Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 306
306 for, our faith in God may be strengthened. Thirdly, that if Di- vine assistance comes in any other way, our knowledge and wis-: doiii may be increased- Fourthly, that if the acceptance of. our prayer is promised to us by means of inspiration or visions and it comes to pass exactly in the same manner, one may advance in Divine knowledge, and attain from knowledge to certainty, from certainty to love and from love to a total freedom from sin, and an entire disseverance of all connections besides our connec- tion with God, and thus obtain the fruit of true salvation. Bub if our objects are attained independently of prayer and a veil hides the face of God from us, the fulfilment of our desires her comes ultimately a source of grief and anxiety for us, and every success which was deemed at first a pleasure becomes a sorrow But the sight and knowledge which are granted through prayer and the blessings which are bestowed upou us from the heavenly treasure, never diminish or decline. On the other hand, advan- cing day by day in Divine love and knowledge, a man will ascend by this holy ladder of prayers to the pinnacles of bliss;" "It is,: therefore, necessary for the seeker after truth that he should try to obtain, in right earnest, such true faith. The mere fact that he is a Musalman, and hates shirk and says his prayers, is not sufficient to release him from the bondage of sin or make him attain salvation. Only he will find true salvation and supreme delight and perfect bliss after death who has found in this very life the true and living light which turns a man with all his faculties, inclinations and desires, to God, and morti- fying all earthly desires works, a pure transformation in his soul. And what is this true and living light ? It is nothing but a certainty of Divine existence, and a perfect Divine know> ledge. It is the heavenly power which with its powerful hand draws a man out of the dangerous and dark pit of slavery to