Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 557
EPILOGUE-SIGNS 557 all these manifold regrets and frustrations in his heart with him to the grave. This is a point worthy of great attention for the just-minded people that these parallel prophecies were by way of a mubāhalah. In other words, he had given the news that I would die and he thought it would be a death of extreme frustration and that it would take place in his own lifetime. And he used to pray for my death with great fervour and he was sure that this is what would happen. On the other hand, four years after his prophecy [about my death] God informed me that he would indeed die an ignominious death in my own lifetime, and that his death would be caused by a certain kind of plague. And I, for my part, used to pray for his death in order that my prophecy may be fulfilled. In the end, God proved me right and in conformity with my prophecy, he died in the first week of January, during my own lifetime. And who is there who can gauge the manifold frustration and humili- ation with which he died? Is this humiliation and disgrace not enough that he died leaving behind him the very person whose death he had sought and publicly prophesied, and witnessing hundreds of thousands of people following this person? As for the Jama'at whose destruction and extinction he had prophesied—he died having seen its extraordi- nary and miraculous progress with his own eyes. But that was not all. He used to pray very fervently that he would live to see a great number of his progeny in contravention to the revelation: إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْاَ بْتَرُ [It is not you but your slanderer who shall be issueless. ] But in fact his offspring continued to die at birth. This was indeed a heart-rending pain which he experienced again and again. In fact no son was born to him after the revelation: إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْاَ بْتَرُ [It is not you but your slanderer who shall be issueless. ]