The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 464
AT-TABLIGH―TO THE NOBLE AND PIOUS OF THE ARABS 463 realize that 'Īsā is not peerless as Allah is. Rather, Allah has the power to appoint someone from the followers of His Prophet as Īsā and it was indeed a promise bound to be fulfilled. O brethren! This was the matter which Allah kept concealed from the eyes of the earlier centuries and He revealed its details in this age of ours. He conceals whatsoever He pleases and reveals whatsoever He pleases and the example of this practice has appeared in the past. In adopting this manner of concealment, there are two matters of great wisdom which Allah deemed desirable and appropriate for His serv- ants. The first of them is that indeed this great event is from the proph- ecies of the unseen and the time of its fulfilment was far away. Allah knew that it would not come to fulfilment except after a long period of time and demise of many generations from this world. He knew that the disclosure of this concise prophecy and its lengthy details would be of no avail to the earlier people. He also knew that before this great event came to pass all of these people would be dead and its details would be of no avail to them. He wanted to grant them the blessings of faith in place of what they had lost and to endow them with the best reward for their faith. Therefore, He left out the details of this great event in his revelation and chose to keep it as a brief, subtle and abstruse event like a mystery. Then He also embellished this brief account with metaphors and imbued it with similes and allegories and kept it far away from intellects, speculations, and conjectures, so that He may try as to who from among them fol- lows the injunction. When they came to believe, Allah was pleased with them and rewarded them with the best reward because they had put good faith in Allah and His Prophet by believing a thing, the true reality and essence of which they could not fully grasp. As far as the second aspect of wisdom is concerned, Allah—glori- fied be His name has willed to try the latter generations as He had tried the earlier ones so that He might forgive their sins and pave way for them to guidance on account of their faith. They committed the