Defence Against the Plague and a Criterion for the Elect of God — Page 26
26 HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD Therefore, the question وَاَنْتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ]Did you say to men?'] had to be asked. ¹ It is the height of ignorance to look toward the heavens now to see when ibn Maryam shall descend. However, the ulema before me who held that ibn Maryam shall descend from the heav- ens due to their faulty interpretation are blameless in the sight of God, and they should not be criticised. There was no flaw in their intentions; rather, it was a misunderstanding on account of human weakness. May God forgive them, because they were not granted knowledge. Their error in ijtihād [reasoning] was akin to the error in judgement made by Dawūd [David] in the case of the ghanamul-qaum; however, his son Sulaiman [Solomon] was bestowed understanding by God [concerning the matter]. Twenty-two years ago, I recorded the revelation on the last page of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya: ففهمناها سلیمان [So we have instructed Sulaiman in those signs. ] It relates to the discussion at hand. It is clear from the 1. The full question reads: O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to men, "Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah?" (sūrah al-Ma'idah, 5:117). [Publisher] 2. Literally means, 'Sheep of certain people'; this refers to an incident men- tioned in the Holy Quran (sūrah al-Anbiyā, 21:79) in which Sulaimānas resolves a dispute between certain peasants and sheep owners in a wise manner. [Publisher] 3. This reference appears on page 670 in the 1984 edition of the Rūhānī Khazāʼin, vol. 1. [Publisher]