Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 293
APPE N DI X to B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 293 Then the fifth stage of the spiritual being is followed by the sixth which God Almighty has mentioned in this Quranic verse: 1 َو َنْيِذَّلا ْمُه ىٰلَع ْمِهِتٰوَلَص َنْوُظِفاَحُي Meaning that the believers of the sixth stage who have surpassed the fifth stage are those who themselves safeguard and watch over their Prayers. In other words, they are no longer in need of someone else’s exhortation or reminder, for they have attained such a relationship with God, and His remembrance has become so dear to their nature and so comforting, and has assumed such a pivotal role in their lives that they are ever engaged in safeguarding it. Every moment of their lives is spent in the remembrance of God and they do not want to be separated from His remembrance for even a single moment. It is evident that man strives arduously and consistently, fully and all the time, to safeguard and protect only such a thing in whose loss he envisages his own ruin and destruction. For example, a wayfarer trav- eling through a barren wilderness, wherein there is no hope of finding water or food for hundreds of miles, will guard his belongings of food and water as dearly as his own life, for he knows that losing them would mean death for him. Thus, the people who safeguard their Prayers with the same care, and do not abandon them even if it means the loss of pos- sessions or honour or even incurring someone’s ire, and are anxious lest they miss their Prayers so that they all but die for the sake of Prayer and cannot for a moment bear to be oblivious to the remembrance of God, such are the people who in fact consider worship and remembrance of God to be the essential nourishment on which their life depends. This state comes about when God loves them and a burning flame of His love—which can be called the spirit for their spiritual being—descends upon their hearts and gives them a second life. This spirit brings light and life to their entire spiritual being. In this state 1. S u rah al-Mu’min u n, 23:10 [Publisher]