Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 18
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 18 (B. ) Person Y is a philosopher who, after spending a long time in the deep study of philosophical books and cogitating on their contents, has acquired complete proficiency in the knowledge and comprehen- sion of subtle, philosophical truths. Moreover, he has acquired many facts of rational knowledge and irrefutable arguments because he has studied the books written by his predecessors, has access to the treas- ures discovered through research carried out by earlier scholars, and is in the habit of meditation, mental exercise, and constant use of estab- lished rules of logic. On the other hand, it is an established fact that Person X has not learnt even the rudiments of logic and philosophy, nor does he know that there are such things as books of philosophy, nor is he trained to exert his mind through meditation and reflection, nor does he keep the company or acquaintance of the learned or philosophers. Rather, he is completely unlettered and has always lived among the unlettered. Thus, all the branches of knowledge that Person Y has learnt with diligence, effort and hard work are not ‘matters relating to the unseen’ for Person Y, because he has spent a long time assiduously learning them. However, if Person X, who is completely unlettered, explicitly expounds the abstruse and subtle points of wisdom and philosophy in such a way that his exposition is neither inaccurate nor lacking in any respect whatsoever, and, moreover, if he expounds philosophical truths so comprehensively that no previous philosopher has ever been able to do so, then each of his expositions which fulfils the above condi- tions would fall under the category of um u r-e-ghaibiyyah because he expounded that which was beyond his ability, his scope of knowledge, as well as his spectrum of grasp and understanding. Furthermore, he did not have at his disposal any means to explain such things. (C. ) Person Y is a priest, a pundit or a learned scholar of another reli- gion who has mastered all great and small [matters], has spent a large part of his life in hard work spanning many decades, and has thus acquired the knowledge of subtle and abstruse doctrines of his religion.