Why Hazrat Yahya was killed, why he was beheaded, whereas we go and present to the people, we say according to the ayat below, a prophet must live a maternal life, I mean he shouldn’t be… Yes, I understand the point. The fact is that the translation of lau taqawwala alaina ba’adhu laqawi laa qazna minhu bilyameen thumma laa qatana minhu alwateen The translation of this verse, particularly the part, thumma laa qatana minhu alwateen, is made too literally, while in reality it cannot be translated literally, because then in every case the jugular vein will have to be cut by God, and somebody would have to be taken by the hand, literally by the right hand.
So obviously these are Arabic idioms and they should be translated accordingly. Moreover, it is an accepted principle that if one verse of the Holy Quran is to be correctly translated, it should agree with the rest of the Holy Quran and should not, that translation, and should not contradict any part or verse of the Holy Quran, otherwise the translation is wrong. So if by this you translate, by this verse you translate, as Allah has promised that whoever makes a false claim of prophethood, attributes something to God, which Allah has not said, then Allah would certainly murder him, if that is the translation.
Then how would you translate the verse which pertains to the Holy Prophet, and it says, the word khala has been translated as ordinary death or murder, even if the murder of the Holy Prophet could not mean that he was a false prophet, because the following part is, did you have a right to renegade and to turn your backs against Islam? That was shown that even if the Holy Prophet had been murdered, the enemies of Islam, the Muslims had no right to turn their backs to Islam and say he is a false prophet. The murder of a prophet is not at all against the truth of that prophet, is not an argument against the truth of that prophet.
Similarly, the Holy Quran repeatedly tells us of many prophets who were murdered at the hand of the Jews, so that being so, that this verse should be translated, the verse in question, in accordance with these statements of the Holy Quran. So laqatana minhul wateen should not be translated as we would have killed him, but it should have been translated as we would have destroyed him, and this is exactly what the meaning of the verse is. When you cut the jugular vein, you totally destroy the signs of life, I mean there’s no possibility left, it is a complete and total destruction of the man.
So here it means that if anyone makes a false claim, Allah would see to it that he is destroyed, he is uprooted, he is annihilated. This is the translation which should be acceptable in the light of other verses of the Holy Quran. So Hazrat Yahya, if murdered, there is nothing strange about it. In reality, prophets before Hazrat Yahya had been murdered, and murdering of a prophet is not a sign of his falsehood. That is one way of looking at this problem. There is another way from the religious point of view. Here Allah says laqatana minhul bil yameen, we will destroy him, we will kill him.
And on the other hand, it is nowhere denied that the enemies of the prophets cannot kill them. The subjects are different in both these cases. On the one hand, prophets are opposed by the ordinary people, and they sometimes succeed in killing prophets. But it is not Allah who destroys them. Here Allah says I will do it, that means that Allah will also make a distinction in this regard. Allah will see to it that such a person is really destroyed and is exposed as well.
So in case of Duri for instance, although he was not murdered, but when he was destroyed by Allah, his own people abandoned him, he was deserted by all friends and foes alike, his name was tarnished, he had to accept in so many words that he was not the son of the so-called father of his, but his mother was a wanton woman, and this statement he submitted before a court of law. So all these things are the signs that it is Allah who is doing it. If just a chance murder occurs, nobody can say that this is Allah’s doing. But if the whole surrounding turns against somebody, and signs appear frequently, and they encompass the person from all sides until he has no way out, this is the punishment of Allah which has been described here.
Otherwise catching by the right hand doesn’t mean anything. Catching by the right hand in reality means that his power will be destroyed, he will not be permitted to run away. So this phenomena occurs when really the punishment comes from Allah, and it should not be confused with an ordinary chance murder of a prophet at the hand of the enemy.
This actually is the failure of the mission of a prophet. Not just the failure, but failure in a strong way, where one can see and witness the wrath of Allah falling upon such a person. That is, if he is a conscious liar, if he is in control of his senses and so on, then it should happen. This shouldn’t happen to every madman who claims to be a prophet.
