Malfuzat - Volume IV — Page 31
31 Malfuzat – Volume IV of rank and station. �یقی ِدن ز ی ن �ُُک رگِظفح رمابتہن If you are not considerate of rank, you shall lose your faith. Therefore, one ought to consider God to hold the position that behoves Him, one ought to give the Messenger sas his due regard, and one ought to make the word of God one’s code of conduct. Other than this, there is nothing else men - tioned in the Holy Quran except for the words: 1 َِْيَْن ُق ِ ْد ٰ ْلَص َمََعَ ا ُْوْا َّن ُكُْوْ Be with the truthful. As such, keeping in the company of the righteous and those who are wholly absorbed in God is necessary, but nowhere has it been stated that one should con - sider such people to be everything. In addition to this, the Holy Quran instructs: 2 ُهللُ ُِعُْوِْنِْيْ ُيُْحِْبِْبُْكُُمُ ا ْب َّتَ َ َفَا ُهلل ُْوَْنَ ا ْب ِـ ْح ُ َّت ْ ُم ُُكُْنُْت ْ َن ِ ا ُْقُْل Say, ‘If you love Allah, follow me: then will Allah love you. However, this does not state ‘consider me to be God. ’ In fact, this verse states that if one desires to become the beloved of God there is only one path and that is to follow the Noble Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Although the Holy Quran instructs a person to follow, it does not contain any instruction to engage in the practice known as the visualisation of the spiritual mentor. ” Visualisation of the Spiritual Mentor Question: Those who engage in the exercise known as the visualisation of the spiritual mentor (tasawwur-e-shaykh) say that they do not consider their mentor to be God. Answer: I accept that they say this, but idol worship begins with visualisation. Even the present state of the idol worshipper came gradually. First, there would have been visualisation; then they thought that in order to keep the image alive, it would be better to make a picture, and this then grew, leading to the creation of idols carved of stone and metal, and these took the place of 1 at-Tawbah, 9:119 2 Aal-e-Imran , 3:32 p. 174