Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 479
Laying to Rest Some Doubts 479 His Statement— Literal-minded people do not possess inner insight; hence, there is no wonder that they do not recognize the Promised Messiah. But the men of God and men of insight ought to recognize His Holiness through revelations etc. as the late Q adi Than a ull a h of Panipat writes in regard to the Promised Mahdi, in his book Tadhkiratul-Ma‘ a d: دننک. ت �ب�یع� ادبال از اشم و اصعبئ از رعاق آدمہ ابوے [‘The saints from Levant and the elite from Iraq will come to pledge alle- giance to him’]. My ANSWER— All these statements are made on the basis that the Promised Mahdi will appear from amongst the progeny of F at imah or the progeny of ‘Abb a s, and the Abd a l [saints] and Qu t b [spiritual guid- ing stars] will take the oath of allegiance to him. But I have just written that eminent mu h addith i n [scholars of Hadith] have held that all such a ha d i th regarding the Mahdi are impaired and suspect; rather, most of them are fabricated, and not to be trusted even one bit. Some of the Imams (divines) have written special books to falsify such a ha d i th and have vehemently rejected them. Thus, when the coming of the Mahdi itself is doubtful and uncertain, how can there be any credibility to the notion that the Abd a l will take the oath of allegiance to him? When the basis is false, how can the offshoots be considered true? Moreover, Abd a l do not have any inborn physical features to be distin- guished from others. Abd a l, in the eyes of God, are people who bring about a holy transformation in themselves. You too—if you were to bring about a holy transformation in yourself and were to devote your- self to the Truth with no regard for people’s curse and abuse—would be counted among the Abd a l. Most in my Jam a ‘at [Community] are people who have suffered much hardships for the sake of this Jam a ‘at, and have suffered much indignities, and have not hesitated to even give up their lives. Are they not the Abd a l? Shaikh ‘Abdur-Ra hma n, who was strangled in front of Am i r ‘Abdur-Ra hma n on account of [his allegiance to] this Jam a ‘at and chose to be slaughtered like a goat—was he not among the Abd a l ?