Fountain of Christianity — Page 64
64 with Ma‘rifat. A lover cannot be attracted to the beloved unless he recognizes him and sees the manifestation of his splendour and beauty and experiences his nearness. Only after a person has attained complete Ma‘rifat does a radi- ant spark of Divine love fall upon his heart which pulls him towards God. Human soul then falls upon the thresh- old of the Eternal Beloved with all the humility of a lover. It plunges into the shoreless ocean of Divine Oneness and becomes so clean and pure that it is purged of all worldly filth and undergoes a glorious transformation. It then hates impurity just as God hates it, and God’s will and God’s pleasure becomes its will and its pleasure. But, as I have already said, before this higher kind of love can be excited, the spiritual traveller who seeks God should become fully cognizant of His beauty and benevo- lence; and it should be fully impressed upon his heart and mind that God possesses unlimited excellences and infi- nite charm and beauty, and that it is impossible to imagine greater favours than those which He bestows and is for- ever ready to bestow on us. God be thanked that He has equipped this umma with everything necessary for attain- ing His perfect Ma‘rifat , and we do not feel any embarrassment when we praise Him. 41 41 How embarrassed must a Christian feel when he says that God once died for three days. And how his own conscience must rebuke him, "Does God ever die?" If God has died once, is there anything to stop Him from dying again? Indeed, there is nothing to prove that such a 'God' is still alive. He might already be dead for all we know, because we do not find in Him any Contd…