Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 203
POSTSCRIPT QUESTION (6) 203 a believer, I would be deemed a disbeliever on account of my fabri- cation; for, to him, I am an impostor. Allah the Exalted says in the Holy Quran: 1 قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ أَمَنَا قُلْ لَمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَ لكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَ لَمَّا يَدُ خُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ ! Meaning that, the Bedouins of Arabia say, 'We believe. ' Tell them, 'You have not believed; you should [rather] say, “We have submitted", for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. ' Therefore, when God does not call those who have submitted as 'believers', how can those people who blatantly reject the Word of God and do not desist from repudiating me-despite witnessing thou- sands of Signs manifested by God Almighty upon the earth and in the heavens-be believers in the estimation of God? They themselves aver that if I am not an impostor but am a believer, then, in that case, they have themselves become disbelievers after declaring me a liar and a disbeliever. Thus, after pronouncing me a disbeliever, they have set the seal on their own disbelief. It is the dictum of the Shariah that the one who pronounces a believer to be a disbeliever, he himself becomes a disbeliever in the end. Now that 200 clerics have pronounced me a disbeliever, and an edict was also issued imputing disbelief to me, and it is also evident from their own edict that one who declares a believer to be a disbeliever, himself becomes disbeliever and the one who declares a disbeliever to be a believer becomes a disbeliever, too. Now, therefore, the situation can easily be remedied, provided they possess a grain of honesty and faith and are not hypocrites. They should publish a detailed proclama- tion concerning these clerics, mentioning each one of them by name, to the effect that all of them are disbelievers because they are guilty of pronouncing a believer to be a disbeliever. Then I shall consider them 1. Surah al-Hujurāt, 49:15 [Publisher]