A Life Devoted to God

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as)

If a person’s life is devoted to God, then God Himself will protect it. There is a hadith [oral traditions of the Holy Prophet(sa)] in Bukhari [one of the major hadith collections] that when a person develops a bond of love with God Almighty, God becomes their limbs. It is stated in another narration that this relationship of friendship grows to such an extent that God becomes the hands and feet, etc., of such people; He even becomes the tongue with which they speak. In actual fact, when a person cleanses themselves of their inner passions and adheres to the will of God, abandoning their own ego, none of their actions are unlawful; in fact, each and every one of their actions are in line with the will of God. Even more so, God Almighty declares their actions to be those of God Himself. This is a level of divine nearness which has caused those who have not fully traversed the stations in the spiritual quest, to stumble. In other cases, those who are unaware of matters divine, and have failed to understand the true meaning of divine nearness, have misconstrued the issue at hand and have invented the concept of Oneness of Being (wahdat-ul-wujud). One should never forget also that whenever a person falls to trial, it is because they act in a way that is not in accordance with the will of God; God Almighty desires something else. Such a one is subdued by their own desires and does not adhere to the will of God. However, a person who is referred to as the friend of Allah Almighty, and whose life God tends to, is one whose every action and inaction is determined by first consulting the book of God. Such a person turns to the book of Allah in preference to their own thoughts and desires, and seeks counsel from it.

The narration goes on to state that Allah the Exalted feels a great degree of hesitation in taking the soul of such a person. In reality, Allah Almighty is free from hesitating. What this actually means is that such people are given death due to a certain wisdom; indeed, it is due to a grand wisdom that they are taken to the next world. Were it not for this, God holds very dear the life of such a person. Hence, if a person’s life is not such that God Almighty feels a hesitation in taking it to Himself, then such a life is worse than that of animals. Many people can be sustained on a goat, and its hide also proves useful, but man is of no use, not even after death. The effect of a righteous man, however, is felt by even his progeny and they too benefit from him. In fact, such a person does not die at all; when physical death overtakes him, he is granted a new life. David, on whom be peace, states: ‘I was a child and now I have grown old. I have never seen a godly man in a demeaned state, nor have I seen the children of such people begging for scraps.’ That is to say that God Almighty even takes it upon Himself to support the children of a God-fearing person. It is also mentioned in a hadith that a wrongdoer is cruel to his own family as well, because they are affected by his evil.1