|
|
|
|
|
|
.. |
Articles
Section
> Great Prophecy Fulfilled by Naseer Ahmad
Faruqui Sahib Great
Prophecy Fulfilled: The most telling proof of Allah’s Presence is the revelation He sends down containing not only sublime wisdom and knowledge, without which man would be utterly in the dark as to why he was created and how best he could achieve the object of his creation and at the same time be in bliss in this life and the hereafter, but also containing undeniable proof of the Divine origin of the revelation in the form of great prophecies which look impossible when they are made but which amaze one when fulfilled. They show not only knowledge of the distant future which no man can have, but their fulfilment could not be possible without the might and majesty of Allah. The Holy Quran is full of such prophetic knowledge. For instance, when Islam and the Holy Prophet were in their weakest possible state, great prophecies were made about their final victory over the most overwhelming forces of opposition out to destroy them. Those prophecies were fulfilled within a short time, as we all now know. Of the long-range prophecies, the most important relate to the rise to power in this age of Christianity and Christian nations who, we were foretold, would adopt a hostile and aggressive attitude towards Islam and the Muslims. The all-out attack of Christianity on Islam began in the nineteenth century as the Christian Powers sought to perpetuate their imperial hold over the rest of the world by inter alia converting its people to their own religion. They found Islam to be the only rational and vital religion which stood in their way. The Holy Prophet had forewarned the Muslims that the virulent Christian attack on their religion would be the most critical time in the history of Islam. He also prophesised the appearance of the Promised Messiah at that time to come to the rescue of Islam and to make it prevail over not only Christianity but also all other religions. The Holy Quran had also prophesised a similar crisis. To quote one such prophecy (the explanatory words within [brackets] are mine): "They [i.e., the Christians] will want to put out the light of Allah [i.e., Islam] with their mouths [i.e., by verbal assaults] but Allah will perfect His light [i.e., He will bring out the perfection of Islam by showing that what was criticised was actually a good point in Islam] though the disbelievers may be averse [i.e., the non-Muslims will strive to prevent this]. The commentators of the Holy Quran have said that this prevalence of Islam over all other religions will be brought about through the Promised Messiah. We now know that the Promised Messiah did appear in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement) at this critical juncture and he did turn the tables on those out to destroy Islam. He not only answered effectively all criticism against Islam but also exposed the faults and shortcomings of other religions. It is as a result of his writings and those of his followers, which have permeated the religious thinking of the Christian world, directly or indirectly, that a revolution has come about in its own faith in Christianity. The Holy Quran itself said nearly 1400 years ago, when the Christians believed their own faith to be the only true one, that those who attribute a son to Allah "speak nothing but a lie" (18:4-5). Confirmation was to come centuries later when some of the modern Christian scholars were to give their finding that St. Paul, the founder of the Christian faith as known to us these days, was "a liar" (see "Sources of Christianity" by Kamaluddin). In more recent times, in fact only last year, the distinguished professors and teachers in the Department of Theology and Religion, in Southampton University (England) wrote a letter dated July 8, 1977 to the important "Church Times" of London in which they said inter alia: "We believe that it is the duty of theologians, especially of those who teach at universities, to raise publicly questions about the principles of Christian faith, to justify those principles or to show them as false in accordance with the evidence and with sound reasoning. (We believe) a. That there is no divine son never has been and never could be. And so on. The word "false" has been italicised by me to show how modern Christian scholarship has passed the same verdict as the Holy Quran had 1400 years ago (18:4-5). A little earlier, a book described in England as "explosive," appeared under the title "The Myth of God-Incarnate" which contained articles by learned professors and teachers of divinity at Oxford, Cambridge and Birmingham Universities, which said in a nutshell that: a. Jesus in his time did not lay claim to divinity. These, however, are Protestant scholars. Roman Catholicism, being the Orthodox Church, was supposed to be immune to such a heretical turn of events. The Will of Allah, however, knows of no barriers to thwart it. The world-renowned weekly "Time" dated May 24, 1976 had its cover announcing in bold letters "US Catholicism--A Church Divided." And on the cover too, the Cross was shown split in two! The article itself, to highlight the disappearing faith in Roman Catholicism, opened with an elderly lady’s remark: "I hope to die soon so that I can die a Catholic." Describing Roman Catholicism as a former spiritual fortress guaranteeing the safety of the Christian faith, the article went on to say: "That fortress has crumbled. Before the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the US Catholic Church had seemed, at least to outsiders, to be a monolith of faith, not only the Church’s richest province but, arguably, its most pious. When the Council ended in 1965, American Catholicism had been swept by a turbulent new mood, a mood of opened windows, tumbled walls, broken chains. It became a painful experience for many and over the next decade the casualties were heavy: nuns leaving their convents, priests their ministries, lay Catholics simply walking away from worship and belief." The article also quoted the following words of the interview given to the periodical US Catholic by Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin, President of the US Bishops Conference: "So many consider themselves good Catholics, even though their beliefs and practices seem to conflict with the official teaching in the church. This is almost a new concept of what it means to be a Catholic today." The article went on to say: "Some 35,000 American nuns and 10,000 priests -- even a brilliant bishop -- left their ministries, and sometimes even the church, in a great exodus. Some of them left explicitly to marry, others out of disillusionment or loss of faith, still others because they believed they could serve God or humanity more effectively in the secular world." But that was the picture of Roman Catholicism in the United States. It could be argued that the scientific and technological advancement of that country, and the riches that flowed in with it, had made the American Roman Catholics more secular in their outlook. The other stronghold of Roman Catholicism, in fact its birth place, was Europe. But a recent article in the same world-renowned weekly, the "Time", reports signs of revolt against the Roman Catholic beliefs even in this stronghold of Catholicism. In its issue dated February 27, 1978, this universally read weekly has an article with the following heading in bold letters "New Debate over Jesus’ Divinity." The article is long and I would therefore confine myself to a few extracts. Extract "A": "The belief that Jesus Christ was both "true God and true man" has been the bedrock of Catholic orthodoxy for more than fifteen centuries. Yet over the past decade some Roman Catholic theologians have been at odds with the church hierarchy about this dogma. They argue that orthodox theology is too static and abstract and has over-emphasised Jesus’ divinity to the point where he has been stripped of his full humanity. One of the most outspoken advocates of this school of thought is Priest-Theologian Hans Kung, 49, of the University of Tubingen, Germany, who has previously struggled with the Vatican on other issues, and has been accused by his country’s bishops of disseminating dangerous views about Christ. Extract "B": "Disputes over Christology are not limited to Catholics. Though many Protestant scholars have been questioning the dogmas for more than a century, elements of the Church of England were scandalized last year when seven university theologians put out a book contending that Jesus was not really God at all. In the United States, Southern Baptist Theologian Robert S. Alley, religion chairman at the University of Richmond, was abruptly switched to another department after he told a meeting of atheists that ‘Jesus never really claimed to be God, nor to be related to him as son.’ Next month the board will debate a faculty demand that Alley be reinstated." Extract "C": "Among Roman Catholic thinkers, the New Christology first appeared at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, in 1966, when the late Ansfried Hulsbosch, an Augustinian, issued a manifesto against the Council of Chalcedon. The church, he wrote, should "no longer speak of a union of the divine and human nature in one pre-existent person." One of the Dutch movement’s two leading figures has been his Nijmegen colleague, Jesuit Piet Schoonenberg. In his 1969 book, published in English as "The Christ" (Herder and Herder; 1971), Schoonenberg also discarded the "two natures" approach, speaking instead of "God’s complete presence in the human person Jesus Christ." Canadian Theologian Bernard J.F. Lonergan later said that Schoonenberg’s book could lead to the logical (and heretical) conclusion that Jesus was "a man and only a man." The other important Dutch liberal is Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx, whose first volume on Christology will be published in English by Seabury later this year. The elliptical book describes Jesus as a human being who gradually grew closer to God. It will be seen that Roman Catholicism’s strongholds namely Rome, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are all now beginning to question and repudiate the concept of the divinity of Jesus -- basic to Christianity. This, and the general upheaval in the Christian faith (both in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches) depicted by the earlier quotations in this article were foretold by the Promised Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, seventy to eighty years ago when Christian dogmas were firmly believed in by most Christians. And Christian missionaries and orientalists were going all out to attack and, if possible, destroy Islam. At that time, the Promised Messiah, under Divine revelation, made a number of prophecies, only some of which are quoted below: "In this century, the Christian attacks on Islam have become intense. Their polemics and vituperation have exceeded all limits. Had Allah so desired, He could have swept away the opponents’ activities with one stroke. But He wishes to give His judgement in a fashion more visible to all. The time has now come that the true position of the Christian faith should be exposed. I am convinced that even if I had not launched a movement against the worship of a dead person (Jesus Christ), and God had not even sent me, the condition of this religion had now reached a stage where it would dissolve like salt in water (as prophesised by the Holy Prophet Muhammad). Earlier he had written: "Remember that the false divinity attributed to Jesus will soon disappear. The day will come when the right-minded among the Christians will recognise the True God (Allah) and rush to Him weeping as separated sons. This is proclaimed by the spirit which speaks within me. Let him who wants to quarrel with the truth go on quarrelling with me. But these Divine promises will not be thwarted" ("Siraj-e-Muneer", page 66, published in 1897). Now that the Christian dogmas about the divinity of Jesus Christ and his being resurrected after dying on the cross have been repudiated by the Christian scholars themselves, can anyone now doubt that: a. The other great prophecy about the right-minded Christians embracing Islam will also be fulfilled as the next step? All we have to do is to intensify the propagation of Islam.
|
|||
|
|
