Lecture Sialkot — Page 30
30 L ECTURE S IALKOT faith, salvation, and purity. If they had any sense of justice and were to analyse their own inner condition, they would realize that, without the renewed certainty of faith which descends from heaven through the Mes- sengers and Prophets of God, their prayers are but a ritual and their fasting mere starvation. The fact is that no one can attain true deliverance from sin, nor can one truly love God or fear Him, as He deserves to be feared, until one attains true knowledge and strength through God’s own grace and mercy. It is evident that true knowledge is the basis of all fear and love and it is only after one has gained knowledge and recognition of a thing that love, desire, fear or aversion for that particular thing takes root in one’s heart. It is of course true that one cannot attain true knowledge until God grants it, and it cannot benefit anyone except through God’s grace. This knowledge then opens the door of seeking and recognizing the truth. It is only through repeated acts of Divine grace that this door remains open and is not shut thereafter. Spiritual knowledge, in short, can only be attained through Divine grace, and through it alone can it survive. Divine grace purifies and illuminates knowledge, removes the intervening veils and cleanses the Nafs-e-Amm a rah 28 of all its im- purities. It bestows strength and life upon the soul and 28 The self that incites to evil. [Publishers]