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For the Attention of the Respected Aryas

No reasonable person can deny that since the beginning of time the Shariah (religious law) emanating from God has been divided into two parts:

(1) The first and foremost is to believe that God Almighty, with all His perfect attributes, is One without any associate, and to believe that He has no partner, both in His being and in His attributes, and that one should believe that He is the Source of all blessings and is the Source or Fountainhead of every phenomenon and the Creator of every being that exists, and has the power over everything which is consistent with His greatness, majesty, and glory, and is not inconsistent with His perfect attributes. He precedes every being that exists and is the Ultimate Refuge of the entire universe. He comprehends all perfect attributes. He is Holy and Pure from the defect that His attributes may fall into decay at any time in the past or the future. He is the Creator since eternity, the Provider since eternity, and the All Powerful since eternity.

Nobody knows what He did in the past or what He will do in the future. No one can comprehend His powers. He is One in His being, in His attributes, and in His works. There is none who can compare with Him in any of His attributes. He is free of every defect and blemish. He is close in spite of being far, and is far in spite of being close. He is Lofty and Exalted; nonetheless it cannot be said that there is anyone below Him. He is Hidden beyond hidden, yet we cannot say He is not Manifest. He is the Most Manifest, yet we cannot say that He is not Hidden. He shines forth from the sun and His light is seen in the moon, yet we cannot say that He is the sun or the moon.

On the contrary, all those things are His creation, and one who calls them God is a disbeliever. He is Transcendent beyond the transcendent, yet He is Most Evident. Each soul derives its powers and capabilities from Him and every particle has been granted its properties by Him alone. If those properties, powers, and capabilities are taken away, then neither souls nor particles are left with any reality of their own. Therefore, the ultimate point of human cognizance of God is that all these things emanate from the hand of God. The bond of love between God and souls exists because all these things have been created by Him. It is He who has leavened their nature with the salt of His love. Without it, love for God would have been an impossibility, because of the absence of a mutual relationship between them.

A child loves its mother because she gives birth to it, and the mother, too, loves it because it is a part of her being. Since every soul has emanated from the Divine, it is, therefore, in constant search for its True Beloved. Hence, some mistakenly worship idols or the sun or the moon or water or man. Hence, the cause of this mistake, too, is the same craving for the True Beloved—the very craving that is ingrained within human nature. Just as a child, in its eagerness for its mother, sometimes mistakes another woman for her and clings to her, similarly all creature worshippers have mistakenly begun bowing in front of other objects. And God’s Shariah has been revealed to rectify these mistakes. And God’s Shariah is the only thing that can root out these mistakes with full force.

Only that Shariah can rectify such errors that is capable of revealing the countenance of the True Beloved through the manifestation of resplendent Signs, because if a Shariah is unable to demonstrate fresh Signs it too represents an idol, not God. The being that stands in need of our reasoning or logic for his manifestation cannot be God or Parmeshwar. Which knowledgeable person would believe in such a ‘God’ who, like an idol, is dead and devoid of any Signs of might and power? Hence, the true and perfect Shariah is indeed the one that shows the True Living God with all His might and Signs; and it is the only one through which man can attain perfection in the second part of the Shariah.

(2) And the second part of the Shariah is that man should refrain from all those sins that are rooted in injustice towards mankind; for example: adultery, theft, murder, false testimony, every type of deceit, treating one who does good with evil, and falling short of fulfilling one’s obligation to deal kindly with mankind. Hence, to act upon the second part of the Shariah, one has to understand its first part. As I have just said that the first part, i.e. cognition of God, is not at all possible unless and until one recognizes God with His fresh Signs and demonstrations of His power, for without it even worship of the Divine is a kind of idol worship. If God is just like an idol who cannot answer a question or a query nor can He demonstrate His power, then what difference would there be between Him and an idol? The Living God must possess the Signs [of a Living God].

If He cannot answer our questions nor demonstrate His power, how is it possible to know that He exists? How can His existence be established by one’s self-made arguments? Since every human being is able to prove his own existence, why should God not be able to prove His? Is God even weaker than a man? Is His power not to be seen in the future; was it merely a thing of the past? If the power to speak no longer remains within Him during this age, what argument can prove that He ever had this power [to begin with]? And if He cannot speak in this age, how can it be proven that He can even hear and accept our prayers? If He had sometimes demonstrated His powers in the past, why can He not do so now to disconcert the atheists?

Therefore, my dear friends, the God of Power we all seek and are in need of is to be found only in Islam. Islam presents all the powers of God today as they had been manifested in the past. Remember well that no one can be persuaded to believe in God without the demonstration of His powers and resplendent Signs; otherwise, it is nothing but a myth to declare that one believes in Parmeshwar. It is His Signs alone that help one to recognize God; if there are no Signs, then there is no God either. I have, therefore, compiled this book—Haqiqatul-Wahi— by way of specimen out of sheer sympathy [for mankind]. I enjoin you in the very name of that Parmeshwar, in whom you profess to believe, to read this book from beginning to end at least once, and to ponder over the Signs incorporated in it. Then, if you find your own religion to be lacking in similar Signs, then abandon your faith and embrace Islam out of the fear of God. Of what use and benefit is a religion that cannot lead to the Living God through the help of living Signs? Once again, I call upon you in the name of that very Parmeshwar to study this book from cover to cover at least once and do testify truly if by following your present faith you can recognise the Living God. For a third time, I call upon you in the name of the same Parmeshwar to study this book, entitled Haqiqatul-Wahi, from beginning to end at least once, for the world is nearing its end and the wrath of God is evident on all sides. May God be your Guide. You never know when death will strike. There is no God but the Living God. [And peace be upon those who follow the guidance].

Announced By,

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,
The Promised Messiah
of Qadian

PRINTED AT THE MAGAZINE PRESS QADIAN