Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Parts I & II — Page 94
94 BAr a h i n-e-a h madiyya fully realize—that all the teachings in which a seeker after bliss must have complete faith, and on which our salvation and eternal mere conjecture and has not provided any means to verify it, so as to bring certainty to the heart and to confirm that the means for salvation suggested by reason are indeed true and not merely hypothetical. h aving established that in theological matters absolute certainty is only to be attained through revelation, and that man requires per- fect certainty for salvation and the preservation of his faith, it becomes obvious that he stands in dire need of divine revelation. h ere it should also be borne in mind that all divine revelations were meant to bestow certainty on man, but the certainty for which the h oly Quran has laid the foundations surpasses all past revela- tions. To elaborate, all divine revelations prior to the h oly Quran, being mostly in the form of narratives, only served as testimony to certain events. This is why they became corrupted in the end and self- ish and egotistical people interpreted them to suit their own purposes. The h oly Quran, however, took upon itself to substantiate its teach- ings with rational proofs and thus saved man from countless hazards. Firstly, it acted as a true messenger, imparting knowledge of the divine realm; secondly, it substantiated its teachings with the aid of reason. Anyone who studies the h oly Quran will find that, from beginning to end, it provides two kinds of testimonies—the testimony of reason and the testimony of revelation. In the h oly Quran these two are like two great streams running in parallel and influencing each other con- tinuously. The stream of reason shows that something ‘should be’, and the stream of divine testimony assures us, like a wise and righteous informant, that ‘it is. ’ The advantage of this Quranic approach is obvi- ous, for in reading the h oly Quran a seeker finds rational evidence for its teachings—evidence the like of which cannot be found in any work of philosophy. This claim shall also be established in c hapter 1 of this book. What is more, he who reads the Quran reaches the highest level of certainty through the testimony of divine revelation and finds in an instant all that others could not find in a lifetime of effort and delib- eration. And so we can conclude that the h oly Quran alone is the sur- est, easiest and most perfect means for recognizing the true principles and beliefs upon which our salvation depends. —Author