Epilogue: What is True Salvation?

Before concluding this book, I feel that I should write something about the nature of true salvation, because salvation is the ultimate objective which followers of every religion hope to attain. But, unfortunately, most people remain unaware and unmindful of the true meaning of salvation. To the Christians, salvation means deliverance from the accountability of sin, but this cannot be its true meaning, for it is quite possible that a person may not be guilty of committing fornication, nor of theft, nor of bearing false witness, nor of murder, nor of committing any other sin which he knows of, and yet he might be deprived of the benefits of salvation. Salvation, in fact, is the abiding peace and happiness which man, by his very nature, hungers and thirsts for, and which is achieved through personal love and recognition of God, and through a perfect relationship with Him—a relationship in which the fire of love is ablaze on both sides.

But people very often try to attain this happiness through other means which only serve to increase their pain and misery in the long run. Most people tend to seek eternal happiness in the carnal pleasures of the world. They indulge day and night in drinking and fulfilling their sensual desires, and end up suffering from all kinds of fatal diseases. They succumb to trauma, paralysis, Parkinson’s disease, kuzzaz,1intestinal ulcer, ulcer of the liver, or they die as a consequence of shameful diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. Since their energies have been prematurely sapped, they fail to complete their natural lifespan, and it ultimately dawns upon them that things which they thought would bring them joy and contentment had, in fact, brought about their ruin. Some others think that happiness lies in worldly prestige, rank and office; they, too, remain unaware of the real object of their life and die with regret. Then there are those who keep accumulating wealth in the hope that it will bring them true happiness. But ultimately they also have to leave behind all their accumulated wealth, and have to drink the cup of death in great regret and sorrow.

The question before a seeker after truth is, how to achieve that true happiness which will bring him eternal peace and happiness. One of the signs of a true religion is that it leads man to this true happiness. Through the guidance of the Holy Quran, we arrive at the subtle truth that everlasting happiness lies in the recognition of God, and in pure and perfect and personal love for Him, and in absolute faith, which causes the heart to become restless like a true lover. These are a few words, but volumes would not suffice to explain their meaning adequately.

Remember, there are a number of indications for the true recognition of God. One of them is that no imperfection is attributed to His Omnipotence, His Oneness, His Knowledge, and His other excellences and attributes. If we consider Him—Who controls every particle and commands all the legions of souls and the forces of heaven and earth—to be imperfect in His power and wisdom, the physical and spiritual worlds would at once come to a stand still. If, God forbid, we were to believe that all particles and their powers, and all the souls and their faculties have come into being on their own, it would follow that the Knowledge, Oneness and Omnipotence of God are all imperfect. If particles and souls are not His creation, there is no reason why we should believe that God has knowledge of all that is hidden in them. If there is no conclusive proof of His Omniscience, and the proof is, in fact, to the contrary, we will have to conclude that, like us, God is also unaware of the true nature of things, and that His knowledge does not encompass their innermost secrets.

For example, if we have prepared a medicine with our own hand, or if a syrup or a tablet or an extract has been made with our own prescription and before our very eyes, we will have complete knowledge of that medicine, and we will know all its ingredients as well as the proportion in which they have been added, and we will also know the purpose for which it has been made. But if we have an extract or potion or pill which is unknown to us and whose ingredients we cannot separate, we would surely know nothing about it. In the same way, if we believe God to be the Creator of all particles and souls, we will also have to accept that He possesses all knowledge about them and their hidden faculties and powers, for He is their Creator, and the creator cannot be ignorant of what he creates. But if God is not the Creator of these faculties and powers, there can be no way to prove that He has any knowledge about them. It is sheer temerity to say that He has this kind of knowledge without giving any argument to prove it.

As against our argument—that a creator has to have knowledge of his creation—do you have anything to prove that God knows about the hidden qualities of things which [you believe] He has not created with His own hands, and while they are not even part of His own Being so that He should know them just as a person knows himself? According to the Arya belief, all things are their own gods, and are eternal and self-existent, and are so independent of the Parmeshwar [God] that it would make little difference to them even if He were dead. And it is obvious that if they did not need Him for their creation, they will also have no need of Him for their continued existence.

Two of God’s names are (Hayyi) and (Qayyum). Hayyi means the Living One Who also gives life to others. Qayyum means the Self-Subsisting One Who also sustains His creation. Only such things can benefit from God’s attribute Qayyum which have already benefited from His attribute Hayyi, for He supports the things that He has created, and not those which His hand has not even touched. Therefore, only he who believes God to be Hayyi, i.e., the Creator, can believe Him to be Qayyum, i.e., One Who sustains His creation. But he who does not believe God to be the Creator has no right to believe that He is the sustainer. Here the concept of sustenance implies that everything would cease to exist if His sustenance was withdrawn. Things which have not been created by Him can obviously not be dependant upon Him for their sustenance. And if they do, they surely owe their creation to Him as well. In short, both these attributes of God, Hayyi and Qayyum, are interrelated and can never be separated from each other. If those who believe that God has not created the particles and souls were to employ their thought and reason, they would have to admit that God is also not their Sustainer, i.e., they cannot say that particles and souls are dependent upon God for their sustenance, because only those things depend upon His sustenance as have been created by Him. Why would something require His sustenance when it has no need for His creation? Such a claim will, therefore, have to be considered baseless.

I have just stated that if we consider particles and souls to be eternal and self-existent, it will be impossible to prove that God has knowledge of their hidden and intrinsic powers and faculties. To say that He does have knowledge about their hidden faculties and powers because He is their Parmeshwar [God] is a mere claim which is neither supported by any argument, nor corroborated by any evidence, nor established on the basis of a relationship between the Creator and His creation. In fact, He is not even their Parmeshwar. How can he be their Parmeshwar of particles and souls when He is not their Creator? And on what basis can we apply this possessive noun between them? A possessive noun can be used in the sense of ownership, for instance, when we say, 'Zaid’s slave', we understand that there should be some reason for this ownership. But we do not see why independent things, that have possessed their powers and faculties from eternity, should be considered as being owned by Parmeshwar. In the second instance, the possessive noun denotes relationship, for instance, one might say, 'Zaid’s son'. But if particles and souls are not related to God as His creation, there will be no justification for such a relationship either. There is no doubt that for such 'independent' souls, the existence of Parmeshwar is of no use, nor will they have anything to lose by His non-existence. In this situation, salvation—which the Arya Samaj refer to as mukti— becomes impossible to attain, for it wholly depends upon the personal love for God which He has created in the very nature of the souls. If souls have not been created by Parmeshwar, how can they love Him by their very nature? And Parmeshwar could not have placed His love in their nature afterwards, because natural love is something that has to be eternally inherent in them and not something that was created later on. This is what God refers to in the Holy Quran when He says: 2 i.e., I asked the souls, "Am I not your Creator?" And the souls replied, "Yes, indeed." The meaning of this verse is that the soul contains in its very nature the testimony that God is its Creator. The soul, being God’s creation, loves Him naturally and instinctively. The same thing has been referred to in another verse where Allah says, 3 i.e., It has been ingrained in human nature that it will always seek after the One and Only God, and will not find true happiness in anything apart from its union with Him, i.e., God has created in human soul a desire that it shall not find true comfort and tranquillity in anything other than its meeting with God. If this desire is inherent in human soul, then one has to acknowledge that soul is indeed a creation of God, and it is He Who has placed this desire within it. And since this desire is most certainly present in human soul, it proves that God is its Creator.

Love obviously grows stronger between two beings according to the closeness of their mutual relationship. For instance, a mother loves her child and a child loves its mother because it was born out of her blood and was fostered in her womb. If souls are not bound to God in the relationship of the Creator and the created, and they are eternal and self-existing, then there is no reason why their natures should be imbued with such love for Him. And if their nature is devoid of love for Parmeshwar, they will obviously never attain salvation.

The real source and essence of salvation is man’s personal love for God, which leads to his union with Him, because a lover cannot remain separated from his beloved. Since God Himself is Light, His love produces 'the light of salvation'. The love which is ingrained in human nature draws the love of God, and then God’s personal love gives extraordinary strength and enthusiasm to man’s personal love, and the union of the two results in the state of 'annihilation' (Fana) and culminates in the light of 'immortality with God' (Baqa Billah). The fact that the meeting of the two loves necessarily leads to 'annihilation in God' and the body (which is only a veil) is totally consumed, and the soul becomes wholly submerged in Divine love, can be illustrated with the example of a man who is struck with lightning. The fire falls upon him from heaven, and its powerful attraction draws the fire that is within him, and this results in the annihilation of the body. In the same way, spiritual annihilation also requires two kinds of fires: the heavenly fire and the inner fire of man. The meeting of both these fires creates a state of 'annihilation (Fana), without which the spiritual journey remains incomplete. This is the state of 'annihiliation' (Fana) where the journey of the spiritual wayfarers comes to an end, and it is the limit beyond which human endeavour cannot go. After reaching the point of Fana, man is granted the status of 'eternity' (Baqa) as a gift and a favour. This is what the following verse points to:

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Briefly stated, it means that anyone who attains this station, attains it as a reward and through God’s grace, and not as a recompense for his endeavour.5 This is the culmination of man’s love for God, through which he attains the eternal life and is delivered from death. Immortality is not the privilege of anyone but God. He alone is Eternal. Therefore, out of all mankind, this eternal life is attained only by the one who cuts himself off from all other loves, and, having 'annihilated' himself in his love for God, receives from Him a share of eternal life by way of reflection (zill). It would not be proper to call such a man 'dead', for he has come to life through God. Truly dead are those who die while they are estranged from God.

Hence, those who believe that all souls possess an eternal life, without having developed personal love for God and without having 'united' with Him, are completely faithless. The truth is that nothing has any existence without God. He alone is called 'Living'; and it is only when the souls of the righteous come under His 'shadow' and immerse themselves in His love that they are given true life, and this life can never be attained without 'uniting' with Him. In the Holy Quran, Allah has described the disbelievers as 'dead', and regarding the inmates of Hell He says:

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i.e., he who comes to his Lord a sinner, for him is Hell; he shall neither die therein nor live.

He will not die because the purpose of his creation was to be eternally subservient to his Lord, and for this reason his continued existence is necessary. But he will not be alive either, for true life is attained only through union with God. The true life is salvation itself, it cannot be had without the love of God and without union with Him. Had the people of other faiths been aware of this philosophy, they would never have claimed that all souls are eternal, self-existing and blessed with true life. This kind of knowledge only comes from heaven, and only heavenly people truly comprehend it while the world is unaware of it.

Returning to the initial point, let me reiterate that the source of eternal salvation lies in union with God, and only he who drinks the water of life from this fountain attains true salvation. But this union cannot come about without true recognition (Ma‘rifat), true love, true sincerity and true faith. The first sign of true recognition is that one should not attribute any flaws to God’s knowledge. I have just shown that those who believe particles and souls to be eternal and self-existing, do not consider God to have perfect knowledge of the unseen. This is also the reason why the erring Greek philosophers, who considered the souls to be eternal, believed that God did not possess knowledge of minute things, for, when the souls and particles are eternal and self-existing, and when they are not indebted to God Almighty for their existence, it cannot be argued that God is cognizant of their infinitesimal qualities and hidden attributes. It is obvious that while we know every hidden detail and every latent quality of things that we have ourselves created, it is not possible to claim the same precise knowledge regarding other things, and there is always the possibility of error in our knowledge about them. So, those who consider souls and particles to be eternal and self-existing are bound to admit that their Parmeshwar does not have such knowledge about souls and particles as befits His majesty, for His knowledge should be as perfect as Himself. But if someone still asserts [in the context of this belief], that Parmeshwar does possess such knowledge, he should give a clear proof of it instead of just making verbal claims.

If souls are taken as eternal and self-existing, it would mean that they also have a separate abode of which they have permanent possession, and that Parmeshwar lives somewhere else, there being no connection between them. These people cannot give any reason as to why all particles and souls—despite being eternal and self-existing—should be subservient to Parmeshwar? Did this come about as a result of some war, or did the souls themselves consider it expedient to surrender themselves to Him? They believe that, despite being Kind and Just, Parmeshwar neither shows mercy nor acts with justice, and He refuses to grant eternal salvation to the souls in order to cover up His weaknesses, because if He admits the souls into eternal salvation, they will all at one time have attained salvation and saved themselves the trouble of being unceasingly sent back to the world. But since Parmeshwar wants the universe to continue—so that He might go on ruling it—He does not wish to admit any soul into eternal salvation, to the extent that even if a soul becomes an Avatar, or a Rishi, or a Siddh, He still keeps throwing it back into the cycle of transmigration. But can we ascribe to the Kind and Omnipotent God such meanness that He should take pleasure in tormenting His creatures and refuse to ever grant them eternal peace? No, such meanness can never be attributed to the Pure and Holy God. But, it is unfortunate that teachings which ascribe meanness to Him are to be found in the books of the Christians as well. They believe that whoever refuses to accept Jesus as God will be thrown into the everlasting Hell. But this is not the teaching God Almighty has given us. We have been taught that the disbelievers, after suffering chastisement for a time, will ultimately partake of God’s mercy, as described in the following Hadith:

i.e., a time will come upon Hell, when there will be no one in it; and its doors shall be moved to and fro by the morning breeze.

Likewise, it is written in the Holy Quran:

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i.e., the inmates of Hell will abide in it forever, but God shall deliver them from it when He so wishes, for He can do what He pleases.

This teaching is completely in accord with God’s perfect attributes, for His attributes are both Jalali [possessing awe and glory] and Jamali [possessing beauty, kindness]. He is the One who causes the wound, and He is the One who applies the soothing balm.8 It is unreasonable and contrary to the perfect attributes of God to think that, after He has condemned someone to Hell, His awe-inspiring attributes should continue to manifest themselves forever while the attributes of compassion and forgiveness should remain dormant, and His benevolence and mercy should become forever suspended. On the contrary, we know from what God says in His Book that the inmates of Hell will dwell in it for a long time—which has metaphorically been called 'eternity' in view of human weakness—but the attribute of mercy and kindness shall thereafter manifest itself and God shall put His Hand into Hell and take out as many as it will hold. This Hadith also shows that salvation will be granted to all,9 for the Hand of God is infinite like Himself, and no one will be left out of it.

Remember, just as the stars appear one after the other at their appointed times, so do Divine attributes manifest themselves at the appropriate time and occasion. Sometimes man is under the shadow of God’s attributes of glory and Istighna [being Independent and Besought of all], and sometimes he is under the influence of His attributes of mercy and compassion. This is what the verse 10 alludes to. It is, therefore, a folly to think that after the guilty people have been thrown into Hell the attributes of kindness and mercy will become suspended and will forever cease to manifest themselves. God’s attributes can never be suspended. The attribute of love and compassion is a basic Divine attribute, and it is the mother of all other attributes. It is this very attribute that sometimes manifests itself in the form of awe and glory so as to bring about man’s reformation, and once the reformation has taken place, it assumes its original form and endures forever as a gift from God. God is not like an ill-tempered person who is fond of tormenting others. He is not cruel to anyone, rather men are cruel to themselves. All salvation lies in His love, and all torment lies in forsaking Him.

This, then, is the concept of God held by the Arya Samaj, and it leads us to believe that whoever has been honoured in the sight of God—whether he be an Avatar, a saint, or someone to whom the Vedas have been revealed—his status is not permanent, and that he will be dispossessed of the seat of honour a thousand times. He may be the beloved of Parmeshwar at one time, and might enjoy a position of nearness to Him as an Avatar, a Rishi or whatever, but at another time, in the eternal cycle of transmigration, he might be reduced to a mere insect or a worm, and he will never attain eternal salvation. He lives in this world in fear of death, and continues to live in fear of the torment of transmigration ever after.

This, in short, is their treatment of God. While they declare souls and particles to be equal to Him by virtue of their eternal and self-existing nature, they also declare Parmeshwar to be so mean and miserly that—despite His power and Omnipotence—He refuses to grant eternal salvation to anyone.

The true nature of the Vedic teachings about human chastity becomes obvious from their doctrine of Neug, which, briefly stated, is that an Arya may allow his wife to sleep with a stranger for the purpose of procuring an offspring, and she may continue to do so everyday until she has eleven children from this 'pious' relationship.

I mentioned this only in passing, I will now return to the point that, in view of the Arya doctrine, their Parmeshwar cannot be considered the Knower of the Unseen, nor do the Aryas have any argument to prove that He possesses such knowledge.

In the same way, the Christians also do not consider God to be the Knower of the Unseen, for they consider Jesus(as) to be God, and he himself is known to have confessed that he—being the 'Son of God'—was not aware of the hour of Resurrection. The inference from this is that the hour of Resurrection is not known to God.

The second requirement of true Ma‘rifat [recognition of God] is to realize that God has absolute power, but in this respect also the Arya Samaj and the Christian padres ascribe shortcomings to Him. The Arya Samaj do this by denying that Parmeshwar is the Creator of souls and particles; and they do not believe that He has the power to admit even a single soul into everlasting salvation.11

The Christian clergy also do not believe their God to be All-Powerful, for their God was beaten, imprisoned, whipped and crucified by his opponents. If He had indeed been All-Powerful, He would never have borne such disgrace. Had He been all that powerful, He would not have thought of killing Himself for the sake of bringing salvation to His creatures. It is indeed shameful to speak of 'power' in the context of this 'God' who remained dead for three days. It is also strange that while 'God' remained dead, His creatures continued to live without Him!

As for their concept of the Oneness of God, the Arya Samaj believe all souls and particles to be partners with their Parmeshwar by virtue of their self-existence. They also ascribe the creation and continuous existence of these particles and souls to their own inherent ability; and this clearly amounts to associating partners with God.

As far as the Christians are concerned, they are clearly opposed to the Oneness of God,12 for they believe in three 'Gods'—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Their explanation, that they believe 'three' to be 'one', is really quite absurd. No sane person can be expected to accept such flawed logic, especially when the three Gods are considered to be permanently self-existing and each is thought to be a complete God in Himself. What kind of arithmetic is it that shows them to be one, and where is it taught? Is there any logic or philosophy that can explain how beings which are permanently three can be counted as one? It is only a deception to argue that this is a mystery which human reason cannot understand, for human reason clearly understands that if there are three perfect Gods, they will have to be 'three' and not 'one'. This doctrine has not only been rejected by the Holy Quran, but also by the Torah. The latter, which was given to Moses(as), contains no mention whatsoever of the Trinity. If it had contained such a teaching, the Jews could never have forgotten it, for they were enjoined to stick to the teaching of the Unity of God to the extent that each and every Jew was commanded to memorize it, to inscribe it on the door of his house, and to teach it to his children. In addition, Prophets of God continued to appear among the Israelites and gave them the same teaching. It is, therefore, inconceivable that, despite such great emphasis and coming of so many Prophets, the Jews could have forgotten the teaching of Trinity and replaced it with the teaching of the Oneness of God, which they continued to teach their children and which continued to be reiterated by hundreds of Prophets. This would go against all reason and logic. I have myself made an effort in this regard, and have asked some Jews to tell me on oath whether or not the teaching given to them in the Torah was that of the Trinity? They wrote back to me—and I have preserved their letters—that the Torah does not contain even a hint of the Trinity; and that the Torah’s teaching about God is the same as that of the Holy Quran. Hence, we can only pity the people who have become so obstinate about a doctrine that is to be found neither in the Torah, nor in the Holy Quran, nor even in the Gospels! Nowhere do the Gospels even hint at the Trinity, they only speak of the One God Who is without peer. Some eminent and even hostile clergymen have had to admit that the Gospels do not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. How then did this concept find its way into the Christian faith? According to Christian scholars, this doctrine was borrowed from the Greeks, who believed in three gods just as the Hindus believe in Trimurti (three idols). When Paul turned his attention to the Greeks,13 he wished to please them so that they could convert to Christianity. With this in mind, he introduced into the Christian faith the concept of 'the three persons of the Godhead', to mirror the Greek concept of three gods, despite the fact that Jesus(as) himself had never thought of such a thing. Like all Prophets, his teaching about God was simple and categorical, viz., God is One and He has no partner.

It is important to realize that the religion which is championed as 'Christianity' is, in fact, the religion of Paul and not that of Christ, for the latter never taught the doctrine of the Trinity. As long as he lived, he only taught the Oneness of God and His being without partner. After he died, his brother James—who was his successor and a holy man— also taught the Oneness of God. But Paul unjustly opposed him and started preaching contrary to his true teachings, and went to the extent of creating a new faith. He set his followers against the Torah and taught them that there was no need for the Law after the Messiah’s Atonement, and Christians did not need to follow the Torah because the Messiah’s blood was enough to wipe away their sins. Another abomination which he introduced into this religion was that he made the eating of swine lawful, whereas the Messiah had declared swine to be an unclean animal. This is what he meant when he used the expression, 'Do not cast pearls before swine'. While he compared the holy teachings to pearls, he likened unclean and impure people to swine. The truth is that the Greeks used to eat the flesh of swine, just like the people of Europe today, and it was in order to win their hearts that Paul declared it to be lawful, even though the Torah had forbidden it forever and had even forbidden anyone to touch it. Thus Paul is responsible for all the ills that are found in this religion.

Jesus(as) was a humble and selfless person who did not even want to be called 'good'; but Paul made him 'God'. It is written in the Gospels that someone said to Jesus "O Good Master!", but he said, "Why callest thou me good?" And how wonderfully do the words which he uttered at the time of the crucifixion testify to his belief in the Oneness of God. With the utmost humility, he had cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?, "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" Can any reasonable person believe that he who supplicated to God with such humility, and considered Him to be the Lord and Master, could himself have claimed to be God?

The truth is that those who have a relationship of personal love with God are often made to use some metaphoric expressions regarding themselves which ignorant people use to prove their divinity. More such expressions have been used for me than they were for the Messiah.14 For example, Allah addressed me and said:

i.e. "O Moon! O Sun! You are from Me and I am from you." Anyone can construe these words to mean whatever he likes, but their true meaning is that God first made me the 'Moon', for, like the Moon, I was manifested through the True Sun; thereafter, He became the 'Moon', for the light of His Glory shone through me and will continue to do so.

So, Jesus’(as) brother James, son of Mary(as), was a righteous man. He followed the Torah in everything, believed God to be One without any partner, considered the flesh of swine to be unlawful, faced the Holy Temple while praying—as was the custom of the Jews—and considered himself a Jew in everything, with the exception of his belief in the Prophethood of Jesus(as). Paul, on the other hand, turned people against the Holy Temple. God’s vengeance ultimately overtook him and he was crucified by the king, and thus he met his end. But Jesus(as) was saved from crucifixion because he was true in his claim and he was from God. Paul, on the other hand, was hung from the stake for he had forsaken the truth.

It is also worth noting that as long as Jesus(as) lived, Paul was his sworn enemy, and, according to Jewish chronicles, he only turned to Christianity after Jesus’ death because he had some selfish desires which the Jews did not fulfil. Therefore, in order to avenge himself, he became a Christian and pretended that Jesus(as) had appeared to him in a vision. He first sowed this unholy plant in Damascus, and this is the place where 'Pauline Trinity' was born. The Hadith in which it is said that the Messiah who is to come will descend towards the East of Damascus alludes to the same thing. It means that the doctrine of the Trinity will come to an end with his coming, and people’s heart will be inclined towards the Oneness of God. The appearance of the Messiah in the East signifies that he will become victorious, for when the light dawns it overcomes darkness.15

If Paul was indeed meant to appear as an Apostle after the Messiah, the latter should have foretold something about him. This was necessary because Paul had bitterly opposed Jesus(as) throughout his life, and had contrived to harm him in every way. How could such a person be trusted after Jesus’ death, unless he himself made a clear prophecy that, although Paul has been my bitter enemy and has done me great harm, he will become an Apostle and a holy man after I am gone. This was all the more important because Paul gave a teaching that was against the Torah, and declared eating the flesh of swine to be lawful, and even abolished the Divine commandment regarding circumcision, although it had been greatly stressed in the Torah and all Prophets—including the Messiah himself— had been circumcised. He also replaced the teachings of the Torah regarding the Oneness of God with the teaching of the Trinity, and declared it unnecessary to follow the commandments of the Torah, and turned away from the Holy Temple. It was, therefore, essential that some prophecy should have been made regarding this person who played such havoc with the Mosaic Law. But in the absence of any such prophecy in the Gospel, and in view of his hostility towards Jesus(as) and his opposition to the timeless commandments of the Torah, is there any reason at all why he should be accepted as a sage?

The love of God is the second most important requirement of salvation after Ma‘rifat [recognition of God]. No one wishes to chastise the one who loves him; and love actually draws love. When you truly love someone, he cannot be averse to you. Even if you do not express it, your love will still have an effect and the beloved will, at the very least, not hate you. This is why it is said, 'A heart always finds its way to a heart.'16 The reason why God’s Prophets and Messengers have such a powerful attraction that thousands of people are drawn to them, and love them, and are ready to lay down their very lives for them, is that their own hearts are filled with great love and compassion for mankind, and their love exceeds even the love of a mother, and they desire the welfare of mankind even at the cost of their own suffering. Their true love, therefore, draws the fortunate hearts towards them.

If man, despite being ignorant of the unseen, can somehow learn about the hidden love someone has for him, why cannot God, Who is All-Knowing, learn about a man’s true love for Him? Love is a wonderful thing. Its fire consumes the fire of sin and extinguishes the flame of disobedience. There can be no question of 'punishment' where there is perfect and true love. One of the signs of true love is that the lover dreads the very thought of being estranged from his beloved. He thinks himself doomed at his smallest fault, and sees the beloved’s displeasure as a deadly poison. He is also beset by a great longing to meet his beloved, and absence and separation takes the very life out of him. That is why he does not only regard as sinful, actions which are regarded as such by the common man— e.g., murder, adultery, theft and bearing false witness— rather, he considers even the slightest estrangement from God, and the slightest inclination towards anything other than Him, as a grave sin. He, therefore, constantly seeks forgiveness (Istighfar) from his Eternal Beloved. Since he can never bring himself to accept separation from Him at any time, the slightest neglect—which he might commit due to his human weakness—appears to him like a mountain of sin. It is for this reason that those who enjoy a holy and perfect relationship with God always occupy themselves with Istighfar. A true lover is always apprehensive lest his beloved should become annoyed with him, and his heart is filled with the thirst to please Him perfectly, and he is not content even when God Himself informs him that He is pleased with him. Just as a drunkard is not satisfied with drinking once and is constantly asking for more, in the same way, when the spring of Divine love gushes forth in a man’s heart, he naturally wants to win God’s pleasure as far as possible. Thus greater love leads to even greater Istighfar. This is why those who are perfect in their love for God are constantly seeking Allah’s forgiveness, and the surest sign of a sinless person is that he occupies himself in Istighfar far more than other people. The true meaning of Istighfar is to pray to God that He may remove the possibility of any transgression or error which a person might commit due to the weakness of human nature, and that He may cover his faults and not allow them to be exposed. The meaning of Istighfar also extends to the common people, and, in their case, it means: to pray to God that He may protect the supplicant from evil consequences and poisonous influences of his transgressions and misdeeds, both in this world and the hereafter.

The source of true salvation, therefore, is personal love for God, which, in turn, draws His love through man’s humility, supplication and constant Istighfar. When a person carries his love to perfection and the fire of love consumes his carnal passions, then, all at once, a flame of God’s love—which He has for his servant—falls upon his heart and cleanses him of the dirt of his mundane existence. He then acquires the complexion of holiness of God, Who is Hayyi and Qayyum, and partakes of all Divine attributes by way of reflection (zill). He then becomes a manifestation of Divine glory, and all that is hidden in God’s eternal treasure is disclosed to the world through him. Since God—Who created this world—is not a miser, and His blessings are everlasting, and His names and attributes are never suspended, He grants to the people of the latter days the same bounties that He gave to earlier people, but on the condition of piety and effort. This is in keeping with the prayer which He has taught us in the Holy Quran:

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That is, O Lord, show us the right path; the path of those who received Your gifts and favours, i.e., O Lord, give us the same rewards and bounties which You gave to the Prophets and Siddiqin [those who testified to the truth], and do not withhold any of Your gifts from us.

This verse holds out for this umma a great promise which distinguishes it from all past ummas. All the Prophets of the past possessed diverse excellences and they were granted various blessings and bounties, but God has commanded us to pray that all those excellences may be given to us. And it is obvious that when all those diverse qualities and excellences come together, they will become far more impressive. That is why it has been said, 18, i.e., On account of your excellences, you are the best of all peoples.

The reason why God has promised to bring together all the various excellences into this umma, is because our Holy Prophet(sa) himself embodies all the excellences. God says in the Holy Quran 19i.e., 'Follow all the teachings that were given to all the Prophets.' The person who embodies all these teachings will, of course, be greater than all the Prophets, and anyone who follows such a Prophet will also acquire all these excellences by way of reflection (zill). Therefore, the purpose of teaching this prayer in Surah Al-Fatihah is that the perfect believers of the umma, who follow this perfect Prophet(sa), may also acquire all these excellences. I feel sorry for those who think that this umma is dead. How can they prefer to remain dead when God has taught them to pray for all excellences! It is a grievous sin in their eyes if someone claims, for instance, that he receives revelation like the Messiah, son of Mary(as),20 and they consider such a person to be a kafir because they believe the door of Divine converse to have been closed to the Day of Judgement. Strangely enough, although they believe that God still hears as He did in the past, they do not believe that He also speaks in the same manner. If He does not speak in this age, then it is impossible to prove that He hears. These are extremely unfortunate people who believe God’s attributes to have been suspended, and they are the real enemies of Islam. Their interpretation of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat [Seal of Prophethood] is a negation of Prophethood itself. Can we take Khatm-e-Nubuwwat to mean that all the blessings that could result from obedience to the Holy Prophet(sa) have now been barred, and that it is now futile to wish for Divine converse and dialogue? 21If this is true, can they tell us what then is the use of following the Holy Prophet(sa)? Dead is the religion which possesses only past tales and dead is the religion for which the path to Divine recognition has been closed. But Islam is a living religion. The Holy Quran, in Surah Al-Fatihah, declares Muslims to be the heirs to the excellences of all past Prophets, and it teaches them to pray for all the bounties that were given to them. Those who possess only tales of the past cannot be the heirs to these bounties. It is indeed a great pity that the fountain of all blessings has been made to flow before them, but they do not wish to drink even a little out of it!

Returning to the subject under discussion, let me repeat that love and recognition of God is the true source of salvation. As one progresses in Ma‘rifat, so does he progress in Divine love, for beauty and benevolence are the two things that inspire love. When man learns about the beauty and benevolence of God, and sees how beautiful He is on account of His innumerable excellences, and realizes how he is overwhelmed by His unending kindness, all this causes his love for God—which has been eternally ingrained in his nature—to gush forth. And since God possesses the greatest beauty and excellence, and is constantly Benevolent and Bounteous, His seeker, having recognized these qualities, loves Him with such a love that he considers none to be equal to Him.22 He then testifies to His being One, not just verbally, but in practice also, and he falls in love with His beauty and His holy attributes. Although the seed of Divine love is an eternal part of man’s nature, it only blossoms when it is watered with Ma‘rifat. A lover cannot be attracted to the beloved unless he recognizes him and sees the manifestation of his splendour and beauty and experiences his nearness. Only after a person has attained complete Ma‘rifat does a radiant spark of Divine love fall upon his heart which pulls him towards God. Human soul then falls upon the threshold of the Eternal Beloved with all the humility of a lover. It plunges into the shoreless ocean of Divine Oneness and becomes so clean and pure that it is purged of all worldly filth and undergoes a glorious transformation. It then hates impurity just as God hates it, and God’s will and God’s pleasure becomes its will and its pleasure.

But, as I have already said, before this higher kind of love can be excited, the spiritual traveller who seeks God should become fully cognizant of His beauty and benevolence; and it should be fully impressed upon his heart and mind that God possesses unlimited excellences and infinite charm and beauty, and that it is impossible to imagine greater favours than those which He bestows and is forever ready to bestow on us. God be thanked that He has equipped this umma with everything necessary for attaining His perfect Ma‘rifat, and we do not feel any embarrassment when we praise Him.23

We believe that all conceivable powers and excellences are to be found in the person and attributes of God Almighty. We do not believe, like the Aryas, that He does not have the power to create particles or souls, nor do we say—God forbid—that He is a miser and does not want to grant everlasting salvation to anyone; nor do we believe that He does not have the power and authority to grant salvation. Unlike the Arya Samajists, we do not say that God has forever closed the door to revelation, nor do we say that He is hard-hearted and does not accept people’s repentance and keeps subjecting them to millions of reincarnations as a recompense for a single sin, nor do we believe that He does not have the power to accept repentance.

We also do not believe, as the Christians do, that 'God' suffered death at one time, that he was arrested, imprisoned and put on the cross by the Jews, and that he was born of a woman, and even had brothers. We do not say that God went to Hell for three days in order to atone for people’s sins, and that he could not grant them salvation without first dying for their sake and spending three days in Hell. Unlike the Christians, we do not believe that Divine revelation has been sealed after our Holy Prophet(sa), and that the door to Divine converse and communion is forever closed, for in Surah Al-Fatihah God has declared us to be the heirs to all the excellences of past Prophets and has called us 'the Best of Ummas'. There is no doubt that we have been granted greater faith in God’s beauty and benevolence—which is the fountainhead of love— than anyone else. The most ignorant and unfortunate among the Muslims are those who do not believe in His perfect beauty and benevolence. On the one hand, they tarnish the concept of God’s Oneness by declaring His creatures to be partners in His special attributes,24 and thus substitute the luminous beauty of His Oneness with the darkness of 'associating partners with Him'; and, on the other hand, they consider themselves deprived of the Holy Prophet’s(sa) eternal bounty, as though—God forbid— he were not a 'living lamp', but a dead one that cannot light other 'lamps'. They believe that Moses(as) was a 'living lamp' that lit up hundreds of other 'lamps' in the form of Prophets, and that the Messiah was honoured with Prophethood because he followed the Shariah of Moses(as) and commandments of the Torah for thirty years, but they do not believe that anyone can gain spiritual merit by following the Holy Prophet(sa)! They believe that he was not only deprived of a male issue—who would serve as his physical heir, as mentioned in the verse

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but that he was also deprived of spiritual offsprings who would inherit his spiritual excellences. Thus they consider God’s words

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to be meaningless. Here the Arabic word lakin (but) has obviously been used as a word of rectification, which speaks of the fulfilment in a different form of something that has hitherto remained unfulfilled. In this context, the verse means that, though the Holy Prophet(sa) did not have any male offspring, he will have countless spiritual progeny, and that he is 'the Seal of Prophets', which means that no one will attain the excellence of Prophethood unless he possesses the certificate of obedience to him. This is the true connotation of this verse, but these people have completely reversed its meaning and have rejected the bounty of Prohethoood in the future, even though this implies a criticism of the Holy Prophet(sa) himself. The perfection of a Prophet lies in his ability to impart to his followers the excellence of Prophethood by way of reflection (zill), and to give them complete spiritual nourishment, and it is for this purpose that Prophets are sent. Like mothers, they take into their lap the seekers after truth and feed them the 'milk' of Divine recognition. If the Holy Prophet(sa) did not possess this 'milk', then we will have to say—God forbid—that there is nothing to prove his Prophethood. But this is not at all true, for the Holy Quran calls him Siraj-e-Munir (the Radiant Lamp), which gives light to others and, through its influence, makes them like itself. If—God forbid—the Holy Prophet(sa) did not possess any spiritual influence, there would be no point in his coming, and God Himself would be considered a deceiver, because He taught the people to pray for the excellences of all the Prophets but He never had the intention of granting these excellences, and He always wished to keep them in the dark.

Remember, O Muslims! It is the height of ignorance and stupidity to harbour this belief. If Islam is indeed such a 'dead' religion, then whom will you invite to embrace it? Will you take its corpse to Japan or will you offer it to Europe? Who would be foolish enough to fall for a 'dead' religion which, when compared to older religions, is found to be without any blessings and spirituality? In those religions, even women—such as Moses(as)’ mother and Mary(as)—have received Divine revelations, but even your men cannot equal them!

The fact, O naïve and blind people, is that our Holy Prophet(sa), and our lord and master, (countless blessings be upon him), surpassed all Prophets in his spiritual influence. The influence of all past Prophets came to an end at a certain point and their people and their religions have no trace of life left in them, but the spiritual influence of the Holy Prophet(sa) will endure to the Last Day. For this reason, this umma does not require that a Messiah should come into it from outside; for, under the Holy Prophet’s(sa) benign influence, even an ordinary man can become a Messiah, just as God has done in my case.

Let me now return to the original discussion and state the philosophy behind the Islamic concept of salvation. While, on the one hand, there has been placed in man’s nature a poison which eternally draws him towards sin, at the same time his nature has also been endowed with an antidote for this poison, which is the love of God. Both these forces have continued to influence man ever since his creation. The poisonous influence leads him towards chastisement, but the antidote, which is the power of Divine love, consumes all the sins as fire consumes straw. It is wrong to think that while the faculty of sin was present in his nature from eternity, the means of deliverance were only provided a short time ago after Jesus’ crucifixion. Only a mindless person would accept such a doctrine. The truth is that both these faculties have been placed in man’s nature from his very inception. It cannot be that God placed in human nature the inclination towards sin, but He forgot to provide him the means of salvation and this only occurred to him four thousand years later!

Concluding the subject, let me advise you in the name of God, that if you are really in search of the living blessings, then stop looking towards the Messiah who has long been dead and none of whose blessings live on to this today. His people, instead of being inebriated with the love of God, have exceeded every other people in being intoxicated with wine, and, instead of seeking the heavenly treasure, they crave for the riches of the world even if they have to get them through gambling. Instead, I invite you into the fold of the Muhammadi Messiah, who is and who offers fresh blessings. The choice is yours.

The Author
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian,
The Promised Messiah