Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 29
29 they did not deem it as an important matter, their opinions in this regard have not been preserved in historical records. Nonetheless, everything we know about them confirms that they believed that Jesus had died. It is recorded in Majma‘ Bi ha r that, according to Imam M a lik, Jesus had passed away. 26 In short, the Holy Quran, Hadith, the consensus among the Companions and the family of the Holy Prophet s as , and the say - ings of Muslim divines, all testify to the fact that Jesus is dead. It is, therefore, wrong to say that by believing in his death we dishon - our him or deny the Holy Quran and Hadith. We do not dishon - our Jesus, rather, through this belief, we uphold the Oneness of God, safeguard the honour of the Holy Prophet s as , and serve the cause of Jesus himself, for he would never have wanted to be given a status that would undermine the Oneness of God, abet idolatry, and dishonour the Chief of Prophets s as. Dear reader, you can decide for yourself whether our oppo - nents are correct in their criticism; whether they have the right to be outraged or it is we who have the right to be offended because they have set up a man as equal to God, have denigrated our Holy Prophet s as , and, while claiming to be Muslims, have attacked Islam as the enemy would. The second objection against us is that, contrary to the belief of other Muslims, we believe a follower of this ummah to be the Promised Messiah as even though it is written in Hadith that the Messiah will descend from heaven. It is quite true that we regard the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, Gurdaspur, Punjab, India, as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi as ; however, when it has been established on the basis of the Holy