Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 126
126 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is love, God is love. ’ However, the love of such people cannot be true love. This will always remain to be a self-proclaimed and imaginary love, so long as they are deprived of true insight in respect of God Almighty. The Means to Attain the Love of God Rectification of Belief, Righteous Company, Divine Insight, Patience, Positive Thinking and Prayer Therefore, first and foremost, it is incumbent for one to correct their belief. The Hindus present their own concepts and the Christians put forth their own ideas. The Chinese present a completely different view of God, while Muslims believe in the God they have presented before the world in light of the Quran. Until that true God is recognised, no relationship and love can be fostered with Him. Mere claims are of no substance. 1 Therefore, when a person has rectified their belief, the second step is to remain in holy company so that one may increase in one’s level of divine insight, and to seek understanding through prayer. The more one advances in divine insight and understanding, the more one will grow in love. It must not be forgotten that one cannot grow in love without deeper understanding. You can observe that people are not as fond of tin and iron as they are of copper, and they are not as fond of copper as they are of silver, while they love gold even more so, and then they hold diamonds and other gems dearer still. What is the reason for this? The reason is that people have a deeper understanding of the value of these metals and stones, which cause people to love one more than the other. So, the fact of the matter is that greater knowledge is what increases a person in love, and also gives them a greater sense of value and worth. Therefore, before an individual can hope to derive pleasure and joy from something, they must develop a deeper understand- ing of it. However, the most important factor on which all these things are based is patience and positive thinking. Until an individual develops an astonishing degree of patience, nothing can be achieved. When a person, purely to seek the truth, strives and struggles on the path of Allah Almighty with relentless patience, it is then that Allah the Exalted, by His grace and mercy, and in accordance with His promise, opens the way that leads to the divine threshold. 1 Al-Hakam , vol. 5, no. 11, dated 24 March 1901, pp. 9-11 p. 112