Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 53
53 aspect of Islam from the errors which had crept, into it and presented to the world the original teachings of the Quran, to which nobody could possibly take any exception. Proofs of his Claim. A question might legitimately be asked here, namely, what are the personal proofs of the truth of the Promised Messiah? Perfect teachings are, no doubt, strong proof of the truth of a prophet, but all men do not possess the intelligence requisite to appreciate the beauties of a perfect teaching, and it is, therefore, necessary that proofs should be forthcoming by the help of which a man of average intelligence may be able to judge of this truth. The answer is that the Promised Messiah possessed all the proofs by which the truth of previous prophets was established, and that he worked all those miracles that bad been worked by the previous prophets. The greatest proof of the truth of a prophet is the per- fect purity of his own life. The life of a prophet exhibits such uniform purity and righteousness that all those who have op- portunities of observing it are convinced of the truth. I do not mean merely that people do not become aware of their faults, for there must be hundreds of thousands of men against whom no evil can be proved, but I mean such righteousness as is testified to by men, and on the basis of which it can be confi- dently asserted not only that that man has not been guilty of any evil, but that no evil could possibly be expected from him. As a proof of his truth, Jesus says: “Which of you convinceth me of sin ? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me. ” (John viii. , 46) By this he did not mean merely that no falsehoods could be proved against him, but that they were aware that his life had been such that he could not possibly utter that which was not true; and he asked them why, having such knowledge, they did not accept that which he told them concerning God, for a man who has never been guilty of a falsehood concerning man, could not