Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 230
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 230 all times to come—that of the Holy Quran’s content and its effect— which all false religions have failed to match throughout the ages. Had the Quran possessed the miracle of content only and not that of effect, what superiority would the blessed Muslim ummah have achieved over others in terms of progress in receiving its effects and achieving spiritual enlightenment. Mere asceticism and chastity can never be categorized as miracu- lous, for is it not possible for a priest, pundit or Brahm u , who is pious by nature, to choose the path of chastity and honesty. Since unrewarded devotion is possible for people of all faiths, how can it serve to distin- guish between the signs shown by a believer and a non-believer, consid- ering that there must be a distinction between the signs shown by the truthful and the untruthful. If a believer is just as deprived of heavenly light as its denier, then how has the light of his faith been manifested in this world and what superiority would faith have over faithlessness. Now that the miracle of the Quran’s effect has been demonstrated, and I myself accept the responsibility for proving it to full satisfaction, there is no need to unnecessarily prolong the subject, in the light of this conclusive argument. Let him who has doubts examine it, and let him who has misgivings put it to the test. Here it should be clear that whatever is disclosed to a person by way of divine revelation becomes binding upon him, upon those who have been granted some reason to believe in it, and upon anyone to whom God has manifested its truth through a sign. By the same token, one who has been exhorted through such a revelation, but who wil- fully refuses to act upon it, invites divine wrath upon himself. There is a real risk that such a person will come to an undesirable end. Balaam son of Beor, for instance, received revelation from God directing him: ال تدْع عليهم , that is, do not curse M us a and his encampment. But he made plans to curse the encampment of Hadrat M u s a , in open defiance of the divine injunction, and thus was rejected by God to the extent of being likened to a dog. It was in compliance with revelation that Hadrat M u s a ’s mother put him, an infant, in a box and cast him into