Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 118
118 "Affirm; We believe in God and in that which has been sent down to us and that which was sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and his children and that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and that which was given to all other Prophets from their Lord. We make no discrimination between any of them and to Him do we wholly submit ourselves". This again is a sure indication that the great teacher who is to appear in the latter days must appear in the dispensation of Islam as he would then be a believer in the righteousness of all the Prophets and would not deny or reject any of them. If he were to appear in any other dispensation which do not accept all other prophets, he would not be acceptable to those whose Prophets are denied or rejected. He must be the champion of God in the mantles of all the Prophets. 6. It is obvious that the great teacher, whose advent in the latter days had been foretold in every one of the principal revealed religions of the world, would be divinely guided; that is to say, he would be the recipient of divine revelation. This is also an important factor that would persuade a seeker after truth to determine that the promised teacher must appear within the dispensation of Islam, inasmuch as the door of divine revelation has long been closed in all faiths other than Islam, and the followers of all those faiths hold firmly to the notion that divine revelation is no longer possible. Thus, the advent of a divinely inspired teacher is possible only in Islam. There has also been agreement among the Muslims that the Mahdi-Messiah would appear at the beginning of the fourteenth century of the Hegira, corresponding roughly to the last decade of the nineteenth century of the Christian Era. Among several Christian denominations the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century was also considered as the time of the second coming of Jesus. The timing for the anticipated advent of the Mahdi-Messiah in the Muslims is quite peculiar in that it is consistent with the timing of his second advent according to the Christian belief. Thus the Muslims and the Christians agree that their respective Messiahs would come at about the same time. Again, one God will only send one Messiah at any given time. More interestingly, the advent of the Messiah, by both Muslims and Christians was anticipated towards the end of the 19 th or the beginning of the 20 th century, which is approximately 13 centuries after the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). Coincidentally, Jesus’s first advent also occurred about 1300 years after Moses’ birth (1269 to be exact * ). 18 The consistent gap between the law giving prophets (Moses and Muhammad, peace be on him) and their respective Messiahs (Jesus and the anticipated Messiah in the 19th-20th century) reveals God's plan for the renewal of his message. Thirteen centuries after Moses' birth, Jesus appeared among the Jews to restore Moses’ Message (Torah) in its original form. Moses' message had been distorted to a point where it had lost its meaning and thus Jesus was sent to restore its original meaning. The advent of Jesus among the Jews was part of the overall Divine plan as this event had been foretold in Jewish scriptures long before its manifestation. Likewise, the anticipated advent of the Mahdi-Messiah to revive the law of * The date of Moses' birth was subjected to conjecture for a long time due to the uncertainty of Biblical chronology. It has now been established that Exodus occurred circa 1215 B. C. in the last year of the reign of Pharaoh Merenptah, the son of Rameses II. Moses is believed to have been close on 60 years of age at that time, so that his birth occurred around the year 1275 B. C.