Was the Promised Messiah to appear in the Latter Days?

Someone from Jordan sent the following questions to Hazrat Amirul Momineen, Khalifatul Masih V^aa:

1. Is everything out of sight a jinn and can Iblis and angels also be jinn?
2. Do Ahmadis believe in the existence of ‘ifrit?
3. We have read that the Promised Mahdi will appear in the Latter Days, are we really living in the Latter Days?
4. Can we take an oath in the name of Allah Almighty or the Holy Prophet^sa or the Promised Messiah^as?

Huzoor-e-Anwar, in his letter dated 10 February 2022, provided the following response to these queries:

“[…] As for our era being the End Times and the advent of the Promised Messiah and Mahdi in this era, it is established by the Holy Quran, the ahadith, and the sayings of the elders of the ummah that the Holy Prophet^sa prophesied the arrival of the Messiah and Mahdi in his ummah at the end of the 13th century Hijri or the beginning of the 14th century Hijri. Hence, Allah the Exalted states:

يُدَ بِّرُ الْاَمْرَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ اِلَي الْاَرْضِ ثُمَّ يَعْرُجُ اِلَيْہِ فِي يَوْمٍ کَانَ مِقْدَارُہٗ اَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّوْنَ

“‘He will establish His command from the heaven to the earth according to His plan, then it will ascend to Him during a period, which, according to your reckoning, will extend to a thousand years.’ (Surah as-Sajdah, 32:6)

“This verse states that Muslims will continue to weaken in the world for a thousand years. After that, in exact accordance with the prophecies of the Holy Prophet Muhammad^as, an appointee will emerge who will restore the glory of Islam in the world, and Islam will be firmly reestablished once again.

“The Holy Prophet^sa declared the first three centuries of Islam as the best centuries, and it was destined that the thousand years in which the faith was to ascend to the heavens would surely begin after these three centuries. Therefore, after 1300 years, the revival of the religion of Islam was destined, which could only happen through the appearance of the Mahdi and Messiah. This is so because Allah the Exalted had decreed the advent of the Messiah and Mahdi as the advent of the Holy Prophet^sa in the following verse of Surah Jumu‘ah:

وَآخَرِيْنَ مِنْھُمْ لَمَّا يَلْحَقُوْابِھِمْ

“It means that Allah will raise him among others besides the companions who have not yet joined them. (Surah al-Jumu‘ah, Ch. 62, V.4)

“At the time of the revelation of this verse, when the Companions inquired, the Holy Prophet^sa placed his hand on the shoulder of Hazrat Salman al-Farisi^ra and said, ‘When faith has ascended to the Pleiades, one person or many people of Persian descent will re-establish faith in the world.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab at-tafsir, Surah al-Jumu‘ah) In other words, Allah’s Messenger^sa designated the advent of this man of Persian descent, through whom faith was destined to be re-established in the world in the Latter Days and the glory of Islam was to be restored, as if it were his own advent.

Hazrat Nimatullah Wali^rh, a respected figure of the Faith, who had the gift of visions, wrote in his famous Persian qasidah about the conditions of the Latter Days. He stated that when ghayn ra, i.e., 1200 years, would have passed, he sees strange and astonishing things happening. […] He sees both the Mahdi and Messiah of that time riding as kings. (Muhammad Ismail Shaheed, Al-Arba‘in Fi Ahwal al-Mahdiyyin, 1268 AH, pp. 2, 4)

“Hazrat Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlavi^rh (d. 1176 AH), writes:

عَلَّمَنِيْ رَبّيِ جَلَّ جَلَالُہٗ اَنَّ القَيَامَةَ قَدِ اقْتَرَبَتْ وَالْمَھْدِيُّ تَھَيَّا لِلْخُرُوْجِ

“‘My Lord has informed me that the Day of Resurrection has drawn near and the emergence of the Mahdi is imminent.’ (Al-Tafhimat Al-Ilahiyyah, Vol. 2, Tafhim No. 147, 1936 CE, Madinah Barqi Press, Bijnor, UP, p. 133)

“Moreover, the Promised Messiah^as has elaborated on this subject with great clarity in numerous places, stating that these are those Latter Days in which the Promised Messiah and Mahdi was foreordained to be sent for the reformation of the ummah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad^sa. Hence, Huzoor^as states:

“‘But the Holy Quran tells us that God is the Eternal Creator Who, if He so wills, may destroy the heaven and earth billions of times and create them anew just as before. God has informed us that the present human race originated from Adam, our common ancestor who came after the previous ‘races’, and this human race has an age of seven thousand years, and that these seven thousand years are to God just as seven days are to man. It has been decreed by the Divine law that every ‘race’ has a lifespan of seven thousand years, and it is to highlight this fact that the seven days have been ordained for man. Thus, the time ordained for the children of Adam is seven thousand years, five of which had already passed by the time of our Holy Prophet^sa, as shown by the numerical value of the words of Surah Al-‘Asr. By now six thousand years of this era have gone and a thousand years remain. It has been prophesied, not only by the Holy Quran but by many earlier scriptures, that the last Messenger, who will appear in the likeness of Adam, and will be named the Messiah, will appear at the end of the sixth millennium, just as Adam was born towards the end of the sixth day. All these signs should suffice for a man of understanding.

“‘According to the Holy Quran and other Divine scriptures, the seven millenniums have been further divided as follows: First millennium: for the spread of guidance and virtue. Second millennium: for the dominance of Satan. Third millennium: for the spread of guidance and virtue. Fourth millennium: for the dominance of Satan. Fifth millennium: for the spread of virtue (this was the millennium in which our lord and master the Holy Prophet^sa appeared for the reformation of mankind and Satan was put in shackles). Sixth millennium: for the release and dominance of Satan (this millennium extends from the end of the third century of the Islamic era to the beginning of the fourteenth). Seventh millennium: for the supremacy of God and His Messiah, spread of virtue and faith and righteousness, establishment of the Unity of God and Divine worship, and dominance of every virtue.

“‘We are now at the head of the seventh millennium and there is no room for any other Messiah to come after this, because there are only seven millennia that have all been divided into good and evil. All Prophets have spoken of this division whether in passing or in detail. But the Holy Quran has mentioned it very clearly, and from this we deduce the prophecy about the Promised Messiah.

“‘It is indeed remarkable that all Prophets, in one way or the other, have foretold about the time of the Messiah and the mischief of the Antichrist. In fact, no other prophecy has been made so frequently and with such consistency.’ (Lecture Lahore, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 20, pp. 184-186)

“At another place, he says:

“‘Yet another proof of the authenticity of his Prophethood is that the scriptures of all the Prophets^as as well as the Holy Quran show that, from Adam to the end, God has ordained the age of the world to be seven thousand years, with a thousand year periods both for light and for darkness. In other words, there is a period for righteousness to prevail and a period in which evil and misguidance reign supreme. According to the Divine scriptures, both these epochs are divided into periods of one thousand years each. […]

“‘Then came the fifth millennium, which was the age of guidance. The advent of our Holy Prophet^sa took place in this millennium. Through him, God re-established Tauhid in the world. The mere fact that he appeared in the millennium which had been destined for guidance since eternity, is enough to prove that he was from God. This is not only my view, but all the Divine scriptures testify to it. This fact also proves the authenticity of my own claim of being the Promised Messiah, because, according to this division of periods, the sixth millennium is the time of darkness and evil. This thousand-year period starts three hundred years after the Hijrah and ends at the turn of the fourteenth century. The Holy Prophet^sa had designated those belonging to the sixth millennium as Faij-e-A‘waj [The misguided horde].

“‘The seventh millennium in which we live is that of light and guidance. Since it is the last millennium, it was inevitable that the Imam of the latter days should be born at the turn of this millennium. After him, there is no Imam and no Messiah except the one who comes in his image, for in this millennium the world comes to an end, as all the Prophets^as have testified. This Imam, whom God has designated as the Promised Messiah, is the Mujaddid [Reformer] of this century as well as of the last millennium. Even the Christians and the Jews do agree that, counting from the time of Adam, the present millennium is the seventh. God has disclosed to me the time of Adam, as calculated upon the numerical values of the letters of Surah al-‘Asr. This too proves that we are now in the seventh millennium. All Prophets^as are in agreement that the Promised Messiah would be born at the end of the sixth millennium and make his appearance at the turn of the seventh, for he would be the last to come, as Adam was the first.’ (Lecture Sialkot, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 20, pp. 207-208)

“Thus, these are indeed the Latter Days in which, in exact accordance with the prophecies of the Holy Prophet^sa, God Almighty appointed the Prophet’s^sa spiritual son and most ardent devotee, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, as the Khatam al-Khulafa [Seal of Successors] for the revival of Islam. […]”