True Insights into the Concept of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat — Page 85
A Review of the Pakistani Government’s “White Paper”: Qadiyaniyyat—A Grave Threat to Islam [ 85 ] that these people would appear in the distant future— when darkness and ignorance would be prevailing—not in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet sa. In responding to the question, the Holy Prophet sa put his hand on the shoulder of Salm a n ra —the only non-Arab in audience—and not upon the shoulder of any Arab, and said: If faith were to go up to the Pleiades some perfect men, or man, from these [people of Salm a n] would surely find it. ( S a hih al-Bukh ari Kit a but-Tafs i r, S u rah Jumu‘ah ) This answer by the Holy Prophet sa is most profound. The Holy Prophet sa is obviously talking about a distant time. During his lifetime such a loss of faith could not occur. He himself indicated that he is a sun of such brilliance that the glow of his spiritual light would continue for three centu- ries and people will continue to benefit from it. Thereafter a process of decline and darkness would set in. No one would be able to dispel it. Faith would have evaporated to the stars. How can the people of the time of the Holy Prophet sa be called ‘People of the Latter Days?’ Obviously this phenomenon belongs to distant future—the time about which the “Thinker of Islam” has said: