The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 207
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI and magnificence of the Creator. But the Creator and his creation are distinct and separate. We can make an analogy of a painter and his painting. The painting does reflect some of the qualities of the painter, but the two have separate existence. The Promised Messiah while explaining this point has given the example of a mirror which reflects the light of the sun and shows its image inside. In reality there is no sun inside the mirror, it is only an image or a reflection. The same is true of God and His creation. If God is like the sun, His creation is like a mirror. . In Islam, believers are taught to imitate and adopt the attributes of Allah in their persons, obviously in their limited human capacity. The perfect human beings, the prophets reflect the attributes of Allah in their persons. As they have close relationship with Allah,. He blesses them with revelation containing knowledge of the unseen and shows great many signs on their behalf. Thus they are able to create faith in existence of Allah with His attributes of grace, power and knowledge. They are like mirrors who reflect the attributes of. Allah to the highest limit of their human capacity. In this age the. Promised Messiah claimed that God has made him an instrument to demonstrate His existence and His attributes to the modern world. He thus challenged the atheists, the agnostics and the polytheists of this age. . A person's knowledge about God and His attributes depends. upon the scripture he follows and the spiritual teacher or the prophet he accepts. It also depends upon the individual's struggle to seek. God's knowledge, self purification, earnest prayers and treading upon the path of righteousness. The Gracious God helps and guides those who strive for Him. There are many stages of attainment of Divine. knowledge, the relationship of man with God and an individual's experience of God and His attributes. The highest stages of this spiritual progress are attained by the prophets or the messengers and the saints who are especially blessed by God. One cannot attain the higher stages of knowledge of Divine and the spiritual progress just by one's actions. Though actions and striving are necessary, it is. God's grace which makes it possible. As the Promised Messiah has 207