Testimony of the Holy Quran — Page 91
H A D R AT M IR Z A GHU L A M AH M AD A S 91 has clearly promised an everlasting Khilafat to this ummah. If this Khilafat were not to remain forever, what was the point of describ - ing it as resembling the Khulaf a ’ of the Mosaic dispensation. If the period of the Rightly Guided Khilafat lasted for only thirty years, and then ended forever, then it follows necessarily that God Almighty had never intended to keep the doors of bless - ings open eternally for this ummah, because the death of a spiritual dispensation necessitates the death of the Faith itself. And such a religion can certainly not be considered to be a living religion whose followers themselves concede that their religion has been dead for 1,300 years and God Almighty did not intend at all for its followers to inherit that light of true life which the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, possessed in his bosom. It is a pity that those who adhere to this idea do not ponder carefully over the word ‘Khalifah’ —which is understood through [the term] istikhl a f [succession]—because Khalifah means ‘a suc - cessor’; and the successor to a Messenger in its true sense can only be the one who possesses the excellences of a Messenger by way of zill [reflection]. That is why the Holy Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, did not want the word Khulaf a ’ applied to tyrants, because the Khalifah is in reality a zill of the Messenger. And since no human being is immortal, God Almighty so willed that Messengers, who are the best and most honoured of all men, should live by way of zill until the Day of Judgement. That is indeed why God Almighty initiated Khilafat, so that the world may never be deprived of the blessings of Messengership in any age. Thus, the person who believes that Khilafat lasted for only thirty years, disregards, in his ignorance, the raison d’être for Khilafat. Such a one does not know that God Almighty never