Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 688
688 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI-THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION share. Also, a person is quite capable of fabricating such a statement. It could also be a prompting of the self. Therefore, it would be the height of folly and ignorance on the part of a person to consider such words to be the words of God simply because they happen to issue forth from one's tongue. On the contrary, the Word of God must necessarily be accom- panied by the Work of God by way of testimony—and indeed a very powerful testimony-because claiming that God speaks to a person is no ordinary claim. If such a claimant is not from God, he can cause an entire world to be doomed to perdition. Therefore, in support of such a person's verbal claim, a practical testimony of God Almighty is required in the manner that God has been providing since the most distant ages in support of the true Messengers and Prophets. But such minor and insignificant happenings as are part of an ordinary person's life cannot be called the testimony of the works of God. For instance, a person may well see in a dream that in his or someone else's house a baby boy will be born and it so happens that a baby boy is, in fact, born. Or he has the dream that a certain person would die who does, in fact, happen to die or sees in a dream that a certain person would be frustrated in a particular enterprise and this does, in fact, happen. Such dreams are universal. Even disbelievers and polytheists are not without their share of such dreams. Thus, if a person sees an ordinary dream and this dream or revelation is not marked in quality and quantity, by any singular characteristic of its own, one cannot logically assert that such a person is from God; as has already been pointed out, such dreams can also be seen by evil and wicked people. Therefore, one should not become arrogant upon experiencing such dreams and revelations. Rather, this should be considered as a trial. For a true divinely appointed person it is necessary that such experiences as can be legitimately designated as Signs of God should, in quantity and quality, attain a level which is beyond the competence of any ordinary person. In the case of such a person, the hand of God Almighty should be manifestly seen to be at work and divine Signs should be felt to be pour- ing down like rain providing him extraordinary support, from which it would become clear that he is the recipient of God's special succour