Allah
raises His Messenger to guide people to their Lord and to warn them against
evil. The Divine Messenger is, then, given special knowledge about matters of
the Unseen and he makes his prophecies accordingly. Some of the prophecies so
made, shall find their fulfilment in the very lifetime of the Messenger. Some
prophecies may, however, remain unfulfilled in his lifetime. From the grand scheme
of Divine Plan, the fulfilment of prophecies or their deferment to another time
and space, make little difference. After all, everything depends upon Divine
Will and Decree of Allah. And the Messengers have only the duty to convey the
message. This is the enduring Divine practice emerging from spiritual history.
Several
verses of the Holy Qur’an indicate these different possibilities in the
aftermath of Divine prophecies. With full confidence in the ways of the Lord
and with absolute detachment, the Holy Qur’an declares the principles:
“…And
if he be a liar, on him will be the sin of his life; but if he is truthful,
then some of that which he threatens you with will
surely befall you…” (40:29).
“…And if We show you in your lifetime the fulfilment of some of the things
with which We have threatened them, you will know it; or if We cause you to die
before that, then to Us is their return, and you will see the fulfilment in the next world;
and Allah is Witness to all that they do”. (10:47).
“Allah effaces what He wills, and
establishes what He wills, and with Him is the source of all decrees.
And whether We make you see the fulfilment of some of the things with which We
threaten them or whether We make you die, it makes little difference, for on you lies
the delivery of the Message, and on Us the reckoning”. (13: 40-41)
When a Divine Messenger arrives
and delivers his spiritual message, it is for the people to consider and ponder
over its import. It is for them to take positive and proactive-action to
benefit from it. It is also for them to move away from proceeding in a
direction being forewarned against in the message. Yet,
history and the Holy Qur’an testify that most people are/will be heedless in
the times of a Messenger, chained as they are/will be, in their family beliefs
and religious traditions. They are familiar with and ‘comfortable’ at the old
ritual practices in which they found their fathers indulging in. Indeed, they
are glued to these rituals so completely that their beliefs are like ‘chains
around their necks’ ‘reaching unto the chins’. It is the baggage of inherited
notions, ideas and beliefs that comes us a barrier to the appreciation of pure
belief/spiritual philosophy being articulated by the Divine Messenger. In
short, their truth-perception ability itself comes under a veil.
Consider
our own times. Most
Ahmadis are under wonder-struck that a Divine Messenger has been raised among
them in the person of Hadhrat Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba)
Mauritius. They are glued to their inherited notions and traditional
practices so much so that they deify their elected Khalifa. They exalt him in
defiance of Allah’s decree which has caused the coming of a Messenger in our
times. Regardless their wishes, Allah in
His Infinite Wisdom, has set in motion a chain of events, including the fulfilment
of Divine Prophecies vouchsafed to the new Messenger of our times. Alhamdulillah, like in the times of
previous Messengers, there are many instances of fulfilment of Divine
Prophecies in our times, as we have noted in recent weeks in the Sahih
Al Islam Blog.