Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 69
S IGN S OF T HE T RU E FAIT H 69 astray has been established to be a result of the sentence 1 اَّمَلَف ْيِنَتْيَّفَوَت ; that is, it has been made contingent upon the death of Hadrat ‘ I s a, may peace be upon him. However, since it is obvious that the Christians have indeed gone astray, it must be necessarily admit- ted along with it that Hadrat ‘ I s a , may peace be upon him, has also died. Any other interpretation would constitute the rejection of a Quranic verse. 2. Second, it is clearly stated in this verse that Hadrat ‘ I s a , may peace be upon him, will deny any knowledge of the Christians’ trans- gression and will say that he knew of their condition only up to the time he was present among them, but ever since he had been caused to die, he was completely unaware of what happened after him. Now, it is evident that his excuse would be sheer perjury in the event he had returned to this world any time before the Day of Judgment and learnt that the Christians had gone astray. If that were so, the retort from God Almighty should have been: ‘O inso- lent man! Why are you lying in front of My face in My court, and why are you falsely claiming that you had absolutely no knowl- edge of their transgression, whereas you know that I had sent you back again into the world before the Day of Judgment and you fought wars against the Christians, breaking their cross and kill- ing their swine! Yet [you dare] so much falsehood before Me as if you know nothing!’ Now, it is obvious how disgraceful for Hadrat ‘ I s a , may peace be upon him, is the belief that he would return to this world, and—God forbid—thereby expose him to the charge of perjury. If, however, you should ask: ‘How, then, are we supposed to interpret the a ha d i th [pl. hadith] wherein it is written that ‘ I s a ibn Maryam [ Jesus son of Mary] will descend?’; the reply is: ‘Interpret them in the 1. But since You did cause me to die ( S u rah al-M a ’idah, 5:118). [Publisher]