On 20 Jamadi-yul-Ula 1318 A.H., after offering the Maghrib Prayer, the Promised Messiah (as) granted a blessed audience. The Promised Messiah (as) said: “There are three categories of divine converse: revelation, dreams and visions. Revelation refers to such words which descend directly upon a pure heart without any intermediary, and which are clear and lucid.” His Holiness (as) gave an example stating: “For example, Hafiz Sahib, who is blind, is sitting near me. He does not make even the slightest mistake in hearing me and he knows for certain that the words which he has heard are mine, even though he cannot see me with his physical eyes. The second form is of dreams. This form of converse is illustrative, subtle and metaphoric, and carries meaning, like when the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, saw (in a dream) bangles around his blessed wrists, or when he saw one of his blessed wives as having the longest hands, or when he saw a cow, etc. Divine converse of this nature requires interpretation. The third form is of visions where things are shown in apparent form, whether this is in the form of Gabriel (as), an angel, or anything else.” The Promised Messiah (as) recited the following verse:
اَنْ يُّكَـلِّمَهُ اللهُ اِلَّا وَحْيًا اَوْ مِنْ وَّرَآئِ حِجَابٍ اَوْ يُرْسِلَ رَسُوْلًا1
And it is not for a man that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil or by sending a messenger.
Then, the Promised Messiah (as) stated: “In addition to these three aforementioned categories of divine converse, there is no other method.”2
1 ash-Shura, 42:52
2 Al-Hakam, vol. 5, no. 11, dated 24 March 1901, p. 6