Truth Prevails — Page 40
( 40 ) and this was due to the incomplete current definition of Nabuwwat. But in his subsequent works, it is clear as daylight that there came a time, in view of a powerful stream of his Ilhams and Revelations, he was led to realise that he was in fact a Nabi , given the title of Nabi in the explicit words of God which now he no longer tried to water down in explanation that the term was applied to him in the sense af a Mohaddath , or a part Prophet, or an incomplete Prophethood. It has to be borne in mind, however, that even during the final phase of his new comprehension, he never took himself to be a Prophet with a new Law, a new Sharia. He never claimed to be an independent Prophet, insisting always that he was only a zilli or buruzi Nabi being perfect zill or image of his Master Prophet by devotedly following his Sharia and thereby gaining the title of Nabi through strong spiritual power of his Master Khatam-un- Nabiyyin. He realised that being an Ummati is no longer a hindrance in the path of being a perfect Nabi as he used to think it so in the past. Amendment in the Definition of Nabuwwat The reason for this amendment or alteration in the definition of Nabuwwat where he no longer interpreted Prophethood and Apostleship, Nabuwwat and Risalat , as used figuratively to mean only Mohaddathiat , or a partial, incomplete, was that prior to 1901, he took the prevailing concept of Nabuwwat as he found it current in his day, a specific term with a specific accepted meaning which contained an error at the base: “Since, in the terminology of Islam, a Prophet, or an Apostle, was one who brought a new and full Sharia ; or he abrogated certain portions of an old Sharia , or he was not himself an Ummati of an earlier Prophet, with Divine Communion his independent share, without being beholden to any previous Prophet. One has to remain vigilant that at this point (namely the question of his own Nabuwwat ) it is not to be taken and interpreted in terms of the old unwarranted concept. For we have no Scripture, except the Holy Quran; no Din , except Islam; and we hold a firm faith that our beloved Prophet and Master is Khatamul Anbiya , and the Holy Quran Khatamul Kutub ” (Maktubat, August 17, 1899) From this definition of Nabuwwat , it is evident he believed in those days that for a Nabi , for a Prophet, it was essential that he should be the bearer of a new Sharia , a New Law; or that, at least, he should not be an Ummati of some earlier prophet with a link with Allah for which he should not be beholden to any mediary teacher. Since this prevailing conception in regard to Nabuwwat did not apply to him, he refrained from saying that he was a Nabi. When he found the expression applied to him, in his own Ilhams , in Revelations he received from Allah, he modestly refrained from taking them in technical sense as mentioned above, he interpreted them to mean that he was in fact a Mohaddath , only figuratively called a Nabi, only a part Prophet. Even in those