A Gift for Baghdad — Page 99
Reply to the Announcement & Letter 99 you mention a hadith pertaining to Damascus, cited in [ S a hih ] Muslim, then know it has been interpreted literally. There is no doubt that its literal interpretation opposes the Quran, conflicts with its indisputable evidence, as well as other a ha d i th which we have mentioned in Iz a la-e-Auh a m. A Muslim could never be content with abandoning the absolute certainty of the Quran for the sake of a single hadith which does not even have a high degree of certainty. Had we acted in this manner, preferring a single narrated hadith to the Book of Allah, then the Religion would have been corrupted, the Islamic creed would have been destroyed, the impregnability of the Faith would have disappeared, belief would have been violently shaken, and the attack of the disbelievers against us would have intensified. Yes, we believe in that part of the hadith which does not conflict with the Quran; i. e. the part that states that the Promised Messiah will appear as a Mujaddid at the beginning of the century during the time of the Christians’ dominance over the earth. He will appear in a land that they have corrupted and whose inhabitants they have converted from Islam to Christianity. Then, he will break the cross, kill the swine, and will bring happiness to the rest. If the expression ‘ nuz u l [descent] near a minaret in Damascus’ agitates you, we have established that descent from heaven is preposterous and untenable. The Furq a n does not confirm it; on the contrary, it denies it in a clear statement. If you believe in the Furq a n and prefer it to everything else, then you should believe in the death of the Messiah and the implausibility of his descent from the skies, as you read in the words of the Lord of all the worlds. The surprising thing is that