Divine Attributes Operate in Proportion to Supplicant’s Faith
by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian
The Message, June 2005 Issue, p. 13
Surah Fatihah points out that the fortunate one is he who is eager for prayer and has no care for anything else and is never tired of praying nor frowns on it nor despairs and he relies firmly on the grace of his Lord until His benevolence favours him and he is numbered among the successful.
This surah [chapter] also indicates that the attributes of Allah, Most High, are operative in proportion to the degree of a servant’s faith in them. When a discerning one contemplates an attribute of Allah, the Exalted, and perceives Him with the eye of his soul and believes and continues to advance in faith until he is totally immersed in his faith, the spiritual essence of the attribute pervades his heart and takes possession of it. The seeker then finds himself emptied of all except the Gracious Lord, his heart is at rest with faith, his life is sweetened by the remembrance of the Beneficent and he becomes one of the happy ones. Then he experiences further manifestations of that attribute until his heart becomes the throne of the attribute and he is dyed in its colour after the removal of all trace of his ego and his total devotion to Allah, Most High.
Surah Fatihah furnishes this indication in its very opening phrase:
“All praise belongs to Allah.”
Allah, the Supreme, does not command us here: Proclaim: All praise belongs to Allah, but simply affirms: All praise belongs to Allah. In other words, He makes human nature affirm this truth and thus discloses to us what is inherent in our nature. This shows that the nature of man is in accord with Islam and that it is in his nature to render praise to Allah, the Sublime, and to believe Him to be the Lord of universal providence, the Gracious, the Compassionate and the Master of the Day of Requital, and that He helps those who seek His help and guides those who supplicate Him.
It is thus established that insight into the Divine and His worship have been embedded in human nature and that His love has been infused in the heart of man. But this state is revealed after the intervening veils have been lifted and then the remembrance of Allah, Most High, becomes the spontaneous occupation of the tongue, the tree of Divine knowledge is born and starts yielding its fruit all the time.
In the words of Allah, the Supreme:
“The path of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy favours,”
there is an indication that Allah has made the later generations similar to the former generations. When the souls of the later people, through perfect following and mutual temperamental affinities, are put in accord with the souls of the former, then grace descends from their hearts on the hearts of the later people, and when the recipient of the grace has established complete communion with the transmitter of grace and their accord reaches its limit, then the persons of both become one and they are lost in each other. This is the condition which has been called the condition of union and at this stage the seeker is given the title of the Prophets in heaven for he acquires a perfect resemblance with them in temperament and in essence. This is not unknown to the saints.
Source: Karamat-us Sadiqin, pp. 83, 84