Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 293
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 293 opponent of the Movement, was moved to comment in his paper, the Ahle Hadees, of 10 March 1944: 'It appeared as if a host of the Companions of the Holy Prophet was proceeding to the conquest of Mecca. ' In the meeting at Hoshiarpur the Khalifatul Masih opened his address with the recitation of the Fatiha, repeating some of the verses in a voice steeped in emotion and followed it up with several supplications from the Holy Quran. The audience was deeply affected and repeated the supplications after him with streaming eyes and convulsed hearts. There- after, he described the background of the prophecy of 20 February I 886 ~nd eXplained how every part of it had been fulfilled in a wonderful manner despite adverse conditions. He then set out his dream in great detail. He concluded with the declaration: I call to witness the One and Supreme God Who has full control over my life that the dream that I have just described was seen by me exactly as I have put it, except possibly for some slight verbal involuntary inaccuracy. I call God Almighty to witness that in a state of vision I announced: 'I am the Promised Messiah, his reflection and his Khalifa. ' In the same state, under divine com- mand, I said: 'I am the one for whose appearance the virgins had been waiting for nineteen centuries. ' I therefore announce, under divine command, on oath, that God has appointed me the Pro- mised Son of the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, according to his prophecy, who has to convey the name of the Promised Messiah to the ends of the earth. I do not say that I am the only Promised One and that no other promised one will appear till the Day of Judgment. It appears from the prophecies of the Promised Messiah that some other promised ones will also come and some of them will appear after centuries. Indeed, God has told me that at one time He will send me a second time to the world and I will come for the reform of the world at a time when association with God will have become widespread. This means that my soul will, at some time, descend upon someone who will possess faculties and capacities like mine and he will, following in my footsteps, bring about a reform of the world.