Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 517
Reply to the doubts raised by rashĪd a H mad gangohĪ 517 reason, all Imams and Sufis are agreed that the believers who are pious and sinless are invested with a holy and glorious body upon death, through which they enjoy the bounties of Paradise. To reserve Paradise for martyrs alone is an injustice, indeed it is a heresy. Can a true believer utter such an impertinence as to say that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, under whose grave Paradise lies, is still outside Paradise, but those who acquired faith and righteousness nothing else. Nor do they agree with the Christians on this issue, because while the Christians do believe in ‘ I s a ’s physical ascension they do not be- lieve, like they [Muslims] do, in ascension with the elemental body. Rather, they believe in the ascension of the glorious body which, in their view, was bestowed upon ‘ I s a after his death. And we cannot deny that Hadrat ‘ I s a as could have been granted a glorious body after death, which is not the earthly body, because it is granted to every believer after his death as is testified by the verse ْ وَادْخُلِي ْ جَنَّتِي [enter My garden]. This has to be so because the soul on its own is not suited to enter Paradise. Thus, Hadrat ‘ I s a as has no distinction in this regard. Where the Christians err, however, is in believing that the glo- rious body was bestowed upon ‘ I s a after his death on the cross, because ‘ I s a never died on the cross; otherwise, he would be considered to have lied in equating himself with the Prophet Y u nus [Jonah], God forbid, and would also have come under the purview of the purport of la‘nat [curse]. An accurs- ed person is he whose heart, like that of Satan, has become estranged from God and becomes God’s enemy and God becomes his enemy, and who, like Satan, is barred from the divine threshold and becomes rebellious of God. Can we attribute such a connotation to ‘ I s a ? Absolutely not! And can any Christian commit the affront that after his crucifixion ‘ I s a became estranged from God and developed a bond with Satan? This is the meaning of la‘nat that has been put forward from time immemorial and is agreed upon by all peoples. Alas, the Christians have never reflected on this connotation, or else they would have discarded such a belief with utmost disgust. Moreover, it is evident from the events presented by the Gospels that after deliverance from the cross, only the earthly body of ‘ I s a was witnessed. For instance, when the apostle Thomas doubted as to how ‘ I s a could have been delivered from the cross, ‘ I s a showed him his wounds to prove it, and Thomas put his finger in them. Could wounds have remained in the glorious body, too? Can we say that he was granted a glorious body and yet could not remove his wounds? The fact is that the body that was glorious was the one bestowed after his death in Kashmir. (Author)