Our Sole Aim is the Service of Islam
by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam)
The Light (Pakistan), 24th February 1982 Issue (Vol. 62, No. 10, p. 2)
Let this fact be remembered that Almighty God has terminated all kinds of Prophethood and Apostleship after the Holy Quran and the personality of the Last Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Let this also be remembered that we have come in this world and have been sent only as a servant of the Faith of Islam and not in order to forsake the Islamic faith by coining another one. Let then everyone safeguard himself from the devil’s insinuation and let him evince a sincere love for Islam, never forgetting the true glory of the Holy Prophet, may peace be on him. In all sincerity and truth, we are only servants of the faith of Islam and this is the sole aim of our advent.
However, the words prophet and apostle used in respect to us are meant only in a metaphorical and figurative sense; because in the Arabic lexicology apostleship implies being sent, while prophethood means divulgence of future secrets from God as well as to reveal deep secrets and profound spiritual mysteries of faith. Keeping well this much in mind, therefore it may be permissible to use them in these restricted significance. But in the Islamic terminology, these words, Prophet and Apostle, applicable only to a person who brings a complete code of Shariat or to one who annuls some of the previous orders or to one who reckons himself not as a follower of a previous prophet or still yet to one who claims direct communion with God without the intervention of another prophet. Hence, it should be clearly distinguished as not to take such a meaning here in this case. Because we have no other Book besides the Holy Quran, we have no other faith except Islam to follow, and we do believe in the fundamental principles of Islam, i.e., the Finality of Prophethood with our Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the last of the Books, the Holy Quran.
It is important hence to remember that true Faith of Islam may not be made a plaything in the hands of children. We entertain no other claim for us contrary to being true servants of the Faith of Islam. Whosoever therefore ascribes any higher claim besides it, on our part, attributes a false claim to us. We are recipients of spiritual beneficence only through the medium of our Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and acquire spiritual lore and learning only through the Holy Quran. Hence it is of utmost importance that none should entertain any other belief beside it in his heart; otherwise he himself would be accountable for the same before God.
If we are not servants of the Faith of Islam, then all our endeavours are bound to be ineffectual, rejected and fruitless and we would be responsible to God for the same (Al-Hakm, 1899).