Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 183
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 183 In my address I proclaimed, and do so again, that the charge preferred against me as if I claim to be a prophet of a type who has no relationship with Islam, and that I consider myself a prophet who is not bound by the Holy Quran, and that I have instituted a new credo and have appointed a new Qibla, and that I claim to have abrogated the law of Islam, and that I do not follow and obey the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, is entirely false. I consider a claim of such prophethood as amounting to disbelief and I have set forth throughout, in all my books, that I do not claim any such prophethood, and that it is a calumny to attribute such a claim to me. The basis on which I call myself a prophet is that I am honoured with the converse of God Almighty, that He speaks to me frequently, and responds to me, and discloses many hidden things to me, and informs me about future 'events, in a manner that He adopts only towards one who epjoys special nearness to Him, and that on account of the multiplicity of these matters He has designated me a prophet. Thus, I am a prophet in accordance with divine command and it would be a sin on my part to deny it, and I shall continue to be firmly established on it till I pass away from the world. I am not a prophet'in the sense that I separate myself from Islam, or abrogate any commandment of Islam. I bear the yolk of the Holy Quran and no one dare abrogate a single word or vowel point of the Holy Quran. I affirm, not out of a desire for self-praise, but on the basis of God's grace and His promise, that if the whole world were on one side and I were alone on the other side and a matter were put forward as a criterion for determining the truth of a servant of God, I would be granted supremacy by God in such a contest. God would be with me in every aspect of the contest and would grant me victory in every field. It is on this basis that God has designated me a prophet. During his stay in Lahore he embarked upon a project which was designed to bring about an understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, ,whereby both parties might be enabled to live together in peace and amity; and all bitterness and rancour might be entirely excluded from their mutual peaceful relationship. To achieve this purpose he started the compilation of a detailed brochure in which he set out his proposal and which he designated The Message of Peace. The purport of his