Observations

Hazrat’s observations about Mirza’s Ilhamat

Incidentally, Hazrat has made the following classification of Mirza Sahib’s inspirations in book “Saif-e-Chishtiyai”:

(i)                 Ilhamat-e-Kazibah (false inspirations). These are the inspirations whose falsity is either testified to buy Mirza’s own utterance from time to time, or which have turned out to be false due to non-fulfillment.

(ii)                Ilhamat-e-Sayyadiyah, i.e., inspirations resembling those of Ibn-e-Sayyad, which are meaningless and incomprehensible. Such inspirations owe their name to the hadith according to which the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), on the occasion of the revelations of Surah-e-Addukhan (Smoke or Mist), 44^th Surah of Quran, asked one Ibn-e-Sayyad (possibly a soothsayer) as to what he (i.e., the Prophet) was concealing in his mind and the latter replied “dukh” (smoke)! (Hazrat Shaikh Muhyuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi (R.A) equates such an inspiration with “delusion” in his famous book Futuhat-e-Makkiyah (The Makkan Revelations)).

(iii)               Ilhamat-e-Shaitaniah Insiyah, i.e., those satanic inspirations which some other human being had put into his mind.

(iv)              Ilhamat-e-Shaitaniah Jinniyah, i.e., those satanic inspirations which had been put into his mind by some jinn (gene).

(v)                Ilhamat-e-Shaitaniah Manawiyah. These rank somewhere between Nos. (iii) and (iv) above, and consist in the development of an obsession, primarily through the agency of Satan, that the person concerned possesses capabilities which he in fact does not have. The obsession acquired by Mirza, for example, was that he was “the promised Messiah” and he had clung to this obsession without analyzing it with reason and in the light of the shariah of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H).

In the light of Shaikh Muhyuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi’s observations mentioned against (ii) above, Hazrat expressed the view that the only way to guard against such delusions was through strict observance of the dictates of shariah in all matters. Many persons before Mirza, he said, had been assailed by similar delusive “inspiration” but had been able to successfully ward them of through meticulous shariah observance, and through correct guidance by their respective Mashaikh (spiritual guides).

Distortions of the Quran and the Hadith by Mirza Sahib

Having put forward a categoric claim to prophethood and to the receipt of wahi and ilham, Mirza turned hid attention to manipulation of the Quran and the Hadith for his ends. He started by claiming in his Arba’in no. 4, that God Himself had informed him about the meanings of the Quran, and also about which of the Prophet’s ahadith were correct and which of them had been falsely attributed to him. Similarly, in his Tohfa-e-Golraviyah, he said he had been authorized to accept or reject whatever he desired to the compilations of ahadith “on the basis of knowledge received by him directly from God”.

Mirza’s son Mehmood Ahmad stated as follows on this subject in a khutbah (sermon) reported in Al-Fazl, official Qadyani journal, dated 15 July 1938:

“ There is now no Quran other than that presented by the promised Messiah (i.e., Mirza), no hadith other than that seen in the light emanating from him, and no prophet other than that seen in the same light- if any one wishes to see anything by this dissociating himself from the Promised Messiah, he would be unable to do so. Even if he were to see the Quran, such a Quran would not be the one to provide correct guidance but the one to misguide and mislead- the Promised Messiah used to say that the current compilations of hadith were like the “juggler’s bag”, from which anyone could draw out a hadith of his own liking”.

Disagreement with Muslim Ummah on every principle of Islam

Mirza exploited the aforesaid self-conferred divine authority to temper with the Quran and Hadith, for the purpose of expressing disagreement with the general mass of Muslims in every sphere, be it religious, social or national. His son Mirza Mehmood Ahmad said thus in one of his sermons:

“ These words of the Promised Messiah are still ringing in my ears: ‘ It is wrong that we differ from other people only with respect of the death of Christ or a few other matters. The fact is that we differ from them concerning Allah Himself, the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), the Quran, the daily canonical prayers, fasting, Hajj, Zakat - in short in each and everything”.

                                                                                    (Al-Fazl, 3 July 1931)

The detailed reproduction of all those issues on which Mirza expressed dissent with the Muslim Ummah would require several volumes. Consequently, only few of the salient issues are listed below by way of illustrations:

(i)                  Decent of angles

Mirza described angels to be the “souls of the stars” and on that basis argued in his Ayyam-us-Sulh (Days of Peace) that id the angels were to descend to earth as most Muslims believed, the stars would disintegrate and fall away from the sky. In support of this view, he quoted (or rather misquoted) portions of the following verses of Quran:

Translation: "They say: 'Why is an angel not sent down to him? If we did send down an angel', the matter would be settled (at once), and no respite would be grated them."    (VI, 8)

Say (O Prophet!): “If there were settled on earth angels walking about in peace and quiet, we should certainly have sent down from the heaven an angel for an apostle”.       (XVII, 95)

A perusal of the detailed context of the preceding verses would show that they had no relevance to the point made by Mirza. They had in fact been revealed by Allah to answer the objection of the disbelievers as to why a human being and not an angel had been sent to them as a prophet. Yet, in another of his writings containing a commentary on verse 4 of Surah Al-Qadr of the Quran (XCVII), Mirza himself conceded that angels did in fact descend to earth. (cf., Izalah-e-Awham). Furthermore, according to an entry in the “diary” of Mian Mehmood Ahmad, Khalifa of Qadian, published in Al-Fazl dated 10 April 1922, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and a fellow student during his childhood concerning a statement in an old book that Angel Gabriel no longer descended to earth: “ What the book says is wrong; Gabriel does come to earth even now”.

In his book " Mavahibur Rahman", Mirza wrote: “Gabriel came near me, and pointing towards me said, “God will protect thee against enemies”.

In short, Mirza Sahib had no scruples in interpreting even the Quranic verses in a manner that suited his purpose in a given situation.

(ii)                The Human Spirit (Ruh-e-Insaani)

The Holy Quran declares the Ruh (human spirit) to be “by the Command of the Lord” (XVII, 85). It thus belongs to a category of creation that is beyond human comprehension and transcends “abode and direction”. A hadith of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) describes the spirit in the following words:

Translation: "The spirits are the assembled armies (of God). Those of them that loved each other in the erstwhile world (of spirits), and those apposed to each other there, do the same in this world also".

On the other hand, Mirza declared thus in a speech made by him in a religious public meeting held in Lahore on 27 December 1896:

“We witness daily that thousands of germs infest the rotten sores in the human body. The fact, therefore, is that the spirit is a fine light, which is born right in the sperm that breeds in the female womb, and the essence of which is present in the sperm from the very beginning”.

(iii)               Yowm-ud-din (The Day of Judgment)

The words Yowm-ud-din have been used to denote the day of judgment at a number of places in the Holy Quran, for example:

1.      And lo! The wicked verily will be in hell; they will burn therein on the Day of Judgment. (LXXXII, 14-15)