Miracles, Signs and Prophecies – Part 1
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The Promised Messiah (as) wrote over 80 books in Arabic, Urdu, and Persian. Excerpts of his collected works have been translated into English and organised by topic.
The Review of Religions is pleased to present these excerpts as part of a monthly feature. Here, the Promised Messiah (as) explains why one cannot truly understand the unity of God without divine revelation.
This is the first part of a multi-part series.
Extracts from The Essence of Islam – Vol. V. pp. 1-11.
In order to prove that I am from Him, God Almighty has shown so many signs that were they to be divided among a thousand Prophets, they would suffice to establish the Prophethood of them all.’
God has informed me directly through His living word that if I am troubled by people asking how they should know that I am from Him, I should tell them: It is sufficient proof that His heavenly signs are my witness, my prayers are accepted, knowledge of the unseen is revealed to me beforehand, and such mysteries, as are known to none other than God, are disclosed to me in advance. And the second sign is that should anyone want to challenge me in the aforesaid matters – in the acceptance of prayers, being given prior knowledge of their acceptance, and in being given knowledge of unseen matters that lie beyond the limits of human knowledge – he will surely be defeated in this challenge, be he from the East or from the West. These are the signs that have been vouchsafed to me.
—Government Angrezi Aur Jihad, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 17, pp. 29-30
I swear by God, in Whose hand is my life, that if all the people who have witnessed the signs that have been shown for my sake and for my support were to be gathered at one place, there would be no monarch on earth whose army would exceed them in numbers. Yet the earth is so full of sin that people are rejecting even these signs. Heaven has testified in my support and so has the Earth.
—I‘jaz-e-Ahmadi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 19, p. 108
I emphatically claim that if a Christian were to stay in my company, he would witness a number of signs within one year. Divine signs are raining down in this place and God, Whom people have forgotten and have put His creatures in His place, is now manifesting Himself in my heart. He wants to reveal Himself. Is there anyone desirous of beholding Him?
—Kitab al-Bariyyah, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 13, p. 108
If someone were to object, ‘Where are the miracles you speak of?’, I would not merely say that I can show them, rather, by the grace of God, I would say that God has shown so many miracles in order to prove the truth of my claim that few are the prophets who have shown so many miracles. The truth is that He has caused a river of miracles to flow and – with the sole exception of our Holy Prophet (sa) – it is impossible to find categorical evidence of so many miracles being shown by any of the past prophets. For His part, God has incontrovertibly established the point. It is now up to the people to accept it or not.
—Haqiqat al-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, p. 574
God has shown so many signs in my support that if I were to count them one by one up to this day, 16th July, 1906, I can swear by God that they are in excess of three hundred thousand. And if someone does not believe in my oath, I can provide him with proof. Some of these signs are to do with occasions when God Almighty, in keeping with His promise, protected me from being harmed by the enemy. Some of the signs are such that, in keeping with His promise, God always fulfilled my needs and my wishes. And some are of the kind whereby, in keeping with His promise إِنِّيْ مُهِيْنٌ مَّنْ أَرَادَ إِهَانَتَكَ [1] God brought humiliation and disgrace upon those who tried to harm me. Some signs are of the kind in which, according to His prophecies, He made me victorious over those who filed lawsuits against me. Some are of the kind that pertain to the length of my ministry, for ever since the world was created, no impostor has ever been allowed such a long period of respite. Some signs are of the kind that are manifested through observing the condition of the age – that this age is in need of an Imam. Some signs are of the kind which represent the fulfilment of my prayers in favour of my friends. Some signs are of the kind which represent the fulfilment of my prayer against malicious enemies. Some signs are of the kind in which terminally ill patients were cured and I was informed of their recovery in advance. Some signs are of the nature whereby, for my sake, God caused a number of heavenly and earthly calamities as a testimony to my claim. Some are of the sort whereby many eminent and renowned saints saw dreams in which the Holy Prophet (sa) appeared to them and testified to my claim, among these is the Sajjadah Nashin Sahib al-‘Alam of Sindh who has nearly one hundred thousand followers, and Khawaja Ghulam Farid of Chachrań. Some signs are such that thousands of people pledged Bai‘at at my hand only because they were informed in a dream of my truthfulness and of my being from God; while some others did so because they saw the Holy Prophet (sa) in a dream, and he told them that the end of the world is near and that this man is the last Vicegerent of God and the Promised Messiah. Some signs relate to certain eminent saints who mentioned me by name even before my birth, or before I came of age, and spoke about my being the Promised Messiah. Among these are Ne‘matullah Wali and Mian Gulab Shah of Jamalpur, District Ludhiana.
—Haqiqat al-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, pp.70-71
It was for me that God caused the solar and lunar eclipses in heaven during the month of Ramadan, and caused numerous other signs to be manifested on earth, and thus, in accordance with divine practice, my truth was conclusively established. God, in Whose hand rests my life, is my witness that if you cleanse your hearts and seek other signs from God, the Omnipotent One is capable of showing a sign according to His own will and power, without being subject to any of your importunities. And I am sure that if you demand a sign from me, with a genuine desire to repent, and promise earnestly before God that if an extraordinary sign appears which is beyond human power, you will shed all this rancour and enmity and, purely for the sake of winning God’s pleasure, will enter into the pledge of Bai‘at with me, then God, being so Kind and Merciful, will certainly show you some sign. However, it is not within my power to fix a period of two or three days for showing a sign, or to do exactly as you wish. It is the prerogative of God to choose the time.
—Arba‘in, no. 2, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 17, pp. 374-375
Even if a person were to strive all his life in the hope of finding some prophecy of mine about which he could assert that it has remained unfulfilled, he will not find a single one, though, out of shameless audacity or ignorance, he may say whatever he likes. I declare emphatically that there are thousands of explicit prophecies of mine that have been fulfilled with great clarity and to which hundreds of thousands of people bear witness. If you try to find precedence among past prophets, you will not find it, with the sole exception of the Holy Prophet (sa)… I know it for a fact that the clarity with which God Almighty is manifesting Himself in this age and the way He is revealing to His servant hundreds of matters pertaining to the unseen, no parallel of it can be found in earlier times. People will soon see the Countenance of God Almighty becoming manifest in this age, as though He Himself had descended from heaven. For a long time He kept Himself hidden, and He was denied but He remained silent. Now, however, He will conceal Himself no longer and the world shall witness such manifestation of His power as their forefathers had never seen. This shall happen because the world has become corrupt, and people no longer believe in the Creator of heaven and earth. They only pay lip service to Him, but their hearts have turned away from Him. This is why God said, ‘Now I shall create a new Heaven and a new Earth.’ This simply means that the earth had died, i.e., the hearts of the people of this earth had become cold as if they were dead, for the Countenance of God was hidden from them, and all previous heavenly signs had come to be regarded as mere tales. God, therefore, willed to create a new Earth and a new Heaven. What is that new Heaven? And what is that new Earth? The new Earth are the pure hearts whom God prepares with His own hand; they are manifested by God and He shall be manifested through them. The new Heaven are the signs that are being shown by His servant with His permission. Alas! the world treated this New Manifestation of God with hostility. They are left with nothing but tales, and their ‘God’ is none other than their own fantasies. Their hearts are awry, their will exhausted, and their eyes covered with veils.
—Kashti Nuh, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 19, pp. 6-7
In fact there is none of my prophecies that has remained unfulfilled. If anyone harbours any such doubt in his mind, let him come to me with honest intention, and let him present his objection face to face. If he does not receive a wholly satisfying answer, I will be liable to pay him any compensation. The fact is that these people raise objections out of meanness and not out of fair-mindedness. Had they lived in the times of other prophets, they would have levelled the same objections against them as they do against me. One can show the way to a person who has eyes to see, but what can one do for him who is blinded by meanness, selfishness and arrogance?
More than three thousand blessed prophecies, which are based on revelations vouchsafed to me, and which pose no threat to public peace, have already been fulfilled and hundreds of pious people have witnessed them. Many of my writings [prophecies] had been published before their time of fulfilment. But if someone still raises doubts and objections in a biased way, and does not sincerely try to gain personal experience by staying in my company, and does not inquire from those who have had such personal experience, and gives currency to misleading objections through deception and duplicity, and does not desist from dishonesty and falsehood, he becomes heir to the disbelievers who in previous times opposed the prophets. May God protect His servants from the calumnies of such scheming people! Why is it that these people raise objections from a distance like thieves, and do not – like people with a clear conscience – come and present their objections face to face? And why is it that they do not care to listen to our answers? The reason is that they are well aware of their deceit and dishonesty, and their conscience keeps warning them that if they raised face-to-face such absurd objections as are full of ignorance and dishonesty, they will stand roundly exposed, and their chicanery shall be laid bare once and for all, and nothing but shame and embarrassment will be their lot, and their objection will be completely demolished. It must be remembered that there is nothing in my prophecies which does not have a precedent in the prophecies of earlier prophets. But ignorant and uncouth people – bereft as they are of the subtle verities and truths of religion, and unaware as they are of the ways of God – are driven by their bias and prejudice to raise hasty objections. They are always waiting for some calamity to befall me in keeping with the verse [2] يَتَرَبَّصُ بِكُمُ ٱلدَّوَآئِرَ but are themselves unconscious of the verse عَلَيۡهِمۡ دَآئِرَةُ ٱلسَّوۡءِ [3].
—Haqiqat al-Mahdi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 14, pp. 441-442
God Almighty deals with everyone according to one’s relationship with Him. Though the loved ones of God also suffer hardships, divine help and succour is still clearly on their side, and He, in His honour, never allows them to be humiliated and disgraced. Nor can His love [for them] allow their name to be obliterated from the face of the earth. Also, the very essence of miracles is that when a man, with all his being, becomes God’s, and no intervening veil is left between him and his Lord, and he completes all the stages of loyalty and truthfulness which remove the veil, he then becomes heir to God and to His powers, and God Almighty shows all kinds of signs for his sake, some of which are for repelling evil while others are for bestowing good. Some of these signs pertain to his person, some to his family, some to his foes, and some to his friends. Some relate to his countrymen, while others are universal. Some belong to the earth and some to heaven. Thus every kind of sign is shown for him. This stage is not too difficult to understand and we need not discuss it any further. For if, as stated earlier, someone has attained this third station, the world can never compete with him. Anyone who falls on him shall be shattered, and anyone on whom he falls will be smashed into smithereens, because his hand is the Hand of God and his countenance is the Countenance of God. And his station is beyond anyone’s reach.
—Haqiqat al-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, p. 53
Let it be known that a miracle is one of the divine practices, or one of the acts of the Omnipotent One, that can be called supernormal. Thus, the reality of supernormal phenomena is that when those whose souls are purified transcend the ordinary human condition, and cut through their low habits, and march forward trying to gain nearness to God, He then deals with them in such a strange way – in accordance with their condition – that, as compared to the normal human state, it appears to be an altogether supernormal phenomenon. And to the extent that a person forges ahead on the path of love and devotion, having renounced his mortal state and having torn up the veils of the self, to the same extent do these miracles appear for him with greater clarity, transparency and brilliance. When the purity of the human self reaches its perfection, and one’s heart becomes totally devoid of everything other than God, and becomes suffused with His love, it is then that all his acts and deeds, gestures and motions, his conduct, his worship, and his morals, which are of the highest order, become supernormal. So vis-à-vis the condition of such a perfectly transformed man, God deals with him in a supernormal manner.
—Surmah Chashm Arya, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 2, pp. 68-69, footnote
A miracle is in fact an extraordinary phenomenon, the like of which the opponent is unable to produce, even though it appears to be within human power. An example of this is the miracle of the Holy Qur’an that was shown to all the people of Arabia. Although, on the face of it, it seemed to be within the scope of human potential, all the people of Arabia were frustrated in their efforts to produce anything like it. Thus, for understanding the nature of miracles, the Holy Qur’an serves as a very clear example. It may seem to be a discourse like that of human beings, but in respect of its eloquent expression, its extremely delectable, pure and colourful diction – characterised in every instance by truth and wisdom – and its brilliant arguments that countered the arguments of the whole world, and, last but not least, in respect of its majestic prophecies, it is a matchless miracle, and one that no opponent has been able to contest despite the passage of thirteen hundred years, and none has the power to do so. The Holy Qur’an enjoys the distinction among all the books of the world in that it presents its prophecies, which are themselves miraculous, in a language that is also miraculous, highly eloquent, convincing, and full of truth and wisdom. In short, the true purpose of a miracle is to demonstrate the distinction between the truth and falsehood, or between the truthful and the liar. Such a distinguishing phenomenon is called a miracle or a sign. A sign is an essential phenomenon without which it is neither possible to have full faith in the existence of God, nor to reap the fruit that grows out of full conviction. Since the truth of a religion is directly linked to the recognition of God, it is therefore an essential and important prerequisite of a true religion to possess the signs that conclusively and definitively prove His existence.
—Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part 5, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 21, pp.59-60
ENDNOTES
1. ‘I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate thee.’ [Publisher]
2. ‘They wishfully await calamities to befall you.’ – The Holy Qur’an, 9:98.
3. ‘Let evil befall them instead.’ – The Holy Qur’an, 9:98.
