Truth Prevails — Page 81
( 81 ) We see here that Allah had promised that the promised son, the Muslih Mau’ud , would be born within nine years of the date when the passage was written. The meaning is, therefore absolutely clear that the son in question is one among the sons of the Promised Messiah born within this time limit of nine years. To talk of a son to be born in the fourth century, or in the fourth generation, after the date specified here, is entirely irrelevant. We must mark the following words in the prophecy: “That boy would be from your own seed, your own progeny and descendants. ” These words give a clear indication that the son in question would be a son in the immediate first generation, not a distant descendant. To talk of the fourth generation in this context falls far too wide of the meaning. The fact that he was to take birth within nine years puts him firmly within the sons in the first generation from the Promised Messiah. The time limit of nine years was not on the basis of any desire of the Promised Messiah: it was definitely set down in the Divine promise itself, and we have to remember that “Allah never violates a pledge. ” (Al-Ra’d, 4: 32) Evidently, the ambiguity in the expression, ‘He would make three into four’ was to be cleared by the way itself the events would fall. Element of Concealment in Prophecies In the matter of principles relating to Prophecies, the usual way and style with Allah is that He maintains a measure, or element, of some concealment, that at the time a prophecy comes to be fulfilled, it should provide a test for those who witness it, to accept or reject it, according to their intelligence and sincerity in faith. Concerning the expression “He would make three into four”, the Promised Messiah, openly, quite candidly, set it down that the meaning was not clear to him. But quite in the first place, the mind went to the conclusion that possibly there would be four sons, one of the four to be the Promised boy, the Muslih Mau’ud , though the reservation remained in the mind that the real meaning of the expression might well unfold itself to be entirely different from the one which appeared to be quite obvious. Later on, at one time, the Promised Messiah did draw a conclusion that he may come to be blessed with four sons and he expressed the idea that the Promised boy might turn out to be one of the three born earlier and when the time came for the fourth son to be born, he wrote in his work entitled Anjam-i-A’tham : “In the regions of revealment, the soul of the fourth boy stirred in my loins. ” (Page 183)