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Revelation is the soul of
religion. Although attempts have been made to raise a
structure of religion without any foundation in revelation,
all real religious movements in the world are rooted in
the idea of revelation. Again, the conception of
revelation has, more often than not, received its colour
from the Pagan idea of incarnation, i.e., God's appearance
in human form. Yet the true conception of revelation has
always been the word-revelation. God reveals Himself,
according to the purest conception, to a selected person or
persons through spoken words, to convey His will with regard
to a particular nation or humanity at large. This word
--revelation, again, is not a physical experience but a
spiritual one. The recipient of the revelation does not
hear the sound of the revealed words through his physical
senses but through his corresponding spiritual sense. As
such the experience carries with it an illumination which is
not only intellectual but emotional as well. It effects a
change not only in the thinking process of the man, but also
in his feelings and fundamental emotions. Then there are
types of
revelations. Some of
them are of a personal nature or have a bearing only on a
limited circle of people and space of time, while there are
others that have their application on a wider circle
and range of time. Revelations can also be divided into
those that form a code of social conduct and
those that do not. The former are of greater
importance than the latter, seeing that social behaviour is
regulated by laws that have always eluded the grasp of human
reasoning faculty and yet collective life is an essential
need of human existence. That being so, the revelation
that brings law for a community has rightly been
regarded as the major
revelation. This major
revelation is a thing of rare occurrence as its need is not
so frequent and yet all human codes have directly or
indirectly been based on such revelation. Nations and
societies that do not apparently care much for revealed
principles of social conduct are still swayed by these
principles. A case in instance is the system of law
prevailing in Christian countries not excluding that of
Russia. In these nations the law of Moses
imperceptibly acts as the foundation of law. This kind of
revelation is justifiably claimed by the Muslims to have
attained its perfection and reached finality in the law
of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). So far no improvement worth
the name has been suggested from any quarter on the rules
laid down by this new dispensation called the Qur'an.
Hence, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has been rightly regarded as
the last of the Prophets, because his law has brought to
perfection all those rules of life which can form the
foundation of universal human civilisation and social order.
But, although the chain of Prophets has come to a
termination, the need for revelation has never been regarded
by Muslims themselves to have ceased to exist.
Minor
revelations which are called
Mubashsharat, i.e., words assuring
their recipient of high spiritual attainments and consisting
of communications of a general nature, have been claimed by
successive generations of saints in the history of
Islam. The necessity for them has its own place. It
maintains among other things major revelations in their
grandeur and dignity. It is evident that the continuity
of the phenomenon of revelation imparts a force and a
strength to the laws revealed, apart from other needs
that it satisfies. If one is convinced that a particular
rule of conduct has its source in the all-comprehending
wisdom of God and not in the obscure perception of human
intellect, the zeal for its observance becomes intense. It
is remarkable that the tradition of Islam is surcharged with
the experience of these minor revelations whereas the
traditions of other religions are equally devoid of this
particular feature. This fact lends additional support to
the claim advanced on behalf of the Quranic law that it has
been revealed for all times to come.
What is particularly striking in this
connection is that in no religion other than Islam can
one find any kind of authoritative description of the
nature of this extremely important experience and the
manner of its coming. Read through the whole literature of
religion including that for which a direct revelation is
claimed and you will not find any manner of description of
this great phenomenon. The earliest description of it is to
be found only in the Qur'an which describes it in all its
different stages.
II
Revelation, we are
told in the Holy Qur'an (cxl. 51), is granted to man in
three forms:
"And it is not for any mortal
that God should speak to him except by inspiring or from
behind a veil or by sending a messenger and revealing by
His permission what He pleases."
The first of these modes is
called wahy,
which in reality is a Prophet or a righteous man
speaking under the influence of the holy spirit. It is an
idea coming to the mind as if by a flash of lightning and is
not the result of meditation. The second mode is
described as speaking from behind a veil. This refers to
sights seen or words heard from unseen sources when asleep
or in a state of trance. These include true dreams or
spiritual visions. The third mode is that in which
the messenger or the angel is sent to the recipient of the
revelation and the divine message is delivered in words, and
this is what is termed as the major revelation. In the
terminology of Islam, this last form of revelation is called
Wahy
Matluww or revelation that
is recited. The Holy Qur'an entirely consists of this kind
of revelation. This may be called the prophetical revelation
or revelation par excellence, while the other and
minor forms of revelation are common both to the Prophets as
well as other believers, particularly the saints or the
Awliya.Among
the peculiarities of the faith of Islam is that its
Scripture explains the various stages
and the various facts connected with its own revelation.
For example, it mentions the person to whom it was
revealed:
"And who believe in what has
been revealed to Muhammad and it is the very truth
from their Lord" (xlvii. 2).
It mentions the name of the month
and the time when this revelation started:
"The month of Ramadan
is that in which the Qur'an was revealed" (ii. 185); "We
revealed it on a blessed night" (xliv. 3).
It mentions the language of the
revelation:
"Surely we have made it an
Arabic Qur'an that you may understand" (xliii.
3).
It mentions the plane on which
the experience takes place:
"And surely this is a
revelation from the Lord of the worlds, the faithful
spirit has come down with it upon thy heart, that thou
mayest be of the warners in plain Arabic language" (ii.
192-95).
So this is on a spiritual plane that
the phenomenon takes place. But the Quran's is not the only
account with which we are left to satisfy our curiosity on
this point.
The Holy Prophet
(pbuh) takes us farther in the
field and gives us his personal reactions to the phenomenon
in details. We learn it on the authority of Lady 'Aisha that
the first revelation that was granted to the Messenger of
Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
"The first revelation that
was granted to the Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings of Allah upon him, was the true dream in a
state of sleep, so that he never dreamed a dream but the
truth of it shone forth like the dawn of the morning.
Then solitude became dear to him and he used to seclude
himself in the cave of Hira, and therein he devoted
himself to Divine worship for several nights before he
came back to his family and took provisions for his
(retirement), (then he would return to Khadija and take
more provisions for a similar) period, until the truth
came to him while he was in the cave of Hira: so the
angel (Gabriel) came to him and said: 'Read'. He (the
Prophet) said, 'I said I am not one who can read.' And he
continued. "Then he (the angel) took hold of me and he
pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more,
then he let me go and said "Read" I said, "I am not one
who can read." Then he took hold of me and pressed me a
second time so hard that I could not bear it any more,
then he let me go again and said, "Read." I said, "I am
not one who can read." (The Prophet) continued: "Then he
took hold of me and pressed me hard for a third time, and
then he let me go and said, 'Read in the name of thy
Lord, Who created – He created man from a clot
– Read and thy Lord is most Honourable."
"The Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him, returned with this
(message) while his heart trembled and he entered upon
Khadija, daughter of Khuwailid and said, 'Wrap me up,
wrap me, up, and she wrapped him up until the awe left
him. Then he said to Khadija while he related to her what
had happened, 'I fear for myself'. (Bukhari
1:1).
Thus the Holy Prophet's first
experience of higher revelation was while he was alone
in the cave of Hira. Before this he had from time to time
seen visions which were only forecasts of actual future
events, but when the Angel came to him with this higher
message he found himself quite exhausted. And even after he
reached home the effect of exhaustion was still upon him and
he had to lie down on his bed covered over before he could
relate what he had experienced. It was an equally hard
experience when the second message came to him after
an interval of some months. And even afterwards the effect
of this experience used to be so great on his body that in
the words of his wife, 'Aisha':
"Revelation coming down upon
him in the severest cold, and when that condition was
over, perspiration ran down his forehead" (Bukhari
1:1).
Another Companion (rta) relates that
he was once sitting with the leg of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
upon his leg when revelation came to him and he felt as if
his leg would be crushed under the weight of the Prophets
leg. Another report says that when revelation came to the
Holy Prophet (pbuh) he appeared to be as if he were in
distress and turned pale in the face (Muslim).
According to still another report, when revelation came
to the Holy Prophet (pbuh) he would hang his head and his
Companions (rta) did the same and when that condition was
over, he would raise up his head. Still another report by
Ibn 'Abbas (rta) has it that he:
"used to exert himself hard
in receiving Divine revelation and would on this account
move his lips. So Allah sent down: 'Do not move thy
tongue with it to make haste with it. Surely on Us
devolves the collecting of it and reciting of it' (lxxv.
16, 17). So after this when Gabriel came to him the
Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him, would listen and when Gabriel departed the Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, recited as he
(Gabriel) recited it" (Bukhari 1:1).
But apart from these evidences
which come from those who observed the Prophet (pbuh) at
the time of these experiences, we have the Prophet's (pbuh)
own evidence on this subject. In reply to a question asked
by his wife 'Aisha (rta), he is reported by the same lady to
have said:
"Sometimes it comes to me
like the ringing of a bell and that is the hardest on me,
then he (the angel) departs from me and I retain in
memory from him what he says, and sometimes the angel
comes to me in the likeness of a man and I retain in
memory what he says" (Bukhari 1:1).
So the experience was, at times, of a
purely auditory nature without any attending vision
and sometimes it was attended with a vision, both
spiritual phenomena, of the medium of revelation, i.e. the
angel.
We hope we have outlived that age in
the Western world when these supreme experiences used to be
treated by fanatical people of that continent as symptoms of
epileptic fits. With growing knowledge of facts and things
of the world no sane man or woman in the West, we hope,
would have the courage to assert now that the grand
inspiring and enlightening verses of the Holy Qur'an,
proclaiming facts and laws of life, of supreme importance to
the existence and development of man, can be anything but
revelations from a higher plane of existence than human. Nor
is it difficult for the new generation of Europe,
comparatively more advanced in knowledge than their
fore-fathers, to see that the impact of the higher beings
and higher planes of existence on the frail human mind must
produce some kind of symptom on the physical body of the
recipient of such great messages. Last but not the least is
the consideration that the enormous moral changes which the
recipients of these messages effect in the world with which
they come into contact cannot proceed from one who has no
higher experience to his credit than that of a physical
malady. The time has indeed come when an intellectual man
should be ashamed of believing in such miserable theories,
particularly when he aligns himself, however superficially,
with a religion that has always claimed for itself revealed
source. Indeed, it has always struck us as something
extremely surprising that while our Christian friends
should claim revealed origin for their Scripture, they
should have no idea of the phenomenon of revelation as
such and should look askance at the only consistent
believable account of this phenomenon which is to be found
in the whole history of religion. I mean the accounts
contained in the "traditions of Islam"! By "traditions of
Islam" I mean, I should make it clear, not only the
accounts of the phenomenon that are to be found in
Qur'an
and the Hadith,
but also those recorded by numerous saints and savants of
Islam who have appeared from time to time in the history
of Islam on the basis of their own personal experience and
have thus been the cause of an average Muslim's living faith
in the face of this phenomenon. Because, although the
major revelation that acts as a guidance for the
socio-moral conduct of humanity, has reached its perfection
and ripeness in the Holy Qur'an and needs no further
addition and repetition, the minor revelation
continues to be experienced by the gifted among the
Muslims. This is the import of the following agreed saying
of the Prophet (pbuh):
"Nothing remains of
Prophethood excepting the gland tidings from Divine
court."
As we have seen, a Prophet is a
recipient both of major and minor revelations. With the
revelation of the Qur'an the need for major revelations has
ceased to exist, but the minor revelations continue to be
received by the saints of Islam to keep alive the faith in
the phenomenon as such. It is on account of such experiences
that the spiritually enlightened personalities of Islam have
been called "The successors of the Prophets" (Ahmad,
Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Maja):
The "ulama" spoken of here are
those learned in the spiritual knowledge and are not mere
scholars of law and experts on the ritualistic aspect of
Islam. It is these, therefore, that are real successors of
the Prophets, because they have personal experience of the
fact of revelation, the basis of all revealed dispensation
and they are known as Awliyain Islam
and their rank is termed Wilayat.
IV
To make the
understanding of the tradition of Wilayat in
Islam easy I leave out the
period that intervenes between the founder of Islam and our
present age and produce before the readers the evidence of a
saint who died as late as 1908 and who has left a wealth of
details about this phenomenon of revelation in his writings
on the basis of his personal experience – I mean the
great saint of Qadian, Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the
much misunderstood founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. We
choose him particularly because he appeared right in
this twentieth century when scepticism and knowledge of
physical sciences reaching giddy heights had almost thrown
the spiritual traditions of humanity in the background and
even well-meaning thinkers like Carlyle, with genuine
spiritual urge, began to regard the appearance of prophets
as a kind of relic of an age of superstition. We also choose
him because if he claimed to be a recipient of minor
revelations on the one hand, on the other he gave proof of
extraordinary intellectual powers coupled with a masterly
knowledge of human psychology, an accomplishment that could
compel admiration even from the acutest of modern thinkers.
Lastly, we choose him because he happens to be the most
outstanding religious figure of the age, setting in motion a
religious enthusiasm which is typical of the traditional
religious movements both in purity of religious emotion and
courage of conviction.
We reproduce his evidence on the
subject word for word from different parts of his own
writings in Urdu. Speaking
of his personal reactions to these experiences he
says:
"I swear by God of exalted
glory that it is absolutely true that revelation
coming from heaven falls on the heart of man in the
same way as the rays of the sun on a wall. It is my
everyday experience that when the time for Divine
communication arrives I suddenly find myself in a state
of complete mental detachment; then I become like a thing
transformed and my feelings and my perceptions and my
consciousness, although they are apparently there, yet at
this particular moment I feel as if an overwhelmingly
powerful being takes possession of my whole existence and
I begin to feel that all the reins of my existence lie in
His hands and that whatever is mine, no longer remains
mine but becomes His. When I am in this state, the first
thing that I experience is that God, the Exalted,
presents before my view such thoughts of the mind as it
is His will to cast the rays of His own word on. Then
these thoughts appear to my view one after another in a
strange way.
"And it so happens that when a
thought occurs to the mind such as that so and so should
recover from such and such an illness or should not
– no sooner such a thought occurs to the mind than a
piece of the word of God falls on it like a ray of light.
And many a time with the shedding of such a light the
whole body is convulsed. When this matter is over,
another thought comes to the view. The moment this
thought so appears, a piece of revelation likewise comes
to fall on it in the same manner, just as an archer goes
on shooting his arrows at the appearance of each game. At
this particular moment I feel that this chain of thoughts
comes out of the corresponding faculty of my nature and
the word that falls on it from above descends from
heaven. Although the poets and men of their type receive
their inspirations as a result of their thoughts, yet to
place the revelation under discussion in line with such
inspirations is the height of disrespect, because these
latter are the result of thinking and pondering and they
make their appearance when the senses and consciousness
of man are in tact and the experience is confined within
the bounds of human experience. Whereas the revelation
under discussion comes to man when he have been taken
complete control of by God with his whole being and his
consciousness and his contemplation have no manner of
influence on his experience. At such a time as this one
feels as if one's tongue is not one's own but some
external mighty power is using it for its own purposes.
And this state of affairs, part of which I have just
described, will clearly demonstrate what of it belongs to
the nature of man and what comes down from heaven"
(Barakat-ad-Du'a p.22-23).
V
Speaking of the
varieties of revelation and the manner of their appearance,
Hazrat Mirza says:
"Among the several kinds of
revelation, of which God the exalted has given me
knowledge,one
is this:
"When God wants to reveal any
hidden fact to His servant, He causes some words to come
out of the latter's tongue in a state of
semi-consciousness, sometimes in a soft and sometimes in
a hard manner. And the words that flow in a hard manner
appear on the tongue with such an intensity that the
state can be compared with that of the falling of
hailstones on a hard piece of land or of a fast running
horse striking its hoofs on the ground. There is a
strange quickness and intensity and fearfulness
associated with this kind of revelation which affects the
entire physique of the man and it makes the tongue move
automatically with such quickness and awe-inspiring voice
that it seems as if it is not his own voice. The slight
unconsciousness with which it is attended vanishes as
soon as the revelation is over, but as long as the words
of revelation are in the course of flowing, their
recipient lies in a state of senselessness without any
power of movement as if he were dead. This revelation
comes to a man when God of bounty and mercy does not want
to grant any particular prayer of his in view of some
wisdom and expedience, or wants to defer its acceptance
for some time, or wants to convey to him some other piece
of news which, because of human weaknesses, in
unpalatable to the mind of man for example, when a man
wants to achieve something quickly which it is not
destined in the wisdom of God or is destined with some
delay. Such revelations from God as thus flow through the
tongue of man in a hard and heavy manner have at times
been experienced by me, a description of which will only
make the discussion lengthy. I may, however, mention just
a brief sentence which once came to me in this
way.
"Some three years back I prayed
that people might take kindly to the present book
[Barahin-i-Ahmadiyyah
– Translator]. In
reply I received the following revelation in the hard
manner I have just described:
'Not presently,'
i.e.
"When this revelation came to me
there were near me some ten or twenty Hindus and Muslims
who are still living in Qadian and to whom I communicated
this event. The indifference of people towards the book
which was later experienced and which was quite in
keeping with this revelation is a fact equally known to
these witnesses.
"The
second kind of revelation is
that in which the words flow into the tongue with some
softness. As for this type of revelation I may testify
from my personal experience that when, after the first
revelation to which a reference has just been made, some
time had passed and various difficulties began to be
experienced in my work through peoples' indifference to
it and these difficulties assumed enormous proportion,
one day about the time of sunset, God revealed to me the
following words:
i.e., 'And shake towards
yourself the trunk of this palm tree, it will drop you
fresh ripe dates.'
"So I came to understand that it
referred to a persuasive appeal in the matter that had
been taken in hand and that it contained promise that
money would be forthcoming for this part of the book as a
result of this appeal. I circulated as usual this piece
of news among many Hindus and Muslims and, on the very
same day or perhaps the following day, by a happy
coincidence Hafiz Hidayat 'Ali Khan Sahib, who was an
Extra-Assistant Commissioner in this district in those
days, happened to visit Qadian and this news was conveyed
to him as well. I can very well remember that in that
very week I informed Maulvi Abu Said Muhammad Husain also
about this revelation. Anyway, after this revelation came
to me, in obedience to the Commandment of God I exerted
myself a little in the matter and this brought me help
from Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Malirkotla and some
other places, to the extent and from quarters that God
willed, for the printing of that part of the book which
was in press!
"Another example of this revelation
came to my experience during those very days. It was like
this. It was morning time and a brief spell of trance
came over me and the following words found expression
through my tongue:
'Abdullah Khan Dera Ismail
Khan.'
"Accordingly, some Hindu gentlemen
who were present on the spot and who are still here in
this town were told about this phenomenon. One of these
Hindu gentlemen went to the local Post Office the same
afternoon and brought a letter for me from a certain
gentleman called 'Abdullah Khan and this was accompanied
with some money.
"Another wonderful sign had made
its appearance a few days before this particular
incident. Briefly, it was like this. An Arya Samaj Hindu
a resident of this town who was a student of Qadian
school and was about the age of 20 or 22 years and who
still lives in this town, had been a victim of
tuberculosis [Note:
This incident is about a hundred years old, when
tuberculosis did not have a definite
treatment.] and step by
step his disease had reached the final stage. The
symptoms showed that there was no hope of the patient's
life. One day he came to me and expressed his
hopelessness about his life and wept bitterly on that
account. My heart melted at his helplessness and I prayed
to God on his behalf. And as it was ordained that he
should recover, no sooner had I prayed than the following
words were revealed:
i.e. 'We said, O fire, be a comfort
and peace to Abraham.' In other words, 'We said to the
fire of fever: Be thou cooled and comfortable.'
Accordingly, this Hindu youth and some other Hindus who
are still living in this town were at once informed about
this incident; and with complete reliance on God it was
claimed that this Hindu young man was sure to recover
from his illness and would never die of it. Thus even a
week had not passed when this young man completely
recovered from this fatal disease. Praise be unto God for
this!
"The second kind of revelations to
which I have given the name of perfect revelations on
account of the abundance of their wonderfulness are
experienced when God, the Exalted, wants to communicate
to His servant any future or unknown event, either in
response to a man's prayer or of His own accord. In such
cases, the man suddenly falls into a state of
unconsciousness that totally disconnects him from the
world of matter. He loses his own existence altogether
and continues to sink in this oblivion and
unconsciousness in the manner of a man plunging headlong
in water and goes down and down. In short, when the
servant of God comes out of this state of absolute
detachment from the world which closely resembles a man's
plunge into water, he experiences within himself a kind
of sound resounding in his consciousness. And when this
sound subsides, he, all of a sudden, feels the presence
therein of an appropriate, refined and sweet verbal
communication. This immersion into a higher consciousness
is so immensely wonderful in nature that its wonders
cannot be expressed in human language. It is a state in
which a whole ocean of Divine knowledge is laid open
before man. Because in this state each time a man prays
to God and God makes him experience this higher
consciousness and spiritual immersion and further replies
to every prayer of his in a refined and subtle revelation
and also in response to every query of the man. He
acquaints him with truths which it is beyond the power of
man to communicate – all these facts add to the
volume of the spiritual knowledge of man. Man's praying
to God and God's replying to every such prayer in His
majestic glory is an incident that almost amounts to
man's seeing God in this very world and makes both the
worlds appear the same to him without any difference left
whatsoever. When a man asks his God at the time of need
for a solution of some problem and on presenting his case
receives a reply from the Divine court, in exactly the
same way as he receives a reply from another man, and
this Divine reply comes clothed in highly eloquent and
refined expressions, and sometimes in such a language as
is altogether alien and stage to him, and sometimes it
communicates such unseen and unknown events as are beyond
the ken of human knowledge, and sometimes it conveys the
glad tidings of great Divine gifts and high spiritual
positions, and at others it brings congratulations to the
man on his nearness to God, and at still others it
consists of prophecies about worldly blessings. When
these refined and eloquent words which are above and
beyond the power of man to produce, are received by the
devotee, it gives him such an enjoyment and inner
illumination that it can be truly appreciated by him
alone who has an experience of this blessing. Such a man
really recognises his God as any of us will recognise an
intimate and old friend of his. And this kind of
revelation is often received in connection with great
affairs. These revelations sometimes contain words the
meanings of which have to be found out from the
dictionary. There are times when such revelations come to
me in English or some such foreign language as is
absolutely unknown to me. There are many instances of
this kind of revelation with me.
"The
third kind of revelationis that which falls softly and slowly on the heart of
man. In other words, some words pass through the heart
very quickly, not attended by those wonders which are
characteristic of the second kind of revelation,
described above, in all their entirety and perfection.
What is more, it need neither be preceded by any mental
detachment nor trance condition. Many a time this kind of
revelation comes to a man in complete wakefulness and its
recipient feels as if someone from the invisible world
has breathed or thrown these words into his heart. The
man concerned is more or less awake, although in a state
of absorption and sometimes is completely awake, when
suddenly he finds that a newly revealed word has found
entrance into his heart. And sometimes it so happens that
immediately on its entry into the heart of the man it
begins to shine in its celestial brilliance, which makes
the man aware that it is a communication from God. The
recipient of such a revelation feels that this kind of
revelation brings solace and comfort to the heart in the
same manner as the air breathed in affords the heart and
the organs concerned a physical relief and comfort. Such
revelations also impart to the restless mind an abiding
happiness and coolness. It is a very delicate secret
hidden from common knowledge but one that men, equipped
with spiritual knowledge whom the Real Giver has honoured
with an experience of Divine secrets, are well aware of.
This kind of revelation has also come within the
experience of my humble self into the details of which it
is not necessary for the present to go" (Barahin
Ahmadiyya, Part 3).
Continuing the discussion on the
varieties of revelation, Hazrat Mirza
observes:-
"The
fourth kind of revelation
is that in which in the course of a true dream some event
is revealed from God to man, or some angel assuming the
form of man communicates to him some unknown event, or
some writing appears on a piece of paper or stone or some
such thing which reveals some unknown secrets or
something of the kind.
"Thus I have myself related some
of my own dreams of this kind to many enemies of
Islam, even as they came to me, and their truth also
became manifest to these very people. For instance,
once I saw the last Prophet of God, Muhammad Mustafa,
peace and blessings of God be upon him, in a dream.
It was briefly like this. It was about the year 1864-1865
C.E., when I was still very young and was devoted to my
studies. In that dream I was holding in my hand a
religious book which appeared to have been compiled by my
humble self. On seeing this book the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
asked me in Arabic, "What name have you given to this
book?" I submitted, 'I have named it, Qutbi.' The
secret of this name uttered in dream was revealed to me
when I finished writing the present advertised book, and
it is that it is a book which like the Pole Star will
prove unshakeable and of permanent value, so much so,
that on the basis of its established value, I have
announced a prize of Rs.10,000 to those who would write a
refutation of it. To continue the story, the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) took the book from me and the moment his holy
hands touched the book it turned into a very beautiful
fruit of an attractive colour and resembled a guava, but
of the size of a water-melon. When the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) tried to cut this fruit into pieces a huge
quantity of honey came out of it that daubed the whole of
his hand up to the wrist. Then a dead body that was lying
outside the door was raised to life by the miracle of the
Holy Prophet (pbuh) and stood behind me, while I was
standing in front of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) in the
manner of a complainant standing before a judge, while
the Holy Prophet (pbuh) was sitting on a chair like a
mighty wrestler with great majesty and glory and the mien
of a judge. To cut the long story short, the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) gave me a piece of this fruit in order that I
might pass it on to the man who had been revived, and the
remaining pieces he put in the skirt of my shirt. That
one piece which was meant for the revived man was given
to him, and he ate it there and then. When he finished
eating this piece, I found that the chair of the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) had become raised very much higher from
its previous position. And just as the sun scatters its
rays, the holy forehead of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) began
to emit an incessant current of light. This was an
indication of a new life and prosperity for Islam. As I
was beholding this light I woke up. Praise be unto God
for this!
"It is a Divine inspiration which
was narrated to about 200 men at the time, among whom
more or less fifty persons were Hindus, and most of these
latter are still alive and in good health. All these
people know well that at that time there was no idea even
of writing Barahin Ahmadiyya, nor had it entered
my mind that any religious book of this kind should be
written and a reward of Rs.10,000 should be announced to
confirm its importance and truth. It is evident, however,
now that the things suggested in the dream have more or
less materialised. And the loftiness and brilliance of
the Pole Star, as suggested in the name given to the book
in the dream, has now been thrown as a challenge to the
opponents by the announcement of a big reward, and this
constitutes a great argument for them in support of
Islam. As for the parts of the dream which have not yet
been realised, these also must be expected by all to
receive due fulfilment, because the word from heaven
cannot pass unless it be fulfilled.
"Now I come to another such
Divine inspiration. It is nearly twelve years now
that a Hindu gentleman, who is a member of the Arya-Samaj
of Qadian and is still alive and in sound health, was a
stubborn denier of the miracles and prophecies of the
last of the Prophets (peace and blessings of God
be upon him). His hostility resembled in its intensity
that of the Christian missionaries and he was of opinion
that these reported prophecies were latter concoctions of
the Muslims or, else, God did not reveal any future event
on the Holy Prophet and that no sign of prophethood of
this kind ever existed in him. But what a favour of God,
of Exalted Glory, on His Prophet and how exalted the
position of that sinless and sacred prophet that the
light of his truthfulness is as bright today as it has
ever been! Only a short while later it so happened that a
certain relation of this Hindu gentleman became involved
in some trouble and was sentenced to imprisonment
together with another Hindu, and they jointly appealed to
the Chief Court for a revision of the case. In this
bewilderment and confusion the Arya gentleman one day
said to me: 'I should regard it as a prophecy of the real
type if today anyone can tell me what the ultimate end of
this case of ours will be. 'I replied to him saying, 'The
knowledge of the unseen is a reserved subject of God and
that neither any astrologer nor any palmist nor any
diviner nor any other man is aware of the hidden secrets
of God. Of course, God Who is in full knowledge of every
incident in the heavens and the earth, intimates to His
perfected and Holy Prophets, of his own will and choice,
some hidden secrets and that sometimes when He so likes
He reveals some of these hidden secrets to such of the
qualified followers of His true Prophet as are members of
the Islamic brotherhood and as are, on account of their
complete obedience to the Prophet, the successors of his
spiritual knowledge and this by way of a sign for the
truth of his religion. But as for other religious
communities who are in the wrong, e.g., the Hindus and
their Pundits, and the Christians and their clergy, none
of these have any share in this blessing.' No sooner had
I said this than this gentleman began to insist that if
the followers of Islam had this superiority over the
other religious communities, the present case afforded an
opportunity for a demonstration of this superiority.
However much I said in reply that it all depended on the
choice of God and that man could not make things to order
in such matters, this Arya gentleman refused to listen to
my arguments. Thus, when I found that the man was an
obstinate denier of the prophecies of our Holy Prophet
(pbuh) and of the lofty position of the faith of Islam,
my heart was enthused by God to feel that God should make
this man ashamed and confounded in this very case. Thus,
I prayed to God, 'Oh, my God the gracious! this man is an
inexorable denier of the honour and loftiness of Thy
Prophet and also of the signs and prophecies which Thou
hast revealed to Thy Prophet and this man may be silenced
by the revelation of the final result of this case
beforehand and Thou hast power over everything. Thou
canst do whatever Thou willest and nothing is hidden from
Thy all-comprehending knowledge.' Then God Who is a
supporter of His true religion of Islam and is jealous of
the honour and the glory of His Prophet, revealed to me
during the night in a dream the whole truth about the
case and communicated to me that it was so destined that
the file of the case would be returned to the lower court
and that on a revision of the case in this latter court
the term of imprisonment would be reduced to half, but
the man in question would not be acquitted. And as for
his companion he would be released after he had served
his full term and he either would not be acquitted. When
I woke up from this dream I thanked my God Who had saved
me from being helpless before an opponent and on the same
day I narrated this dream before a large gathering of
people and communicated the news the same day to the
Hindu gentleman concerned.
"Let me now narrate a third
example of this true revelation.
"The name of Sardar Muhammad Hayat
Khan may be known to you. He had been suspended from his
service for a very long time under orders of the
Government. Perhaps a year and a half had passed, or a
little more time than this, when various kinds of
difficulties and calamities in this state of suspension
came in his way and the opinion of the Government
appeared to be against him. In those very days I was told
in a dream that he would be absolved of all charges and
in the very state of dream I told him not be afraid and
that God has power over everything and that He would
deliver him from this trouble. Accordingly, this news was
communicated to scores of Hindus and Arya Samajists and
Muslims in those very days. And whoever was told about it
was scarcely in a mood to believe it and some thought
that it was highly improbable. And I have been told that
during those very days someone conveyed this news to
Muhammad Hayat Khan in Lahore. So praise be unto God that
this glad tidings received literal fulfilment in the same
manner as it was received. The witnesses of this dream
and its fulfilment will number about sixty or seventy, if
not more, and if the evidence of Muslims is not to be
regarded as reliable nor that of Muhammad Hayat Khan,
even then it should not be forgotten that some ten or
twelve of these witnesses were Hindus and were members of
the Arya Samaj, i.e., people who were staunch adherents
of the Vedic religion and were deadly enemies of the
Muslims. I had never been in correspondence with Sardar
Muhammad Hayat Khan nor had I any personal acquaintance
with him nor any social contact. I was myself wondering
why in the days of his great difficulties his ultimate
destiny should be revealed to me in this manner. The
reason for it however, becomes manifest to me today and
it is that this revelation also was vouchsafed to me so
that it may be useful today in this service of religion
in which God has engaged me. So praise unto God and again
praise unto God."
Continuing the discussion on the
fourth kind of revelation, Hazrat Mirza
observes:
"Let me now narrate to you
another true dream of mine. Nearly ten years ago I
saw Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) in a dream, as
if he and myself were eating together from the same plate
and both of us were at home and loving towards one
another as is possible only between two brothers from the
same parents and between two old intimate and bosom
friends. The dream continuing I further saw that at this
very place where I am writing these lines, myself and
Prophet Jesus and another very spiritually advanced
Sayyid, a descendant of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), remained
standing for a while, on the balcony in a very happy
mood. And the Sayyid Sahib was holding a piece of paper
in his hand on which were written the names of some
important figures among the followers of Holy prophet
(pbuh). And to each name some words of praise were also
appended under the instruction of God Almighty Himself.
Accordingly the Sayyid Sahib began to read out the paper
and this indicated that he intended to tell Prophet Jesus
about those high ranks which were appointed by God for
this blessed religious community. And the words of praise
that were recorded on this paper were all of them such
that they could come from none but God Himself. Thus when
the reading of that paper came towards the close and very
little was left of it, the turn came for the name of my
humble self, which was accompanied by the following
eulogical remarks from God:
meaning, 'He is connected with Me
in the manner of My Unity and Oneness. So he will very
soon be made known among people.
"This last clause ..also
came to me simultaneously as a piece of
revelation.
"Since I was very fond of
disseminating this spiritual knowledge from the very
beginning, I immediately narrated this dream and this
piece of revelation to several Muslims and Hindus who are
still living in Qadian. It is noteworthy how very
remarkable is this dream and this revelation and how they
afford proof of their super-human origin. And although
this prophecy has not reached its due fulfilment, it is
worthwhile to wait for such a fulfilment in due course,
because it is not possible for Divine promises to remain
unfulfilled. It should also be remembered in this
connection that although people who are outside the
fold of Islam may sometimes have some true dreams, there
are several clear point of difference between such dreams
and those that come to such Muslims as show complete
obedience to the chosen Prophet of God. Among these
differences one is that the Muslims see such true dreams
in large numbers as is promised by God in the
words:
meaning, 'They shall have good news
in this world's life' (10.64).
"But the unbelievers and the
deniers of Islam are never privileged to experience such
true dreams in such abundance. Nay, they do not get even
1/1000th part of this experience. And
this can be proved by those numerous true dreams which I
have announced to a large number of Muslims and Hindus
before their fulfilment, and about whom I have always
claimed that their like cannot be produced by other
peoples.
"Another difference is that
the dreams of Muslims mostly give good news about
magnificent and important events, whereas the dreams of
an unbeliever are mostly predictions about very
insignificant affairs and are not of much importance and
bear signs of disgrace and failure. As a proof of this it
is enough to ponder over my own dreams with a sense of
justice. If anyone wants to contend this assertion of
mine he ought to produce before me such magnificent
dreams from non-Muslims sources in support of his
contention.
"Another difference is that
a Muslim's dream is very straight and revealing, and it
seldom happens to a perfect Muslim that his dream proves
unreal and a mere nightmare, because he possesses a clean
heart and a clean religion, and is in true contact with
God. As against this, a denier of Islam, who may be
regarded as lying in the midst of filth on account of the
impurity of his heart and wrongness of his religious
belief, is seldom in experience of any true dream. It has
also been proved by experience that if any denier of
Islam has a true dream out of the blue, it is conditioned
by the fact that he does not happen to be an actively
hostile person, like a Christian missionary or a Hindu
Pundit, but is only a plain unsophisticated Hindu or a
poor common Christian, who neither is a firm believer in
his own religion nor bears any malice against Islam. It
has, moreover, been proved by a large number of
experiences that even when some humble Hindu or Christian
sees an occasional true dream, these are not altogether
free from an admixture of mistakes, not are they very
clear. Such dreams suffer invariably either from default
or excess or confusion or exaggeration or
under-statement. I remember to have seen in a dream, in
the month of Muharram 1299, that someone had sent to me
Rs. 50 (Note: Rs. is
the abbreviation of 'Rupees' the -- currency of
India) as a help towards the
printing of this book. On the same night an Arya
gentleman also saw a dream about me that some one had
sent Rs. 1,000 to me, as a similar help. And when this
gentleman narrated this dream to me I at once narrated my
own to him and added: 'Your dream has an admixture of 85%
of falsehood, and this is a punishment for your being a
Hindu and outside the pale of Islam. Perhaps he took it
ill. But the fact was as I told him and the truth of it
manifested itself on the fifth or the sixth day of the
same month, when an amount of fifty rupees, which was
remitted from Junagarh by Shaikh Muhammad Bahauddin
Sahib, the Prime Minister of that State, in connection
with the printing of this book, came to my hand in the
presence of many people including an Arya gentleman.
Praise to God for this!
"Similarly, God informed me
in the course of a dream about the death of a certain
Raja, and I communicated this to a Hindu gentleman who is
now a practising lawyer. When this prophecy was fulfilled
on the same day, it caused great surprise to this Hindu
gentleman and he kept wondering how such a clear and open
knowledge of the unseen could come to me in that manner.
On another occasion, when the same lawyer
gentleman appeared for his examination in law, many
others appeared with him in the same examination from the
same district. At this time I saw a dream which I
communicated to this gentleman and perhaps to thirty or
forty more Hindus, some of whom are now acting as
Tahsildars (Note:
A tax collector), some
others as Sarishtadars and still others as
Muharrirs (Note:
A clerk or scribe). This
dream purported to say that, of all these gentlemen, only
the first mentioned would come out successful, and all
the others would fail. And it actually so happened, and
in 1868 I received this news in a letter of this lawyer
gentleman to me, here at Qadian. Praise to God for
this!
"It is to be remembered in this
connection that just as the dreams of our opponents
often prove unfounded and false in matters of the world,
similarly in matters religious they prove adulterated and
baseless. Some eight or nine years back I was told
that a certain Christian missionary had prophesied that
within three years from that time Prophet Jesus would
come down from heaven to help the Christian missionaries.
After this perhaps it was in Manshur-i-Muhammadi,
or some other newspaper, that I read about some
Bangalore missionary making a similar prediction. In any
case, a long time has since passed and the predicted
period of three years has long been over, but no one has
yet seen the Jewish Messiah coming down from heaven. So
this prophecy of these missionaries proved as false as
that of certain astrologers which spoke of the Doomsday
occurring in November 1881. I should like to make it
clear that I am not denying the possibility of some
Christian missionaries actually dreaming about the
descent of Jesus from heaven. What I mean is that the
dreams of these people, because of their unbelief and
hostility towards the last of the Prophets, often
prove utterly unfounded. And if any dream of their proves
somewhat true, which is very rare, even this is ambiguous
and admits of various interpretations. Thus their dream
about Jesus, if it falls into the latter category, will
mean the advent of some great figure among the followers
of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and this quite accords with
the rules of dream interpretations. Because from very
ancient times it has been noticed that whenever any
Christian sees the advent of his own Messiah in a dream
with the object of reviving the faith, or some Hindu sees
in the same way that some Avatar is to appear to impart
glory to his own faith, and if such dreams have any truth
in them they are to be taken to mean that the Messiah or
the Avatar in such cases stands for some great figure
among the followers of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), who
appears in time from the progress and reformation of true
religion. And because such personalities in Islam are
successors in their inner illumination of all past holy
personages in the world, they appear to people with
obscure spiritual visions, in the form of persons who are
regarded by such as holy and spiritually advanced and
leaders in the path of truth and spiritual guides. In
short, the dreams of the Christians and Hindus more often
than not prove to be baseless, utterly false or
ambiguous. So taking all these facts into
consideration it becomes evident that the coming of true
dreams in abundance and their coming in perfected form
and their throwing light on very great events and their
coming with noticeable clarity – all these are
privileges of the followers of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
and cannot be shared by any other religious
community. The reason is that all these other people
have gone astray from the right path. And their thoughts
are engaged in the worship of the world and of people and
of their baser selves, and are totally deprived of that
spiritual light which the people of truth receive from
God. This is no mere assertion, nor just words of mouth,
it is a verified truth which, if contended by any
sensible man, his contention should be accompanied by a
corresponding fact, because a fact which has been
illuminated by incontestable proofs and indubitable
evidences cannot be rejected on the basis of just
senseless words of mouth.
Continuing further Hazrat Mirza
says:
"The
fifth kind of revelation is
that which has nothing to do with the mind of man, but is
a voice which comes from without. This voice looks as if
it is coming from some man speaking behind a curtain,
with the difference that it is extremely enjoyable,
exhilarating and somewhat quick in its transmission and
brings relish to the heart. The man concerned is somewhat
in a state of absorption when all of a sudden he hears
such a voice and wonders where from it is and who spoke
to him. In amazement he looks before and behind and then
realises that it is from some angel that the voice came.
Such external voice often comes to a man when he is
extremely anxious and confused about some affair or is
extremely disturbed to hear some bad news which is in
fact wrong. Such voice, however, is not known to have
come in response to repeated prayers as is the case in
the second kind of revelations, already discussed. On the
contrary, it comes from some invisible angel suddenly
whenever He wills it, whereas the revelations of the
second category are known to have come by way of a reply
from God in response to perfect prayer. Even if such
prayers are addressed a hundred times the beneficent God
replies to them as often in the same manner, as has been
confirmed by my repeated experiences …. Anyway it
should be understood that revelation is a factual and
certain truth of which the secret and holy source lies in
the religion of Islam and God, Who has been befriending
the truthful from the beginning of time does not open the
door of light on others and does not confer His special
blessing on those outside the fold. How can He do so?
Is it possible for a man who has closed all the doors
of his room and has been sitting in it with his eyes
blindfolded to get the light in the same way as one who
has kept all his doors open and who has no veil over his
eyes?"
Pursuing the same subject Hazrat Mirza
observes:
"Apart from this, one of the
strangest facts in this connection is that sometimes
revelations are received by me in alien languages to
which I am completely a stranger, and they contain
prophecies and this is evidently a strong evidence on the
wide powers of the Almighty. No doubt, these words of
foreign languages are not all retained in memory and they
sometimes lose in their accuracy of pronunciation,
because of the quickness of the process of revelation and
of my ignorance of the tone and the language, but in the
majority of cases where the transmission is clear and the
sentences are not hard, the retention is more or less
correct. And although on account of the quickness of the
communication certain words are left out of my memory,
yet when a sentence is repeated twice or thrice I fully
retain its words. During these revelations Almighty God
uses His power of absolute control in a manner that has
no admixture of any means, external or internal. At such
moments the tongue acts as a mere instrument in the hand
of God, Who turns this instrument, i.e., the tongue, in
any manner He likes. And frequently it so happens that
such words are released with force and quickness. And
sometimes they appear in the manner of a person who
advances with grace and coquetry and pauses after one
step before taking another and shows elegance in his
gait. The wisdom in the adoption of these two methods is
that a clear distinction may be maintained between Divine
revelations and the thoughts proceeding from the self of
man or from the devil, and that the revelations of the
Almighty God may be recognised in their majestic and
graceful blessings. I remember how the first revelation
that came to me in English was 'I love you.' It was
followed by another revelation 'I am with you.' This was
followed by still another revelation 'I shall help you.'
Then came another revelation 'I can what I will to do.'
This was followed by another which came with such force
that it shook my whole body. 'We can what We will to do.'
This came in such manner and with such a pronunciation
that it appeared to come from an Englishman who seemed to
speak over my head and in spite of its being attended
with an awesome atmosphere it brought with it a relish
which gave solace and comfort to the soul even before the
experience came. This kind of English revelations came to
me every now and then. Once a student of English came to
see me and in his very presence the revelation came.
'This is My enemy.' Although I perceived that the
revelation concerned this young man, yet I got its
meaning from him and he proved ultimately as the
revelation spoke of him and he was found to be a person
of filthy mind.
"Once I was shown in the
morning time certain printed pages in a vision which
appeared to have been from the post office, and at the
end of which it was written 'I am by Jesus.' The meaning
of these words was ascertained from a certain gentleman
conversant with the English language, and then
communicated to two Hindu and Arya gentlemen, and they
seemed to indicate that some Christians or people of
Christian mentality would send me some adverse criticism
of Islam in print. Thus on the same day, an Arya Samajist
was sent to the post office at the mail time and he
brought to me some printed pages on which some
Christian-minded whimsical gentleman had written some
hostile remarks against Islam. Once when a certain affair
needed some investigation I was given in a vision a gold
coin of the shape of an almond on which were inscribed
two lines, the first of which was in English and read
'Yes, I am happy,' and the second line which was
separated from the first by a line drawn between the two
was only a translation of the first. Once when some days
of sorrow and bereavement were in prospect I was shown in
a vision the following sentence written on a paper in
English, 'Life of Pain.' Once the following two English
sentences were revealed in connection with certain
adversaries who had unnecessarily vilified the Quran and
had levelled some baseless charges against the true
religion of Islam, out of spite which could not be
placated.
1. 'God is coming by His
army.'
2. 'He is with you to kill
[the] enemy.'
"There were other similar English
revelations that came to me; some of which I still
remember but others I have forgotten. But the largest
number of revelations come in Arabic language, more
particularly they come in the language of Quranic verses
and these come in abundance and regular succession."
(Barahin Ahmadiyya).
So far about the nature of revelation
and the various manners of their appearance, we have seen
with what wealth of details the Saint of Qadian describes
his experiences on the subject. Even a hardened agnostic
will realise from his statements that none but a man of
solid experience can describe this phenomenon in such a
lucid, forceful and accurate manner. He will also
recognise that in view of the wonderful fulfilment of the
prophecies announced or implied in some of these
revelations, a scientific-minded man cannot help
acknowledging reality behind these
experiences.
