Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 166
166 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad cause rainfall, and so on and so forth. All of these things demonstrate that these people seek to take the work of God into their own hands. This group of people seek to become God, while another group deifies a human being. What is the underlying purpose in developments that are taking place in Europe? It is nothing other than to exploit the free nature and greed that has arisen in society so that the secrets of divine providence may be uncovered and people can free themselves from God. Hence, these people engage in experiments to give life, revive the dead and induce rainfall. But this is not all, they are in fact striving to take control over everything that happens on earth. Although I accept that making appropriate provisions is not forbidden, it should also be remembered that sin is always caused by taking an extreme—ei- ther in excess or insufficiency. For example, if you were to place your hand on someone, this would not be a sin, but if you punched them, this would be a sin and an excessive extreme. An extreme on the side of insufficiency would be if, for example, someone needed a glass of water, but they were given a mere drop. In this era, therefore, the Antichrist is a mixture of various elements. On the one side, an attack is being waged against God and in another respect, against the institution of prophethood; one group deifies a human being, while another party seeks to become God themselves. Is this not true? Look at various books and read the newspapers, and you will come to know how great a disorder has erupted and how this hypocrisy is inflicting cruelty upon the world. In relation to the disorder of Gog and Magog, I have already mentioned that its effects influence the heart, and this disorder is dominant at present. It is becom- ing more and more difficult to turn to God, and show honesty and integrity, and to refrain from alcohol, fornication, lustful glances and gambling. There are very few—perhaps one out of a thousand—who stay away from such evils. Two Manifestations of Goodness Now, it is obvious that when there were destined to be two manifestations of evil, in the same way, it was necessary for there to be two manifestations of goodness that would stand against this evil. Therefore, by God’s will there were two mani- festations of goodness. In actuality, this too is one entity that is referred to by two names, just as one person can hold the position of a magistrate and a clerk at the same time. These two manifestations of goodness relate to two aspects: internal issues and external issues. The Mahdi has a relation with internal issues and the