Truth about Khatm-e-Nabuwat — Page 85
Xerxes after the death of the present Xerxes. "1 In the above tradition the expressions Caesar and Xerxes have been used in a general sense apparently and no qualification of a restrictive nature have bten affixed. For, the Caesar and Xerxes under reference were after their death succeeded by others ; in fact the Caesars continued to rule for a peripd of over. five to six hundred years. Scholars are agreed that when the Holy Prophet made the statement that there will be no Caesar nor Xerxes after the death of the ones ruling at the time he only meant that there will not be one equal to them in great- ness and grandeur or in vastness of dominion. It was precisely in the same sense that the Holy Prophet said "there will be no prophet after me' ; he simply meant that there shall not be a prophet after him. with a new law or recipient of office independent of him. He did not mean to say that there would· be absolutely no prophet after hiin. In a manner of speaking he elaborated the mean- ing of his statement "~~ ~ '1" ("there is no prophet after me"). Thus, as the latter statement meant that there shall be no greater Caesar after the death of the present one, ''so shall there be no prophet bearing a law and holding office inde- pendent of me after my commission". This is too evident to leave any room for doubt. Besides, the word (IS~) commonly translated as "after me") deserves to be particularly examined. It must be. noted in this connection that the expression (~) (after) is used in Arabic language in the following three different senses : (1) Indicative of place. In one sense '. I. at' (after) would mean behind, as for instance, in respect of a house being behind(~) another house. • (2) In another sense, used idiomaticall),, the word 1. Bukhari Kitab ,,,. /. Jman wa AI-Na:oor. 85