"Can a wretched imposter who claims messengership and
prophethood for himself have any belief in the Holy Quran? And can a
man who believes in the Holy Quran, and believes the verse 'He is the
Messenger of Allah and the Khatam an-nabiyyin' to be the word
of God, say that he too is a messenger and prophet after the Holy Prophet
Muhammad?
"Anyone who is fair-minded should remember that I have never,
at any time, made a claim of nubuwwat or risalat [prophethood
or messengership] in the real sense. To use a word in a non-real sense,
and to employ it in speech according to its broad, root meaning, does
not imply heresy (kufr). However, I do
not like even this much, for there is the possibility that ordinary
Muslims may misunderstand it.
"However, by virtue of being appointed by God, I cannot conceal
those revelations I have received from Him in which the words nubuwwat
and risalat occur quite frequently. But I say repeatedly
that, in these revelations, the word mursal or rasul
or nabi which has occurred about me is not used in its real
sense. (Footnote: Such words have not occurred only now, but have
been present in my published revelations for sixteen years. So you
will find many such revelations about me in the book Barahin Ahmadiyya.)
The actual fact, to which I testify with the
highest testimony, is that our Holy Prophet, may peace and the blessings
of God be upon him, is the Khatam al-anbiya and after him no
prophet is to come, neither an old one nor a new one. ...
"But it must be remembered that, as we have explained here,
sometimes the revelation from God contains such
words about some of His saints in a metaphorical and figurative sense;
they are not meant by way of reality. This is the whole controversy
which the foolish, prejudiced people have dragged in a different direction.
The name 'prophet of God' for the Promised Messiah, which is to be
found in Sahih Muslim etc. from the blessed tongue of the Holy
Prophet, is meant in the same metaphorical sense as that in which
it occurs in Sufi literature as an accepted and common term for the
recipient of Divine communication. Otherwise, how
can there be a prophet after the Khatam al-anbiya?"
(Anjam Atham, footnote, pages 27 - 28, published January
1897)
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