Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 294
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 294 their devotion to the remembrance of God is not out of artificiality or pretence; but rather God, who has made the physical being of man dependent on food and water, links their spiritual life, which is so dear to them, to the food of His remembrance. Hence, they love this food more than they love physical food and water, and are fearful lest they lose it. All this is the result of the spirit that is put into them like a flame, which inebriates them with the love of God’s love. Therefore, they do not wish to be separated from His remembrance even for a single moment. They suffer and face misfortunes, but do not wish to part from it even for a single moment. They keep an eye on their self, and protect and watch over their Prayers. And all this comes naturally to them, for God has made the sustenance of His loving remembrance—which is called Prayer in other words—essential for them, and by inspiring them with His personal love has bestowed on them an exquisite pleas- ure in His remembrance. And so God’s remembrance becomes as dear to them as their own life—nay, even dearer than their own life. Their personal love for God is the new spirit that descends on their hearts like a flame and makes their prayers and remembrance like unto sustenance for them. Therefore, they believe firmly that their lives are dependent, not on water and bread, but on Prayer and remembrance of Allah. Thus the much-loved remembrance of Allah, which is called Prayer, becomes their true sustenance without which they cannot survive at all. They protect and keep guard over it just as a traveller in a barren and waterless wasteland watches over his belongings of the few pieces of bread, and treasures the meagre amount of water in his sheepskin as life itself. God the Supreme Bestower has decreed this stage also for the spiritual progress of man, and it is the last stage of the prevalence and predominance of personal love and adulation. And in reality at this stage the love-filled remembrance of God—which, in the terminology of the Shariah [Islamic Law], is called the Prayer—takes the place of food. Indeed, time and again he wishes to sacrifice his own physical