What are the Signs of the Second Coming of the Messiah?

The Promised Messiah^as & Imam Mahdi (Guided One)
Founder of
THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONS
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as

Members of many faiths are still waiting for the second coming of a Messiah. But are they waiting needlessly? Here we present selections from the writings of the Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as of Qadian, on how we can recognise the signs of the second coming of the Messiah.

Second coming of Jesus^as

I solemnly believe that Jesus^as is dead and is in the company of the departed ones. And why should I not believe this, when God Almighty has declared him dead in His Mighty Book, the Holy Qur’an. There is no mention anywhere in the Qur’an of his extraordinarily long life or of his second advent. Rather, the Holy Qur’an declares him to be dead and says nothing more. I consider it an utterly false and vain notion that he is alive in his physical body and will appear in this world a second time. I believe this, not only on the basis of the revelations vouchsafed to me, but also because I know that it is opposed to the clear, conclusive and certain testimony of the Holy Qur’an.^[1]

The ‘Descent’ or the ‘Coming’ does not mean the coming of the Messiah, son of Mary; it is actually a figure of speech signifying the coming of someone resembling the son of Mary; and, in accordance with Divine intimation and revelation, it is the present writer—my own humble self—to whom it applies.^[2]

O Muslims, Listen! God has communicated this tiding to you through me and I have duly conveyed the message. Now it is for you to heed or not to heed. The plain truth is that Jesus^as, on whom be peace, is dead, and I swear by God that I am the Promised one who was to appear.^[3]

The second special aspect of the prophecy, which relates to the advent of the Promised Messiah^[as], is that he will break the cross, slaughter the swine and kill the one-eyed Antichrist. Every disbeliever who is touched by his breath will die instantly. The spiritual interpretation of this special aspect is that the Promised Messiah^[as] will crush under his feet all the glory of the religion of the cross, that he will destroy with the weapon of conclusive arguments those who are afflicted with shamelessness like swine, and who devour filth like pigs, and that he will wipe out with the sword of clear proofs the opposition of those who possess only the eye of the world and are bereft of the eye of the faith in place of which they have only an unsightly taint. Not only such one-eyed ones, but also every disbeliever who views Islam with contempt will suffer spiritual extinction through the glorious breath of Messianic reasoning. In short all these signs are metaphoric, the significance of which has been fully revealed to me. Some may not appreciate it at this time but after waiting for sometime, and despairing altogether of the hopes that they now entertain, all of them will accept it.^[4]

It is an absurdity to interpret literally the hadith of Sahih Muslim which says that when the Messiah descends from heaven he will be wearing yellow robes. There appears no reason for this peculiarity. If this indication is interpreted according to the principles of the interpretation of dreams, it would mean that when the Promised Messiah announces his claim he would not be in good health.^[5]

Eclipse

It was for me that God caused the solar and lunar eclipses in heaven during the month of Ramadan, and caused numerous other signs to be manifested on earth, and thus, in accordance with Divine practice, my truth was conclusively established. God, in Whose hand rests my life, is my witness that if you cleanse your hearts and seek other signs from God, the Omnipotent One is capable of showing a sign according to His own will and power, without being subject to any of your importunities.^[6]

I swear by God in Whose hand is my life that He has manifested this sign in the sky to testify to my truthfulness, and He manifested it at a time when the Maulvis (theologians) named me the Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the greatest liar, infidel and even the greatest infidel. This is the same sign regarding which twenty years ago I was promised in Braheen-e-Ahmadiyya, namely: “Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you then believe? Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you then accept?” It should be remembered that although there are many proofs from Almighty God for vindicating my truthfulness and more than a hundred prophecies have been fulfilled to which hundreds of thousands of people are witnesses, but in this revelation, this prophecy has been mentioned specifically. I have been given such a sign which was not given to anybody else from the time of Adam^as to the present time. In short I can stand in the sacred precincts of the Ka’abah and swear that this sign is for testifying to my truth.^[7]

As a matter of fact, since Adam^as to the present time, nobody ever made a prophecy like this. The prophecy has four aspects:

1. The occurrence of the lunar eclipse on the first of the eclipse nights
2. The occurrence of the solar eclipse on the middle of the eclipse days
3. The occurrence of both in the same month of Ramadan
4. The presence of the claimant who has been rejected

Hence if the greatness of this prophecy is denied, then show a parallel to it in the world, and until a parallel cannot be found, this prophecy ranks foremost among all those prophecies to which the verse “He reveals not His secrets to anyone” can be applied, because it is stated here (in the hadith) that from the time of Adam^as to the end, it has no parallel.^[8]

In accordance with another hadith, these eclipses occurred twice in Ramadan, first in this country and then in America, and on both occasions it occurred on the same dates. Since at the time of the eclipses there was no claimant on earth of                 Mahdi Mau’ud (Promised Reformer) and since nobody else declared these eclipses as his sign and published hundreds of pamphlets and books in Urdu, Persian and Arabic, this heavenly sign is for me. Another proof of this is the fact twelve years before this sign occurred, Almighty God had informed me that such a sign would occur and this information, which is stated in Braheen-e-Ahmadiyya was announced to hundreds of thousands of people before the sign was manifested.^[9]

The Plague

There is yet another important thing which my overwhelming sympathy for mankind has moved me to mention. I know it well that those who are devoid of spirituality will look upon it with jest and ridicule, but it is my duty to reveal it for the benefit of mankind. It is as follows: This is Sunday, 6^th February 1898. Last night I saw in a dream that God’s angels were planting black trees in different parts of the Punjab. The trees were black, ugly, terrifying and of a small size. I asked some of those who were planting them, “What kind of trees are these?” They answered, “These are trees of the plague which is about to spread in the country.” I am not quite sure whether it was said that the plague would spread during the next winter or the winter after, but it was a terrible sight that I saw. Prior to this, I had also received a revelation concerning the plague:

It means that until the epidemic of sinfulness goes away, the physical epidemic will also not go away.^[10]

In these present times, God has willed to show a sign of heavenly mercy, so He has informed me that I and all those who dwell within the four walls of my home; who wholly and unconditionally follow me; who are obedient to me and who on account of their righteousness have devoted themselves to me; will be saved from the plague.^[11]

I repeat, long before today, the Lord of heaven and earth, the all-knowing and all-powerful God, disclosed to me that He would save all those who live within the four walls of my home from death by the plague; but, on the condition that they enter my allegiance with complete sincerity, humility and obeisance and extinguish the fire of prejudice and enmity. Also, that they do not consider themselves superior to His commandments or those of His prophet; that they do not possess a selfish and rebellious disposition, nor behave at variance with their beliefs.^[12]

On Signs in General:

God has informed me directly through His living Word that if I am troubled by people asking how they should know that I am from Him, I should tell them: It is sufficient proof that His heavenly signs are my witness, my prayers are accepted, knowledge of the unseen is revealed to me beforehand, and such mysteries, as are known to none other than God, are disclosed to me in advance. And the second sign is that should anyone want to challenge me in the aforesaid matters—in the acceptance of prayers, being given prior knowledge of their acceptance, and in being given knowledge of unseen matters that lie beyond the limits of human knowledge—he will surely be defeated in this challenge, be he from the East or from the West. These are the signs that have been vouchsafed to me.^[13]

God has shown so many signs in my support that if I were to count them one by one up to this day, 16^th July, 1906, I can swear by God that they are in excess of three hundred thousand. And if someone does not believe in my oath, I can provide him with proof. Some of these signs are to do with occasions when God Almighty, in keeping with His promise, protected me from being harmed by the enemy. Some of the signs are such that, in keeping with His promise, God always fulfilled my needs and my wishes. And some are of the kind whereby, in keeping with His promise, “I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate thee,” God brought humiliation and disgrace upon those who tried to harm me. Some signs are of the kind in which, according to His Prophecies, He made me victorious over those who filed lawsuits against me. Some are of the kind that pertain to the length of my ministry, for ever since the world was created no impostor has ever been allowed such a long period of respite. Some signs are of the kind that are manifested through observing the condition of the age—that this age is in need of an Imam. Some signs are of the kind which represent the fulfilment of my prayers in favour of my friends. Some signs are of the kind which represent the fulfilment of my prayer against malicious enemies. Some signs are of the kind in which terminally ill patients were cured and I was informed of their recovery in advance. Some signs are of the nature whereby, for my sake, God caused a number of heavenly and earthly calamities as a testimony to my claim. Some are of the sort whereby many eminent and renowned saints saw dreams in which the Holy Prophet^sa appeared to them and testified to my claim, among these is the Sajjadah Nashin Sahib-ul-‘Alam of Sindh who has nearly one hundred thousand followers, and Khawaja Ghulam Farid of Chachran. Some signs are such that thousands of people pledged Bai‘at [oath of allegiance] at my hand only because they were informed in a dream of my truthfulness and of my being from God; while some others did so because they saw the Holy Prophet^sa in a dream, and he told them that the end of the world is near and that this man is the last Vicegerent of God and the Promised Messiah. Some signs relate to certain eminent saints who mentioned me by name even before my birth, or before I came of age, and spoke about my being the Promised Messiah^[as]. Among these are Ne‘matullah Wali and Mian Gulab Shah of Jamalpur, District Ludhiana.^[14]

“FIVE TIMES SHALL I SHOW YOU THE DAZZLING MANIFESTATION OF THIS SIGN”

This is the meaning of this Divine revelation: God says that, in order to testify to the truth of my claim, and so that people may realise that I am from Him, five terrifying earthquakes will occur, one after the other, at short intervals. They will bear witness to the truth of my claim, and each one of them will display such brilliance that the beholder will at once be reminded of God. Such a terrifying effect will they have on people’s hearts, and so extraordinary will be their power, intensity and devastation, that people who behold them will lose their very senses. All this will be the result of Divine jealousy, for people did not recognise the hour. God says, I was hidden, but now I shall reveal Myself, and shall display My Brilliance and liberate My servants, just as Prophet Moses^as and his people were liberated from the hands of Pharaoh. These miracles shall be manifested in the same way as those performed by Moses^as in the presence of Pharaoh. And God says that He shall make a clear distinction between the truthful and the liar, and He shall support the one who is from Him and oppose anyone who opposes him.^[15]

Endnotes

1. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Asmani Faislah, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 4, p. 315.
2. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Taudih-e-Maram, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 3, pp. 51-59.
3. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Lecture Ludhiana, p. 60.
4. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 3, pp. 141-143 (footnote).
5. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 3, pp. 142-143.
6. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Arba’in, no. 2, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 17, pp. 374-375.
7. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Tohfa-e-Golarviyya, p. 53.
8. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Tohfa-e-Golarviyya, p. 29.
9. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Haqiqatul Wahi, p. 195.
10. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Majmu‘ah Ishtiharat, Vol. 3, pp. 2-7.
11. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Kashti Nuh, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 19, p. 2.
12. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Kashti Nuh, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 19, p. 2.
13. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Government Angrezi Aur Jihad, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 17, pp. 29-30.
14. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Haqiqat-ul-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 22, pp. 70-71.
15. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Tajalliyat-e-Ilahiyah, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 20, pp. 395-404.