Thousands and thousands of people may well claim to be the recipients of revelation from God, and in actuality, this is necessary to establish the truthfulness of prophethood and furnish evidence in favour of the fact that God speaks. However, there is another fundamental objective at the heart of prophethood which is specific to Prophets.
It is a general rule that all things come with their relevant essentials—they are never separated from their necessaries. For example, when food is presented, it is accompanied by its essentials: various pieces of crockery, water, and even toothpicks. In the same way, prophethood is also accompanied by its relevant essentials, and from among them, one is that ‘converse with the inner self ’ comes to an end completely in the case of a Prophet. This is from among the essentials of the inherent nature of this institution known as prophethood, and the signs and hallmarks of this are the prophecies that are given to the Prophets by God Almighty.
Also bear in mind that Prophets have another name in heaven of which the common people are unaware, and when that heavenly name is put before the world, certain people stumble. For example, even in my case, God has named me the Messiah son of Mary. Some ignorant people raise the objection that your name is Ghulam Ahmad. They are unable to comprehend this secret; this is from among the secrets of prophethood.
In short, when both of these corrupt forms of discourse come to an end, the heart begins to speak, and continues to speak all the time. Even as it beats, the heart emits a voice. It is for this reason that the Prophets find pleasure in this discourse and remain engaged in conversing with their Beloved, even if thousands upon thousands of people around them are busy in other forms of conversation. This is the reason for their peace and tranquillity of heart and this is why no noise or clamour can disturb it. Normally, a lover desires to know all that they can know about the grace and beauty of their beloved, and desires to speak to them all the time. However, this does not happen, and these are base desires anyway. But a person who loves God Almighty and the class of people known as Prophets, who are lost in God’s love, possess a fervour that is far greater than these false and transient loves. For God is He Who turns towards those who incline to Him. In fact, God pays greater attention to people than they show to Him. If a person advances towards God in small steps, Allah the Exalted runs towards them. Therefore, when a person develops a longing for God and becomes lost in His love, the fire of that love and passion for God burns away inner desires and carnal thoughts, after which their soul begins to speak. This pure speech that begins from within then becomes the speech of God Almighty. In other words, it could be said that man supplicates Allah the Exalted, and in turn, He responds. Hence, this is halmark of prophethood and has been alluded to in اَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ (on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings). Therefore, one ought to seek to develop this particular distinction of prophethood within themselves when they offer the prayer:
اِهۡدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَ صِرَاطَ الَّذِيۡنَ اَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ
Guide us in the right path — The path of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings.
(Malfuzat [English], Vol. 2, pp. 78-79)
