Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 236
236 ordained' that tka garden of Ida m, should *be?$ver- green fore He watered it a new at the commencement of every century after the Holy Prophet and did not allow it to wither or loose its freshness Though whenever a man of God was raised for the regeneration of the world, ignorant men opposed him and severe- ly resented the correction of errors which had taken a firm root in their customs and institutions and been grounded in ; their habits, yet Almighty God did not forsake His law until in this age, when the final struggle between truth and error was to be fought, finding the Muslims in a state of remissness, He again remembered His promise made of old concerning the last ages, and breathed new li'fe into the faith of Islam at the commence- ment of the fourteenth century of Hejira and the seventh or the last thousand of the present cycle of the world. But since the time of our Holy Prophet, other faiths have not experienced such regeneration, and therefore they are all now dead and devoid of spirituality, and errors have taken such a firm root in them as dirt in a cloth which is never washed. Men who had no share of the holy spirit in them, and whose disobedient spirit had not yet been purified of the dross of earthliness introduced into them, principles according to their own evil desires, and with such cor- ruption changed their whole nature and their very appearance- v Look at Christianity for instance, how holy were the principles upon which it was originally based. Though the teachings given by Jesus Christ appear to be defective when compared with tne teachings of the Holy Quran, this being due to the apparent reason that the faculties of man had not at that stage been yet completely developed and accordingly the time for a perfect teaching had not arrived, yet these teachings were quite in accordance with the requirements of that time and embodied excellent principles of moral and spiritual growth, and pointed the