Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 163
26 November 1905 163 I have clearly seen through comparison that he was brimming with love and sincerity, and I think there was nothing else except that in him, and he had it to the degree that I do not find in others. I had known him for a long time. I knew him even when he was a Naturalist. He had already taken Bai‘at [the Pledge of Allegiance] by that time, but there were still some issues in his heart. Consequently, he would talk to me about the Messiah being fatherless and would repeatedly ask me to issue a verdict on this issue. However, I would tell him that I believe he [ Jesus] was born without a father. A powerful proof of this is that the story of Ya h y a [ John the Baptist] and Jesus is narrated in the same place [in the Holy Quran]. Ya h y a , who was born of a barren woman, is mentioned first. After this, the second account is of Jesus, which should have been something more significant, and that was, he was born without a father, and this matter is indeed extraordinary. If after Ya h y a —who was born of a barren woman—mention was made of a child born with a father, then what would have been so extraordinary about that? The Christians who make him God on account of his fatherless birth, are refuted elsewhere: 1 َّنِا َلَثَم ىٰسْيِع َدْنِع ِهّٰللا ِلَثَمَك َمَدٰا َّنِا َلَثَم ىٰسْيِع َدْنِع ِهّٰللا ِلَثَمَك َمَدٰا Now, if one born without a father can be God, then the one who has neither mother nor father would take precedence in being God, yet they do not consider him a God. Moreover, in the same way, Ya h y a should also be accepted as Divinity insofar as he was born of a barren woman. In short, this kind of dialogue would take place in the early days. Then, when Allah the Exalted increased his cognition, he 1. Surely, the case of Jesus with Allah is like the case of Adam ( S u rah A l-e-‘Imr a n, 3:60). [Publisher]