Truth Prevails — Page 17
( 17 ) Maulvi Mohammad Ali’s Tafsir of the Same Verse after he moved to Lahore After he had moved to Lahore, Maulvi Mohammad Ali wrote in his Commentary on this verse as follows: “People who take these words to mean that no punishment comes from heaven, until an Apostle has appeared, make a serious error. Moreover, if an Apostle is indispensible before the punishment comes to be inflicted, it stands in reason that he should appear precisely at the locality where the infliction is to overtake the people. For instance, if the chastisement is to descend on Europe, in the shape and form of a war or a severe earthquake were to shake Italy, and an argument is sought to be drawn that some Apostle had appeared, then his advent in far off India, would not be the work of the wise Almighty God, since the appearance of an Apostle relating to it would, evidently, have no wisdom in it, for the Apostle should have come in Europe, or Italy. The other difficulty would be that every Prophet to appear would have to be timed in relation to the moment of the punishment. After the advent, if the punishment came within the prescribed period, it would be taken to be connected with his appearance; and where it did not come within that period, some fresh Prophet shall have to be discovered, to fit into the situation, according to the requirements of the basic doctrine. As for the chastisements coming these days, if the advent of some Prophet is demanded in that context, what is the time limit, for him, to get related to the situation? Then, can this time limit extend to thirteen hundred years? Obviously, to talk like this, would be tantamount to making it appear that religion is not a serious and sober affair, but almost a silly sort of game. ” ( Bayanul Quran page 1117-1118) The Promised Messiah quoted this verse, namely, “It did not behove Us to send down Our punishment, without raising up an Apostle”, as yielding a strong argument in favour of his claim that he was a true Apostle; and he cited the earthquakes in America and Europe in support of his position as an Apostle of God, but it is painful to find that, subsequently to the move to Lahore, Maulvi Mohammad Ali started to say that an argument of this kind only turned religion into a play and pastime for children. It is interesting to remark here that Dr. Abdul Hakim also said similar things in repudiation of the Promised Messiah. For instance, he wrote: “Are we to assume that the Lord God ran so far out of His senses that denial of the claim took place in Qadian, Batala, and Amritsar; but he went destroying places in far off Ceylon, Italy, San Francisco, Formusa, and other places, of which the inhabitants had not heard anything in regard to him. ” ( Al-Zikrul Hakim , No. IV; page 43) The Promised Messiah says: