With-Love-to-Muhammad

22 With Love to Muhammad sa the Khātam-un-NabiyyīnIf the root-letters meant attestation or authentication, tomake it mean most attested, most authenticated, ofhighest quality or best, اخْ‏ تَمُ‏ [akhtamu] should have beenused...” 7The above quotion exposes Farhan Khan’s pitiable knowledgeof Arabic grammar and its linguistic structure. We are replyingto this argument only for the benefit of those unfamiliar with thebasics of Arabic; otherwise, anyone with rudimentaryknowledge would be aware that this is not how the meaningBest of the prophets is derived from the phrase Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn.We Ahmadī Muslims translate Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn as Seal ofthe prophets based on the primary and fundamental meaning ofthe word khātam, as stated in the dictionaries. We alsounderstand the phrase to mean Best of the Prophets, based uponthe derived connotation and idiomatic usage of the wordkhātam. When the word khātam comes as اف (Mudāf orPossessed) of a group of people ‏–‏افaاہ)‏ Mudāf Ilaih), then theidiomatic meaning of the phrase is best of the group. This idiomaticapplication of the word khātam is actually derived from, and alogical result of, the primary meaning “seal”. The one who is the“Seal of the prophets” is, quite obviously, also the best amongthem.The Arabic “lesson” that Farhan Khan has tried to give in hischapter, quite sadly, reveals how unqualified he is to giveArabic lessons! If the native Arabs customarily use the wordkhātam in a phrase to idiomatically convey the meaning of “thebest,” then who is Farhan Khan – or anyone else for that matter– to contradict them? Who is he to question the idiomatic usage7Khan, With Love, Page 63