Truth Prevails — Page 38
( 38 ) CHAPTER III Gradual and Phased Revealment on the Promised Messiah in regard to his Nabuwwat When all the writings of the Promised Messiah are kept carefully in view, the fact emerges clearly that his position, in regard to his Nabuwwat and his grandeur, did not dawn upon him in one sudden and swift revealment; it grew on him in a gradual comprehension, stage by stage, phase by phase. Before 1901, passages and portions, in his literature, where he was called a Nabi and Rasul , a Prophet, and an Apostle, in Revelations and Ilhams received from Allah, he interpreted generally to mean that he was a Mohaddath , a partial Nabi , the bearer of an incomplete Prophethood. In other words, in view of the generally prevailing definition of Nabuwwat , in which conception the bringing of a new Sharia or not to be an Ummati of an earlier Prophet were fundamental, essential requirements, he denied that he was a Nabi in the term. Words Nabi and Rasul in Ilhams and Revelations, he received from God, he took to mean that he was a Mohaddath appointed to a divine mission. Since Mohaddathiyat and Nabuwwat deeply resemble one another, the word Nabi had been used in regard to him, to intensify the importance of his mission. In subsequent writings, i. e. , after 1901, however, he abandoned this interpretation of Nabuwwat , in the light of Ilhams and Revelations which could not be vested with the old traditional sense of Nabuwwat and came to realise that he was a Prophet. But he always took care to qualify his claim by saying he was a Nabi , from one angle, and an Ummati from another. After 1901 he never wrote that he was a partial Nabi or mere Mohaddath. Mr. Faruqi has quoted passages from the writings of the Promised Messiah, of the period earlier than 1901, of which the following from Izala-i- Auham (page 349) is one: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib, the Mojaddid of the 14th century (Hijrah) has written at page 349 of his book Izala-i-Auham : “The Promised Messiah has been called a follower of the Prophet Mohammad, as the tradition of ‘ your Imam from amongst you ’ indicates while the tradition that the learned religious savants from amongst my followers would be like unto the prophets of Israelites, points to the resemblance which the Promised Messiah will have to Jesus Christ. Since the word Nabi (Prophet) according to the Arabic lexicon, means one who receives tidings from Allah and announces the same, the Promised Messiah, being possessed of this attribute,