The Descent of the Messiah — Page 23
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMADAS blessings and enter the true Community. This is exactly what came to pass. At the sight of this horrible calamity, many ex- tremely prejudiced people entered this Community, and so far on account of the plague, more than two thousand opponents have entered its fold. These are the religious blessings that people received through the plague in keeping with the prophecy. Again, on page 557 [of Barāhīn-e-Ahmadiyya], there is the Divine revelation about the appearance of a general chastisement, and it is as follows: “I shall demonstrate My light and shall raise you with a demonstration of My power. A Warner came unto the world, but the world accepted him not; yet God shall accept him and demonstrate his truth with powerful assaults. ” See page 557 of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya¹. In this holy revelation, God Almighty has named me Nadhir [a Warner] which, in Quranic terminolo- gy, is one who is accompanied by chastisement. He then says that He will demonstrate His brilliance, i. e. He will show a special manifestation of His wrath. In Divine scriptures, the demonstra- tion of God's brilliance always means chastisement. He then said that He will raise me with a demonstration of His Power. Re- garding the meaning of this phrase, it should be understood that although God's powers are continually in operation, and there is no time when they are not being manifested, the reference here is to those extraordinary Divine powers which are not commonly displayed, but are revealed only at special times as signs. This, too, points to the fact that this will be a demonstration of Di- vine wrath. When God Almighty says that He shall raise me, this does not mean that He shall raise me to heaven with my physi- cal body, for these are the errors of people who have attributed such meanings to mortals-may God forgive their faults. What 1 See Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part IV. Islam International Publications Ltd. 2016. pp. 435. [Publisher] 23