With Love to the Muslims of the World — Page 24
24 not Jesus who was crucified. He was lifted to heaven and preserved somewhere in space for his future descent on earth in the latter days. A H MADIYYA I NTERPRETATION OF A HA D I TH ON THE S ECOND A DVENT OF J ESUS AS Ahmad i s, however, interpret the Traditions of the Holy Prophet sa , concerning the second coming of Jesus, figura- tively. They believe that Jesus being dead cannot come to this world again. Instead someone like him, with his characteristics would be raised from amongst the follow- ers of the Holy Prophet sa who would be entitled ‘‘Messiah’’. T HE N ON -A H MAD I I NTERPRETATION The non-Ahmad i scholars on the other hand, interpret this prophecy literally and believe that Jesus Christ as , who by now seems to have completed his 2,000 years somewhere in heaven, would descend bodily on earth and lead the Muslim umma to victory against Christendom. O THER D IFFERENCES BETWEEN A H MADIYYA AND N ON - A H MADIYYA B ELIEFS This division between the Ahmadiyya theology and non- Ahmadiyya theology continues in the same direction and covers many more areas of belief. While the emphasis of the Ahmadiyya interpretation is on the spiritual and metaphorical nature of prophecies, the non-Ahmadiyya theologians rigidly stick to the literal, verbatim under- standing of the same.