The Elixir of Truth in Divine Prophecies

March 23 is an important date in the modern history of spiritual Islam. It was on this Day in 1889 that the the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya was established by the Promised Massih Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian. [Inset: a photo from the 2005 Jalsa Salana at Qadian, which the present writer attended]. He initiated the Bai’at Programme through which devout Muslims could express their allegiance to the Divine appointee. In a special speech to mark the occasion on Saturday, 23 March 2013 the Chosen Messenger of our times, the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius spoke at length about the sacred, foundational prophecies that undergird the belief about the coming of Divine Messengers/Massihs’/Mahdis’ in the Latter Days of Islam. The speech beautifully captures the essence of Divine prophecies foretold in the sacred writings of Muslims, Christians and the seers of other religious. It demonstrates how these prophecies have been fulfilled in the times of the Promised Massih (as) and also reflects on their contemporary significance. The spiritual outlook regarding the continuity of Divine revelations and the appearance of Divine Messengers in future, who will speak with the Holy Spirit, as emerging from the writings of the Promised Massih (as) and as discussed in the speech must be of special interest to devout Ahmadis.   

Read the Extracts from the Speech:

Today 23 March 2013 establishes 124 years since an event took place in the once unknown small village – Qadian – situated in the province of Punjab in India. It was an event destined to change the course of history. In Islamic literature, the Quran predicts a thousand years during which Islam will suffer an extraordinary decline.

“He regulates His command from the heaven to the earth; then shall it ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is a thousand years of what you count.” (As-Sajdah 32: 6).

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has predicted that this decline will not begin until three hundred years after his advent: “The best century is the one in which I live, then the second and the third will be good, afterwards lies will spread, truth shall disappear; cruelty, excesses, differences and divergences shall appear”. (Miskat, Bukhari & Tirmidhi).

The Dead Sea Scrolls Are Now ‘Online’

The Dead Sea Scrolls or the Qumran Manuscripts are an important source of historical information regarding the material and spiritual life in an early Community of Believers during the Biblical times. According to many scholars, the Scrolls offer illuminating insights on the beliefs and practices of the historical Essene Community of Jewish people to which, it is said, the Hadhrat Jesus (as) belonged. The majority of the Scrolls, preserved at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, are now available online and can be accessed by all here.

Dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea, Palestine/Israel. 

The manuscripts are generally attributed to an isolated Jewish sect, referred to in the scrolls as "the Community," who settled in Qumran in the Judean desert. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.