The Need for the Imam — Page 33
D ar u rat-ul-Imam 33 manently. While the fact is that man is ever in need of direct experience and personal insight. A religion can only survive as living knowledge as long as God Almighty’s attributes continue to manifest themselves afresh; otherwise it becomes mere tales and soon dies out. Can human conscience accept such failure? How can God Almighty’s grace shut the door of revelation upon us, when we find ourselves in need of such ab- solute knowledge as is not possible without converse with God and without great heavenly signs? Have our hearts in these times changed or has God become a different God? We do admit that the revelation vouchsafed to one man at one time can refresh the spiritual knowledge of millions, and that it is not nec- essary for each and every person to receive it, but we can never admit that revelation should be completely done away with and we should be left with mere tales which none of us has witnessed. It is quite evident that when a matter continues to remain in the form of a story for hundreds of years and there is no fresh ex- ample for its verification, most philosophically- minded persons will not accept such tales without strong evidence, particularly when such tales relate to phenomena which are considered contrary to reason in this age. That is why, with the passage of time, people with the philosophical bent of mind have been ridiculing such miracles, and they do not give them