Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 98
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 98 faculties, insist out of mere foolishness and ignorance that the light of revelation, which is bestowed upon those with perfect natures, can also be granted to imperfect individuals. They should reflect with honesty and fairness on how they are making a serious error about the grace of [divine] revelation. They clearly see that the divine law of nature does not support their wrong idea, yet out of extreme prejudice and stub- bornness they persist in holding this false notion. Similarly, the Christians do not believe that an inner light is required for receiving [divine] light and they allege that it is not necessary that a heart upon which the light of revelation descends should possess inner light. Rather, according to the Christians one can be a Prophet of God and attain nearness to Him in spite of all his vices, even if he is: utterly ignorant and foolish instead of being wise; a coward of the first order instead of being brave; an absolute miser instead of being generous; extremely shameless instead of having a sense of honour; consumed by the love of this world instead of having the love of Allah; a notorious thief or robber instead of having the moral qualities of temperance, fear of God, and trustworthiness; extremely immodest and lustful instead of having the virtues of chastity and modesty; and deplorably greedy and covetous instead of having the quality of contentment. Indeed, according to them, with the sole exception of Jesus, all other Prophets whom they accept as true and whose revealed books they call holy, were, God forbid, bereft of holy perfection—a condition of innocence and purity of heart—just like those described above. The Christians ought to be immensely congratulated on their intellect and cognition of God for coming up with such a ‘sublime’ philosophy of the descent of revelation! But only those who are benighted and immersed in utter dark- ness can practise and admire such a philosophy. Otherwise, even a fee- ble-minded person would not deny the obvious truth, that to receive the grace of light it is necessary that the recipient should possess inner light. There can be no remedy, however, for those who have nothing to do with reason, hate light, and love darkness. Like bats, their eyesight is