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 Qādī Thanaullah of Panipat writes in regard to the Promised Mahdi, in his book Tadhkiratul-Ma'ad : ابدال از شام و عصائب از عراق آمده باوے بیعت کنند ]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 Fatimah or the progeny of 'Abbās, and the Abdāl [saints] and Qutb [spiritual guid- ing stars] will take the oath of allegiance to him. But I have just written that eminent muhaddithin [scholars of Hadith] have held that all such ahādīth 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 aḥādīth 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 Abdal will take the oath of allegiance to him? When the basis is false, how can the offshoots be considered true? Moreover, Abdal do not have any inborn physical features to be distin- guished from others. Abdāl, 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 Abdal. Most in my Jama'at [Community] are people who have suffered much hardships for the sake of this Jama'at, and have suffered much indignities, and have not hesitated to even give up their lives. Are they not the Abdal? Shaikh Abdur-Rahmān, who was strangled in front of Amir 'Abdur-Rahman on account of [his allegiance to] this Jama'at and chose to be slaughtered like a goat-was he not among the Abdal?