Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad regarded
other Muslims as Muslims
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad condemned the practice of Muslims declaring
other Muslims as kafir. He wrote:
- “O Maulvis (religious leaders)! will you not face death
one day, that you are so bold and cunning as to declare a whole
world as kafir? God says that if someone uses the greeting
Assalamu Alaikum for you, do not say to him: ‘you
are not a believer’, that is, you must not consider him a
kafir because he is a Muslim. However, you have declared
those as kafir who hold the same doctrinal beliefs as you,
who follow the Qibla, who forsake the worship of anything
other than God, who believe the way to salvation to be obedience
to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and the blessings of Allah
be upon him, and consider anyone who turns away from his obedience
to be accursed and doomed to the fire of hell.”
— Itmam-ul-Hujja,
p. 23; Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 8, p. 302–303.
- “Today it is being tried to reduce the number of Muslims
as much as possible and to expel them from the religion of Islam
by the orders and fatwas of the Maulvis of an evil nature.
Even if there are to be found in some people a thousand characteristics
of Islam, all these are ignored, and some absurd and baseless
excuse is found to declare them to be such kafirs as are
further away from faith than even Hindus and Christians. …
There are few enough Muslims already, do not reduce this small
number even further.”
— Izala Auham, p. 594–597;
Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 3, p. 421 and 422.
- “It is a matter of amazement that a person who professes
the Kalima, follows the Qibla, believes in One God,
believes in and truly loves Allah and His Messenger, and believes
in the Quran, should on account of some secondary difference be
declared a kafir like Jews and Christians, in fact even
a worse kafir. … Learned people know that there were
great differences among the Companions of the Holy Prophet. There
was none of them who did not have any difference. … But no
one called anyone else as kafir.”
— Ainah Kamalat
Islam, p. 259; Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 5, p. 258,
259.
- “Is it not a matter of amazement that in such a delicate
issue so much blatancy should be shown that while a man repeatedly
declares that he belongs to the religion of Islam, and he openly
clears himself of the false charges that are the basis of the
allegation of unbelief, but still he is pronounced to be a kafir
and people are urged that, despite the fact that he professes
the Kalima ‘La ilaha ill-allah, Muhammad-ur Rasul-ullah’,
believes in the Oneness of God and in the essential doctrines
of Islam, adheres to prayer and fasting, and follows the Qibla,
he is still a kafir.”
— Ainah Kamalat Islam,
p. 32; Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 5, p. 32.
- “Who does not know that it is a very delicate matter to declare
as kafir someone who is a Muslim, believing in One God,
and follows the Qibla, especially when that Muslim declares
repeatedly by his writings and speeches that he is a Muslim, and
that he believes in Allah and His Messenger and in the angels
and books and messengers of Allah, be He glorified, and in life
after death, as has been made manifest by the glorified Allah
and His Messenger, on whom be peace and the blessings of Allah,
in their teachings. Not only this, but he is also bound by all
the commandments pertaining to fasting and prayer as explained
by Allah and His Messenger, on whom be peace and the blessings
of Allah. To declare such a Muslim as kafir, nay a great
kafir and the Anti-Christ, cannot be the work of people
who guard against evil and fear God and are in the habit of taking
a charitable view of others.”
— Ainah Kamalat Islam, p.
33; Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 5, p. 33.
Therefore, according to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a person fulfilling
one of the basic requirements of a Muslim, for example, professing
the Kalima, or facing the Muslim Qibla in prayer, etc.,
is a Muslim and cannot be declared a kafir.
His court declaration that he does not call Muslims as kafir
In February 1899, at the end of a court case between Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad and one of his leading opponents, Maulvi Muhammad Husain
Batalvi, the magistrate got each of them to sign a notice that he
would not call the other kafir or antichrist Commenting on
this, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote:
“ If he [Muhammad
Husain] had been honest in issuing his fatwa, he should have
said to the judge: ‘I certainly regard him as a kafir, and
so I call him a kafir’.
Considering that till now, till the last part of my life, by
the grace and favour of God I still hold those beliefs which Muhammad
Husain has declared as kufr, what sort of honesty is it
that, out of fear of the judge, he destroyed all his fatwas
and affirmed before the judge that he would never again call
me kafir, or dub me antichrist and a liar. One should reflect
as to what greater disgrace there could be than this.
It is true that I also signed this notice. But by this signing,
no blame attaches to me in the eyes of God and the just people,
nor does such signing reflect any disgrace on me, because my
belief from the beginning has been that no person becomes a kafir
or antichrist by denying my claim. I do not apply the term
kafir to any person who professes the Kalima,
unless he makes himself a kafir by calling
me a kafir and a liar. In this matter, it has always been
my opponents who took the first step by calling me a kafir,
and prepared a fatwa. I did not take the lead in preparing
a fatwa against them. And they themselves admit that if
I am a Muslim in the eyes of God, then by calling me a kafir
the ruling of the Holy Prophet Muhammad against them is that
they are kafir. So I do not call them kafir; rather
it is by calling me kafir that they come under the judgment
of the Holy Prophet. Therefore, if I have affirmed before Mr Dowie
[the judge] that I shall not call them kafir, it is
in fact my belief that I do not consider any Muslim to be a kafir.
”
— Tiryaq al-Qulub, published October 1902, pages
130-131
The following points emerge plainly from this extract:
- The Promised Messiah never called any Muslim a kafir on
the grounds of not believing in his claims.
- It was when his Muslim opponents persisted in calling him kafir
that he reminded them of the ruling of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
that anyone calling a fellow-Muslim as kafir has the same
epithet reflected back upon him. So it was the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s
judgment against them which they brought on themselves.
- When a Muslim opponent signed a declaration to the effect that
he would stop calling Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as kafir, the
Promised Messiah had no hesitation whatsoever in signing a similar
declaration about his opponent.
- The Promised Messiah repeatedly calls it “my belief”
that a Muslim cannot be called a kafir for not believing
in his claims.
- The Promised Messiah wrote the above lines at a time which he
himself describes as “till now, till the last part of my
life”. Therefore it cannot be argued that he held this belief
only at an early stage in his mission and changed it later on.
After the extract quoted above, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad goes on
to write about his opponent:
“In short, the man who, after getting provoked without
justification, declared me kafir and prepared a fatwa
concerning me, to the effect that I was a kafir, antichrist
and liar, showed no fear of the commandment of Almighty God as to
why he was calling as kafir people who face the Qibla
and profess the Kalima, and why he was expelling from
the fold of Islam thousands of servants of God who follow the Book
of Allah and manifest the basic practices of Islam. However, after
a threat from the magistrate of the district, he accepted for all
time never again to call them kafir, antichrist or liar.”
(p. 132)
According to the Promised Messiah here, to call as kafir and
to expel from Islam those people who profess the Kalima and
follow the basic Islamic practices, is to show no fear of God.
The Qadiani movement’s calling other Muslims as kafir falls
under this condemnation of the Promised Messiah. |
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