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146 With Love to Muhammad sa the Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn<br />

Lawgiver (Muhammad) used the phrase, “the brick<br />

(that completes) the house”, for that final stage. 144<br />

This quotation expresses the same understanding that the<br />

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamā‘at believes. Ahmadī Muslims believe<br />

that Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn distinguishes the Holy Prophet sa with<br />

the highest status of perfection, or the final stage. Ibn Khaldūn<br />

even goes on to say that the Messiah of the latter days will be<br />

the Khātam of the saints in the sense that he will be the best of<br />

the saints. Farhan Khan should re-read Ibn Khaldūn’s quotation<br />

without his pre-disposed belief of the “end of prophethood” to<br />

understand what Ibn Khaldūn is really saying.<br />

Fifth, Farhan Khan says, “...suppose the Ahmadī<br />

[Muslims] consider Ibn Khaldūn an authoritative figure and use<br />

his statements as proof of the interpretation of the hadīth. They<br />

conveniently fail to quote him when he says that from now until<br />

the end of time, there will be no more prophets.” 145 When an<br />

Ahmadī Muslim reads this, he is shocked at the extraordinary<br />

bias with which it has been written. Ahmadī Muslims do not<br />

quote Ibn Khaldūn’s quotation to show that he believed in the<br />

continuation of prophethood. They merely quote his position on<br />

the hadīth under discussion. They show that they are not alone<br />

in such an understanding of that hadīth and these interpretations<br />

belonged to previous scholars. Moreover, Ibn Khaldūn is<br />

quoted by Hazrat Mirzā Tāhir Ahmad rh in his book, Irfāne<br />

Khatme Nubuwwat, and it was written in response to a booklet<br />

144<br />

The Muqaddimah, translated by Franz Rosenthal, Chapter III, Part 51 – The<br />

Fatimid. The opinions of the people about him. The truth about the<br />

matter. Sufi opinions about the Mahdī<br />

(see:http://asadullahali.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/ibn_khaldunal_muqaddimah.pdf,<br />

pdf page 412, retrieved January 15, 2014)<br />

145<br />

Khan, With Love, Page 15

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