Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 426
426 BARĀHIN-E-AHMADIYYA PART FOUR not deem it appropriate to make them generally known at that time? God Almighty ordains ever new courses of action to be appropri- ate in every age. Hence, during the time of the prophethood, divine wisdom required that the revelations of non-prophets should not be recorded in the manner of prophetic revelation, lest the words of the non-prophet be intermingled with those of the Prophet. But the reve- lations of the auliyā' [friends of Allah] and other men of inner spiritual excellence who came after that age are well known and well publicized, and have been duly recorded in every age. To verify this, one should read Maktūbāt of Shaikh 'Abdul-Qādir al-Jīlānī¹ and Mujaddid Alf Thānī, as well as books by other auliyā'ullāh [friends of Allah], wherein a vast number of their revelations have been recorded. Even Imam Rabbānī [Mujaddid Alf Thānī] has explicitly written in the second vol- ume of his Maktūbāt, letter number 51 to be precise, that even a non- prophet can be honoured with the divine word and discourse, and that such a person is called a muhaddath and his rank is nearer to the rank of the Prophets. Likewise, Shaikh Abdul-Qādir al-Jīlānī has elucidated this matter at various places in Futūhul-Ghaib. A diligent search into the sayings and letters of auliyā'ullāh will yield many such statements. And the rank of muhaddathiyyat³ in ummat-e-Muhammadiyyah [the followers of Muhammad] is proven so widely that only the extremely ignorant and utterly unaware can deny it. Up to the present day, thou- sands of auliyā'ullāh have appeared within this ummah, endowed with perfect excellences, whose wonders and miracles are as proven and established as those of the Israelite Prophets. Anyone who investigates 1. Shaikh Muhy-ud-Din 'Abdul-Qadir al-Jīlānīta [1077-1166 CE] was born in Persia and migrated to Iraq, where he became a renowned scholar and teach- er of sufism, fiqh, and the Holy Quran. [Publisher] 2. Mujaddid Alf Thānī is a title meaning 'Reformer of the Second Millennium' and was given to Imam Rabbānī, Shaikh Ahmadta of Sirhind, India [1564- 1624 CE]. [Publisher] 3. Receiving divine revelation [Publisher]