Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 26
26 should be stultified. He proved clearly from the Moslem Scrip- tures and reason that the dead could never return to this world’s life, and that no being, except God, had the power of creation. He explained that the use of the expression “bringing the dead to life” in revealed scriptures signified the spiritual regeneration of men, or the healing by means of prayer of a person sick unto death, and that the expression “creation” signified either spiri- tual rebirth or certain spiritual transformations which were the result of the concentration of the will, and that every prophet had possessed the power of such regeneration and creation. Jesus Not Living Similarly, he proved, by reference to the verses of the Quran, that Jesus was dead, and pointed out that to believe in the exis- tence, like God, of another person in the Heavens amounted to shirk, which should be abhorrent to a true believer in God. He refuted the belief that Jesus had been carried up to Heaven alive, by proving that Jesus was not carried bodily into Heaven when he was about to be crucified, as is the common belief among the majority of the Muslim sects, nor did he die on the cross and then come to life, as is the belief of the Christians, but that, as is in- dicated by the Quran and the words of Jesus himself, he was put upon the cross, but did not die on it and was taken down from it alive. He established this position conclusively from the Bible and other records, and the Bible which had previously been a sealed book, now became an open one through him. He pointed out to the Muslims that they could not reject the united testimony of the Jews, the Romans and the Christians that Jesus had been put on the cross, especially as there was not a single word in the Quran indicating that this was not so. He drew the attention of the Christians to the following words of Jesus: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas,” that is to say, as Jonas remained three days and three nights in the belly of the