The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 412
LETTER TO NAWWAB MUHAMMAD ALI KHAN appointed by God Almighty. On the contrary, the heedless man regards a Sign as some sort of a spectacle. The Disciples of Jesus had asked him for a Sign, that food should descend for them from heaven so that some of the sus- picions that they harboured against him might be removed. Accordingly, Allah, glorified be His eminence, narrates His response to Hadrat ‘Īsā in the Noble Quran: “Tell them that I will manifest this Sign but then if, after that, someone does not believe in Me as he should, I will inflict such chastisement upon them as was not inflicted upon anyone before. On hearing this, the Disciples repented of their demand for a Sign. God Almighty says that whichever nation We have inflicted chastisement upon, We have done so only after the showing of a Sign. And He states in many places of the Noble Quran that the manifestation of a Sign is a prelude to punishment. The rea- son for this is that it becomes incumbent upon the one who asks for a Sign to renounce the love of the world forthwith after seeing it, and to don the clothes of a beggar, and after seeing the glory and majesty of God, render unto Him what is His due. But since a heedless man cannot render this measure of obedi- ence, demanding a Sign as a condition for acceptance becomes a misfortune for him, because after seeing a Sign, God's argu- ment becomes established against him. That is indeed why, if he still falls short of rendering perfect obedience, the wrath of Allah overtakes him and destroys him. Your third question relates to Istikhārah [Prayer seeking guidance and goodness], which, in reality, is Istikhbārah [Prayer seeking information]. Let it be clear, the difficulties which you have written about are not, in fact, encountered in Istikhārah. The meaning of what I wrote is only this much that Istikhārah should be performed under such conditions when the senti- ments of love or hostility are not in a state of excitement due 411