The Ocean of Light — Page 139
139 HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD AS who shall come after, even if Sa h b a n W a’i l 1 seeks to compete against me. 2 So when I called out anyone who 1 Sa h b a n W ā’ il is the name of an Arab poet (d. 674 A. D) whose speech and eloquence has become proverb. According to the French Orientalist Albert Kazimirski de Biberstein “Whilst addressing an assembly for half-a-day, [he] never used the same word twice. ” [Publisher] 2 The claim about my eloquence that I have made is inferior to the book of God, the Holy Quran. For without a doubt it is a magnificent and glorious miracle full of brilliance and powerful arguments. Moreover, it has surpassed everyone else in subtle statements, vast meanings and in the twofold brilliances of [articulation and expression of verities]. Some people have a difference of opinion in this but they have been unable to show any verdant tree like this that has this sweetness and verdure. No other greenery can compare to its beauty and lushness no matter how perfect in freshness and verdure it may be. Anyone who seeks this same brilliance from any other book in the universe is like the one who seeks to procure flesh from the decayed bones buried in graves. The truth of the matter is, and I always speak the truth, that no manuscript exists that is like the Book of our Lord God. So just as perfection in all attributes is unique to the Almighty God, so is beauty in all its aspects unique to this brilliant book. So, all that exists other than this is not free from error and shortcomings be it the poetry of An-N a bighah or Sa h b a n. For if you find one of their sentences to be like a soft and bright cheek, you will see that the other is like a short blunt nose, if one word is like a beautiful eye with brilliant white and dark blackness,