Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 185
Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I KHILAFAT 185 XIV KHILAFAT The function of a Khal i fa had been set out by the Promised Messiah as in his Testamentary Direction in these terms: "It is the way of God which He has manifested throughout since He created man in the earth, that He helps His Prophets and Messengers and makes them triumph, as He has said: Allah has decreed: Most surely, it is I who will prevail, I and My Messengers (58:22). Their triumph means that as the purpose of the Prophets and Messengers is that God’s will shall be done on earth and no one should oppose it, He establishes their truth through powerful signs, and sows the seed of the verities that they desire to spread in the world, through their own hands; but does not bring about its fruition through them. He causes them to die at a time when there is apprehension of their failure, and thus provides their opponents with an occasion for mocking at them and deriding them. But after their mocking and derision He makes manifest another aspect of His Power, and provides such means through which those purposes which had remained unfulfilled to some degree are fully achieved. In short, He manifests two types of His Power. First He manifests His Power directly through His Prophets. Secondly, when after the death of a Prophet his community is confronted with