NOTES

1. The occurrence of a plague during the time of the Promised Messiah is prophesied in these books of the Bible: Zechariah (14:12), Matthew (24:8), Revelation (22:8).

2. The Jews believe unanimously, in accordance with their history, that Jesus appeared exactly 1400 years after Moses. I refer you to the history of the Jews.

3. It is this Quranic verse which reveals that Jesus will not return to the world. Otherwise, if it was destined for Jesus to return to the world, his reply that he was unaware of the moral breakdown and collapse of the Christians becomes an untruth. After all, how can a prophet give the excuse that he wasn’t aware of his teachings being distorted while he was alive, given the contention that Jesus will supposedly return to the world, dwell here for forty years, witness millions of Christians abiding in the world, then break the Cross, ultimately converting all those Christians to Islam?

4. Christian researchers have given the same opinion. I refer you to the book titled Supernatural Religion (p. 522). If you seek further details, consult my book Tuhfa-e-Golravia (p. 139)

5. One verse in the Holy Quran clearly refers to the incident in which, following Jesus’ escape after the event of the crucifixion, both he and his mother went to Kashmir. Thus, God has said: “… and We gave them refuge on a lofty ground having meadows and springs (Al-Muminun, Ch:23, Verse:50). God has said in this verse that He granted refuge to Jesus and Mary in the territory of Kashmir—a land aptly described as rabwah and qarar (lofty ground and a place where water rests in a meadow, respectively). Also, a word in this Quranic verse signifies, according to the Arabic lexicon, the granting of refuge from some tribulation or pain. Note that, prior to the event of the crucifixion, Jesus and his mother did not experience any tribulation from which they could have been given refuge. So it is ascertained that God caused Jesus and his mother to arrive in Kashmir following the tribulation of the crucifixion.

6. Jesus had four brothers and two sisters. All six were blood relations of Jesus; they were all the offspring of Joseph and Mary. The four brothers were: Judas, Joses, James, and Simon. And the two sisters were: Aasia and Lydia. I refer you to the book (pp. 159, 166) (see p.16 footnote of kishti e nooh) titled Apostolic Records by Priest John Allan Guyles, published in London, 1886.

7. Naturriyyat, from the word nature, refers to the views of the rationalist Muslims in the nineteenth century who believed that God could not act in violation of the laws of nature. The naturriyys held the view that spiritual phenomena, such as revelation from God, divine intervention, and acceptance of prayers, couldn’t take place outside the then-known laws of nature; they interpreted such experiences as being not so much objective realities, but rather as perceptions of man’s own mind.

8. God simply cannot be rendered powerless in any task. Indeed, the Holy Quran describes the divine law whereby God deals with man with great mercy, akin to the way in which true friends treat each other. That is, God sometimes answers the prayers of man: “… Pray to Me, I will answer you….” (Al-Mu’min, Ch:40, Verse:60) . And sometimes He enforces His will:

“And We shall certainly try you with something of fear and hunger….” (Al-Baqarah, Ch:2, Verse:155). The reason for this is that God wishes to cause man to advance in his faith and enlightenment through his prayers being answered by God. Likewise, God sometimes wishes to confer man with the honor of divine acceptance through man’s submission to the will of God; and God shows His love to man, thereby causing man to advance spiritually.

9. Divine law has been perfected and finalized in the Holy Quran. But waheey al-wilaayat has not ceased because it is the soul of a true religion; a religion that’s devoid of such divine revelations is dead, and it has ceased its association with God.

10. The Sunnah is the second source of guidance. It refers to Prophet Muhammad’s noble conduct that illustrates the commandments of the Holy Quran. For example, Prophet Muhammad demonstrated how to perform the five obligatory daily prayers, how to fast, etc. It is these actions that, when taken as a whole, comprise the Sunnah. The third source of guidance is Hadith, which consists of the recorded sayings of Prophet Muhammad that were compiled following his demise. Both the Holy Quran and the Sunnah are superior in status to Hadith because most Hadith reports exist at the level of surmise. But if the Sunnah lends support to a particular Hadith report, it elevates that Hadith report to the level of certainty.

11. The Quranic verse “Surely We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to be unfaithful to it and feared from it, and man has turned unfaithful to it. Surely he is ever unjust, ignorant.” (Al-Ahzab, Ch:33, Verse:72) lends further credence to the fact that man is God’s truly submissive creature who elevates this submissiveness to the zenith of love and devotion. After all, it is man alone who takes it upon himself to undergo untold hardship to prove that God’s kingdom is undeniably established in the world. It’s simply impossible for angels to demonstrate this paradigm—only man’s heartfelt sentiments of devotion and dedication are capable of realizing it.

12. The phrase “the Rabb (Lord) of the worlds” is quite marvelous in its comprehensiveness: this attribute of God will apply perfectly even if life is found elsewhere in the universe.

13. This revelation reminds me of an incident involving a gentleman who had a great deal of affection for my father. That gentleman was a resident of the town of Batala, and his name was either Fazal Shah or Mehr Shah. At any rate, when someone informed him that I’d claimed to be the Promised Messiah, he cried profusely and remarked that my father was nevertheless a blameless man! In other words, that gentleman implied that I had committed an egregious act and so I must not take after my father; that my father was plain, decent, and above perpetrating slanderous acts. Similarly, many others told me that I’d besmirched my family’s name by claiming to be the Promised Messiah.

14. While there were many sects among the Jews during the time of Jesus, only two were considered as righteous. 1.Those who adhered to the Torah, deducing solutions to their problems on the basis of that book. 2.Those who followed the tradition and who gave superiority to the tradition over the Torah. The membership of this latter sect had swelled and its members were spread all over the land of Israel. They followed reports of tradition that were often divergent from and contrary to the Torah! Their reasoning in doing so was that guidance—laws governing the relations of man to God, laws pertaining to man’s duties and obligations to others, and laws governing reward and punishment—that would enable them to resolve certain problems could simply not be found in the Torah. Moreover, they reasoned that it was their tradition which provided solutions to the aforesaid problems. And the name of their tradition was the Talmud. It contained reports of tradition from the era of every prophet. Those reports of tradition had been passed on orally from generation to generation and were ultimately inscribed. In that process, the tradition was tainted by inauthenticity. Besides, the Jews had split into 73 sects at that time, and each sect professed its own version of the tradition. What’s more, the experts of the tradition had confined their focus on the tradition, completely neglecting the Torah; most of them followed the tradition exclusively. Thus the Torah was effectively in an abandoned and forsaken condition—they would accept the Torah if it conformed to the teachings of the tradition, otherwise they would reject it. Those were the times in which Jesus was born. And Jesus concentrated on those very followers of the tradition who accorded superiority to the teachings of the tradition over the Torah. Now, the writings of previous prophets had foretold the fact that the Jews would fissure into a large number of sects; that they would forsake God’s revealed book and begin following their tradition; that an arbiter called the Messiah would be appointed among them; that they would reject that arbiter; and that an ordeal would afflict them—that was the fearsome tribulation of the plague.

15. Regarding himself, Jesus prophetically said that no sign other than the sign of Jonah would be manifested. This statement indicates that, just like Jonah—who entered alive the maw of a fish and emerged alive—Jesus too would enter his grave alive and emerge in alive. The only way in which this sign could’ve been fulfilled was for Jesus to have dismounted the cross alive and then entered his grave while he was alive. In addition, Jesus’ statement regarding himself—that no sign other than the sign of Jonah would be shown—negates the assertions of those who claim that Jesus ascended bodily to the heavens.

16. In the chapter Al-Fatihah, the prayer for beseeching God is taught. Then, in Al-Baqarah—the prayer of the previous chapter having been accepted—the path of righteousness is shown.

17. I refer you to my forthcoming book Nazool-al-Maseeh for a substantiation of this claim. This book is currently in the process of printing. In fact, ten chapters have already been printed, and the book itself will soon be published. Nazool-al-Maseeh has been written in refutation of Pir Mehr Ali Golravi’s book titled Tanbur Chishtayii. It’s proved in my book, Nazool-al-Maseeh, that Pir Golravi stole the work of the late Muhammad Hassan, and then committed such atrocious deeds that divulging those deeds will make life difficult for Pir Golravi. That wretched man, the late Muhammad Hassan, met his death in accordance with the prophecy in my book Ijaz-al-Maseeh. And this other shameful man has fabricated a book duplicitously and thereby become the victim of the following prophecy: “We shall disgrace the one who seeks to humiliate you”. O you who perceive, learn a lesson from this cautionary tale!

18. The Ahl-e-Hadith sect of Muslims gives the name Hadith to both the actions and the recorded saying of Prophet Muhammad. Now, their terminology is not of any concern to us. The fact is that the Sunnah was personally disseminated by Prophet Muhammad whereas Hadith reports were compiled only after his demise. And these two sources of guidance are completely distinct.

19. The New Testament dissents sharply with the ideas presented in the reports of tradition (Talmud). Such reports of tradition were conveyed to Moses by word-of-mouth, and it was said regarding them that they were Moses’ revelations. Eventually, matters advanced to the extent that those Jews forsook the Torah and instead spent time studying the Talmud exclusively. Even though the teachings of the Talmud are contrary to the teachings of the Torah in certain matters, they nevertheless followed the Talmud even in such matters. Talmud (p.59), compiled by Joseph Barclay, published in London, 1878.

20. Paul was one of those who participated in formulating the verdict of unbelief against Jesus. He later publicized himself greatly by using the self-proclaimed title of Jesus’ Apostle. This man, Paul, opposed Jesus bitterly during the life of Jesus. And there isn’t even a single prophecy among all the prophecies in the books of the New Testament—those books that are ascribed to Jesus—which could affirm that Paul would repent and become an Apostle of Jesus. There is no need here to add anything to the accurate portrayal of Paul’s character, because the Christians themselves are fully aware of it. Alas, this is the man who tormented Jesus for as long as Jesus lived in that land. And after Jesus had departed for Kashmir, following the event of the crucifixion, Paul fabricated a dream that enabled him to finagle his way into joining Jesus’ group of disciples. It was then that Paul concocted the notion of Trinity, made the eating of swine flesh—which was eternally forbidden by the Torah—permissible, and he greatly promoted the widespread consumption of alcohol. Paul also incorporated the notion of Trinity into the New Testament. Paul’s purpose in integrating these religious innovations into Christianity was to make Christianity palatable and alluring for the Greek heathens and pagans.

21. The origin of alcohol consumption in Europe—which has markedly harmed the European population—lies in Jesus’ use of alcohol. Perhaps some ailment compelled him to drink alcohol; or possibly it was an old habit. But O Muslims, your leader, Prophet Muhammad, was never tainted or blemished by any intoxicant! Hence, follow Prophet Muhammad’s pristine character, instead of imitating others. Unlike the New Testament, the Holy Quran doesn’t permit the consumption of alcohol. So which document do you use to justify alcohol consumption? Don’t forget the accountability of deeds in the next life.

22. Those who tighten their wrathful grip on humanity are dealt a wrathful punishment by God. That’s why, in the Quranic chapter Al-Fatihah, God has referred to the Jews as “those upon whom wrath is brought down”. This is an indication of the divine tradition whereby those who are wrathful toward others are punished by divine wrath in this worldly life; the next life, of course, will have punishment in store for all sinners. Now, in contrast to the Jews, the Christians didn’t receive wrathful punishment in the world. That’s why, in Al-Fatihah, God has referred to the Christians as “those who go astray”. The phrase “those who go astray” has two meanings. First, they’re wayward. Second, they will be immersed, in the sense of being absorbed or assimilated. And I think that the latter meaning holds glad tidings for the Christians: though they are presently lost, they will, one day, rid themselves of their untrue religion and embrace Islam. Thus, they will gradually discard their polytheistic beliefs; and they will cast off their faulty and shameful customs. In doing so, they will progressively accept monotheistic beliefs. In other words, they will embrace Islam. So the words “those who go astray” at the closure of Al-Fatihah actually carry, in their second connotation—that they will be immersed in the sense of being absorbed or assimilated—a prophecy for the future religious condition of the Christians.

23. The assertion that the Arabs also were directed to forcibly convert people to Islam is untenable and most certainly cannot be proved from the Holy Quran. Rather, the following is proven from the Holy Quran: The entire Arab nation subjected Prophet Muhammad to ordeals. They had murdered many of the sahaba (companions of Prophet Muhammad), both men and women, and the rest they had driven out of their native land. For that reason, those who had perpetrated these murders, as well as those who had aided them, were, in God’s view, deserving of death. After all, they had committed brutal bloodshed; capital punishment for those tormenters was perfectly justified. Still, God, Who is Merciful, and whose mercy transcends human imagination, gave the allowance that if any of those tormenters embraced Islam, their atrocious crimes—for which they were deserving of death—would be pardoned. And this historical fact stands in stark contrast to the groundless assertion that Islam condones or permits forcible conversion.

24. Certain foolish people object—just as the editor of newspaper Al-Minar has objected—that I’ve prohibited jihad against the infidels in India, the ruling British Government. Now, these imprudent people don’t realize that if it were my aim to please the British Government, would I repeatedly announce that Jesus, son of Mary, escaped after the event of the crucifixion, and went to Kashmir, India, where he lived and ultimately died a natural death? Likewise, would I affirm that neither is Jesus divine nor is he the son of God? Do you think that the Britons who profess religious zeal won’t despise me for making such statements? So please listen, O unwise people, I haven’t resorted to flattering the British Government in any way! The facts of the matter are these: This government doesn’t interfere with the practice of Islam in any way; and neither does it force its own religion, Christianity, upon us. Given these facts, the Holy Quran forbids us from waging religious war against the British Government. I will add that it is a reflection of God’s Wisdom that He raised me in this country; I wouldn’t have had the liberty to conduct my religious work—which I conduct freely in this realm—even in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. So do you think that I’ll be remiss in acknowledging God’s Wisdom in this matter? Recall too the information that God has given us in the Quranic verse “… and We gave them refuge on a lofty ground having meadows and springs” (Al-Muminun, Ch:23, Verse:50): that, following the event of the crucifixion, God provided Jesus and his mother the sanctuary of a restful and lofty ground that was punctuated by streams—the land of Kashmir. Similarly, God provided me the lofty haven of a government-run land where the grimy hands of troublemakers and fomenters can’t reach me; where the streams of true knowledge freely run their course; and where the malcontents are unable to disturb the prevailing social harmony—the land of British India. Therefore, as a subject of this realm, was it not appropriate for me to thank the rulers for their kindness? 25. A Jewish person has also verified that the construction of that grave follows the pattern of the graves of Israelite prophets. For details on this affirmation, I refer you to Appendix D.