Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 619
EPILOGUE-SIGNS 619 own self. Therefore, any word that issues forth from the tongue is defi- nitely not worthy of being called the Word of God, until two testimo- nies certify it to be from Allah. THE FIRST TESTIMONY is that the condition of the person who claims to be the recipient of divine revelation should be such as shows that he is worthy of receiving divine revelation; for, one hears the voice of the one whom he is close to. Thus, the one close to Satan hears the voice of Satan, and the one near to Allah the Exalted hears His voice. Only such a one can be said to be the recipient of divine revelation who, in order to attain the veritable pleasure of God, aban- dons his own will and desires and adopts a bitter death in order to please Him completely and fully. He makes God foremost over all else so that when Allah the Exalted looks upon his heart He finds it totally cut off from the world and lost in seeking His pleasure. Each and every particle of his being becomes sacrificed for the sake of Allah the Exalted such that if confronted with a trial, nothing can hold him back from Allah the Exalted; neither wealth and possessions, nor wife, son, and honour. As a matter of fact, he totally erases all signs of his own existence, and the love of God Almighty so overwhelms him that he never lets Him go even if he were carved into pieces or his children slaughtered, or he himself cast into the flames and exposed to every kind of bitter hardship—even then he would not abandon his God. And in the face of attack by any affliction, he does not move away from his God. He is true and faithful. He views the entire world and the kings of the world as nothing more than a dead moth. Even if he were told that he would be sent to Hell, he still would not aban- don the bond with his True Beloved, for his love of God becomes his Paradise. He himself cannot understand why he has such a con- nection with God so that no failure or trial can ever diminish the intensity of this connection. This being the situation, we can say that he is close to God and not to Satan. Such men indeed are friends of