Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 291
291 the creation of the railway and the fact that camels have become obsolete, and so on and so forth. Seventhly, the supplication in Surah Fatihah also establishes that the one who is destined to appear will be from within the Muslim community. In short, there are not one or two, but rather hundreds of arguments which prove that the awaited one must come from within the ummah and that this is the time of his appearance. Now, I proclaim, in light of inspiration and rev- elation from God Almighty, that the man who was to appear is myself. Anyone who so desires is free to obtain from me the sort of evidence that God Almighty has always furnished, since time immemorial, in support of the institution of prophethood. Signs of My Truthfulness Witness the signs that have been manifested in my support. I feel disappointed when I observe the state of my opponents. At one time, they would present cer- tain signs themselves, but now that they have been fulfilled, they have begun to criticise the authenticity of the narrations in which these signs were foretold. For example, now these people say that the Hadith which contains the prophecy of the solar and lunar eclipses is not authentic. However, one ought to press them to respond that when God Almighty has practically demonstrated that the nar- ration was true, will it become a fabrication just because they say so? What is more disappointing than anything else is that these people have no shame and fail to realise that when they raise objections, they do not show that the Promised Messiah is false, but instead reject the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. The solar and lunar eclipses are not the only signs that establish my truth and support me. There are thousands of arguments and testi- monies in my support, but even if there was not a single one, this would not be to my detriment whatsoever; all this would do is show the prophecy to be false. It is unfortunate that in their hostility towards me, they are bent on falsifying a prophecy made by the Chief of the Truthful. I present this prophecy emphati- cally and proclaim that it is a sign of the truthfulness of our Master. Hence, the truth of this Hadith—once written by the people with the ink of conjecture—has now reached a level of certainty by the occurrence of the event itself. Now, one would be faithless and accursed to reject this narration. When the scholars of Hadith class a narration as being a fabrication, do they claim that p. 265