Chapter 2
Promised Messiah
in the Quran
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Introduction
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The second question to be resolved is whether the Holy Quran contains
any reference to the Promised Messiah or not. Conclusive arguments show
that such reference is indeed to be found in the Quran. There is no
doubt that a person who considers the prophecies of the Holy Quran regarding
the latter days of the followers of Islam, if he has a perceptive and
living heart in his breast, will have no option but to accept that the
Holy Quran certainly and definitely contains the news of a reformer
who in other words could only be called the Promised Messiah and nothing
else. To understand this prophecy, the following verses should be examined
together. For instance:
(21:91-93, 96-97). {See
author's footnote}
The meaning is as follows. God guided the woman (Mary) who guarded
her chastity. So He breathed into her His spirit, and made her and her
son a sign for the world. And God said: This your community is a single
community and I am your Lord, so serve Me. But they became divided into
sects, shattered the unity, and raised mutual differences. Eventually
they will all return to God. And they will remain in this condition
till Gog and Magog {Note
1} are let loose and they sally forth from every
vantage point. So when you see that Gog and Magog are dominant in the
earth, know that the promise of the spread of the True Faith has drawn
nigh, and that promise is: He it is Who sent His Messenger with guidance
and the religion of truth, so that He may make it prevail over all other
religions (The Quran 9:33 etc). It is then said that at the time of
the fulfilment of this promise the eyes of the disbelievers will be
fixedly open, and they will say: Woe to us, surely we were heedless
of this, nay, we were unjust. That is, the Truth will be manifested
most powerfully, and the disbelievers will realise that they were in
error.
The sum and substance of these verses is that, in the latter days,
many religions will spread in the world, and there will be many sects.
Then two nations will emerge, whose religion will be Christianity, and
they will attain supremacy in every field. So when you see that the
Christian faith and Christian governments have spread throughout the
world, know that the time of the promise is near.
Footnote: Ezekiel,
ch. 38 and ch. 39 verses 5-6. Raudat as-Sifa, Bayan Aqlim, iv,
v and vi, and Tafsir Ma‘alam. {Go
Back}
Translator's Note 1: Gog and Magog are two ancient tribes or nations
mentioned both in the Bible and in the Holy Quran, and both books contain
prophecies about their resurgence in the latter days. As this resurgence
is linked to the coming of the Messiah, Hazrat Mirza explained that
Gog and Magog in the prophecies represent the two dominant European
races of modern times, i.e. the Eastern European Slavonic peoples and
the Western European Teutonic peoples, because these ancient tribes
were the racial forbears of these modern nations. The same prophecies
speak of a Dajjal, for which see Note 3
in Chapter 2(a). Hazrat Mirza explained that, in the prophecies,
the Western nations are called Gog and Magog in reference
to their racial origin, and called Dajjal in reference to certain
values of their civilisation. {Go to text}
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