The Meaning of “…a Messenger Who Will Come After Me, Whose Name Is Ahmad”

Question

The request is this: today a Qadiani cast doubt into my iman. Arguing from several verses concerning the death of the Masih ﵇, he tried to prove his death. I paid no particular attention to the other verses, but because of one verse he put forward I have fallen into doubt, and that verse is this: [ar]وَمُبَشِّرًۢا بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِى مِنۢ بَعْدِى ٱسْمُهُۥٓ أَحْمَدُ[/ar] “…and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad” (Surah al-Saff, 61:6). His argument is that “after me” (بعدي)

Answer

“Min ba‘di” (“after me”) does not always mean “after my death”. A father, going away on a journey somewhere, leaves the instruction, “after me such-and-such is to be done” — the meaning is not “after my death”. A teacher goes out of the madrasa for a while and says to the students, “do not misbehave after me”. In a certain district there is a Collector (district head)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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