Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 282
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 282 whereby a believer shuns all that is frivolous, is also عَلَقَة [ ‘alaqah— clot] in spiritual terms, for it is at this stage that the heart of a believer is overawed by the grandeur of God and forever bids farewell to frivolous things and actions. This is indeed the state which, in other words, is called ta‘alluq bill a h [relationship with God]. However, this relationship with God that results from discarding frivolous things is only a fragile relation- ship, for although the believer at this stage has turned away from the frivolous, his heart is still attached to things that are deemed essential for the self and on which his prosperity and comfort depends. So an element of impurity still abides within him. This is why God has lik- ened this stage of the spiritual being to an عَلَقَة [ ‘alaqah —clot], which is congealed blood and—owing to the blood—there remains an element of impurity in it. This defect remains at this stage because such people do not fear Almighty God to the fullest degree and the awe and gran- deur of the Lord of Glory has not fully overwhelmed their hearts. They are only able to relinquish small and frivolous things, but not the oth- ers. Thus, their imperfect selves are still left with an element of impu- rity, so that having established a fragile relationship with God, they do turn away from the frivolous but cannot do away with things that are difficult to abandon. In other words, they cannot, for the sake of God, renounce those things that are essential for selfish pleasures. All this goes to show that mere turning away from the frivolous is not some- thing that is too commendable; rather, it is a lowly state for a believer, albeit a stage above the stage of humility. Corresponding to the third stage of physical development is the third stage of spiritual development, the detail of which is as follows. The third stage of the physical being has been described in this verse as: 1 اَنْقَلَخَف َةَقَلَعْلا ًةَغْضُم 1. S u rah al-Mu’min u n, 23:15 [Publisher]