Malfuzat - Volume IX — Page 421
19 September 1907 421 The Meaning of Tawaff i The Promised Messiah as said: Once three people came to me in Delhi and one of them said, ‘You claim that Jesus of Nazareth has passed away, and you are the awaited Messiah; you present the meaning of tawaff i as tak- ing the soul, whereas its meaning is also to fulfil. ’ And he recited the following line of a couplet in its support, ْ تُوَفّٰی کُل ُّ نَفْس ٍ مَا ضَـمِنَت [Every person is to be given in full what he is liable for]. I responded, ‘Being a maulaw i and a commentator, how can you say this? First tell me for what purpose or reason is this si ghah [tense or form] being used?’ He began saying that he had made a mistake. ( Tawaff i would means ‘to give in full measure’ when it appears in the morphological form Taf ‘ i l, and it means ‘to take away the soul’ when it appears in the morphological form Tafa‘ul. ) The Belief of Mir Kar a mat ‘Ali Khan of Delhi The Promised Messiah as said: This is a strange matter that he rejected me and made a Christian a messiah. It is hoped that it will be proven to be a frivolous prophecy. Otherwise, for a Muslim to declare such a person to be the messiah who worships a man and makes a man into God and believes in what amounts to kufr [disbelief ] in the eyes of the Muslims cannot be based on good intent. It appears only to be a jest and sport.