You know, as I mentioned it earlier, geography and history are to be understood in their own respective spheres before one can answer such a question. Geography has been influenced by history and has been changing. There has been interplay between geography and history and neither of the two are constant. They become influenced by each other and mostly it is the history which shapes geography. So geography of today may not be the geography of yesterday or may not be the geography of tomorrow.
So when a thing is said, we must go back in time and find its application to that geography which was in existence in that time. When Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam prophesied about someone being from Ahle Faras, what was Faras? That is to be understood. The Iranian Empire at that time extended right into China. It is not the Iran of today. So that is the main mistake which people commit. Iran of that time, when Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned this, was a much larger Iran.
In fact there were two big empires alone at that time. One, the Eastern Empire, that was that of Kisra and one, the Western Empire, that was of Kaiser. These were the two empires known to Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And the Eastern Empire, in terms of territory, was much bigger than the Western Empire. As I have told you, you read the history and find out the geographical limits of the Eastern Empire, that is, Kisra’s empire, you will find that they extended right into China.
A great part of that territory which today is China was then part of Iran. And Fars was a province of Iran. Yet the Arabs also used Fars for the whole of Iran. So this factor also is to be taken into account. So anyone who happened to be Iranian could be called Ahle Fars. And an Iranian could be of Chinese origin at that time. And Chinese also might have migrated from China and settled in Iran and become Iranians. Like the person who asked you the question, he must have come from somewhere else and settled in Pakistan. And now you ask him, where do you belong to? He would say Pakistan. Can you rebut by telling him that, no, you are wrong. You are not Pakistani because you came from India. Or originally from Arabia, if he is Croatian or something. So, again, your history also changes along with the geography in this sense.
So, in that perspective when you consider Hazrat Masih Maud’s family tree, it will come to be known that originally Hazrat Masih Maud’s family hailed from those parts of Mongolia which are today China. And in those days it was Iran. And later on they further shifted from those parts to inner Iran and settled in Fars. And later on they shifted from there and settled in the Punjab.
So, there were Chinese as well as Iranians as well as Punjabis. And they are not contradictory because they could be only contradictory if at one instant in history the three claims were made. If at different phases of history…
