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 Reply to certain quotes alleging that he called other Muslims as kafir 

The following question was received by us. Our esteemed enquirer informed us that he had copied these quotations from an anti-Ahmadiyya website.

Question:

Regarding who is Muslim according to Mirza Sahib, following observations are noted:

“Question: Huzoor-e-aali (Respected Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) has mentioned in thousands of places that it is not at all right to call Kafir a Kalima-go (someone who recites the Kalima) and an Ahle-Qibla. It is quite obvious that except those Momineen who become Kafir by calling you (Mirza Ghulam) a Kafir, no one becomes a Kafir by merely not accepting you. However, you have now written to Abdul Hakeem Khan that anyone who has received my message and has not accepted me is no longer a Muslim. There is contradiction between this statement and your statements in previous books. Earlier in Tiriaq-ul-Quloob etc you had mentioned that no one becomes Kafir by not accepting you; now you are writing that by rejecting me he becomes a Kafir?!

“Answer: This is strange that you consider the person who rejects me and the person who calls me Kafir as two different persons, whereas in the eyes of God he is the same type; because he who does not accept me is because he considers me a fabricator…”
(Haqiqat-ul-Wahi, Roohany Khazaen, Vol. 22, P. 167)

similarly:

“It has been revealed to me that the person who did not follow me and did not enter into my fold, is disobedient and as such, should be thrown into Hell.” (Miyar-ul-Akhyar, Vol. 9, P. 27)

Answer:

Regarding your quote from Haqiqat-ul-Wahy, in the same book he wrote a few pages earlier:

“These people first prepared a fatwa of kufr against me, and about 200 Maulvis put their seals upon it, calling us kafir. In these fatwas, such aggression was shown that some Ulama even wrote that these people (Ahmadis) are worse in disbelief than Jews and Christians. Fatwas were commonly issued saying that these people must not be buried in Muslim cemeteries, they must not be offered salaam and greetings, and it is not proper to say prayers behind them because they are kafir. They must not even be allowed to enter mosques because, being kafir, they would pollute the mosques; if they do enter, the mosque must be washed. It is allowable to steal their pro­perty, and they deserve to be killed …

Now look at this falsehood, namely, that they lay the accusation against me of having declared 200 million Muslims and Kalima-professing people to be kafir. But we did not take the initiative at all. Their own Ulama issued fatwas of kufr against us, and raised a com­motion throughout the Punjab and indeed the whole of India that we are kafir. These proclamations so alienated the ignorant people from us that they considered it a sin even to talk to us in a polite manner. Can any maulvi or any other opponent or any spiritual leader prove that we had declared them kafir first? If there is any paper, announcement or pamphlet issued by us, prior to their fatwas of kufr, in which we had declared our Muslim opponents to be kafir, then they should bring that forward. If not, they should realise how dishonest it is that, while they are the ones who call us kafir, then they accuse us of having declared all Muslims as kafir. This height of dishonesty, falsehood and untrue slander is so hurtful, as every sensible person can see. Then having declared us kafir by their fatwas, and themselves admitting that he who calls a Muslim a kafir gets the kufr reflected back upon himself, was it not our right under these circum­stances to call them kafir according to their own admission?”
(Haqiqat-ul-Wahy; see Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 22, p. 122–124)

It is absolutely clear from this that Hazrat Mirza sahib never called any Muslim as a kafir for not believing in him. If he had regarded them as kafir for not believing in him then he would have been the first to call others as kafir before they did so against him. But he declares here that, on the contrary, it was his opponents who initiated this by branding him as kafir and instructing all Muslims to shun and ostracise Ahmadis. He states most emphatically that no one can show any writing of his whatsoever “prior to their fatwas of kufr, in which we had declared our Muslim opponents to be kafir.”

It is against this background and in this context that Hazrat Mirza sahib’s answer to that question should be read.

It is admitted in the question itself that Hazrat Mirza sahib wrote in “thousands of places that it is not at all right to call Kafir a Kalima-go and an Ahle-Qibla”, and he is asked that what he has now written in just one place seems to contradict this. In reply he does not say that he was wrong in those thousands of places; rather, he explains that what he wrote in that one place does not contradict those “thousands of places”.

His reply extends to about 3 pages, from which just the opening has been quoted by our critics. The whole reply shows that his words “he who does not accept me” are not general but apply to those who were followers of the Ulama who had declared Hazrat Mirza sahib and Ahmadis as kafir. As he writes at the end of his answer to this question:

“I see that all those people who do not believe in me, all of them regard as believers those people who have declared me as kafir.” (Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 22, p. 169, footnote).

Now note his following words in this same reply:

“Two hundred Maulvis declared me to be kafir and wrote a fatwa of kufr about me. Their fatwa shows that anyone who calls a believer as kafir becomes kafir himself, and anyone who calls a kafir as believer also becomes a kafir…” (p. 168)

The Maulvis not only declared Hazrat Mirza sahib and his followers as kafir but further that anyone who regards him or Ahmadis as Muslim (i.e., regards a kafir as a believer) is also a kafir. This means that an ordinary Muslim who does not accept Hazrat Mirza sahib is not even allowed by the Maulvis to regard him as a Muslim, because if he did then he would himself be declared as kafir by the Maulvis!

This is in fact the legal position in Pakistan at present, that each and every person who wants to be recognised as a ‘Muslim’ in Pakistani law must declare on a form that he/she regards Hazrat Mirza sahib as an “imposter” and all Ahmadis as non-Muslim. So each and every Muslim in Pakistan who does not accept Hazrat Mirza sahib also declares him and Ahmadis as kafir by signing a compulsory form to this effect.

Another example is the Muslim community of Cape Town, South Africa. The Ulama there have ruled that what they call “Ahmadi sympathisers” are also kafir like Ahmadis. An “Ahmadi sympathiser” is one treats Ahmadis like Muslims. A Sunni Imam was dismissed by the Ulama for allowing Ahmadis to enter his mosque for prayer, and this led to a famous civil court case in the late 1980s. They require all Muslims to declare Ahmadis as kafir.

It is the original fatwa of the Maulvis, and the present day law of Pakistan, that has placed “he who does not accept me” in the same category as “the person who calls me kafir”.

Hazrat Mirza sahib, in this same answer, proposes the following solution about those who don’t believe in him. Immediately after the lines quoted above from p. 168, he writes:

“Now the easy solution to this is that if there are other people who are honest and sincere, and not hypocrites, they should issue an announcement about these Maulvis, naming each Maulvi, saying that these are all kafir because they declared a Muslim to be kafir. Then I will believe them to be Muslims. …If it is not true that one who calls a believer as kafir becomes kafir himself, then they (i.e., those who merely do not accept me) should show me such a declaration from their maulvis, and I will accept it. But if such a person does become a kafir then they (i.e., those who merely do not accept me) must issue an announcement, naming each of the maulvis, saying that they have become kafir. After that, it will be haram (i.e., forbidden) for me to doubt that they are followers of Islam, providing they are not behaving with hypocrisy.” (p. 169)

If they issue this announcement, he says he will believe them to be Muslims and never doubt their being Muslims, even though they do not accept him. It is the fatwa of the Maulvis that makes it impossible for Muslims to regard him as Muslim and at the same time regard the Maulvis as Muslims.

Hazrat Mirza sahib ends his answer as follows:

“So, even now I do not call the people who face the Qiblah as kafir, but how can I call those as believers whose own hands have created the grounds for their unbelief.”
(Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 22, p. 169, footnote).

This, in brief, is the answer to the question: that he does not even now call the ahl-i qibla as kafir, just as he wrote in those “thousands of places”.

Regarding your second quotation (“It has been revealed to me that the person who did not follow me and did not enter into my fold, is disobedient and as such, should be thrown into Hell”), in this case, two sets of words have been omitted and the rest of the translation is distorted as well. It should read:

“…God reveals to one man that he who does not follow you and does not enter into your bai‘at and remains your opponent, he is disobedient to Allah and the Messenger and will go to hell”.
(Majmu‘a Ishtiharat, 1986 edition, v. 3, p. 275)

It is clearly stated here: “and remains your opponent” (which I have underlined). Anyone who opposes the mission of Hazrat Mirza sahib as Mujaddid, which is to defend Islam and make it victorious over its detractors, is disobedient to the instructions of Allah and the Holy Prophet Muhammad and is liable to the punishment of hell as Allah may determine. Those Muslims throughout history who have damaged Islam and the Muslim Umma will certainly receive Allah’s punishment for their misdeeds, even though they are Muslims and not kafir.

Secondly, note that Hazrat Mirza sahib calls it his revelation. His revelations are not an independent authority but have to be made subject to the teachings of Islam in the Quran and Hadith. The Quran tells us in 24:55, after promising the Muslims that khalifas to the Prophet Muhammad will appear among them, that those who oppose them are transgressors (fasiq). In Bukhari it is stated that Allah Himself says:

“I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a wali of Mine.”
(Book: Ar-Riqaq, ch. 38, hadith 6502)

Hazrat Mirza sahib’s revelation is in accordance with this.

Thirdly, reading the context where this quote occurs, we find that Hazrat Mirza sahib was writing in refutation of a Muslim opponent who was also claiming to receive revelation. The opponent was claiming that God had sent him revelation that Hazrat Mirza sahib was “a firaun, kazzab (liar), musrif (exceeding limits in committing sin), fasiq (wrong-doer) and kafir” etc. Hazrat Mirza sahib writes in response, just before the quotation given by our opponents, that God had revealed to him that he is “the chosen one of God … Promised Messiah and Mujaddid of the 14th century…”. Similarly, that man claimed to receive revelation that those who follow Mirza sahib are on the path to spiritual destruction, and Hazrat Mirza sahib countered this with the revelation we are discussing.

So in this same reference Hazrat Mirza sahib has said that God revealed to him that he is the Mujaddid of the 14th century. Therefore when he says that God revealed to him that “he who does not follow you and remains your opponent …”, this refers to what happens to those who deny and oppose a Mujaddid. There is no mention here by Hazrat Mirza sahib of any claim by him to be a prophet or that those who don’t believe in him are kafir. (Note: Even the Qadianis believe that he was not claiming to be a prophet at the time he wrote this in June 1899.)

Also, the statement about what happens to “he who does not follow you…” applies to the kind of opponent that Hazrat Mirza sahib is writing against here, the person who announces to the world that God has revealed to him that Mirza sahib is “a firaun, kazzab, musrif, fasiq, kafir”.

— Zahid Aziz.