False Prophet or Savior? How to Know If Someone Is Truly Sent by God

The recent sermon of Aba Al-Sadiq drew a lot of attention to the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Many Christians allege that he is the Antichrist. But they clearly lack a way of determining how to recognize a true prophet of God. They seem to be confused themselves: Is he the Antichrist? Is he a false prophet? And how would we even know? In this article, we want to clear up once and for all: How do you distinguish a real messenger of God from a fake one?

Aba Al-Sadiq expressed it beautifully when he said that a person who enters this world and is truly seeking God must find God's phone number. There has to be a way to find out how to reach God in every day and age. And in fact, God left a clear way to communicate with Him. It is the same way of communication from the time of Adam until now. It's very simple, and it's right in front of us. And once you hear what it is — whether you are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim — you will not be able to disagree with it.

Here are three simple criteria to recognize if someone is truly sent by God:

Criteria 1: Successorship

It must be God who appoints his messenger. That's what we find in the Book of Genesis and in the Quran.

“I am going to place a vicegerent on earth.” (The Quran: 2:30)

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (The Bible: Genesis: 1:26)

In these verses, we see that God publicly appoints Adam for all to witness. When Adam encounters creation and they ask who he is, he can confidently say, "I am Adam, the one appointed by God." Everyone recognizes that he is the appointed one, and no one else can claim to be Adam. Therefore, his divine appointment must be upheld and protected, ensuring that only he, the rightful companion, can claim it.

This means that in every age, there must be someone appointed by God. God is always present in creation through a vicegerent. There has never been a moment in the history of the Earth when a vicegerent was absent; there is always someone in place. When one passes away, another takes their place. For example, when Jesus left, he appointed Simon Peter as his successor. When Mohammed departed, he left the twelve Imams as his successors. Throughout history, there has been a long line of successors, including 124,000 prophets and messengers, along with countless successors from the beginning of creation to its end.

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (The Bible, Matthew 16:19)

Another biblical example is the example of Saul. When the Israelites wanted a king, could they appoint their own king? The Torah and Quran say they could not appoint their own king. They had to go back to their prophet, Samuel, who was appointed during their time, and ask him to appoint a king for them.

"So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. “Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”" (The Bible: 1 Samuel 8:4-5)

The same applies with David and Solomon. David appointed Solomon before his death. Only a predecessor can appoint his vicegerent.

"King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada for me.” So they came before the king. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘God save King Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him. And he shall come and sit on my throne, for he will be king in my place as I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” (The Bible: 1 Kings, 1:32-35)

Jesus also laid claim to those before him when he read from the scroll in the synagogue.

"And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”" (The Bible: Luke 4: 20-21)

The same happened with Mohammed. He came and claimed to be the comforter that was sent by Jesus.

“And [mention] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said, “O Children of Israel, indeed I am the  messenger of Allāh to you confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmed.” But when he (Ahmed) came to them with clear proofs, they said: “This is plain magic.” (The Quran: 61:6)

Every person's only desire should be to find out who the person appointed by God is. If Buddhism is the right religion, they should follow it. If Islam is the right religion, they should follow it. If it is Christianity, they should follow it — as long as they can verify that the person at the head of the religion is actually appointed by God.

Aba Al-Sadiq said in an episode on The Mahdi has Appeared Youtube Channel that everyone should ask their scholars and leaders:

Are you appointed by God? If the answer is no, you are not appointed by God, then thank you very much, I don't want to hear about it, because you don't have the right to talk in the name of God. The only person who has the right to talk in the name of God and say that they're going to lead me towards God is the person who is appointed by God. That's the only way that my heart can be at peace.

But what if someone falsely claims to be mention in the will? It would be pointless and contradictory to common sense if somebody could falsely claim the position of being the vicegerent or messenger. What is the point, for example, of Jesus coming to us and saying that after him one day there’s going to come Mohammed, if a million and one people can come before Mohammed and claim to be Mohammed? In that case, Jesus' words would not be a source of guidance but would be a source of misguidance and people would be confused. That is why God has protected the name of the successor and prevented the false claiming of this name. Therefore, only the appointed person can rightfully claim a will, as we find in both the Islamic narrations and the narrations of Jews and Christians. Anyone who falsely claims to be the messenger of God, without being sent by Him, will have their life cut short by God before he can even claim the will. This appointment must be protected, or else it loses its meaning.

Imam Al-Sadiq said: "This matter will not be claimed by anyone other than its rightful owner, except that Allah will cut off his life." (Al-Kafi: vol. 1, p. 373, h. 5)

Therefore, we find that before Jesus claimed to be the one prophesied by Isaiah, no one else claimed to be mentioned in that verse. He was the first to claim it. People may claim to be the vicegerent after he has already done so, because by then it no longer matters. However, they cannot claim it before him — and the same applies to Mohammed and every other messenger.

No one can claim to be the appointed King except the one truly appointed. But he also must back this claim with knowledge, providing reassurance to the people, and he must call towards the supremacy of God.

Criteria 2: Knowledge

Going back to the story of the Quran, we read that after God appoints Adam publicly, He teaches Adam all of the names and gives him all of His knowledge. So this messenger of God who stands on the door of God, guiding people towards God, has to be an infallible individual who knows all things. He must be able to answer any question posed to him by creation. There cannot be somebody who is the door of God and there are other people who are more knowledgeable than him. If that was the case, they would be more deserving to be the door of an all-knowing God.

"The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord." (The Bible: Isaiah 11:2)

Criteria 3: Supremacy of God

The messenger always calls towards the supremacy of God. Nobody can rule except for the person who is appointed by God. Because when that person appointed by God rules, it is God who rules. And since the time of Adam, God wanted to rule the earth through his vicegerent.

The vicegerent of God cannot promote a system of rule based on the right of birth, elections, or any other political method. He must uphold that it is God alone who appoints the ruler. Everyone actually agrees on this, and when they look at the examples of the prophets and messengers, they find that, from David and Solomon to Ezekiel and beyond — from the time of Adam until Mohammed — all of them affirmed that only God can rule, and only God can appoint a king, a messenger, or a vicegerent.

"When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses." (The Bible: Deuteronomy 17:14-15)

"They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction." (The Bible: Hosea 8:4)

"Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel.’" (The Bible: Samuel 7:8)

Who fullfills the criteria?

So those three laws are the standards by which a person, in an ocean of confusion, can identify whether they are on the right path or not. We find that Aba Al-Sadiq Abdullah Hashem is the only person on the entire planet who fulfills these criteria out of all the voices on the planet.

Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq and his predecessor, Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan, pointed to a narration that was written by his successor Imam Ali: the final will of Prophet Mohammed.

On the night of his passing, the Prophet wrote a will, naming his successors one by one. Leaving a will is an obligation on all Muslims.

"It is prescribed for you, when death approaches one of you, if he leaves wealth, that he should make a will for parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable — a duty upon the righteous." (Qur'an 2:180)

Prophet Mohammed had been a great prophet, and a man of great authority, who had united many Arab tribes, and there were over 140,000 Muslims under his political rule. It would be very strange for such a great ruler not to appoint a successor.

In fact, it would make his so-called companions Omar, Abu Bakr, and Osman—who were neither prophets nor divinely appointed— more intelligent than him. Abu Bakr, before his passing, appointed Omar, and Omar, before his passing, appointed a small committee of individuals to vote on who would be the successor after him. Each one of them appointed a ruler before their death, so that they would not leave the people in massive confusion—where one group would support one man, and another group would support another, leading to division and fighting. Each one of them said, "No, I will make sure that before I die, I appoint my successor in my will." So, if Abu Bakr was smart enough to do it, without even being in direct communication with God, and if Omar was smart enough to do it, without being in direct communication with God, then certainly Prophet Mohammed, who was in direct communication with God, must have done it. And indeed, he did.

But Prophet Mohammed left a will, and we find the proof for this in both Shia and Sunni narrations.

When the time of the death of the Prophet approached while there were some men in the house, the Prophet said, "Come near, I will write for you something after which you will never go astray." Some of them said, "The Prophet is seriously ill and you have the Qur'an; the Book of Allah is sufficient for us." The people in the house differed and disputed. Some of them said, "Come near so that the Prophet may write for you something after which you will not go astray," while the others said what 'Umar said, When they made much noise and differed greatly before the Prophet, he said to them, "Go away!" Ibn Abbas used to say, "It was a great disaster that their dispute and noise prevented the Messenger of Allah from writing that statement for them." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 59, Hadith 716)

Now, in this narration is a promise — and it is the same promise that God gave to creation when He appointed Adam: if you hold on to Adam, you will never go astray; if you hold on to Jesus, you will never go astray; if you hold on to Mohammed, you will never go astray.

When he was later with his close companions and his successor, Imam Ali, he instructed him to write the will. In it, the Prophet states that after him there will be twelve Imams and after them twelve Mahdis. He names them one by one, beginning with Imam Ali. He says that when death comes to Imam Ali, he should pass on the Imamate — the divine office — to Imam Hassan; and when death comes to Imam Hassan, he should pass it to Imam Hussain; and so on, from Imam to Imam until reaching the twelfth Imam. Then he said that when death comes to the twelfth Imam, he should pass it on to the first of the believers — and he names the names of the twelve Mahdis, at least the first three: Ahmed, Abdullah, and Mahdi.

Aba Al-Sadiq came forward claiming to be appointed in the will of Prophet Mohammed, which the Prophet Mohammed himself stated: "If you hold on to it, you’ll never go astray." As a believer searching for truth, I am compelled to submit to that claim because he came to me with a letter of appointment from Prophet Mohammed himself. If we were to say, “Oh, he might be lying; anyone could claim to be Abdullah,” then we undermine the very purpose of the letter. If we believe that anyone can falsely claim to be Abdullah, then this letter — which the Prophet Mohammed said would safeguard against misguidance — would no longer hold any value. If that’s the case, then the person who wrote it and claimed it would be a safeguard against misguidance cannot be a prophet. This casts doubt on the entire legitimacy of the process. Because now, if Abdullah Hashem can claim to be the Abdullah mentioned in the will but is not, what stops Mohammed from having claimed to be the one foretold by Jesus when he was not? What prevents Jesus from claiming to be the one prophesied by Isaiah when he was not? If that were the case, the whole foundation crumbles and turns into an ocean of confusion. There would be no way to know who is the truthful one and who is truly a messenger from God unless God Himself were to open up the skies and directly appoint someone.

Abdullah Hashem, after claiming to be the Abdullah in the will, challenged all the scholars of Islam, as well as the priests and preachers of Christianity and the rabbis of Judaism. He said, "I am more knowledgeable than the Jews regarding their Torah, more knowledgeable than the Christians regarding their Bible, and more knowledgeable than the Muslims regarding their Quran." He answered the people’s questions and wrote books that demonstrated this very fact, thus proving that he has divine knowledge.

At this point, we have proven that Abdullah Hashem fulfilled two of the three criteria. The third criteria is that he came with a banner — the banner of the supremacy of God. This means that rulership or kingship is solely for God. The only person who has the right to tell other creatures what to do is someone who has been appointed by the Almighty Creator, who created them. This is not a new system; it is the same system that existed from Adam’s time until now.

At the time of Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan’s emergence, all the other scholars were, for example, calling for elections or supporting various scholars and political candidates. But nobody on the planet was claiming to be a divinely appointed ruler, king, or messenger — and no one could back it up with a claim or a letter of appointment from the Holy Prophet or the one who sent them, demonstrating knowledge like Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan did. Today, Aba Al-Sadiq is the only one who continues this stance and openly calls for the Supremacy of God, just as his predecessor Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan did.

And that’s how you know which path to follow. If you adhere to this rule, which is clearly present in the scriptures of the three monotheistic world religions, there is no confusion regarding who is a true and who is a false prophet. It is very clear. Moreover, in all these years, no scholar has come forward to disprove this law.