Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 72
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 72 It is effective primarily because he is known to be an honourable and truthful person, and it is further believed that whatever he relates and whatever news he brings of the circumstances of those countries is his eyewitness account. His discourses create such a deep imprint on all listeners that the whole scene appears before their very eyes. Many a time when he recalls and relates a poignant story or an emotional event pertaining to a nation, his words grip the audience so completely that tears well up in their eyes as if they were physically present at the scene and witnessing the event themselves. On the other hand, if a person—who has never journeyed beyond the four walls of his home and has never been to that country, nor has heard anyone describe its details—were to begin to narrate stories of that country out of his own imagination, his nonsense would produce no effect. On the contrary, people ask him, ‘Have you gone mad and insane that you have begun to relate things that you have never experi- enced nor observed, which are above and beyond your limited knowl- edge?’ It is like the story narrated by a wise old man about a foolish per- son who overly praised wheat bread, saying that it is very tasty. When he was asked whether he had ever eaten it, he replied that he had not eaten it, but his grandfather used to say that on one occasion he had seen someone eating it. In short, unless someone, in the estimation of the listeners, has comprehensive knowledge of an event, his discourse would produce no effect upon their hearts and would, instead, make him a laugh- ing stock. This is the reason why the unsubstantiated discourses of mere intellectuals have never attracted the attention of anyone to the Hereafter with certainty. Their listeners continued to think that, as the orator was speaking out of conjecture, they could oppose him with their own conjectures, as neither side had witnessed the reality at the site. This is the reason why, when some intellectuals expressed them- selves in support of the existence of God, other intellectuals opposed them and wrote books in support of atheism. The reality is that even the group of intellectuals who admitted the existence of God to some