Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 37
37 only highlights the difference between the spiritual stations of the two, whereby ‘Īsā is the true Mahdi and Mahdi himself is noth - ing compared with him. This is just as one might say, ‘There is no scholar, except Tom,’ which does not mean that there are no other scholars, rather it means that Tom is far superior to others. Both these interpretations have dire implications. On the one hand, it is dangerous to declare a Hadith to be false without any reason, especially if the Hadith is accompanied by testimony. On the other hand, to say that the Mahdi will have no status as compared to the Messiah contradicts the Hadith wherein he has been called the Imam while the Messiah is described as his follower. The only acceptable interpretation, then, is that this Hadith gives the tiding of a single individual being raised from among the followers of the Holy Prophet s as who would first claim to be a Reformer and then claim to be the Promised Messiah as. These Traditions can have no other meaning. The fact is that people have been misled by the word ‘ nuz u l ’ [descent] that appears in Hadith and have been led to believe that the old Messiah will physically descend from heaven. This is not the meaning of nuz u l in this context. The word nuz u l in Arabic applies to the coming of something of great import, or to a great revolution that is a manifestation of Divine grace or Divine wrath. For instance, Allah says in the Holy Quran: 30 َّمُث َلَزْنَا ُهّٰللا ٗهَتَنْيِكَس ىٰلَع ٖهِلْوُسَر Then Allah sent down His peace upon His messenger. 31 َّمُث َلَزْنَا ْمُكْيَلَع ْۢنِّم ِدْعَب ِّمَغْلا ًةَنَمَا اًساَعُّن