Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 182
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 182 Tenth Objection: Some short-sighted people raise the objection that revelation suffers from a defect and shortcoming—that it prevents and obstructs its recipient from arriving at perfect enlightenment, which is indispensable for eternal life and everlasting happiness. 1 They explain their objection by asserting that revelation obstructs intellec- tual development and blocks the progress of research, for those who follow revelation find it sufficient to respond to every question by asserting that the matter at hand is either permissible or forbidden in their revealed book; and they do not use their reasoning powers, as if they had not been bestowed to them by God. The end result [accord- ing to the critics] is that: ‘By lack of use, all those powers gradually become weak and, indeed, they almost disappear; thus, human nature is completely changed and begins to resemble animals, the progress of rational faculties, which is the excellence of the human soul, is wasted, and man is thereby deprived of obtaining perfect enlightenment. Thus, the revealed books constitute an obstruction in the way of achieving eternal life and everlasting happiness, of which man stands in need. ’ Answer: It should be clear that the objection—that following a true Scripture revealed by God necessitates the abandonment of rational faculties, or that revelation and reason are incompatible and opposite phenomena that cannot co-exist—only arises from the sheer ill-un- derstanding, prejudice, and obduracy of the Brahm u s. It is a strange objection with an equally strange composition, consisting partly of falsehood, partly of bigotry, and partly of ignorance. The falsehood is that, despite their knowledge that divine verities have been fostered only through people who have followed revelation, and that Oneness 1. Please see Sub-Footnote Number Two on pages 235–254. In the original Urdu edition of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya , the Promised Messiah as presented this sub-footnote along with Footnote Number Eleven. For the ease of English readers, Hadrat Khalifatul Masih V aba decided that it should be presented as its own section after Footnote Number Eleven. [Publisher]