Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 49
S IGN S OF T HE T RU E FAIT H 49 certain self-coined notions, and is not the result of the personal man- ifestation of the Living God. This is the reason that a living faith can- not be attained through such self-conceived notions. So long as one does not hear from God Almighty, in miraculous and extraordinary ways and with mighty powers, the emphatic proclamation ا َنَا الْمَوْجُوْد [‘I am present’], and unless this is accompanied with the actual manifes- tation of powerful Signs, it is impossible to have faith in that Living God. Such people give the name ‘God’ or Parmeshwar to something which they have learnt only through hearsay. They merely repeat what has been passed on to them, uttering empty boasts with no knowledge of what they are saying. True knowledge about God depends entirely upon reaching the Living God who articulates with the utmost clarity to those who are close to Him and bestows satisfaction and contentment upon them with His majestic and pleasant speech. He speaks to them as one man speaks to another and converses with them as a certainty that is beyond doubt or suspicion. He listens to them and responds to them. He hears their supplications, and informs them of their acceptance. He proves to them that He is indeed God, on the one side through His majestic and pleasant words, while on the other side through His miraculous works and His powerful and mighty Signs. To begin with, He prom- ises them His support, help, and special guidance by way of prophecy, and then—on the other side—in order to amplify the grandeur of His promises, He causes a multitude of people to oppose them. Those people employ all their power, every deceit, and every single kind of device to frustrate those promises of God regarding the support, help, and supremacy of His chosen ones, but God brings all their efforts to naught. They sow mischief but God uproots it. They kindle a fire but God extinguishes it. They exert themselves down to their fingernails but ultimately God causes their designs to recoil upon themselves. The sincere and chosen ones of God are simple and straightforward and, in the presence of God Almighty, they are like children in the lap of their mother. The world opposes them because they are not of this world. All