Ahl al Hadith Abdullah Ghaznawi (R.A) and Revelation of Qur'anic Verse to Non-Prophet

In the Name of Allah; the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful

One of the objections leveled against Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, is that he arrogated the status of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) to himself by claiming that certain Ayaat (verses) of the Holy Qur’an in which the Prophet (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) is singularly addressed by Allah have been revealed upon him and that he (Hadrat Mirza) is being addressed by Allah Most High in those same Ayaat. The anti-“Qadiani” site Irshad.org which is the official site of the Idara Dawat-o-Irshad, USA, Inc., has a list of eighteen such verses of the Holy Qur’an in which Allah is addressing the Prophet (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) specifically, and allege that Hadrat Mirza sahib “misappropriated” the meaning of these verses to himself by claiming that they were revealed to him and that Allah is addressing him in those verses. The reader may refer to point number 6 of the article entitled “Qadiani Changes to the Translation of the Holy Quran” on the Irshad.org website here, which begins with this absolutely false statement: “Mirza Ghulam Qadiani claimed that the following verse revealed in the Holy Quran to prophet Muhammad(SAW) were revealed and intended for him and not the prophet Muhammad(SAW)!”

While it is true that Hadrat Mirza sahib did indeed claim that these cited verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to him, it is blatantly false and a manifest lie on the part of the Irshad.org website to state that Hadrat Mirza further claimed that these verses were not originally “revealed and intended for the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam)”. We challenge Irshad.org or any other anti-“Qadiani” group or individual to produce any evidence proving that Hadrat Mirza held the belief that any verse of the Holy Qur’an was not originally revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) or that Allah did not address the Prophet in any one of these eighteen verses.

The truth is that Hadrat Mirza sahib’s belief is that these eighteen verses cited by Irshad.org were indeed originally revealed upon the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) and that he (the Prophet) was specifically addressed by Allah in these verses. However, Allah continues to inspire chosen saints within the Ummah with revelations and inspirations, and there are many examples of saints and pious people within the Ummah getting fresh inspirations from Allah containing verses of the Holy Qur’an – including verses in which the Prophet (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) is specifically addressed.

For example, Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani has stated in his Futuh al-Ghaib discourses that a saintly person who attains nearness to Allah will be addressed with words from the Holy Qur’an which the Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him) is being specifically addressed:

إِنَّكَ الْيَوْمَ لَدَيْنَا مَكِينٌ أَمِينٌ

Surely, thou art in Our presence today dignified, trusted (Sura 12:54)

I have already uploaded the reference including scanned page from Futuh al-Ghaib in a previous entry on my blog here.

Shaikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (Rahimahullah) also claimed that the following verse of the Holy Qur’an in which Allah addresses Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) was revealed to him and he (Sh. Abdul Qadir) is being addressed by Allah:

وَاصْطَنَعْتُكَ لِنَفْسِي

And I produced you for Myself. (Sura 20:41)

There are many other examples of verses of the Holy Qur’an in which originally Allah is addressing another Prophet or even the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) but which various Muslim saints from the Ummah have claimed that they were inspired by Allah with the same Verses and they too are being addressed in them. The very eminent and saintly scholar of the Tawhid movement and associated with the Ahl-al-Hadith or Salafiyyah sect of Islam – namely ‘Allamah ‘Abdullah Ghaznawi (Rahimahullah) himself had frequent revelations and inspirations from Allah containing Verses of the Holy Qur’an, including such verses in which the Prophet (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) is specifically addressed. He too was accused by narrow-minded Mullas of the Indian subcontinent of heresy. In response to this specific allegation, and to clarify an important point, his son, Mawlana Abdul Jabbar Ghaznawi wrote:

مغالطہ: اور قرآن میں بعض آیات ایسے ہیں کہ ان میں خاص رسول اللہ صلعم ہی مخاطب ہےانکے سوائے کوئی مخاطب بن نہیں سکتا۔

ھدایہ: اگر الہام میں اس آیت کا القا ہو جس میں خاص آنحضرت کو خطاب ہے تو صاحب الہام اپنے حق میں خیال کر کےاسکےمضمون کو اپنے حال سے مطابق کریگا اور نصیحت پکریگا

Translation: “Error 162: Certain verses of the Qur’an are such that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) has been addressed specifically, and no one else can be addressed by them. Clarification: If in the Ilhaam (inspiration) there is a verse in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) is specifically addressed, then the Saahib-i-Ilhaam (recipient of inspiration) should, nevertheless, understand it as concerning himself and fit it into his own personal circumstances so as to obtain beneficial guidance from it.”

Reference: Ithbat al-Ilham; p.142