The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 26
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI altogether calling it unreliable and inauthentic. The other group attached so much importance to Hadith that they tended to subordinate the Quran to it. The Promised Messiah rejected both these extreme positions and taught that the Holy Quran was fundamental and supreme and Hadith was a very useful guidance and a source of light for understanding the Holy Quran. Any Hadith which clearly contradicted the Holy Quran is to be rejected as inauthentic because the Holy Prophet could not have contradicted the Quran. Sunnah (the practice of the Holy Prophet) was binding upon Muslims and had at position superior to Hadith. . Another doctrine which held sway among Muslims at the time of the Promised Messiah was that force could be used to propagate Islam and they referred it as a doctrine of Jihad. This was also a dangerous and most erroneous misconception of the word Jihad in the Holy Quran which means striving in the way of Allah with our lives and resources. This doctrine of Jihad tended to destroy the freedom of conscience which Islam upholds. The Holy Quran proclaims: "There shall be no compulsion in religion, for guidance and error have been already distinguished". (2:57) Again it says "Proclaim, this is the truth from your Lord, then let him who will, believe and let him who will, disbelieve". (18:30) Islam allows. fighting only in self-defence, like the example of the Holy Prophet when after he was forced to migrate to Madina, the Arab tribes sought to destroy the early community of Islam. Fighting in self-defence or for establishing freedom of professing religion is only one form of. Jihad. A greater Jihad, according to the Holy Prophet, is to control one's ego and strive against the evil tendencies of one's self and purify himself and strive in the way of Allah like offering prayers. . At the time of Hadhrat Ahmad, many Muslim sects were expecting a bloody Mahdi and Messiah who were to fight with nonMuslims and convert them to Islam at the point of the sword. In other words, such a Mahdi and Messiah were to fill the world with blood. and violence. This belief was based on wrong and literal interpretation of some of the metaphorical words in Hadith. Hadhrat. Ahmad exposed the errors of this idea and declared it to be utterly un26