In the late afternoon, the Promised Messiah (as) said: “I am feeling very ill. Prayers are needed.” I was overcome1 by emotion upon hearing these words. I said: “You are that man about whom God Almighty has said:
اَنْتَ الشَّیْخُ الْمَسِیْحُ الَّذِیْ لَا یُضَاعُ وَقْتُہٗ
You are the revered Messiah whose time shall not be wasted.
I trust that God Almighty desires to increase you in rank immensely—on the one hand, God has assigned you such a multitude of tasks that even the thought of them would break the back of the strongest men, and on the other hand, you suffer from a host of illnesses.” The Promised Messiah (as) smiled and said: “Yes, in this I am certain that God Almighty has His own wisdom in view.”
In the context of an allegation levelled about the prophecy of Ahmad Baig, the Promised Messiah (as) said: “Anyone who reflects with fear of God Almighty over the fact that my prophecy was about the death of four individuals, and three of them have already met their end, while only one remains (i.e. Ahmad Baig’s son-in-law), their soul would tremble at the thought of how audacious the people are and how they can raise objections in this regard. Such a one ought to understand that in this is the wisdom of God Almighty. It is the custom of God Almighty to prolong the lives of those who oppose the righteous so that this may add to the vibrancy of their dispensation. God Almighty possessed the power to strike Abu Jahl and others like him with a sudden and unexpected bolt of lightning while they were in Mecca, the Great, and He could have uprooted them before they were able to inflict any substantial injury. However, their designs and machinations, and they themselves, were not destroyed until the Day of Badr dawned. If such matters were dealt with swiftly, the Prophet would be done with his work in no time; but then how would the vibrant countenance of God shine forth as a result of the heated uproar of the opponents, and without which diverse forms of knowledge and wisdom could not be employed and brought forth? God Almighty does not let the truthful die until their truth is made manifest, and until He clears them of the charges levelled against them by the improvident.”
After Isha Prayer, the Promised Messiah (as) said: “Today I was reading through Kanz-ul-Ummal which contains eighty-five Hadith about the Mahdi and Antichrist. All of these Hadith state that as soon as the Mahdi comes, he will at once begin spilling blood and thus redden the face of the earth with the blood of humanity. Only God can know the degree to which these people, who have fabricated such Hadith, thirsted for cruelty, craved to take the lives of God’s creation, and how dense and shallow their minds had become. These people have failed to realise that it is never the case that a divinely commissioned one of God appears, and then, without fully conveying and clarifying the truth to the people, begins to immediately wield the sword to spill blood—this is diametrically opposed to the very principles of preaching and divine appointment. It is strange that, on the other hand, these very same people have declared that the age of the latter days is one that is distant from the era of the Best of Creation, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Now obviously, the further away an era grows from the era of prophethood, the malady of negligence, indolence and aversion to Allah becomes all the more severe. Yet, despite this, they assert that the reformer and divinely appointed one to appear in the latter days would be a man who, upon his very arrival, would immediately take up the sword and say not a single word to clinch the argument against those who disbelieve. What sort of a reformer is this? Such a person would be a bloodthirsty tyrant.
It is unfortunate that these fabricated Hadith are a collection of contradictions so innumerable that even absurd and senseless tales could not be so ridden with inconsistency. However, the intellects of those people could not penetrate the depth of these absurdities.”
Then the Promised Messiah (as) said: “Upon reading these Hadith, I was horrified and the thought crossed my heart—with great pain indeed—that if God Almighty had not dealt with this, and if He had not established this dispensation, which has taken on the responsibility of disseminating the actual truth, this collection of fabricated Hadith surely would have soon driven countless people to renounce Islam. These narrations have laid the foundation for Islam’s destruction and a perilous wave of apostasy. Now, when these narrations were bound to remain unfulfilled, and the baseless prophecies made within them were nothing but mere lies that would never flourish and were comprised of false stories, it is clear that these narrations would be presented after some time before the coming generations, still unfulfilled. This in turn would obviously lead people to entertain the doubt that Islam is also a baseless religion, standing on mere tales in the same manner as the old Indian religions. Our future generations would have laughed and mocked uncontrollably, and would have been at liberty to audaciously claim: ‘O you who turn the Antichrist into God! Could a religion that ascribes the complete and perfect attributes of God to the Antichrist possibly have the right to claim that it is the religion of truth and the religion that teaches God’s Oneness?’”2
The Promised Messiah (as) states: “I cannot understand what sort of reformation this is. The fact of the matter is that a distance from the era of prophethood in itself gives rise to a state that is worthy of pity. In the case of Islam, there was destined to be thousands of trials and calamities as well. Then what benefit can there possibly be in war? In any case, after all of this, a narration also states:
لَا مَھْدِیَّ اِلَّا عِیْسٰی
There is no Mahdi except for Jesus.
This demonstrates that only the Quran can grant us salvation. We observe a sequence whereby, on the one hand, only two objectives of the Messenger of Allah have been mentioned therein: firstly, the perfection of guidance and secondly, the perfection of the propagation of guidance. The former reached its completion on the sixth day, i.e. on Friday, when the following verse was revealed:
اَلْيَوْمَ اَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِيْـنَكُمْ3
This day have I perfected your religion for you.
As for the completion of the second objective, it has been accepted by all that this will occur in the time of the Messiah son of Mary, i.e. in the time of the Promised Messiah. Allah the Exalted states:
هُوَ الَّذِيْۤ اَرْسَلَ رَسُوْلَهٗ بِالْهُدٰى4
He it is Who has sent His Messenger with guidance.
All of the commentators have written unanimously that this verse would be fulfilled in the time of the Promised Messiah. Now when the first objective was completed on the sixth day, it was only natural that the second objective also reach completion on the sixth day. One day, according to the Quran, is equal to a thousand years. In other words, the Promised Messiah was destined to appear in the sixth millennium.”
Then the Promised Messiah (as) stated: “It is only the Quran that is worthy of being recited, because in fact, this is the very meaning of the word Quran.”
Then, during the course of discussion, the Promised Messiah (as) also mentioned that the Arya Samajists have raised allegations in relation to the term Khayr-ul-Makirin (the Best of Planners) which is used for God, and other words, due to their lack of understanding the Holy Quran; even though the Vedas describe Indra to be a great deceiver. The Promised Messiah (as) went on to explain that the various false Hadith about the Mahdi were fabricated out of a greed for sovereignty.5
The Promised Messiah (as) stated: “If we did not have the Quran, and if these collections of Hadith had been the crowning glory of our faith and belief, we would not even have been able to show our faces to other nations out of shame. I reflected over the word Quran and then it became evident to me that this blessed word in itself contains a magnificent prophecy. The prophecy is that this book alone is the Quran, i.e. a book that is worthy of being recited, and there will be a time when this will be the case even more so than before. In the era when other books will also be recited alongside the Quran, the Quran alone shall be worthy of being recited so that the honour of Islam may be saved and falsehood may be uprooted; other books will deserve to be forsaken completely. This is also the meaning of Furqan (distinction). In other words, this book alone shall stand to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and no other compilation of Hadith, or any other book for that matter, shall be equal in value or stature.”
Then, the Promised Messiah (as) said with great fervour and emphasis: “Now forsake all other books and read the Book of Allah day and night. Truly devoid of faith is the one who does not turn to the Quran and who remains, day and night, engaged in studying other books. Our community ought to become absorbed with heart and soul in studying and reflecting on the Holy Quran and should not let themselves become overly preoccupied in studying the Hadith. It is most regrettable that the Holy Quran is not given the same attention, nor studied, as are the Hadith. At this time, if you employ the weapon known as the Holy Quran, you shall be victorious. No darkness will be able to stand in the face of this light.”6
1 Maulana Abdul-Karim Sahib [Compiler]
2 Al-Hakam, vol. 4, no. 37, dated 17 October 1900, pp. 1-3
3 al-Ma’idah, 5:4
4 as-Saff, 61:10
5 Al-Hakam, vol. 12, no. 44, dated 26 July 1908, p. 3
6 Al-Hakam, vol. 4, no. 37, dated 17 October 1900, p. 5