Malfuzat – Volume I — Page 208
208 Firstly, there is Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (All praise belongs to Allah); that is to say, Allah combines in Himself all perfect attributes, possessing every excellence and free from every imperfection; secondly, there is (Lord of all the worlds); thirdly, there is (the Gracious); fourthly, there is (the Merciful); fifthly, there is (Master of the Day of Judgement). The supplications that follow hereaf- ter correspond to these five aforementioned attributes. The sequence begins with and this corresponds with. This may be paraphrased as: O Allah Who is the Possessor collectively of all noble attributes and is free from every defect, it is You alone Whom we worship. The God that Muslims know of is one who possesses all the excellences that may be fathomed by the human mind; in fact, He is even higher and far greater than what man can conceive. For the truth is that the human mind, human thought and human intelligence can never, and in no way encompass, the attributes of God Almighty. And so the Muslim be- lieves in a Supreme God, Who is perfect and complete in His attributes. The fol- lowers of all other faiths feel embarrassed-and they must feel this way—when expounding their concept of God in public before others. The Hindu Concept of God Let us take the example of the god in whom the Hindus have believed. They state that the Vedas support the concept of a god who has not created even a particle in the universe, nor has he created souls. Can there be any place of escape for one who believes in such a god? What harm is there if such a god were to die? For when all of these things exist independently and sustain themselves, then what need is there for God's existence in order to support and sustain their lives? For example, if a person were to shoot an arrow, and the individual dies while the arrow is still in flight, how would this effect the state of the arrow? Once it has left the hands of the one who shot it, the arrow no longer depends on the archer. In the same vein, if it was suggested in relation to the God of the Hindus that he would die at some point, no Hindu would be able to tell us of any detriment that this would cause. However, we for our part cannot attribute such things to God, for in the word 'Allah' itself there is an indication that He is free from every ill and defect. Similarly, if an Arya Samajist believes that bodies and souls are eter- nal and have always existed, we would put forth that in the case that this is your belief, what proof at all can you give for the existence of God? If you respond by asserting that His task was to join things together, we would respond by saying