Divine Manifestations — Page 32
32 produce their like—those who are afflicted with scepticism and suspicions continue to be captivated by one doubt or another. For example, if a son is born in a house by the prayers of one who has been ordained by Allah, or he gives the glad tiding of a son and a son is born, many would claim that this is not a significant sign. They would say that many women have dreams about themselves, or about women in their neighbourhood, that they have given birth to a son. Now if a son is actually born, in accordance with those dreams, shall we consider such a woman to be Prophet or Messenger or Mu h addath * ? These people are not justified in their suspicions, but how can one hold the tongue of the ignorant? They are wrong, because we do not say that the truth of one or two predictions or the accuracy of a few odd dreams are enough to prove that a person is a Messenger and should be considered an elect of God. For that, there should first be a claim, and then there should be prophecies in such numbers and of such quality that the dreams and predictions of ordinary people stand nowhere in comparison to them. As in my case, the number of prophecies regarding the outcome of common incidents that were fulfilled by * The one to whom God speaks. [Publisher]