.
Here are some examples of
how different Faiths have promised
and thus expect the return
or appearance of a “Most Great
Messenger”.
Name for the Promised One:
81 When Allah made
(His) covenant with the prophets, (He said): Behold that which I have
given you of the
Scripture and knowledge. And afterward there will come unto you a
messenger, confirming
that which ye possess. Ye shall believe in him and ye shall help him.
He said: Do ye agree,
and will ye take up My burden (which I lay upon you) in this (matter)
? They answered: We
agree. He said: Then bear ye witness. I will be a witness with you.
(The Qur'an (Pickthall
tr), Sura 3 - The Family Of Imran)
81:10 And when the
leaves of the Book shall be unrolled, And when the Heavens shall be
stripped away, And
when Hell shall be made to blaze, And when Paradise shall be brought
near, Every soul shall
know what it hath produced.
It needs not that I
swear by the stars of retrograde motions Which move swiftly and hide
themselves away, And
by the night when it cometh darkening on, And by the dawn when it
brighteneth, 19 That this is the word of an illustrious Messenger, 81:20 Endued with power,
having influence with the Lord of the Throne, Obeyed there by Angels, faithful to his trust,
Sura 81, the folding up, verse 19
:
The Promised One:
Maitreya Buddha, Amitabha
“Source of Wisdom,
Unbounded Light.
While not much is known about the earliest forms of Buddhism, it seems the earliest followers
believed that there was only the one Buddha and that no more would follow. Soon, however, a
doctrine of the Maitreya , or "Future Buddha," began to assert itself. In this, Buddhists believed
that a second Buddha would come and purify the world; they also believed that the first
Buddha prophesied this future Buddha.
Name for the Promised One:
Glory of the Lord or Father,
the Spirit of Truth:
“ I have much more to
say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of
truth comes, he will
guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only
what he hears, and he
will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking
from what is mine and
making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That
is why I said the
Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. “In a little
while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
John 16: 12-16
Name for the Promised One:
Vishnu Yasha (Sanskrit for) Glory of God.
In the Bhagavad-Gita it says:
Chapter 4, Verse 6-8
”Although I am unborn
and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am
the Lord of all
sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original
transcendental form.
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O
descendant of Bharata,
and a predominant rise of irreligion-- at that time I descend Myself.
In order to deliver
the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the
principles of
religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.”
Name for “The Promised One”.
Khshathra (Dominion),
Desirable,
a kingdom yet to come.
Name for the
Promised One:”
Glory of God, Glory of the Lord, The Blessed Beauty, etc.
These refer to Baha’u’llah (Persian for the Glory Of God) himself.
(THE GREAT
ANNOUNCEMENT : (THE PURPOSE OF THE PROPHETS.)
”The Revelation which,
from time immemorial, hath been acclaimed as the Purpose and
Promise of all the
Prophets of God, and the most cherished Desire of His Messengers, hath
now, by virtue of the
pervasive Will of the Almighty and at His irresistible bidding, been
revealed unto men. The
advent of such a Revelation hath been heralded in all the sacred
Scriptures.
Behold how,
notwithstanding such an announcement, mankind hath strayed from its path
and shut out itself
from its glory.
Say: O ye lovers of
the One true God! Strive, that ye may truly recognize and know Him, and
observe befittingly
His precepts. This is a Revelation, under which, if a man shed for its sake
one drop of blood,
myriads of oceans will be his recompense. Take heed, O friends, that ye
forfeit not so
inestimable a benefit, or disregard its transcendent station. Consider the
multitude of lives
that have been, and are still being, sacrificed in a world deluded by a mere
phantom which the vain imaginations of its peoples have conceived.”
(Compilations, Baha'i World Faith)