Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 478
478 BARĀHIN-E-AHMADIYYA – PART FIVE father will be that of my father']. Please explain what is meant by each of them. MY ANSWER-My claim is not that I am the Mahdi who conforms to من ولد فاطمة the progeny of Fatimahمن عترتى from my progeny], etc. Rather, my claim is that of being the Promised Messiah, and regarding the Promised Messiah, there is no statement of any muhaddith [scholar of hadith] that he would be from among the progeny of Fatimah etc. Nevertheless, at the same time-as every muhaddith says-I also say that all the ahādīth regarding the Promised Mahdi are moot and sus- pect and not one of them is authentic. The degree to which fabrication has taken place in these ahādīth has not taken place in any other hadith. During the time of the Abbasid Khulafa' etc. the Khulafa' were very fond of pronouncing themselves the Promised Mahdi. So for this reason, some aḥādīth describe the Mahdi as being from the progeny of 'Abbās and some from the progeny of Fatimah. There are some ahādīth which also say that رجل من أمتى He will be a man from my Ummah. But essentially all of these ahādīth are not worthy of any trust. This is not just my word; all eminent scholars of the Ahl-e-Sunnah have been say- ing the very same. As opposed to these ahādīth, this hadith recorded by Ibn-e-Majah is very authentic : لا مهدى الا عيسى meaning, there is no other Mahdi; 'Īsā is the very same Mahdi who is to come. HIS STATEMENT-The prophecies of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that even the divines have tried to interpret [rather than taking them literally], are mostly those that have been disclosed in the form of dreams. . . . My Answer: I could not understand this question; hence, I am unable to answer it.