Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 44
44 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION Meaning that: You were the pupil of my eye; Your death has left me blind; Now, after you I do not care whosoever dies; I feared only your death. In this verse Hassan bin Thabit has alluded to the death of all the Prophets. It is as if he is saying that we do not care whether Mūsā had died or ‘Īsā had died, our lament is only for this dear Prophet, who has departed from us this day and has become hidden from our eyes today. This indicates that some Companions also held this erroneous belief that, as it were, Hadrat Īsā would return to this world, but Hadrat Abu Bakr, Allah be pleased with him, removed this error by putting forth the verse: قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ. The first ijma' [consensus] in Islam was that all of the Prophets have died. Thus, this elegy shows that some of the Companions, who were less sagacious and did not have sound knowledge (such as Abū Hurairah), upon glancing at the prophecy about the coming of the promised Īsā, surmised, due to their erroneous judgment, that Ḥaḍrat ‘Īsā himself would return. Abū Hurairah initially held this misconception too, and Abu Hurairah frequently used to fall into such errors due to his sim- plicity and weak intellect. For instance, he was mistaken in this same way regarding a prophecy that a Companion would be cast into the fire. And his interpretation of the following verse was also distorted: 1. Verily, all Messengers have passed away before him (Surah Al-e-Imrān, 3:145). [Publisher]