Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 166
166 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION attainment of perfection. And perfection means that the person shall be granted such strength of selflessness as to fully realize with firm conviction that whatever he has belongs to God. He will not let anyone feel that the objects with which he served mankind belonged to him. For instance, he does not oblige anyone when he gives his personal belonging to someone—that would be an imperfect state because he would feel this way only if he considered it to be his own. Thus, in keeping with the verse God Almighty will grant progress to the believer of the Holy Quran from this state until he con- siders every possession of his to belong to God to such an extent that even the affliction of making others feel grateful to him will depart from his heart, and a kind of motherly compassion for mankind—or something greater still-will arise within his heart. Nothing remains his; everything becomes God's. This will happen when he sincerely believes in the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet, may peace and bless- ings of Allah be upon him, but not without it. Therefore, how misguided are those who consider barren Tauḥīd alone, without submission to the Holy Quran and the Noble Prophet sa, to be the means of salvation? In fact, experience testifies that such peo- ple neither have true belief in God Almighty nor can they be cleansed of worldly temptations and desires—let alone progress to any kind of perfection. It is also an utterly false and unsubstantiated fancy that a person can achieve the blessing of Tauhid on his own. The fact is 1. The reason is that, on account of innate human weakness, miserliness is also a part of man's nature. For instance, even if one possesses a mountain of gold, he still retains a bit of miserliness in him and does not wish to give up his entire possession. But in the context of the verse when a person is accompanied by a gifted strength, he obtains such resignation that all mi- serliness and all selfishness is eliminated. It is then that seeking the pleasure of God looks dearer to him than all of the riches and he no longer wants to hoard ephemeral wealth here on earth; rather, he stores his treasure in the heavens. (Author)