Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 8
8 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI-THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION also been fulfilled. I do not know what his purpose was for narrating these accounts and why he would time and again relate his dreams to me; for, according to the Vedas, the age of true dreams and revelations has come to a close. There is also the case of a Hindu who was both a wretched thief and an adulterer and was sentenced to imprisonment. He happened to meet me for some reason after his release. I recall that he had been sentenced to several years of imprisonment for the crime of theft. He told me that the night before he was to be sentenced by the court, it was disclosed to him in a dream that he would be incarcerated-even though this was not the least bit expected. It happened accordingly, and the very next day he was sent to jail. Similarly, there is an individual in America these days by the name of Dowie, who publishes a newspaper. He believes that Haḍrat ‘Īsāªs [Jesus] is God and considers himself to be the reincarnation of Prophet Ilyāsas [Elijah]. He is a claimant to divine revelation and presents his dreams and revelations to the masses with the claim that they have come true. However, he is a person who, as I have already mentioned, believes in a humble human being to be the Lord of all the worlds. As for his character, it is sufficient to say that his mother was an adulteress and, by his own admission, he is an illegitimate child. He comes from a family of cobblers and a brother of his works in Australia as a cobbler. These statements are not just empty accusations, for I possess all the letters and newspapers which establish his family background to be such. In short, when various classes of people are able to see such dreams and revelations as come true from time to time, and when there are more than fifty such people in this country who are claimants to such inspiration and revelation—moreover, these people fall within such a wide circle that there seems to be no requisite for following the correct faith or having piety—in this situation, there cannot be any sensible person whose heart does not feel the need to solve the riddle as to how to establish a criterion for distinguishing between them. This is espe- cially the case because there is evidence that, despite a difference of reli- gion and belief, people of every denomination experience dreams and