You should not seek similarity in every single item, because this is not what is meant by these analogies. Otherwise, if you call a person a lion, you will start looking for talons and, you know, for the hair like lion and fangs like lion and so on. This is wrong. Even if one single strong attribute is common in both, the purpose is served. That’s quite enough. For instance, when you say somebody is Hathankai, you seek only a common feature of generosity. That is all. There the search ends. If somebody is called Bhuali Sinha, he has to be a good physician. That’s all. Not that the tribe of Bhuali Sinha should be repeated and the family circumstances and the birth circumstances and the death circumstances.
All that is allowing your fancy too much play. But in the case of Hazrat Masih Maud A.S., as he himself has pointed out in Izala-e-Uham, more than 14 similarities, I remember, have been mentioned by Hazrat Masih Maud A.S., which are very important and fundamental in their character. So if just for one similarity you can apply one name to another person, why not after 14 similarities or so? Hadi Ali Sahib, the missionary here in London, was given the task of the research thesis on this subject. So he has come out with hundred and some similarities. Not that I should authenticate all that, but it’s a good effort anyway. He has sent me the paper for me to read and comment on this. Unfortunately, I am far too busy nowadays to attend to it.
But somehow I will find some time to scan through it. So that will also maybe lead to some very interesting similarities. The fundamental, the most important, is the philosophy of Messiahhood. And everything else is extra, but not as important as this. The distinction between Prophethood as general and the Messiahhood, that is to be understood. And relationship of Messiahhood to the Lawbringer Prophet, the first Lawbringer Prophet, is to be studied. Then you will understand what Messiahhood means. So if that phenomena is unfolded again in Islam as it was unfolded in Judaism, then that should be quite enough for someone to believe that this similarity is enough. It justifies the application of name. And the question is why were not other Prophets called Messiah?
Why there was so much stress in the Bible and why Jews awaited the coming of Messiah? There are two very important features. One is that a kingdom is mentioned with the coming of Messiah. He comes upon a throne and brings ushers in an era of kingdom. And second, although it is not mentioned, but by studying the Christianity, the life of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, you understand what Messiahhood is. First of all, Jews had become materialistic and kingdom-minded. All through history they were trying to get some foothold somewhere in any country to establish their kingdom. Kingdoms came and went, of course, many a time in their history. But they had become very materialistic.
So they were promised a kingdom. But that kingdom was to come in a very different nature altogether. That was a kingdom of heaven, a kingdom of humility and a kingdom of, as we call, Darweshi. Apparently, as the worldly things go, they were totally paupers. Yet he came with that kingdom. So that is the important thing. Allah wanted to tell them that your concept of kingdom is totally depraved and completely wrong. The true beloved ones of Allah usher in the period of heavenly kingdom. So it was an irony on the expectations of Jews and their trends. They were awaiting a worldly kingdom, material kingdom, and it came in a very different manner from what they were expecting.
Exactly the same thing has happened to this Messiah. This was the expectation. He would come to rule. He would destroy the enemy through force. He would do this and that and bring the keys of the entire world kingdoms to the hands of awaiting Muslims. They will not have to fight anything. But the kingdom came in a very different manner altogether. So this is the fundamental and important similarity between Messiahhood, early Messiahhood and the final, latter days Messiahhood. This is not common in every prophet, a special stress to be made about the kingdom, because in the case of the Messiah, too, the prophecy, he would come as a king, as a hakim, and Adalan as a justice. So people, this is why they were waiting for a Messiah to come with hakuma, with rain in his hands. And they did not find any Messiah of that nature when the Messiah of Islam came.
So that is the main thing. And the second thing is abundance of use of force and power entirely, totally, as far as the spread of religion is concerned. Not that the previous prophets were not within their rights to do it. I don’t mean that. When prophets were confronted with force, they were permitted to use force against force, in defense, like Hazrat Moses was, like Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa was. They were well within their rights. A defensive war is permissible in religion. So this is not against the character of prophets, to fight out when they are suppressed by sword. But Messiahhood stands for a different phenomena. In Messiahhood, the prophet has the right to defend, yet does not exercise that right. Allah forbids him to exercise that right. So there should be no concept whatsoever of force equated with the spread of religion. Total humility on one side and total aggression and persecution and prosecution on the other. Yet the humility wins and the aggression is defeated totally. This is a slow process.
In the prophet’s lifetime, in the Messiah’s lifetime, this cannot happen. Nor did it happen in the coming of the early Messiah. But once the process is unfolded, at each step, the victory falls to the Lord of the persecuted, not the persecutors. It is a very sure phenomena. There is not a single moment in the life history of these people who follow a Messiah where persecution seems to have an upper hand and which stops their progress and diminishes them in number and influence and wealth and every other thing. Persecution does rob them of some of their true rightful belongings. It does sometimes deprive them of their dear ones and they are killed. But the total number goes on increasing and expanding. The total wealth goes on increasing and expanding and there is not a single moment in their life that the persecution is permitted to win and achieve the objective. This is exactly the history of Ahmadiyyat.
These are the most important fundamental things. Other similarities are just academic pursuits. They may be or may not be. They will satisfy your fancy but they are not a solid phenomena which is being unfolded in the world of realities. This is what Messiahhood is. This is the strongest proof of the truth of the Messiah Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
