Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 346
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 346 declared the word زَلْزَلَة [ zalzalah ] to be definitively an earthquake nor has he spelled out the time. Some calamity or other would befall between now and the Doomsday anyway and it would be convenient to claim every such event to be the fulfilment of his prophecy! It is strange that while I keep saying over and over again that the word زَلْزَلَة [ zalzalah —‘earthquake’] , in my prophecies, most probably implies an earthquake—if it is not that, then an extraordinary calamity is implied that would have a very great resemblance with an earthquake and would have the character of an earthquake fully—yet the critic is not satisfied with these many words. I do not know how, with such doubts, he ever came to be satisfied with Islam. Everyone knows that, with regard to the prophecies of past Prophets, may peace be upon them, it has been considered adequate that they should be extraordi- nary and beyond the power of human beings, or that they should com- prise the unseen that is beyond human foresight. When a prophecy is narrated as consisting of an extraordinary hap- pening—and at the time of its announcement no mind or imagination can conceive that such an event is going to happen, and it is clearly an unusual event which has no parallel in earlier centuries nor are there manifest signs of its occurrence in the future—and that prophecy turns out to be true, then sound reason dictates that such a prophecy would necessarily be taken to have been from God. Otherwise, all the proph- ecies of Prophets would have to be rejected. Now, listen to this carefully: The notion that my prophecy regard- ing the future earthquake does not specify any time limit is a com- pletely false notion that has developed merely from lack of delibera- tion, excessive prejudice, and hastiness because the revelation of Allah has apprised me time and again that this prophecy will come to pass within my own lifetime, in my own country, and only for my sake. And if it turns out to be only something ordinary, having hundreds of prece- dents and if it is not something extraordinary that manifests the marks of Doomsday—then I myself tell you not to regard it as a prophecy. Treat it as the hoax you say it is.