Elucidation of Objectives — Page 25
Tau di h-e-Mar a m 25 described the coming of its occupant as if it were the coming of God Himself. For instance, the Messiah also says in a parable: At first, the Lord of the vineyard— God—sent his servants to collect the harvest. By ser- vants he meant those who were close to God, in short all the righteous and the saintly who lived during or prior to the time of the Messiah. But when the tenants declined to surrender His share of the crop, the Lord of the orchard sent his own son to emphasize the point in the hope that recognizing the son, they would forthwith surrender the yield of the orchard. Hence, the son means the Messiah who enjoyed a still closer degree of nearness and love, but the husbandmen refused to deliver the fruit even to the son. Instead, in their own arrogance and fancy, they killed him. The Messiah then adds: Now the Lord of the vineyard will come Himself. In other words, God will Himself appear in person in order to kill the tenants of the garden and transfer its possession to those who would surrender the harvest on time. 33 Here the coming of the Lord God symbolizes the coming of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa , whose station of love and near- ness to God is of the superlative quality. 34 Indeed all 33 Matthew 21:33-41 [Translator] 34 It was not the Messiah alone who described our lord and master, the Seal of the Prophets, the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa , in this vein and declared that his coming was, in fact, like the coming of God; other Prophets too have used the same kind of diction in their respective prophecies about the Holy Prophet sa and, figuratively speaking, have likened his coming to the continued on next page…