The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 169
Allāh the Exalted 169. As ever since the creation of the world the recognition of. God is tied up with the recognition of a Prophet, it is impossible that the knowledge of Unity could be obtained except through a Prophet. A Prophet is a mirror for the beholding of God. It is only through this mirror that the countenance of God may be seen. When God Almighty desires to manifest Himself to the world, He sends a. Prophet into the world who is the manifestation of His. Powers and to whom He displays His Rubūbiyyat. Then the world realizes that God is. . It is a part of the Unity of God to believe in those who have been under the eternal law of God appointed as a means of the recognition of God. Without this belief, faith in the Unity of God cannot be perfected. It is not possible to achieve faith in the pure Unity of God, which is created from the fountain of perfect certainty, in the absence of heavenly signs and wonders which are displayed by the Prophets whereby they lead people to full understanding. They are a group that points to God and through whom God, Whose Being is imperceptible upon imperceptible and hidden upon hidden, manifests Himself. That hidden Treasure, Whose name is God, has ever been recognized through the Prophets. The acquisition of faith in the Unity of God, which is estimated as true. Unity by God Himself, except through a Prophet, is as much opposed to reason as it is contrary to the experience of all seekers after God. [Ḥaqiqat-ul-Waḥī, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, Vol. 22, pp. 115-116]. The true Unity of God, the affirmation of which is demanded by God and upon which salvation depends, is to believe that God in His Being is free from every associate, whether it is an idol or a human being, or the sun or