Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 104
104 in symbolical language. One of these is a dream in which something is shown as a symbol of an abstract thing; for instance, milk indicating spiritual knowledge, a buffalo indicating a disease or an epidemic, etc. , etc. The second kind is called Kashf or vision, which is experienced while a man is wide awake, and is en- gaged in his normal pursuits. In such a condition he is enabled to hold spiritual intercourse with the souls of the departed, or to witness incidents happening at a distance from him, etc. , etc. All these kinds of revelation are referred to in the Holy Quran; a detailed discussion of them here would be out of place. I have stated that Islam does not define revelation as mere chance inspiration. Such definition of revelation is due to entire ignorance of the nature of revelations. If it were accepted as correct, revelation would become a mockery. Every person experiences at some time or other inspired thoughts and ideas. If these were called revelation, every man would esteem his thoughts as revelation. In this sense every speech and every writing could be put forward as revelation. The Word of God is meant to lead us to certainty and faith and not to land us in doubt and distraction. If our thoughts and ideas were to be called revelation, most people would begin to imagine that whatever passes in their minds is revelation. But Divine revela- tion must possess distinctive features which are not possessed by mere fancies and imagination, so that men should not be led astray. What, then, is the best test by which a person may judge that a particular idea is his