Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 550
550 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION be your maligner who shall remain [abtar]. So now we should see what the end result of this prophecy was! It is quite evident that the result was that the ill-fated Sa'dullah became the target of wrath and anger, and became [abtar] in every meaning attached to the word in the lexicons. He was frustrated and thwarted in his designs, which is one meaning of the term [abtar] and I have just written out this meaning. Secondly, this meaning also proved true in his case that, in the end, he took up employment under Christian missionaries who are ever busy trying to malign the reli- gion of Islam and thus he opted for a life of humiliation and became deprived of the goodness and blessing which is the lot of anyone who honours Islam. This was the consequence of his dedicated opposition against truth out of sheer mischief and mundane motives. Therefore, he suffered the regression that he did not accept the yoke of obedience to me, but accepted the yoke of obedience to the Christian missionaries. Thus, in this sense also he is adjudged to be [abtar]. Furthermore, as I have already stated, he also became [abtar] in the sense that, from the moment that God pronounced about him: إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْاَ بْتَرُ [It is not you but your slanderer who shall be issueless. ] Allah the Exalted put a seal on his wife's womb. This revelation was communicated to him in very clear words that from now until death no children would be born to your household; nor shall your lineal succession continue afterward. For a certainty, he must have tried very hard to have children to fal- sify this revelation; but all these efforts were to no avail, and in the end he died in frustration with every meaning of [abtar] proving true about him. While on the other hand he repeatedly supplicated against me, that this man is an impostor, he shall perish, his progeny too will die, and his Jamā'at will disintegrate, but the result of it was that three sons were born in my household after receiving this revelation: