Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 109
LECTURE LUDHIANA Holy Prophetsas and that the Holy Prophetsas should be declared dead, but for him [Jesus], he desires that he should be consid- ered to be still alive. ¹ The Damaging Effects of the Belief that the Messiah is Still Alive I most earnestly say that had the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, remained alive, not a single soul would have remained a kāfir [disbeliever]. What result has Jesus, peace be on him, [supposedly] remaining alive shown outside of there being four hundred million Christians? Just pause and ponder! Have you not tested this belief of [Jesus] living, and has the result not been perilous? Name any one sect of Muslims in which some member has not been converted to Christianity. On the contrary, I can affirm with full conviction-it being an absolutely true state- ment-that Muslims from every echelon have converted to Christianity, and their number may be more than even a hun- dred thousand. Christians hold only one weapon in hand for converting Muslims to Christianity, and that is this very doc- trine of [the Messiah] being alive. They ask for proof of this unique characteristic in anyone other than Jesus; if he is not God, then why was he bestowed this distinction? They say he is حَيٌّ وَ قَيُّوْمٌ - ]Hayyun wa Qayyumun-the Living, the Self- Subsisting, and All-Sustaining[ )نَعُوْذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ ذَالِكَ( ]We seek ref uge with Allah from that]. This doctrine of [the Messiah] being alive has emboldened them to mount that attack upon Muslims, the results of which I have already pointed out to you. Now, in contrast to this, 1. Al-Hakam, vol. 10, no. 32, p. 2, 3, dated 17 September 1906 109