The Descent of the Messiah — Page 48
THE DESCENT OF THE MESSIAH in practicing their faith-are دَابَّةُ الْاَرْضِ meaning the creatures of the earth, and have no share in heaven. It was destined that there would be large numbers of such persons in the Latter Days who would testify to [the truth of] Islam with their lips but their hearts would be in darkness. This is the meaning that I published earlier and it is, in itself, true and accurate. Another meaning of this verse has now emerged that I have explained, and it is that the creature of the earth also refers to the microbe that was destined to come out of the earth at the time of the Promised Messiah and to destroy the world because of its evil deeds. It is worth remembering that just like this verse has two connotations, the same is true of hundreds of other verses in the Word of God, and it is for this reason that it is called miraculous. A single verse may have up to ten meanings, all of which are correct. In fact, even the letters and their numbers are not devoid of hidden meaning. For example, take a look at Sūrah Al-Asr. Its apparent meaning is that this worldly life, which man lives in such a heedless state, becomes the source of eternal loss and ruin, and only those are saved from this loss who believe in the existence of the One God with a true heart and, having believed, strive to please Him with good deeds, nor are they content with this alone; they desire that others also join them on this path- those who spread the truth in the world, fulfil their obligations to God, and show compassion to mankind. But a remarkable miracle associated with this Sūrah is that it outlines the history of the world from the time of Adam to the time of the Holy Prophetsas through the Abjad or Hisāb Al-Jummal system. ¹ In 1 The Abjad numerals, also called Hisab Al-Jummal, represent a numerical system in which each of the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet cor- responds to a numerical value. [Publisher] 48