Ishaq al-Akhras: False Prophet and Forerunner of Mirza of Qadian

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

وعلى آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله

فداك ابي وامي يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

The Qadianis claim that Mirza of Qadian was different from the other false prophets that arose in this Ummah because unlike them he claimed to be a prophet while remaining within the Millah and under the Shari’ah of Sayyiduna Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

However, as the great scholar Muhammad al-Khidr Husain of Tunisia pointed out Mirza was preceded in such an argument by the false prophet Ishaq al-Akhras (Isaac the Mute):

وانظروا إلى غلام أحمد وطائفته كيف تخبطوا في تأويل {وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ} وما يبينها من الأحاديث المحكمة ولا داعي لهم إلى هذا التخبط إِلا أن رجلاً من قاديان استحب الهوى على الهدى فأدعى أنه نبي مرسل وملأ فمه باللغو وقول الزور والتملق لغير المسلمين

ومن وجوه تأويله حمله لحديث لا نبي بعدي على معنى أنه لا يأتي بعده نبي من غير أمته

وهذا الوجه اختلسه من متنبئ آخر يقال له إسحاق الأخرس ظهر في أيام السفّاح فإنه زعم أن ملكين جاءاه وبشراه بالنبوة فقال لهما وكيف ذلك وقد أخبر الله تعالى عن سيدنا محمد أنه خاتم النبيين فقالا له صدقت ولكن الله أراد بذلك أنه خاتم النبيين الذين هم على غير ملته وشريعته

Look at Ghulam Ahmad and his group, how they floundered in interpreting: {And the Seal of the Prophets}, and the decisive hadiths that clarify it. They had no reason to flounder, except that a man from Qadian preferred desires over guidance, so he claimed that he was a prophet sent by Allah, and filled his mouth with idle talk, false speech, and flattery of non-Muslims. One of the ways in which he interpreted the hadith: “There is no prophet after me” means that no prophet will come after him from other than his Ummah. He stole this way from another false prophet called Ishaq al-Akhras, who appeared in the days of Al-Saffah; he claimed that two angels came to him and gave him the good news of prophethood, so he said to them: How is that when God Almighty has informed us about our master Muhammad that he is the Seal of the Prophets? They said to him: You are right, but God meant by that that he is the Seal of the Prophets who are not of his Millah and his Shari’ah (Mawsu’at ul-A’mal il-Kamilah)

This has been mentioned by Abd ur-Rahim al-Jawbari (d. 619 H), who wrote a book exposing charlatans beginning with the false prophets like Ishaq al-Akhras: In the last days of the caliphate of al-Saffah, a man known as Ishaq the Mute appeared in Isfahan. He claimed to be a prophet and attracted a large following. He made his way to Basra and Oman, where he imposed certain religious obligations on people, interpreting the Qurʾan for them as he pleased, but was killed soon after. He claimed to have been born in northwest Africa and to have studied the Qurʾan, the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and all the other revealed texts. After these, he claimed to have studied the legal rulings of the various religions and deciphered symbols and writing systems till there was not a science left that he hadn’t mastered. He then traveled to Isfahan, where he settled, working as a head monitor at a school and claiming to be mute. He lived there ten years and got to know everyone, including the city’s notables. He then decided the time had come to spread his message. He concocted ointments that prevented anyone from looking him in the face when he applied them because they gave off such a bright light. Then he went to the schoolhouse to sleep and locked himself in. When all were asleep, and none could hear a peep, he set about applying some of the said ointments. Then he lit two dyed candles that gave off a different light from ordinary candles and uttered a great cry that woke everyone up, following it with a second cry and a third. Then he stood in the prayer niche, praying and reciting the Qur’an in a most exquisite voice and to a tune sweeter than any breeze. When the men of religion heard, they leapt up and went, all agog, and looked in on him through the window, and didn’t know what to make of it. The crowd informed the schoolteacher of what was going on and he too observed him in that state. Now, when the schoolteacher saw the man, he fell to the ground in a faint. On coming around, he made straight for the schoolhouse door but couldn’t open it, so he left the school and made for the judge’s house, followed by the men of religion, the city being now in an uproar. He told the judge what had happened, so the judge came down from his house. Word reached the vizier too, and everyone gathered at the schoolhouse door. Ishaq had unlocked the door but left it closed. When the judge, schoolteacher, and notables got there, the men of religion caught sight of him and said, “In the name of the One who has granted you this standing, open the door to us!” at which the man gestured with his hand toward the door and said, “Open, ye locks!” and they heard the locks fall to the ground. Everyone entered and the judge asked him what was going on. He answered that for the past forty days he had found evidence in that place that pointed to his being a prophet: He had been able to observe people’s secret doings and see these with his naked eye. “And last night,” he went on, “two angels came. They woke me and washed me and then saluted me as one would a prophet, saying, ‘Greetings to you, Prophet of God!’ This frightened me and I tried to return their greeting but couldn’t produce a sound and, as I tried without success to respond, I began to writhe. One of them then said, ‘Open your mouth and say, “In the name of God, Whose Eternity Has No Beginning!”’ so I opened my mouth and said, in my heart, ‘In the name of God, Whose Eternity Has No Beginning!’ and some white stuff formed in my mouth. I don’t know what it was, but it was cooler than ice, sweeter than honey, more fragrant than musk. When it reached my insides, my tongue broke its silence, the first thing I said being, ‘I bear witness that there is no god but God and I bear witness that Muḥammad is the messenger of God,’ to which they both responded, in unison, ‘And you too are a messenger of God, for sure.’ ‘What are you saying, gentlemen?’ I asked, and they replied, ‘That God has sent you as a prophet.’ ‘How can that be,’ I said, ‘when God Himself has declared that Our Lord Muḥammad is the seal of all the prophets?’ ‘True,’ they said, ‘but what he meant was that he was the seal of the prophets who were not of his own religious community or path.’ ‘I cannot claim to be one,’ I said, ‘for I do not speak God’s word and have performed no miracles,’ to which they replied, in unison, ‘Men have accepted in their hearts that you speak God’s word because, from the day you were born until today, you were mute. “‘As for the miraculous powers granted you by God, Mighty and Exalted, they are knowledge of the books He revealed to His prophets, knowledge of His revealed paths, and knowledge of languages and writing systems.’ Then they said, ‘Recite the Qurʾan!’ and I recited it as it was revealed. Then they said, ‘Recite the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the other scriptures!’ and I recited them all as they were revealed. ‘Arise and preach to the people!’ they said, and left. So I arose, praying the whole time, and that’s the long and the short of it. Whoever believes in God, Muḥammad, and then me will surely triumph and anyone who calls me a liar has abandoned the path of Muḥammad and is an infidel, and that’s all there is to it.” At this, many heeded him, his studies paid off, and he set out for Basra and Oman, where he became a formidable presence and remained so until he was killed. He has partisans in Oman to this day. (al-Mukhtar fi Kashf al-Asrar)