Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 133
Undated 133 Prophets as and other righteous people on whom God had bestowed His wa hi are also part of the Divinely conferred group, yet if this favour [of revelation] has now ceased, then what use is there of this prayer? It is apparent that the Divine bestowal upon the Prophets and Messengers is not in the form of wealth and riches, nor do they come into the world for these things; on the contrary, they prefer poverty and hunger. In the end, we must acknowledge that they were only conferred with the bounty of God’s dialogue and discourse, and the same is also evident from the Holy Quran. So how grave a statement of kufr [disbelief ] it is to now declare that this system [of bestow- ing Divine favours] has been discontinued. Furthermore, despite our belief that this Ummah is Khairul- Ummah [the Best of Ummahs], we will have to admit that the women of the Children of Israel were deemed many degrees better than the men of this Ummah since God Almighty spoke to the mother of Moses, peace be on him, and conferred wa hi upon her. So, if the men of this Ummah are not even [spirit- ually] equal to the women of the Israelites—even though they ought to have been better—should this Ummah then not be referred to as the Worst of Ummahs rather than the Best of Ummahs? Is this not tantamount to kufr ? The pillar of faith is certainty, and certainty is attained through wa hi and ilh a m. However, if there is no longer any wa hi , then all that remains are mere boasts and tales. If heav- enly and spiritual matters no longer remain at all, then what is left behind? It is a rule that if a person no longer possesses an example [or sample] of something, he will gradually come to deny it. This is why God Almighty has made this arrangement in Islam that there continue to be people in it that receive wa hi and ilh a m, so that by observing these examples, the tree of faith and certainty remains forever fresh and verdant.