4 The Review of Religions – March 2006 The miracles that wereperformed by all the other Prophets came to an end with them; but the miracles of our Holy Prophet(saw) are fresh and alive in every age. Those miracles being alive and not having succumbed to death is proof that the Holy Prophet(saw) is alone the living Prophet and that true life is that which has been bestowed on him and not upon any other. His teaching is a living teaching because its fruits and blessings are experienced today as they were experienced 1,300 years before. We have before us no other teaching by acting on which a person might claim that he has been bestowed its fruits, blessings, and graces and that he has become a Sign of God. By the grace of God Almighty, we find the fruits and blessings of the Holy Qur’an present among us, and we still find those graces and signs which are bestowed in consequence of true obedience to the Holy Prophet(saw). Thus has God Almighty estab- lished this Movement so that it This series sets out, in the words of the Promised Messiah(as), Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a summary of his exposition of four outstanding topics: ISLAM; ALLAH, THE EXALTED; THE HOLY PROPHET(sa) and THE HOLY QUR’AN. The original compilation, in Urdu, from which these extracts have been translated into English, was collated with great care and diligence by Syed Daud Ahmad Sahib, Allah have mercy on him and reward him graciously for his great labour of love. Amin. The English rendering is by the late Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, may Allah be pleased with him, and is quoted from The Essence of Islam, Volume 1. All references throughout, unless otherwise specifically mentioned, are from the Holy Qur’an. The Holy Prophet(saw) Alone is the Living Prophet – Part 6 5The Review of Religions – March 2006 should be a living witness to the truth of Islam, and should prove that those blessings and signs which had appeared 1,300 years ago have appeared in this age also through perfect obedience to the Holy Prophet(saw). Hundreds of signs have so far been displayed. We have invited the leaders of all peoples and all religions that they should exhibit the signs of their truth in opposition to us, but there is not one of them who can put forth a practical sample of the truth of his religion. (Malfuzat Vol. III, p38) The promises of success which God Almighty gave by the Glory of His Divinity in opposition to all opponents, all enemies, all deniers, all the wealthy, all powerful rulers, all philosophers, all followers of other religions, to that humble, weak, poor, unlearned, untrained one, and which were fulfilled at their time and continue to be fulfilled, could not be the work of any human being, nor can any honest seeker after truth have any doubt concerning them. That poor, lonely and humble person announced the spread of his faith and the establishment of his religion at a time when he had no one with him except a few indigent companions, and the total number of Muslims could be contained in one small room and their names could be counted on the fingers of two hands, and they could be destroyed by a few men of the town. They were opposed by the rulers of the earth and they had to deal with the peoples who were determined to destroy them and whose numbers ran into millions. But now look at the ends of the earth how God Almighty spread those few weak people all over the earth, and how He bestowed upon them power, wealth and kingdom, and how for thousands of years thrones and crowns were be- stowed upon them. There was a time when their number did not exceed the number of the members of one family and today they are counted in hundreds of millions. God had said He would safeguard His word, and is it not true that the teaching which the Holy Prophet(saw) conveyed as THE HOLY PROPHET(SAW) ALONE IS THE LIVING PROPHET 6 The Review of Religions – March 2006 coming from God Almighty in His Word is still safeguarded in that Word and there have always been hundreds of thousands who have committed the Holy Qur’an to memory? God had said that no one would be able to match His Book in wisdom and under- standing, in beauty of compo- sition, in comprehending the knowledge of the Divine, and in setting forth religious arguments, and so it has proved. If anyone questions this, let him come forth and produce its match, and let him produce from any other book the equal of the verities, fine points, and wonders which we have set forth in this book from the Holy Qur’an with the promise of a reward of ten thousand rupees. So long as he fails to do so, he is convicted in the estimation of God. God had promised that He would take Syria out of the possession of the Christians and would bestow it upon the Muslims. So it came about, and the Muslims became the heirs of that land. All these claims are accompanied by Divine Power and Might. They are not merely like the boasts of astrologers that there would be earthquakes, famines, epi- demics, plagues and the assaults of nation against nation, etc. By following the Word of God THE HOLY PROPHET(SAW) ALONE IS THE LIVING PROPHET The founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community was Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as). The founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community was Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as). In 1891, he claimed, on the basis of Divine revelation, that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi whose advent had been foretold by Muhammad, the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and by the scriptures of other faiths. His claim constitutes the basis of the beliefs of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. 7The Review of Religions – March 2006 and through its effect, those who obey the Holy Qur’an, and believe sincerely in the Holy Prophet(saw) and love him, and consider him better and holier and more perfect and more exalted than the whole of creation and all Prophets and all Messengers and all holy ones and all that has happened or might happen, continue to partake of those bounties and drink thirstily and copiously of the draught that was given to Moses(as) and Jesus(as) to drink. They are lit up with Israeli lights and enjoy the blessings of the Prophets who were descendants of Jacob. Holy is Allah, once again, Holy is Allah!! How high is the status of the Seal of the Prophets(saw) and how grand is the light the humblest of whose servants arrived at the ranks that we have mentioned. O Allah, send down Thy blessings on Thy Prophet and Thy loved one, the Chief of the Prophets, the best of Messengers and the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, and his people and his companions and bestow Thy bounties and peace upon them. The Christian divines, Pundits, Brahmos, Aryas and other opponents of our time need not wonder where are the blessings and heavenly lights representing which the followers of the Holy Prophet(saw) are sharers with Moses(as) and Jesus(as) and where is the heritage of those lights which are bestowed on Muslims and from which all other people and followers of other religions are debarred? To set their doubts at rest, we have stated it several times in this footnote, that we are responsible for setting forth the proof of these things before any seeker after truth who would be ready, on witnessing the particular superiority of Islam, to become a Muslim. In the second footnote(1), we have set out in brief, how God Almighty manifests His Divine powers and graces and blessings in the case of Muslims, and how He has promised and given good news of events that are beyond human power. So if any Christian divine, Pundit or Brahmo denies these things, on account of his inner darkness, or THE HOLY PROPHET(SAW) ALONE IS THE LIVING PROPHET 8 The Review of Religions – March 2006 any Arya, or a follower of other faiths, is truly and sincerely a seeker after God, it is incumbent upon him that like a true seeker, he should discard all pride, arrogance, and hypocrisy, and worship of the world and obsti- nacy and contention and, seeking only the truth and wishing only for it, should come straight to us like a poor and humble person and should then be patient and steadfast, obedient and sincere like the righteous so that by God’s will he might arrive at his object. If even now anyone turns away he becomes witness to his own lack of faith. (Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 1 pp. 266-275, footnote 11) 1. The reference is to the second footnote in Barahin-e- Ahmadiyya, which starts on page 293 in Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 1. THE HOLY PROPHET(SAW) ALONE IS THE LIVING PROPHET In this journal, for the ease of non-Muslim readers, ‘(saw)’ or ‘saw’ after the words, ‘Holy Prophet’, or the name ‘Muhammad’, are used. They stand for ‘Sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam’ meaning ‘Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him’. Likewise, the letters ‘(as)’ or ‘as’ after the name of all other prophets is an abbreviation meaning ‘Peace be upon him’ derived from ‘Alaihis salatu wassalam’ which are words that a Muslim utters out of respect whenever he or she comes across that name. The abbreviation ‘ra’ or (ra) stands for ‘Radhiallahu Ta’ala anhu and is used for Companions of a Prophet, meaning Allah be pleased with him or her (when followed by the relevant Arabic pronoun). Finally, ‘ru’ or (ru) for Rahemahullahu Ta’ala means the Mercy of Allah the Exalted be upon him.
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