Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 159
159 fact of the matter is that human nature is fashioned in a way so that all people can experience dreams, visions and revelations. As such, it has been observed that on certain occasions, even disbelievers, Hindus, and in fact, even sinners and trans- gressors experience dreams—and sometimes they even prove to be true. The rea- son for this is because God Almighty Himself bestows upon such people a share of the state that is experienced in the perfect sense by His saints and Prophets, so that these people do not outright reject the Prophets, and so they do not say that they know nothing of such matters divine. People are given a taste of such experience so that the message of God may be conveyed to them fully without ambiguity, and so that an opponent is able to accept when they hear the claims of the Prophets, because they will know first-hand that such experiences can and are experienced by human beings like them. This is because humans tend to show haste in rejecting that of which they themselves have no experience at all. There is mention of a blind man in the Mathnawi of Rumi, who began to say that there was actually no such thing as the sun and that everyone was lying. ‘If there was a sun,’ he said, ‘then I ought to have seen it as well. ’ The sun said: ‘O blind man! You ask for evidence of my existence? First pray to God so that He may grant you eyes. ’ Allah the Exalted is Merciful and Generous. If He had not instilled this quality in human nature, how would mankind ever grasp the concept of prophet- hood? Through initial dreams and revelations, God seeks to invite man towards Himself, but this elementary state does not by any means grant fulfilment. As such, Balaam used to receive revelation, however, Allah the Exalted states in His connection: 1 ُ لَرَفَعْنٰه لَوْ شِئْنَا If We had pleased, We could have exalted him. And this demonstrates that he was not raised spiritually. In other words, he had not, until that time, become a spiritually elevated or beloved man in the sight of Allah Almighty; and ultimately, he fell low. One does not become special simply by receiving revelations and the like. One cannot be wholly devoted to God until one experiences a thousand deaths and hatches from the egg of one’s weak human nature. The people who tread this path are of three categories. Firstly, there are those who adhere to what is known in Arabic as din-ul-aja’iz, which literally means ‘the religion of old women. ’ What this implies is that such 1 al-A’raf, 7:177 p. 143