Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 242
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 242 really is, similarly, the One True God, who is free and pure of every kind of impurity, loves those who love Him, is angry with those who are angry with Him, disregards those who disregard Him, withholds Himself from those who keep away from Him, inclines towards those who incline towards Him, likes those who like Him, and hates those who hate Him. Just as a mirror portrays the very expressions you por- tray in front of it, so does God adopt the same attitude that people adopt towards Him. The garments a person chooses for himself are the very seeds of the harvest he reaps. When a person purifies his heart of all barriers, impurities, and defilement, and the expanse of his breast is emptied of all worthless matters and has nothing in it except Allah, he is like a person who opens the door of his home, which faces the sun, and the sunlight pours into his home. But when a person himself adopts untruthful- ness, falsehood, and different kinds of defilement, and discards God by deeming Him unworthy, he is like one who dislikes light and has such an aversion towards it that he shuts all of the doors of his house lest the rays of the sun should find their way into his house from any direction. And when—because of personal desires, consideration of honour, prestige, or for the sake of following other people—a person becomes involved in various kinds of errors and filth, and makes no toil and effort to cleanse himself of these defilements on account of indo- lence, negligence, and carelessness, his case is like that of someone who finds the doors of his house closed and finds his entire house plunged into darkness, but makes no effort to open the doors and just sits idle, and says within his heart, ‘Why should I get up and bother about it?’ These three descriptions illustrate the three conditions of man that are the product of his own activity or inactivity. Of these, as explained before, the first is called the state of in‘ a m-e-il a h i [divine favour], the second state is called gha d ab-e-il a h i [divine wrath], and the third con- dition is called i d l a l-e-il a h i [divine misguidance]. Our opponents are also unaware of these three verities. For, the Brahm u Sam a jists have no idea at all of the verity that makes God Almighty treat the rebellious