Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, a top-most
Qadiani, says: We dont preach Hazrat Mirzas
prophethood
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Mufti Muhammad Sadiq held a very high position in the Qadiani Movement.
In October 1910, before the Split and two years after the death
of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, when he was editor of the Ahmadiyya
newspaper Badr, he reported in this paper an account of
his meeting with the famous Muslim scholar Maulana Shibli. This
account is as follows:
Translation: |
Image of column from original newspaper: |
Shibli asked if we believe the late Mirza sahib to
be a prophet. I replied that our belief
in this respect was the same as that of other Muslims, viz.,
that the Holy Prophet Muhammad is the Khatam an-nabiyyin.
After him, no other prophet can come, neither new nor
old. However, the phenomenon of Divine revelation still
continues, but even that is through the agency of the Holy
Prophet. By receiving spiritual benefit from him, there have
been men among the Muslims who had the privilege of Divine
revelation, and in future too there shall be such. As Hazrat
Mirza sahib was also privileged with Divine revelation, and
in his revelations God gave him many news of the future as
prophecies, which were fulfilled, for this reason Mirza sahib
was one who made prophecies. Such a one is called nabi
in Arabic lexicology, and in Hadith too the coming Promised
Messiah is called nabi.
To this, Shibli replied that certainly according to the dictionary
meanings this can be so, and in the Arabic language this word
does have this meaning, but the ordinary people become perturbed
because they do not know this significance, and they raise
objections. I said that, with us, the question
of Mirza sahibs prophethood is not such that it is included
in the conditions of the Pledge (baiat), nor
is it required to be acknowledged when taking the Pledge,
nor do we go about preaching it. Our belief is what
we have explained above.
(Badr, 27 October 1910, page 9)
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The points to note in Mufti Muhammad Sadiqs statement are
the following:
- Ahmadis hold the same belief as other
Muslims, that no prophet, new or old, can come after the Holy
Prophet Muhammad.
- Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmads status was that he was one
of those men in Islam who receive Divine revelation. Such recipients
of revelation had existed in Islam before him and would come in
the future as well.
- The Pledge to join the Ahmadiyya Movement does
not mention that Hazrat Mirza sahib was a prophet, and
Ahmadis are not required to acknowledge
Hazrat Mirza sahibs prophethood when they enter the Ahmadiyya
Movement.
- Ahmadis do not go about preaching that
Hazrat Mirza sahib was a prophet.
This, then, was the belief publicly expressed by a top-most Qadiani
missionary and editor of the Ahmadiyya communitys newspaper,
two years after Hazrat Mirza sahibs death and four years before
the Split.
Quotes Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din in his support
Moreover, in the above article Mufti Muhammad Sadiq goes on to
quote a letter by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, then Head of the Ahmadiyya
Movement, in support of his explanation. He writes:
It seems appropriate at this point that I should
include in this paper a recent letter by Hazrat Khalifa-tul-Masih
[Maulana Nur-ud-Din] which he has written in reply to Sardar Muhammad
Ajab Khan, and made it a sworn statement.
That letter is as follows:
To cut open the heart and look into it, or make others
look into it, is beyond human power. If one relies on oaths, I
see no oath equal to: By Allah, the Great. Neither you
nor anyone else will accompany me after my death, except my faith
and deeds. As this matter will be presented before Allah Almighty,
I swear by Allah, the Great, by Whose leave heaven and earth
exist, I believe Mirza sahib to be the Mujaddid of
this century. I believe him to be righteous. I believe him to
be a slave of Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, and a sincere servant
of his Shariah. And Mirza too considered himself
to be a life-sacrificing slave of the Arabian Prophet, Muhammad
ibn Abdullah.
The dictionary meaning of the word nabi, we believe,
is one who gives news, having received knowledge beforehand from
Allah Almighty, not one who brings a shariah. Both
Mirza sahib and I consider any person who rejects even an iota
of the Holy Quran or the shariah of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad to be a kafir and an accursed one. This is my
belief, and this was also I consider the belief of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad sahib. If anyone rejects this, refuses to accept it, or
calls us hypocrites, his affair is with God. Nur-ur-Din,
in his own hand, 22 October 1910.
Here Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din mentions the claim of Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad as beingMujaddid of this century and
says that the word nabi is only applied to him in the dictionary
sense of this word. |