Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Parts I & II — Page 93
93 PArT T Wo Gentlemen! I have learned with complete certainty—and anyone of you who ponders what I have pondered upon will also requires an ally to make up for its imperfect and hypothetical claim of ‘should be’ with the confirmatory ‘is’ by revealing things as they actually are. h ence, the Ever-Merciful and Noble God, who desires to lead man to the level of absolute certainty, has fulfilled this need by providing human reason with many allies. h e has opened the path to certainty so that man may not be deprived of his most cherished goal of bliss and salvation, which is only possible through perfect convic- tion, and so that he may quickly cross the perilous bridge of ‘should be’—which his reason has built on the dangerous river of doubt and conjecture—and reach the impregnable castle of ‘is’ where he finds peace and security. r eason can have different allies from occasion to occasion, but they are no more than three as far as the limitations of reason allow. To illustrate: If the testimony of reason relates to perceptible objects that can be seen, heard, smelled or touched, the ally that helps it to reach the stage of certainty is called observation or experience. If the testimony of rea- son relates to events that happen or have happened in various ages and places, it finds another ally in the form of historical books, writings, letters and other records, which, like observation, bring clarity to the hazy light of reason, such that only a fool or madman will doubt them. If the testimony of reason relates to metaphysical phenomena, which we can not see with our eyes, hear with our ears, touch with our hands, or substantiate through historical records, then a third ally comes to the aid of reason. This is known as divine revelation. The law of nature demands that just as reason found allies in the first two instances, it should also find an ally in the third instance, for there is no contradiction in the laws of nature. If God did not desire reason to remain unassisted in knowledge of the sciences and arts— errors and lapses in respect of which are not of much consequence— it would be wrong to assume that h e has forsaken man in matters of divine knowledge—which is essential for attaining eternal salvation, and ignorance of which could lead one to hell. It is unfair to think that God has limited the knowledge of the hereafter to notions based on