Chapter II-1 The Distinctive Claims of Ahmad - The Promised Messiah

The Sunnite Muslim believes that among the signs of the approach of the last day will be the simultaneous appearance of the promised Messiah and the expected Mahdi, generally taken to be two quite distinct personalities with different offices to perform.¹ Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to fulfil in himself various Muslim prophecies pertaining both to the Messiah and the Mahdi, and, in addition, to be the fulfilment of Christian and Jewish eschatological hopes. First, with regard to Jewish prophecy, in a paper published in 1904 (cf. Review of Religions, III, p. 331), called "My Claim to Promised Messiahship," Ahmad wrote :

"Since God created man, it has been his unchangeable law that he sheds his light upon mankind through one of their own number, so that there maybe a unity and oneness among them. ... In accordance with this time-honoured law, Almighty God prophesied by the mouth of his prophets that after nearly six thousand years from the time of Adam, when great darkness would pursue upon earth and an irresistible flood of passions would make the love of God wane and iniquity predominate, he would breathe into a man the soul of truth and love and knowledge spiritually after the likeness of Adam, and he would be called the Messiah, because God would himself anoint his soul with the ointment of his love. . . . After a heavy fight the Messiah of God would drive back the powers of darkness, and the glory, majesty, unity and holiness of God would be proclaimed upon earth and would continue to be so declared for a thousand years, the seventh day of the Holy Books of God. Then will be the end. I am that Messiah : let him who will accept me."

We thus see that the promised Messiah is, for Jews, Christians and Muhammadans the second Adam as well as the promised Messiah. The reference to Adam is of importance, on account of the Muslim designation of Jesus as "the second Adam," because he was declared by Muhammad to have been an immediate creation like the first Adam.² In the first number of the Review of Religions (I, p. 15) this parallelism is further developed :

"The thousand years of Satan's supremacy (following the thousand years of his imprisonment after the coming of Jesus) have come to an end, and we are now living in the millenium of God's reign, and the dawn of it has already appeared. The sixth thousand from the appearance of Adam has come to a close, and the seventh, in which the second Adam should have appeared, has begun. God made Adam on the sixth day, and the sacred Scriptures further bear testimony to the fact that a day is equal to a thousand years with the Lord.

"The promises of God, therefore, make it absolutely necessary that the second Adam must have been born already, though not recognized as yet by the world. We cannot further avoid the conclusion that the place fixed by God for the appearance of the second Adam must be in the East and not in the West, for from Genesis 2:8, we learn that God had put the first Adam in a garden eastward. It is, therefore, necessary that the second Adam should appear in the East, in order to have a resemblance with the first in respect of his locality. This conclusion is equally binding upon the Christians and the Muhammadans if they admit the authority of their Scriptures and are not of an atheistic turn of mind."

The thousand-year imprisonment of Satan after Jesus' second coming is taken from Revelation 20: 1-10. There is nothing corresponding to it in Muslim eschatology. In another passage Ahmad writes :

" Moreover Adam was born on Friday, and along with him was born a woman. So it happened in my case, viz., I, too, was born on Friday and was born a twin, a girl being born with me.":³

Moses as well as Adam is included in the method of parallelism by which Ahmad claimed to fulfil the Jewish Messianic prophecies. The argument in this connection is well summarized by Dr. Griswold, who heard it from Ahmad's own lips at Qadian :

"There are two tribes of fundamental importance in Divine revelation, the Children of Israel and the Children of Ishmael. The great prophets of the former were Moses and Christ. Christ was the final prophet of the Jews, the last brick in their national and religious structure. Their rejection of Christ involved their own rejection and the loss of their nationality. Then came the turn of the children of Ishmael, ' According to Deuteronomy 18 : 18,⁴ a prophet was raised "like unto" Moses, from among the " brethren " of the Israelites, in the person of the great lawgiver Muhammad' (Review of Religions, May, 1902, p. 206). Muhammad, therefore, was the first Ishmaelitish prophet, as it were, the Moses of Islam. But Moses and Christ were separated by an interval of twelve or fourteen centuries. Hence, in order to preserve the parallelism, another prophet must arise twelve or fourteen centuries after Muhammad, who will be, as it were, the Christ of Islam. Who can this be but Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian? The relation between these great prophets may be set forth in the form of a proportion. Thus, as Moses is to Christ, so Muhammad is to Ghulam Ahmad ; or again, as Muhammad is to Moses, so the Mirza Sahib is to Jesus Christ. In a word, as Moses is a type of Muhammad, so Jesus of Nazareth is a type of Ahmad of Qadian."⁵

The words of Isaiah 41: 2,⁶ "Who has raised the righteous one in the East," are likewise quoted in the Review of Religions as an instance of Old Testament prophecy which was fulfilled in Ahmad.

Coming now to the Christian prophecies, contained in the New Testament, Ahmad held that the second coming of the Messiah was not to be in Christ's own person, but in his "spirit and power." Even so, Jesus declared that John had come in the " spirit and power " of Elijah (Review of Religious, II, p. 192), when the Jews urged that Jesus could not be the Messiah because the prophecy of Malachi 4 : 5, was still unfulfilled, that Elijah must come again previous to the Messiah's appearance (Matt. 17: 12; cf. Luke 2: 17). Elijah and Jesus, he held, were the two characters of whom it was said in the Bible that they were taken up alive into heaven. Hence their return to earth would presumptively be the same in its nature. In spite of the contradictions involved, it was necessary for Ahmad's purpose that he also teach that Muslims are in error in believing that Jesus was taken alive into one of the heavens from whence he will return before the last day, just as Christians err, no less, in their belief that Jesus died on the cross and after his resurrection in three days ascended to heaven, there to remain until his second appearance. Ahmad held it to be of supreme importance to his claims that Jesus should have died like an ordinary man,⁷ so as to make his appearance in his actual physical body previous to the general resurrection impossible, thus making possible his own (Ahmad's) coming in Jesus' spirit and power. We read that the signs which ought to accompany the return of the Messiah have all been fulfilled :

"Earthquakes, plague, famine, wars, and terrestrial as well as heavenly phenomena, bear witness to the one fact that there is to be no more waiting for the Messiah's advent" (Review of Religions, III, p. 397).

Christians themselves, he declared, recognize that the time is at hand, but, like the Jews of the time of Jesus, they are looking in the wrong direction for his appearance. The Millennial Dawn books of the late "Pastor" Russell, in America, are quoted to prove that the six thousandth year after Adam, at the end of which the Messiah must come, ended in 1873, and that by 1914 the saints were to be gathered and the Kingdom was to be firmly established and recognized by all.⁸

Other Christian writers, he asserts, have placed the time of the advent in 1898, 1899 and 1900; but all have been disappointed because they failed to realize that in MIrza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian the Messiah has actually appeared (Review of Religions, II, p. 366).

We come now to the Muslim prophecies of Jesus' return to earth. The only reference to this in the Qur'an is the dubious one in XLIII, 61,⁹ which some commentators take to refer rather to the Qur'an itself. Nevertheless, we are told in the Review of Religions (II, p. 369):

" The Qur'an has wisely fixed certain signs for the advent of the Messiah, so that all men might know from their fulfilment that the time is come. Of these the most important sign is the predominance of the Christian religion and the activity of the Christian nations in every department of life. Of this predominance and activity there is not the least doubt."

Ahmad, unfortunately, does not inform us where in the Qur'an this prophecy is to be found, but he (or his editor) asks pertinently in the same paragraph :

' If the Messiah is not needed now, will he be needed when the whole world is led to believe in the false doctrine of which the Holy Qur'an has said : 'The heavens might almost be rent thereat and the earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall in pieces'?"¹⁰

A favourite argument from the Qur'an is based upon the well-known verse (LXI, 6), which reads :

" And (remember) when Jesus, the Son of Mary, said, O Children of Israel; of a truth I am God's Apostle to you to confirm the law which was given before me, and to announce an Apostle that shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad."

As there is no such saying of Jesus in the New Testament, orthodox Islam has followed the suggestion of Maracci, adopted by Sale {Preliminary Discourse. Ed. 1877, Sect. IV, p. 53), that the references to the "Paraclete," in John 14 : 26 and 16 : 7, were believed by Muhammad to point to himself, the original Greek word having been, in this case, not Parakletos but Periklutos, which is equivalent to the Arabic word, Ahmad ("praised"). The word, " Muhammad," comes of course from the same root. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad takes the prediction, in both the Gospel and the Qur'an, to refer not to Muhammad but to himself, because he bears the name "Ahmad' (Review of Religions, I, p. 266), although, as Dr. Griswold has pointed out, his entire name really signifies " Servant of Ahmad " (Ghulam Ahmad).

A further sign of the last days, which we are frequently told is referred to in the Qur'an and given in detail in a tradition, is that an eclipse of the sun and moon will then occur, respectively, on the 13th and 28th of the month of Ramadan.¹¹ This occurred in 1894. Although the earliest collections of traditions contain few references to the last day, later Muhammadan literature abounds in traditions that give the signs supposed to precede and accompany the end.¹² Among the many to which Ahmad refers at different times are the corruption of the Muhammadan priests, the neglect of the Qur'an, and the splitting of Islam into sects. Ahmad quotes frequently the well-known tradition of Abu Hurairah, that the Son of Mary when he descends shall break in pieces the cross and shall slay the swine.¹³ Ahmad declared that it was evident that he had fulfilled this prophecy by exposing finally the falsity of the Christian doctrine of salvation through the cross of Christ, and by the destructive curses he pronounced upon his various enemies, who, he declared, represent the swine referred to in the prophecy. Among other prophetic signs pointing to the present as the time for the Messiah's descent, it is said that the promised Messiah is to fight with the anti-Christ (Dajjal), who will come riding on an ass which moves like a cloud driven by the wind. He will have but one eye, and with him will be all the treasures of the world. This, we learn, refers to the coming of the English to India, particularly the missionaries — the ass being the railways and the cloud the steam from the engines. Since the English have an eye for the things of this world only, and are blind in the eye of religion, they may be considered as one-eyed ; and certainly they are exceedingly rich ! The rising of the sun in the west, another prophecy, likewise refers to the coming of the English, resplendent in worldly glory. And the strife of Gog and Magog (Yajuj and Majuj), referred to in the Qur'an (XVIII, 93, 97 and XXI, 96) and in the Bible (Ezek. 39: 1, 6, and Rev. 20: 8), whose ' appearance in history in terrific combat is to be a sign of the last days," refers to the war between England and Russia. In one place we read :

"Among other signs related in the Holy Qur'an and authentic traditions are the appearance of the plague which is at present (1903) devastating India and several other countries, the introduction of a new mode of conveyance in place of camels, etc., which has been fulfilled by the construction of railways throughout the world, the increase of knowledge, the mixing together of people living in distant lands, the multiplicity of canals, the spreading of papers, and a host of other signs which we cannot detail here" (Review of Religions, II, p. 369).

The above are but a few of the prophecies which Ahmad declared were fulfilled in himself. Whenever he discoursed on this subject some orthodox maulvi was ready with a new prophecy, buried in some obscure tradition : and, in due time, Ahmad was prepared to reveal how this prophecy, rightly understood, could refer only to himself.

Thus far we have been dealing with the prophecies of the promised Messiah's coming. Another alleged proof of Ahmad's Messiahship was the fact that revelation early identified him with Jesus — the Jesus of the Christian Gospels, mentioned as 'Isa so often in the Qur'an. Referring to Surat-al-Tahreem, Ahmad wrote:

"It is plainly indicated that some one from among the Muslims will first acquire the characteristics of Mary on account of his perfect righteousness, and be called by that name, and then the spirit of Jesus being breathed into him, he will be called by the latter name. In accordance with those words of the Holy Qur'an, Almighty God first named me Mary, and then spoke of the breathing into me of a soul, and lastly he named me Jesus " (Review of Religions, II, p. 421 ).¹⁴

In the course of the revelations recorded in the pages of the Barahin-i-Ahmadiya, one occurred in which Ahmad was thus addressed:

"O Mary, enter with thy companions into paradise, I have breath- ed into thee from myself the spirit of truth " (Review of Religions, III, p. 340).

The resemblance to the verse of the Qur'an, just referred to, is obvious. This spirit, Ahmad declared, was the spirit of Jesus, as indicated to him by a revelation, occurring two years later, applying to himself the verse of the Qur'an :

"O Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die a natural death, and will take thee up to myself, and I will place those who follow thee above those who believe not in thee, until the day of Resurrection" (Review of Religions, III, p. 341 ).¹⁵

At the time Ahmad supposed that these revelations referred to the ordinary Muslim belief regarding the second advent of Jesus, and it was not until some years after that it was further revealed to him, as above narrated.

" My name is Jesus, Son of Mary, for my capacity of Jesus is an offspring of my capacity as Mary."

In Ahmad's challenge to a prayer-duel to the death, issued to Dr. John Alexander Dowie, the American Messiah,"¹⁶ in 1892, the revelations seem to have gone the length of convincing Ahmad not only of his likeness, but further of his superiority, to Jesus. After describing how on various occasions he has seen Jesus and eaten with him from the same dish, he proceeds :

"There is no doubt that Divine wisdom has entrusted a far greater and more important work to my charge, and has given me promises of a far greater kindness and grace, yet spiritually Jesus and I are one in essence. It is for this reason that my advent is his advent. He who denies me denies Jesus also. He saw me and was pleased, and, therefore, he who sees me and is not pleased with me is not of us, neither of me nor of Jesus. Jesus is from me and I am from God ; blessed is he who recognizes me, and undone is the person from whose eyes I am hidden."

And again he writes distinctly :

"The Son of Mary has not the slightest superiority over other men; nay, we can point to men who have been far superior to him. And in this age, the writer of these pages has been sent to convince people that he enjoys a greater grace and favour in the sight of God than Jesus Christ " (Review of Religions, I, p. 340).

And yet again :

" Ye Christian missionaries : say no more that Christ is your God, for there is one among you who is greater than Christ" (Review of Religions, I, p. 251).

Detailed evidences of his superiority are given in an article in the Review of Religions for May, 1902 (I, p. 206):

" I wonder what peculiarities there are in the Son of Mary which make him a God. Do these consist in his miracles? But mine are greater than his. Were his prophecies very clear and true? But I shall be guilty of concealing a truth if I do not assert that the prophecies which Almighty God has granted me are of a far better quality in clearness, force and truth, than the ambiguous predictions of Jesus. Can we conclude his divinity from the words used of him in the Gospels? But I swear by the Lord . . . that the words expressing my dignity revealed from God ... are far more weighty and glorious than the words of the Gospels relating to Jesus. But, notwithstanding all this superiority, I cannot assert Divinity or Sonship of God. . . . My superiority lies in being the Messiah of Muhammad, as Jesus was the Messiah of Moses, the Israelite Law-giver."

Later than this a revelation came to Ahmad, in Arabic as on most occasions, of which a literal translation would be: "Thou art to me as a Son.¹⁷ Thou art from me and I from thee " (Review of Religions, I, p. 349). A further evidence of Ahmad's superiority to Jesus lay, he declared, in the fact that he was saved by the grace of Muhammad from the possibility of such an ignominious death as Jesus suffered at the hands of his enemies.

In addition to pointing to the agreement of past prophecy and present revelation in declaring his identity with or superiority to Jesus, Ahmad boasted a similarity to Christ in his external situation and in his personal character. Like Jesus, Ahmad was destined first to suffer persecution at the hands of unbelievers.

" The world shall not recognize him before his glorious advent ; for he is not of the world. Nor shall the world love him; for he comes from the God whom the world does not love. It is, therefore, necessary that he should be abused, persecuted and charged with all manner of crime " (Review of Religions, I, p. 17).

As the enemies of Jesus were the supposedly religious and orthodox Scribes and Pharisees, so to-day the professedly religious people and their leaders are, because of their sins, most sharply antagonistic to the spirit and claims of the Messiah. In Christendom, he declared, drunkenness, prostitution and gambling were rampant, and the clergy and missionaries set the example. Reference is made, in the Review of Religions for May, 1906 (V, p. 215), to a book to which I have no access, called Crimes of Preachers, which, says the editor, has a brief record of some of the crimes with which clergy of the United States and Canada have been charged in courts. There is no unnameable crime from which the " love of Christ" has saved the holy men, adultery and seduction heading the list. Intelligent and unbiassed Muslims, as well as Christians, must exclaim at the studied unfairness of such a representation of Christianity and its leaders in the East and West.

But neither does Islam come through unscathed. It is condemned by Ahmad for its sectarianism, ceremonialism, hard-heartedness and superstitious saint-worship. We are told that " Muhammadan degeneration has passed all bounds. Luxurious habits, transgressions, drunkenness, gambling and laziness have gained the upper hand ' (Review of Religions, I, p. 318).

And this decadence is due to, and most extensively found among, the maulvis themselves. ' The blame of depriving a whole world of the recognition of Islamic truths lies at the door of the maulvis," because they have "fabricated poisonous traditions" and their own lives are corrupt. Even so, "at the time of Jesus' advent, the Jewish priests and religious leaders were morally in a very degraded condition, and though the word of virtue was on their lips yet their hearts were quite devoid of it."

If the moral conditions of the Christian and Muhammadan world to-day are similar to those In Jewish society when Jesus came, so also are political conditions among Muslims to-day similar to those of the Jews of the first century. The Jews were a subject people, under the yoke of Rome, and to-day " Muhammadanism has ceased to be the ruling power in the country where the Promised Messiah has been raised, and English rule has been established in its stead." And as Jesus did not seek to foster a spirit of revolution among the Jews, but remained loyal to Rome, so was the Mirza Sahib, like his forbears, a a loyal subject of the British Raj. Moreover, as Jesus was dragged before a Roman tribunal, so has Ahmad been hailed before the English courts on several occasions, and as Jesus was declared innocent by Pilate, so, Ahmad declares, he also was discharged as innocent by the British official who presided when one of his famous cases was tried.

Most important of all, Ahmad seems to have held, was the resemblance between himself and Jesus in character and office. In sketching this analogy he considers Jesus only in the favourable light and with the mature moral personality in which the Gospels present him. In a later chapter¹⁸ we shall find him portraying a different and strangely inconsistent picture of Jesus, giving to him a character with which Ahmad would hardly desire to associate himself in the popular mind. He declares that in his single personality the spirituality of both Muhammad and Jesus "pervades his whole being, and, as it were, supplies the fuel which keeps up the heat of his spiritual life."

He has inherited the "untold perfections of the Holy Prophet " and likewise "the perfection of Jesus Christ.¹⁹ And as the personality of the Promised Messiah was quite blended with these two personalities, and was wholly lost in them, therefore the names of these two chosen ones of God predominated over his own name, and in heaven the names of these two great ones were appropriated for him." (Review of Religions, II, p. 67) .

As with Jesus, so with Ahmad, between his first coming to persecution and his second advent in glory, his innocence will be established upon earth : —

" When the perfect man has passed through all these stages and undergone all these trials, when his magnanimity, constancy, patience and determination shine forth in their full glory and his innocence is established with conclusive arguments, then is the time of his advent in glory, and the time of his first advent, which was a time of trials and persecutions, comes to an end " (Review of Religions, I, p. 16).

Like Jesus he was an intercessor²⁰ between God and man, and, as such, necessarily, a manifestation at once of the Divine Being and of a perfected humanity. He declared himself to be

" The real intercessor of mankind, because I am the perfect image of the great intercessor who was born thirteen centuries ago and rejected by the blind men of his time " (Review of Religions , I, p. 251).

In various passages he refers to himself, or is referred to, as " Son of God,"²¹ " Sun of Righteousness," " an angel inspired by God," an image of God whom imperfect human beings must imitate in order to be regenerated (Review of Religions, I , p. 393), "the living model whose example all must imitate," "an infallible guide," "no mere mortal," " Saviour from the bondage of sin," " Mediator between God and man," the spiritual leader of this age (Imam-uz-Zaman) , the Hakam, or divinely appointed arbitrator in religious affairs within and without Islam, a "looking-glass for the divine image" (appropriating the familiar figure of the Sufis) and " His holiness."

It has already become evident from quotations given that Ahmad considered that he had come in " the spirit and power" not only of Jesus, but in some sense of Muhammad also. He called himself the buruz, or manifestation, " the living representation upon earth of the Arabian Prophet."

" The wise and knowing God has raised Mirz'a Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian with the same spirit and power, the same blessings and favours, and the same miracles, with which he raised the Holy Prophet ' ' (Review of Religions, I, p. 333).

There is here an indication, which his extravagant claims enforce, that he was greater even than Muhammad, for after asserting that his powers and resources are like Muhammad's in kind, he declares that in Ahmad's time ' even greater evils and corruption had appeared in the world," which would seem to imply that Ahmad's necessary manifestation of power must have exceeded Muhammad's.

¹ Perhaps the most satisfactory summary in English of the gener- ally recognized signs of the Muslim millennial period preceding the day of resurrection is that contained in Sale : Preliminary Discourse to the Koran, Ed. 1877, Sect. IV, pp. 56-59, to which the reader is referred. I mention here only those prophecies of which Ahmad makes use.

² Cf. Qur'an, 111,52.

³ According to Muslim writers Adam was born in the third hour of the sixth day, and Eve in the sixth hour. See article, " Adam ' in The Jezvish Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 178. This may possibly be a distant echo of the legend of " Lilith," who figures in Jewish rabbinical writings as the first wife of Adam. See article "Lilith," Jezvish Encyclopedia, VIII, p. 87.

⁴ This prophecy is universally held by Muslims to be a reference to Muhammad, who claimed descent from Ishmael. Most Christian commentators on Deuteronomy agree with Driver, in The International Critical Commentary, " Deuteronomy," p. 227: " The reference here is to a permanent institution (of prophetship) , not to a particular individual prophet." Other Scriptural passages which Muslims apply to Muhammad are : Deuteronomy 33 : 2 ; Isaiah 21 : 6; the parable in Matthew 20 ; John 4 : 21; John 16 : 7 ; 1 John 4 : 1-3, and many more. For the best study of this subject, see article by Goldziher in the Zeitshrift of the J.O.S., Vol. XLII, pp. 591ff.

⁵ Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Mehdi Messiah of Qadian, p. 21.

⁶ The reference is to Cyrus, according to G. A. Smith, O. C. Whitehouse, and other Old Testament commentators. See " Isaiah," in The Century Bible, Vol. II, p. 65.

⁷ Ahmad's theory regarding Jesus' death and burial is set forth in Chapter IV, p. 89ff.

⁸ See Studies in the Scriptures (in earlier editions, The Millennial Dawn), Series 2, " The Time is at Hand," Studies 2 and 4, pp. 33ff. Published by the International Bible Students' Association, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1916.

⁹ "And he (it) shall be a sign of the last hour; doubt not then of it, and follow ye me: this is the right way"( Rodwell's translation, p. 139).

¹⁰ Qur'an XIX, 92. The preceding verse gives the "false doctrine " as follows: — " They say : ' The God of Mercy hath begotten offspring.' Now have ye done a monstrous thing" (Rodwell's translation, p. 123). Muhammad interpreted in a carnal 9en»e the Christian doctrine that Je9iis is the Son of God.

¹¹ The tradition is included in the Masdbih as sunna of Al Baghawl, Cairo, Vol. II, p. 147. It is not in the Qur'an.

¹² Sale (Preliminary Discourse, Sect. IV, p. 56ff) gives many of the signs found in the various traditions, together with their sources.

¹³ For reference to this tradition, see De Slane's edition of the Mukaddima of Ibn Khaldun, Ed. Quatremere, Vol. II, p. 163.

¹⁴ We find no such reference in Surat-al-Tahrim , but we suppose Ahmad must have had in mind the last verse (LXVI, 12): "And Mary, the daughter of Imran, who kept her maidenhood, and into whose womb we breathed of our spirit, and who believed in the words of her Lord and his scriptures, and was one of the devout" ( Rodwell's translation, p. 465).

¹⁵ Qur'an III, 48.

¹⁶ Cf. p. 45, Note 1.

¹⁷ This revelation is of special interest in view of Muhammad's inability to conceive of such a spiritual sonship as that of Jesus to the Father from the Christian viewpoint. Ahmad here seems to declare himself boldly a son of God, although he elsewhere echoes the com- mon Muslim deprecation of the term as applied to Jesus.

¹⁸ Cf. P . 81ff.

¹⁹ On the sinlessness of Jesus and Muhammad see p. 81, Note 1.

²⁰ Obviously Ahmad's conception of intercession is not that of orthodox Islam, which for the most part holds that only Muhammad will be the intercessor at the last day. According to a well-known tradition from Anas, the Prophet said that Jesus will be unable to intercede on the day of resurrection, not (as in the case of other prophets) because he has sinned, but because his followers worshipped him as a God. The Qur'an admits of no intercession, strictly speaking, although some commentators have held that Qur'an XCVII, 40, admits the intercession of Jesus. Many traditions affirm the intercession of Muhammad. For a discussion of this subject see The Faith of Islam', by E. Sell (S.P.C.K., Madras, 1907, third edition), p. 263ff. See also p. 121, Note 1. Ahmad probably has in mind here the references to the intercession of Jesus given in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 7 : 25.

²¹ Cf. p. 34, Note 1.