Hazrat Mir Muhammad Ismail (ra) — Page 64
64 Ali. The Promised Messiah as has quoted this Hadith in his book Anjām - e - Ātham (The Death of Atham). According to the words of this Hadith , the Holy Prophet s as sa id: Allah will , Himself endorse the Mahdī and will gather his disciples from distant towns. Their count would equal the count of the People of Badr, which is 313 men. He [the Mahdī ] will possess a printed book, wherein will be mentioned the count of his disciples, their names, the places they belong to, and other details. 40 The first part of this prophecy, " Allah will, Himself, endorse the Mahdī ", was explicitly fulfilled in 1894, when in accordance with another prophecy of the Holy Prophet s as , the foret old signs of the Mahdī - the signs of the lunar and solar eclipses - took place exactly on their pre - specified dates in Ramadan. To show such astronomical signs was, needless to add, beyond the power of any mortal. These signs appeared in the eastern hemis phere in 1894. Unbelievably, they repeated themselves in the western hemisphere on exactly the same lunar dates, the very next year, in 1895. Thus, did God affirm to both, the East and the West, that the awaited God - sent guide, the Mahdī , had arrived. The God - fearing ones were left awe - struck by the glaring perspicuity of these celestial signs. The worldly sceptics , however, hesitated and chose to loiter in their maze of twisted logic.