Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 231
231 that when the Mahdi appears, the name of his father would be the same as my father, the name of his mother would be the same as my mother, and he would come with my nature. The purport of the Holy Prophet sa was that the Mahdi would be a manifestation of his very own person, just as the Prophet John as was a manifestation of the Prophet Elijah as. The Sufis refer to this as a buruz (spiritual manifestation) and say that such and such person is a manifestation of Moses as , or a manifestation of Jesus as. Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan has also written in his book that ْ ٰاخَرِیْنَ مِنْھُم ( others from among them ) refers to those people who will be with the Mahdi, and these people will be like the companions of the Holy Prophet sa , and their leader, that is the Mahdi, will be a representative of the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. ” 1 20 July 1901 It Is Against the Dictates of Righteousness to Make Personal Attacks There was mention of Munshi Ilahi Bakhsh and his associates, as well as his book Asa-e-Musa. Someone stated that a certain individual makes such and such com- ments about the conduct and character of these people. The Promised Messiah as said: “I will not have a part in such things, nor do I make personal attacks in this manner. This is against the dictates of righteousness. ” Babu Muhammad Sahib mentioned that Munshi Ilahi has written many things in the book Asa-e-Musa which are contrary to the facts. On this, His Holiness as said: “I have written in Zururat-ul-Imam that I thought well of him, but it is unfortunate that he has written things which are contrary to the facts, and thus erased the positive view that I had of him. Ilahi Bakhsh Sahib has copied a passage from someone else and used insulting words about me and my revered father, say- ing that he was a pauper. It is contrary to the demands of righteousness to blindly copy falsehood. After all, the one who quotes is responsible to ensure it is authen- tic. If my relationship with Ilahi Bakhsh Sahib had not been so long standing, if he had not been acquainted with my family’s circumstances, if he had lived in a place far away from here, if he had not read the section about my revered father in Sir Lepel Griffen’s book The Punjab Chiefs , and if he was unaware of the fact that he provided the British government with fifty horsemen during the Mutiny, I would have considered him worthy of being excused. But now, the level of his 1 Al-Hakam , vol. 5, no. 27, dated 24 July 1901, pp. 6-7 p. 211