(In Lahore at the time of Zuhr, approximately twenty hours before his demise)
A person from the Frontier came and started to talk audaciously. The Promised Messiah (as) said the following in response:
I have not made up any kalimah [creed] from my side, nor have I made a separate salat. On the contrary, I consider following the Holy Prophet (sas) to be my faith and my religion. The term prophet that has been adopted is done so only at the behest of God. A person who receives plentiful communication in the form of prophecies from God Almighty is called a prophet. The Being of God is recognized by the Signs of God. This is indeed why holy men of God are raised. It is written in Mathnavi [by Rumi] آن نبی وقت باشد اے مرید [‘O Disciple! He shall be the Prophet of the Age’].
Muhy-ud-Din ibn Arabi has also written the very same. Hazrat Mujaddid [Alf Sani] has also expressed the same belief. Now, would you call all of them disbelievers? Rest assured that this system of prophethood shall remain established till the Day of Judgement.
Upon hearing this the person from the Frontier asked, ‘What deficiency was left in the Faith for the completion of which you have come?’
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
There is no deficiency in the commandments. Salat, Qiblah, Zakat, and the Kalimah are the same. With the lapse of time, observance of these dictates slackens. Many people become unmindful of the Oneness of God. Then He raises a person from Himself who helps the people reaffirm themselves upon the Shariah once again.
Slackness creeps in with the lapse of a 100 years. About 100,000 Muslims have renounced their faith, yet—in your opinion—there is no need for anyone. People are abandoning the Quran, they have no regard for the Sunnah [practice of the Holy Prophet (sas)], they have taken their own customs to be their religion and yet, still—in your estimation—there is no need for anyone.
Upon hearing this the person said, ‘At that time all will be disbelievers. Only thirty or forty believers will have been left.’
The Promised Messiah (as) asked, ‘Will all those who fight together with the Mahdi [the Guided One] be disbelievers?’
The person then asked, ‘What reformation have you accomplished?’
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
Look, more than 400,000 people have repented at my hand from impiety, immorality, many other sins, and false beliefs. Indulgence in impiety and immorality is like becoming a disbeliever. Not a day goes by that many come to repent. Turning to Allah in every matter is a monumental thing. To be a Muslim is not just what you think it to be.
To carry out a virtuous deed is an extremely difficult task. Pretentiousness nullifies a deed. In this day and age, it is hard to act with sincerity. People are focused on materialism. A Reformer has been promised at the beginning of every century to correct these kinds of errors, and to help people develop a focus on God.
If there was no need for a Reformer at the head of every century, and—according to you—the Holy Quran and the scholars were sufficient, then an objection arises against the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. People still go to Hajj [the Pilgrimage], pay the Zakat, and keep the Fasts. Even then the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said there would be a Mujaddid [Reformer] every 100 years. Even the opponents accept this. The prophecy would prove to be false if there was no need for one at this time. Do not just look at the visible; no one knows the unseen except God:
فَوَیۡلٌ لِّلۡمُصَلِّیۡنَ ۙ﴿۵﴾ الَّذِیۡنَ ہُمۡ عَنۡ صَلَاتِہِمۡ سَاہُوۡنَ ۙ﴿۶﴾ 1
Meaning, ‘So woe to those who pray, but are unaware of the essence of their Salat [Prayer].’
Thus, only such an individual attains success and only such an individual can be called a true believer who performs a virtuous deed with all its essentials. This is found in very few during this present age. Thus, I have come at my appointed time to remove these internal and external weaknesses. If I am not from God, this Movement will perish. And if I am from God, then—rest assured—the opponents will remain unsuccessful.2
(Before Asr Prayer)
Maulawi Ibrahim Sialkoti sent a letter to the Promised Messiah (as) through one of his special couriers. In it he requested permission for an oral discussion about certain disputed matters and promised to be polite and respectful.
The Promised Messiah (as) asked Maulana Maulawi Sayyed Muhammad Ahsan about him and his manners, and inquired if he was not easily overcome by anger, or quick of temper or easily excitable. Some of the companions replied that he was not like that, and that he was mild-mannered. However, if he is accompanied by a crowd of people, it could be a concern.
As the Promised Messiah (as) was busy writing his book, Paigham-e-Sulh [A Message of Peace], and had no time to spare, the Promised Messiah (as) told Maulana Maulawi Sayyed Muhammad Ahsan to write the reply to his letter and said: ‘I will also write a reply to him. You may conduct a discussion with him about these issues with cordiality and gentleness. However, do make sure that he does not bring a big crowd with him except a few honourable and cordial people. You should also have a discussion with him in a private setting. There is no harm in it.’
In the meantime, someone mentioned that he [Maulawi Muhammad Ibrahim] does not even believe that Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus], peace be upon him, was hung upon the cross, and that he presents the following verse in favour of his claim: اِذْ کَفَفْتُ بَنِیْۤ اِسْرَآءِیْلَ عَنْکَ3.
At this the Promised Messiah (as) said:
To adopt a course that has no evidence for it at all, disregarding consistent, obvious, and palpable matters, is totally opposed to wisdom and the Faith. I do not present anything new, nor do I try to persuade people to accept something unsubstantiated, for which I do not have strong evidence and clear testimony in my hand. There are hundreds of thousands of people with me as my witness. Entire nations are presenting their consistent and unanimous testimony. If someone has any doubt and suspicion, he can ask the Jews and the Christians as to their belief in this matter. Both contending parties are present. Ask them if they agree with what you present. You see, to go against the nationally held view and disregard it, without any powerful evidence or brilliant argument, is a most egregious error.
It is mind-boggling! And how was it possible to seize some other person and hoist him upon the cross without any rhyme or reason, while he uttered not a single word in protest? Why wouldn’t he scream aloud: ‘I am one of you! Why are you putting me on the cross while I am innocent? The real culprit is getting away. I am your compatriot. This is my name and so and so are my parents, and so and so are my relatives, why are you putting me to death?’
It was a matter of life and death for him and of becoming the target of an accursed death. The actual culprit was getting away. An innocent person—one without any fault; someone with nothing to do with it—was being put on the cross and strangely, he does not even protest in the least! This mystery is beyond my comprehension.
Apart from this, God has bestowed upon me revelation and knowledge of the unseen purely out of His grace, and—through the issuance of the special favour of communion and converse—He has given me true knowledge in these matters. Besides, my conscience cannot accept it at all that such sustained concurrence and the unanimous testimony of tens of millions of people is totally wrong and what they all had understood was a conjecture and a misconception. Look, تا نہ باشد چیز کے مردم نہ گویند چیزہا [‘Until there is somewhat of something there, people do not just make up things’].
I cannot fathom why God had to show such weakness? Was He incapable of saving the Messiah in front of all the witnesses that He had to resort to such injustice? Why did He put an innocent man to death without justification? To advance a view discordant with the Quran and the Hadith, puts the burden of proof on the one who advances such a claim.
What I mean by this is that all these matters are such that they are easily refuted. Just consider the word تَوَفِّىْ [tawaffi] in the Holy Quran and see if there is any place where it has been used in meanings other than death, or has it been used for ascension to Heaven with the physical body? This very same word, تَوَفِّىْ [tawaffi], has been used by Allah the Exalted for the Holy Prophet (sas). Ponder over the verse and see:
اِمَّا نُرِیَنَّکَ بَعْضَ الَّذِیْ نَعِدُہُمْ اَوْ نَتَوَفَّیَنَّکَ4
Then this same word occurs with regard to Joseph (as). So I cannot understand why Jesus (as) is given this special treatment in contravention to the Quranic dictum and to all the other Prophets (as) .
The same word, تَوَفِّىْ [tawaffi] appears nearly 300 times in the books of Hadith and nowhere does it mean ascension to Heaven with the physical body. Wherever you look it has always been used to denote death.
In fact, I sense a stench from someone who is not a seeker after truth and makes such a request just to brag and show his superiority in some fashion. I do not wish to waste my time on such a person who does not thirst for the truth and whose anguish is not for God and God’s religion; rather, he is a slave of his ego, and he lives and dies for the honour and glory of his own self.
And I sense a fragrance emanating from the one who comes to me in search of the truth and with a thirst and sincere fervour to reach God. So for such a one I stretch out my arms and receive him with honour and consider it an honour for myself to serve him to the best of my ability. On the other hand, I smell a foul odour from the person with an impure heart who entertains mischief concealed within him, and who is a seeker of the world; not of truth. Then, I do not desire even to speak to him.
The doctrine that God has established me upon is that Allah the Exalted has clearly mentioned the death of Jesus, peace be upon him, in the His Glorious Word [the Holy Quran] not just at one place but at scores of places. And the Holy Prophet (sas) bore witness to this practically in that upon seeing him [Jesus] among the dead, he did not describe any distinction between him and the others.
Today in India, more than 100,000 Muslims have left Islam on account of this one topic alone. The Christians established the superiority of Jesus the Messiah by employing the erroneous beliefs of so-called Muslims and presented this to people who were ignorant about their own religion. And they made such allegations on the basis of their own [erroneous] beliefs that no one from among them could answer, but remember that Allah the Exalted has not allowed any special quality ascribed to him [Jesus] by them to stand. On the contrary, He has humiliated them by refuting each and every claim of theirs.
The Christians had seized upon one distinction of Jesus (as) that since he was born without a father, this was firm proof of his ‘Divinity’. And this was a weighty argument of theirs against the Muslims with which they used to deduce his ‘Divinity’ by proving a unique distinction in Jesus (as). So Allah the Exalted silenced them with the rebuttal saying:
اِنَّ مَثَلَ عِیْسٰى عِنْدَ اللّٰہِ کَمَثَلِ اٰدَمَ 5
meaning that, if you present the miraculous birth of Jesus (as) as proof of his Divinity, then Adam should be God in the first place, as he had neither father nor mother. Therefore, you must first accept Adam to be a greater God, and only then may you present this argument for the Divinity of Jesus (as).
Thus, in this way Allah the Exalted refuted this argument of theirs. Accordingly, Allah the Exalted falsified their argument of the Messiah’s fatherless birth being proof of his ‘Divinity’ by presenting the example of Adam.
A second argument of the Messiah’s ‘Divinity’ advanced by the Christians was that he was alive and is sitting on the right hand of God in Heaven with his mortal body. And in this way they established a unique distinction of the Messiah and presented this very item as a mighty argument in favour of his ‘Divinity’. Now, can anyone tell me that if تَوَفِّىْ [tawaffi] does, in fact, mean ascension to Heaven with the physical body and it does not mean death in the case of Jesus (as), then where has the Quran provided the reply to this objection of the Christians?
The first argument of theirs was falsified by [the Holy Quran by] citing a precedent. In a similar manner, show me [from the Holy Quran] that such a precedent [about physical ascension] exists before or after Jesus (as) as well. And if there is no such precedent, then know for sure that Islam is gone today and gone tomorrow. The Christians convict you by your own beliefs and say that you yourself believe that Jesus (as) is alive with his physical body in Heaven, whereas your Messenger lies buried in the dirt of Madinah. Now, you decide who is better! Is it Jesus (as) or is it Muhammad (sas)?
It is sad that these so-called Muslims provide their enemy the ammunition for their own humiliation. Remember that if this had been the will of God Almighty and if this was what He had mentioned in the Holy Quran and Hadith that in reality Jesus (as) is alive and he is sitting in Heaven with his physical body, and if this belief had been true in the knowledge of God as was the fatherless birth of Jesus (as), then Allah the Exalted would have certainly provided some precedent for it to block and shut off the Christians from using this point as an argument for the Divinity of Jesus (as). But because God has not provided any precedent for this phenomenon, it is quite evident that the meaning you are ascribing to the Word of God is merely your fabrication and it was never the intent of God.6 On the contrary, God Almighty has coined this word تَوَفِّىْ [tawaffi] only to mean death, and this indeed is the truth and the reality of the matter.
Look, whenever any unique distinction has been conceived for any particular person anywhere, Allah the Exalted has provided an answer concerning it without fail. So, what is the reason that He hasn’t responded to such an impressive distinction? A distinction is indeed such a thing that can give rise to shirk [associating partners with God].
This was the last address by the Promised Messiah (as) in his life that he delivered with great passion and special fervour. During this speech his face was so bright and refulgent that it was not possible to behold it. This address of the Promised Messiah (as) was captivating and had great impact. His awe, majesty, and glory were at their peak. It was only at special occasions that this glory could have been observed and it was evident today. After this address, he gave no other speech.7 (Writer: Abdur Rahman Qadiani)
1 Surah al-Ma’un, 107:5–6 [Publisher]
2 Badr, vol. 7, no. 23, p. 7, dated 11 June 1908
3 When I restrained the children of Israel from putting you to death (Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:111). [Publisher]
4 If We make you witness a part of what We promised them or cause you to die before that (Surah Yunus, 10:47). [Publisher]
5 Surely, the case of Jesus with Allah is like the case of Adam (Surah Aal-e-‘Imran, 3:60). [Publisher]
6 From Badr: Similarly, the Christians present [Jesus] being alive in Heaven as an argument for him being the Son of God. Why did God not provide a precedent for this so that Jesus could not be considered unique without anyone comparable to him in any way? You must let Jesus die as there is life in this for Islam. Similarly, let the Muhammadan Jesus come instead of the Mosaic Jesus for the glory of Islam lies in it. Verily I tell you that if there is no continuation of revelation and communication with God in Islam, then Islam has died (Badr, vol. 7, no. 22, p. 7, dated 2 June 1908).
7 Al-Hakam, vol. 12, no. 42, p. 7–8, dated 18 July 1908