Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 546
546 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION This verse was revealed about 'Ãs bin Wa'il when he came across the Holy Prophets who was sitting [somewhere]. Pointing at the Holy Prophets, he said, ‘He is [abtar]', meaning that he has no son or a son's son. At this, addressing the Holy Prophetsa, God Almighty said, ‘O Muḥammad, your detractor is in fact the one who is [abtar]. ' In other words, it has been so ordained that the progeny, of which he is so proud, shall be destroyed, in his own lifetime or soon after his death, and his lineal succession will be cut off. It is quite clear that ‘Āṣ bin Wa'il had children at that time. For, if he himself had been [abtar-without an heir], it would have been baseless on his part to abuse the Holy Prophets as [abtar]. In short, it was a prophecy of God that his bloodline would be cut off in his own lifetime or thereafter. In fact, this was exactly what happened. It seems that he did leave some offspring behind who were wiped out after his death. Had his progeny died in his own lifetime it would certainly have been mentioned. The translation of the remaining part [of the definition in Lisānul- Arab] is that here the term [abtar] can also be legitimately translated to mean one who is deprived of all that is good and is unfortunate. Furthermore, according to a hadith reported by Ibn-e-'Abbās, when Ibn-e-Ashraf came to Makkah, the Quraish said to him, 'You are the best of the Medinites and their chief'; he replied, 'Yes, I am exactly that. At this the Quraish replied: 'Don't you see that this man’— meaning the Holy Prophetsª—‘is weak, frail, and unimportant? He has no son, no brother; nor is he accompanied by any group of friends. He is alone, single-handed and cut off by his people who, on account of their religious hostility, have expelled him from their community and issued the edict that no one should interact with him or show any sympathy to him; and despite the fact that this man is neither held in any esteem nor does anyone know who he is, he still believes that he is better than us. But we are an honourable group of people, all those who have performed the Pilgrimage are from among us; we are their chiefs and we are the custodians of the Ka'bah and those responsible for its