Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 47
47 reached a point that no mortal has ever reached and he continues to rise higher and higher, as does his ummah. The status of the Holy Prophet s as described above compels us to believe that this form of prophethood should always continue, for in its continuation lies the honour of the Holy Prophet s as , not otherwise. Everyone knows that a great teacher is one who has outstanding students and a great king is one who has great rulers among his subjects. If a teacher produces poor students, he will not be considered a great teacher. If the subjects of a king are lowly people, no one will call him a great king. In the same way, the Holy Prophet s as is considered the greatest of all Prophets because his followers can attain the status of prophethood and yet remain his followers. This erroneous belief that Muslims have adopted in this age—I say ‘in this age’ because the following great divines of the past speak to the contrary: Hadrat Mo h i-ud-D i n Ibn al-‘Arab i , Hadrat Mull a h ‘Al i Q a r i and ‘All a ma Ibn Qayyim, the Mathnaw i of Maul a na R u m i , and the letters of Hadrat Sheikh Ahmad of Sirhind—is born of the misconception that a Prophet can only be one who brings a new law, or abrogates some parts of the previous law, or is free from obedience to the earlier Prophet. The fact is that these are not prerequisites for a Prophet. A Prophet could possess just one of these characteristics or even none of them. For example, he may neither bring a new book, nor abrogate any part of the previous law, nor be granted prophethood directly, and yet be a Prophet. Prophethood is a special spiritual station of nearness to God. Whoever attains this station is charged with the duty of reforming the world, drawing people towards God, reviving and rejuvenating dead souls, conveying to people whatever Divine