Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 56
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 56 is to lay down the general principle regarding the time and age when a Book and a Prophet are sent into the world. That principle is: When hearts are enveloped by darkness so complete as to be entirely capti- vated by the world, and then, as an evil consequence of their being engrossed in worldliness, all of their doctrines, deeds, actions, morals, etiquette, intentions, and resolves become totally corrupt, the love of God vanishes from their hearts entirely, and this pandemic spreads so widely that the entire world is plunged into darkness like night; at such a time, namely, when darkness reaches its limit, divine mercy is moved to deliver people from this darkness and to set out in His Word the means by which to reform them. This is what Allah the Almighty has indicated in the above verse by saying, ‘We have revealed the Quran in such a night when it was absolutely necessary for the reformation and benefit of mankind to explain the nature of the right path and to lay down the limits of the Shariah and Faith. ’ That is to say, when the dark- ness of misguidance had reached the extent where it had become like a night plunged in pitch darkness, it was then that divine mercy was kin- dled to send down a light powerful enough to dispel that darkness. So, by revealing the Holy Quran, God bestowed upon His servants that resplendent light which dispels the darkness of doubts and misgivings, and diffuses enlightenment. Here it should be borne in mind that this spiritual Night of Destiny [i. e. the descent of the Holy Quran] does not conflict with the concept of the physical Night of Destiny that is well known to the common people. Rather, it is the eternal way of Allah that He does everything in the most appropriate manner, and whatever external form is suit- able for the internal reality, He bestows that upon it. Hence, since Lailatul-Qadr, in its inner reality, is the time of extreme misguidance in which divine grace attends to the reformation of the world, God— in order to establish that mutual connection—appointed a physical night to externally represent the last part of the age of misguidance in which [spiritual] darkness reached its ultimate point. This was the night in which God Almighty, finding the world steeped in extreme