So Said The Promised Messiah (as) — Page 113
THE PHILOSOPHER AND. THE PROPHET The difference betwen a philosopher and a prophet is that the philosopher says that there SHOUW BE A GOD. The prophet says, GOD IS THERE. The philosopher says that there are reasons to believe in the existence of God. The prophet says: I have talked to God myself and it is He who has sent me and having seen Him, I have come from Him. (Malfoozat Vol. II, p. 339) WHOLE HEARTED DEVOTION The covenant of Baiat which a person enters into at my hands is mainly for giving preference to religion over the worldly affairs and to take me who has been commissioned by God and who is the Vice of the Holy prophet sallallaho alaihi wa sallam and who has been called the Hakam and the Adl. Also that he will take my decisions as final and do so with an open mind. But if somebody after having entered into this covenant does not accept my decision with pleasure rather he finds a sort of relμctance in so doing, then it can be said with certainty that he has not cut himself off from this world. The chains of fashions and worldly ambitions are still keeping him tied down and he has not come out of covering which a man has to tear up to attain to the stage of perfect devotion to God. Unless he is cut off from the tree of this world and is grafted to the divine tree he cannot be fresh and have growth. Behold! when a branch is cut off from a tree it cannot bear fruits any more, nor can it produce any flowers, even though it is kept immersed in the water and all sorts of means are used to keep it alive as was the case before it was cut off. It will never bear fruit. Likewise unless a man is grafted to a Truthful person he cannot have 113