Life of Ahmad — Page 351
as THE ESSENCE OF ISLAM 351 such in the true sense of the word only when all the organs and faculties of man are completely devoted to obedience to God as if they were Divine instruments through which God manifests His deeds from time to time, or as if they were bright mirrors wherein all that God wills is clearly reflected. When man’s obedience to and service of God attain to such perfection, then, thanks to this Divine baptism, one is justified in speaking of the faculties of such a man as the faculties of God: to speak, for instance, of his eye as the eye of God, his tongue as the tongue of God, his hands as the hands of God, his ears as the ears of God, his feet as the feet of God. For all these organs, having become permeated with the wish of God having become, as it were, an image of His Will, may with fitness be described as a likeness of God. The reason of this lies in the fact that just as the organs and limbs of man fully obey his will, similarly a perfect man, having attained to this highest stage, achieves complete identity with the will and intention of God and the majesty, unity, and lordship of God and His wish and pleasure are as dear to him as they are to God Himself. Thus it is this great obedience to God and service of God’s creatures for God’s sake which forms the essence of Islam and one can attain to it only when one has annihilated one’s own self, one’s