Nubuwwat & Khilafat Prophethood & its Successorship — Page 30
N UBUWWAT AND K HIL A FAT 30 realise that God did not design that the blessings of khil a fat to be limited to thirty years after the death of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and that, thereafter the world may go to ruin. … ( Ibid. , p. 353–354) Specific Sayings After these statements of general applicability, I will now offer statements which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the chain of khil a fat was destined to remain unbroken after the Promised Messiah as and that this khil a fat would be personal and would be patterned after the righteous khulaf a’ who followed the Holy Prophet sa. 1) In H am a mat-ul-Bushr a , the Promised Messiah as has narrated a h ad i th of the Holy Prophet sa and has written: Then the Promised Messiah or one of his khulaf a’ would travel towards Damascus. ( R uhani Khaz a ’in , vol. 7, p. 225) By writing this, the Promised Messiah as has made two very clear statements in favour of khil a fat : One, that the Holy Prophet sa has promised that the Promised Messiah as would be followed by khulaf a’ , one of whom would travel to Damascus; second, he accepted the applicability of this h ad i th to himself and thus— fifteen years before his demise—he declared that he would be followed by several khulaf a’ , one of whom would travel to Damascus. 2) Shortly before his demise, the Promised Messiah as wrote al-Wa s iyyat. In it he writes: He lets them sow the seed of it [the truth], but He does not let it come to full fruition at their hands. Rather He causes them to die at such time as apparently forebodes a