The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 217
216 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS grace Even the inspiration and ilḥām that the angels perform is also according to the nature of the person concerned. For example, the ilham that they communicate to Almighty God's chosen, they can- not communicate to others. Rather, they pay no attention to them. In accordance with this principle, everyone receives from the inspi- ration of angels according to his capacity. The help of angels is received with respect to the art or science to which one is inclined. For instance, when it is the will of Almighty God, glorified be His eminence, that someone's constipation should be overcome by a medicine, an angel suggests to the physician that such-and-such type of laxative should be administered to him. Then the physician feeds the patient either some turbid or khyār shambār [cassia fistula, also known as purging cas- sia, Indian laburnum], or khisht syrup [Manna of Atraphaxis spinosa], or scammony, or senna, or castor oil, or something else according to the angel's suggestion. And then, with the help of the angels, the bod- ily system of the patient accepts it and does not throw it out and the angels influence the action of the medicine and create a reaction in the body, and the undesirable matter is expelled from the body by the command of God. Through His extreme wisdom and perfect power, God Almighty does not let the system of external arts and science go to waste, and does not suspend His own divine controls and perpet- ual possession. Had God Almighty not possessed this minute control over the conditions of His creation and its continuation and destruc- tion, He would definitely not have been God, nor would His Oneness have been established. It is true, however, that God Almighty has not desired that all these mysteries should become obvious and visible to the eyes of the world; for, if they had been obvious there would have been no merit in believing in them. For example, if people would see Almighty God with their own eyes and witnessed the angels physically, this knowledge of theirs would have become a part of the other knowledge which man has gained by his senses or by experiment. In this way, belief in them would not have been a means of salvation, just as belief in a hundred other facts is not a