Breaking Of The Cross
The Holy Prophet Muhammadsaw prophesied:
حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، حَدَّثَنَا الزُّهْرِيُّ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنِي سَعِيدُ بْنُ الْمُسَيَّبِ، سَمِعَ أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ “ لاَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَنْزِلَ فِيكُمُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ حَكَمًا مُقْسِطًا، فَيَكْسِرَ الصَّلِيبَ، وَيَقْتُلَ الْخِنْزِيرَ، وَيَضَعَ الْجِزْيَةَ، وَيَفِيضَ الْمَالُ حَتَّى لاَ يَقْبَلَهُ أَحَدٌ ”.
Narrated Abu Huraira:Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 43, Hadith #656)
The next sign which will be discussed is the breaking of the cross. Everyone is a witness to the amount of work Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas did, in regards to Islam and its superiority over Christianity. This sign firstly tells us that at the time of the Messiahas, Christians would be the ones who would be dominating in religious matters. Sadly, many Muslims believe that the breaking of the cross would be a literal task of the Messiah. If the Messiah was to descend and break 1000 crosses, millions of more crosses would be made that same hour around the world. Secondly, which Christian would accept a person who comes to someones neck and rips their cross and then breaks it? Is that the behaviour of a prophet of Allah according to the non Ahmadi Muslims?
Clearly this is not what Islam has taught us. Another point to keep in mind is that Allah is sending a Prophet, not an ignorant person who would feel the need to physically break crosses. The job of a prophet is to spread the Message of Allah and this prophecy is clearly metaphorical for breaking the ideology of Christianity and proving the Christianity beliefs to be totally false, which Ahmadas did beautifully. Ahmad showed and proved to the world, that Isa was not raisied from the dead and nor did he die on the cross, even from their own scriptures. He ended the preaching of many Christians with his arguments during his time, and till today Christians dislike discussing with Ahmadi Muslims. Nowadays, many scholars including Ahmad Deedat and Zakir Naik, use the exact same arguments which helps them prove the belief of the Christians to be false.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas States:
“And he came in accordance with the time honoured Divine promise. Then, at long last, came the time for the breaking of the cross: the time when the error of the creed of the cross was to be exposed with such clarity as the splitting a piece of wood into two. Heaven has thrown open the door to the breaking of the cross, so that whoever seeks the truth may seek and learn. True, the notion of the bodily ascent of Jesus to heaven was false, yet it had a significance of its own. The truth about the life of Jesus which had become extinct, like a dead body swallowed by the earth, was preserved in heaven like a physical person and it was decreed that it should descend again in the latter days. Thus that Messianic reality has now descended like a physical person and has broken the cross. The evil qualities of falsehood and worship of falsehood, which the Holy Prophetsaw has described in the Hadith concerning the cross as swine, have been broken with the breaking of the cross, just as swine is cut by the sword.
This Hadith does not mean that the Promised Messiah would slaughter the disbelievers or would go about breaking crosses. What the breaking of the cross means is that in this age the God of heaven and earth will disclose a hidden reality, whereby the whole structure of the cross will collapse at one stroke. And the slaughter of swine does not mean the slaughter of people or of swine, but it means the swinish habits like lying persistently, which is tantamount to swallowing of filth. Just as a dead pig can not swallow filth, in the same way, a time comes—indeed it has come—when dispositions will be stopped from swallowing such filth…. Do not think that I have come to wield the sword. No. What I have come to do is to put the swords back into their scabbards. Too long has the world been groping in the dark. Many have conspired against their wellwishers, wounded the hearts of their true friends and hurt their dear ones; but now darkness will be no more. The night is gone and the day has dawned. Blessed is he who does not remain deprived any more.” (Jesus in India, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 15, Pages 72-88)
Here is a brief writing of Ahmadas in regards to the belief of the Christians:
“I have discovered a piece of highly valuable evidence concerning the escape of Jesus from the cross, whose authenticity cannot be doubted. It is a medical preparation called Marham-e-‘Isa, or Ointment of Jesus. It is recorded in hundreds of books on medicine. Some of these are written by Christians, some by Magians and Jews, and some by Muslims. Most of them are very old. Research has disclosed that at first this prescription became known to thousands of people by word of mouth and it was later duly recorded. In the days of Jesusas, shortly after the crucifixion, a pharmacopoeia was compiled in Latin, which contained this prescription and testified that it had been prepared for Jesusas’ wounds. This work was later translated into several languages and, in the time of the Abbasid Caliph Mamun Rashid, it was also translated into Arabic. Strange are the ways of Divine providence that eminent physicians of all religions, Christians, Jews, Magians and Muslims, have recorded this prescription in their books and have admitted that it was prepared for Jesus (peace be on him) by his disciples.
It appears from the study of different pharmacopoeias that this ointment is most useful in injuries sustained by blows or a fall; it immediately stops bleeding as it contains myrrh. It is useful as an antiseptic and is also helpful in cases of the plague and is useful for all kinds of boils, etc. It is not clear whether the prescription was revealed to Jesusas after he suffered injuries on the cross or whether the ointment was prepared under the directions of a physician. Some of its components work like an elixir, particularly myrrh which is mentioned in the Torah. Anyway, with the use of this ointment, injuries of Jesusas were healed in a matter of days and he recovered enough strength to travel on foot from Jerusalem to Galilee, a distance of seventy kose, in three days. It is enough praise for this ointment that it healed the injuries of Jesus who used to heal the others. The number of books of medicine which contain this prescription is more than a thousand…. In short the ointment of Jesus is a grand testimony for seekers after truth. If this testimony were not accepted, all historical evidences in the world would lose their credibility” (Jesus in India, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 15, Pages 56-61)
Furthermore, there are plenty of statements of the non Ahmadi Muslims in regards to the work of Ahmadas on Christianity. Here are some points which were raised by Dr Henry Martyn Clark who chose the Christian Abdullah Atham to debate with Ahmadas:
Dr. Henry Martyn Clark stated: “When our turn came, I must candidly confess our champion (Abdullah Atham) did not make the best of our case against Mohammedanism. Despite much advice… Mr. Atham pursued a course of his own.. It was scarcely the type of war required” (CMI, February 1894, Page 99)
He also states:
“The gauntlet thrown down produced the greatest consternation. The Mohammadedans were aghast. What could they do? And yet, something must be done. They addressed themselves to various societies for the Aid of Islam, and bestirred themselves to find a champion, but none appeared. Three weeks went by, the wager of battle still lay unaccepted. Jandiala Mohammedans were in dire straits, when, to their intense relief, they found a defender in a certain Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. This man is a somewhat remarkable personage, and one of great interest to the missionary” (The Church Missonanary Intelligencer, Page 96, Volume XLV, 1894, Church Missionary Society, London)
Julius Richter states: “Ghulam is a remarkable man. He writes clever books, and in such elegant Urfu, Persian, and Arabic that he is able to challenge his opponents in the most graceful Arabic literary articles to admit or to disprove his divine mission;; besides this he has also inaugurated an English Magazine, The Review of Religions, the lengthy pages of which he fills almost singlehandedly.”
The Missionary Herald of Boston, USA wrote:
“There was much doubt in regards to the expediency of this challenge, but after it was done it was found that the Mohammedans were in great fear lest they should be unable to find an able champion.”
“This man, Ghulam Ahmad… was deemed superior in ab ility, was chosen and consented to represent Islam against Christianity” (Missionary Herald: Containing the Proceedings of The American Board of Commissioners ffor Foreign Missions, Volume XC, Page 167, Published: Press of Samuel Usher Boston, 1894)
- Bevan Jones wrote:
“He was shrewd enough to see that the supreme issue lay between the funders of the two faiths…Christ or Muhammad. It is as though they have determined that what Muhammad cannot be, Christ shall not be” (The People of the Mosque page 279, By L Bevan Jones)
Sirjud Din B.A wrote:
“All his writings resound with the one note that Christ died like all other mortals and is no longer living…But he is determined to make him smaller than Mohammad at any cost” (The Missionary Review of the World, Volume XX, No.10, Page 751, October 1907 Printed in the United States of America)
E.J Bolus M.A wrote:
“But there is one point in which I am puzzled. Who pays for this extensive printing and posting? And what the motive? I cannot tell why these things are printed in India and psoted to all the ends of the earth…” (TH
The Otago Witness, New Zealand, Issue 2560, 8 April 1903 Page 3)
Ahmadas also explained a second meaning to this hadith:
“Obviously, what could be a greater miracle than this? My principal function is the breaking of the cross. By Dowie’s death, a great part of the cross has been broken for, of the whole world, he was the foremost champion of the cross. He claimed to be a prophet and had announced that through his prayer, all Muslims would be destroyed, Islam would disappear and the Ka’bah will be deserted. Now, God has destroyed him at my hand…. I can declare it on oath that he was indeed the swine, concerning whom the Holy Prophet, on whom be the peace and blessings of Allah, had said that he would be slain by the Promised Messiah.” (Tatimma Haqiqatul-Wahi, p. 77, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, p. 513)