Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 24
24 Having mentioned some of the prophecies which have been fulfilled in the person of the Founder of the , and which show that he was the Reformer whose advent had been foretold by all the previous prophets, I now proceed to indicate briefly how Islam was regenerated at the hands of the Promised Messiah, and what the latter did for the world. The Promised Messiah Regenerated Islam. I have already mentioned that the Promised Messiah was not the bearer of a new religion, but was sent for the service, the rege- neration, and the propagation of Islam, and to lead mankind to God through Islam. I now desire to explain in what manner he regenerated Islam and cleared it of all errors that had crept into its system. Within the short time allotted to me, it would, how- ever, be impossible even to enumerate the reforms which he made, and I shall therefore content myself with the briefest possible outline and then pass on to other portions of my subject. Unity of God The very first question relating to religion is the “Unity of God. ” If a religion does not contain a true conception of God, it cannot claim to be a religion at all. At the time of the advent of the Promised Messiah, the realization of the Unity of God had en- tirely disappeared from the world. Every religion, no doubt, loudly claimed to preach the Unity of God, but the real signi- ficance of this doctrine had never before been so completely lost sight of The expression, “Unity of God,” either covered a mul- titude of polytheistic ideas, or signified, at most, belief in the existence of One God. The Promised Messiah drew attention to the fact that God did not raise prophets for the object of merely to propagate the doctrine that there is no God beside Him, for the acceptance of this doctrine alone can make no deep impression