From: nadeem%igpho@uunet.UU.NET (Nadeem Malik)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.bangladesh,soc.religion.islam
Subject: The Seal Of Prophets, Reply to Raheel Khan: R1
Date: 21 Nov 92 21:45:39 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH



               In the name of Allah, The Gracious, the Merciful.

                 MUHAMMAD(SAAWS):  THE SEAL OF PROPHETS
                 -------------------------------------


Recently, Mr Raheel Khan posted a scholarly looking article ( a long one) on
the issue of the title above. It also included some related topics.

This is a humble attempt to address some of the points raised therein. I hope
and pray that the points that I make below may be of use to some. Amen.

Since the original article was a long one, I intend to respond in a series of
shorter articles. This is Response 1 (R1).


		      Response 1 by Nadeem Ahmad Malik
			        ETH, Zurich

		[Everything below is my own pesonal thoughts. 
		    I take responsiblity for any errors.]



I. Introductory Comments
=========================

Mr Khan's article was prompted by the following exchange:

	---------------------------------------------------------

Assalamu'alaikum:

In his article Zeeshan Hassan writes:

>Question:  Does the Doctrine of Muhammad as the last prophet originate in the
>Qur'an, or does it come from the Hadith sources?

In his repsonse to a Qadiyani's post, Keith Fuller writes:

>Is this like something mystical or something?
>I was under the impression that muslims do not go for that sort of
>mystical stuff.

I must say that the evil effects of the Ahmadi campaign are manifesting
themselves.  Both Muslims and non-Muslims are being confused by their
propoganda.
 
In a nutshell, the answer to Mr. Hassan's answer, yes, in fact, the
fact of the finality of Muhammad's(SAAWS) prophethood is mentioned in the
Qur'an in rather unequivocal terms. (See below for the verse)
 
In response to Mr. Fuller's question, I can only say that Ahmadis are not
Muslim.  They are considered to be non-Muslims by the consensus of the
scholars because of their refutation of the finality of Muhammad's(SAAWS)
prophethood. So, you are right, Muslims don't go for this kind of stuff!
 
I thing that the issue is so important that it merits a more detailed explanation.
The same issue has been discussed at length in soc.culture.pakistan, where I posted
an article in response to some questions that were being raised about Ahmadiyya and
Islam.  I am including some commonly asked questions and parts of the article that I
posted on SCP in the hope that it clarifies the issue.
 
	---------------------------------------------------------


Off course, personally, I believe that the spiritually blessed campaign of
Ahmadis are manifesting wonderfully. Many Muslims and non-Muslims are 
being enlightened about the true Message of Islam through our Movement.

Also, in a nutshell, the real answer of Mr. Hassan's answer is undoubtedly
no; the so-called finality of Prophethood (of all types) is not mentioned
anywhere in the Quran. If fact there are at least two point-blank statements
in the Holy Quran that Prophethood will continue; and a few more verses which
needs only a little extra thought and commonsense that also support the
continuation of Prophethood. (These verses will be discussed in a later article,
Inshallah.) The only verse that the non-Ahmadi Muslims put forward to justify
dis-continuity of Prophethood can easily be shown to contain, at worst, an
ambiguous meaning which great scholars have been debating about for centuries,
and, at best, it actually supports the opposite view. These points will also
be clarified in a later post, Inshallah.

The traditions (sunnah and hadith) of the Holy Prophet (SAW) are not 100% 
decisive (to me at least) on the issue. Some can be interpreted in the way that 
Mr Khan says. But most non-Ahmadi Muslims have not been made aware of many 
strong hadith which clearly state that Prophets can come. On the whole, the 
weight of authentic hadith  support continuity of Prophethood.

Then, the third teer of Islamic thought are the great scholars. I will 
also post in another article some of the great scholars who explicitly
stated Prophets may certainly be sent by Allah.

It should be made clear that only the modern day Muslim Scholars consider
people who believe in continuity of Prophethood as not Muslim. But then,
the Holy Prophet said that 72 out 73 sects in Islam in the latter days would be 
astray and only one would be rightly guided. So where does this leave us! Again
I hope to make this a subject of a separate article, Inshallah.





II. Fundamentals of Islam
=========================

Mr Khan continues by establishing the fundamental premises upon which the 
discussion should be based:

>To avoid confusion, I propose the following assumptions that I think all
>Mulsims should be able to agree on:
 
>      1)  To Allah belongs the sovereignty and the supreme Knowledge.
 
>      2)  Muhammad (SAAWS) was a messenger of Allah and his slave
 
>      3)  The reliable traditions of the Prophet (SAAWS) are the reference
>          with which to interpret the Qur'an
 
>          "And if ye have a dispute concerning any matter, refer it to
>           Allah and his Messenger."      An-Nisa, Quran(4:59)


This is fine! All Ahmadi Muslims agree with this 100%.

(But maybe Mr Khan has made a slip-up in the first sentence: if this is what 
Muslims believe in, doesn't that make Ahmadis Muslims also ? :-) )

To demonstrate our full concurrance with the 3 points above (actually 2 since 
1+2 constitutes nothing other than the Kalima -- but lets not split hairs),
allow me to appraise the reader of what Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (HMGA) of
Qadian, Holy founder of Jamat-e-Ahmadiyya, said:

	" The Muslims have three sources for establishing themselves
	on Islamic guidance.
	  First, the Holy Quran which is the Book of God than which we
	we have no more conclusive and certain statement. It is the Word 
	of God and it is free from all doubt and speculation.
	  Secondly, the practice of the Holy Prophet, which is called 
	Sunnah. We do not regard hadeeth and Sunnah as one. They are 
	distinct, hadeeth is one thing and sunnah is another. By sunnah 
	we mean the practice of the Holy Prophet, to which he adhered and 
	which appeared along with the Holy Quran and will accompany it. 
	In other words, the Holy Quran is the Word of God and sunnah is 
	the action of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him. .... "

	" The third source of guidance is hadeeth, by which we mean those
	traditions which were compiled from the statements of the diverse
	narrators a century and a half after the Holy Prophet. The 
	distinction between sunnah and hadeeth is that sunnah is a contin-
	uous practice which was started by the Holy Prophet. It is only
	next to the Holy Quaran in its certainty. .... "

	" The practical illustration which has been continuous among Muslims
	is the sunnah. On the other hand, the Holy Prophet did not have
	the hadeeth recorded in his presence nor did he make any arrange-
	ment for its compilation. .... "

	" There is no doubt that most of the compilers of hadeeth were 
	very pious and righteous. ... Nevertheless it would be a mistake
	to imaging that till the ahadeeth were compiled, the Muslims
	were unaware of the details of Prayer services or did not know the
	proper way of performing pilgrimage. .... "

	" The correct way, therefore, is neither to treat the ahadeeth as
	having greater authority than the Quaran, as do the Ahl-i-hadeeth
	of this age, and not to prefer the statements in the ahadeeth
	which are contradictory of the Quaran to the Quaran itself; nor
	to regard the ahadeeth as vain and false as is the belief of 
	Maulvi Abdullah Chakralvi. The Quaran and sunnah should judge the 
	ahadeeth and those that are not opposed to them should by all 
	means be accepted. This is the straight path and the blessed are 
	those who follow it. ... "

		(Review of the Debate Between Batalvi and Chakralvi, p6;
		 reproduced in The Essence of Islam, Vol. II, pp 101-103.)


HMGA (ASA) then went on to list the priority of the Books of hadith as:
(1)	Sahih Bukhari;
(2)	Sahih Muslim;
(3)	Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Muatta of Imam Malik, 
	Nissai, Abu Daud, Dar Qutni.

So far so good. I will end Response 1 here on the happy note that we all
agree upon fundamentals. Alhamdolilah.


Nadeem Malik

p.s. my correct e-mail address is: 	nadeem@p.igp.ethz.ch
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan