Arba'in — Page 41
Number Two 41 Is it necessary that when someone comes from God, it be incumbent upon him to accept everything good and bad that the people of his time say? If that is indeed the standard, then the prophethood of neither Hadrat ‘ I s a [ Jesus], peace be on him, nor the Seal of the Prophets, may peace and blessings of Allah be on him, can be fully ascertained. For example, for Jesus, the Jews had in their hand this Sign with reference to the Book of Prophet Malachi that the Messiah would not appear until the Prophet Elijah returned to this world. And the second Sign was that he would manifest himself in the form of a king and would liberate the Jews from the rule of foreign powers. But did the Messiah come as a king? Or, did Elijah the Prophet descend from the heavens before his arrival? On the contrary, both the prophecies were not fulfilled, and no Signs could be fulfilled in the person of the Messiah. Hadrat ‘ I s a , peace be on him, ultimately had to resort to interpretations—the very interpretations the Jews do not accept up to this day, laughing and mocking at them, and, considering him to be, God forbid, a liar. They say that it was clearly and explicitly stated in the Book of Malachi that Prophet Elijah him- self would come again and it was not stated that someone in his likeness would appear. And looking at the actual written words, the Jews seem to be correct. Similarly, in these Books of theirs the Messiah who was to come has been represented as a king, and the Jews appear to be correct again in assigning these meanings as well. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Messiah was a true Prophet. The fact of the matter is that, at times, allegories and metaphors