Quran (2 : 275), "cannot arise except as he arises whom the devil prostrates by his touch"; and again "0 you who believe, devour not usury, doubling and redoubling" (3: 129). But Europe and America, in the present age, have come to consider usury as a very profitable practice. It enhances one's wealth and riches without .any risk or effort. Trading and big-scale wars, they argue, cannot be carried on without the help of usury. Now the great God clothed in Bahaullahs flesh and skins realized the mistake which he had committed in interdicting usury and rectified it in his new law, proclaiming:
s ~~ ~
50 "Now he has usury just before." permitted the taking as he had forbidden of it
But the Western thinkers have now begun to realize the disastrous consequences of "swallowing usury", appearing in the form of cruel capitalism and the great wars which would not have been possible if the Quranic prohibition of usury had been in force in those countries. And if Bahaullah had been living at this time, he would have rectified his mistake a. second time, and withdrawn his permission. Instances can be multiplied to show that there is not a single commandment in the Law of Bahaullah that may be better than and superior to the Law of Islam from any point of view, social, moral and spiritual. Jesus, as reported in the sixteenth Chapter of the Gospel according to John, had foretold the advent of another Prophet after him, described as Paraclete: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go not away, the Paraclete will not come unto you ..... and when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment" (verses 7 and 8). Paraclete is a Greek term. In the English translation of the Bible, it has been rendered as comforter, and
51 spirit of truth. But says the Encyclopaedia Biblica in this connection = There is no exact equivalent in English for the paraclete ; comforter, helper miss the legal sense, whilst advocate does not cover varied offices predicated in the Gospel of which intercession forms no part." Jesus spoke in the Aramaic language, and not in Greek. The term used by Jesus, as explained by a Christian scholar of the Bible, Wastenfells, was Mauhamana (Aramaic) which becomes Mauhamanna in Hebrew, both signifying the praised; and in the sister language, Arabic, it is Muhammad or Ahmad, derived from the same root Hamad which means to praise. Jesus it is now easy to understand, bespoke of the coming of the Holy Prophet Muhammad after him which is further confirmed by the Di vine word in the Holy Quran = "And when Jesus, son of Mary, said 0 Children of Israel, surely, I am the messenger of Allah to you, verifying that which is before me of the Torah and giving the good news of a Messenger who will come after me, his name being Ahmad." (61 : 6). The
Oomforter the Paraclete and the spirit
terms indicating one and the same person, the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Turn over Chapter 15, verse 2(j,
of truth are synonymous
of the Gospel according to John, and read: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." But our American Bahai, Mr. Roger N. Paries, would have us believe that the Comforter and Paraclete were two separate and distinct personages, and that the Comforter whom Mr. Paries identifies with Bahaullah of the Divine heights, "would bring the Kingdom to this earth" and "posses full authority to abrogate the ceremonial laws." Facts, however, give lie to these high-sounding claims. Instead of establishing his Kingdom OIl this earth, Bah aullah passed all his life in imprisonment, weeping and wailing, and at last yielded up his ghost in exile in a state of utter failure and frustration. A dreadful and disgraceful doom of a truth, has been prescribed in the Law of God Almighty for such claimants. Pharaoh of Egypt, when he asserted his claim to be the Divine Being, was devoured and destroyed by a dreadful death, in spite of all his might and main. It was the Holy Prophet Muh