|
list
|
..
|
Chapter
9:
Not a Prophet
Links
present on this page:
His
Claim Misunderstood
|| Denial
of Prophethood
||
His Claim
Misunderstood
Every great man has been
misunderstood to a certain extent, and so has Ahmad. The
most serious of these misunderstandings is that which states
that he claimed to be a prophet. This charge was laid
against him by his opponents when he first claimed to be the
Promised Messiah, and a section of his followers, the
Qadianis, have now joined hands with them in bringing
discredit upon his movement. We have already noted, while
discussing his claims, that he claimed to be a
mujaddid in 1882, and that his claim to Promised
Messiahship was advanced in 1891. It was on the occasion of
the latter claim that he was charged by his opponents with
laying claim to prophethood, and he forthwith denounced that
as a false charge, declaring definitely and unmistakenly
that he had never claimed to be a prophet, that he believed
in the Holy Prophet Muhammad as the final Prophet, and that
he looked upon any claimant to prophethood after him as a
liar. A few quotations from his writings have already been
given. After reading those statements, no one can honestly
attribute to him a claim to prophethood.
How then did the misunderstanding
arise? When Ahmad laid claim to Promised Messiahship on the
ground of his being the like of Jesus Christ, an objection
was brought forward that Jesus Christ was a prophet and that
none but a prophet could be his like. The following answer
to this objection is met with in the first book in which a
claim to Promised Messiahship is advanced:
"Here, if it be objected that
the like of Christ must also be a prophet because Christ
was a prophet, the reply to this in the first place is
that our Lord and Master has not laid it down that the
coming Messiah shall be a prophet; nay, he has made it
clear that he shall be a Muslim and shall be bound by the
law of Islam like ordinary Muslims . . . Besides this,
there is no doubt that I have come as a muhaddath
from God, and muhaddath is, in one sense, a
prophet, though he does not possess perfect prophethood;
but still he is partially a prophet, for he is endowed
with the gift of being spoken to by God, matters relating
to the unseen are revealed to him, and, like the
revelation of prophets and apostles, his revelation is
kept free from the interference of the devil, and the
kernel of the law is disclosed to him, and he is
commissioned just like the prophets, and like prophets it
is incumbent on him that he should announce his claim at
the top of his voice." (Tauzih Maram, pp.
9-10)
Denial of
Prophethood
It should be borne in mind
that in the terminology of the Islamic law a
muhaddath is a righteous person who is not a prophet
but who is spoken to by God. When confronted with the
objection that he claimed to be the like of Christ but that
Christ was a prophet, and therefore his like must also be a
prophet, Ahmad offered the above explanation, the gist of
which is that he was a muhaddath and that the
muhaddath was, in one sense, a prophet, though his
prophethood was partial and not perfect. It was this
statement which was misinterpreted by his opponents as a
claim to prophethood, and, on this basis, he was denounced
as a kafir or heretic. To remove the
misunderstanding, he emphatically denied again and again
that he was a claimant to prophethood and emphasised that he
claimed to be only a muhaddath:
"I make a public declaration
in this house of God, the mosque, that I believe in the
finality of prophethood of the Last of the Prophets (may
peace and the blessings of God be upon him), and that I
consider the person who denies the finality of
prophethood to be a faithless man and one outside the
pale of Islam." (Manifesto, copied in Din al-Haq,
p.29)
"I have laid no claim to
prophethood; my claim is to be a muhaddath, and
this I have made by Divine command. There is no doubt
that muhaddathiyya also contains a strong part of
prophethood . . .
"If, then, this be called
prophethood metaphorically, or be regarded as a strong
part of prophethood, does it amount to claim to
prophethood?" (Izala Auham, pp.
421-422)
"Be it known to all Muslims that
all such words as occur in my writings . . . to this
effect, that the muhaddath is, in one sense, a
prophet, or that muhaddathiyya is a partial
prophethood or imperfect prophethood, all these words are
not to be taken in their proper (technical) sense, but
they have been used merely in their literal significance
. . . Therefore, I have not the least hesitation in
stating my meaning in another form for the conciliation
of my Muslim brethren, and that other form is that,
wherever the word nabi (prophet) is used in my
writings, it should be taken as meaning muhaddath,
and the word nabi (prophet) should be regarded as
having been blotted out." (Manifesto, dated
3rd February, 1892)
"One of the objections of those who
call me a kafir is that I lay claim to prophethood
and say that I am a prophet. The reply to this is that it
should be known that I have not laid claim to
prophethood, nor have I said that I am a prophet, but
these people have made haste to make a mistake in
understanding my words . . . I have said naught to these
people except what I have written in my books, that I am
a muhaddath and that God speaks to me as He speaks
to a muhaddath . . . and what right have I that I
should lay claim to prophethood and get out of the pale
of Islam?" (Hamamat al-Bushra, p. 81)
"These people have not understood
my words and they say that I am a claimant to
prophethood, and this allegation of theirs is a clear
lie." (Ibid)
These are only a few of the numerous
statements made by Hazrat Ahmad clearly denying any claim to
prophethood. It is further explained in these statements
that, when he called the muhaddath "in one sense a
prophet", he was using the word "prophet" in a literal
sense, not in its proper or technical sense, and this is
also called a metaphorical use of the word. It was the
height of folly on the part of his opponents, and no less is
it on the part of his followers belonging to the Qadian
section, to take the word in a real sense when the person
who uses it expressly states it to have been used in a
metaphorical sense. This position he maintained to the last.
Thus, in one of his last writings, the Haqiqat
al-Wahy, published less than a year before his death, he
wrote:
"This servant does not say
aught by what the Holy Prophet said, and he does not go a
single step out of his guidance; and he says that God has
called him a prophet by His revelation, and I have been
called so by the tongue of our Messenger, Mustafa; and he
means naught by prophethood but that he is frequently
spoken to by God . . . and we do not mean by prophethood
what is meant by it in the former Scriptures."
(Haqiqat al-Wahy, Supplement, p. 16)
"And God does not mean by my
prophethood anything but being frequently spoken to by
Him, and the curse of God is on him who intends aught
more than this . . . and our Messenger is the last of the
prophets and the chain of messengers has come to an end
in him . . . and nothing remains after him but being
frequently spoken to by God, and that, too, on condition
of being a follower of his . . . and I have been called a
prophet of God in a metaphorical sense, not in the real
sense." (Ibid., pp. 64-65)
These few quotations should set all
doubts at rest with regard to Ahmad’s alleged claim to
prophethood. He claimed to be only a muhaddath, but,
as the word nabi (prophet) occurred in some of his
revelations, as also in a hadith of the Holy Prophet in
relation to the coming Messiah, he explained that it was
used metaphorically, not in the real sense of the word, and
that metaphorically a muhaddath could be called a
prophet because he was spoken to by God. Therefore, wherever
he used the word "prophet" regarding himself, it was in a
metaphorical sense. Never did he mean by it that he was a
prophet in the real sense of the word, but only that he was
spoken to by God; and that God speaks to His servants in
this umma is a fact generally admitted by all
Muslims.
Top
footer
|
'E-mail'
this page to a friend!
|
E-mail
Us!
This website is designed,
developed and maintained by the members of:
The Lahore
Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of
Islam
(Ahmadiyya
Anjuman Isha'at-e-Islam, Lahore
-- A.A.I.I.L.)
and is being managed in the Netherlands.
The responsibility of the content
of this website lies with the respective
authors
You may print-out and spread this
literature for the propagation of Islam provided our website
[aaiil.org]
is acknowledged
|
