The Heavenly Sign — Page 15
15 are wasting their lives holding fast to this belief. The truth of the matter is that it is God's practice that He sometimes gives the news of the coming of a deceased prophet through some saint or recipient of revelations. By this He only means to convey that another person possessing his disposition and characteristics will appear. For example, Malachi as , one of the Israelite Prophets, had foretold that Elias as , who had been raised to Heaven, would come back to this world and that unless and until he came back, the Messiah as would not appear. The Jews stuck to the literal meaning of this prophecy so tenaciously that when Jesus as appeared they refused to accept him. Although Jesus as repeatedly explained to them that the name Elias as only referred to John as , son of Zechariah as , also called Ya h y a as , they continued to look towards the sky, expecting Elias as to descend in person. Thus, because of their insistence on the literal meanings, they rejected two prophets, Jesus as as well as John as. They claimed that these were not true prophets, for, had they been true, Elias as would have descended from heaven before their very eyes, as God had foretold in the Holy Scriptures. Hence the Jews are still expecting Elias as to descend from heaven. These unfortunate people do not know that Elias as has already descended form the heaven and so has the Messiah as. Alas! How literal adherence to words of prophecies has harmed the world and yet it does not realize its error! A S a hih Hadith relates: 'O ye Muslims! In the latter days you will behave exactly like the Jews and follow their