Salat Strengths a Believer’s Spiritual Faculties — Essence of Islam Vol. 2

14 Sep, 2026 Essence of Islam 0

Essence of Islam Book Cover by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS)

Introduction

In this discourse from Essence of Islam (Volume 2), Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS), the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, expounds upon Salat Strengths a Believer’s Spiritual Faculties, presenting profound spiritual insights and scriptural verities.

Book Series: Essence of Islam (Volume 2)
Author: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (AS)
Section: Part 8: The Pillars of Islam
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The remembrance of God charged with love, which is called the Salat, truly becomes their food without which they cannot survive and which they guard and watch constantly, like a traveller who in the midst of a stark wilderness guards his scanty supply of bread and water. The Absolute Bestower has appointed this condition also as a stage in the spiritual progress of man which is the last stage. The remembrance of God charged with love, the technical name of which is Salat, truly becomes for a worshipper a substitute for nourishment. Indeed he repeatedly seeks to sacrifice his physical soul in return for this nourishment and cannot survive without it, as fish cannot survive without water. He deems a single moment away from God as death itself. His soul is always in prostration at the threshold of God and he finds all his comfort in God. He is convinced that if he were parted from the remembrance of God for even a moment, he would die.
As food generates a feeling of freshness in the body and strengthens the physical senses like seeing and hearing, in the same way at that stage the remembrance of God which is surcharged with love and devotion strengthens a believer’s spiritual faculties, that is to say, his eye acquires the faculty of beholding visions clearly and in a subtle manner, and his ears hear the word of God Almighty and his tongue gives expression to that word in a clear, bright and delightful manner. He sees true dreams frequently which are fulfilled like the advent of the dawn, and on account of his pure and loving relationship with God he partakes of a great number of true dreams that convey good tidings to him. This is the stage at which a believer feels that the love of God serves him as nourishment. This new birth takes place after the spiritual framework becomes ready, and then the spirit, which is aflame with the personal love of God, falls upon the heart of such a believer and suddenly a superior power lifts him above the stage of humanity.
This is the stage which is designated spiritually as a new creation. At this stage God Almighty causes a blazing flame of His personal love, which is designated the spirit, to descend upon the heart of a believer and thereby removes all its darkness and pollutions and weaknesses. With the breathing of this spirit the beauty of the believer, which hitherto was at a lower stage, arrives at its climax and he acquires a spiritual glory, and the narrowness of a vicious life is totally removed and the believer feels that a new spirit has entered into him which was not there before. He acquires a wonderful sense of serenity and contentment through the spirit. His personal love surges up like a fountain and waters the plant of his servitude. The fire that hitherto had only possessed a certain degree of warmth blazes up at this stage and burning up all the straw and tinder of the human self brings it under complete control of the Divine and comprehends all the limbs. Then, like a piece of iron which when it is heated in a fierce fire becomes red and looks like fire itself, such a believer manifests Divine signs and actions, as the red hot piece of iron manifests the effects and qualities of fire.
This does not mean that such a believer becomes God. Only it is a characteristic of Divine love that it bestows its own colour upon that which is manifest, while the inner qualities of servitude and its weakness continue. At this stage God becomes the bread of the believer, which sustains his life, and God becomes the water by drinking which the believer is delivered from death, and becomes the cool breeze that comforts the heart of the believer. At this stage it would not be inappropriate to say metaphorically that God enters into the believer and saturates his whole being and makes his heart His throne; then he beholds not through his own spirit but through the spirit of God and hears through it and speaks through it and walks through it and overcomes his enemies through it inasmuch as at this stage he arrives at the station of nonbeing and the spirit of God bestows upon him a new life through the manifestation of its personal love for him. Then he becomes the illustration of the verse: 110 110 ‘. . . Then We develop it into another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of creators.’—Al-Mu’minun, 23:15 [Publisher]
[Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 21, pp. 212-216]
[Essence of Islam, Vol. 2, p. 300]

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Introduction