The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 465
464 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI UL-WASĀWIS vices and wasted centuries and ages in it. Their passions had governed them till they were no longer in control of their selves. They squan- dered their harvest in their selfish desires and became like unto barren soil. Thus, Allah manifested that succinct and concealed prophecy of great importance against their understanding so that He may try their knowledge, intellect, and cognition, and grant the believers a twofold reward out of His mercy, and pave a way for them to win His pleasure. All of this was nothing but a trial from Him, so that He might dis- tinguish between the sincere believers and others, and turn towards them with compassion and mercy, and bring disgrace to the intellects of those who acted arrogantly and made the Servant of Allah and his teaching the object of ridicule and mockery. It is a Divine practice that when God desires to subject a sinful peo- ple to a trial, then at times He makes the promised prophecy ambiguous to them, and twists their intellects and apprehensions such that they do not grasp the secret of Allah's promise nor its appointed time, so as to make them taste the evil of their past deeds and make them among those who became the enemies of a truthful servant and exceeded in tyranny and bigotry. Consequently, He makes the true interpretation of the prophecy unrecognizable in their eyes; thus, they consider it to be a pack of many fabricated lies. They cannot fly as high as the wise men do, nor see the veiled Signs in this hidden prophecy, nor do they fear the trial from Allah which particularly befalls the evil ones; rather, they quarrel like the blind. Do people think that they will be left alone because they say, 'We believe, and that they will not be tested with var- ious kinds of trials, while similar practices of Allah have already mani- fested? In it lies a lesson for every heart that fears and trembles. So beware, O ye who have eyes! Ask those who possess knowl- edge should the matter be dubious to you. Do you wonder that the ways of the earlier people have been disclosed to you? Do you won- der that Allah has sent down to you an Arbiter revealing the secret of this prophecy and he has unveiled the face of this prophecy? Is it an