time of his worship but is also filled with delight like a true lovers. This is the grade which God Almighty has designated to be like beneficence between kindred, and this is the grade which is indicated in the verse:
Which throws light on the verse:
Here God Almighty sets out the three grades of comprehension of the Divine. The third grade is that of personal love, at which all personal desires are consumed, and the heart becomes so filled with love as a crystal vial is filled with perfume. This grade is also referred to in the verse:
This means that: ‘Of the believers there are some who sell their lives in return for the pleasure of Allah. These are the ones upon whom Allah is Most Compassionate.’
Again it is said:
That is:‘The truly delivered are those who commit themselves wholly to God and, recalling His favours, worship Him as if they behold Him. Such have their reward with God and they have no fear, nor do they grieve.’
That is to say, God and His love become their whole purpose, and their reward is Divine favours. At another place it is said:
That is: ‘Believers are those who, out of their love for God, feed the needy, the orphans and the captives saying: We feed you in order to win the pleasure of Allah; we do not desire anything in return or any expression of gratitude from you.’
These verses show clearly that the Holy Qur’an has described the highest grade of Divine worship and righteous action as that which is inspired by true love of God and sincere seeking of His pleasure. This excellent teaching, which is set out so clearly in the Holy Qur’an, is not explained with such clarity and detail in the Gospels. God Almighty has designated this religion as Islam, so as to indicate that man should worship God not out of selfish motives, but out of spontaneous eagerness.
Islam means discarding all desires and submitting to Divine will. In this world, no religion other than Islam lays down such objectives. There is no doubt that for the demonstration of His mercy God has promised the believers diverse types of bounties; but He has instructed those believers who are eager to achieve the highest grade that they should worship Him out of spontaneous personal love.
[Nur-ul-Qur’an, No. II, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 9, pp. 437-441]
Remember, the verse:
indicates the three grades of the perfection of good fortune, namely fana [extinction of the self], baqa [revival] and liqa’ [communion.] ‘Complete submission to Allah’ means to surrender to Him all human faculties and organs, and whatever belongs to oneself, and to dedicate everything to the cause of God. This condition is described as fana [extinction of the self.] When a person, conforming with the purpose of this verse, submits the whole of his being and his faculties to God Almighty, and dedicates himself to His cause, and wholly refrains from all personal moves and rests, then undoubtedly he experiences a type of death. The Sufis designate such death as fana.
Then, the expression, ‘and acts righteously’, points to the stage of baqa [revival.] When a person, after complete surrender and abandonment of all personal desires and the cessation of all personal movement, begins to move in obedience to Divine direction, such revival is called baqa. Then follows the verse:
This signifies affirmation, acceptance and reward and negates fear and grief. This condition refers to liqa’ [communion.] For, when a person achieves such a high grade in his comprehension of the Divine, certainty, trust and love as to exclude all imagination and fancy and doubt concerning the reward of his sincerity and faith and loyalty, which becomes so certain and absolute and visible and perceptible as if he is already enjoying it, and his belief in the Being of God Almighty becomes so certain as if he is beholding Him, and he loses sight of all fear and grief, past or present, which disappear altogether and every spiritual bounty appears present before him, that condition which is free from all constraint and is secure against every doubt and apprehension and is free from all anxiety of waiting, is designated liqa’ [communion.] This grade of liqa’ is clearly indicated by the word Muhsin, inasmuch as according to the interpretation of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Ihsan is the condition in which a worshipper establishes such a relationship with God Almighty as if he is beholding Him. The grade of liqa’ is achieved perfectly when Divine reflection completely covers the humanity of the seeker as iron is covered by the fire in which it is heated, so much so, that the physical eye perceives nothing but the fire. This is the stage at which some seekers have stumbled and have conceived the symbolic relationship as the physical union of the two beings.
Some Sufis have designated the saints who have arrived at the stage of liqa’ or who have partaken of it to a degree, as children of God. On account of their having been completely covered by certain Divine attributes, just as a child has some resemblance to his father in respect of his form and features, in the same way, they too, in consequence of having adorned themselves reflectively with certain Divine attributes, acquire some resemblance to the beautiful attributes of God Almighty. Such titles are not commonly used in the idiom of the Shariah, but those invested with the quality of spiritual comprehension have derived them from the Holy Qur’an; as Allah the Exalted has said:
That is: ‘Remember Allah with the eagerness with which you remember your fathers.’
It is obvious that if the metaphorical use of these expressions had been forbidden by Shariah, God Almighty would have safeguarded His Word against such use of the expressions as might have allowed others to use them.
At this stage of liqa’ [communion], a person sometimes does bear some characteristics which appear to be beyond human capacity and have the colour of Divine power. For instance, our lord and master, the Chief of the Prophets, Hazrat Khatam-ul-Anbiya’ (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) threw a handful of gravel at the enemy during the battle of Badr, not with any prayer but only with his spiritual power, and that handful of gravel exhibited Divine power and affected the hostile forces in such an extraordinary manner that not a single one was left who’s eyes were not affected by it…
In the same way, another miracle of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), which relates to the splitting of the moon, was manifested by Divine power. It was not the consequence of any prayer. It was manifested by the mere pointing of his finger, which was charged with Divine power. There are many other miracles of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), which were not accompanied by any prayer but were manifested through his person as the symbol of Divine power.…
My purpose in stating all this is that when a person arrives at the grade of liqa’, he manifests Divine powers on the occasions of the upsurge of this grade. Anyone who spends some time in the intimate company of such a person witnesses some of these manifestations, inasmuch as during the upsurge of this condition, such a one reflectively manifests Divine attributes, so much so that his mercy becomes the mercy of God, and his wrath becomes the wrath of God. Very often when he says, even without a prayer, that such and such should happen, it happens. If he looks upon anyone with anger such a person is afflicted with some calamity, and if he looks upon someone with compassion, that person becomes the object of Divine mercy. Just as the Divine command: ‘Be’, always produces the desired result, in the same way, when such a person says, ‘Be’, in the state of the upsurge of liqa’, it does not fail to produce the desired result. The reason for the manifestation of these extraordinary happenings is that such a person, on account of his strong relationship with God, takes on reflectively a Divine complexion and passes completely into the control of Divine manifestations, and the True Beloved takes him into His embrace and removes all intervening obstructions on account of his closeness to Him; and as He Himself is Blessed, He blesses that person’s words, deeds, movement, rest, food, dress, house, time, and all his belongings. In such a state everything that comes in contact with him is blessed even without prayer. Blessings that he observes, and whose fragrance he perceives, descend upon his house and upon the doors of his house. When he travels, God Almighty keeps him company with all His blessings, and when he comes home he brings with him an ocean of light. In short, he becomes a wonderful person whose true condition is known only to God Almighty.
In this context, it should be clearly understood that once the condition of:
is fully established, which the Sufis designate as fana, and which the Holy Qur’an describes as steadfastness, the grade of baqa and liqa’ follow immediately upon it. In other words, when a person empties himself completely of his condition as a creature and altogether discards desire and design and arrives at the stage of perfect surrender, he immediately experiences the stage of baqa. But until the condition of fana is fully established, and leaning wholly towards God Almighty becomes a natural characteristic, the stage of baqa cannot be reached. That stage is reached only when obedience ceases to be an effort, and the green and waving branches of obedience sprout forth from the heart like a natural growth and all that is considered one’s own truly becomes God’s, and just as other people delight in indulgence, such a person’s whole delight centres on worship and remembrance of God, and the pleasures of God take the place of his personal desires.
When this condition of baqa is fully established and saturates the being of the seeker, and becomes his permanent characteristic, and he witnesses a light descending from heaven which removes all obstructions, and a fine, sweet and delicious feeling of love which had not been perceived before is generated in the heart, and a coolness and a contentment and a peace and a delight are experienced like the experience of suddenly meeting and embracing a long separated friend, and the bright, delicious, blessed, comforting, eloquent, fragrant and gladdening words of God begin to descend at all times, whether sitting, standing, asleep or awake, like a cool, pleasant and fragrant breeze which comes across a garden of flowers and begins to blow in the morning and brings with it a delight and intoxication, and the seeker is so drawn towards God Almighty that he finds it impossible to live without a lover-like contemplation of Him, and not only is he ready to sacrifice his wealth, life, honour, children and all he has, but has already sacrificed all of it in his heart, and he feels such a strong pull the nature of which he is not able to determine; and he perceives a brilliant light illumining his inner self like the dawning of the day; and he observes streams of devotion, love and loyalty flowing mightily through himself and feels every moment as if God Almighty has descended upon his heart; when this condition is experienced in all its aspects it is then that a seeker should be happy and should express his gratitude to the True Beloved, for that is the ultimate stage which is called liqa’.
At this stage, the seeker feels as if he has been washed in many holy waters, and has been created anew by casting out every trace of his ego, and the throne of the Lord of the worlds has been set inside him, and that God’s shining countenance with all its winning beauty has appeared before him.
It should, however, be remembered that the last two stages, baqa and liqa’, are not achieved through one’s own effort but are Divine bounties. Effort is confined to the stage of fana and the journey of all righteous seekers terminates at that stage, and the circle of human excellences is thus completed. When the pure minded seeker traverses the stage of fana as it should be traversed, it is Divine practice that the breeze of Divine bounty immediately conveys him to the stage of baqa and liqa’.
It is thus obvious that all the travails and labours of this journey are up to the stage of fana, and thereafter no scope is left for human effort, labour and striving. A bright flame of Divine love thereafter falls upon the pure love of the seeker after God, the Noble and Exalted. Through the union of the two, a bright and perfect reflection of the Holy Spirit is generated in the human heart. At the stage of liqa’ the light of the Holy Spirit is very bright and the extraordinary manifestations to which we have already referred proceed from the seeker because the light of the Holy Spirit always attends upon him and dwells within him. He is never separated from this light, nor does it ever depart from him. It issues from him with every breath, falls with his glance upon everything and manifests its illumination in his words. This light is called the Holy Spirit. But this is not the real Holy Spirit. The real Holy Spirit is in heaven. This Holy Spirit is a reflection which dwells permanently in the bosom, heart and brain of the holy person and does not leave him even for a moment.
[A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 5, pp. 63-72]
Every true seeker naturally wishes to know what he should do to achieve this high stage of converse with the Divine. The answer is that this stage is a new existence at which one is given new faculties, new powers and a new life. This new existence cannot be achieved without the surrender of the previous existence. When the previous existence is wholly discarded through a true and real sacrifice, which means the sacrifice of life, honour and wealth and all other trappings of the ego, this second existence immediately takes its place.
The signs of the discarding of the previous existence are that previous characteristics and emotions are replaced by new characteristics and new emotions, and one’s nature undergoes a tremendous change. All states of existence, relating to morals, faith and worship, are so transformed that they appear to take on a new colour.
In short, one becomes a new person and God Almighty also appears anew. New delights, previously unknown, are experienced in gratitude, steadfastness and remembrance of God. One feels clearly that he has full trust in his Lord and cares the least for everything other than Him. The contemplation of the Being of God Almighty overwhelms the heart to such a degree that every being other than Him disappears altogether and all material means appear useless and contemptible. Devotion and loyalty surge up to such a degree that every calamity appears light, and even the experience of calamities and misfortunes is perceived as a delight. When all these signs are perceived, it should be realized that the previous existence has suffered a total death.
Such a death invests a seeker with wonderful powers to exercise in the cause of God. He is given the power to perform all those heavy tasks which others only talk about but cannot perform, and to carry the burdens that others only estimate but cannot lift. He does all this, not of his own strength, but with the assistance of a great Divine power, which renders him firmer than the mountains, and bestows upon him a faithful heart. He is then able, for the glory of God Almighty, to do such things and manifest such devotion as is beyond the power of man. He cuts asunder from all besides Allah, and removes all intervening barriers and obstructions. He is tested and persecuted and encounters diverse types of trials and is afflicted with such calamities and misfortunes as would have destroyed mountains and darkened the sun and the moon; but he remains steadfast and endures all hardships cheerfully. Even if he is ground to dust by the mortar and pestle of calamities, no sound proceeds from him except: ‘I stand with God’. When a person arrives at this stage, he rises above the conditions of this world and is given, by way of reflection, all of the guidance and high status that were bestowed upon previous Prophets and Messengers, and he becomes their heir and their deputy.
[A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 5, pp. 233-237]
The third question is: what are the spiritual states? … According to the Holy Qur’an, ‘Nafs-e-Mutma’innah’ [the Soul at Rest] is the source of spiritual states that conveys a person from the stage of a moral being to that of a godly being, as Allah the Exalted, has said:
That is: ‘O Soul at Rest with thy Lord, return to thy Lord, He is well pleased with thee and thou are well pleased with Him. So join My true servants and enter My garden.’
The highest spiritual condition man can achieve in this life is to be at peace with God Almighty and all his comfort, joy and delight should be centred in God. This is the condition called the heavenly life, whereby a person is granted heaven in return for his perfect devotion and loyalty. Other people await the promised heaven but such a person enjoys heaven in this very life. Arriving at this stage, a person realizes that the worship which is prescribed for him is truly a nourishment for the soul upon which his spiritual life largely depends, and that to arrive at that condition he need not wait for another life; rather he can attain it in this very life. At this point we come to realize that all the reproof that ‘Nafs-e-Lawwamah’ [the reproaching self] administers to him on his unclean life, and yet fails to rouse fully his longing for virtue and to generate real disgust against his evil desires and to bestow full power of adherence to virtue, is transformed by this urge which is the beginning of the development of the Soul at Rest. On arriving at this stage, a person becomes capable of achieving complete prosperity. All passions of the self begin to wither and a strengthening breeze begins to blow upon the soul, so that the person concerned looks upon his previous weaknesses with remorse. At that time nature and habits experience a complete transformation and the person is drawn far away from his previous condition. He is washed and cleansed, and God inscribes love of virtue upon his heart and casts out from it the impurity of vice with His own hand. All the forces of truth enter the citadel of his heart, and righteousness occupies all the battlements of his nature, and truth become victorious and falsehood lays down its arms and is put to flight. The hand of God governs his heart and he walks under God’s shadow. God Almighty has indicated all this in the following verses:
These verses mean that: ‘These are the ones in whose hearts Allah has inscribed faith with His own hand and whom He has helped with the Holy Spirit.’
‘O believers, Allah has made faith attractive to you and has instilled its beauty and grace in your hearts. And He has made your hearts averse to disbelief, wickedness and disobedience and has impressed upon your hearts the repugnance for evil ways. All this has come about through the grace and favour of Allah.’
‘Truth has arrived and falsehood has fled. How could falsehood ever stand up to truth.’
All this pertains to the spiritual states which a person attains at the third stage. No one can acquire true insight unless he arrives at this condition. The fact that God inscribes faith on their hearts with His own hand and helps them with the Holy Spirit means that no one can achieve true purity and righteousness without His help. At the stage of ‘the reproaching self’, a person repents time and again, yet he keeps falling down, and begins to despair and to consider his condition beyond remedy. He remains in this situation for a period and when the appointed time comes, a light which possesses Divine power descends upon him at night or during the day. With the descent of that light, he undergoes a wonderful change and he perceives the control of a hidden hand, and beholds a wonderful world. At that time he realizes that God exists, and his eyes are filled with a light they did not possess before.
The question is, how shall we discover that path and how shall we acquire that light? Be it known that in this world every effect has a cause and behind every move there is a mover. For the acquisition of every type of knowledge there is an appointed way, called the straight path. Nothing can be achieved in this world without conformity to the rules that nature has laid down in this respect from the very beginning. The law of nature teaches us that to achieve any objective there is a straight path and that the objective in question can be achieved only by following that path. For instance, if we are sitting in a dark room, the straight path for obtaining the light of the sun is for us to open the window that faces the sun. When we do that, the light of the sun instantly enters the room and illuminates it. Thus it is obvious that for the acquisition of God’s love and real grace there must be some window, and there must be an appointed method for the acquisition of pure spirituality. That way is that we should seek the straight path which leads to spirituality, just as we seek a straight path for the achievement of all other purposes. Does that method consist in seeking to meet God only through the exercise of our reason and by following our self-appointed ways? Can the doors that can only be opened by His powerful hands yield to our logic and philosophy? Can we find the Ever-Living and SelfSubsisting God through our own devices? Certainly not. The only straight path for the achievement of this purpose is that we should first devote our lives, together with all our faculties, to the cause of God Almighty, and should then occupy ourselves with supplication for meeting Him, and should thus find God through God Himself.
The most lovely prayer which instructs us concerning the time and occasion of supplication, and depicts before us the picture of spiritual zeal is the one that God, the Beneficent, has taught in the opening chapter of the Holy Qur’an.
‘Every possible praise belongs to Allah alone, Who is the Creator and Sustainer of all the worlds.’
‘He provides for us out of His mercy before any action proceeds from us, and after we have acted He rewards our actions out of His mercy.’
‘He alone is the Master of the Day of Judgement. He has not committed that day to anyone else.’
‘O You Who comprehends all these attributes, we worship You alone and seek Your help in all our affairs.’
The use of the plural pronoun ‘we’ in this context indicates that all our faculties are occupied in His worship and are prostrate at His threshold. Every person by virtue of his inner faculties is a community and a nation. The prostration of one’s entire faculties before God constitutes the condition referred to as Islam.
‘Guide us along the straight path and establish us firmly on it; show us the path of those on whom You have bestowed Your bounties and favours.’
‘And save us from the paths of those who incur Your wrath, and could not reach You and lost their way.’
Amin. O Allah, accept our supplication.
These verses tell us that Divine bounties and favours are bestowed only upon those who offer their lives as sacrifice in the cause of God and, devoting themselves wholly to and being occupied entirely with His pleasure, continue to supplicate so that they might be granted all the spiritual bounties that a human being can receive by way of nearness to God, meeting Him and hearing His words. With this supplication they worship God through all their faculties, eschew sin and remain prostrate at His threshold. They safeguard themselves against all vice and shun the ways of God’s wrath. As they seek God with high resolve and perfect sincerity, they find Him and are filled with the cups of Divine knowledge.…
The true and perfect grace that conveys a person to the spiritual world depends upon absolute steadfastness, by which is meant the degree of sincerity and faithfulness that cannot be shaken by any trial. It means a relationship with the Divine, which should be so strong that it cannot be cut by a sword or consumed by fire or damaged by any other calamity. The death of dear ones or separation from them should not interfere with it, nor should fear of dishonour affect it, nor should a painful death move the heart away from it in the least degree. Thus this door is very narrow and this path is very hard. Alas, how difficult this is! Alas, how very difficult!!
This is indicated by Allah the Glorious in the following verse:
Meaning that: ‘Tell them: If your fathers and your sons and your brethren and your wives and your kinsfolk and the wealth that you have acquired with great effort, and the trade the dullness of which you apprehend, and the dwellings that you fancy, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His cause, then wait until Allah pronounces His Judgement. Allah will never guide the disobedient people.’
This verse clearly shows that people who put aside the will of God and give preference to their relatives and their properties, are evildoers in the estimation of God. They will surely be ruined because they preferred something to God.
This is the third stage in which a person becomes godly who welcomes thousands of calamities for the sake of God, and leans towards Him with such sincerity and devotion, as if he has no one related to him except God, and all others have died. The truth is that until we submit ourselves to death we cannot behold the Living God. The day our physical life undergoes death is the day of the manifestation of God. We are blind until we become blind to the sight of all besides God. We are dead until we become like a corpse in the hand of God. It is only when we face God completely that we acquire the steadfastness that overcomes all passions of the self; and such steadfastness brings about the death of the life which is devoted to selfish purposes.
[Islami Usul ki Philosophy, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 10, pp. 377-383]
There are three types of people who partake of heavenly signs. First there are those who possess no merit in themselves and have no relationship with God Almighty. On account of their intellectual appropriateness they experience true dreams and visions that are not characterized by any sign indicating their acceptability to God and their being loved by Him, nor are they of any benefit for them. Thousands of wicked and vicious people share such experiences with them. It is often observed that despite such dreams and visions their conduct is not praiseworthy and their faith is very weak, so much so that they do not have the courage to bear true witness and they do not fear God as much as they fear the world and they cannot separate themselves from the wicked. They dare not bear such true testimony as might offend a person of high status. They are slothful and lazy in respect of religious obligations and are wholly preoccupied with worldly anxieties and grief. They deliberately support falsehood and abandon truth. They are guilty of dishonesty at every step and some of them do not even restrain themselves from vice and sin and have recourse to every unlawful device for the purpose of acquiring worldly benefits. The moral condition of some of them is deplorable and they are riddled with envy, miserliness, self-conceit, arrogance and pride. They have recourse to every meanness and are characterized with diverse types of shameful ills. Some of them see only evil dreams, of which a number come true, as if their brains have been fashioned only for evil and ill-omened dreams. They are not capable of having dreams that benefit them or indicate something good for another person. Their dreams are of a category which might be described as resembling the experience of a person who perceives smoke from a distance but sees neither the light of the fire nor feels its warmth. Such people have nothing to do with God and spiritual matters; they have been given only smoke which yields no light.
The second category of people who see true dreams or receive revelations are those who have some relationship with God but that relationship is not perfect. Their dreams and revelations resemble the experience of a person who perceives the light of fire from a long distance in a dark and cold night, which enables him to avoid potholes, thorns, rocks, serpents and wild beasts, but which cannot save him from dying of cold. If such a person does not arrive within the warm circle of the fire, he is also destroyed in the same manner as the one who walks in the dark.
The third category of people who experience true dreams and revelations can be compared to a man, who, on a dark and cold night, is not only guided by the bright light of a fire, but actually enters its warm circle, and is fully safeguarded against the effects of the cold. Only those people arrive at this stage who burn up the garment of low passions in the fire of love for the Divine and adopt a life of bitterness for the sake of God. They perceive death ahead of them and run forward to meet it. They accept every torment in the cause of God. For the sake of God, they become enemies of their ego and exhibit such a degree of strength of faith against it that even angels marvel at it. They are spiritual champions and all satanic assaults prove utterly ineffective against their spiritual strength. They are truly faithful and devoted. Scenes of worldly pleasures cannot mislead them nor can they be turned away from their True Beloved by their love of wife and children. In short, no bitterness can frighten them nor can any physical pleasure bar their approach towards God. No relationship can disrupt their relationship with God.
There are three spiritual grades, of which the first is called certainty by inference, the second is called certainty by sight, and the third blessed and perfect condition is called certainty by experience. Human comprehension cannot become perfect nor can it be washed clean of all impurities until it arrives at the stage of certainty by experience, since this stage does not depend only on observation, but envelops the human heart as an immediate experience; and the seeker, plunging into the flaming fire of Divine love, totally negates his ego. At this stage human comprehension moves from theory to experience and the lower life is utterly consumed. Such a man is seated in the lap of God Almighty. Just as a piece of iron, when heated in fire, assumes the appearance and qualities of fire, in the same way, a seeker who has arrived at this stage is invested reflectively with Divine attributes. He surrenders himself so completely to the pleasure of God that he speaks under the direction of God, sees under the direction of God, hears under the direction of God, and moves under the direction of God, as if there is only God inside his mantle. His humanity is completely subordinated to Divine manifestations. This subject is delicate and is above common understanding; I shall, therefore, not explore it further.
[Haqiqat-ul-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 22, pp. 22-25]
The word Aflaha is repeated six times in these verses23. In the first verse its use is explicit as is said:
In the other verses it is expressed through the conjunctive. In the lexicon the meaning of Aflaha is 
i.e., one was turned towards his object of success and made to move towards it. According to this meaning, the first move of a believer towards achieving his objective is humility in his prayer, an act that involves the abandonment of pride and arrogance. The objective attained thereby is that the self adopts the habit of humbleness and becomes ready and attuned to establishing a relationship with God.
The second step towards fulfilment is the abandonment of vain thinking and pursuits, for until a believer acquires the strength to abandon vain pursuits for the sake of God, which is not a difficult matter, it is unreasonable to expect that he will be able to turn away from such pursuits from which he derives some benefit or pleasure, and which are difficult to abandon. This shows that after the abandonment of pride the next step is the giving up of vain pursuits in consequence of which some relationship is established with God Almighty and, as a result, faith becomes stronger than before. This relationship is feeble because the relationship with vain pursuits is also feeble and by discarding a weak relationship one is rewarded with a relationship which is also weak.
The third step towards spiritual fulfilment is to spend one’s wealth in the cause of Allah, which is a greater sacrifice than turning away from vain pursuits, as wealth is earned with effort and is something useful, and is also a source of prosperity and comfort. This sacrifice requires stronger faith than the giving up of vain pursuits. Consequently, faith is strengthened further and the relationship with God is likewise fostered. This purifies the self because the sacrifice of wealth for the sake of God is not possible without such purification.
The fourth step is the restraint of passions against unlawful indulgence, which is a stronger attachment than attachment to wealth, for wealth is spent in the pursuit of one’s passions. To control passion for the sake of God is a greater sacrifice than the sacrifice of wealth. Consequently, the abandonment of the pursuit of passions strengthens relationship with God, for whatever a person gives up for the sake of God, he is granted something better in its place.
The fifth step is to discard the ego altogether in the cause of God. This means to render back to God that which has been committed to one as a trust. At this stage a believer is required to modify his relationship to everything that is bestowed upon him as if all of it were a trust to be devoted to the cause of God. This is the meaning of the verse:
A person’s life and wealth and all his sources of comfort are trusts committed to him by God; rendering them back is obligatory on the trustee. The sacrifice of the ego, therefore, means that the trust should be rendered back to God Almighty, and also that one’s covenant of faith with God should be duly fulfilled and the obligations that one owes to his fellow beings should be fully discharged as a true sacrifice, inasmuch as the complete fulfilment of all aspects of righteousness also amounts to a type of death. In this context fulfilment means that when a believer spends his life in the cause of God and carries into effect all aspects of righteousness, Divine lights envelop his being and invest him with spiritual beauty, as the bones are rendered beautiful by being clothed in flesh … Both these states have been described by God Almighty as garments. Righteousness too has been described as a garment, as Allah says:
The flesh with which the bones are clothed has also been described as a garment, as Allah says:
… It should be remembered that the fifth stage is the final stage of the spiritual journey. When that stage reaches perfection, it is followed by the sixth stage, which is a pure bounty, and is bestowed upon the believer without any further effort or toil. Effort has nothing to do with it. In other words, just as the believer forsakes his self for the sake of God, and is granted a new soul….; in the same way, a believer who dedicates his life to the cause of God out of personal love for God, is honoured with the spirit of God’s personal love which is accompanied by the Holy Spirit. God’s personal love is a spirit and the Holy Spirit is not something apart from it; there is no separation between God’s love and the Holy Spirit. That is why we have mostly mentioned God’s personal love without mentioning the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as the two are essential to each other. When this spirit descends upon a believer, worship ceases to be a burden, and he is invested with such strength and pleasure that it prompts him to worship and remember God out of the eagerness of love and not through conscious effort. Such a believer continuously attends upon the threshold of God, like the angel Gabriel, and is granted permanent nearness of the Lord of Honour, as God Almighty has said:
That is: ‘The perfect believers are those who are ever present before God and themselves guard their prayers.’
At that stage a believer deems his prayer essential for nurturing his spiritual life without which he cannot survive. This stage cannot be achieved without the spirit which descends from God Almighty upon a believer. When a believer discards his life for the sake of God Almighty he deserves to be given a new life.
All this shows that according to sane reason, these are the six stages which have to be traversed by a believer who seeks the perfection of his spiritual being, and even cursory reflection would show that a believer must pass through six conditions during the course of his spiritual journey. The reason for this is that until a person succeeds in establishing a perfect relationship with God, his imperfect ego loves five vicious conditions, and the discarding of the love of each condition requires a motive which should enable him to overcome that love so that a new love may take its place.
The first condition which a person loves is one of heedlessness in which he is at a distance from God Almighty. His ego is in a sort of disbelief, and he is drawn towards arrogance and hard-heartedness and does not at all partake of humility and meekness and lowliness. He loves this condition and regards it as the best for himself. When Divine favour designs his reform, some event or calamity impresses the grandeur and fear and power of God Almighty upon his heart, in consequence of which he becomes humble and his love of pride, arrogance and heedlessness is altogether wiped out. It is often observed that when the whip of Divine terror strikes in a fearful manner, it bends down the necks of even daring evildoers; it awakens them from the slumber of heedlessness and makes them humble and meek. This is the first stage of turning to God available to a fortunate one through observing Divine grandeur and awe or through some other means. Although he loved his heedless and unrestrained life, he has to give it up as it yields to a stronger and opposite influence.
The second condition is that though such a believer does turn towards God Almighty in some measure, this change is still affected by the impurity of vain talk, actions and pursuits that he loves. He sometimes experiences humility in prayer but vain pursuits and associations and indulgences continue to preoccupy him. In a sense he oscillates between two states.
Thereafter, if Divine favour wishes to save him from ruin, another greater manifestation of Divine grandeur, awe and power descends upon his heart which strengthens his faith and consumes all his vain thoughts and tendencies. It generates in his heart such love for the Lord of Honour as overcomes his love for vain pursuits and preoccupations and displaces them with the result that his heart becomes disgusted with such deeds.
A third evil condition which still afflicts the believer and which is dearer to him than the second, is his natural love of wealth, which he considers the support and comfort of his life and which he conceives as having been achieved through his own effort and striving. For this reason, he finds it very difficult and bitter to part from his wealth in the cause of God.
When Divine favour desires to rescue him from this tremendous involvement, he is given knowledge of the providence of God and the seed of trust in God is sown in his heart. This is supplemented by the awe of the Divine, and these two manifestations of beauty and glory take possession of his heart; in consequence the love of wealth departs from his heart and the seed of the love of the Bestower of wealth is sown in its place. Thereby his faith is further strengthened beyond the degree of faith which he enjoyed in the previous stages, inasmuch as at this stage he not only discards all things vain, but also gives up the wealth on which he thinks his present life depends. If his faith had not been strengthened with the support of trust in God, and his eyes had not been directed towards the True Providence, he could not have been cured of the malady of miserliness. Thus this power of faith not only rescues him from indulgence in all vanity, but also creates a strong faith in the providence of God and illumines the heart with the light of trust in God. He can now spend his wealth, of which he had been enamoured, very easily and cheerfully in the cause of God, and the weakness which results from the despair of miserliness is totally replaced by eager hope in God Almighty; and the love of wealth is overcome by the love of the Bestower of wealth.
This is followed by the fourth condition which is so dearly loved by Nafs-e-Ammarah [the self that incites to evil] and which is much worse than the third condition in which only wealth had to be discarded. In this condition, the unlawful passions of the ego have to be eschewed. The sacrifice of wealth is naturally easier for a person than the discarding of his carnal passions. Therefore this condition is more terrible and dangerous than the previous one. Witness the verse:
This means that carnal passion is so fierce an urge that its restraint needs a strong sign. Thus it is obvious that the power of faith in the fourth stage is much stronger than it is in the third stage, and the manifestation of Divine grandeur, awe and power is also greater. At this stage it is also necessary that the prohibited pleasure should be substituted by a spiritual pleasure. As strong faith in the providence of God Almighty is needed to cure miserliness, and a strong feeling of trust is required when the pocket is empty so that miserliness may be repelled and hope may be fixed on the opening of hidden sources, in the same way, for deliverance from carnal passions and the extinguishing of the fire of lust, it is necessary to have strong faith in the fire which affects both body and soul with severe torment. Also needed is a taste of the spiritual delight which renders these murky pleasures unattractive and dispensable.
A person who is in the grip of carnal passion is, as it were, caught in the mouth of a most poisonous serpent. Thus, as the malady of miserliness is graver than the malady of indulgence in vain pursuits, in the same way being caught in the grip of carnal passions is graver than the malady of miserliness, and is a severer calamity than all other calamities, and needs the special mercy of God Almighty to be delivered from it. When God Almighty designs to deliver someone from this calamity, He visits him with such a manifestation of His grandeur, awe and power, as grinds down all carnal passions and invests his heart with eagerness for His own love along with a manifestation of beauty. Just as a suckling baby, on being weaned, passes a restless night or two, and soon forgets its mother’s milk and turns away from suckling even if the mother presents her breast to him, in the same way, a righteous one is disgusted with carnal passions when he is weaned away from the milk of desire and is granted spiritual nourishment in its place.
This is followed by the fifth condition, the disorders of which are dearly loved by the self that incites to evil. At this stage only one struggle is left and the time approaches near when the angels of God would conquer the whole territory of the ego and would bring it under their complete control, and, disrupting the whole system of the ego, would ruin the territory of carnal faculties and humiliate its chieftains and destroy their kingdom. For that is what happens when a kingdom is destroyed, as it is said:
This is the last trial for a believer and is the last struggle with which all stages of his journey come to an end. His progress, through his effort and striving, arrives at its climax and human effort completes its operation up to its last limit. Thereafter, there is only bounty and grace, which is described as a new creation. This fifth condition is even more difficult than the fourth. In the fourth condition the believer has to discard unlawful passions but in the fifth condition he has to surrender his self altogether and to restore it to God Almighty as a trust which had been committed to his care. Devoting himself wholly to the work of God, he should make his ego serve on His behalf, be determined to spend it in the cause of Allah, and strive to negate his self altogether, for, as long as the self persists, sinful tendencies also continue—a condition which is inconsistent with righteousness. Besides, so long as the self persists, it is not possible for man to tread along the finer paths of righteousness or to discharge fully the trusts and covenants of God and His creatures. But as miserliness cannot be discarded without trust in God and faith in His providence, and deliverance cannot be achieved from illicit passions without the supremacy of Divine awe and grandeur and the substitution of spiritual delights, in the same way this grand rank where the self is discarded and all trust restored to God Almighty, cannot be attained until a fierce wind of the love of God begins to blow and renders a person madly devoted to the cause of Allah. These are, in truth, the pre-occupations of those who are inebriated with the love of God. These are not the pursuits of the worldly wise.
Almighty Allah points towards this, saying:
‘We presented Our trust, which must be rendered back to Us, to all those who dwell in the earth and in heaven but all of them refused to accept it, out of apprehension lest a default should ensue, but man accepted this trust as he was zalum [firm] and jahul [oblivious of consequences.]’
The two terms (zalum and jahul) are used for man as a compliment and not in a derogatory sense. They signify that man had been endowed with the capacity of being harsh upon his own self for the sake of God and could incline towards Him and be oblivious of his own being. Therefore, he accepted the responsibility of treating his entire being as a trust to be expended in His cause.
The requirement laid down for the fifth stage in the verse is:
This means that: ‘The believers are those who are watchful of their trusts and covenants.’ That is to say, in discharging their trusts and covenants they spare no effort in exercising righteousness and watchfulness.
This is an indication that man and all his faculties, the vision of his eyes, the hearing of his ears, the speech of his tongue, and the strength of his hands and feet are all but a trust committed to him by God Almighty, and He can take them back whenever He so wills. Being watchful of these trusts means devoting all the faculties of the spirit and the body to the service of God Almighty while observing all the requirements of righteousness as if they all belong not to man but to God and their movement and operation is not directed by his will but by the will of God. One should have no design of one’s own, and only God’s will should work through all his faculties. His self in the hands of God should be like a corpse in the hands of the living. His own will should be excluded and the complete control of God Almighty should be established over his being, so much so, that by Him should he see, and by Him should he hear, and by Him should he speak, and by Him should he move or remain passive. The minutest impurities of the ego, which cannot be observed even through a microscope, should be removed, leaving only the pure spirit. In short, the guardianship of God should envelop him and should isolate him from his own being. He should cease to direct his being and all direction should come from God. His personal desires should be wiped out and should be replaced by Divine designs. The previous governance of his being should be totally displaced by another. The habitation of the ego should be destroyed and the camp of the Divine should be established in its place. Divine awe and power should uproot all the plants that were watered from the foul spring of the ego, and replant them in the pure soil of the pleasure of God. All his desires and designs should be subordinated to God, and all the structures of the self that incites to evil should be demolished and laid in the dust, and a palace of purity and holiness should be erected in the heart which should become the habitation of the Lord of Honour. Only then could it be said that a person has restored those trusts that the Bountiful has committed to him, and has fulfilled the purpose of the verse:
At this stage a framework is prepared and the spirit of Divine manifestation, which means the personal love of the Divine, enters into the believer together with the Holy Spirit and bestows a new life and a new power upon him. All this happens under the influence of the spirit which, at this stage, establishes a relationship with the believer but does not yet take up its abode in his heart.
This is followed by the sixth spiritual stage in which the personal love of the believer reaches its climax and draws to itself the personal love of Allah the Exalted. Thereupon the personal love of God Almighty enters into the believer and envelops him, in consequence of which he is granted a new and extraordinary power. That power generates such life in his faith as a soul creates in the lifeless body. All faculties are illumined by it, and the believer is so inspired by the Holy Spirit, that he is given access to matters and to knowledge that are above normal human conception. At this stage the believer, having traversed all stages of the progress of faith, is designated in heaven as the vicegerent of God, on account of the excellences with which he is invested and which partake of Divine qualities.
When a person stands before a mirror, all his features are reflected in it; similarly, a believer who completely discards his ego so that no part of his own being survives, becomes like a mirror and all the features and qualities of the Divine are reflected in him. It can be said that the mirror, which reflects all the features of the one standing before it, becomes his vicegerent; in the same way a believer, by reflecting Divine qualities, becomes a vicegerent of God and reflects Divine features. As God is Hidden beyond hidden and is transcendent in His Being, in the same way, a perfect believer becomes hidden and transcendent in his being. The world cannot appreciate his reality as he is placed far away from the sphere of the world. It is a wonderful thing that after this holy change in the perfect believer, when he loses his self altogether for the sake of God and emerges in a new garment of holiness, God, Who is Unchangeable and Ever-Living and Self-Subsisting, too appears to him in a new guise. This does not mean that any change takes place in the eternal attributes of the Divine. He is eternally unchangeable, but there is a new Divine manifestation for the perfect believer.
When the believer brings about a change in himself, a change manifests itself in the Divine, the nature of which we cannot fathom. This happens in such a manner that God’s unchangeable Being is not affected by the dust of events. He remains unchangeable as ever.
It is a change of the type as has been mentioned, that when a believer moves towards God Almighty, the Almighty moves much more swiftly towards him, though it is obvious that as the Divine is not subject to change, He is also not subject to movement. All these expressions are metaphorical and the need for their use arises because experience testifies that as a believer assumes a new being by discarding his ego in the cause of God, God also assumes a new aspect vis-à-vis the believer, and deals with him in an exclusive manner. God reveals to him of His kingdom and mysteries that which He does not reveal to others, and displays for his sake that which He does not display for the sake of others. He helps and succours him in a manner that causes people to marvel. He manifests extraordinary happenings for such a person, and works miracles in his support and establishes his supremacy from every point of view. He invests him with a strange kind of magnetism, whereby a whole world is drawn to him and only those remain unaffected who are eternally unfortunate.
All this shows that when a true believer carries out a holy change in himself, God Almighty also appears to him with a new kind of manifestation. This is proof that God has created man for Himself, and when man turns towards God Almighty, from that very moment God turns towards him and becomes his Guardian, his Providence, his Supporter, and his Helper. If the whole world were to be on one side and a true believer on the other, it is the believer who would stand supreme, because God is true in His love and always fulfils His promises. He does not let one who becomes His to be destroyed. Such a believer when thrown into the fire finds himself in a garden; and when pushed into a whirlpool emerges in a beautiful orchard. His enemies design stratagems against him to destroy him, but God frustrates all their plans and projects, for He is with him at every step. In the end, those who seek to humiliate him die in disgrace and end in failure, but he who becomes God’s with his whole heart and soul and determination, never dies without realizing his desires. His life is blessed and is prolonged till he achieves his purpose. All blessings are by virtue of sincerity and all sincerity is in seeking the pleasure of God, and all seeking of God’s pleasure ensues from discarding one’s own pleasure. This is the death which is followed by life. Blessed is he who partakes of this life.
[Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, pp. 230-243]
The excellences of the men of God who have a relationship of love and friendship with Him are not confined to prophecies alone. Verities are disclosed to them and they are granted spiritual comprehension. The wonders and mysteries of the Shariah and proofs of the truth of Islam are revealed to them. The inner meanings of the Holy Qur’an and the fine points of the Word of God are miraculously conveyed to them. They become heirs to miraculous wonders and heavenly knowledge both of which are bestowed directly upon those whom God loves. They are favoured with special love and are invested with devotion and sincerity like Abraham (as). The Holy Spirit is reflected in their hearts. They become God’s and God becomes theirs. Their prayers bring about extraordinary results. God’s jealousy is roused in their support. They are blessed with victory over their opponents in every field. Their countenances shine with the light of Divine love. God’s mercy comes down upon their dwellings like rain. Like a beloved child, they rest in the lap of God. God displays greater wrath in their support than a wild tigress whose young is threatened. They are protected against sin, attacks of the enemies, and errors of teaching. They are the kings of heaven. God hears their supplications in a wonderful manner, so much so that kings have recourse to them. The Lord of Glory resides in their hearts. They are invested with a Divine prestige and their countenances display royal self-sufficiency. They consider the world and its inhabitants to be less than a dead insect. They know only the One and melt under His fear every moment. The world falls at their feet, and it is as if God manifests Himself in human form. They are the light of the world and the pillar of this mortal universe. They are the princes of true peace and they are the sun that dispels darkness. They are hidden beyond hidden and no one truly recognizes them, except God, and no one truly recognizes God except themselves. They are not God but it cannot be said that they are distinct from God. They are not immortal but it cannot be said that they die. Can a wicked person, whose heart and thoughts and life are foul, ever resemble them? Certainly not, except for such resemblance as a shining pebble may sometimes have with a diamond.
When men of God appear in the world, a type of spirituality descends from heaven on account of the blessings that they enjoy and all temperaments are activated, and those whose hearts and minds have affinity with true dreams begins to experience such dreams and visions, as when rain brings down water from the sky the subsoil water also rises, and every kind of vegetation begin to sprout. On the contrary, if rain is held back over a period of time, the water in the wells also dries up. Thus the men of God are in fact heavenly water and with their coming the waters of the earth also swell.
[Tohfah-e-Golarhviyyah, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 17, pp. 170-172]
The fifth excellent element of Surah Al-Fatihah is that it comprises the complete and perfect teaching which is needed by a seeker after truth and which constitutes a perfect code of conduct for progress towards nearness to God and comprehension of the Divine. Such progress begins from the point when the seeker, purely for the sake of God, imposing a death upon his ego and submitting to hardship and pain, discards all those desires of the flesh which constitute a barrier between him and his Master. Such desires turn his face away from God, directing it towards personal enjoyments, physical emotions, habits, thoughts, designs, other creatures and involve him in their fears and hopes. The average degree of progress is that all the effort that has to be made for the suppression of the self and all the pain that has to be endured in discarding familiar habits should appear as bounties, and labour should be perceived as delight and pain should be felt as comfort, and constraint should be appreciated as cheerfulness. The higher grade of progress is that the seeker should cultivate such union, love, and accord with God and His will and designs that his self ceases to have an identity and influence of its own. The Being and attributes of God should be reflected in the mirror of his own being without any trace of darkness or suspicion through perfect surrender, which should create the utmost inconsistency between the seeker and his personal desires so that the reflection of the Being and attributes of the Divine should become clearly visible. In this statement there is not a single word that endorses the false theories of Wujudis37, or of the Vedantists38, because these people do not recognize the essential and eternal distinction between the Creator and His creation. They have been grievously misled by their doubtful visions which are often experienced in a condition of imperfect progress, or result from practices which induce a type of insanity, or those who, in a condition in which they are not in full possession of their senses, overlook the difference that subsists between the Divine and the human spirit in respect of powers, faculties, qualities and holiness. It is obvious that the Almighty Whose eternal knowledge comprehends the smallest particle and to Whom no defect or default can be attributed and Who is free from every type of ignorance, stain, weakness, grief, sorrow, pain and commitment, cannot in essence be the same as one who is subject to all these deficiencies. Can man, who for his spiritual progress is subject to many contingencies which have no limit, be the same or identical with that Perfect Being Who is subject to no contingency? Can he who is mortal and whose soul suffers from the obvious deficiencies of creation, with all his stains and weaknesses and impurities and defects and shortcomings, be the equal of the Lord of glorious attributes Who is eternally perfect on account of holy excellences and qualities?
What we mean by this third stage of progress is that in that stage the seeker surrenders himself so completely to the love of God and that Perfect Being approaches so close to him with all His perfect attributes, that the manifestations of Divinity overcome his personal desires to such a degree that he develops a complete dissociation from and enmity with his personal emotions as well as with everyone who is subject to such emotions.
The difference between this stage and the second stage is that though in the second stage also complete accord is established between the will of the seeker and the will of God and the pain that proceeds from God is felt as a bounty, yet his relationship with God is not such as to charge him with personal enmity towards everything beside God, so that the love of God should not merely be the goal of the heart but should become its characteristic. In short, in the second stage accord with God and opposition to all beside Him is the goal of the seeker and he finds pleasure in the achievement of that goal, but in the third stage of progress these two become an integral part of his being from which he cannot depart under any circumstances, because it is not possible for something to be separated from itself. On the contrary such departure is possible in the second stage. So long as the sainthood of a seeker does not arrive at the third stage it is not permanent and is not secure against peril, the reason being that so long as the love of God and opposition to all beside Him does not become characteristic of a person, some traces of wrong linger in him because he has still not fully discharged his obligations to Providence and falls short of perfect liqa’. But when the love of God and accord with His will saturate his being, so much so that God becomes his ears with which he hears, and becomes his eyes with which he sees, and becomes his hands with which he grips, and becomes his feet with which he walks, then there is left in him not a trace of wrong and he becomes secure against every hazard. This stage is indicated in the verse:
It should be realized that these three grades of progress which are the root of all knowledge and comprehension, and indeed are the essence of faith, are set out in the Surah Al-Fatihah beautifully and in the most orderly manner. The first stage of progress which is the preliminary step towards nearness to God has been inculcated in the verse:
To abandon every kind of misguidance and to turn wholly to God by adopting the straight path is to climb the steep hill which has been described as fana, inasmuch as to discard at one stroke all familiar ways and habits and to abandon suddenly all personal desires to which one has been subject all one’s life and to turn straight towards God, away from all considerations of repute and honour and self-esteem and showing off, deeming everything beside Allah as non-existent, is an enterprise that amounts to death. Such a death is the source of spiritual birth. Until a grain is buried in the earth and gives up its shape, it is impossible for a new grain to come into being. In the same way the body of spiritual birth is created from the death which is fana. As the ego is defeated and its operation and will and its turning towards creatures are progressively obliterated, so do the limbs of spiritual birth go on being fashioned until, when complete annihilation of self is achieved, he is given the robe of the second being and then comes the time of:
As this complete effacement is not possible without the help and the special attention of the All-Powerful, therefore this supplication has been taught:
which means ‘Lord! establish us along the straight path and deliver us from every type of misguidance.’
This steadfastness and treading along the straight path, which we are commanded to seek, is a hard enterprise and at first it appears to the seeker like the attack of a lion that must prove fatal. But if the seeker is steadfast and accepts this death, there is no death for him after that. God is too Noble to confront him again with the blazing fires of hell. In short this perfect steadfastness is the fana [death] which completely demolishes the whole system of the being of a servant of God. He has to withdraw suddenly and totally from every type of desire, lust, design and selfish pursuit. This is the stage where human effort and human striving are in the forefront and all the labours of the saints and the seekers arrive at their climax. Thereafter follow heavenly bounties in which no human effort is involved and God Himself provides a hidden chariot and heavenly charger for viewing the heavenly wonders.
The second step in the progress towards nearness of God is indicated in the verse:
‘Guide us along the path of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy favours.’
It should be remembered that those who are the recipients of the overt and covert bounties of God are not exempt from suffering. Indeed they are afflicted with such calamities and torments that would have destroyed altogether the faith of another. They are described as the recipients of Divine favours because on account of their overwhelming love for God they view calamities also as bounties and derive pleasure from everything that they experience at the hand of the True Beloved, whether of pain or of comfort. Thus this is the second stage of progress towards nearness in which everything that proceeds from the Beloved appears a bounty and is a source of delight. This condition results from perfect love for and sincere relationship with the Beloved. It is a special gift which has nothing to do with design and planning. It is a pure Divine favour and when it is received the seeker is relieved of all burdens and every pain is perceived as a favour, and elicits no complaint or grievance. This is a condition of revival after death, because in this condition he encounters favours from every direction and is, therefore, appropriately described as one who is the recipient of favours. This condition is also described as baqa, inasmuch as in this condition the seeker feels as if he has been revived after death and perceives great cheerfulness and is relieved of all the constraints of humanness and experiences the nurturing lights of the Divine descending upon him as bounties. At this stage, the door of every favour is opened to him and Divine favours proceed towards him in full force. This stage is also called experience of God, inasmuch as in this stage the wonders of Providence are revealed to the seeker and he experiences such Divine favours as are hidden from others. He is favoured with true visions and is honoured with the words of God and is informed of the delicate mysteries of the hereafter, and is given a large portion of knowledge and comprehension. In short, he becomes the recipient of so many overt and covert bounties that he arrives at that stage of certainty in which he feels as if he is beholding the True Designer with his eyes. Such perfect knowledge of heavenly mysteries is called experience of God. This is the stage at which a person is granted love of the Divine, but it does not yet become his characteristic.
The third stage of progress, which is the ultimate step in treading the paths of nearness to God has been described in the verse:
This is the stage when the love of God and the enmity to all beside Him become characteristic of the seeker and dwell in him as his temperament. In this stage the seeker is naturally enamoured of Divine qualities and the personal love of God so grips his heart that any departure therefrom becomes impossible and not to be thought of. If his heart and soul are wrung in the machinery of severe tests and trials, nothing but love for the Divine emerges therefrom. At this stage the seeker experiences delight only in the throbbing of his love for the Divine and regards it as the true comfort of his heart. This is the stage when all progress towards nearness to God terminates and the seeker arrives at the climax that has been determined for human nature.
[Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 1, pp. 586-624, footnote 11].
God Almighty is most Benevolent and Merciful. When a person turns to Him with sincerity and devotion He demonstrates even greater sincerity towards him. Such a one never perishes. God Almighty has great qualities of love, loyalty, grace and benevolence, and the power to demonstrate Divine might, but he alone witnesses them fully who is completely lost into His love. Though He is most Benevolent and Merciful yet He is Self-Sufficient and Independent, therefore he alone is blessed with a new life by Him who welcomes death in His cause. He alone is awarded heavenly bounties who discards everything for His sake.
One who establishes a perfect relationship with God resembles a person who perceives the light of fire from afar and then approaches it close and plunges into it till he is completely consumed, and there is nothing left but the fire. In the same way the one who has established a perfect relationship with God Almighty approaches Him until the fire of Divine love envelops him and the flame of light wholly consumes the framework of his ego and takes its place. This is the climax of the blessed love of God. Its principal sign is that it generates Divine qualities in him who experiences it, and he takes on a new life, entirely different from his previous life, which is generated by the burning up of the low attributes of humanness by the flame of light. A piece of iron which is thrown into fire and is wholly possessed by the fire, takes on the appearance of fire; still we cannot call it fire despite the fiery characteristics it shows. In the same way he who is enveloped from head to foot in the flame of Divine love becomes a demonstrator of Divine manifestation, but it cannot be said that he is God. He is a creature of God who has been enveloped in that fire. After he is completely possessed by that fire he demonstrates a thousand signs of perfect love so that through them he is recognized by a wise seeker after truth. One of those signs is that from time to time God, the Benevolent, causes His eloquent and delicious words to issue from his tongue, which are invested with Divine glory and blessing and the perfect demonstration of the hidden, and are accompanied by a light which indicates that they are a certainty and not a matter of doubt. They possess a Divine brilliance and are free from every impurity. Very often they comprise great prophecies which relate to vast and universal affairs. Those prophecies are matchless in quantity and quality. No one can ever produce their match. They are charged with Divine majesty. Through their perfect power they reveal the countenance of the Divine. They are not like the utterances of soothsayers but carry with them signs of the love and acceptance of their proponent, and are filled with the spirit of Divine support and help. Some of these prophecies are related to himself or to his children, or wives, or relations, or friends, or enemies, and some have a wider scope. To him are revealed matters that are not disclosed to others, and to him are opened the doors of the unseen which are not opened to others. The word of God descends upon him as it descends upon holy Prophets and Messengers of God and is certain and free from doubt. His tongue is so honoured that the words that issue from it cannot be matched by anyone both with regard to their literary excellence and their meaning. His eye is given a visionary power through which he can see hidden events. Very often written statements are presented before his eyes. He meets the dead as if they were alive. Sometimes he views things from a distance of thousands of miles as if they were lying at his feet.
His ears are also blessed with the faculty of hearing hidden sounds. He can often hear the voice of angels and finds comfort in it at times of disturbance. Even more surprisingly, he can sometimes hear the voice of inanimate objects, vegetables, and animals.
In the same way his sense of smell can perceive hidden fragrance. Very often he can smell good news and can perceive the bad odour of disagreeable matters. His heart is endowed with the faculty of intuition. Many things flit across his mind and prove true. Likewise, Satan has no influence over him for Satan is left no part in him. On account of his complete surrender to God, his tongue becomes the tongue of God and his hand becomes the hand of God. Even apart from revelation, whatever issues from his tongue is not from him but from God, inasmuch as his own being is wholly consumed and destroyed and he is given a new and holy life which all the time reflects Divine light.
His forehead is blessed with a light which is not granted to any except the lovers of God, and sometimes its brilliance is such that even a non-believer can perceive it, particularly when he is persecuted and turns to God Almighty seeking His help. That time of devoted attention to God is a special hour and Divine light is manifested in his countenance.
His hands, feet and body are invested with a blessing in consequence of which the clothes worn by him become blessed and on some occasions touching them or handling them becomes the cause of the healing of spiritual or physical ills.
In the same way God, the Lord of Honour and Glory, invests his dwelling with a blessing, which safeguards it against calamities. God’s angels watch over it.
His city or town is blessed in a special manner. Even the dust over which he treads receives a blessing.
His desires take on the colour of prophecy. When he feels an intense desire for something to eat or drink or wear or behold, that thing becomes available.
His pleasure and displeasure also presage a corresponding happening. When he is greatly pleased with someone, that is an indication of the future rise of that person; and when he is wroth with someone, that indicates the latter’s decline and ruin, inasmuch as by virtue of his complete surrender to God he dwells in the mansion of truth and his pleasure and displeasure become the pleasure and displeasure of God, not in consequence of his desire but by virtue of Divine attention.
In the same way, his supplication and attention are in a different category from those of other people and are charged with special effect. There is no doubt that except in cases of absolute Divine decrees, if his attention is fully devoted towards the removal of a calamity, God Almighty averts it, whether it affects an individual or a group or a country or a sovereign. The secret of it is that such people are totally lost to their own beings; therefore, very often their will coincides with the will of God. Thus when their attention is directed intensely towards the removal of a calamity and is wholly concentrated on God it is the Divine way that in such a situation God hears them and does not reject their supplication, though sometimes their prayer is not heard so that their being the creatures of God may be demonstrated and they may not be deified by the ignorant ones.
[Haqiqat-ul-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 22, pp. 16-20]
1 ‘Verily, Allah enjoins justice.’—Al-Nahl, 16:91 [Publisher]
2 ‘Giving like to the next of kin.’—Al-Nahl, 16:91 [Publisher]
3 ‘Celebrate the praises of Allah as you celebrated the praises of your fathers, or even more than that.’—Al-Baqarah, 2:201 [Publisher]
4 ‘Verily, Allah enjoins justice, and the doing of good to others and giving like kindered.’—Al-Nahl, 16:91 [Publisher]
5 Al-Baqarah, 2:208 [Publisher]
6 Al-Baqarah, 2:113 [Publisher]
7 Al-Dahr, 76:9-10 [Publisher]
8 ‘Nay, whoever submits himself completely to Allah, and is the doer of good, shall have his reward with his Lord. No fear shall come upon such, neither shall they grieve.’—Al-Baqarah, 2:113 [Publisher]
9 Al-Baqarah, 2:113 [Publisher]
10 Al-Baqarah, 2:201 [Publisher]
11 ‘He who submits himself completely to Allah.’—Al-Baqarah, 2:113 [Publisher]
12 Al-Fajr, 89:28-31 [Publisher]
13 Al-Mujadalah, 58:23 [Publisher]
14 Al-Hujurat, 49:8-9 [Publisher]
15 Bani Isra’il, 17:82 [Publisher]
16 Al-Fatihah, 1:1-2 [Publisher]
17 Al-Fatihah, 1:3 [Publisher]
18 Al-Fatihah, 1:4 [Publisher]
19 Al-Fatihah, 1:5 [Publisher]
20 Al-Fatihah, 1:6-7 [Publisher]
21 Al-Fatihah, 1:7 [Publisher]
22 Al-Taubah, 9:24 [Publisher]
23 The reference is to the opening verses of Surah Al-Mu’minun, the twenty-third chapter of the Holy Qur’an. [Publisher]
24 ‘Surely, success does come to the believers, who are humble in their Prayers.’—Al-Mu’minun, 23:2-3 [Publisher]
25 His grace does not forsake the seekers;
In His path no one suffers loss.
Whoever seeks this path, finds it;
Bright becomes the face that does not turn away from Him.
[Publisher]
26 ‘And who are watchful of their trusts and their covenants.’—Al-Mu’minun, 23:9 [Publisher]
27 ‘Raiment of Righteousness.’—Al-A‘raf 7:27 [Publisher]
28 ‘Then We clothed the bones with flesh.’—Al-Mu’minun.—23:15 [Publisher]
29 Al-Mu’minun, 23:10 [Publisher]
30 The preachers who put up a great show on the pulpit; Indulge in different kinds of activity in privacy. [Publisher]
31 ‘And she made up her mind with regard to him, and he made up his mind with regard to her. If he had not seen a manifest sign of his Lord, he could not have shown such determination.’—Yusuf, 12:25 [Publisher]
32 ‘Surely, kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and turn the highest of its people into the lowest. And thus will they do.’— Al-Naml, 27:35 [Publisher]
33 The heavens could not bear the burden of the trust;
It fell to my lot to carry it, for I cared not of the consequences.
[Publisher]
34 Al-Ahzab, 33:73 [Publisher]
35 Al-Mu’minun, 23:9 [Publisher]
36 Al-Mu’minun, 23:9 [Publisher]
37 Those who believe that God and the material world are one and the same thing. [Publisher]
38 Believers in the Vedic doctrine of the eternity of souls. [Publisher]
39 ‘Holy is He and exalted far above what they attribute to Him.’— Al-An‘am, 6:101 [Publisher]
40 ‘Those who believe and mix not up their belief with injustice; it is they who shall have peace and who are rightly guided.’—Al-An‘am, 6:83 [Publisher]
41 ‘Guide us in the straight path.’—Al-Fatihah,1:6 [Publisher]
42 ‘Then we developed it into another creation.’—Al-Mu’minun 23:15 [Publisher]
43 Al-Fatihah, 1:6 [Publisher]
44 Al-Fatihah 1:7 [Publisher]
45 ‘Those who have not incurred displeasure, and those who have not gone astray.’—Al-Fatihah, 1:7 [Publisher]
46 The philosopher, who denies the phenomenon of Hannanah;*
Is unaware of the senses of the Prophets.
* Hannanah is the name of a tree trunk against which the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) leaned while delivering his sermons in the mosque. Later on, a pulpit was built, and when the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood on it to deliver his sermon, Hannanah started crying and its cries were heard not only by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) but also by his companions. [Publisher]
