Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 148
148 guidance contained therein will be found adequate during all stages at all times. What provision, it may be asked, is there in the Quran to meet the contingency with which mankind is faced today, and which is likely to grow ever more insistent during all the tomorrows that lie ahead? To meet this contingency the Quran announced that the Prophet not only had been raised in the generation among whom he lived, but would also be raised among others “who have not yet joined them” (62:3 ⎯ 4). This means a spiritual second advent of the Prophet for the purpose of setting forth from the Quran guidance that may be needed in the New Age, and for illustrating the values demanded by the exigencies with which man may then be faced. This promise has been fulfiled in the advent of Ahmad, of Qadian (1835 ⎯ 1908), who warned that mankind stood at the threshold of an era which would bear the same relation to his age, that is, the beginning of the twentieth century, as the beginning of that century bore to the days of Adam, and who proceeded to set forth from the Quran, in the light of revelation vouchsafed to him, the guidance that mankind now desperately needs. He was a devoted follower and ardent lover of the Prophet. He claimed that in his advent were fulfiled the prophecies of the Prophet concerning the appearance of the Messiah and the Mahdi in the latter