Prophets As Celestial Beings
“We have adorned the lowest heaven with an adornment – the planets.” (37:7)
“And We have, indeed, made mansions of stars in the heaven and have adorned it for beholders.” (15:17)
“Blessed is He Who has made in the heaven mansions of the stars and has placed therein a Lamp producing light and a moon that reflects light.” (25:62)
“…And He created the sun and the moon and the stars – all made subservient by His command…” (7:55)
The above verses of the Qur’an, according to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, have many interpretations, one in which the verses reveal key astronomical knowledge about the stars, planets and other celestial bodies. Another interpretation of these verses (and the one used for the subject at hand) made by the Ahmadis is that the universe is the ‘spiritual universe’, the celestial beings (i.e. stars, planets etc.) as the Prophets, the sun as the Prophet Muhammad and the moon as the Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
The moon is taken to be the Mirza Ghulam Ahmad because in every verse above where the moon is signified, the word Qamar is used and that word distinctly means Full Moon (see: ‘Moon of the Prophets’ below).
“By the heaven having mansions of stars. And the Promised Day, And the Witness and he to whom witness is borne.” (85:2-4)
According to the Ahmadiyya interpretation of the above verse, the stars signify Prophets and the ‘Promised Day’ as the day of the coming of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (it is also interpreted as the Day of Resurrection). The Witness in this verse signifies Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as he was a Shahid (Witness) as all other Prophets were and was a witness to the truth of the ‘one to whom witness is borne’ in this verse, or the Prophet Muhammad as he was a Mashhud (One to whom witness is made) as all other prophets were.
Rejection of even one of the Prophets, results in the rejection of all prophets, according to the Ahmadiyya Community.
Read more about this topic: Prophethood (Ahmadiyya)
Famous quotes containing the words prophets, celestial and/or beings:
“The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert, and so on.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)