Friday Sermon: Stumbling Block to the Finality of Prophethood

“Do not identify yourself with those who promote the killing of innocent believers or innocent human beings. Don’t believe that that is the way to protect the honour of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Promote the idea of the Ahmadiyya Movement — that Islam is a religion of peace, not hostility.”

اَلۡیَوۡمَ یَئِسَ الَّذِیۡنَ کَفَرُوۡا مِنۡ دِیۡنِکُمۡ فَلَا تَخۡشَوۡہُمۡ وَ اخۡشَوۡنِ ؕ اَلۡیَوۡمَ اَکۡمَلۡتُ لَکُمۡ دِیۡنَکُمۡ وَ اَتۡمَمۡتُ عَلَیۡکُمۡ نِعۡمَتِیۡ وَ رَضِیۡتُ لَکُمُ الۡاِسۡلَامَ دِیۡنًا ؕ

I have read a quite well-known verse of the Quran, taken from Chapter 5, verse 3, and I translate it as follows:

“Nowadays, those who fail to make use of your religion are without hope. But don’t mind them. Care about Me. Nowadays, I have finalised for you your way of living, perfected My favour on you, and selected for you Islam as a way of life.”

I am a Muslim. I belong to the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam of the Lahore section.

Not a Muslim:

At the beginning of every lecture, every sermon that I give, I testify that there is One, and only One God — Allah — and that Muhammad (pbuh) is the last and the final messenger of Allah, after whom no prophet — old or new — will come. But I’m told that I’m not a Muslim. If this is so, then how can I become a Muslim?

It is said, Well, you have to believe in One God. But I already believe in One God. I testify to the Oneness of God. I already do that.

It is said you have to accept Muhammad as the Last Prophet. I also do that. I testify that Muhammad is the last prophet, and more so, that no prophet, whether old or new, will come after him.

But then I’m told that I have to proclaim Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, as a kafir or unbeliever, disbeliever.

But this was never a requirement by the Quran or by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him). Is this the introduction of a new Kalimah [pronouncement of faith]? The Kalimah is that there is One God, La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah, and Muhammad is His Messenger:

لَآاِلٰہَ اِلَّااللّٰھُ مُحَمَّدٌرَّسُوْلُ اللّٰھِ

Are Muslims of today adding to that Kalimah and making it a requirement to be a Muslim that you have to condemn or criticise or reject or proclaim that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a kafir? A Christian, a Hindu, a Jew, a Buddhist — whoever it may be who wants to become Muslim — is not required to renounce Jesus or Moses or Ram or Krishna or Buddha, etc. Why then should I be required to add to the Kalimah the condemnation of an individual?

But there is another problem.

Anyone who declares Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a kafir will have to stop worshipping the One God, Allah. And why is that so? Because the Quran orders it. The Quran orders, and says in chapter Al-Kafirun, one of the last ten chapters of the Quran:

قُلۡ یٰۤاَیُّہَا الۡکٰفِرُوۡنَ ۙ﴿۱﴾ لَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ مَا تَعۡبُدُوۡنَ ۙ﴿۲﴾

Qul yaa-ayyuhal kafirun. Laa abudu maa tabudun.

“Say: O disbelievers, I serve not what you serve” (The Holy Quran, 109:1, 2).

In other words, the Quran commands me to say:

“O kafir, O those of you who are kafir, I will not worship that which you worship.”

So a Muslim must not worship that which a kafir worships.

Now, I know that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad worshiped Allah. So that by calling him a kafir, I will have to stop worshipping Allah because I cannot worship that which he kafir worships. I cannot worship that which he worships, and this will make me now an unbeliever.

Candid Verdict of the Holy Prophet:

It is for this reason that the Holy Prophet Muhammad has stated that anyone who calls another a kafir and that person is not a kafir, then the pronouncement of kufr or unbelief falls back on himself or herself.

It is a very dangerous doctrine to call a Muslim a kafir, and we should abstain from it, each and every one of us — men, women and children.

It is falsely alleged that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a prophet. This is not true. True, he claimed to be a reformer, as other Muslims before him had claimed, and he claimed to have received divine revelation, also as other Muslim saints have claimed, and he claimed to be the Messiah, likened to Jesus, similar to what Maulana Rumi has claimed. In fact, one of his statements is, every one of us has Jesus within. But until the pangs manifest, like Mary having pangs — he quoted that incident of Mary under the tree — until the pangs manifest, our Jesus is not born.

But Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad denied that he claimed to be a prophet. And he accepted that Muhammed is the Last Prophet, the final prophet, after whom no prophet — old or new — will come.

Now, if a non-Ahmadi Muslim tells me that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a prophet, I will ask him or her:

“Do you believe that he claimed to be a prophet?”

If the answer is no, then what’s the difference between that person and I? If the answer is yes, it means that person believes Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a prophet.

Then how is it that a non-Ahmadi who believes Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claim prophethood is a Muslim, and I, who reject that he made such a claim, is considered a non-Muslim? It does not make sense.

We know and believe that Muslims cherish the Honour and Spirituality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh):

We know that Muslims indeed cherish the name, they honour the personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. We all do. The best personality that Allah has created, Afzalul Ambiya, is often called the best of even the prophets. And many Muslims want to follow the Holy Prophet Muhammad perfectly.

Where do we get information about the Holy Prophet Muhammad? There seems to be two sources, when they should be really be one. One of these sources is called the Hadith, and the other is the Quran. But most Muslims look at the Hadith, or look towards the Hadith, to get information about the Holy Prophet Muhammad. But if the Hadith — books of reference, wonderful books of reference, but not books of guidance — presents the Holy Prophet Muhammad to us, it only presents a physical Muhammad: how the Holy Prophet Muhammad appeared to his Companions and to the world; his actions and his behaviour, his dress, and other things like that.

The Hadith does not tell us about the mind of Holy Prophet Muhammad. We will learn from the Hadith, for example, how the Holy Prophet Muhammad prayed, how many rakats, which direction he prayed, what he said in his prayers, and so many other things.

But what was he thinking, when and while he was praying, is something we would not find in any hadith, but we do find it in the Quran. The Quran says, for example, when it speaks about the Holy Prophet Muhammad, that he will kill himself with grief because people don’t understand him or don’t accept him, wouldn’t accept him, and he’s bringing guidance for them to make themselves better human beings. In fact, in another place, it says:

لَقَدۡ جَآءَکُمۡ رَسُوۡلٌ مِّنۡ اَنۡفُسِکُمۡ عَزِیۡزٌ عَلَیۡہِ مَا عَنِتُّمۡ حَرِیۡصٌ عَلَیۡکُمۡ بِالۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ رَءُوۡفٌ رَّحِیۡمٌ ﴿۱۲۸﴾

“Certainly a Messenger has come to you from among yourselves; very painful for him is your falling into distress, most concerned (he is) for you, to the believers (he is) compassionate, merciful” (9:128).

We don’t learn these things from what is recorded by others. These are statements made by God about the mind and thinking of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The Quran says he is compassionate to the believers. And there are so many other references telling us about how the Holy Prophet Muhammad thought and what went through his mind as he was bringing the religion of Islam, first to the Arabs, and then to the world.

But there is so much eagerness and devotion among the Muslims to follow the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s Sunnah. And someone may ask the question:

“You want to become like Muhammad?”

Can following of the Holy Prophet Muhammad make one become a prophet, for example? Is that possible? He was a prophet, and if we follow him, can we be a prophet? The answer is certainly No, and for the simple reason that what we follow of the Prophet Muhammad was after he became a prophet. He became a prophet first and then he set up a pattern of behaviour of applying the teachings of the Quran to his life and to the life of his community and society. So he was a prophet before he set forth his Sunnah, and therefore just by following the Holy Prophet Muhammad we cannot become a prophet. Although there are some among the  members of the Ahmadiyya Movement — another section [the Qadiani Jamaat], to which I do not belong, and I do not subscribe to that view — that say that by following the Holy Prophet Muhammad is the only way to become a prophet. But that is not a possibility on any score.

What Islam should we follow?

But coming back to the point of, I want to be a Muslim, or anyone who wants to be a Muslim. What Muslim, what Islam should we follow? Many people know that basically there are two versions of Islam: there is the Sunni, and the Shia.

A young man from Australia wrote to a scholar somewhere and asked him this question:

“In my town in Australia there are two mosques; one is a Shia, and is a Sunni, and I don’t know which one to go to. And they are antagonistic towards each other.”

So in that reply, which is on video that’s found on YouTube, the scholar indicated to him a historical background of Sunni and Shia. A very well-researched presentation was made, even though he says,

“I am a Sunni; I don’t agree with the Shia point of view, but I am trying to put an unbiased view of the two sections of the community,”

and he indicated also that even among Sunnis there are various sects, and even among Shias there are various sects, some of them condemning one another.

In conclusion, however, he pointed out that the major difference between the Sunni and the Shia is the issue of religious authority. Who is authorised to speak on Islam? And he said that in the Shia school of thought they believe that the Imam, the various Imams they have, just perhaps like a Pope — he speaks on behalf of God to the community as to what they should believe and how they should behave. He said,

“But we don’t have this in Sunni Islam. We have no one individual who can speak for the Muslim community, and so we have what is known as ijma— a consensus of scholars; many different scholars who have put forth their views — and it is by that consensus that we come to the truth about what Islam is.”

But even among those scholars there are so many varied concepts and ideas and conflicts. Imam Abu Hanifa, for example, and Imam Bukhari differ one with another; Imam Bukhari differs with Imam Abu Hanifa — he came after him. You have four Imams — well-known. There are others, but the well-known — Imams Malik, Shafai, Hambal and Abu Hanifa — they differ among themselves. Even Imam Abu Hanifa had two disciples. One of his disciples, Muhammad, he differed with Abu Hanifa and differed with the other disciples of Abu Hanifa, as well. So that if you have a thousand scholars with different opinions, can you really get an ijma? Can you really get or produce the truth when so many people differ one with another and in some cases even condemning each other?

There is a very well-known book that was published as a result of an inquiry into the riots against the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1953 in Pakistan known as the ‘Munir Enquiry Report’. And, it is interesting to note that the judges in that report who investigated this thing at length — the issue between the beliefs of the Muslims in general and the different sections of the Muslim and what caused these riots — looked at the ulama or scholars who came before them from the Sunni point of view and asked them what is the simplest definition of Islam. How can you define what a person that is a Muslim will have to accept that you accept that person as a Muslim? And this is what they said, and I quote:

“Keeping in view the several definitions given by the ulama, need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed on this fundamental? If we attempt our own definition as each learner divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulama, we remain Muslims according to the view of that alim [scholar] but kafirs according to the definition of everyone else.”

As recently as 1953, and that viewpoint is still there, Muslims cannot agree as to who or what is the definition — simplest definition — to determine who or what is a Muslim.

No doubt Muslims greatly cherish the finality of Prophet Muhammad. I certainly do. But some go to the extreme of protecting the concept of finality of prophethood. It’s a well-known organisation in Pakistan, started in India but grew into Pakistan, and now a worldwide organisation that is called the Tahaffuz Khatme Nubuwwat, the League, the organisation to protect the finality of prophethood. They believe that Islamic law requires that those whom they consider as not accepting Muhammad as the last prophet should be put to death. And thus they have been the cause of so many of the riots against Shias, Ahmadis, and even people of other faith systems.

The Real Problem:

Now, what really is the problem about the finality of the Prophet Muhammad, and what contribution has Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Lahori, the Reformer, made? One of the stumbling blocks to the finality of prophethood for over one thousand years is the fact that Muslims believe that Jesus will return to earth. Now, if that is so, how could Muhammad be the last prophet? Jesus obviously would be the last prophet. How could that be so? When Mirza Ghulam Ahmad therefore established the fact from the Quran as well as from the writings of other scholars and even from the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad that Jesus is dead and will not come back in this world, he settled the issue of the finality of prophethood once and for all. That was one of his major contributions to Islam, an issue that Muslims themselves cannot decide right now.

We have to ask ourselves the question, If Jesus were to actually come, it creates problems for us. First of all, he’s a prophet. There’re some Muslims who say, Well, he will not come as a prophet. But is he demoted? And if he’s not a prophet, what is he coming for? If he is a prophet, can he do better than the Prophet Muhammad? He wouldn’t even know the Arabic language; he wouldn’t be able to read the Quran or explain the Quran to us, unless he’s learning that wherever he is.

The Quran says:

وَ مَاۤ اَرۡسَلۡنَا قَبۡلَکَ مِنَ الۡمُرۡسَلِیۡنَ اِلَّاۤ اِنَّہُمۡ لَیَاۡکُلُوۡنَ الطَّعَامَ

“We have created all prophets to eat food” [The Holy Quran, 25:20].

Is he in fact eating food where he is?

The Quran says:

وَّ جَعَلَنِیۡ مُبٰرَکًا اَیۡنَ مَا کُنۡتُ ۪ وَ اَوۡصٰنِیۡ بِالصَّلٰوۃِ وَ الزَّکٰوۃِ مَا دُمۡتُ حَیًّا ﴿۪ۖ۳۱﴾

“He, Jesus, has been paying zakat and praying as long as he lived” [The Holy Quran, 19:31].

Is he doing that up in heaven? To whom is he paying zakat? Is he working to acquire funds in order to pay zakat?

These are verses of the Quran, and that concept is contrary to the basic teachings of Islam.

The Quran also says that Jesus said that there is,

بِرَسُوۡلٍ یَّاۡتِیۡ مِنۡۢ بَعۡدِی اسۡمُہٗۤ اَحۡمَدُ ؕ

“a prophet who is going to come after me whose name is Ahmad” [The Holy Quran, 61:6].

And it is agreed, even by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, that that prophet is the Prophet Muhammad, the son of Abdullah and Amina. He is the Ahmad because he was given that name Ahmad, and we call ourselves Ahmadi after that name, not after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is Ghulam Ahmad. Ghulam Ahmad means ‘the servant of Ahmad’.

So that if Jesus were to come, what happens to that verse of the Quran? Does it mean that another prophet is going to come, whose name is Ahmad? The moment we believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth, the finality of prophethood is finished.

So Mirza Ghulam Ahmad came and indicated that according to revelation given to him by God, not his own thinking, not his own research, this is a request of God to inform the world — Muslims, Hindus, Christian, Jews, everyone — that Jesus Christ is dead and is not going to come back.

What has been the problem therefore? Why is it that Muslims believe that Jesus Christ is going to return? It is because they have read it in the Hadith. And they see that if Jesus is going to return in the Hadith, then they interpret the Quran in the context of the Hadith in their understanding of the hadith that Jesus is not dead, because that person will not be able to return; they know that.

What Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad came and did was to point out that the Quran is our guidance. That it is a book that we should put first. And if the Quran says that Jesus Christ is dead, then we have to reinterpret the Hadith, not the other way around. The Hadith has to be interpreted in the context of what the Quran says, not that the Quran should be interpreted as to what the Hadith says.

And, so he put Jesus dead in the Quran first, and the Jesus of the Hadith has to be not rejected but reinterpreted. And, so if the Quran says Jesus is dead, it means that when the Hadith says that Jesus is going to return, it cannot be the Jesus of Nazareth. It has to be somebody else who comes in the spirit and power or likeness of Jesus.

Now, the Quran indicates to us quite clearly and points out to us that,

اَلۡیَوۡمَ اَکۡمَلۡتُ لَکُمۡ دِیۡنَکُمۡ وَ اَتۡمَمۡتُ عَلَیۡکُمۡ نِعۡمَتِیۡ وَ رَضِیۡتُ لَکُمُ الۡاِسۡلَامَ دِیۡنًا ؕ

“I have finalised your way of living, I have perfected My view on you, and I have selected for you Islam as a religion” [The Holy Quran, 5:3].

And this verse of the Quran that speaks of Islam is perfect — because some people think that because Islam is perfect it needs no reformer — but look at the contribution of this reformer to settle the issue of safeguarding the finality of prophethood.

And why is this verse found in the middle of that verse or towards the end of that verse that speaks about forbidden foods? It is because food is necessary for the physical sustenance of the human body, but truth, guidance is necessary for the sustenance of the soul of every human being. And just as you have good food and bad food, just as you have forbidden foods, good food and halal foods, and lawful foods and haram foods, which is what this verse speaks about, it points out to us that when it comes to the food for the soul, there is also fake news and there is also truth.

Islam does not give us fake news. But who is the real spokesman for Islam? Should it be any one of these maulanas [clerics] who may give their opinion, and it may be right, it may be wrong? It comes through after, no doubt, careful study by them; their research work, excellent though it may have been, but the greatest authority is that which comes from God.

When a human being, when a Muslim can stand up and say God has told me this is how the Quran should be reinterpreted, that viewpoint should be respected.

How to safeguard the Finality of the Holy Prophet’s Finality:

Because I asked myself the question: Which would you prefer to safeguard the prophethood of Muhammad: the belief that Jesus is dead and would not return, or to safeguard the finality of prophethood by killing anyone who believes to the contrary, as the Tahaffuz Khatme Nubuwwat promotes?

Do not identify yourself with those who promote the killing of innocent believers or innocent human beings. Don’t believe that that is the way to protect the honour of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Promote the idea of the Ahmadiyya Movement that Islam is a religion of peace, not hostility.

Source of the transcription: The Hope Bulletin, Vol. 17, Issue 2 (February 2022), pp. 3–10, with the assistance of the alahmadiyya.org Team