Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 382
382 BARĀHIN-E-AHMADIYYA - PART FIVE Ilyas's return to the world before the coming of the Promised Messiah with such clarity and detail, which cannot have any different interpre- tation, if we artificially turn away from its obvious import and give some interpretation to this prophecy, it will be a terrible dishonesty. God did not tell us in His book that someone the like of Ilyas will come before the Promised Messiah; rather, He told us in explicit terms that Ilyas himself would descend from heaven. How can we deny such cat- egorical tidings? And then, at the end of his article, he writes: 'If God were to ask them on the Day of Judgment why they did not accept this man-Jesus son of Mary-and why they did not believe in him, they would submit Prophet Malachi's book before Him. In short, it is a long-standing belief of the Jews that their true Messiah-the first Promised Messiah-will only come when Prophet Ilyas has returned to the world before him. And yet Hadrat 'Isā, may peace be upon him, wouldn't listen to anything from them and insisted that the one who was to come was meant to be the Prophet Yahyā. This is the verdict of Hadrat 'Isā which you have raised a clam- our against. Did Prophet Ilyas return to the world so that 'Isā should come back too? Indeed, were it permissible for anyone to return to the world, then Hadrat 'Isā would not be deemed a true Prophet. His Prophethood would be invalidated, for in that case, it would have to be conceded that, to unfairly justify his claim, he made Prophet Yahya to be Ilyas while Ilyas had not yet descended from heaven. Shouldn't the story about the return of Elijah serve as a lesson for the wise as it led hundreds of thousands of Jews to reject Jesus and to be cast into Hell? be considered the Messiah and give up the hope about the one expected to return. In short, according to the Jews, there are two Messiahs, and that the last Promised Messiah, who was to appear at the end of the sixth millennium, is far superior and triumphant compared to the first Messiah, yet they have been deprived of both, having found neither the one nor the other. (Author)