The Descent of the Messiah — Page 39
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMADAS have recognised Him and granted me the signs through which I have become certain of His existence and of His perfect at- tributes, how then can I deprive myself of this light, knowledge, and conviction? I say truly, and God is my witness, that even though the certainty of the existence of God and of the truth of Islam came to me from the Holy Quran, it was not until God showed me His special radiance through His fresh revelations that I actually witnessed the God—[such a God] whom an entire world is unaware of. His delightful Signs, which, to my reckon- ing, number in the thousands even though the world has only witnessed about a hundred and fifty, have brought me the con- viction, insight, and light of true knowledge, which has taken me thousands of miles away from this dark world. Now, though I am in the world, I am not of the world. If the world does not recog- nise me, it is no wonder, for it is hard to recognise anything so far away and so sublime. I never expect the world to love me because it has never loved a righteous one. I am happy that I have been abused, have been called the Dajjal, and been declared an infidel because there is a latent prophecy in Sūrah Fatihah that just as the Jews became the recipients of God's wrath by calling Jesus a disbeliever and Dajjal, the Muslims would become the same. This is why this prayer has been taught to the righteous that they may become among those upon whom God has bestowed His blessings and not those who are recipients of His wrath. The loft- iest purpose of Sūrah Fatihah was to give news of the coming of the Promised Messiah and his Community, of the Jew-like Muslims and their followers, and of the dominance of those who have gone astray, i. e. the Christians. What a joy it is to have these words fulfilled at this time! I will now relate another dream that I had about the plague. I saw an animal that was as large as an elephant, but its face re- sembled that of a man, while some of its limbs were akin to those 39