Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 385
APPE N DI X to B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 385 In fact, the authentic a ha d i th do not even contain the word ‘second coming’ and only use the word نزول [ nuz u l —‘descent’], which is only used for honour and respect. We may say of an honoured guest that ‘when he comes he will “descend” at our house’, but would we take this to mean that he will return from heaven? In Arabic, the word for return is رجوع [ ruj u ‘ —‘return’], not نزول [ nuz u l —‘descent’]. It is a pity that this creed that helps Christianity has—without rhyme or reason—become such an entanglement for those who call themselves Muslims. Thus humiliated and silenced, our opponents finally come up with the excuse that this is what their forefathers have been saying. They do not consider that those elders were not infallible, and that just as the ancestors of Jews stumbled in the understanding of their prophe- cies, so have these elders stumbled. By the will and providence of God Almighty, a similar false creed has gained currency among them—the creed had found currency among the Jews that Prophet Ily a s would descend from heaven a second time, and the elders of the Jews awaited the second coming of the Prophet Ily a s with much love and eagerness. Their writings—in poetry and prose—reveals how much their yearn- ing and ecstasy was in anticipation of that event. Your ancestors were not infallible, but the elders of the Jews even had among them God’s Prophets and recipients of revelation, yet they remained engrossed in this error and it remained hidden from them that some other Prophet was implied by the second coming of Prophet Ily a s and not that literally Ily a s would descend himself. Not until Hadrat ‘ I s a had appeared could any of the Prophets or saints under- stand this sealed mystery that the return of Ily a s meant the coming of Prophet Ya h y a and not the real return of Ily a s. So it is nothing new that some of the elders of this Ummah were to be mistaken in the under- standing of a matter. What is even more interesting is that even these elders are not unan- imous in this matter. There have been many ulema who were convinced of the death of Hadrat ‘ I s a. Among them is Hadrat Im a m M a lik, may Allah be pleased with him, as it is written: