``Of all the leaders of Tasawwuf that there have been till the present day, not even one has disagreed with the point that in this religion the path to become the likes of prophets is open, as the Holy Prophet Muhammad has given the glad tidings for spiritual and godly learned persons that `the Ulama of my nation are like the Israelite Prophets'. The words of Abu Yazid Bustami given below, which are recorded in Tazkirat al-Auliya by Farid-ud-Din Attar, and are also found in other reliable works, are on this basis, as he says: `I am Adam, I am Seth, I am Noah, I am Abraham, I am Moses, I am Jesus, I am Muhammad, peace be upon him and upon all these brothers of his.'... Similarly, Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jilani, in his book Futuh al-Ghaib, refers to this point, i.e. that man, by leaving his ego and annihilating himself in God, becomes the like, rather the very form, of the prophets.''

(Izala Auham, pp. 258--260)

``God's ancient way cannot be denied, viz., that He gives the name of one to another on account of spiritual similarity. He who has the nature of Abraham is Abraham in God's sight, he who has the nature of Moses is Moses in God's sight, and he who has the nature of Jesus is Jesus in God's sight. And he who has a share of all these has all these names applied to him.''

(ibid. p. 412)

``Ponder over this, that all the eternal fountains of spiritual life have come into the world through the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This is the nation [i.e. Muslim nation] which, though not having any prophets (nabi) in it, has those who receive the word of God like prophets, and though not having any messengers (rasul) in it, has those who show God's clear signs like messengers.''

(Ainah Kamalat Islam,p. 224)

Hazrat Mirza on how a believer becomes `Mary' and `Jesus'

``In the Holy Quran, God has given two parables of the believers. The first comparison is with the wife of Pharoah who wishes refuge in God from this kind of husband. This is the example of those believers who bow to base passions and make mistakes, and then they show regret and repent. They seek refuge in God, as their soul is always doing them injustice like the Pharoah as a husband. These people have the self-reproaching soul, and are constantly striving to be free from evil.

``There are other believers who have attained a higher rank. They do not only refrain from evil, but earn virtue. God has compared them to Mary: `She who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into it of Our spirit.' Every believer who accomplishes himself in piety and purity, is Mary in the sense of burooz [manifestation or spiritual representation]. And God breathes into him His spirit, which becomes the son of Mary.

``Zamakhshari [classical commentator of the Quran] has given the same meaning, i.e. this verse is of general application. If this meaning is not taken, then because Hadith says `None is safe from the devil except Mary and the son of Mary', it would simply imply that --- God forbid --- all other prophets were prone to the devil.

``Hence, in reality, this verse refers to the fact that into every believer who reaches this accomplishment, the spirit of God is blown, and he becomes the son of Mary. This contains the prophecy that a `son of Mary' would be born in this Muslim nation. It is surprising that people name their children Muhammad, Isa [Jesus], Musa [Moses], Yacub [Jacob], Ishaq [Isaac], Ismail and Abraham, and consider this to be permissible, but they do not think it allowable for God to name someone Mary, or `son of Mary'.''

(Mulfuzat, vol. ii, pp. 317,--,318)

``There is another point which is realised by pondering over the Divine word. That is that as a person makes daily progress towards the truth by receiving guidance from the attracting power of God, and goes on forsaking the self and the lower passions, the ultimate point of the purification of his soul is that, having emerged completely from the darkness of the self and base desires, and having cleansed his body --- which is the residence of the soul --- of dark bodily smoke, he becomes like a pure drop of water. At that time, in God's sight he is but the mere spirit which remains after the extermination of the self. In terms of perfect obedience to God, he acquires a similarity to the angels.

``Then, having reached that stage, it is his right near God that he should be called Ruh-ullah [the spirit of God] and Kalimat-ullah [the word of God]. This significance can, in a sense, also be derived from the hadith which Ibn Maja and Hakim have recorded in their books, viz. `There is no Mahdi except Jesus'. That is to say, only he reaches the perfect rank of Mahdi [the rightly-guided one] who first becomes Isa [Jesus]. In other words, when a person acquires such an accomplishment in turning to God that only the spirit remains, he then becomes Ruh-ullah [spirit of God] in God's view, and he is named Isa [Jesus] in heaven. He receives a spiritual birth at the hands of God, which is not from any physical father, rather it is the shadow of the grace of God which grants him that birth. So, in fact the excellence of purification and of fana fi-llah [absorption in God] is precisely this, that he should attain such severance from bodily darkness that only the spirit remains.

``This is the rank of Iswiyyat [`Jesushood'], which God bestows perfectly upon whom He pleases. And the rank of perfect Dajjaliyyat [being the Dajjal or Anti-Christ] is that, according to the verse `he clings to the earth', he inclines more and more to the lower valleys of base desires, till having descended to the depths of darkness, he becomes darkness personified, and an instinctive friend of darkness and enemy of light. The existence of the quality of Dajjaliyyat, in opposition to the quality of Iswiyyat, is necessarily implied because a thing is identified by the existence of the opposite. These two qualities have been in existence right from the time of our Holy Prophet. He named Ibn Sayyad as Dajjal, and said to Hazrat Ali, `You bear a resemblance to Jesus'. Hence, the seed of Jesus and of Dajjal began at that time, and as with the passage of time, the mischief of Dajjaliyyat increased, persons embodying the quality of Iswiyyat appeared in opposition in a corresponding manner. In the last age, by reason of the spread of evil, wickedness, unbelief and error, and by reason of the arising of all those evils which had never before existed in such magnitude and extent --- in fact, the spread of these in the last days had been prophesied by the Holy Prophet --- Dajjaliyyat was manifested to perfection. To combat this, it was essential that Iswiyyat be also manifested to perfection.''

(Nishan Asmani, pp. 8--9)