Elucidation of Objectives — Page 9
Taudih-e-Maram 9 permissible for the Messiah. It amounts, to rank disre- spect that we, with respect to the Holy Prophetsa, regard a merit as impossible for him to have, and about the same merit we believe that it is possible for the Messiah to have it. Can a true believer be guilty of such insolence? Absolutely not! It may also be pointed out that this sort of thinking, which has become endemic among the Muslims for quite some time, is conspicuous by its absence in the entire range of basic Islamic literature. The truth of the matter is that it is the failure to understand Ahadith that has led to this mis- taken belief, to which quite a few unwarranted details have been appended. To invest it with plausibility, some baseless decorative material has been added in utter disregard of the facts which would otherwise have shown the way to truth. In this regard, the most clear and crucial Hadith15 of the Holy Prophetsa is the one recorded by Hadrat Muhammad Ismail Bukhari in his collection the Sahih Bukhari. Hadrat Abu Hurairara16 reports that the Holy Prophetsa said: كَيْفَ أَنتُمْ إِذَا نَزَلَ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ فِيكُمْ وَإِمَامُكُمْ مِنْكُمْ 17 i. e. , (the Holy Prophet says:) how will it fare with you 15 A saying of the Holy Prophetas, The singular of Ahadith. [Translator] 16 ra, short for 'Radi Allah 'anhu', may Allah be pleased with him. [Transla- tor] 17 Bukhari, Kitabul Anbiya', Babu Nuzuli 'Isabni Maryama, Hadith No. 3449, published by Darus Salam, Riyad, 1997. [Translator]