Life of Ahmad — Page 695
as ADDRESSES RULERS AND THE RULED 695 show that the writer was really earnest about the matter. It should be remembered that Ahmad’s as keenness on heavenly signs was the necessary consequence of his belief in God. It is an essential feature of Islam that it presents God as indeed the Living God. Greek philosophers and Indian sages 'conceive God as a Being of static perfection, abiding for ever in the fruition of His own blessedness'. But it is the Living God whom Muslims worship. He has created all things and He creates afresh even now. He is not a mere mechanical kind of sovereign detached practically from the whole of the universe. He has dominion over everything and He controls all things. 'Not a sparrow falls to the ground' without His command. It is true that the activity of God’s purpose and power is fully present in the regularities which constitute the familiar natural order and that the regularities, such as men of science observe in nature and call laws of nature, serve His purpose and ordinarily there is no need for exceptions on the physical plane. But it does not mean that signs and miracles cannot and ought not to take place. The scientists have by no means claimed that they have exhausted the laws of nature, nor have they yet fully comprehended all the underlying principles which govern the complex universe around us. A miracle is not necessarily a breach of order, but it expresses the