Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 156
156 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 1 ُ رَسُوْلٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُل مُحَمَّدٌ اِلَّا مَا And Muhammad is only a Messenger. Verily, all Messengers have passed away before him. Now on this occasion—a doomsday so to speak—the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had passed away from this world and all the com- panions were present. The army of Usamah ra had not yet departed. Hazrat Abu Bakr ra loudly proclaimed in response to Hazrat Umar ra that Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had died, and the argument that he pre- sented in favour of this was: ٌ رَسُوْل مُحَمَّدٌ اِلَّا مَا Muhammad is but a Messenger. Now, if the companions even faintly believed or held that Jesus, peace be upon him, was alive, they would surely have spoken up, but all of them remained silent. As a matter of fact, the companions began to recite this verse in public and say: ‘It is as though this verse was revealed today. ’ The companions did not take to silence out of awe of Hazrat Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him; they did not hold back from responding out of hypoc- risy, God forbid. Not at all. The reality was as Hazrat Abu Bakr ra had stated and this is why all the companions bowed their heads. This was the consensus of the companions. After all, Hazrat Umar ra also suggested a similar thing when he said that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, would return again. Now, if the argumentation of Hazrat Abu Bakr ra had not been per- fectly sound—and it could only be as such if it bore no exceptions, for if Jesus as had ascended into the heaven alive and was to return, this would be a jest rather than an argument—in the least, Hazrat Umar ra would have refuted him. Hazrat Abu Bakr ra and His Insight into the Holy Quran Therefore, since there were no exceptions in the verse alluded to earlier and this was the true state of affairs, all of the companions unanimously accepted this point. The following verse of the Holy Quran was revealed upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: 1 Aal-e-Imran, 3:145