Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 286
286 A/' importance in His sight The tradition signifies that when a roan fully realizes the significance of the words la ilaha illallahj I and the majesty and glory of God fully enter into his heart, he enters into a paradise. The realization of the signification of these words involves that a man should have no object of love besides of God, nor any object of worship or desire besides Him. True and sincere faith in the Unity of God and acting in practice upon the true significance of the formula of the faith is that stage in the spiritual progress of man upon reaching which ^ a man becomes a saint or the beloved one of God. Be not proud that you do not worship an idol or a human being, for idol worship and human-worship are evils of a gross type and are avoided by every man of common sense. Even the Hindu who has for centuries remained steeped in the grossest idol-worship has now begun to hate it, and the worshippers of Jesus are also beginning to see their errors. But Islam does not stop there, and when it inculcates a belief in the Unity of God, it does not require us simply to avoid idol-worship or human-worship, It iv requires us to completely forsake all those false idols, which we have made in our hearts. For instance, to follow one's desires or to gratify one's passions or to follow evil courses are really so many idols which men are worshipping. The faith of Islam, "There is no god but God," rejects these idols as well, and con- siders them great hinderances to the spiritual progress of man. In Islam there is a negation of all gods besides God, whether V those gods ma} 7 be the false idols within a man's heart or actual images made of stone- What is required is that the heart should be buried for the love and reverence of one Being only. Nay, it is easy to forsake the worship of stone idols, but the idols of de- sires assume various disguises and remain hidden in the deepest depths of the heart. There was a time when idol-worship pre-