Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 353
SuB-Footnote Number Three 353 with utmost humility and steadfastness, and seek this gift from the door of the one who is worthy of it. Wherever he sees the fountain of divine cognizance, he should hasten towards that fountain even with great difficulty, and then stay for a few days with patience and reverence. However, it does not behove those who have been granted the ability by God Almighty to manifest extraordinary Signs, that they should go about markets and public places showing them off in the manner of tricksters, nor do such phenomena lie in their power. No doubt there is fire in their flint, but its expression and manifestation depends on the loving stroke of their truthful, steadfast, and sincere devotees. Another point to remember is that it is a mistake to label the visions and revelations of men of God merely as ‘news of the unseen’. Rather, these visions and revelations are the sweet fragrance of the gar- den of divine succour that indicate the existence of that garden from afar. And the majesty and grandeur of such visions and revelations is truly revealed to the one who is in search of [the signs of ] divine help. Meaning that, he should hold divine help as the fundamental sign, and the prophecies as essential requisites that have been used to serve as proofs of divine help. In other words, divine help is the pivot of the status of nearness to God, whereas the prophecies, being the evident proof of this, prove to all people, high and low, that these supports in fact exist. In short, divine support is the basis and prophecies are a branch thereof. Divine support is like the disk of the sun and proph- ecies are like the rays and sparks of that sun. Prophecies serve divine support inasmuch as they help everyone realize that the help is of an extraordinary nature and cannot be attributed to luck or coincidence. Likewise, divine help serves prophecies because their deep interrela- tion enhances the glory of the prophecies and imparts upon them a matchless quality that cannot be found in anyone other than those who enjoy divine help. This, then, is the quality that serves as the distinction between common prophecies and those glorious ones. To sum up, in trying to understand the greatness and eminence of these people, one has to bear in mind the mutual link between