Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 489
Laying to Rest Some Doubts 489 that, by following the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, or through his spiritual teaching, that they had become Prophets or that they were called ummat i. God had bestowed upon them distinct Books, and they were instructed to follow those Books and teach others to do the same, and this is testified to by the Holy Quran. In view of this categorical testimony, how can Hadrat ‘ I s a be regarded the Promised Messiah? Since he is not an ummat i , he can also not be the kind of Nab i who has to be an ummat i. Similarly, Almighty God manifested hundreds of Signs for me, a portion of which has also been recorded in this part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya. His Question— What is the blessed age of your eminence at the moment? As for your tidings that your eminence gives that Islam will make great progress through your eminence, whether all that progress will happen within the lifetime of your eminence or what? I seek its elucidation. My Answer— True estimation of the age is known, of course, to God, but as far as I know at this time, which is 1323 of the Hijrah, my age is close to seventy (70) years. والل ّٰ اعلم [And Allah knows best]. I cannot say whether the full progress of Islam will take place within my lifetime or after me. However, I reckon that the full measure of progress of faith never occurred within the lifetime of any Prophet. Rather, the task of the Prophets was that they were able to show somewhat of a sample of the progress, and then, after them, further progress came to fruition. For instance, our Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was sent to the entire world—for everyone—dark or fair-skinned—but within his lifetime, the fair-skinned; i. e. European nations, did not get any share of Islam—not a single person became a Muslim. And as for those who were dark-skinned, out of them Islam spread only within the Arabian Peninsula, and the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, died after the fall of Makkah.