The Path to Become a Friend of God

The Promised Messiah^as & Imam Mahdi (Guided One)
Founder of
THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONS
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as

We can never know the true essence of anything, nor derive benefit from it, until we discover a straight path to reach it. The affairs of the world are intricate and complex, whether they relate to the responsibilities associated with kingship and administration, whether they relate to combat or battle and warfare, whether they relate to the subtleties of natural science and astronomy, whether they relate to the method of diagnosis and treatment in the field of medicine, or whether they relate to trade or agriculture. Success in any of these fields is difficult, rather well-nigh impossible to come by until one finds a clear avenue of approaching the subject at hand. When confronted by difficulty, any intelligent person compels himself to ponder night and day, for hours on end, so as to devise a means by which to resolve the problem at hand. All professions and inventions, or any other intricate and complex matter, can only be undertaken once the right approach has been adopted. Thus, in order to achieve success in worldly or religious objectives, the most effective prayer is that of seeking the right path. When one approaches anything from the correct avenue, then with the grace of God, such a person undoubtedly can succeed in attaining their goal. God, in His power and wisdom, has set out a proper way of achieving everything. For example, no ailing person can be efficaciously treated until an effective approach for the identification and diagnosis of their ailment is followed, and the heart is led to believe that the proposed course of action shows promising signs of success. In fact nothing in the world can be achieved until the correct method is undertaken for that purpose. And so one who strives towards an objective must first discover the correct way of achieving it. Thus, just as one first requires a correct path so as to attain success in worldly matters, so too, since time immemorial, in order to become a friend of God, and to receive His love and grace, a correct path has always been required. Therefore, in the very beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, the chapter that follows Surah Fatihah, God says:  ‘the path to attain blessings is the one which We put forth’.¹

Endnotes

1. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Noah’s Ark (Tilford, Surrey: Islam International Publications, 2016), 95-97.