Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 717
A SHINING SIGN—SIGN NUMBER 198 1 الم تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرُ ا 717 All Prophets agree that prophecies of warning can be averted, and inso- far as the prophecies containing the promises of God, the Holy Quran says: It is إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُخْلِفُ الْمُعَادَ part of our faith to believe that God does not go back on His promise which is consistent with His knowledge. However, if a person takes a certain thing to be a promise of God out of his own error, as was done by Hadrat Nūḥ [Noah], breach of such a promise' would be allowed, for in reality it was never promised by God in the first place; rather, it had been declared to be a promise of God through human error. It is about this that Sayyed 'Abdul-Qadir Jīlānī says Ýíció meaning that, sometimes God makes a promise but does not fulfil it. This statement only means that there are a number of subtle conditions attached to a promise 3* and God is not under any obligation to reveal 1. Do you not know that Allah has the power to do all that He wills? (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:107) [Publisher] 3. 2. Surely, Allah breaks not His promise (Surah Al-e-Imrān, 3:10). [Publisher] This is an age-old practice of Allah vis-à-vis prophecies that they contain some parts that are interpretable or metaphorical and others that are very clear, and sometimes some prophecies are purely of an interpretable or met- aphorical nature and an ignorant person rejects it only keeping in view the interpretable or metaphorical part. So if a prophecy that is metaphorical in nature, is not fulfilled in accordance with the recipient's interpretation, it should not be said to have been proven false. We should rather say that there was an error of judgment on the part of the recipient of the revelation. The hadith * ['It occurred to me. . . '] testifies to this. However, this is also true that the prophecies granted to the Elect of God use very little figurative language and use far more plain and clear speech, but still metaphors too are always there so that God may distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous. Indeed, the Elect of God are recognized by a profusion of clear Signs. It is not that their prophecies are totally free from metaphors. (Author) * This reference is to a dream of the Holy Prophet Muḥammadsa in which he saw migration to a verdant city and it occurred to him that it was Yamamah or Hijar, but it turned out to be Madinah. [Publisher]