A glimpse into the Life of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih III — Page 15
outcome but that an Unseen Hand of God was at work, and that Hand they believe was set to work as a result of prayers uttered by someone else, by their leader. Their faith in the powers of God increases, their devotion to their spiritual leader remains unquestioned. It would be vain to move them from their entrenched belief, and, after all, only he who experiences this power could attest to its existence For others, darkness remains a bleak reality. All this talk of prayers and perpetual ri:-minders by Huzur to his community to continue to pray re- main empty words to such blind people. Dislike of Shirk Huzur has a strong dislike for shirk (faith in the plurality of God). Both in his speeches and when in company with others, he keeps reminding members to refrain from thfrs deadliest of all sins. Once a member asked Huzur to prescribe some medicine for him and a few days !ater returned to report that no improvement had taken place. Huzur then said that God Almighty had pla:ced certain characteristics in herbal plants which acted as a remedy for certain ailments. But after placing these specific characteristics in plants, God does not, become separated. Whenever someone takes this form of medicine, God directs the compounds to reveal their healing qualities to that person and in someone else's case directs that the qualities lay hidden. For the latter, there is no remedy in that medicine and the prescription becomes useless m that case. Hence, for every act, it must have the permission of God Almighty. This is why faith should be placed in God and not in medicine. Medicine is an aid and to depend on it alone is equivalent to Shirk. Another example may be quoted here. Huzur relates that a student in Qadian, India, was once gripped with such a severe attack of colic that his cries of pain virtually brought the skies down. A doctor could not be fetched immediately. Hence, Hazrat Mirza Sharif Ahmad made an artificial tablet from paper and having uttered prayers on it. made the student swalfow the tablet with water. Immediately thereafter the 15