Those that were shown the illusionary vision of the world in the beginning, the world was written as their destiny. These people came into the world and made every effort to attain the material world. They stole, robbed, bribed and even overlooked crimes like usury and even denounced the oneness of God.
There were some souls amongst these people who adopted religion and worship in order to obtain paradise but this turned out to be fruitless as in the case of Satan, as some blasphemer or a religion disliked by God or sect became an obstruction in their way.
The other souls who had chosen paradise at the beginning of time, they did their worldly chores but gave priority to the practice of worship and austerities. They were motivated by the chaste maidens and servants of paradise and ran back and forth to their places of worship and were successful in obtaining paradise.
There were those amongst the former category who remained lazy in their attitude towards worship and as paradise had been written in their destiny, some opportunity and excuse was granted to them. But they did not achieve that status in paradise that was achieved by the pious. It was in respect of such people that God said, “ What, do these people understand that we will place them along with the pious,” because there are seven levels of paradise.
Ordinary people are guided by Prophets, Books, Gurus and Saints and it is essential for them to have a religion and to declare their faith. The exalted (Godly) manage to come under the graceful sight of God without a religion or book. In other words they are guided by the Light of God. It is stated in a Scripture that:
It is said that in order to enter paradise it is essential to have affirmed one’s faith (belief in God). It should be noted that it is not these bodies that will enter paradise, it will be the souls that will enter it and if faith is to be affirmed upon entry then these souls can declare their faith at some stage when they reach the realm of vision. Or they may do this after death, just as the souls of the Prophet Mohammed’s parents and uncle were granted the affirmation of the faith. Furthermore there are the very special and exalted souls who affirmed and declared the truth in the celestial spheres before coming into the world.
The Prophet Mohammed stated that he was a Prophet even before he came into the world. These were the words of the soul of the Prophet Mohammed and could only have been addressed to the souls at the time as the body was given to the Prophet Mohammed only after physically coming into the world. An explanatory example of this is that there are leaders only if there are the nations to be led and there are Prophets only if there are believers, otherwise there is no need for them.
Then such people (Saints) are sent into different religions, some in the form of Baba Farid and some appear in the form of Guru Nanak. The souls that desire to find God do not exclusively look at the religions but rather they seek those who have access to God and join them. Ghose Ali Shah, a (Muslim) Saint of the past has written in his book Tazkira Ghosia that he even obtained spiritual grace from Hindu ascetics.
The Muslim scholars failed to understand what this meant or involved and declared the death penalty in respect of Ghose Ali Shah. The Scholars further stated that if any Muslim house had this book, that it should be burnt and destroyed straight away. However this book survived and is found in India and Pakistan and is still respected.
Some nations accepted their Prophets and others rejected them. God nevertheless sent guides and Saints amongst the rejecting nations who adapted to their faith and belief system. The people sent by God then taught them ways which would save them from sin.
Further by using their methods of worship, customs and values the guides tried to turn their direction towards God, by teaching people about peace and the Love of God. If such people did not exist then today all the religions would be thirsty for each others blood. These souls (guides) who are in the world, are assisted and guided by Khidr (Vishnu Maharaj) who knows the secret of every religion.