Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 88
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 88 and their guide, nevertheless they remained in denial of the existence of God and died in that very denial. However, show me just one person who believed in revelation, yet remained a disbeliever in the existence of God. Hence, insofar as revelation is the only condition for firm faith in God, it is obvious that where this condition is lacking the result con- tingent upon it will also be lacking. So it now stands clearly proven that those who have denied revelation have deliberately chosen the ways of faithlessness and have deemed it proper that the doctrine of atheism should spread and be propagated. These ignorant ones fail to reflect that since the Utmost Hidden Being [of God] cannot be seen, nor smelt, nor touched—and should the faculty of hearing be similarly deprived and unaware of the Word of the Perfect Being—how can one then believe in the existence of that Imperceptible Being? Should the thought of a Creator even arise in the mind by pondering over the uni- verse, but despite a lifelong effort, the seeker after truth never sees the Creator with his eyes, nor is aware of His Word, nor discovers any indi- cation about Him that characterizes a being who is alive and well; then would the doubt not eventually befall him that perchance his deliber- ation erred in concluding the existence of the Creator, and maybe the atheists and naturalists are right, who conclude that certain elements of the universe are creators of certain other elements, and think that there is no need for any other Creator? I know that if a follower of mere reason gives free rein to this line of thinking, his mind will certainly be seized by the doubt mentioned above, for, it is not possible for him to escape such doubts if, in spite of his utmost search and exertion, he fails to find a personal sign of God. The reason is that it is the inherent and natural habit of man that if he considers something necessary and indispensable through pre- sumed conjecture, but fails to discover its existence externally despite the utmost search and diligent inquiry, he begins to doubt and, indeed, deny the validity of his conjecture, and hundreds of doubts opposed to his conjecture arise in his mind.