Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 259
Footnote Number Eleven 259 corporeal constraints are dissolved and the fostering light of the Divine pours down on him like favours. In this very stage, the door of every favour is opened to the devotee and divine favours are addressed to him in their perfection. This stage is also called sair fill a h [the sojourn in Allah] inasmuch as in this stage the wonders of rub u biyyat are revealed to the devotee and he sojourns into the divine favours which are hidden from others. He is favoured with true visions, honoured with the Word of the One True God, informed of the delicate mysteries of the Hereafter, and given an abundance of knowledge and insights. In short, he becomes the recipient of many overt and covert bounties, so much so that he arrives at that stage of perfect certainty as if he sees the True Planner with his own eyes. Such perfect knowledge of heavenly mysteries that is granted to him is called sair fill a h. This is the stage in which divine love is bestowed on man, yet it is not established in him as part of his nature; that is to say, it has not yet become a part of his nature, rather, it only dwells in it securely. The third [stage of ] progress, which is the highest step in treading the fields of nearness [to God] has been taught in the verse in which He says: 1 ِرْيَغ ِبْوُضْغَمْلا ْمِهْيَلَع َو اَل َنْيِّلٓاَّضلا This is the stage when the love of God and the enmity to all besides Him penetrate into man’s nature and are established in him as his temperament. The one who attains this stage loves the divine qualities as naturally as they are dear to the One True God, and the personal love of the Benevolent God so grips his heart that it becomes impossible to be driven out of it. If his heart and soul were crushed and wrung in the machinery of severe tests and trials, nothing but the love for God emerges from them. He seeks pleasure in pining for Him alone and regards Him alone as the Real and True Beloved of his heart. This is the stage when all progress of nearness culminates into its end and man attains the ultimate climax for which human nature was ordained. 1. Those who have not incurred displeasure and those who have not gone astray ( S u rah al-F a ti h ah, 1:7). [Publisher]