Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 532
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 532 as Hadrat ‘ I s a remained among them—in keeping with the purport of the verse 1 اَم ُتْمُد ْمِهْيِف —they all remained firm on Tau hi d [the Oneness of God]. Their progeny went astray after the death of Hadrat ‘ I s a. It is not known in which generation they fell into this error. Historians maintain that the Christian faith was still on its original principles till its third century. In any case, it appears that all those people returned to their homeland after the death of Hadrat ‘ I s a; perhaps because the Emperor of Rome became Christian, so it was no longer necessary for them to remain in exile. Here, bear in mind that the journey of Hadrat ‘ I s a , may peace be upon him, to Kashmir is not without proof. Rather, this matter has been established with strong arguments, so much so that the word ‘Kashmir’ itself is evidence of this, inasmuch as the word ‘Kashmir’ is a word that is pronounced ‘Kash i r’ in the Kashmiri language, and every Kashmiri calls it ‘Kash i r’. As such, it appears that this word is evidently of Hebrew origin and is the composite of the words k a f and ash i r. The land of Syria is called ash i r in Hebrew, and [the preposition] ك — k a f is used to connote similarity. Hence the word was ْر ی ِ كَأَش [ Ka-Ash i r ], where the letter k a f was distinct from ash i r, and the term meant, ‘like the country of Syria’. And since this country was the place to which Hadrat ‘ I s a, may peace be upon him, had migrated, and he was the dweller of a cold country, therefore, God, in order to comfort him, named this country Ka-Ash i r, meaning, ‘like the country of Ash i r’. Then, with frequent usage, the أ — alif [i. e. the ‘a’ sound in ash i r ] became obsolete and only Kash i r was left. Then, other nations, who were neither the dwellers of Kash i r nor possessed its language, added a —م m i m [i. e. an ‘m’ sound] and made it ‘Kashmir’. But, it is by the grace and mercy of God Almighty that to this day it is spoken and written as Kash i r in the Kashmiri language. Besides this, to this day, there are many things in the land of Kashmir that bear Hebrew names; even some mountains have been named after 1. S u rah al-M a ’idah, 5:118 [Publisher]