The Heavenly Decree — Page 25
25 points and deeper meanings of the Holy Quran, as well as its subtleties and wondrous characteristics. In all of these four signs, the perfect believer enjoys relative preponderance over others. Although it cannot be taken as a rule that the perfect believer should always receive glad tidings from Allah, or that all his prayers should be accepted without exception, or that he should be informed of every event or calamity, or that the deeper meanings of the Quran should be revealed to him at all times; still—when compared to others—preponderance lies with the true believer in all these four signs. Although it is possible that other people, such as less perfect believers, be given an occasional portion of these bounties, yet only the true believer can be regarded as the true recipient of these blessings. It is true, of course, that the perfect station of the believer cannot manifest itself to the less-illumined and the short-sighted people unless it is viewed in comparison. Therefore, a contest is the simplest and clearest way of identifying the true and perfect believer. Even though these signs are generally shown by a true believer, their one-sided demonstration entails some problems. For example, some people who are fated not to succeed, and destiny’s hand has irrevocably written against them, sometimes request the perfect believer to pray for them. These ill-fated people may not experience the sign of acceptance of prayer with regard to the perfect