It’s not a matter of analysis, but hindsight that whenever a critical situation faces a republic, or an empire, some guidance has to come from the ‘leaders’, whether they are from amongst the politicians, thinkers, or the mystics. But, even more important is the aspect that the ‘vision’ is born even before the ‘man’! It’s the same with Jesus (PBUH). St John (PBUH) had come preaching of Jesus (PBUH), before Jesus was fully grown to reach the people. Well, in the case of Jesus (PBUH), it goes even further, because several prophesies by different prophets much earlier, like from Jeremiah (PBUH) and Isaiah (PBUH) predicted his coming. So, before the torch-bearer, there was the indication of the torch in the far distance.
When I talk about Greek history, and the Positive Forces, I have to mention a period from 1500 BC to 35 AD. It is a time that convinces you that a very promising beginning of a human settlement had taken root, and intellectuals were the bringers of hope. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those intellectuals were not prophets. In the past, too, men like Esdra (PBUH) or Hazrat Idrees (or Ezra), and Hazrat Khizr (PBUH), and Hazrat Luqman (PBUH) are considered as men of letters in the Holy Scriptures. So, people like Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato could also be bringers of the mystic light, as were Lao Tse, or Confucius in China. From a period of enlightened philosophers, scientists, and dramatists, to a period of prophets and saints, some 1500 years elapsed. When the Greeks evolved, they needed to rid themselves of deity worship and the homage of idols. That’s why intellectuals were needed to change their way of thinking and reasoning. This could only be done through logic and rational thinking. Thus, philosophers and artistes performed their duties. But, in the days of the Roman Empire, which denoted tyranny, and not logic or reasoning, human kind needed mystical guidance and solace. So, the prophets and saints came to put them on the right path. You can see how varied these bringers of hope and guidance were.
These Positive Forces, or visionaries, faced various challenges. The philosophers, logicians, scientists, and dramatists of the golden age of the Greek Revolution faced trouble from egoistic officials of the dictators, who believed that they should dictate things rather than be democratic. Moreover, they also faced hostility from pockets of people, who would not take any nonsense from those who preached against their gods through their works. Although the Greek dramatists and philosophers never indulged in mud-slinging on gods in the extreme style, they definitely made fun of them, with humour and sarcasm, and literary wit. With philosophers like Socrates, things were on a different keel. They logically proved the gods wrong, though not in a confrontational way. But, when you come to the period of Jesus (PBUH), you find that the Prophets had a far more difficult job. They had to be direct in their preaching, and they had to admonish the harbingers of hate in the society. Definitely, logic and reasoning were the tools here, too, but this was more on the mystical level, and had more to do with faith than just logic and rationality.
St John (Hazrat Yahya AS) had arrived in the outskirts of Judea, and was preaching about the coming of Jesus (PBUH) soon. He used to live on a simple diet of locusts and the wild honey in the deserts and jungles. At this time, Herod the Great of Judea was dead, and Herod Antipas was the king. St. John (PBUH) met him, and preached to him about being just and kind to human kind. But, as happens with kings, Herod killed St. John (PBUH), and placed his head on a platter to offer to his mistress.
Meanwhile, as predicted, Jesus (PBUH) had been born to Mary (PBUH). News was then delivered to her by the Magi that she should leave for Nazareth, because the king of Judea, Herod, was afraid of the prediction that the child born this year would take his throne from him. When Herod could not find the child, he killed thousands of small children of two years or slightly more. But, rather than going into that, I’d like to point out that when Jesus (PBUH) grew up, and preached monotheism, the main thing was that at that time, Rome had grown into a massive superpower, with its emperor, Tiberius the most important man on the face of the earth. Of course, we believe Jesus (PBUH) was the most important man on the face of the earth, but you have to admit that history believes in men wielding power. That’s an irony, but it is the bitter fact that men using the controlling panel become the political, as well as social leaders, although the facts may be slightly different. Today, for instance, Rome is just a small town in Italy, but Christianity is the religion of the majority. So, influence has to be judged through the centuries. No wonder, there would be people who’d say that if that is the case, Hitler changed the map within six years during World War II. The colonial powers were reduced to small countries. So what about that influence? That’s political and military influence. But, you must ask if Germany became a superpower of the world? No, America and Russia replaced England and France, and that was it. The Cold War started. But, the positive influence of Jesus (PBUH) remains till this day.
What I want to emphasize here, is that the world was governed in Rome by the tyrants, while a single individual, who was preaching goodness and justice was making his way through the Middle East to Europe. So, obviously, the dark decibels have to be in bigger numbers, and the bigger the challenge for the Positive Forces, the greater the man sent to tackle the crisis. Not many people realize that before his early death, Jesus (PBUH) was actually hinting that he was now poised to take his message to Rome. He had already visited Galilee when he heard that St. John (PBUH) had been put in the jail. But, in the end, he was going there, because he was called upon by the Positive Forces of Intuition to reach Rome, the place of injustice and sin. This phenomenon can be seen most obviously in the migration of the Sufis and the mystics of Islam to India and other places, where Muslim hegemony had been established. They were called upon to travel to these places, as it was their assignment to balance the mystic powers with the imperialist trends that Muslims were getting used to. That’s the reason that you have Data Ganj Bakhsh (RA), Mueenuddin Chishti (RA), Nizamuddin Awliah (RA), etc. who traveled from the far reaches of the Islamic world to India, and preached the true soul of the religion, and also had several confrontations with the kings of those regions.
But, what happened was that even before he had entered Rome, he was arrested by the men of Caiaphas, the Roman puppet king of Judea, for being called the ‘King of The Jews’. Thus, Jesus (PBUH) was seen as a pretender to the Throne of Judea. So, he was arrested by the orders of a puppet king. In this context, if you see how things make themselves clear to one who ponders sincerely on the subject, you have Caiaphas, a puppet king, who is in the service of the Roman king, Tiberius, and sends Jesus (PBUH) to Rome to be crucified, and then you have a holy prophet, who has the highest authority to even make a dead man live by saying Qum be iznee (Come alive by my command). So, the Negative Power has a puppet, who cannot even wield his own authority, while the Positive Power has a holy and just prophet, with the authority to bring to life even a dead man, through his own command. This is an analysis that I wanted to put across as something that is continuously ignored through history. If you can’t see this basic comparison, then how could you analyze a man with a mystic power?
Therefore, the Negative Forces, sensing that Jesus was coming to challenge them in Rome, where they were all-in-all, they planned to stop him permanently. When this perspective is seen clearly, you have Jesus (PBUH) being dragged to Rome for a crime he never committed. He never styled himself the ‘King of Jews’. The people styled him thus. And having styled him that, the Jews then proceeded to send him to the gallows!
At least, that’s what they felt they were doing!
It’s another thing that the Positive Forces had another destiny written for Jesus (PBUH). The same night that Jesus (PBUH) entered Galilee, in Rome, the governor of the city had been visited by a dream. Though a most callous and vindictive man by nature, Pontius Pilate was so overawed by this dream that he found himself pondering an act of kindness. In this dream, he was told that a great Man of God (Jesus PBUH) will be delivered to his door, and that once he met him, he should try his best to treat him honourably. So, when Jesus (PBUH) was brought to him by the Jews, and they insisted that instead of the petty thief, Pilate kill “this man”, Jesus (PBUH), he told them that he had had a holy dream not to harm this man, and that he would not put him on the cross. But, when hearing this, the Jews started to get extremely angry, and chanted against Pilate, saying that they would send word to the Roman King through the Pharisees (the priests) that Pilate was shirking his responsibility of crucifying a rebel and a pretender to the Judean Throne, Pilate had other thoughts. Seeing that a huge throng was getting too nasty, Pontius Pilate, reluctantly, agreed to put Jesus (PBUH) on the cross. Of course, we know through the Qur’an that Jesus (PBUH) was never crucified, and ascended to the heavens.
Therefore, the Positive Forces saved Jesus (PBUH) in the same way that they had earlier saved other prophets and Men of God, like Enoch (Hazrat Idrees AS), Elijah (Hazrat Ilyas AS), and Ma’ad bin ‘Adnan (the great-great-grand-parent of Rasool Allah SAW)!
