A Call to Faith — Page 19
19 among them; and despite the passage of so considerable a length of time they could once again place their hand in the hand of the reflection and spiritual son of the Holy Prophet sa , as though they were pledging their allegiance to the Holy Prophet sa himself. Then would Islam take pride over disbelief which would bow its head in shame before it. Muslims would call out to the disbelievers and say: You who were taken in by the deception of false religions, look at how our living faith bears fruit in every hour of need. You who weep in the remembrance of your fallen patriarchs, know our prophet is alive and his blessings reverberate in every age through his spiritual progeny. So as the Muslims waited with this hope and expectation, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, made his claim to be the Promised Messiah and the Awaited Mahdi. The world of Islam clamoured in protest as to how he could rise from the earth when the Messiah was to descend from heaven? How could he be a Muslim when the Messiah was to be from among the Children of Israel? All the ulema issued edicts of apostasy against him, accused him of denying the prophecies of the Holy Prophet sa and held him up as an enemy of Islam. Not long after, in light of the testimony of the Holy Qur’an, the Promised Messiah as