The Reality of Khilafah — Page 156
156 SIRRUL-KHILAFAH-THE REALITY OF KHILAFAH man, in the verse فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيتَنِي fa lamma tawaffaitani—'but since You did cause me to die']. ¹ Would it be fair to say that the true connotation of the words applied to Jesus but not to the Holy Prophet, may peace and bless- ings of Allah be upon him, and that the Holy Prophetsas did not partake in the true meaning of the word tawaffi that was in accord with God's will, viz. 'being physically raised to heaven'; and that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, changed its meaning so that when it applied to him it had 1. Şahih al-Bukhārī, Kitāb Aḥādīth al-Anbiyā' Hadith 3349. [Publisher] 2. Some ignorant people say that the word كما ]kamāmeaning, like or sim- ilar to] in the statement of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, indicates that there should be some difference in the application of the word توفى ]tawaffi-death] depending on wheth- er it applies to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, or to Jesusas. Unfortunately, these ignorant people do not realize that while there may be some dissimilarity in the events that are likened to one another, there can be no difference in the actual meaning of the words. For example, someone may say, 'I ate bread just like Zaid ate bread. Although there may be differences in the way the bread was eaten or in its quality, there can be no difference regarding the word 'bread' which is the particular object in this sentence. Bread cannot be taken to mean bread in one instance and stone in another. There can be no disparity when it comes to the meaning of words. There is a sim- ilar saying of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, recorded by Ibn Taymiyyah in Zād al-Maʻād, on page 415, and it is as follows: The Holy Prophet said, يَا مَعْشَرَ قُرَيْشٍ مَا تَرَوْنَ ]‘O people of Quraish, what do you expect from me?'] They said, 'Only goodness, O honourable brother and honourable nephew. ] He said, 'I say to you as Yūsuf said to his brothers, 'No blame shall lie on you this day. Go, for you are free. You can see that the word tathrib has the same connota- tion in the statement of the Holy Prophetsas as in that of Hadrat Yūsuf [Joseph]. -Author