Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 173
173 state of affairs arose, in accordance with His promise and also on account of the similarity and parallel nature of the dispensations of Muhammad sa and Moses as , God sent me at the head of the fourteenth century bearing the name ‘Promised Messiah. ’ The Holy Quran contained a prophecy about the Seal of the Caliphs and stated that a Messiah shall appear in this ummah. In the Gospel, the Messiah states that he will come in the latter days. I am that Messiah. The underlying secret which God has disclosed to me in this context is that when certain people depart this world, someone else will appear possessing their disposition, nature and moral qualities and the coming of that other individual is as if the same per- son has returned to the world. This concept is not without its value, nor with- out evidence. Even the Gospel itself has solved this dilemma. The Jews awaited the appearance of Elijah as before the advent of the Messiah son of Mary; and in view of the promise given in the book of Malachi, they were perfectly entitled to hold this belief. However, since the Jews were literalists, heavily influenced by the apparent, they could not grasp the deeper reality in this concept. They continued to await the coming of Elijah as. For it was written in the Torah and in the books of the Prophets that the promised one is he who appears in accordance with the promise. The Jews were misled to believe that Elijah as himself would appear before the coming of the awaited Messiah. Since they held a superficial outlook on things, they continued to wait first for the coming of Elijah as himself. On one occasion, they came to the Messiah as and even posed this question. Jesus as responded by saying that Elijah as had come; and he is none other than John as. So the Jews went to John as and asked him, to which he responded: ‘I am not Elijah. ’ Since their hearts were not pure, to them this formed the basis for contradiction and so they concluded that this Messiah was not the true Messiah. However, the fact of the matter is that the Messiah as was absolutely true in whatever he had said and there was no contradiction whatsoever. The Messiah as meant that John as , who is known as Yahya amongst the Muslims, had appeared with the nature, disposi- tion, and power of Elijah as. However, the Jews held that this could only mean that the very same Elijah as who appeared in the past had actually come again in person, although this was against the established law of God Almighty. Divine law stipulates that once a person passes on from this world, they do not return again. If, however, God Almighty desires, He will raise someone else in the nature and disposition of that individual, and on account of extreme similarity the two individuals are not considered to be distinct from one another; in fact, they are p. 157