Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 69
Section One 69 be the mere result of their own intellect. Can that God—who man- ifested the mighty powers of His Divinity for the sustenance of the physical realm and exhibited awesome omnipotence without the inter- vention of human hands—be considered weak and powerless when it is time to demonstrate His power in the spiritual realm? Given such a notion, can He remain perfect, or can His spiritual powers be proven? True satisfaction that should be based upon an unshakeable certainty is not possible through mere analogical reasoning. Rather, analogical rea- soning can, at best, lead to a probability—and that, too, if the thought process is not inclined towards denial. In short, rational reasoning is completely unsatisfactory and falls short of reaching the utmost degree in divine cognition, and even its very highest reach is limited to mere conjectures on the basis of which the soul cannot attain true conviction and cognition, nor the cleansing of inner impurities. Rather, such a person, being enslaved exclusively by inferior thoughts, utilizes his knowledge and skill for deceitful plots in the manner of Abu Zaid in Maq a m a t-e- H ar i r i , who used his elo- quence and rhetoric as an instrument of deception. Can the frail intellect of man, alone within its environs, liberate him from the prison wherein he is being confined on account of his selfish passion, ignorance, and heedlessness? Does human imagination possess any such capability which can equal the knowledge and power of Almighty God? Can the holy light of God, which touches the soul and delivers it from its deepest doubts, be possessed by anyone other than God? Certainly not! Certainly not! Rather, only those people are entrapped by these deceptions who have never realized the degree of cognition required for true salvation, or the extent to which divine power can transform our soul, or the level of nearness and recognition [of God] that we can attain with the help of God’s infinite grace, or the extent to which He can lift the veils before us. Their ‘knowledge’ culmi- nates only in useless conjectures, whereas the true and certain knowl- edge that is essential for man’s salvation is—according to their strange reasoning—absurd and impossible; but it should be understood that