The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 197
The Messiah and his Second Coming 197 always been used in the connotation of death and taking possession of the soul. A minute study of Arabic prose and poetry-both ancient and modern-shows that wherever the expression Tawaffi is used for a human be- ing, and the action is attributed to Allah the Glorious, Tawaffi invariably means death and taking possession of the soul. In this context, there is not a single instance, where this expression means anything other than taking possession of the soul. Those who are wont to refer to lexicons like Qamūs, Șihah, Şarāḥ, etc. , have not found a single instance where, in the context that we have men- tioned, any other connotation has been attributed to the expression Tawaffi. There is not the slightest indication of the possibility of any other connotation. Then I studied the books of Hadith to discover whether the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) or his companions had on any occasion applied the expres- sion Tawaffi to a human being in any other connotation than that of death and taking possession of the soul. I had to labour hard in this search. What I discovered on checking every page of the compilations of Şahih Buk- hārī, Şahih Muslim, Tirmadhi, Ibn-e-Mājah, Abū Dāwūd, Nasa'ī, Dārimī, Mu'attā' and Sharh-us-Sunnah etc. , was that the expression Tawaffi has been used three hundred and forty six times, and in no single instance has it been used, either by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) or by his companions, to mean any- thing other than 'death', or 'taking possession of the soul'. I have gone through these books with great care line by line, and I can say that on each and every occa- sion the expression Tawaffi has been used only in the connotation of death or taking possession of the soul. A careful perusal of these books also establishes that, from