Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 122
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 122 attributes, it was only through revelation. The concept of the Oneness of God was never propagated through rational arguments alone in any age. This is why those whom divine revelation did not reach remained unaware of the existence of God, and were left uncivilized and uncultured like animals. Can anyone show us a book written in the past that spoke of divine knowledge and contained real verities, and yet its author claimed that he did not discover the right path to recognizing God through revelation, nor did he hear of the One God from elsewhere; rather, he discovered God and learned about divine attributes by his own reason, reflection, meditation, and diligence; that he found the concept of Oneness of the Divine without being taught by anyone; and that his mind attained true enlightenment and perfect cognition on its own. Who can prove to us that there was an age when there was no sign of divine revelation and the door to the holy scriptures of God was closed, and yet the people of such an era had attained true knowledge of God and His Tau hi d merely through the study of the book of nature. And who can name us a country whose inhabitants reached God through their reason alone while remaining ignorant of the existence of revela- tion, or came to believe in the Oneness of God, the Creator, through their own reflection and observation. Why do you mislead the ignorant masses and—without fearing God even for a fleeting moment—utter that which is deceitful and deceptive. Why do you call that which is open to be closed and vice versa. Do you have no belief in the Omnipotent God who knows well what is in man’s heart, and from whose all-encompassing glance no dis- honest person can remain hidden. Alas, the trouble is that your faith is like a narrow and dark place where not even a ray of clear and bright light has reached. This is why your religion is a collection of thousands of types of straitness and darkness, and is so constricted that no part of it can be seen as open and none of the issues seem to be set out clearly and correctly. As for your faith in God, I have already stated where you stand in