The Noble Quran revealed to the Holy Prophetsa is full of treasures, a verse of which states:
ھُوَ الَّذِیْ اَرْسَلَ رَسُوْلَہ بِالْھُدٰی وَدِیْنِ الْحَقِّ لِیُظْھِرَہ عَلَی الدِّیْنِ کُلِّہِ وَلَوْ کَرِہَ الْمُشْرِکُوْنَ
“He it is Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religions, even if those who associate partners [with God] hate [it].” (Surah al-Saff, Ch.61: V.10)
This verse clearly points to the future where the supremacy of Islam will become manifest. A hadith of the Holy Prophetsa further draws a roadmap of the various phases that Islam will undergo before this Quranic prophecy would materialise.
Hazrat Huzayfara bin Yaman narrates:
“The Holy Prophetsa said, ‘Prophethood shall remain among you as long as God wills. He will bring about its end and follow it with Khilafat on the precepts of Prophethood for as long as He wills and then bring about its end. Kingship shall then follow, to remain as long as God wills and then come to an end. There shall then be monarchical despotism which shall remain as long as God wills and come to an end upon His decree. There will then emerge Khilafat on the precepts of Prophethood’. Then he became silent.”
The Promised Messiahas graced us with his understanding of the above Quranic verse about the supremacy of Islam in the following words:
“This is a magnificent prophecy of the Holy Quran about which historians and scholars unanimously agree that it will become manifest at the hands of the Promised Messiah”. (Taryaq-ul-Qulub, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 15, p. 232)
Since the advent of the Promised Messiah and Mahdi was to be for the sole purpose of rejuvenating Islam and reigniting its former glory and taking it even further, Allah the Almighty gave Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiahas a great number of glad tidings. A few of those great promises are given below:
“I shall cause thy message to reach the corners of the earth.” (Tadhkirah, p. 260)
“I saw in a dream as if the sceptre of the Czar of Russia was in my hand and hidden inside it was the barrel of a gun and thus it served two purposes. Then I saw that the bow of the king who reigned at the time of Bu ‘Ali Sina [Avicenna] was in my hand and I had shot an arrow at a tiger. It appears as if Bu ‘Ali Sina and the king were also with me.” (Ibid, p. 621)
یصَلُّوْنَ عَلَیْکَ صُلَحَآئٗ الْعَرَبِ وَ اَبْدَالُ الشَّامِ
“The abdal [saints] of Syria and the servants of Allah from among the Arabs are supplicating on your behalf.” (Ibid, p. 160)
“On many occasions I have seen in my visions ‘ghaus’ [eminent saints] and ‘qutb-e-waqt’ [high-ranking saints of their time] who have believed in, and will believe, in my high rank.” (Ibid, p. 207)
وَاِنِّی اَرَیٰ اَنَّ اَھْلَ مَکَّۃَ یَدْ ُخلُوْنَ اَفْوَاجًا فِیْ حِزْبِ اللّٰہِ الْقَادِرِ الْمُخْتَارِ وَھٰذَا مِنْ رَّبِّ الْسَّمَائِ وَعَجِیْبٌ فِی اَعْیُنِ اَھْلِ الْاَرْضِیْنَ
“I behold that the people of Mecca will enter in large numbers in the party of Allah, the Powerful, the Absolute. This is the doing of the Lord of the heavens and is strange in the eyes of the earthly people.” (Nur-ul-Haq, Part 2, p. 10)
“Allah has decreed since eternity that He and His Messengers shall prevail.” (Ibid, p. 814)
اِنِّی مَلَکْتُ الْشَّرْقَ وَ الْغَرْبَ
“To Me belong the East and the West.” (Tadhkirah, p. 671)
“I shall make you famous with honour to the ends of the earth and shall exalt your name and shall put your love in the hearts of the people.” (Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 3, p. 442)
Besides the above, there are numerous tidings bestowed on the Promised Messiahas by Allah, which bear witness to the fact that the lost glory of Islam will recover through his mission.
Prophets are human beings and are, thus, mortal. They live up to a certain time before departing from this world, whereupon the Khilafat that succeeds them takes their mission forward. The words of the Promised Messiahas in this regard are self-explanatory and given below:
“So dear friends! Since it is the sunnatullah [Allah’s practice], from time immemorial, that God Almighty shows two manifestations so that the two false joys of the opponents be put to an end, it is not possible now that God should relinquish His practice of old.
“So do not grieve over what I have said to you; nor should your hearts be distressed. For it is essential for you to witness the second manifestation also, and its coming is better for you because it is everlasting the continuity of which will not end till the Day of Judgement. And that second manifestation cannot come unless I depart.
“But when I depart, God will send that second manifestation for you which shall always stay with you just as promised by God in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya.
“And this promise is not for my person; rather, the promise is with reference to you, as God [addressing me] says: ‘I shall make this Jamaat who are your followers, prevail over others till the Day of Judgment.’” (The Will, p. 7)
The above words are a great prophecy of the establishment of Khilafat after his demise, just as was prophesied in the hadith quoted earlier. By mentioning the time of his Khilafat to last until the Day of Judgment, the Promised Messiahas has explicated the silence of the Holy Prophetsa at the end of the aforementioned hadith – for Khilafat to remain till the end of this world.
The Promised Messiahas also described the functions of Khilafat in the following words:
“[…] Allah promised Khulafa [caliphs] for eternity so they could, by virtually obtaining the light of prophethood, call the world to faith, and reveal the pure blessings of the Quran to all.” (Shahadat-ul-Quran, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 6, p. 340)
He also wrote:
“The Noble Quran has testimonies of the disbelievers that they went about boldly claiming [about Islam] that this religion would perish and vanish very soon. On such occasions, they are told:
یُرِیۡدُوۡنَ اَنْ یُّطۡفِـُٔوۡا نُوۡرَ اللّٰہِ بِاَفۡوَاہِہِمۡ وَیَاۡبَی اللّٰہُ اِلَّاۤ اَنۡ یُّتِمَّ نُوۡرَہٗ وَلَوۡ کَرِہَ الۡکٰفِرُوۡن
“That such people, through their verbosity, claim that this religion will never succeed and will be destroyed at our hands. But God will never let this faith go to waste and will not leave it unless it has been fulfilled.” (Jang-e-Muqaddas, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 6, p. 290)
Further explaining the concept of Khilafat, with reference to the aforementioned hadith, the Promised Messiahas states:
“Unfortunately, such people do not ponder over the word Khalifa – which is derived from istikhlaf – because Khalifa means successor, and a true successor of a prophet can only be one who virtually holds in himself the excellence of the prophet.
“This is why the Holy Prophetsa did not approve of the term Khalifa to be used for tyrannical kings. A Khalifa is a reflection of the prophet and since no human being lives eternally, God Almighty decreed that prophets – who excel and supersede everyone – should, in form of a reflection, live on eternally. Thus, God Almighty chose Khilafat so the world never remains devoid of the blessings of prophethood.” (Shahadat-ul-Quran, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 6, p. 351)
We know that the Khilafat of the Promised Messiahas was established on the precepts of prophethood after his demise in 1908. We also know that this Khilafat has upheld the virtues of Islam and has taken the message of the Holy Prophetsa to the corners of the earth. We know that it has succeeded in this blessed mission and will, insha-Allah, continue to do so until all promises made by Allah to the Holy Prophetsa and the Promised Messiahas are fulfilled.
Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Ira once said:
“Not all religions of the world have divinely guided guardians. It is Islam’s grace and benevolence that it provides divinely guided ones who pray for [spiritual] diseases; who is alert in the way of Allah and aware of adverse consequences of mischief and enmity; one who stands for welfare. Whenever there is complacency and indifference towards the Holy Quran and the ways of the Holy Prophetsa are ignored, Allah has promised to appoint Khulafa”. (Al Hakam, 17 July, 1902)
There once appeared a debate on how long Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya might last. When this came to the knowledge of Hazrat Musleh-e-Maudra, he said:
“In my opinion, such debates are not only unnecessary but dangerous as well, where we start speculating about the life-expectancy of Khilafat. It is quite clear that Khilafat will remain in Ahmadiyyat for a very long period of time – such a long time that we cannot even imagine at this moment […]
“Whatever happened in the early years [of Islam] was specific for that period and is not a set rule for all times to come.” (Al Fazl, 3 April, 1952)
Similarly, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIIrh stated:
“To remove fears, [the Promised Messiahas] gave us the glad tiding that even after him, Allah’s omnipotence will continue to illuminate the Jamaat […]” (Mash‘al-e-Rah, Vol. 2, p. 210)
Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IVrh saw the future of Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya as such:
“By the grace of Allah, we have victoriously sailed through the biggest test that came our way. Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya will never be in danger in the times to come. In the eyes of God, the Jamaat has reached maturity and no evil eye, no evil heart and no enemy can ever lay a finger on it. Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya will continue to flourish in the way that Allah has promised to the Promised Messiahas. This Jamaat will live up to at least a thousand years.”
(Friday Sermon, 18 June 1982)
36 years ago, in January 1986, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IVrh emphatically stated:
“Albeit only a few, some Ahmadis write to me saying, ‘The Promised Messiahas has departed and so has the piety of that age and that many weaknesses have emerged in the Jamaat, so this [referring to trials experienced by the Jamaat] is not a test but a punishment.’ This is a completely false and satanic idea.
“Unless Allah grants supremacy to the Promised Messiahas, and supremacy of Islam through him over the non-believers, Allah’s manifestation of his omnipotence will not cease or grow weak or get tired. This is just impossible that Allah withdraws His hand of omnipotence from you before the manifestation of that supremacy […]
“It is about this second manifestation [Khilafat] that the Promised Messiahas has been given glad tidings that it will continue for at least a thousand years.
“Therefore, all those drowned in Satanic imaginations that perhaps Allah has withdrawn His hand of omnipotence, are liars. This second manifestation is still with us and as long as the Jamaat remains attached to this manifestation, Allah’s manifestation will stay attached to the Jamaat. No one can cut this bond.
“Thus, you should, with complete loyalty, remain attached to the second manifestation of God. I give you this good news, and I swear to God, that God’s manifestation will never disconnect it from you. It will not. It will simply not break away from you.” (Friday Sermon, 10 January 1986)
Speaking on the future of Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa once said:
“There is no need for us to indulge in the debate of how long Khilafat will last and when it might turn into kingship.
“Allah willing, there will always be pious people and Khilafat will forever continue. The Promised Messiahas has stated that there is no bigger ill-thought than thinking of Islam as a dead religion and limiting the blessings to the early ages […]
“I have explained above from a hadith and sayings of the Promised Messiahas, that anyone who thinks so is mistaken. Allah fulfils His promises. What you need to worry about are your own deeds.” (Friday Sermon, 27 May 2005)
May Allah enable us to always refrain from such misguided and misguiding debates and to remain steadfast with our pledge to Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya.
(Content prepared and published under the responsibility of Al Hakam)