Truth Prevails — Page 3
( 3 ) quietly beginning to assign to the Promised Messiah a position far lower than the one in truth, which belonged to him, that they did not believe he was a Prophet, a Nabi. Since this difference was not yet clear on the surface, and those at the back of this belief were not so acute on the question as they became later on; and since they were also afraid Hazrat Khalifatul Masih I might turn them out of the Movement, on the basis of this view, they issued a statement in the Paigham-i-Sulha : “It has been gathered that some people have been involved in creating a misunderstanding that by those at the back of this journal, or one of them, anyway, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, and the Mehdi, is being assigned a position far below the one, in fact, which belongs to him. We, all the Ahmadies connected with this newspaper, in one way or other, go on solemn oath, before God, Who knows the innermost secrets of what lies in the mind, openly and honestly declare that this view being imputed to us is nothing more than a gross accusation, a pernicious charge, against us. We solemnly hold that the Promised Messiah is the Prophet for this age, a Prophet, and a Messenger from God, raised to deliver the Muslims, and all mankind from sin and evil. The high rank and elevation which the Promised Messiah himself has said belongs to him, we have a firm and implicit faith in it; and we believe that an attempt to add to it, or bring it down even a fraction of an inch, is enough to burn all vestige of belief and faith in the heart. We firmly believe that there can be no deliverance without firm faith in the Holy Prophet Mohammad, and the Promised Messiah. After him, we have firm faith in Hazrat Maulvi Nuruddin, the first Khalifa, as our true religious leader. Now that we have made our position absolutely clear, those who are spreading this misunderstanding against us, if they do not desist, we are content to leave the matter in the hands of God. ” ( Paigham-i-Sulha , Lahore, October 16, 1913, page 2) Here, in 1913, we have all these people at the back of the Paigham-i-Sulha , going solemnly on oath that they believed the Promised Messiah was a Prophet, and a Messenger of God. They believed that any kind of effort to detract from the position which belonged to him was an act so treacherous, so irreligious, as to burn away human capacity for discovering the truth, and the steadfast courage to live up to that ideal. We must also bear in mind that these were also the people, subsequently to the election of Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad as Khalifatul Masih II, began to deny that the Promised Messiah was a Prophet, quite in the same breath as they started to deny the Khilafat of the second Khalifa. This quotation also bears out, as clearly as the midday sun, that in the days of Khalifatul Masih I, their belief in regard to the Promised Messiah, was that he was a Prophet. In any case, that is what they said, to allay a well-based suspicion, since the leaders of the group were afraid they were not yet in a