Lecture Sialkot — Page 20
20 L ECTURE S IALKOT the Baptist has been called 'Elijah'. No one denies that this is the Divine practice. Yet another resemblance which God Almighty has created between the Messiah to come and the former Messiah is that just as the former Messiah—Jesus as — came at the turn of the fourteenth century after Moses as , so did the last Messiah appear at the turn of the fourteenth century after the Holy Prophet sa. He appeared at a time when Muslims had lost their em- pire in India and were ruled by the British, just as Jesus as had appeared at a time when the Israelite kingdom had declined and the Jews were living under the Roman Empire. The Promised Messiah of this umma bears yet another resemblance to Jesus as , for just as Jesus as was not fully an Israelite, and was only so from his mother’s side, so were some of my fore- mothers from among the S a d a t , 16 though my forefathers were not. The underlying reason as to why God did not choose that an Israelite male should fa- ther Jesus as was that God Almighty was greatly displeased with the Israelites for their excessive sins. This sign was shown to them as a warning, whereby a mother gave birth without the participation of a fa- ther. It was as if Jesus as was left with only one of the 16 S a d a t : The Holy Prophet’s sa descendants through his daughter Hadrat F at ima ra. [Publishers]