The Light of Truth — Page 383
REFUTING OBJECTIONS to be in the west while his Sign should appear in the east? This alone should suffice for you if you are among the seekers. Then, along with this, it is clear to you all that Arabia and the Levant are devoid of anyone who has made such claims, and you shall not hear even a trace of it from those parts; however, you are all aware that I have been saying for several years now- by the command of the Lord of all the worlds—that I am the Promised Messiah and the Blessed Mahdi. But you renounce me as a kāfir [disbeliever] and curse me and call me a liar. Clear proofs came to you and all doubts were removed, yet after that you insisted upon calling me a disbeliever. Do you wonder that a Warner has come to you from among yourselves at the turn of the century at a time when calamities were befalling the Religion and the illness had become severe; and that before [his advent] you were waiting like those who await the crescent of a new moon; then, he came to you in the days when manifest error was encircling you and conditions were changing, after which the people forsook the truth and strayed from the path? Do you not see or have you become blind? Do you not remember what the Knower of unseen,— who is the Most Truthful of those who speak, proclaimed? Giving you glad tidings of a coming Imam in His Clear Book, He said: ثُلَةٌ مِّنَ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَثُلَةٌ مِّنَ الْآخِرِينَ 10 383 And for each party there is an Imam. So behold! Is there is any doubt in this-whither, then, will you flee from the Imam of the later ones. 1. A large party from among the early Muslims, and a large party from the later ones (Surah al-Waqi'ah, 56:40-41). [Publisher]