What is the Conclusive Proof of The Unity of God?

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

Arguments are of two types, inductive and deductive. An inductive argument enables us to recognise that which is indicated. For instance when we observe smoke we conclude that there is a fire. In the case of deduction, one moves from the conclusion to the cause. For instance, we find a person suffering from high fever and we believe that there is a cause for it.

We proceed to set forth first the inductive reason for the need of revelation. There is no doubt that the physical and spiritual systems of man are governed by the same law of nature. We observe in the physical system that whatever needs the Gracious God has planted in the human body, He has also provided the means of their satisfaction. A human body feels hunger and needs food, so God has provided various types of food for the human body. In the same way, man needed water to slake his thirst and God Almighty has provided wells and springs and streams for that purpose. Man needed the light of the sun or light from some other source to be able to see with his eyes and God Almighty has provided light from heaven in the shape of the sun and has provided light from other sources on earth. Man needed air for breathing and hearing the voices of others, and God provided air. In the same way, man needed a consort for the propagation of the species; so God created woman as man’s consort and man as woman’s consort. In short, whatever desires God has planted in the human body, He has also provided means for their satisfaction.

Now it is worth considering that when provision has been made for the fulfilment of the physical needs of the mortal body, how much more must have been provided for the fulfilment of the pure desires of the soul which has been created for the eternal love and recognition and worship of God. That provision is Divine revelation and Divine signs, which carry a person of defective knowledge to complete certainty. As God bestowed upon the body provision for the satisfaction of its needs, in the same way, He bestowed upon the soul provision for the satisfaction of its needs so that the physical and the spiritual systems should be in accord… This inductive reasoning can be completed only through deductive reasoning, that is to say, by a sample of revelation itself. To feel the need for something is one matter and to find its fulfilment is quite another…You can see that both food and water are available for your body, not that they were present in some earlier age but not any more. But when mention is made of revelation you refer to a past age upon which centuries upon centuries have lapsed and you are not able to refer to anything in the present. Then how is there an accord between the physical and spiritual laws of nature? Stop and reflect. You cannot deny that the provision for your physical needs is available to you all the time, but you have nothing with you in the way of provision for your spiritual needs except stories of the past. You know that the physical springs from which you take the water to slake your thirst are still running; nor have your fields become barren and unproductive, the produce of which satisfies your hunger twice a day. But where are the spiritual springs, which used to slake your spiritual thirst by giving you the fresh water of Divine revelation? Nor have you available the spiritual food by eating which you could keep your soul alive. Thus you are in a desert where there is neither food nor water.¹

Endnotes

1. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, The Essence of Islam, vol. 2 (Tilford, Surrey: Islam International Publications, 1993), 43-45.