Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 57
67- as he explained to the assembled companions that there was no prophet; who was not dead, and that, therefore, in the death of the Holy Prophet there was nothing strange or to be regretted, for death was the common lot of all mortals including prophets. Had the companions entertained the belief that Jesus was not dead but that he had been sitting alive on the heavens for six hundred years, they would have referred to it as going against the argument of Abu Bakr, but not a single voice was raised against it, and there was a marked agreement among all the companions that all the prophets were dead. If there was a man in whose mind the faint idea lurked that Jesus was alive, he cast it away at that moment. I say this because it is possible that owing to the proximity of the Christian religion, some uninformed and short sighted men may have imbibed the false idea that Jesus was alive, but there is not the least doubt that after. the sermon preached by Abu Bakr, there was not a single voice dis- senting from the belief that all the prophets before the Holy Prophet were dead. This was the first accordance in a religious point among the companions of the Holy Prophet. There are other reasons why the companions of the Holy Prophet could not have entertained the belief that Jesus was alive? To them the Holy Prophet was the dearest object in the world. To men who were lost in the love of their prophet, it was quite incon- ceivable that their prophet, should. die at the age of 64, while an Israelite prophet should have been sitting alive for six hundred years on the heavens. Their fond love for the prophets could not have allowed them for a moment to consider any. one as excelling their master. Cursed is the doctrine which is calcu- lated in any way to lower the dignity of the Holy Prophet. The companions were his true lovers, and to them it would have been death in life to learn that their beloved prophet died, while