The Seal of the Wisdom of What One Turns to (as-Samad) in the Word of Khalid
As for the wisdom of Khalid ibn Sinan,1 by his call he manifested the prophethood of the interspace.1 He claimed that he would tell them about what happens after death. He commanded that he should be disinterred and questioned in order that he might report that the judgement in the Interspace occurs in the form of the life of this world. Thus it would be known that all the Messengers spoke the truth in what they related in this life regarding what happens after death. Khalid's goal was that all the world would believe in what the Messengers brought so that there would be mercy for all. He was honoured by his prophethood being near the time of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He knew that Allah had sent Muhammad as a mercy to the worlds, but Khalid was not a Messenger. He wanted to receive a generous share of this mercy contained in the message of Muhammad. He was not commanded to convey the message, but he wanted to have that share in the Interspace so that there would be stronger knowledge about the creation, and for this reason his people squandered him.
The Messenger of Allah described them as having squandered their Prophet because they did not do what he wanted them to do. Did Allah give him the reward for what he wanted? There is no doubt and no disagreement that he had the reward of what he wished, but there is doubt and disagreement about the reward of the goal. Is wishing for it the same in the Next World as its occurrence even though it did not occur or not? In the Shari'a, equality is not supported in many places – such as in the case of the one who performs the prayer in the group.2 The one who prays it in the group has a reward from the presence of the group. He is like the person who, in spite of poverty, desires to be able to give charity as the people of wealth and property do. He has the like of their rewards, but the like of their rewards can be in their intentions or their deeds. The people had both the intention and the action. The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not prescribe both of them, nor one of them, and outwardly they are not the same. For that reason, Khalid ibn Sinan sought the proclamation to confirm for him the station of joining both matters so that he would receive two rewards. Allah knows best.
1. Al-Qashani, the commentator, says that Khalid lived in Aden, and was a man of great himma who was overcome in the contemplation of divine unity. One day a great fire appeared from a cave among his people. It destroyed the crops and the livestock, and the people called on him to protect them from it. He struck the fire with his staff, saying, "Away! Away!" until it became cold and retreated to the cave. Then he told his people that he would enter the cave in order to extinguish the fire, and he told them to call him after three full days had passed. Should he call him before that, he would come out and die. If they were patient, he would emerge in good health.
They waited two days, and then Shaytan made them restless, and doubts came to them and they were afraid that he might have been destroyed. They shouted to him. He emerged from the cave with his hand on his head from the pain their shouting had caused him. He told them, "You have killed me and squandered my word and my covenant." He then told them of his death and commanded them to bury him and then watch for forty days. Then, he said, a flock of sheep led by a donkey with slit ears and its tail cut off would come to them. When it stood opposite his grave, they were to disinter him and he would rise and tell them of the true state of things after death from witnessing and vision so that all cretion would receive certainty as to what the Messenger related. Then he died and they buried him.
They waited until the forty days had passed. The flock of sheep came led by a donkey with slit ears. It stopped opposite his grave, so they understood that they should disinter Khalid as he had commanded them so that he might inform them as to the truth of the Prophets. Some of his older sons were adverse to that and said that it would shame them among the Arabs and that they would would be called, "the sons of the disinterred one." There was the vehemence of the Jahiliya in that. They squandered their legacy and detroyed him.
After the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was sent, a daughter of Khalid came to him, and he said to her, "Greetings to you, O daughter of a Prophet whose people squandered him!"
2. His prophethood did not appear in this world.