The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 272
272 order to demolish the creed of the cross. . Essence of Islam-III. Breaking of the Cross by the Promised Messiah. And he came in accordance with the time honoured Divine promise. Then, at long last, came the time for the breaking of the cross: the time when the error of the creed of the cross was to be exposed with such clarity as the splitting a piece of wood into two. Heaven has thrown open the door to the breaking of the cross, so that whoever seeks the truth may seek and learn. . True, the notion of the bodily ascent of Jesus to heaven was false, yet it had a significance of its own. The truth about the life of Jesus which had become extinct, like a dead body swallowed by the earth, was preserved in heaven like a physical person and it was decreed that it should descend again in the latter days. Thus that Messianic reality has now descended like a physical person and has broken the cross. The evil qualities of falsehood and worship of falsehood, which the Holy Prophetsa has described in the Hadīth concerning the cross as swine, have been broken with the breaking of the cross, just as swine is cut by the sword. . This Hadith does not mean that the Promised Messiah would slaughter the disbelievers or would go about breaking crosses. What the breaking of the cross means is that in this age the God of heaven and earth will disclose a hidden reality, whereby the whole structure of the cross will collapse at one stroke. And the slaughter of swine does not mean the slaughter of people or of swine, but it means the swinish habits like lying persistently, which is tantamount to swallowing of filth. Just as a dead pig can not swallow filth, in the same way, a time comes indeed it has come when dispositions will be