Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 705
FUTURE OF REVELATION universal Divine Reformer in the latter days. When the. Hindus talk of the re-advent of Krishna, their claim has as much right to be accepted as that of the Christians when they speak of the second coming of Jesus Christas. Likewise the expectations of Zoroastrians concerning Zoroaster, if they too look forward to his re-advent, or the hopes of the. Buddhists or Confucianists that a Buddha or a Confucius would reappear as the Promised Saviour should also be treated with equal respect. But the recognition of the truth of all such diverse and seemingly contradictory claims can only read sense if they are taken metaphorically and not literally. The only rational inference that can be drawn is that the Promised Reformer has to be a single person, embodying the advent of all. Otherwise, the literal fulfilment of all such prophecies is impossible because of the supernatural element intertwined with all of them. This is what the Founders of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat put across to the people of the world with incontrovertible logic. The promise of the simultaneous advent of so many reformers could only be metaphorical and not corporeal. It was exactly in this sense that he claimed to have fulfilled the advent of Jesusas and the Mahdi as one person and also the advents of all others like Buddhaas, Krishnaas and other promised reformers awaited anywhere on earth. . Leaving for a while the reaction this claim created among others, we begin with the account of the turmoil it created within the orthodoxy in Islam. They were not concerned with the re-advent of Buddha or Krishna or others in whom they did not believe but they were deeply concerned with Jesusas, the prophet to the House of Israel. . For anyone to claim to be the reborn image of Jesusªs was far too much for them to digest. For the Jesusas of their dreams to be declared physically dead was an enormity 663