Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 52
52 that the advent of the Messiah is yet expected but that it already taken place. These signs show that the Messiah has appeared and it is the duty of every seeker after truth to find him out. Another point which deserves to be noticed is that the revelations of all the Muharnmadan saints fix the appearance of the Messiah at the commencement of the 14th century of Hejira and not a single revelation takes it further. There is moreover an authentic tradition to the effect that a spiritual Eevivalist will be raised among the Muslims at the commencement of every century, and since the Messiah will also be a spiritual revivalist, therefore if he does not appear in the earlier part of the century, his advent shallhave to be delayed for another century, an idea not only repugnant as suggesting the decline of Islam for another century, but also opposed to all prophetical writings. We have thus seen that the present is a time which the Jews, the Christians and the Muhammadans declare with one voice to be the time of the advent of the Promised Messiah. The concurrence on this points of three great religions, otherwise differing in their conceptions of the Messiah, is a very significant fact. The first Messiah was expected by one nation only and that a very small one, but the second Messiah is expected by three great nations and they all agree that the time of his advent is come- It is a time when all religious and national prejudices should be thrown away lest they might prove a hinderance in the acceptance of the truth. The Messiah is come and it is, therefore, the duty of every seeker after truth to walk after him. No stronger proof is needed to establish that the Messiah has come than the agreement of three different religions, each coming to the same conclusion by a different channel of arguments and on the authority of different sacred books. The signs foretold by the Israelite prophets, such as Daniel and others, as well as those