Muhammad Jaunpuri not Inherited from like Prophets

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

يا نبي سلام عليك

The Mehdavi sect which believe in Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri as the promised Mahdi are heretical because they give a status to the founder of their sect which is prophetic. Basically, this is a sect whose doctrine is contrary to Khatm-un-Nubuwwa—the finality of Prophethood.

Although the Mehdavis avoid openly proclaiming or teaching that Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri was a prophet, a deep dive into their literature and dogma reveals that for all intents and purposes they have made him a prophet.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said:

لاَ نُورَثُ مَا تَرَكْنَا صَدَقَةٌ

“We (the Prophets) are not inherited from. Whatever we leave behind is charity” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, quoted this Hadith of the Prophet when the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, may Allah be pleased with her, approached him and asked him to hand over the property of Fadak to her, which she believed was her rightful inheritance. So this law of the Sharia that the Prophets are not inherited from is exclusive to them. For everyone else in the Umma, they inherit and are inherited from according to the rules of inheritance laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunna.

So when Maulvi Zaman Khan of Hyderabad wrote Hadiya-e-Mehdavia and objected to the fact that Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri did not have his wealth distributed to its rightful heirs from among his family but rather donated it all as charity to impoverished emigrants among his followers, apparently in violation of the Sharia, a Mehdavi named Sayyid Nusrat answered by saying:

اسی طرح خدا کے وہ خاص بندے جنھوں نے اپنے رسول کریمؐ کی اتباع میں اپنی حیات ہی میں ماترکناہ صدقة کہدیا ہو اور اپنے عشایر اور خانوادہ واہل قرابت کو چھوڑ کر اور اپنے ہم مشرب فقرائے مہاجرین سے عہد مواخات کے پابند ہوکر دایرہ کی بود وباش اختیار کرنی ہو جو خانقاہوں کی طرح دنیا سے یکسو اور خاص فقرائے مہاجرین وگوشہ نشین کا مقام ہوتا تھا ایسے بزرگ کا جو کچھ بھی ترکہ تھا وہ رسول اکرمؑ کی اتباع میں صدقہ تھا اور صدقہ فقرائے مہاجرین کا حق ہوتا ہے ورثا کو نہیں دیا جاتا۔

“Similarly, those special servants of God who, in the following of the Holy Prophet, had given charity in their lifetime, and had left their kin, families, and relatives, and had entered into a covenant of brotherhood with their fellow poor emigrants, had to adopt the lifestyle of a circle, which, like monasteries, was a place of seclusion from the world and a place for the poor emigrants and the solitary. Whatever such a nobleman left behind was charity in the following of the Holy Prophet, and charity was the right of the poor emigrants, and was not given to heirs.” (Kuhl al-Jawahir, v.2, p.612)

The plain implication of this is that the Mehdavis believe that the founder of their sect, Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri, is included in the rank of Prophets who are not inherited from by their relatives but rather everything they leave behind is given away as charity!