Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 292
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 292 same is true of the fifth stage of the spiritual being. It is also commonly witnessed and felt that so long as a believer does not receive from Almighty God the spirit that is bestowed at the sixth spiritual stage, and which grants him extraordinary power and vitality, until then he is unable to exhibit the true brilliance of taqw a in respect of meeting God’s trusts and making their proper use, such as fulfilling the cov- enant of faith with absolute sincerity, and discharging the trust and obligations owed to God’s creatures. He lacks the brilliance of taqw a whose beauty and elegance draws hearts towards itself and all of whose graceful aspects appear extraordinary and miraculous. Prior to the bestowal of this spirit, the taqw a of such a person is tainted by an element of superficiality and ostentation, as he lacks the spirit that can manifest the splendour of spiritual glory. And it is true and most certainly correct that such a believer, who is yet deprived of that spirit, cannot remain steadfast upon virtue. Rather, just as the limbs of a dead person might be moved by a gust of wind and return to their earlier state when the wind dies down, so is the case at the fifth stage of the spiritual being. At this stage the believer is only temporarily moved by the breeze of the grace of God Almighty towards goodness and virtue and is motivated to act with taqw a. But since the spirit of virtue does not yet reside in him, it lacks the beauty which manifests itself in all its glory after the spirit of virtue has entered into him. So although the fifth stage of the spiritual being also partakes of the beauty of taqw a , this beauty only manifests itself to perfection at the sixth stage when the personal love of God descends upon the human heart as a spirit for his spiritual being and removes all imperfections. And man cannot become perfect simply by virtue of his own powers until that spirit descends from God, as Ha fi z Sh ira z i says: د ی رس ی � وتنا� ِ اعیل زنمل امدبان دہن اگےم دنچ ش ی چ اہں رگم فطل وت وچں � We cannot reach that lofty threshold, Unless You mercifully come forward a few steps [towards us].