The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 178
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI. Faithful ones, the Martyrs and the Righteous: and excellent companions these are. This is Allah's grace and Allah is AllComprehending. " (4:70-71). From this verse it is absolutely clear that those Muslims who obey Allah and His Prophet - the spiritual sons of the Prophet, will be blessed with spiritual favours by Allah (as in the past) and they will be raised to the spiritual status of Prophets, the Faithful, the Martyrs and the Righteous. It is clearly stated in this verse that the group 'on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy favours' include these four categories of people. . Your objection was that in verse (4:70) the Arabic word which has been translated as 'among' is 'Ma-aa' which means 'with'. I agree with this that literal meaning of 'ma-aa' is 'with' but in the. Arabic language it is also used in the meaning of 'Min' meaning 'among'. In fact this is the case in many languages. If we translate the above verse as you assert, it will be: "Who so obeys Allah and the Messenger shall be with those upon whom Allah has bestowed His favours, the Prophets, the. Faithfull ones, the Martyrs and the Righteous. ". You mean to say that Muslims who obey Allah and. Messenger shall be with Prophets but not be prophets. But you must note that word 'with' is not attached to prophets but rather to 'those upon whom Allah has bestowed His favours'. The whole group is meant. This verse does not mean that Muslims will only be with the favoured group but cannot be favoured ones. This is quite contrary to the meaning. This will also mean that they will be with the Faithful, with Martyrs and with the Righteous but will not be either of these. . On the contrary it is quite clear from the verse that favoured group. includes four categories and Muslims will be such a group, if they follow Allah and the Messenger. That is why we say that 'Ma-aa' has been used in sense of 'Min' (among). Such usage is common in Arabic idiom. . Even in English when we say, "Sen. Christopher Bond is with the Republicans', it means that Sen. Christopher Bond is a. Republican. 178