Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 78
78 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Moreover, the words ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) also allude to this very fact. Undoubtedly, although ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) takes precedence over ُ اِيَّاك َ نَسْتَعِيْن (Thee alone do we implore for help), if one contemplates, it becomes evident that the Graciousness (rahmaniyyat) of God Almighty takes even greater precedence. After all, there is a force that moves us to say ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) but where does this hidden force which moves us to make this declaration come from? Is it not God Almighty who has granted this power to us? Undoubtedly, this power is a gift from God Almighty, which He has bestowed upon us through His sheer Graciousness. It is through God’s motivation and by the power endowed by Him that man proclaims ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) as well. Hence, if one reflects from this perspective, the worship of God is second in the greater scheme of things, but in another respect, it takes precedence. That is to say, in the context that God Almighty is the one who grants man the power to worship Him in the first place, ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) is second in rank, but in the first context, ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship) takes precedence. The essence and deeper reality of the philosophy of prophethood can be understood in the same way. The Necessary Aspects of Prophethood Thousands and thousands of people may well claim to be the recipients of revela- tion from God, and in actuality, this is necessary to establish the truthfulness of prophethood and furnish evidence in favour of the fact that God speaks. How- ever, there is another fundamental objective at the heart of prophethood which is specific to Prophets. It is a general rule that all things come with their relevant essentials—they are never separated from their necessaries. For example, when food is presented, it is accompanied by its essentials: various pieces of crockery, water, and even tooth- picks. In the same way, prophethood is also accompanied by its relevant essen- tials, and from among them, one is that ‘converse with the inner self ’ comes to an end completely in the case of a Prophet. This is from among the essentials of the inherent nature of this institution known as prophethood, and the signs and hall- marks of this are the prophecies that are given to the Prophets by God Almighty. Also bear in mind that Prophets have another name in heaven of which the common people are unaware, and when that heavenly name is put before the world, certain people stumble. For example, even in my case, God has named