Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 273
273 end. Then does the holy spirit invested with the glory of God descend upon his person, and the Divine attribute of glory is manifested in him. All this takes place in his second appear- ance. The same reality underlies the peculiar manner of the advent of the Promised Messiah. The Muslims hold that he shall descend near a minaret. The descent spoken of in that tradition really stands for his advent in glory which shall be ac- companied with a manifestation of the Divine power and attri- butes. It does not exclude the idea of his previous presence upon earth, but ib is necessary that the heaven should hold him so long as the appointed time of God does not arrive. It is also an unchangeable Divine law that spiritual realities are symbolized by physical emblems. The temple at Jerusalem and the Ca'ba at Mecca are illustrations of the same law and repre- sent the manifestations of Divine glory. The same explanation holds good in the case of the tradition which describes the des- cent of the Promised Messiah upon or about a minaret in a country to the east of Damascus. The word 'east' should be specially noted for Adam also had been put in a garden eastward. The object of the prophecy is in no way interfered with so long as the minaret is built before the glorious advent of the promised one, for it appears from the prophetic utterances that the mina- ret is to be a sign that shall indicate his advent in full glory. It had been ordained that the Promised Messiah should appear in the world in two characters. At first he shall come as an ordinary person suffering under trials and persecutions of every sort. When the days of suffering are over, then shall be the time of his advent in full glory. It is before that time that the minaret must be completed, for it appears from the traditions that a minaret must stand as a symbol of the reality, and it shall