165. Prophet Muhammad^pbuh Seen The Over Centuries. Part Two

 

We were discussing the authentic dreams about Prophet Muhammad^pbuh. Next night Ghazi (see previous blog) had another dream:

 

3. In the dream he saw that he was going home from the school in the company of several students. They met an apparition of a jet black, giant of a man, whose arms appeared to be about fifteen feet long and he had a horn on his forehead. Everybody was shaking with fear. Ghazi recognized that he was Dajjal, an evil figure, who is supposed to come before the end of the world. Dajjal asked the first student that who did he belong to? He replied ‘I belong to God’. Dajjal killed him. The next student was asked the same question, and he answered ‘I belong to you’. Dajjal was very pleased with the answer and gave the boy sweets. Next he asked the same question to Ghazi. Ghazi timidly replied that he belonged to God. Dajjal slapped him. He started weeping. Dajjal ordered him to come towards him.

 

Then he saw that prophet Muhammad^pbuh was seated nearby. The prophet^pbuh called him to come near. A thought occurred to Ghazi that he had seen the prophet^pbuh just yesterday, in far away Mecca, and today he was here. He saw the prophet^pbuh this time very clearly; his dress, his face, and a rosary in his hands. The prophet^pbuh was reciting something, facing Kaaba.

 

He said, “Son, listen, I have come so far only to help you. Now stop crying.” He was also stroking his back with his holy hand, just as a father would do to a weeping child. “Don’t ever accept the commands of Dajjal. He cannot hurt you anymore. These worldly gains are nothing as compared to heavenly rewards. If you stay steadfast in this test, you will get great boons in heaven. Pay no attention to Dajjal’s offers. I am praying for your success. By the grace of God, you will succeed. God will help you”

 

“Dajjal called me again. I saw that the other boys were eating sweets. The other boys said, ‘obey him, and enjoy like us.’ I said, ‘I will enjoy the bounty of next life’. Hearing these words, Dajjal became angry and lifted his hand to strike me. Out of fear, I woke up”

 

The prayer of prophet^pbuh bore fruits throughout Ghazi’s life. He succeeded in all the endeavors that he undertook. He had a very successful and peaceful life. He did Masters in two subjects and stood first in the university both times. He retired as principal of an Intermediate College.

He did not waver during the severe tribulations caused by his conversion to Islam. His mother would cry every day. All his relatives would taunt him for giving up the religion of his ancestors, and be a source of shame for the whole Hindu community in general and his parents in particular. His parents and his grandmother would beg him repeatedly, not to dishonor the family. His father beat him to a pulp with blood soaking his dress. The father took him to the edge of a creek and threatened to throw him down into the creek  from a mountain in Kashmir. He escaped with the help of a guide. They walked for about forty miles, over snow covered paths, sometimes over crevasses in ice. They did not find food for three days.

His father took the case to the court, and got the verdict in his favor, after bribing the judge. He had to leave his house and live with Muslims. During all this period he prayed to God and the holy prophet^pbuh to help him

In 1947, all his family members had to leave their ancestral village and migrate to India, because they were Hindus. He was left all alone in Pakistan with not a single relative because he was a Muslim. He never met his father again. He talked to his mother and one brother, once, across the barbed wire at the boundary between India and Pakistan. That was the last time he saw his mother.

 

 

4. Ghazi’s son, Tahir Jamil had the following dream:

 

“I was with my father. I saw a man with naked sword coming towards us. I felt that he was going to attack us. I moved forward to defend my father. The man approached near. I looked back and my father was no longer there, instead the holy prophet^pbuh was standing there. I thought this man is going to attack the prophet^pbuh . I thought I should sacrifice my life in order to defend the prophet^pbuh. I was going to step forward to fight with the man, but the prophet^pbuh gestured me to stop. I stopped as ordered. The sword fell from that person’s hand, and he said, ‘make me Muslim’. He became Muslim. I was very happy. The prophet^pbuh said ‘Tahir Jamil is there a mosque nearby?’ I said ‘yes, there is an old mosque’. The prophet^pbuh said, ‘Let us say maghrib prayer’. The prophet^pbuh led the prayer, with me and that other person following. As I finished the prayer, I woke up.”

 

5. Tahir Jamil had another dream of the prophet^pbuh.

 

“In the dream I was in Medina (where the prophet^pbuh is buried). I was reciting darood (a prayer honoring the prophet Muhammad^pbuh and prophet Abraham), with great fervor, at the outer boundary of the prophet’s^pbuh grave. The door to inner area opened by itself. I entered that door and kept on reciting darood. Another door which led to innermost room also opened. I saw three graves in that room. There was a tablet at the head of one grave, which read ‘ Muhammad rasool ullah’

I continued reciting darood, very passionately, at the foot of the prophet’s^pbuh grave. The grave opened and the prophet^pbuh came out. He asked me the reason of my coming. I said ‘to ask forgiveness for my sins’

The prophet^pbuh replied ^‘God has forgiven your sins and so have I’

I started weeping with happiness and gratitude.

Seeing the prophet^pbuh in such a kind mood I said ‘I want to do postgraduate studies in medicine. I request your prayer for my successes

The prophet^pbuh said ‘Son, study hard, I will pray for your successes’

I woke up.”

 

6. Ghazi received a letter from a man, Nazir Hussin Shah of Lalian, Pakistan. He thought that the man must have read his book and wanted to talk about it. Once he was travelling near Lalian, he thought of meeting the sender of the letter. He met Mr Nazir, an elderly man. He had never heard of Ghazi Ahmed nor had he read his book. He said he had a message from the prophet^pbuh for Ghazi, but he was told to go to Ghazi and give the message. Therefore, he would travel to Ghazi’s residence and will give the message. Ghazi got upset that may be the prophet^pbuh is upset with him, and the message is a scolding for his dereliction.

 

To be continued

138. Fate versus Free Will. Part Five.

 

Hypothesis Two. Free Will. It states that Humans are masters of their own fate. They have free will. Future is not pre-ordained. It is not written in stars. It is not decreed by God. All events, without exception, happen by the interaction between free will, nature and chance (chance is actually one of the manifestations of nature)

The two tier system proposed by religion and mystics ( such as Ramakrishna ), according to which some events, such as birth, death and some other major events in one’s life, are decreed by God, while the rest are in the hands of the individual through his exercise of free will, is rejected by hypothesis two. Let us read what the great saint Sri Ramakrishna said (1):

 

“Is there anyone who has free will or anything like that? It is by God’s will alone that everything has always happened and shall happen……man understands it in the long run.

Just as, when a cow is tied to a post with long tether, it can go to a distance of one cubit, or it can go up to the full length of the tether according to its choice, so too is the free will of the man….God has given man some power and freedom to utilize it as he likes.

That is why the man feels himself free……

And mark this: if anyone prays to Him in all humility. He may remove him to another place and tie him there; or he may lengthen the tether or even remove it completely from the neck.”

 

We asked, “Does the man have no duty or responsibility?”

“………………..He does not give one more power, if the little that is given is not properly used. This is why individual effort and perseverance are necessary. Don’t you see, everyone has to make some effort? however small, before he gets God’s grace?”

 

But this mote rejects that. All events, since the creation of universe have been happening without the intervention of God. They have been the result of natural events, as explained in blogs 97-99.

 

Everything happens according to the law of cause and effect. Let me repeat what I had already written in blog 102:

According to the law of cause and effect, an action takes place because a preceding action caused it. The first action is called the cause, while the second action, which is the result of the first action, is the effect. For instance, a ball is climbing up the sky. It is climbing up because somebody threw it. Throwing the ball is the cause of the ball climbing up.

It is a fundamental law of nature that the cause precedes the effect. When we will discuss time travel, a well known paradox is mentioned, called the ‘grandfather paradox’. If it was possible to travel in the past, one could kill one’s grandfather before one’s father was born. But then one could not be born to kill the grandfather. The solution to the paradox is that his existence (the cause) has to precede the killing (the effect). So it cannot happen. Time travel in the past is not possible.

Sorry for this digress.

If that is true then nobody should be able to tell future, because it does not exist. It does not exist because it has not been made yet.

But I have narrated in previous blogs (blogs 102-3) thirteen prophecies. We will tackle this contradiction sometimes later.

When I talk of forecasting future, I mean the part of future which cannot be told by any scientific means. Weather is predicted fairly accurately by meteorologists. If somebody has boarded a nonstop train going to London, there are fairly good chances of him being in London sometimes later (barring some unforeseen event). Scientists can predict solar and lunar eclipses very accurately. Doctors are fairly accurate in predicting the approximate date or week of a baby’s birth. We know that Halley’s Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.

 

What cannot be told are the seven numbers in exact sequence which would be the winning numbers in the live drawing of a lottery at some future date?

 

( mentioned above in blog 135)

 

Now, let us quote again the objections to hypothesis one (blog 135) and see if hypothesis two can explain them:

 

1. It does not explain evil

2. It does not explain injustice

3. Makes God, indifferent, cruel and unjust

4. Why is God hidden?

5. If everything is preordained by God, then what is the purpose of creation by God?

6. It flies against our daily experience of events happening due to free will.

7. Does not explain the cruelty of predator animals to prey.

8. All human effort is completely useless.

 

Objection 1-3 are regarding evil, injustice, and cruelty. Hypothesis two easily dismisses them, because they were not created by God. All these are man made. As regards to why God is hidden, is because God had to be hidden, for mankind to reach their full potential. If a Father figure of God was always hovering around, who mankind could consult, the growth of human race would be stunted, like that of a child who refuses to grow up.

Statements 5-6 do not apply in hypothesis two.

Predators and preys in animal kingdom are the result of the race for the survival of the fittest and other aspects of evolution, as explained in Blog 99. Statement 8 does not apply in hypothesis two.

 

To be continued

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(1) Sri Ramakrishna, the great master, Volume one By Swami Saradananda, page 94