The misguided Christians have been waiting nearly 2,000 years for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Then they missed one by denying our promised Messiah, peace be on him. Do you think if we have not blown this planet to pieces, they will willingly wait until another 2,000 years, or will they give up and believe in the new concept altogether? Well, in fact, this is a very sad commentary on human nature, that when Allah promises that he would send a prophet, when the prophet comes, he is more often not recognised than recognised.
This is a general phenomena which has been repeatedly related in the Holy Quran with reference to earlier religious history. What happens if you understand the philosophy underlying this denial? Then you will understand things better. And then you can conceive what would happen to them, how long can they wait. In fact, they can wait indefinitely, and this is what they want to do. They are not ready to accept the yoke of a prophet in any way. This is why they deny in the first instance.
Because the underlying psychology is this, that when a prophet comes, he establishes an authority in the name of the creator. And those people, religious leaders and other people, who are used to behave like demigods themselves, who rule others in their own names and their own authorities, who have gained certain dignity and importance in their society, how can they readily lose all this? To a person who ordinarily is a humble man, and who speaks not in his own authority, if otherwise he could be challenged. He speaks in the name of a higher authority which cannot be challenged.
So this submission to him is the absolute submission. A wayward society which has violated the rules of the previous religion, which has become or grown to become independent of all culture and discipline, suddenly is faced with this dilemma, that someone of humble origin begins to claim that he is from God himself, and he does not speak on his own behalf, but on behalf of Allah himself, so he should be obeyed in his name. The position would be that totally wayward people would suddenly be subjected to complete submission.
Not a question asked, not a finger raised. This is such a big demand on their freedom of thought and freedom of action, that is to commit crimes, that they are not in the right frame to accept. But once it happens, then Allah sees to it, that despite their opposition, despite their hostilities, despite all they can do to frustrate the message and to destroy the messenger, they ultimately are frustrated themselves, and if not they, their generations, ultimately their progenies, have to give in to the yoke of prophethood, and they have to accept that messenger at last. But still, they do not do it voluntarily.
In principle, they keep their diseases alive. Only those are purified who accept the prophets in their lifetimes, or in the first instance of receiving the message, readily. They are truly pious people, they are the Siddiqs, they are the Shuhada and Salihin. But those who follow later on, when the victory has been established by Allah as such, they carry their diseases along with them. They don’t want to accept, but they have accepted, so they start providing certain excuses for the acceptance. And it is a very interesting phenomena, which has been discussed in the Holy Quran in detail, and this is the beauty of this book, it doesn’t leave anything left out.
Every minute detail of human nature is described in the Holy Quran in various places. The phenomena which unfolded in this situation is this, that the very same people who hate the prophet, when he declares first the prophethood, and who want to destroy him, when such people with this bent of mind ultimately accept him, they begin to raise his status beyond the human status. They do not remain within a moderate attitude. They would always follow one extreme or the other one. They hate blindly and extremely. When they begin to love, they love blindly and love extremely.
The result is that the concept of prophethood is distorted by them. The result is that they say, yes, we have accepted such a person, but not because he was an ordinary human being. We have not bowed to the will of another man like us. Because he himself was supernatural. Because he himself had shown certain miracles which ordinary human beings cannot show. So they exaggerate the miracles, they exaggerate the past of the prophet, they exaggerate his personality in a way, that that prophet tends to become a sort of god in the eyes of the people who accept him. And his attributes are interfered with and exaggerated. The result is that if such a prophet has made also the prophecy that he would return to them, appear to them again, they begin to wait for him in a way as never a prophet had appeared before.
They begin to wait for the personality which their own minds have created of a prophet. Not the reality of a prophet. So the result is that they are preparing the obstacles themselves for rejecting the prophet when he appears. Because when he appears, then they would not recognize him. Now this can be beautifully illustrated by the example of Hazrat Masih himself. And this is the case in point in fact. The reference is made to his person so I will refer to him now particularly. Hazrat Masih, peace be upon him, the second version of Messiahhood is Christ. His name was Jesus.
So I am talking of Christ and Messiah, not of Jesus. A Christ was promised to the people of Israel. A Messiah was promised to the people of Israel. And they were waiting for his coming in a way as he never had come. Because they had added certain restrictions on his coming and applied certain conditions on his coming otherwise he would not be accepted. The Jews were waiting for a Messiah before whose advent an Elijah was to descend from heaven bodily. No Elijah had ascended to heaven bodily nor could an Elijah descend from heaven bodily. So an impossible obstacle was already put in the way of accepting Jesus Christ peace be upon him when he appeared. And also they believed that when he would come, he would come as a king, as a ruler.
As one who would deliver the Israelites from the yoke of Roman Empire and give them a new independent empire. So this was not to happen either because the prophets of Allah never bring sovereignties along with them like a gift from heaven. They tell the people to sacrifice for a noble cause and after taking them through the mill of sacrifice ultimately they are promised the sovereignty, that is the material sovereignty as well. But to begin with, every prophet without fail, without exception calls them to a life of humility, a life of sacrifice, a life of persecution in the name of God. A life of abandoning whatever you have of authority instead of gaining authority. A life of abandoning whatever wealth you own instead of gaining some wealth through the blessings of a prophet.
So the first period of prophethood which is common to all prophets is the period of extreme privation and suffering and whatever is difficult for human nature to bear. So this is how Jesus Christ peace be upon him came. But the concept which was distorted concept of the Jews was that he would come in glory. He would bring a kingdom to the Israelites. He would bring wealth to the Israelites. He would remove their sufferings. He would deliver them from the yoke of the Roman Empire and so on. And also just before his appearance a person dangling from the heavens would appear to establish to everybody that the true Christ is about to appear. Both these things were the imagination of human mind.
It was against the established norms of religion. So such a Christ never came. Now as long as they stick to those distorted values they would never accept anyone. So there is no question of 1,000 years or 2,000 years. It’s a question of correct values or incorrect values. If you are expecting a prophet to appear against the nature of earlier prophets then you would never be able to recognize that prophet. Whatever may happen. First rectify your approach. First recognize the person in his reality. Then whenever he appears you will recognize him. So this is the dilemma of mankind. First they hate the prophets. They put all the possible obstructions in their ways.
And once ultimately people of the same frame of mind have to accept such prophets then they concoct things about the prophet’s image. They try to raise his status beyond human status. And they begin to expect the second one to come according to the man-made figures, man-made concept of prophets. Such people never come. So they are deprived forever and forever. This is why Christians having denied, no the Jews having denied the coming of Jesus Christ peace be upon him also were blind to the coming of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa peace be upon him. By the same standards they could not recognize him.
And so on and so on. Now unfortunately and this is the irony of faith. As I told it is a certain attitude towards truth which is responsible for your failure to recognize it. The same Christians who were ill-treated at the hands of the Jews and who were told by the Jews that you have accepted a false claimant because he was to appear from heaven, he was to come in glory and so on and so forth and you have accepted an ordinary person who did not confirm to these standards. They themselves have fallen prey exactly to the same fault, same falsehood. Now they are expecting Christ to come differently. In glory with the crown on his head. With such proofs as it will be impossible for humans to deny. So if he is to come like that how will he rectify the human nature?
How will he purify human beings? How will you shift right from the wrong? How this process would take place? That the righteous would be differentiated from the wrongdoer, wrongly strung person. So the fundamental is to be understood and rectified. The fundamental is that prophethood from Allah in whatever way it is to be established or sent or delivered would always follow the same course as earlier it has followed right from the time of Adam peace be upon him. No change in the mode and conduct and behaviour of prophets would be observed looking at the history as presented by the Holy Quran and no differentiation would be held in future either.
If you accept a different thing to happen then you are in for a long wait as Jews are unfortunately subjected to that long wait and also the Christians who have denied the truth of Hazrat Mohammad Mustafa S.A.W.
