Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 548
548 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION was but necessary that this should have been mentioned in the books of aḥadīth and history. For a certainty, therefore, it shows that after their death most of them were survived by their offspring and later in the course of time, in conformity with the prophecy, their lineal descent gradually petered out. Hence, the Quranic prophecy about the infidels of Quraish, namely: إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْابْتَرُ is exactly like the one I made regarding Sa'dullāh of Ludhiana on the basis of revelation of God Almighty and its fulfilment too will be sim- ilar. Let those who have ears that hear, listen! The translation of the remaining part of Lisanul-Arab is that the word [abtar] is applied also to a pauper and to a person suffering from loss, and also to implements like waterskins and leather buckets that are without a handle. All this shows that the term [abtar] is not exclusively meant to describe the condition of being without sons; rather [abtar] applies to every unfortunate and ineffectual one who is unsuccessful and ever in a state of loss. For instance, Sa'dullāh died in a state of frustration in achieving his schemes. He had certain plans against me which he absolutely failed to carry out. These will be discussed later. The foregoing investigation also proves that to be [abtar] one doesn't have to die a childless death. Even if his line of suc- cession is cut off after him and does not go beyond his grandson, even then he is called [abtar]. As it has been pointed out before, hun- dreds of the evil-minded Quraish had designated the Holy Prophetsa [abtar] and these people possessed offspring. Islamic history does not prove that their sons and grandsons had died in their own life- time. Rather, it was later that their line of succession was gradually 1. Surely, it is your enemy who is without issue (Surah al-Kauthar, 108:4). [Publisher]