Truth about Khatm-e-Nabuwat — Page 82
to the Promised Messiah whose advent as a prophet has been foretold by him, the Holy Prophet clearly meant that a spiritual son of the Prophet can, in the- service of his religion, seeking light from his light as does the moon from 'the sun, attain prophet• hood. The prophethood of such a person is thus in no way derogatory to the status of the Holy Prophet and the significance of the tradition cS~ ~':/ "there is no prophet after me' is not belittled in any way, for, a branch is but an offshoot of the tree nor is the shadow apart from the substance. It will be appreciated that the view propounded above is a simple and straight answer to the super- ficial conflict in the traditions which is thus disposed of in a word by a slight change in our angle. Every tradition of the Holy Prophet thus turns into a balm for the heart and a source of inner satisfaction. Controversy is cut short. I am fully aware of the fact that the authenticity of these traditions has been the subject of unending argu- ment and there is plenty of room for polemics in this field ; but I do not want to enter into this controveny and am prepared, for the sake of argu• ment, to accept aJl the traditions under reference. I do believe that the Holy Prophet claimed that •there is no prophet after me,'' I also believe that the Holy Prophet claimed to be. the last Prophet. But I am not prepared to put such construction on these traditions as tend to contradict other traditions. I cannot interpret these traditions in a sense derogatory to the dignity of the Holy Prophet. In short, when accepting one category of traditions, I do equally credit the other group of tradition• which confirm that a disciple-prophet can appear after the• Holy Prophet following his foot- steps and that the Promised Messiah is a spiritual heir to the Holy Prophet and thus elevated to the dignity of Prophethoocl. I accept the traditions of 82