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[Signs of the True Faith]

Thousands upon thousands of thanks be to that Benevolent Lord, who has bestowed upon us a religion which is such a means of attaining the knowledge of God and the fear of God, the like of which has never been found in any age; and thousands of blessings be upon that immaculate Prophet through whom we entered this holy religion; and thousands of mercies be bestowed upon the Companions of the Noble Prophet who irrigated this garden with their blood.

Islam is such a blessed and God-revealing religion that if any person chooses to follow it truly and acts upon the teachings, guidance, and admonitions contained in the Holy Word of God Almighty—the Holy Quran—he would behold God in this very life. For the recognition of that God, who is hidden from the sight of the world behind thousands of veils, there is no other means except the teaching of the Quran. The Holy Quran guides towards God Almighty through reason and heavenly Signs in a very easy and simple manner. It possesses a blessing and magnetic power which perpetually attracts a seeker of God towards God, bestowing light, peacefulness, and satisfaction. And a true believer in the Holy Quran does not—like the philosophers— merely hold on to the conjecture that there ‘ought to be’ a Creator for this most ingenious universe; rather, acquiring a personal insight and being honoured with a holy vision, he sees with the eye of certainty that that Creator ‘actually exists.’

He who is bestowed the light of this Holy Word does not merely guess like those who rely upon dry reason alone that God is One without partner, but through hundreds of brilliant Signs which grasp him by the hand and pull him out of the darkness, such a person actually witnesses for himself that—in reality—God has no associate in His Being or in His attributes. And not only this; such a one is able to practically demonstrate to the world that he believes God to actually be such, and the majesty of the Oneness of God so fills his heart that in his estimation—when placed in contrast to the will of Allah—the whole world amounts to no more than a dead insect and indeed to nothing at all.

Human nature is like a tree, the branches of a part of which are immersed in a pit full of filth and urine, while the branches of the other part lie in a pool that is full of fine fragrances like that of keorha3 and roses and the like. When a wind blows from either side, it causes either the scent or the stench to spread as the case may be. Similarly, the wind of carnal passions spreads the stench, while the breeze of divine grace gives form and manifestation to the hidden fragrance. Thus, if the divine breeze—which descends from heaven—is obstructed, being battered from all directions by the fierce and forceful winds of human carnal passions, man becomes buried under their stench, and thus, turns his back on God Almighty, becoming the very embodiment of Satan, and is cast among the lowest of the low. No virtue remains in him and he ultimately perishes due to the poisons of infidelity, disobedience, transgression, sinfulness, and all kinds of corruption. The life of such a one is hellish and, at last, he plunges into Hell after death. But if the grace of God Almighty comes to one’s aid and the divine breeze blows from heaven to purify and perfume him and—through special guidance—constantly grant light, vitality, and holy capacities to one’s spirit, that person is drawn to such lofty heights by the power granted to him from on High, that he surpasses even the status of angels. This proves that man has the propensity to both fall down as well as to rise up. In this regard someone has truly said:

Human capacities encompass a union of two extremes—
He may choose to be a messiah or a donkey!

However, the difficulty here is that it is easier and seemingly quite natural for man to descend, just as you observe that a stone goes up with great difficulty, requiring the effort of someone else, but when coming down it falls naturally, requiring no effort from anyone. Then, surely man stands in need of a powerful hand if he is to ascend. This very requirement proves the need for the succession of Prophets and the [revelation of the] Word of God. Although worldly people have involved themselves in thousands of intricate debates in the process of evaluating the truth of a religion, they still have not reached any satisfactory conclusion. However, the fact of the matter is that the true religion is, indeed, that religion which succeeds in curing man’s spiritual blindness and bestowing upon him heavenly blessings to such a degree that the evidence of their affirmation of the existence of God and sympathy for mankind is prominent in their practical lives. That alone is the true religion and that alone can carry its sincere devotee to the desired goal, the thirst for which has been ingrained in his soul. Most people merely believe in the kind of imaginary ‘God’ whose powers did not march forward, but were left behind, and whose capability and power are only spoken of in the form of tales and fables.

So, that is the very reason why such a fictitious ‘God’ cannot restrain them from sin; rather, by following such a religion their audacity and brazenness in sin and iniquity continue to increase as their prejudice continues to build up. Their carnal passions surge like a river that breaks its embankment and floods the surrounding area, destroying many houses and fields of farmland. The Living God who possesses the light of His powerful Signs and continues to prove His existence through fresh and rejuvenating miracles and powers—it is He alone— finding and discovering whom restrains one from sin; bestows true peace, contentment, and satisfaction; and grants steadfastness and true courage. He becomes the Fire that burns sin and the Water that washes away worldly desires. This is exactly what is called ‘religion’—to search for Him and experience heavenly ecstasy in that quest.

Bear in mind that mere dry disputation, abusiveness, harsh words, and vulgarity is perpetrated out of selfishness under the name of religion. Such failing to remove one’s own inner evils; failing to develop a sincere bond with the True Beloved; one party attacking another party, not with civility, but rather like dogs; and displaying all kinds of evil of the ego in the guise of defending the Faith—all this filthy conduct which is merely bone [without flesh]—is not worthy of being called ‘religion’. Alas! Such people do not realize why we came into this world and what the true and main purpose of our brief lives is. Rather—perpetually holding on to a blind and impure nature—they put the label of ‘religion’ upon their superstitious whims. They flaunt their bad manners and rattle their loose tongues in defence of an imaginary ‘God’ for whose existence they have no proof whatsoever. What is the worth of a religion which does not worship the Living God, but a ‘God’ who is the bier of a dead body that only moves with the support of others and falls to the ground if the support is removed. If there is anything to be gained from such a religion, then it is only bigotry. True fear of God and sincere sympathy for humanity—which are the best of virtues—absolutely disappear from their characters. If they encounter opposition from any individual who is against their faith and creed, then, merely due to this opposition in their hearts, they become the enemy of his life, property, and honour; and if the affair of someone from any other people is entrusted to them, they seek to obliterate him altogether, abandoning [all sense of] justice and compassion. That mercy, justice, and sympathy—which is the sublime excellence of human nature— disappears entirely from their disposition, and they are filled with an unholy beastliness due to overzealous bigotry. They do not know the true purpose of religion. The real ill-wishers of a faith and of a people are indeed those corrupt ones who have no regard for truth, divine cognition, or purity, and simply give the name ‘religion’ to selfish passions. They are ever engaged in idle quarrels, disputes, and vile talk, and the time which should be spent with God in solitude does not even occur in their dreams. They remain ever busy denigrating and reviling holy people while they are themselves filled with filth as a septic tank is filled with excrement. There is much babble on their tongues but their hearts are far removed from God; they are totally immersed in the vices of the world, yet they claim to be the reformers of the nation. But as is said:

[How can a sleeping man awaken a sleeping man!]

Such people can neither listen to anyone with God-fearing hearts, nor answer them with civility. They believe that there is nothing good in Islam and that all of it is objectionable. Strangely enough, they are quite content with this condition of theirs. Moreover, having inflicted harm upon someone of a different faith, they think they have accomplished an act worthy of great reward or demonstrated great courage and manliness. But sadly, it is this bigotry that most people in this age identify as religion. I do not even consider the ordinary Muslims to be free from this evil habit. Indeed, they are more worthy of punishment in the eyes of God, for He has given them that religion whose name is Islam, the meaning of which God has Himself revealed in the Holy Quran as He says:

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This means that Islam has two parts: (i) To lose one’s self in the pleasure of God in such a way as to renounce all one’s desires and to lie prostrate at His threshold to seek His pleasure; and (ii) To do good to all of mankind in general. Look at the beauty of this faith and the virtuous and holy principles on which it was based, but—alas!—they have strayed very far away from it. This corruption emerged at the time when they deviated from the teachings of the Holy Quran either deliberately or by mistake, since deviation—be it doctrinal or practical—deprives one of divine grace. What I mean here by ‘doctrinal deviation’ is that a person should be in absolute denial of the Word of God, and ‘practical deviation’ means that though he may not be in apparent denial, he is so overwhelmed by customs, habits, selfish desires, and the precepts of others that he has no regard whatsoever for the Word of Almighty God.

In short, these are two evil diseases. It is necessary to follow the True Faith in order to be safeguarded from them. The first disease is to deny that God is One without partner and Possessor of all the perfect attributes and powers, and thus turn away from one’s obligations to Him, and to deny—like an ingrate—His bounties that permeate each and every particle of our bodies and souls. The second [disease] is to be negligent in fulfilling one’s obligations to mankind, or to become like a poisonous serpent for hurting anyone who is of a different race or religion or is opposed to his [race or religion], and to disregard human rights altogether. Such people are in fact dead and are unaware of the Living God. To have living faith is definitely impossible so long as a person is not bestowed the magnificent Signs and manifestations of the Living God. Although all people—barring the atheists—believe in the existence of God in one form or the other, their belief is reducible to certain self-coined notions, and is not the result of the personal manifestation of the Living God. This is the reason that a living faith cannot be attained through such self-conceived notions. So long as one does not hear from God Almighty, in miraculous and extraordinََary ways and with mighty powers, the emphatic proclamation [‘I am present’], and unless this is accompanied with the actual manifestation of powerful Signs, it is impossible to have faith in that Living God. Such people give the name ‘God’ or Parmeshwar to something which they have learnt only through hearsay. They merely repeat what has been passed on to them, uttering empty boasts with no knowledge of what they are saying.

True knowledge about God depends entirely upon reaching the Living God who articulates with the utmost clarity to those who are close to Him and bestows satisfaction and contentment upon them with His majestic and pleasant speech. He speaks to them as one man speaks to another and converses with them as a certainty that is beyond doubt or suspicion. He listens to them and responds to them. He hears their supplications, and informs them of their acceptance. He proves to them that He is indeed God, on the one side through His majestic and pleasant words, while on the other side through His miraculous works and His powerful and mighty Signs. To begin with, He promises them His support, help, and special guidance by way of prophecy, and then—on the other side—in order to amplify the grandeur of His promises, He causes a multitude of people to oppose them. Those people employ all their power, every deceit, and every single kind of device to frustrate those promises of God regarding the support, help, and supremacy of His chosen ones, but God brings all their efforts to naught. They sow mischief but God uproots it. They kindle a fire but God extinguishes it. They exert themselves down to their fingernails but ultimately God causes their designs to recoil upon themselves. The sincere and chosen ones of God are simple and straightforward and, in the presence of God Almighty, they are like children in the lap of their mother. The world opposes them because they are not of this world. All sorts of plans and devices are employed to destroy them. Nations unite to cause them distress, all unworthy ones shoot arrows at them from the same bow, and all manner of calumnies and charges are fabricated against them so that somehow they might be destroyed and not a trace of them would remain, but ultimately God Almighty manifests the fulfilment of His words. In this way these matters continue throughout their lives. On the one hand, they are honoured with God’s true word which is clear and conclusive and they are given knowledge of hidden matters—which is beyond the ability of man—through the clear word of God, the Mighty and Powerful. On the other hand, through miraculous events which establish the truth of that which they had been told, their faith is strengthened and is further illumined as light upon light. To the extent that the human mind demands a certain degree of understanding to recognize God with complete conviction, that is satisfied with divine manifestations of word and deed so much so that not even an atom’s weight of obscurity remains in the way. This is God, through whose manifestations of word and deed—which contain within themselves thousands of blessings and forcefully impact the heart—a person has the good fortune of obtaining a true and living faith and—having developed a sincere and holy bond with God—of eradicating the filth of the carnal self. All weaknesses having been removed, the piercing rays of heavenly light dispel one’s inner darkness and a wonderful transformation comes into being.

Therefore, the religion which does not present this God who is proven to possess these attributes and which confines faith merely to ancient tales and fables and such accounts as are not seen or heard is certainly not a true religion. To follow such a fictitious god is like expecting a corpse to function like the living. The existence or non-existence of such a ‘God’ who does not himself prove his own existence afresh at all times is the same, as if he is an idol that does not speak, does not hear, and does not reply to a question, nor can he manifest his almighty power in such a manner that even a resolute atheist cannot doubt it.

It should be borne in mind that just as the sun rises afresh each day to give us light, and we could not attain any benefit nor any satisfaction through a story if we were sitting in complete darkness with no sign of any light anywhere, and we were told that though the sun does exist, it only used to rise in some past ages and is now hidden forever. The same is the case with the True Sun which illumines the hearts: It rises afresh every day vouchsafing to man a share of its divine manifestations of word and deed. Only that God is true and only that religion is true which give the good news of the existence of such a God and demonstrate the existence of such a God; it is only through such a Living God that the soul is purified.

Do not carry the hope that any other design can purify the human self. As darkness can only be dispelled by light—in the same way— the only remedy for the darkness of sin are the divine manifestations of word and deed, which descend upon a fortunate heart in a miraculous manner from God with powerful rays, show him that God exists, remove the foulness of all doubts, and bring satisfaction and contentment. So, by the mighty attraction of that Supreme Power, that fortunate one is raised to heaven. Other than this, all other remedies that are put forward are fake spectacles. But for complete purification, divine cognizance alone is not enough; rather, this must be accompanied simultaneously by persistent ongoing prayers filled with anguish because God Almighty is Self-Sufficient and Independent, and to attract His grace there is an acute necessity of such prayers that are accompanied by weeping and sincerity and the painful anguish of the heart. You see that though a suckling infant fully recognizes its mother and loves her and the mother also loves it, yet its crying has a great deal to do with the release of the mother’s milk. On the one side the infant cries bitterly out of hunger and on the other side the mother is so affected by its crying and weeping that milk is released from her breasts. In the same way, every seeker should prove his spiritual hunger and thirst by his weeping and crying so that the spiritual milk might be released to satiate him.

Thus, divine cognizance alone is not enough to cleanse and purify oneself. Rather, grief-stricken weeping and crying like children is also necessary. Do not lose hope and do not be discouraged by the thought: ‘Our souls are so defiled with sin; of what value are our supplications and what impact would they have?’ The human soul has, in fact, been created for the love of God and although the fire of sin may intensely excite him, even then he possesses such power of repentance that it can extinguish that fire. Just as you observe that however much water is heated, when it is poured over a fire it still extinguishes the fire.

Ever since God Almighty created people, their hearts have always been cleansed and purified through this means alone. In other words, man cannot be purified from sin through any means besides the Living God Himself—through His own manifestations of word and deed— revealing His existence, His power, and His Godhood, and displaying His shining awe.

Even by way of reason this very fact is clear and proven that man only values—and his heart is only awe-inspired by—such an object whose greatness and power he learns through the means of complete cognition. For instance, it is evident that man will never insert his hand into a hole wherein he is certain that a snake lies, nor will he ever eat a thing that he knows to be poison. How is it then, that he does not fear God Almighty in the same way and brazenly commits thousands of sins and transgressions, and remains fearless even after reaching old age? The reason for this is simply that he is totally unaware of the existence and entity of the True Requiter who can punish sin.

It is a pity that most people have not paid attention to this principle out of their misfortune, and such absurd means of being delivered from sin have been hewn out of their imaginary whims, which only increase their audacity in committing even more sin. Take for example, the belief that asserts that having faith in the crucifixion of Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus], may peace be upon him, and considering him to be God is obligatory for the forgiveness of all mankind’s sins. Can such a notion be expected to engender true hatred of sin? It is obvious that each and every thing can only be countered by its opposite: Heat drives away cold, and the remedy for removing darkness is light. Then what kind of remedy is it [to propose] that X is cleansed from sin through Y’s being crucified? Such doctrines are nothing but man-made fallacies that find their way into people’s hearts in times of heedlessness and material worship. The same selfish and base motives that led to the prevalence of idol worship in the world are responsible for the prevalence of the doctrines of Crucifixion and Atonement among the Christians.

The essential fact is that the human self is somewhat designed to give greater preference to the path in which there is no effort and struggle. True purity, however, requires much pain and striving, and that pure life cannot be attained until man drinks the cup of death. Therefore, just as it is the propensity of mankind to avoid difficult and narrow paths and to seek ways that are easy and simple, in this very manner these people, too, have chosen the way of the Cross that requires only verbal confession and places no hardship upon the soul. This is the reason why the love of God has grown cold [in their hearts] and they do not desire to develop a loathing for sin in order to bring about a pure transformation within themselves. In reality, belief in the Cross is the kind of doctrine which pleases those who do not wish to attain true purity and are constantly searching for a formula in which a filthy life may coexist with the forgiveness of sins. Consequently, in spite of [their indulgence in] excessive impurity, they imagine that they are cleansed from sin merely through believing in the blood of Christ. Such purity is actually like a boil that is full of pus, even though it appears shining on the surface. Should there be discerning minds, the falsity of the prescription of the Cross can be made clear from the condition of the devotees of the Cross themselves—to what extent have they become absorbed in the love of God Almighty, abandoning the desires and passions of the world? Anyone who tours European countries will see for himself the extent to which the most ardent defenders of the [Christian] faith—not just the ignorant people but also the educated and refined among them—indulge in carnal pleasures, licentiousness, drunkenness, self-indulgence, and other sins. Many among the clergy, who exceed all others in stressing the blood of Messiah, are given to alcoholism which is the mother of all evils, with the result that such shameful and outrageous stories regarding them are frequently published in the newspapers that the less said about them, the better. For example, just today I read in a newspaper that a pastor who committed fornication with girls was arrested in England and is being sent back [to India]. That pastor’s name is Dr. Sandilands and he was the Principal at a missionary orphanage in Bhandara, Nagpur. On the night of 24th August, he was found with a girl in his room. Failing to justify his action, he resigned and left [the country]. It was later discovered that he had committed fornication with 17 girls. Further police investigation revealed that he was also guilty of performing illegal surgeries; namely, abortions. The warrants for his arrest were issued, he was taken into custody in England, and upon his arrival in India his trial will be held at the Bombay High Court. See the Pioneer [Mail] and Akhbar-e‘Am of 8th February 1905, first column; and 9th February 1905, page 6, column 2. Now it is obvious that if this is the state of the so-called great ‘Holy Fathers’ who are in the first [and foremost] position to benefit from the blood of Christ, then what good would the other poor folks derive from this prescription [of salvation]? So remember well that this is certainly not the way to attain true purity. The time is approaching— nay rather, it is near at hand—when people will awaken themselves to the error of this path. The true path is only the one which I have already stated. Every single person who came to God Almighty entered through this very door. Yes, this door is very narrow and those who enter through it are very few in number, for death is its threshold and, having seen God, remaining steadfast in His path with all their power and all their being, is its frame. So very few indeed are those who wish to enter through this door. Alas, that in our country the notion of the blood of Christ has led the Christians astray from this door, while the Aryas have been deprived of this door on account of their belief in reincarnation and their denial of the acceptance of repentance; for, in their view there is no other way to be cleansed from sin during this life except through undergoing diverse cycles of rebirth. Repentance—meaning, to turn oneself to God with total sincerity and inflicting upon oneself a state of death, and, having inflicted this death-like state, to willingly offer one’s own sacrifice—is, in their eyes, an absurd idea. Thus, both these groups are deprived of the true path.

The Aryas face additional difficulties, for they have no way open for acquiring certainty about God Almighty—neither through rational means, nor through heavenly means. The rational means are unavailable to them because they believe that souls, with all their powers, are self-subsisting, and all the particles of the universe, with all their properties, are self-existing. Then which rational argument remains to support the existence of Parmeshwar? For, if everything exists on its own, then what is there to prevent them from combining and dividing themselves on their own as well? So this religion is very close to atheism, and if God does not destine these people to repent of their erroneous path, some day they will all end up becoming atheists. Likewise, they are incapable of recognizing God through heavenly means, since the heavenly means consist of heavenly Signs that serve as fresh proof for the existence of God. These Signs are continuously witnessed by one who believes in the Living God and is fully convinced of His control over all things, but these people [the Aryas] are in complete denial of any such Signs. Therefore, both doors that lead to divine cognition are closed to them. Although they do show a lot of bigoted zeal in religious debates and are even a few steps ahead of the missionaries in verbal abuse, vilification, and sharpness of tongue, they are totally bereft of divine cognition. For, Almighty God is first recognized rationally through His power of creation, but according to them, Almighty God is not the Creator and, hence, they have no proof of His existence insofar as created things are concerned. The other means of recognizing Him is through heavenly Signs, but they deny even these and are utterly ignorant of this path. They cling to the word Parmeshwar without being aware of His existence. Alas, these people do not realize that although a person may babble a thousand times with his tongue, it is of no use until he attains such a recognition of his God that brings death upon his infernal life, and until his heart becomes filled with the love of God Almighty and he begins to hate sin.

As such, anyone may claim to possess these qualities, but God’s true worshippers have the distinction that they are blessed on account of their pure love for God and are attended by His manifestations of word and deed. That is to say, they become those who converse with God Almighty and His miraculous acts are manifested in them. And God Almighty manifests many such revelations upon them in which He gives them advance tidings of His help, and then comes the time when that help materializes. Thus do they recognize their God and stand distinguished from others through special Signs. They are granted a charismatic quality that attracts people towards them, and the love of God rains down upon their countenances. Without such a distinction, even a scoundrel, who is secretly an adulterer, sinner, and a drunkard, may be called virtuous; what, then, would be the difference between a truly righteous person and a pretender? It is in order to preserve this distinction that God eternally bestows a miraculous life upon the righteous, and His help always accompanies them in a way that is altogether miraculous.

Bear in mind that the miraculous life of one righteous person evidences greater proof of the existence of God Almighty than the [entire] heavens and the earth insofar as no one has ever seen God creating the heavens and the earth with His own hand. By only observing the exceedingly intelligent design of this universe and the culmination of its structure into the highest perfection and stability, sound reason can comprehend the necessity of the fact that there ought to be some Creator of these incomparable creations. However, reason by itself cannot reach the point that that Creator actually exists because it has not seen this Creator creating. Further, the entire basis for rationally recognizing God is simply the need for a Creator, not that His existence is personally experienced; whereas, the miraculous life of a righteous one demonstrates the existence of God Almighty in the manner of practical experience and through the adornment of personal witness since the initial condition of a righteous one is like an insignificant particle or like a mustard seed sown by a farmer, lying destitute in the most despicable circumstances. Thereupon God declares to the world through revelation: ‘Behold! I will create him. I will make him shine like the stars and I will exalt him like the heavens, and I will make a mountain out of this mote.’ Thereafter, despite the fact that all of the world’s evildoers wish that divine plan to remain a suspended event and fight down to their fingernails to prevent that command from coming to fruition, it cannot be hindered until it is fulfilled and the hand of God—removing all obstacles—brings it to completion. He transforms a solitary unknown man into an enormous jama‘at [community] in accordance with His own prophecy. He draws all worthy people towards him. He grants that unknown man the kind of renown that his forefathers never had the good fortune to enjoy. He takes hold of his hand in every field of battle and bestows victory upon him in every single conflict, and subjugates a whole world to his service, causing hundreds of thousands to gravitate towards him and his teaching to be entrenched in their hearts. Moreover, He helps them through the Holy Spirit. He becomes the Enemy of his enemies and the Friend of his friends, and He Himself fights his enemy. This is why I say that the miraculous life of a righteous person is greater proof of the existence of God than the heaven and earth insofar as people have not seen the heaven and earth being built by the hand of God with their own eyes, but they do see with their own eyes that God builds the edifice of prestige for a righteous person with His own hand. He informs the world well in advance: ‘I will do so, and I will make him as such.’ Then, despite formidable obstacles and fierce resistance arising from evil people, He manifests it to transpire exactly as He had promised.

Assuredly, this is the Sign that advances a seeker of truth to the level of Haqqul-Yaqin [True Certainty] and serves as categorical proof for the existence of God, but it is only for those who seek God, who are not arrogant, and who—having found the truth—accept it with the utmost humility. In this age, too, God has brought together many such Signs. Alas! Would that people reflect over them and—enlightening themselves with the lamp of certainty and knowledge—become worthy of salvation. However, it does not fall upon the lot of the evil people to attain guidance through the Signs of God, for they shut their eyes upon seeing the light lest it illuminate their eyes and show them the way. An evil man witnesses a thousand Signs but turns away, and persists in harping upon the one topic which he fails to understand out of his very own folly. The person who comes from God Almighty is not obligated to show such Signs whereby stars fall upon the earth, the sun rises from the west, or goats are turned into men; he does not ascend to heaven before people’s eyes to bring back a written book which they can hold in their hands and read, or convert all his dwellings into gold. Nor does he cause people’s deceased ancestors to come to life out of their graves speaking, screaming, and cursing their sons with abhorrence for having furiously rejected this true Messenger of God, and telling them that they have seen for themselves that his follower goes directly to Paradise, while whoever rejects him is cast into Hell in the utmost disgrace; and so that they organize gatherings in the town and invite all deniers to these events and say to their progeny, ‘You know that we are your fathers and grandfathers, and you know how much we opposed this man, but when we died we were thrown into Hell on account of our hostility to him. Look how our bodies have been burnt and blackened by the Fire. We have come forth out of the graves before your very eyes so that we may bear witness that this man is from God and is a true Prophet.’ Remember, no dead people ever came out of their graves to deliver such lectures and never, in any age, did such gatherings take place. It has never happened that some people’s ancestors came out alive from their graves and then a place was appointed for a gathering to which all the people of the town were invited and the newly returned from the dead addressed thousands of people loudly in these words: ‘O people! We are grateful that you have come to listen to our lecture. All of you know and recognize us well. We lived in such and such locality; we were the fathers or grandfathers of so and so; we died some years ago from the plague or cholera, or some other disease and you took part in our funerals. You were indeed the ones who buried or cremated us. Thereafter, with extreme contempt, you rejected this noble Prophet who presides over this gathering and labelled him a liar and demanded that he show a miracle whereby the dead come back to life. So, through his prayer, we were brought back to life and are standing before you now. Gentlemen, open your eyes and look carefully: We are those very ones. You can ask us what our stories are. Having come back to life, we can bear witness that this man is true and that we burned in Hell for having rejected him. Accept, therefore, our eyewitness testimony so that you may be saved from Hell.’ Can anyone in his right mind and conscience, possessing an enlightened heart, accept that someone ever returned from the dead and delivered such a lecture and yet people did not believe him?

Anyone who still does not understand to what extent Signs are shown is himself a dead man. If Signs required such speeches by the dead, faith would have no meaning because faith is called faith at the point that something is perceived manifest in one way while simultaneously perceived hidden in another way; meaning that, its proof can be discovered through fine observation, but if it is not looked at with fine observation, the truth can remain concealed upon cursory observation. However, when the entire veil [of concealment] has been lifted, then who would not accept something so openly obvious? So by ‘miracles’ is meant the supernormal phenomena that are proven through deep and judicious perception, and which none but those supported by God are capable of showing; it is for this reason that they are called supernormal phenomena. The eternally unfortunate, however, cannot benefit from such miracles. The Jews, for instance, witnessed many miracles at the hands of the Messiah, may peace be upon him, but failed to benefit from them. Instead they objected that some of his prophecies had not been fulfilled such as the prophecy that had been made about the twelve thrones for his disciples, of whom one later became an apostate. His claim of being the King of the Jews was also proved baseless, so then he had to give the interpretation that he meant ‘Heavenly Kingdom’. Hazrat Masih [the Messiah] had also prophesied that the people of that time would still be alive when he would return to this world, but this, too, proved to be clearly false. Likewise, it had been prophesied by the previous Prophets that the Messiah would not come until Ilyas [Elijah] returned to this world, but Ilyas did not come. Nevertheless, Jesus son of Mary claimed to be the Messiah who had been promised even though Ilyas did not return to the world! When he was asked about the promise regarding Ilyas, he said that Yuhanna [John the Baptist]—that is, the Prophet Yahya—was Ilyas so that he might somehow qualify himself to be the promised Messiah; all this despite the fact that the previous Prophets had made no such interpretation and the Prophet Yahya himself believed that the coming Ilyas mentioned in the prophecy was meant to be the same Ilyas who had passed away. But the Messiah—that is, Yasu‘ bin Maryam [Jesus son of Mary]— opposed the consensus of the previous Prophets and all the sages in declaring Yahya—his own mentor—to be the Ilyas who was supposed to return. Strangely enough, Yahya himself denies being Ilyas, but Yasu‘ ibn Maryam insisted on propping him up as Ilyas nevertheless.

Now, it is a point worth considering that the Jews derived no benefit whatsoever from the Signs shown by the Messiah, may peace be upon him. To this day they claim that he worked no miracles; it was only trickery and deceit. This is why the Messiah was forced to say that the adulterous generation of his age sought a Sign from him; there shall no Sign be given unto them.

The example of miracles is, in fact, like the light of a moonlit night, a part of which is obscured by clouds; however, this light is of no use to a night-blind person who cannot see anything at night. It can never happen—nor has it ever happened—that miracles will manifest in this world in the same manner in which they will manifest on the Day of Resurrection. For example, it can never happen that two or three hundred corpses should rise from the dead bringing with them both the fruits of Paradise and the flames of Hell’s fire as they go from town to town testifying to the truth of a Prophet who is, at that moment, present among his people, and the people should recognize them as actually having died while now being brought back to life as they raise hue and cry through their sermons and lectures that this person who claims prophethood is, in fact, truthful. So remember that such miracles have never been manifested, nor will they ever manifest in the future until the Day of Judgment. Anyone who claims that such miracles have ever been manifested, is simply deluded by baseless myths and is totally unaware of the way of Allah. Had such miracles ever happened, this world would cease to be what it is, and all veils would have been lifted, leaving faith with no reward whatsoever.

Keep in mind that miracles are only granted to the men of God to demonstrate the difference between truth and falsehood. The real purpose of a miracle is none other than that a distinction between a truthful one and a liar be established in the view of the wise and just, and a miracle is manifested only to the extent that is sufficient to establish such distinction. And this extent is determined by the need of the time, and, besides, the nature of the miracles also corresponds to the condition of that age. It does not mean that whenever a prejudiced, ignorant, and evil-minded person demands a miracle, it must be shown no matter how contrary it is to divine wisdom or the need of the moment. Were it so, it would be as harmful to one’s own faith as it would be contrary to divine wisdom. For, if the realm of miracles were to be stretched to the extent that whatever has been put off until the Day of Resurrection can be entirely witnessed in this world, then no difference would be left between this world and the Hereafter. It is due to this very difference that reward is earned for the righteous actions and true beliefs adopted in this world, but if the same beliefs and actions are adopted in the Hereafter, they will not earn even one iota of reward. As declared in the Scriptures of all Prophets as well as in the Holy Quran, no belief or deed will be of any avail on the Day of Judgment, and all affirmations of faith will be futile; for, faith is only called faith at the point when something hidden is believed. But when the veil has been lifted and the spiritual realm has appeared like daybreak, and all affairs have been decisively manifested which leave no doubt about the existence of God and the Day of Judgment, then to accept something—which is called ‘faith’ in other words—at that time is like trying to achieve what has already been achieved. In short, a Sign is not something so openly self-evident that the entire world is obliged to accept it without any disagreement, excuse, or hesitation; and no one, regardless of his disposition, is left with any doubt about it and even the dullest of the dullest men accepts it without a qualm.

A Sign or a miracle, therefore, is not a self-evident phenomenon for men of every disposition so that it should be accepted as soon as it is witnessed; rather, the fact is that only the wise, just, righteous, and truthful people derive benefit from Signs. They are the ones who, on account of their intuition, far-sightedness, keen observation, fair-mindedness, fear of God, and righteous conduct, come to realize that these phenomena are not the ordinary phenomena of this world, and that an impostor has no ability to show them. They know that such things are well beyond human fabrication and transcend the reach of mortals, and within them exist such uniqueness and distinctive characteristics, against which the ordinary abilities of man and his elaborately planned schemes are powerless. And these people, by virtue of their profound wisdom and light of intuition, understand that these phenomena possess a certain light and fragrance emanating from the hand of God, which cannot be mistaken for any cunning, deceit, or trickery. Thus, just as sunlight alone is insufficient for one to believe in the light of the sun—rather, it is equally vital to possess the eyesight with which to see the light—similarly, in order to believe in the light of a miracle, the miracle itself is insufficient and the light of intuition is equally necessary. Unless he who witnesses the miracle is naturally endowed with true insight and the light of sound reason, it is impossible for him to believe in it. But the wretched one bereft of the light of intuition finds no satisfaction in miracles that are only meant for making a distinction; and persists in his demand that he will not accept any miracle except that which is as clear as Doomsday. He demands, for instance, that someone should go to heaven and return before his very eyes holding a book in his hand. Not only that, he also says that he will not believe unless he himself takes the book in his own hand and reads from it. Or, for instance, that the one who descends should bring with him a piece of the moon or the sun to illuminate the earth. Or, better still, he should descend from heaven accompanied by angels, performing supernormal acts as angels do. Or that ten or twenty dead people should be resurrected through his prayer, and they should be recognized as fathers or grandfathers of so and so, who had died at such and such a time. As if all this was not enough, it also being necessary that these resurrected people must hold rallies in different cities and deliver lectures, loudly proclaiming that they are the dead who have been brought back to the world in order to testify to the truth of a particular religion or to bear witness that a certain person who claims to be from God is indeed from Him, for they have heard from God Himself that he is truthful.

Such are the self-conceived miracles that the majority of ignorant people, who are totally unaware of the essence of faith, are in the habit of demanding. They also demand other similarly unreasonable and absurd phenomena that are far removed from the true will and intention of God. For example, some time ago a man from among the Aryah by the name of Lekh Ram came to Qadian and demanded just such a Sign from me. I endeavoured to make him understand that the Signs are meant to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and that they are only shown insofar as they serve this purpose. But he had been so deprived of sense and deluded by his prejudice that he failed to understand this fact. Eventually, on account of his denial of Signs, he himself became the very target of the Sign of God while he was in Lahore. As I had prophesied in response to his false prophecy, he died within six years. This divine decree was communicated five years in advance to hundreds of thousands of people, yet no one could stop it from happening. It was a Sign that distinguished Islam from the Aryah faith, for I professed the truth of Islam while Lekh Ram stood for the truth of the Aryah faith. In support of his claim, he had written in his book—which still exists—that Parmeshwar [God] had informed him through revelation that I would die of cholera within three years. As against this, I, on the authority of sure information from God, had published the notice that Lekh Ram would be killed within six years and had appointed the day and date of his death. And it came to pass accordingly. This is the distinguishing Sign that bears testimony to the truth of Islam, but, unfortunately, the Aryas derived no benefit from it.

In short, true religion is not merely beholden to reason, for this would bring it into discredit and give rise to the suspicion that its texts have been plagiarised from men of letters—of whom there has been no dearth in this world. Rather, in addition to rational arguments, a true religion also demonstrates its intrinsic quality—that is, heavenly Signs. This is indeed the hallmark of a true faith.

The truth is that the self-concocted miracles and wonders which are tales of extreme exaggeration that ignorant people commonly attribute to some religions or personalities, cannot be a source of pride for any religion; on the contrary, they are a source of disgrace and humiliation. No other Prophet has had so many fictitious miracles attributed to him as have been attributed to Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus], may peace be upon him, to the extent that some ignorant ones even imagine that he had revived thousands—rather, hundreds of thousands—of the dead. The Gospels have documented such highly exaggerated accounts even to the point that on one occasion all the dead buried in a graveyard, which had existed for thousands of years, were revived and all of them walked into the city alive.

Now, anyone with intelligence can judge: Who would believe this degree of hard-heartedness that despite millions of people suddenly coming to life and entering into the city, recounting their stories to their descendants and confirming the truth of Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, but the Jews still did not believe! Moreover, if the revival of thousands of corpses was, in fact, the vocation of Hazrat ‘Isa, reason dictates that all of those corpses would not have been deaf and dumb. Some of them must have been the brothers, fathers, sons, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, or other near and dear relatives of those to whom these miracles were shown. For this reason a vast scheme had been opened for Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, to convert disbelievers into believers. Many of those [revived] corpses who were relatives of those Jews must have accompanied Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, and he must have arranged for them to deliver public addresses in a number of cities that must have been heard with the utmost interest and eagerness. When a corpse would stand up to address the audience: ‘O ye before me! Many of you present here at this time recognize me as you buried me with your own hands. Now I come before you having heard from the mouth of God that Jesus the Messiah is true, and he is the very one who revived me’—then this would have had an amazing effect, and it is obvious that such lectures from the dead would have had a massive impact upon the hearts of the people of the Jewish nation. Thousands upon thousands of Jews would have believed. Yet the Holy Quran and the Gospels affirm that the Jews had totally rejected Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him; in spiritual reform he was the least successful of all Prophets, and almost all the Jews considered him a deceiver and an impostor.

Ponder over it, O intelligent ones: Should this have been the result of such a supreme and magnificent miracle! Given that thousands of resurrected corpses testified to the truth of Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him—even affirming that they have seen Heaven inhabited only by the Christians who follow Hazrat ‘Isa, and seeing Hell filled with the Jews who rejected Hazrat ‘Isa—who could dare have even the slightest doubt in the truthfulness of Hazrat ‘Isa after all of these testimonies? And should anyone have doubted, then his ancestors— having been revived—would have been there to kill them saying, ‘O ye wretches! You doubt after our testimonies?’ Therefore, understand with full conviction that such ‘miracles’ are pure fiction. There is no doubt in the phenomenon of a miracle itself, but it only occurs to the extent that I shall henceforth explain in detail.

It is a great pity that the Muslims attribute such miracles to Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, that go against the norms set by the Holy Quran. They walk upon the road leading to a dead end. Not only do they go to the extent of believing the old Christian tales regarding Hazrat ‘Isa, but for the future they also believe that—contrary to the experience of the whole world—his descent from the heavens will occur at any moment, and they claim that in the coming Latter Days (although according to the age of the world—which is seven thousand years—these are the very Latter Days!), Hazrat ‘Isa will descend from the heavens alongside angels, creating a great spectacle. A swarm of hundreds of thousands of people will gaze upon the sky and people looking from afar will say, ‘He’s come! He’s come!’ as he descends near a white minaret in Damascus. However, the wonder is that such marvels are attributed to a weak and meek man who was not only unable to bring the Prophet Ilyas back to the world as proof of his own prophethood, but also to the point of even being hung upon the cross! Such phenomena are readily spoken about him. If such stories merit acceptance, then why do they deny the miracle of Hazrat Sayyed ‘Abdul-Qadir Jilani that is so well known among the masses, whereby he pulled a boat out of the bottom of the sea twelve years after it had sunk while carrying a wedding party, and all the people emerged forth alive, singing and rejoicing with bands and drums beating as they had been when the boat had sunk? Similarly, in another miracle it is said that once the Angel of Death took away the soul of one of his followers without his permission. When he learnt of this, he immediately flew up to the heavens, seized the angel, hitting him with a stick and breaking his leg. Thus, all the souls that the angel had extracted that day were set free and came to life again. The angel tearfully complained to God Almighty, but Allah Almighty said that ‘Abdul-Qadir occupies the station of Mahbubiyyat [being the beloved of God], so that none could get in his way, and even if he had revived every corpse that had ever passed away, he would be entitled to do so.

Now, whereas such well-publicised marvels have not been accepted while there was not much harm in accepting them, then why are such accounts—which are not only against the purport of the Holy Quran but also aid the idolatry of worshipping Jesus—attributed to a person whose worship has deprived 400 million people from the Tauhid [Oneness] of God Almighty? I cannot understand what superiority or uniqueness Hazrat ‘Isa ibn Maryam [Jesus son of Mary] holds over other Prophets. Consequently, how egregiously wrong it is to assign him a ‘uniqueness’ which is the basis for idolatry from which a vast nation of people has been ruined! Alas! How sad that they have ruined themselves by relying upon a purely fabricated atonement, never giving any thought to the fact that only he will cross the ego’s river of fire who builds his ark with his own hands, and only he will get wages who does his work himself, and only he will save himself from loss who carries his own burden. How ignorant it is for a man to abandon all of his own efforts—depending upon another for his success—and to consider the physical strength of another to be of any benefit to his spiritual life!

It is the law of God that He has not made any human being unique in any aspect, and no one can say that he has such and such characteristic that no one else has. Had such been the case, this would form the basis for holding such a person as being worthy of worship. During the time of our Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, some Christians presented the uniqueness of Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, as being born without a father, upon which Allah Almighty immediately replied through this verse of the Holy Quran:

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Meaning: ‘The case of ‘Isa [with Allah] is like the case of Adam. God created him from dust and said to him “Be”, and he was.’ In the same way was ‘Isa born of Maryam’s blood and Maryam’s fluid, and when God said ‘Be’, he was. What is so divine and unique in this trivial matter? In the rainy season, thousands of insects are born without a father or mother, and come out of the earth on their own; no one declares them to be God, no one worships them, no one prostrates before them. So if it is not ignorance to create such an uproar over Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him—without rhyme or reason—then what is it?

And to say that he is still alive to this day while all other Prophets have passed away goes against the Holy Quran. Allah the Almighty categorically affirms his death in the Holy Quran, so how can he be alive? It is also proven from the Holy Quran that he will never return. The verse 6establishes both these points because the meanings of the entire verse from beginning to end are that on the Day of Judgment, God will question Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, whether he told people to worship him and his mother. To this he will reply: ‘As long as I was present among my people, I was aware of their condition and was a witness, but when You caused me to die, You alone were aware of their circumstances.’ In other words, after my death I knew nothing about their circumstances. Now, this verse categorically proves two points:

1. First, that Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, admits in this verse that as long as he was present among them, he was their guardian and they did not transgress in his presence, but after his death they went astray. Thus, if it is assumed that Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, is still alive in heaven to this day, then it will also have to be admitted along with it that the Christians have not yet gone astray to this day; for, in this verse their going astray has been established to be a result of the sentence 7; that is, it has been made contingent upon the death of Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him. However, since it is obvious that the Christians have indeed gone astray, it must be necessarily admitted along with it that Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, has also died. Any other interpretation would constitute the rejection of a Quranic verse.

2. Second, it is clearly stated in this verse that Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, will deny any knowledge of the Christians’ transgression and will say that he knew of their condition only up to the time he was present among them, but ever since he had been caused to die, he was completely unaware of what happened after him. Now, it is evident that his excuse would be sheer perjury in the event he had returned to this world any time before the Day of Judgment and learnt that the Christians had gone astray. If that were so, the retort from God Almighty should have been: ‘O insolent man! Why are you lying in front of My face in My court, and why are you falsely claiming that you had absolutely no knowledge of their transgression, whereas you know that I had sent you back again into the world before the Day of Judgment and you fought wars against the Christians, breaking their cross and killing their swine! Yet [you dare] so much falsehood before Me as if you know nothing!’ Now, it is obvious how disgraceful for Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, is the belief that he would return to this world, and—God forbid—thereby expose him to the charge of perjury.

If, however, you should ask: ‘How, then, are we supposed to interpret the ahadith [pl. hadith] wherein it is written that ‘Isa ibn Maryam [Jesus son of Mary] will descend?’; the reply is: ‘Interpret them in the same manner that Hazrat ‘Isa interpreted the second coming of Ilyas [Elijah].’ Moreover, it is clearly documented in the ahadith that ‘Isa [of the Latter Days] will be someone from within this Ummah and no one else. It is not written that he will come again; rather, it is written that ‘he will descend.’ If coming again had been the intention, the word [ruju‘—‘return’] would have been used instead of [nuzul—‘de-

scent’]. And if, for the sake of the argument, some hadith were to go against the Holy Quran, then it deserves to be rejected; not that the Holy Quran should be rejected on account of any hadith.

Here it should be borne in mind that the Holy Quran came to remove the errors and disputes of the Christians and the Jews. So when we interpret any verse in the Holy Quran that pertains to the Christians and the Jews, we must first examine the dispute that existed between them, for which the Holy Quran pronounces the judgment. In view of this principle, a fair-minded person can readily understand the meaning of the verses:

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For, according to the Jewish belief, a person who is killed on the cross becomes accursed and is not spiritually exalted towards God; rather, he goes down towards Satan. Now, God Almighty had to settle in the Holy Quran whether Hazrat ‘Isa was spiritually exalted towards God or not. Hence, God first removed this misconception of the Jews that Hazrat ‘Isa was killed on the cross, declaring that it was merely a conjecture which God had cast into their minds.

‘Isa was not killed through crucifixion so he cannot be considered accursed; rather, he was spiritually exalted as other believers are. Obviously, God Almighty had no need for the useless debate and decision whether Hazrat ‘Isa bodily ascended to the heavens or not, for this was not the point in dispute by the Jews. The Jews do not believe that a crucified person does not physically ascend to heaven, for such a belief would imply that one who is not crucified ascends physically to the heavens. Nor do the Jews believe that a faithless and accursed man cannot ascend in his physical body to heaven whereas a believer ascends to heaven with his physical body. Even with regard to Musa [Moses], who was the greatest Prophet in the opinion of the Jews, they do not believe that he physically ascended to heaven. In short, the whole dispute was about spiritual exaltation. The Jews, in keeping with their doctrine, held that Hazrat ‘Isa was accursed—God forbid—as he was not granted spiritual exaltation for having been killed on the cross, and this was the very error that God had to correct. So He adjudged that ‘Isa was not accursed; rather, he was spiritually exalted like other believers.

Remember that the word [mal‘un—‘accursed’] is the antonym of [marfu‘—‘exalted’]; where exaltation carries a spiritual connotation. Thus, according to those who hold Hazrat ‘Isa to be accursed for having been crucified, the meaning of [mal‘un] is only that such a person is not spiritually exalted. Even the Christians made the error of believing that Hazrat ‘Isa was accursed for three days, meaning that he was not spiritually exalted for three days. So if—according to their belief—Hazrat ‘Isa went to Hades in the condition of being accursed without his physical body, then why was the physical body required in the condition of being exalted? The same rule ought to apply to both conditions. We hold the Christians accountable, too, for having erred with regard to the meaning of exaltation. They believe to this day that, according to the Torah, crucifixion resulted in a spiritual consequence—becoming accursed—which, in other words, means the absence of exaltation. So, according to their belief, this absence of exaltation was a spiritual phenomenon. Therefore, the exaltation should also have been a spiritual phenomenon if there is to be any congruence between the two states.

The Christians believe that, while accursed, Hazrat ‘Isa descended to Hades and deteriorated to Hell only in the spiritual sense and his body did not accompany him. This being so, why, when it came to exaltation, was it necessary for his physical body to join and accompany him? Furthermore, all the Prophets and rabbis of the Torah have long held that the curse of crucifixion meant the negation of spiritual exaltation. Even today they believe that the one who is killed on the cross is not exalted towards God.

La‘nat [‘Curse’] means the absence of exaltation. In any case, since God Almighty had to counter the objection of the Jews, who hold non-exaltation to have a spiritual context to this day—meaning, they say that Hazrat ‘Isa was not spiritually exalted towards God, being a liar—then why did God neglect the essential point, going in another direction as if—God forbid—God Almighty did not even understand the fundamental dispute of the Jews, giving a verdict like a judge who delivers a judgment that has no bearing on the facts of the case? Should such an opinion be deliberately held about God, then what doubt is there in kufr [disbelief]?

Besides, even if we concede that God disregarded the Jews’ fundamental dispute in this verse and stated something quite novel that was irrelevant and unnecessary—namely, that Hazrat ‘Isa was taken to the second heaven with his physical body—such a notion is negated as follows: First, because it is nowhere written in the Holy Quran that Hazrat ‘Isa was bodily taken to the second heaven, but rather the words of the Holy Quran are in fact 9 meaning that, God exalted ‘Isa to Himself. Now, think for yourself: Is God seated upon the second heaven in the manner of material objects? It is obvious that exaltation towards God is always indeed spiritual. And so have all Prophets taught that God is not a physical being towards whom one could ascend physically. This is the idiom used throughout the Holy Quran, that whenever it is said of a person that he went towards God or was exalted towards Him, it invariably means that he was spiritually exalted, as is evident from this verse wherein Allah Almighty says:

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Meaning: ‘And thou, O soul at peace, return to thy Lord.’ So does this mean return with the physical body?

Moreover, here the question arises that if this verse does not speak of spiritual exaltation and does not decide the dispute whereby the Jews denied that Hazrat Masih was spiritually exalted and—God forbid— declared him accursed, one will naturally ask: Then where is the verse in which God answered this objection as was necessitated by His own promise? In view of all this, it is sheer stubbornness and stupidity to declare the exaltation of Hazrat ‘Isa to be a physical ascension. Rather, this is the very exaltation that is imperative for every true believer after he dies, in accordance with the divine promise, whereas the command for the disbelievers is:

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Meaning that, the doors of Heaven shall not be opened for them; in other words, they shall not be exalted. Likewise, it is also said in another verse:

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Thus, to pervert a straightforward statement is contrary to piety and purity, and amounts to twisting the Word of God.

Everyone knows that at the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, the ijma‘ [consensus] of all the Companions had been established that all Prophets had passed away. This is exactly what the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, understood from the verse:

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Meaning that, all Messengers have passed away.

Was Hazrat ‘Isa not a Messenger that he should have been exempted from death? To follow the thinking of the Dark Age despite this consensus [of the Companions], is far removed from honesty. This was also the very doctrine of Imam Malik (rta) that Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus] had passed away. Since this was the belief of the predecessor of the Imams, then the same must be the belief of the others. As for past divines who had erred in understanding this truth, their error is worthy of overlooking in the estimation of God Almighty, for there were many such mysteries in this religion that remained concealed during the Medieval Period. However, it was essential for all such errors to be exposed during the time of the Promised Messiah since he would come as the Hakam [Arbiter]. Had such errors not crept in during the interim period, the coming of—and the waiting for—the Promised Messiah would have been useless because the Promised Messiah is a Mujaddid [Reformer] and Mujaddids only come to correct errors. How could he whom the Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had named the Hakam, be the Hakam if no rectification was brought about at his hand? This is indeed the truth; blessed be those who accept it and fear God.

Returning again to our previous subject, I say that the miracles and marvels that the masses have attributed to Hazrat ‘Isa are contrary to the way of Allah. Just as one group has taken themselves to one extreme by rejecting miracles altogether, so has the other gone to the opposite extreme by employing extreme exaggeration regarding miracles—both sides having abandoned the middle path. It is evident that without miracles there would be no sure and categorical Sign for the existence of God Almighty, but if miracles are said to be of the kind just described, they deprive one of all the fruits of faith, so that faith can no longer be called faith, and it leads one to the verge of idolatry.

Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, has strangely been the target of the ignorant. During his lifetime, the irreligious Jews called him a disbeliever, a liar, a deceiver, and an impostor, and denied his spiritual exaltation. When he died, he was deified by those who were dominated by the disposition to worship man, whereas the Jews continued to deny even his spiritual exaltation. Now, against this came the doctrine of his physical ascent to heaven and it became widely publicised that he ascended bodily to the heavens, as if to say that the previous Prophets were exalted to heaven spiritually after death, but Hazrat ‘Isa, while yet alive, went to sit in heaven with his physical body, along with his clothes and all his bodily necessities.

This was a hyperbolic response concocted to counter the antagonism and rejection of the Jews with which they denied spiritual exaltation, yet this reply was entirely illogical because the Jews had no concern with bodily ascension whatsoever. It was a doctrine of their shariah [religious law] that those who die on the cross are accursed, disbelievers, and faithless; they are not spiritually exalted towards God Almighty. The doctrine of the Jews was that upon death, the soul of every believer is carried to heaven by angels and the doors of Heaven are opened for him, but the soul of a disbeliever is not raised to heaven. A disbeliever is accursed and his soul goes downwards. Since Hazrat ‘Isa was put on the cross, and also because some of the disagreements in their religious verdicts, the Jews had declared Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, to be a disbeliever; since, in their view, he had been killed through crucifixion and it was clearly decreed in the Torah that whoever is thus killed on the cross is accursed; therefore, on the basis of these reasons, they had declared Hazrat ‘Isa to be a disbeliever and had rejected his spiritual exaltation.

In the opinion of the Jews, the plea that the Messiah went up to the heavens in his physical body was laughable. As a matter of fact, this fabrication was perpetrated by those who were not acquainted with the teachings of the Torah. The very idea in itself is the greatest degree of gibberish, which exposes God to criticism. For, while the Messiah, may peace be upon him, had not yet conveyed his message to all of the tribes of the Jews, which had been divided into various sects, and not even a single sect had been guided through his hand up until that point, to leave the work of preaching incomplete and for Hazrat ‘Isa to ascend to heaven is totally against good judgement and tantamount to dereliction of his official responsibility. Moreover, it is self-evident that for Almighty God to arbitrarily seat him in heaven is a frivolous and useless act that can never be ascribed to Almighty God.

In short, it is a slander against Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him, to say that he ascended to heaven with his earthly body. Just as his enemies had slandered him during his lifetime as a disbeliever and a liar, so have those who had gone to the other extreme in his excessive praise— being his foolish friends bodily lifting him up to the heavens, as has been said: [‘Saints do not fly; their disciples give them wings’].

And not only that, but they even declared him to be ‘God’. And then, after more time had elapsed, another doctrine was fabricated to the effect that he will descend from heaven with the same body, the last days of the world will be his, and he will be Khatamul-Anbiya’ [Seal of the Prophets]. Thus, in no other Prophet do we find anything like the false miracles and marvels that are ascribed to Hazrat ‘Isa, may peace be upon him. Stranger still, despite all the supposed miracles, he stands in first place when it comes to the failure and ineffectiveness in spreading the faith. Such a degree of ineffectiveness has not been seen in the case of any other Prophet. However, keep in mind that the religion that is now spreading in his name is not his religion.

The commandments to eat pork and belief in three gods are nowhere to be found in his teachings in the Gospels. Rather, this is the same idolatrous teaching that was opposed by the Prophets. The Torah contained only two major and eternal commands. First, not to deify a man. Second, not to eat [the flesh of] swine. Both commandments were violated by the teachings of St. Paul. [Surely, to Allah we belong and to Him shall we return].14

I would now like to elaborate on what a miracle is, and why a miracle is needed. In the first chapter of this book I will lay down the true essence and need of miracles. In the second chapter I will cite some examples of miracles in keeping with my claim. The third chapter would sum up the subject to conclude the book.