Life of Ahmad — Page 354
THE ESSENCE OF ISLAM as 354 coloured by the Divinity and completely concealed and hidden under it, just as fire over- colours iron in such a way that apparently the iron becomes fire. And it is at this stage that some seekers after God have stumbled. The apparent has been taken for the real. The Auliy a ’(friends of God) who attain to this point and those who get a glimpse of it have been called (the children of Allah) by some mystics because they throw themselves, as it were, into the lap of Divine attributes. And just as a son resembles his father in physical features and outward appearance, the beautiful attributes of God are reflected to a certain extent in such men as a result of their efforts to imitate the attributes of God. Such names, though not openly used in our religious books, have really been deduced from the Holy Quran by the learned. The Holy Quran says: "Remember Allah just as you remember your fathers," (Al-Baqarah 2:201) which clearly shows that the metaphorical use of these words is not at all prohibited, otherwise the Holy Quran would never have adopted a form of speech which could justify the use of such words. Now in this stage of Liq a a man sometimes works things which appear superhuman and are a manifestation of Divine power. For instance, our Lord and Master, the Seal of Prophets sa