Hazrat Mir Muhammad Ismail (ra) — Page 2
2 al - Jumu’ah , these two most fortunate categories of humans, have been mentioned as the Ummiyyīn 1 [um - mee - yeen] and the Ākharīn 2 [aa - kha - reen] respectively. T he Arabic expression “ Ummiyyīn ” , literally , means the "unlettered people" and refers broadly to the admittedly unlettered Arab people among whom the Holy Prophet Muhammad s as appeared and lived. This is not, as could easily be mistaken for , a pejorative ter m. On the contrary, this term best describes a people not given to the artificial and pretentious refinement of what is generally known as “culture ” , h ence, the expression “unlettered”. This, in other words, is the title given t o those desert - dwellers who were blessed with the rarest honour of living in the physi cal presence of the Holy Prophet Muhammad s as. In short , " Ummiyyīn " refers to the Companions of the Holy Prophet or S a h ā ba h [sa - haa - ba] , as they are customarily called. Regarding the other group, the Ākharīn , or "the latter ones", Allah says, " And a latter group from among them" 3 , referring in a prophetic tone , to a foretold group of believers - the "saints of the latter days" - who in spite of not having shared the time and space of the Ho ly Prophet s as with him in the physical sense , were by the will of God , destined to be blessed by him in a n indirect manner. W e learn from the Holy Qur’ān a s well as from the s ayings of the Holy Prophet s as that this foretold party of the faithful, w as destined to inherit the Holy Prophet's spiritual blessings through the medium and agency of a foretold religious guide, mentioned in the prophecies as t he Imam Mahdī - meaning the "Guided Leader ”. The Holy Prophet s as had very clearly forewarned his professed followers - the Muslim Ummah - that after him,