If you look at what the ‘Allama thinks of the Second Coming of the Messiah, we find he totally denies it. He claims all these ahadith and other writings about the Second Coming of the Messiah and associated narrations are not true. So we have Ibn-e-Qayyim saying that stories about Jesus(as) ascending to the heavens are fiction and ‘Allama Iqbal saying that the stories about Jesus(as) descending from the heavens are fiction. In one of his poems, written in 1905, he says:
Witness the manifestation of the glory of thy Lord, in the lofty state of your heart.
Abandon all hope of the advent of the Mahdi and Jesus.
(Baqiyat-e-Iqbal, by ‘Abdul-Wahid Mu‘ini, p. 451, published in Lahore)
One can argue he said this in a poetic vein and therefore should not be taken seriously. However, in his prose writings, we find that he says:
In my opinion, traditions pertaining to the advent of Mahdi, Second Coming of Messiah, and the appearance of Mujaddids, owe their origin to the Iranian and non-Arab way of thinking. They have nothing to do with the Arab concepts or the true spirit of the Holy Qur’an. (Iqbal Namah, vol. 2, p. 230–231, Letter addressed to Chaudhry Muhammad Ahsan)
I have reviewed his other writings and the ‘Allama is convinced that this concept is a foreign concept which crept into our beliefs in the Latter Days. So now, we have a ‘Thinker of Islam’ held in high esteem by our opponents who is totally rejecting the Coming of Messiah and the Mahdi and we have the sayings of the Holy Prophet(sa) emphatically stating that the Messiah and Mahdi will come and it is incumbent on us to believe in him and support him. Who are you going to follow: Your ‘Thinker of Islam’ or the Holy Prophet(sa)? Are you going to accept the Messiah of the past or the Messiah from the ummah of the Holy Prophet(sa)?