Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 79
Footnote Number Eleven — Third Objection 79 Third Objection: Reason, by itself, may not lead to perfect cogni- tion and complete certainty, but it does provide a degree of knowledge, and that is sufficient for salvation. Answer: This is a completely biased assumption. I have already pointed out that coming to a good end, without being plagued by doubts and uncertainties, is not possible except with perfect cer- tainty; and that perfect certainty cannot be attained without the aid of a matchless divine book. Likewise, it is not possible to avoid errors without perfect cognition—and one cannot have perfect cognition without perfect revelation. How is it possible then, that, imperfect as it is, unaided reason can lead to salvation on its own. In particular, the method of divine cognition adopted by the strange reasoning of Brahm u Sam a jists under the influence of European phi- losophers is particularly flawed and ambiguous. Far from leading to any degree of certainty, it plunges man into all sorts of confusion and uncer- tainty, for it reduces God Almighty to some kind of a lifeless puppet devoid of all of His honour and glory. They assert that knowledge of God’s existence does not come from God Himself; rather, He came to be known accidentally through the deliberations of wise men. Their story is like this, that, in the beginning of human existence, people were totally devoid of intelligence like savages, and God gave them no knowledge of His existence. Then gradually it occurred to people that a deity should be appointed. Initially, they started worshipping moun- tains, trees, rivers, and other objects around them and called them ‘god’. As they progressed, they turned to the wind and the tempests and so on as their all-powerful gods; and later, advancing further, they consid- ered the sun, the moon, and the stars as their gods. So in this way, after profound reflection, they gradually turned to the true God. Just consider how their explanation casts doubt upon the true existence of the Almighty God and the scepticism it creates about His being the Living and Sustaining God who has the power to do what He wills. This would lead us to believe—God forbid—that He did