The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 62
PREFACE 61 the same- -that the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had also been raised alive to the heavens—then I would not have any regret about them. But look at their insolence and imperti- nence, that wherever the word[tawaffi] occurs in the Noble Quran with reference to our Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, they take it to mean death, but then, when the same word is used with respect to the Messiah, they say it means to be raised alive. None of them notices that the word is exactly the same. They go on believing the account of one another like the blind. By mentioning this word twenty-five times in His Book—the Noble Quran-God Almighty has made it manifestly clear that its meaning is 'seizing the soul' and nothing else. Up till now, these people have continued to interpret this word in an altogether different sense when applied to the Messiah (as), as if to say that the meaning of for the entire world is simply 'to seize the soul', but for the Son of Mary its meaning is 'to be raised alive. If this course is not an endorsement of shirk, then what else is it! On the one hand, the unworthy and bigoted Christians abuse our Chief and Master overtly and openly and deem the Messiah to belong to the heavens, and our Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to belong to the earth; while on the other hand, these ulema are helping them in these precarious times by accepting their polytheis- tic notions of the Christians. I wish that these people would set aside their prejudices for a min- ute and simply reflect on what shirk [associating partners with God] is: what its essence is, and what are its origins and prerequisites. It would then quickly dawn upon them that allowing the association of anyone in God Almighty's person, attributes, words or works, or in His right to be worshipped-be it equally or to a somewhat lesser degree—is precisely the shirk that will never be forgiven. The prerequisites which give rise to shirk consist of any individual being ascribed any such qual- ity regarding his person, attributes, or works which are never found in his kind neither in his own right nor by way of reflection. Now, if we suppose that a particular person is, so to speak, unique