With-Love-to-Muhammad

146 With Love to Muhammad sa the Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn
Lawgiver (Muhammad) used the phrase, “the brick
(that completes) the house”, for that final stage. 144
This quotation expresses the same understanding that the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamā‘at believes. Ahmadī Muslims believe
that Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn distinguishes the Holy Prophet sa with
the highest status of perfection, or the final stage. Ibn Khaldūn
even goes on to say that the Messiah of the latter days will be
the Khātam of the saints in the sense that he will be the best of
the saints. Farhan Khan should re-read Ibn Khaldūn’s quotation
without his pre-disposed belief of the “end of prophethood” to
understand what Ibn Khaldūn is really saying.
Fifth, Farhan Khan says, “...suppose the Ahmadī
[Muslims] consider Ibn Khaldūn an authoritative figure and use
his statements as proof of the interpretation of the hadīth. They
conveniently fail to quote him when he says that from now until
the end of time, there will be no more prophets.” 145 When an
Ahmadī Muslim reads this, he is shocked at the extraordinary
bias with which it has been written. Ahmadī Muslims do not
quote Ibn Khaldūn’s quotation to show that he believed in the
continuation of prophethood. They merely quote his position on
the hadīth under discussion. They show that they are not alone
in such an understanding of that hadīth and these interpretations
belonged to previous scholars. Moreover, Ibn Khaldūn is
quoted by Hazrat Mirzā Tāhir Ahmad rh in his book, Irfāne
Khatme Nubuwwat, and it was written in response to a booklet
144
The Muqaddimah, translated by Franz Rosenthal, Chapter III, Part 51 – The
Fatimid. The opinions of the people about him. The truth about the
matter. Sufi opinions about the Mahdī
(see:http://asadullahali.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/ibn_khaldunal_muqaddimah.pdf,
pdf page 412, retrieved January 15, 2014)
145
Khan, With Love, Page 15