Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 753
SIGN NUMBER 205 753 among the Children of Israel, but it did not happen as they expected. This Prophet, on the contrary, was born from among the Children of Ismail [Ishmael]. As a consequence, hundreds of thousands of Jews were deprived of the honour of accepting him. Had God so desired, He could have described the Signs in such graphic detail as to obviate any chance of the Jews erring. Since there was no such clarification in the case of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, how could it then be done for anyone else? Therefore, remember, such prophecies also imply a kind of trial. Those who are gifted with rational thought are not destroyed during such a trial. They treat such reports or legends as a mere heap of conjectures and also believe that even if a report or story is authentic, it is vulnerable to misinterpretation. Hence, their sole criterion for the recognition of truth is the help and support of God and His Signs and testimonies. To them, whatever of the Signs reported in the traditions that have been manifested is sufficient, and they reject the rest of the stories and discard them as worthless things. This was the criterion adopted by the right-minded Jews who became Muslims. This alone has been the way of the truthful. If the righteous and the God-fearing had not fol- lowed this path, not a single Jew or Christian could have ever come to believe in the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, nor would any Jew have accepted Ḥaḍrat ‘Īsā. Many Jews live in this country. Ask them why they have not believed in Hadrat 'Īsā and the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. After all, they are not mad, they must have an excuse upon rely. Remember, their invariable answer will be that the signs written in their traditions and records had not been fulfilled. Therefore, by holding fast to this impertinence, they landed themselves in Hell and go on being so condemned. which they Now that it has been established that insisting on the total fulfil- ment of all the reported signs as a condition precedent to faith is a path to Hell, the result of which hundreds of thousands of Jews landed themselves into Hell, then why do you wish to take this path? A believer