Letters

The Review of Religions’
NOVEMBER 2013 EDITION:

The Promised Messiah’sas Prophecy “Calamity of Damascus”
In His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad’s^aba historic Friday Sermon delivered on September 13th, 2013, he made key mention of a prophecy of the Promised Messiahas , Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as of Qadian, in which he was revealed the words “Calamity of Damascus”. The English translation of this sermon was published in The Review of Religions edition of November 2013. His Holiness spoke of the fulfillment of this prophecy in light of the recent and continuing Syrian Crisis and stated that some revelations are repeatedly fulfilled, this specific one already having been fulfilled once in the time of Hazrat Mirza Bashir- Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad^ra (the second Khalifah of the Promised Messiah^as) through the aerial bombardment of Damascus by France in 1925-1926. I find it interesting that the wording of this prophecy holds a resemblance to a prophecy of the Old Testament found in Isaiah 17, which reads as, “The Burden
of Damascus” (King James Version). Isaiah 17 elaborates upon a time when Damascus would cease to exist as a city. Whatever the interpretation of the verses may be is an entirely different discussion; but, as His Holiness stated numerous times throughout his sermons, the root cause of the conflict is clear—lack of righteousness and the resulting cycle of injustice. And as Isaiah 17 would state, “In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough… Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.”