The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 348
BATALĀWI'S STATEMENTS & THEIR RESPONSES 347 recall-that your father once expressed a desire to my late father at Batala to be employed as an agent to attend some court cases, but as he was not competent to look after land cases, his request was denied. His Statement: You prophesied the birth of a son based on a revela- tion and thus told a lie. My Statement: You seem unable to give up your contemptible ways; God alone knows what your nature is made of. What falsehood is there in this prophecy? If you mean to say that a son was born after the proph- ecy and died, can you provide the proof that there is mention in any of my ilhām [revelations] that the promised son was that very boy? If you can, then present that ilhām. Bear in mind, however, that there is no such ilhām. Nevertheless, if—in my own judgement-I had called that boy to perhaps be the promised son, does it prove that the ilhām is untrue? Do you not know that a Mulham [recipient of Divine revelations] sometimes uses his own judgement in interpreting his ilhām and some- times this judgement proves wrong, although this does not detract in the least from the stature and grandeur of the ilhām? Everyone must have experienced, countless times, that a dream is true, but errors occur in its interpretation. This subtle point of spiritual knowledge and guid- ance has specifically been explained in the Noble Quran, but only for those who have eyes [to see]. I am afraid, having raised an objection against me today, tomor- row you might raise a similar objection against the Holy Prophet, peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, and allege that he could not perform the circuits around the Ka'bah in that particular year in order to do which, in fulfilment of a revelation, he had undertaken a journey of 200 kos;¹ and this was proven to be an error of judgement. Alas, excessive prejudice has made you also forget the hadith فَذَهَبَ وَهْلِي 1. A measure of length equal to about two English miles, varying in different parts of India See Platts, John T. (John Thompson). A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English. London: W. H. Allen & Co. , 1884. [Publisher]