The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 404
LETTER TO NAWWAB MUHAMMAD ALI KHAN 403 Some will devour others like insects, ignorance will prevail, the Messiah will be worshipped once again, and the error of creature-worship will again spread with great force. And all this mischief will spread in the world through the Christian faith in the last part of these Latter Days. Then again, the soul of the Messiah will be greatly troubled and will seek its descent in a majestic form. Then, with the advent of an awe-striking semblance of his, this age will come to an end. That will be the end and the expanse of the world will be rolled up. This shows that on account of the unworthy behaviour of the followers of the Messiah, it had been decreed that the spirituality of the Messiah should descend into the world three times. In this context a point worth noting is that the spirituality of our Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, also keeps appearing in the world during the upsurge of internal mischiefs in Islam, and the essence of the spirituality of Muhammadsas manifests itself always in the person of one of his perfect followers. It is found in the ahādīth that: A Mahdi would be born. His name would be the same as my name, and his character would be the same as my character. ’¹ If these aḥā- dith are true, then it is to this very spiritual descent that they allude. This descent is, however, not limited to one specific indi- vidual. There have been hundreds of such people who possessed the spiritual essence of Muhammadsas and their name, by way of reflection, was Muhammad or Ahmad in the sight of God. But by the grace of the Exalted Being, the followers of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who enjoy the mercy of Allah, have remained free from the mis- chiefs which were suffered by the followers of Hadrat Īsā. To 1. Mishkātul-Maṣābīḥ, vol. 2, p. 294, Kitābur-Riqāq, Bāb Ashrātus-Sāʻah, Hadith 5462, published by Darul-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, Beirut [Publisher]