The signs in the Heavens! 38

[resurrected]

The false prophets.

The mystery man looked serious as he kept struggling with his thoughts, trying hard to find the appropriate words that could convey his contemplation to me in somewhat easy manner. I anticipated some serious stuff and got relaxed when realized that he was about to talk about religion once again. But this time his intention was just to talk about the people, who had claims of having contact with the divine. The incarnated gods, the Apostles, the Prophets, the Seers, were just few of the names given to these people that emerged from nowhere and revealed many secrets and gave their interpretations of the truth, before disappearing in some foggy hereafter. If these individuals did come from the divine or not could never be known or confirmed by those whom they came to. These peculiar claims not always invoked respect and awe of people around. These self-proclaimed messengers of the deity could be ridiculed by the society they came to and were even at times tortured and even killed for preaching something those societies didn’t like.
The people were always skeptical, demanding proofs, asking for miracles and divine powers that could erase all kind of doubts. But despite the great burden of responsibility placed on these individuals, they had remained human and therefore depended upon the divine help in convincing the authenticity of their office or mission. We simply lack the tools to judge the truth as to what made these beings to step forward and proclaim some new faith or to reform the existing one. The same goes for the possibility to judge if these human beings did have connection with the divine or simply were deluded or did all for some vanity or for some worldly gain. The mystery of the Deity is as profound as it had been millions of years ago.
The fragments of the truth lay spread in the scriptures of the religions but also in the philosophical ponderings of all times. What made the stories of religious books better than the pagan myths, we may wonder and can come to the conclusion that we have no choices but to believe in that what we had been told by those beings that claimed to have known the truth or were given the insight into the mysteries. The human history was full of such beings that brought or tried to bring the illumination to us. These concepts, these doctrines did help us grow in our spirit but the question had remained unanswered as to if these did represent the divine or were simply driven by their own vivid fantasy. Even if we do believe these personalities to have come from some higher source, then the question arises as to why certain of these individuals succeeded in their missions, while the others with such claims miserably failed, bringing some disaster upon them, as the fate of these messengers had not been glorious as history tells us.
We could have left the question of authenticity a matter between the claimer and the one that sent these emissaries had these beings nothing to do with us. But in reality these had been touching and influencing all the human endeavours and thus making it vital for us to know the truth. They could alter our spiritual journeys by making us go astray or guiding us to our destinations. So the difference between a genuine spiritual leader and a false one mattered a lot for people. Though we need to remember that the difference stayed important only and only for those, who believed in divine interference and guidance, the rest rejected the entire concept as a hoax or superstition. I could see that the topic wasn’t easy for him to discuss with me, especially when it could bring us to some points of disagreement. I was already feeling agitated about the need to question the authenticity of the prophets. Hadn’t these great personalities suffered enough at the hands of disbelievers? Didn’t they always come with some authority and credentials given by the sender? Weren’t they received the power to perform miracles, so that people could get certain about the genuineness of those with the claims?

“Why do we need to discuss if these messengers were genuine or false?” I asked politely but firmly.
“It’s important for us to know simply because the knowledge will hinder us from falling in some traps or ditches” he said and quickly added that he was looking at the question from the angle of controversial claims of those, who failed to convince the majority of their fellow beings of their truthfulness. He reminded me about his promise to discuss the Qadiyani question and it was exactly that he was aiming at the moment.
Jesus Christ had promised to his followers that a comforter will they receive and described how that personality would be looking like. So the Jews and Christians knew that our Prophet was the promised one and yet they denied him. Prophet Mohammad PBUH was the last messenger and therefore none was to come after him and that fact was told very loud and clear. But did that help people of different times to come with the claims of prophethood, of course not. Right after his death there appeared people with such claims and the Caliphs had to deal with those imposters.
“If Jews and Christians had stopped coming with new claimants of prophethood, then why such people appeared in Islam where the end of the prophethood had been clearly announced?” I was confused.
“No, your assertion is not true, I can give you many examples of such claimants even in Christianity but let’s not waste our time and move to the question regarding Muslims,” he was straight forward. “As we believe that God is infallible, so the only possibility remains is that God deliberately left the loophole regarding the end of prophethood. The mentioning of the second coming of Jesus by both Islam and Christianity opened the doors for such claimants that appeared during different times and perhaps would keep doing so till the promised happening really takes place” he wasn’t hard to such pretenders as he saw the matter more complex than we ordinary people did.