Truth Prevails — Page 54
( 54 ) however, Revelations came down on me, like the rain from heaven, to the effect that I myself was the Promised Messiah, so eagerly expected to appear, with hundreds of wonderful Signs and the earth, as well as the heavens took their stand in support of my position; and brilliant manifestations forced me to perceive that I, myself, was the Masih expected to appear in the later times. Otherwise, my belief on these points was the same as I had stated in Barahin-i- Ahmadiyya … Similarly, to begin with this was my belief that in no way was I comparable in quality with reference to Jesus son of Mary. He was a Prophet, great among those chosen by the Lord. Even when something occurred, which seemed to establish my superiority over him, always I took it to imply some limited and partial preference. Later on, however, the Wahyi sent down on me by the Lord, like pouring rain, it did not allow me to remain clinging to this belief; and I found the title of Nabi clearly conferred on me, in a manner that I was a Nabi from one angle, an Ummati from another… Anyway, the long and short of it all is this that there is no contradiction in what I say, I but follow the Wahyi , from the Lord. Just as long as this awareness did not come to me, I continued to say what I had said at the outset. But when I was given this awareness, I began to say different from what I had said before. I am no more than a human being: I do not claim to be the Knower of the Unseen. ” ( Haqiqatul Wahyi , page 148-150) Refutation of the Excuse put forth by the Lahore Section Members of the Lahore Section say the change in belief referred to in Haqiqatul Wahyi , is a change in the belief concerning the question of superiority and preference alone not in regard to the belief with respect to Nabuwwat. But from the reply of the Promised Messiah, it is clear that the root of the change in the belief concerning the superiority and preference over Hazrat Isa lay in fact that in comparison with him, the Promised Messiah did not look upon himself as a Nabi. But when he properly grasped the fact that he was persistently being called a Nabi in the Wahyi coming down on him like a downpour of rain, the Promised Messiah abandoned his idea of a limited and partial preference, which is possible for a man who is not a Nabi , over another who is. In the light of this new awareness the Promised Messiah took up the belief, at variance with the first idea, that he was superior to Jesus Christ in all his glory. Evidently, therefore, the modification in the belief concerning the superiority and preference in question came on the basis of the change in the concept of Nabuwwat. Accordingly we find that further on in Haqiqatul Wahyi the Promised Messiah wrote: “My dear people, when I have proved that Masih, the son of Mary is dead, and the Masih to come is I, myself, now, in this position, whosoever holds that the first Masih was better and