Lecture Sialkot — Page 20
20 LECTURE SIALKOT the Baptist has been called 'Elijah'. No one denies that this is the Divine practice. as Yet another resemblance which God Almighty has created between the Messiah to come and the former Messiah is that just as the former Messiah-Jesusas came at the turn of the fourteenth century after Mosess, so did the last Messiah appear at the turn of the fourteenth century after the Holy Prophet. He appeared at a time when Muslims had lost their em- pire in India and were ruled by the British, just as Jesusas had appeared at a time when the Israelite kingdom had declined and the Jews were living under the Roman Empire. The Promised Messiah of this umma bears yet another resemblance to Jesus, for just as Jesus was not fully an Israelite, and was only so from his mother's side, so were some of my fore- mothers from among the Sādāt, 16 though my forefathers were not. The underlying reason as to why God did not choose that an Israelite male should fa- ther Jesusas was that God Almighty was greatly displeased with the Israelites for their excessive sins. This sign was shown to them as a warning, whereby a mother gave birth without the participation of a fa- ther. It was as if Jesus was left with only one of the as as 16 Sādāt: The Holy Prophet's³ª descendants through his daughter Hadrat Fatimaa. [Publishers] ra