Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 341
15 January 1906 341 during the time of the Prophet’s life. The practice of Allah has always been in operation in such a way that people’s thoughts are elsewhere, and God Almighty shows something else, which causes a sort of trial for many. All the earlier people mistakenly thought that the Holy Prophet s as would be a Prophet from among the children of Israel. The Jews continue till today to make the mistake of Elijah concerning Jesus. It is written that when a saintly elder died, he said that when you bury me, a green bird will come there. The one upon whose head that bird sits will be my khal i fah. So when they had buried him, they sat waiting to see when the bird would come and on whose head it would sit. All the elderly and senior devotees thought in their hearts that the bird would sit on our heads. In a short while, a bird appeared and perched on the head of a grain merchant who happened to attend the funeral by coin- cidence. They were all surprised, but according to the words of their mentor, they took him and made him their khal i fah. He whose Advent is Promised is only One A person asked the question that it is written that there will be many messiahs. The Promised Messiah as said: As there is a similarity in forms, so is there a similarity in akhl a q [natural dispositions—morals]. It is written that the heart of every righteous person is like the heart of some Prophet, but he who was promised to come is only one.