Testimony of the Holy Quran — Page 49
H A D R AT M IR Z A GHU L A M AH M AD A S 49 and then reappeared, by way of reincarnation, in the time of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him? And if this is not the case, then what can we say other than to make an interpretation that the people who are being addressed need not be the ones to whom the attributed incidents actually relate. It is an established characteristic of the Holy Quran and a ha - d i th that oftentimes some event is attributed to a person or a peo - ple, but actually that event relates to another person or another people. And under this heading is news of the coming of Jesus, son of Mary; because in some a ha d i th, the event of coming in the Latter Days has been attributed to Jesus while, in fact, he had already died. This incident is thus also attributed to Hadrat Mas ih in the same way that being delivered from the Pharaoh, the eating of mann and salw a, the falling of the thunderbolt, the crossing of the sea, the episode of 1 ْنَل َرِبْصَّن ىٰلَع ٍماَعَط ٍدِحاَّو [We will not remain content with one kind of food] were ascribed to those Jews who were present in the time of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, whereas these incidents happened to their earlier people, who had passed away hundreds of years before them. Thus if someone, while interpreting verses of the Holy Quran, does not ponder their rational side and deems it obliga - tory to adhere to the literal words, then at the very least it would be established from these verses that the doctrine of transmigra - tion is true. Otherwise, how was it possible that God should have attributed the act of an agent to someone else who has nothing 1. S u rah al-Baqarah, 2:62 [Publisher]