Malfuzat - Volume IX — Page 77
27 December 1906 77 observe Prayer, spend [in the way of God], and similarly believe in the Books of God, then besides this what new guidance would there be? It would be like achieving what was already achieved. Both meanings are found in َنْوُقِفْنُي َنْوُقِفْنُي [ yunfiq u n— they spend]; that is, they provide food, clothing and wealth for oth- ers, or they expend their faculties. The response to this objection is that these acts of worship and these words that have been expressed to this extent, do not attest to the perfection of man’s journey [to God] and attain- ing [His] perfect cognizance. If the highest point of guidance is limited to َنْوُنِمْؤُي ِبْيَغْلاِب َنْوُنِمْؤُي ِبْيَغْلاِب [believing in the unseen], then what divine cognizance has been attained? 1 Therefore, a person who acts upon the guidance of the Glorious Quran will reach the high- est point of God-realization and will advance from the stage of َنْوُنِمْؤُي ِبْيَغْلاِب َنْوُنِمْؤُي ِبْيَغْلاِب [belief in the unseen] to the state of seeing God; in other words, he will attain the stage of ‘ainul-yaq i n [certainty by sight] with regard to the existence of God Almighty. In this very fashion, the initial state with regard to Prayer will indeed be as was stated here that they make their Prayer ‘stand’; that is, as if the Prayer keeps ‘falling’. By ‘falling’ is meant that there is no passion and enjoyment in Prayer; it is an activ- ity bereft of joy and fraught with distractions. Thus, the Prayer lacks that attraction and captivation that a person restless due to hunger and thirst displays as he runs toward food and water. 1. From Badr : ‘First there is faith in the unseen, but if belief remains limited to the unseen alone, then what is its benefit? It remains like hearsay. The stage of cognizance and seeing [of God] should be acquired after this, and after having believed, this is gradually bestowed from God Almighty by way of reward, so that man’s state progresses from [belief in] the unseen to that of knowledge based on observation. The matters he believed in as things un- seen, now he becomes cognisant of them, and step by step, he is bestowed the stage where he can see Almighty Allah in this very world. Thus, the one who believes in the unseen is given further advancement, and he reaches to the stage of seeing [God]. ’ ( Badr , vol. 6, no. 3, p. 12, dated 17 January 1907)