Throughout history, Allah SWT has bestowed prophethood on His chosen slaves for the guidance of humanity. This chain of prophethood, which began with Sayyidna Adam (AS), came to conclusion with our beloved Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. The Prophet Muhammad SAW is the last messenger of Allah, the seal of prophethood; no one will be bestowed prophethood after him till the Day of Judgment. This “belief in the finality of prophethood” is fundamental to Islamic creed, and affirmation of this belief is required from every Muslim. In their 1400-year history, the Muslim Ummah has affirmed this as a cornerstone belief in Islam without any disagreement.
The fundamental importance of the belief in the finality of prophethood can be judged from the fact that almost 100 verses in the Quran, and hundreds of hadiths of the Prophet SAW mention this creed in different ways. Thus, Allah SWT says in the Quran in Surah Al Ahzab, verse 40:
“Muhammad is not a father of any of your men, but he is a messenger of Allah and the last of the prophets. And Allah has the Knowledge of every thing.”
Qur’an 33:40
The Prophet Muhammad SAW also clearly elaborated this belief in his sayings. It is narrated by Sayyidna Thu’ban RA as stated in Sahih Tarimzi, that the Prophet SAW said:
I am the last of the prophets, there is no prophet after me.
Citation
This is the reason that if someone recites the Kalimah, prays five times a day, fasts in Ramadan, and has praiseworthy manners, yet he denies the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad SAW, he will not be considered a Muslim according to Shariah, despite all his religious deeds. The reason is that by not accepting Prophet Muhammad SAW as the last prophet, he is actually denying many verses of the Quran, numerous authentic hadiths and consensus of the Muslim Ummah.
In recent times, the people who deny the finality of prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad SAW are the Qadiyanis or the Ahmadis. This group believes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who belonged to the small town of Qadiyan in India, as a prophet of Allah after the Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in mid 19th century, and died in 1908. This was a time when the British rulers were looking to sow seeds of allegiance to their rule within the rebellious religious segment in the Indian society. They chose this person whose family had been loyal to the British for several generations, as Mirza himself has stated multiple times in his own writings. He writes:
I am from a family who is staunchly loyal to the Government. My father, Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, was viewed by the government as a loyal subject. In 1857, he supported the British beyond his means, by sending 50 horses and cavalrymen as a gift to the British at the time of mutiny.
Roohani Khazain Vol 13 page 4
At another place, in , he states:
A significant portion of my life has been spent supporting and backing the British Empire, and I have written so much about the prohibition of Jihad and loyalty to the British Government that if all those books and pamphlets are collected in one place, they can fill 50 bookcases.
Roohani Khazain Vol 14 p 155
It was on the instigation and encouragement of the British Government that Mirza Qadiyani made successive false claims: first of a Mujadid or a renewer of true religion, then of Mahdi, then of Isa or Jesus AS, before declaring himself a full-fledged prophet. So much so that he had the audacity to say that he is the Prophet Muhammad himself, writing in his books multiple times that God forbid, the Prophet Muhammad SAW has been reincarnated in the form of Mirza Qadiyani.
In addition, Mirza Qadiyani has written extremely blasphemous and crass content against respected religious personalities like the prophets, the Prophet Muhammad SAW, his companions and his family members. He also declared all Muslims as kafirs. These anti-Muslim and sacrilegious views are clearly recorded in his books and books of his sons, and the Qadiyani followers adhere to these beliefs even today.
Due to these blasphemous and heretical views, the Qadiyanis have been declared non-muslims unanimously by Islamic scholars, governments, courts and Islamic organizations. There is complete consensus on this matter. OIC’s International Islamic Fiqh Academy and Muslim World League, which are representative organizations of Muslims the world over, have declared Qadiyanis as non-muslims. A resolution of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy thus states:
The declaration by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad concerning his Prophethood and his claim of inspiration by the Divine Revelation, is an open rejection of the obviously and categorically established religious doctrine concerning the ending of Prophethood with Prophet Muhammad SAW and that there is no revelation after him. Therefore, the said declaration from Mirza Ghulam Ahmad make him, along with all those who accept the same, apostates (Murtad), who have apostatized Islam. As far as the Lahorites are concerned, they too, like the Qadianis are apostates (Murtad) despite their description of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed as the shadow and incarnation of our Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Yet, the Qadiyanis, despite all their heretical beliefs, continue to pose as Muslims. By referring to themselves as Ahmadis, they confuse common people who are uninitiated in this matter. They are diligent in propagating their beliefs to corrupt the Islamic creed of the finality of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.
It is therefore imperative that we should not only enlighten ourselves about the belief in the finality of prophethood, but also educate others about the corruption of Qadiyani beliefs and their dissociation with Islam.
