Bounties of the Gracious God — Page 79
Our Beliefs in Brief 79 Therefore, they should ask the Christians whether Elijah descended from the heavens prior to the coming of Jesus as they had imagined. Likewise, they should ask the Jews, ‘O you who wait, did you find your lost prophet?’ This, in fact, shows that their beliefs are nothing but vain desires and that no one shall come down from heaven, nor has anyone done so before. Hence, the one who establishes his belief on a consistent and perpetual practice is more deserving of peace than the one who forsakes the path that was left behind as legacy by the past sages and chooses the path that finds no precedent among the past sages. They are like those who meddle with alchemy, whereupon fraudsters and tricksters deprive them of everything they have. Then they cry and wail but their mourning is of no avail to them. Most prophe- cies of the unseen are comprised of metaphors and to insist upon interpreting them literally would be against wisdom and in con- tradiction with the divine practice regarding the Prophets and a kind of ignorance and naivety. Miracles happen and I have never denied them, but I deny the things that are in contradiction with the Book of Allah and the matters that haven been established through the aforementioned testimonies and the divine practice that is in operation with regard to the Prophets. This indeed is the truth and it is not hidden from the wise. The Jews had denied Jesus only because Elijah had not descended from the sky before them; therefore they declared [ Jesus] a disbeliever, branded him a liar and a heretic, and that he did not possess even an iota of divine light. So had it been Allah’s practice to send the dead back from heaven, He would have most certainly sent down Elijah before Jesus and thus saved His prophet from the vituperation and con- demnation of the Jews that continues to this very day. The truth is