Yesterday I heard someone say that the only difference between us and those Muslims who oppose us relates to the life and death of the Messiah, peace be upon him; otherwise, we are one and the same. It is further claimed that as far as the practice of our opponents is concerned, they too are in the right. That is to say, their prayer, fasting and other practices are those of Muslims, and they follow all the injunctions of Islam. The only error that had crept into them related to the demise of Jesus, peace be upon him, and in order to remove this, God Almighty established this community.
However, it ought to be realised that this view is incorrect. Although it is true that this error is rampant among the Muslims, if someone were to presume that the purpose of my advent in the world was to rectify this error alone, and there was no other fault among the Muslims that required reformation, rather they are on the right path, then such a notion is false. In my view, the belief relating to the death or life of the Messiah is not of such importance for which Allah the Exalted would have established a community so significant and sent to the world a particular individual to manifest His magnificent glory at a time when darkness had enveloped the world and the earth had become accursed. The error regarding the life of Jesus, peace be upon him, is not one which has arisen in this age, but emerged a short while after the demise of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him; and despite the coming of distinguished holy personages, righteous people and the elect of Allah, people have remained ensnared in this error. If the purpose was to rectify this error alone, Allah the Exalted would have done so at that time, but He did not, and to this day, the aforementioned error has persisted. Even now, if this alone were the only issue, Allah the Exalted would not have established a community for this purpose, as the death of the Messiah was not a view that had never been accepted by anyone else in the past. In former times, many of the elect to whom Allah Almighty had disclosed this truth, did believe in the death of Jesus (as). However, there is another purpose for which Allah the Exalted has established this community. It is true that the removal of the misconception relating to the life of the Messiah was also one of the great objectives of establishing this community, but God Almighty has not raised me for this task alone. In fact, many errors had arisen such that if Allah Almighty had not established a community and appointed someone to rectify them, the world would have perished and Islam would have been annihilated completely! We can describe this question in another way: what is the purpose of my advent?
The death of Jesus (as) and the life of Islam are two issues which are very closely intertwined. The issue relating to the death of the Messiah has, in this age, become vital for the life of Islam. This is because the disorder resulting from the alleged life of the Messiah has become immensely widespread.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), The Advent of the Promised Messiah (Tilford, Surrey: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2016), 1-3.
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