Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 426
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 426 not deem it appropriate to make them generally known at that time? God Almighty ordains ever new courses of action to be appropri- ate in every age. Hence, during the time of the prophethood, divine wisdom required that the revelations of non-prophets should not be recorded in the manner of prophetic revelation, lest the words of the non-prophet be intermingled with those of the Prophet. But the reve- lations of the auliy a ’ [friends of Allah] and other men of inner spiritual excellence who came after that age are well known and well publicized, and have been duly recorded in every age. To verify this, one should read Maktūbāt of Shaikh ‘Abdul-Q a dir al-J i l a n i 1 and Mujaddid Alf Th a n i ,2 as well as books by other auliy a ’ull a h [friends of Allah], wherein a vast number of their revelations have been recorded. Even Imam Rabb a n i [Mujaddid Alf Th a n i ] has explicitly written in the second vol- ume of his Makt ū b ā t, letter number 51 to be precise, that even a non- prophet can be honoured with the divine word and discourse, and that such a person is called a mu h addath and his rank is nearer to the rank of the Prophets. Likewise, Shaikh ‘Abdul-Q a dir al-J i l a n i has elucidated this matter at various places in Fut uh ul-Ghaib. A diligent search into the sayings and letters of auliy a’ ull a h will yield many such statements. And the rank of mu h addathiyyat 3 in ummat-e-Mu h ammadiyyah [the followers of Muhammad] is proven so widely that only the extremely ignorant and utterly unaware can deny it. Up to the present day, thou- sands of auliy a’ ull a h have appeared within this ummah, endowed with perfect excellences, whose wonders and miracles are as proven and established as those of the Israelite Prophets. Anyone who investigates 1. Shaikh Mu h y-ud-D i n ‘Abdul-Q a dir al-J i l a n i rta [1077–1166 ce] was born in Persia and migrated to Iraq, where he became a renowned scholar and teach- er of sufism, fiqh, and the Holy Quran. [Publisher] 2. Mujaddid Alf Th a n i is a title meaning ‘Reformer of the Second Millennium’ and was given to Imam Rabb a n i , Shaikh Ahmad rta of Sirhind, India [1564– 1624 ce]. [Publisher] 3. Receiving divine revelation [Publisher]