Deliverance from the Cross — Page 112
that would persuade a seeker after truth to determine that the promised teacher must appear within the dispensation of Islam, inasmuch as the door of divine revelation has long been closed in all faiths other than Islam, and the followers of all those faiths hold firmly to the notion that divine revelation is no longer possible. Thus, the advent of a divinely inspired teacher is possible only in Islam. There has also been agreement among the Muslims that the Mahdi-Messiah would appear at the beginning of the fourteenth century of the Hegira, corresponding roughly to the last decade of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. Among several Christian denominations the end of the nineteenth hand beginning of the twentieth century was also considered as the time of the second coming of Jesus. of In the beginning of the year 1889 of the Christian era, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India, who had been a recipient of divine revelation over a number years, announced that it had been revealed to him by the Divine that he was the Promised Mahdi whose advent had been prophecied by the Prophet of Islam. The Holy Prophet had also pointed out that the Mahdi and Messiah would be the same person. The announcement of Hazrat Ahmad aroused bitter resentment among Muslims and non-Muslims alike and attracted great hostility. Up to then he had been a greatly revered personality among the Muslims 112