Testimony of the Holy Quran — Page 53
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMADAS 53 to the world, despite the following verse giving a loud and clear testimony concerning his death: فَلَمَّا تَوَفَيْتَنِي كُنْتَ أَنْتَ الرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ 1 Is the return of the souls of the Jews to the world irrational and beyond the powers of God Almighty, and yet the return of Hadrat 'Isā to the earth in his physical body quite rational? Moreover, if on account of the impossibility of literal meanings, the clear and obvious statements of the Holy Quran are interpreted to mean something other than their apparent meanings, then why can we not interpret ahādīth to mean something other than their appar- ent and literal meanings? Is the status of ahādīth higher than that of the Holy Quran that we must always stick to their literal mean- ings, however irrational, yet subject the Holy Quran to various interpretations? To revert to the main subject, some people deny the general application of the verse: وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّلِحَتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ 2 They say that the word مِنْكُمْ ]minkum-from among you] in the 1. [Jesusas said to God:] But since You caused me to die, You have been the Watcher over them (Sūrah al-Ma'idah, 5:118). [Publisher] 2. Allah has promised to those among you who believe and do good works that He will surely make them Successors in the earth, as He made Successors from among those who were before them (Sūrah an-Nūr, 24:56). [Publisher]