Meaning that, Abu Dawud reports that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: ‘At the head of every century, God will commission a Mujaddid for this ummah who will revive the Faith for its sake.’
The twenty-fourth year of the present century is now nearing its end and it is not possible that a saying of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, should remain unfulfilled. If someone asks, ‘If this hadith is authentic, then tell us the names of the Mujaddids [Reformers] of the twelve centuries?’, the answer is that this hadith has been continually held as authentic by the scholars of the Ummah. If, at the time of my claim, even this hadith is to be declared as a fabrication, such can indeed be expected only from these maulawis.
Some eminent scholars of hadith themselves claimed to be the Mujaddids of their own times, while others have tried to project someone else as the Mujaddid. Therefore, if this hadith is not authentic, they did not act honestly. As for the names of the Mujaddids, it is not necessary for me to remember them all. Such all-encompassing knowledge is exclusive to God alone. I lay no claim to know the unseen except for what God reveals to me.
Furthermore, this ummah is spread over a large part of the world. Divine wisdom raises a Mujaddid in one country at a certain time, and in another country at other times. Who can have full knowledge of the works of God and who can encompass His domain of the unseen? Will you please tell me how many Prophets have appeared in every one of the nations from Hadrat Adam(as) [Adam] to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him? If you tell me this, I shall tell the names of the Mujaddids too. It is obvious that lack of knowledge about something does not necessarily mean that it does not exist.
Moreover, it is a universally agreed tenet among the Ahl-e-Sunnat that the last Mujaddid of this ummah is the Promised Messiah, who shall appear in the Latter Days. Now, the point at issue is whether these are the Latter Days or not. Both the Jews and the Christians agree that these, indeed, are the Latter Days. You can ask them and find out if you so desire. Death is raging on, earthquakes are occurring one after the other, and all kinds of extraordinary calamities have started appearing. Are these days, then, not the Latter Days? The righteous ones of the Ummah have also designated these days as the Latter Days—and twenty-three years of the 14th century have already passed. As such, it is a strong argument to the effect that this, indeed, is the time for the Promised Messiah to appear.
I am the only person who made the claim before the beginning of this century. And, indeed, I am the only one after whose claim as many as twenty-five years have passed, and I am still alive. And I am the only one who has convicted the Christians and the people of other faiths with Signs from God. Therefore, as long as another claimant bearing the same characteristics is not produced in opposition to my claim, my own claim to be the Promised Messiah, who is the Mujaddid of the Latter Days, stands established.
God has decreed different epochs in time. There was a time when the cross broke God’s truthful Masih [Messiah], wounding him, but in the Latter Days it was preordained that the Masih would break the Cross; that is, he would eradicate the belief in the Atonement from this world through heavenly Signs—a due recompense for the damage done; no cause for complaint.