The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 216
PREFACE FOOTNOTE 215 with me, they could be satisfied through visions, but the trouble is that such people suffer from a form of arrogance. That arrogance is such that it does not permit them to come over in meekness and humility as seekers after truth. And to imagine why we cannot feel the intervention of angels is actually an offshoot of the objection dealt with herein. When man is surrounded only by the veils of his own thoughts, he cannot see angels and can have no idea of Almighty God because of this veil. His belief only results from his thoughts. Similarly, he cannot have any realiza- tion of the working of angels, who are beings of a spiritual nature. Here, the following is an apt parable: A blind man denied the existence of the Sun. He said he could not vouch for its existence as he could not feel the Sun with his hands. The Sun said to him, 'O blind one, I can- not be known by grasping me, for I am very far away from your hands. You should pray to Almighty God that He may give you eyes. Then, through those eyes you will be able to see me. ' Should it be asked, 'If angels are the regulators and distributors of matters, then how do our plans succeed and most matters conclude according to our will through our projects and plans?, the reply is that our projects and plans are not independent of the mediation of angels and their suggestions and ilham [revelation]. The functions that the angels perform by the command of God Almighty is carried out through persons who are naturally inclined towards acceptance of the suggestions of angels. For instance, when the angels desire to bring down rain upon a field, or a village, or a country with God's command, they cannot themselves become water nor can they make fire to per- form the function of water, but they guide the clouds to the goal and, becoming regulators, cause rain to descend in accord with the quantity and the limit that has been determined. The clouds possess all those faculties which are possible in a lifeless article, which has no will and no intelligence, and which are in accord with its condition and the charac- ter of its elements, while the function of the angels is distribution and regulation. That is why they are called distributors and regulators.