Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 170
17° AHMADIYY AT, truth to be sown by their hands but does not bring about its full growth through them. He causes them to die at a time which is attended with the apparent fear of failure, and thus provides an opportunity for their opponents to mock at them, and deride them. After this manifestation on their part, He exhibits His power once more and brings into operation such means through which those purposes that had been left somewhat incomplete are fully achieved. In short He manifests His power in two ways; first through His prophets, and secondly, at a time when on the death of a prophet difficulties arise and his enemies rise up in opposition and imagine that his mission would now fail and his Community would be destroyed, and the members of the Community become a prey to anxiety and are assailed by despair, and some unfortunate ones begin to think of resiling, then God Almighty manifests His power once more and rallies the Community and saves it from disinteg- ration. He who remains steadfast throughout witnesses this miracle as happened at the time of the death of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, when his Companions were overwhelmed by grief and many of the desert Arabs resiled from Islam. At that time God Almighty manifested His power a second time and by establishing Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq as the Successor of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, saved Islam from ruin and thus fulfilled His promise: 'Allah has promised those among you who believe and act righteously that He will surely make them Successors in the earth, as He made those Successors who were before them; that He will surely establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them; and that after their state of fear He will grant them peace and security' (24:56). The same happened in the case of Moses, peace be on him, when he died on the way from Egypt to Canaan before leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. The children of Israel were sore distressed at his untimely death and continued to mourn him for forty days. The same happened also in the case of Jesus, peace be on him, when all his disciples were scattered at the time of his crucifixion and one of them turned against him. Thus, my dear ones, as this has been the way of Allah from the beginning that He manifests His power in two ways so as to wipe out the false joy of the opponents, it is not possible that in this case God Almighty would depart from His established way. Therefore,