A Present to Kings — Page 53
( 53 ) arrangement of the words? For weak man to place himself in opposition to God and to undertake to change the arrangement of the words as used by the Almighty, is the height of absurdity. Of course it would have been otherwise if such transposition were authorised by the Holy Quran itself or justified by the sanction of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him), but without any of these, to indulge in such rashuess is the height of indiscretion. Even secular authorities would not tolerate such liberties with their laws, how then can they be countenanced by God, Who is All-knowing and All-wise in reference to Ilis revelations ? May He protect us from such to lis excesses ПА. Your Highness might have noted how explicit was the verse on the question of the death of the first Messiah. God said to Jesus that He would cause him to die, and exalt his rank, and establish his purity, and till the day of judgment grant to his followers dominiou over his disbelievers. We have seen how all these promises have been fulfilled. His rank has been exalted, the Holy Quran has declared his freedom from all the imputations charged to him by the Jews, and his followers have already had the upperhand of his disbelievers. Now, if it be true that the promise regarding his death still remains to be fulfilled, then its fulfilment must wait till the day of judgment, because the period assigned to the last promise extends to the day of judgment. If, on the other hand, we hold that the promise regarding his death was to be fulfilled before the other promise, then since the Christians have already. had the upperhand of the Jews, the promised death must already have taken place. Moreover if it be granted that it is a case of wrong transposition of words and that the promise regarding Jesus' death will actually see its fulfilment after the other promises, then since the time of the latter extend up to the day of judgment. it will amount to saying that when the rest of mankind will be raised from death, then will be the time of the Messiah to die. This is, however, absurd, because then