Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 277
THE PROMISED MESSIAH IS A PROPHET OF GOD. God requires you to believe that there is one God and that Muhammad, may peace and blessings of God be upon him, is His Prophet, and the sea] of the Prophets and greatest of all. No prophet shall come after him but only he who is spiritually clothed in his clothing, for the servant and the master, are as one and the branch is not independent of the root. Therefore, he who lo,sing himself in his master, receives the title of Prophet from God, does not break the seal prophecy. It is like one's own image in a looking-glass. Such an image of the Holy Pro- phet is the Promised Messiah. (Vol. I. R. R. 1902). The Holy Prophet was the seal of prophets and, therefore, if his successors had been called prophets, the seal qf prophet- ship would have become a moot point. On the other hand, if none of the successors had been called a prophet, the similarity with the Israelite prophets who succeeded Moses could not have been established. It was, therefore, ordained by Divine wisdom the first successors of the Holy Prophet should not be called prophets, so that it may be a sign that the Holy Prophet was the seal of prophets, and that thus the seal of his prophet- hood should be established. It was also ordained that the last successor of the Holy Prophet, the Promised Messiah, should be called a Prophet, so that the resemblance referred to above, might be complete. The prophethood of the Promised Messiah moreover is not Haqiqi (of a New Law) and independent prophet- hood but one acquired through the Holy Prophet. It is on account of his being a perfect manifestation of the Holy Prophet that he has received the title of a Prophet. Thus in