The Shaykh's Response to the Qadiyyani Sect

The Shaykh : Among the most prominent of these sects in the present age that claim to uphold Islam through the Book and the Sunnah, yet are in no way part of Islam, is the Qadiyyani sect. We know them in Syria, and we have had many debates and discussions with them. They are spread throughout the world, in Islamic lands and non-Islamic lands alike. These people claim that they are upon the Book and the Sunnah, but they have also cast Islam behind their backs, even if they claim to adhere to it. This is because they do not regard the methodology of the righteous Salaf. They impose their own minds in their interpretation of the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, and they never pay attention to how the righteous Salaf interpreted the verses and explained the hadiths. I will give you two examples of this: one regarding their interpretation of a verse from the Qur'an, and the other regarding their interpretation of a hadith from the authentic, established hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). As for the verse, it is the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): The Qadiyyanis claim that prophethood was not sealed with the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rather, they claim that many prophets will come after him (peace and blessings be upon him), and they emphasize this by the arrival of one of them in Qadian in India. They claim that the one named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyyani, in a long story which is not our concern now, is a prophet to whom revelation is sent! When the scholars of the Muslims confronted him with the aforementioned verse, he said that the verse does not mean what you think it means. What is the meaning of the verse according to them? They said, "But the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets" means the ornament of the prophets. It does not mean the last of the prophets according to them; rather, the Seal of the Prophets is the ornament of the prophets. They said, "Just as a ring is an ornament for the finger, so the Messenger is the ornament of the prophets. You are misunderstanding the verse. You understand the verse to mean that there is no prophet after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). That is not the case." This is the statement of the Qadiyyanis. The meaning of the verse is , meaning their ornament. This does not negate that prophets may come after him who are better than them. This account of his is sufficient to dispense with detailing the refutation of him. The other example is their interpretation of what the scholars of the Sunnah used as an argument against them, namely the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to Ali when he (peace and blessings be upon him) left him in Madinah when he went on the expedition to Tabuk. Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) wept because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had left him in Madinah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: This is a text that refutes the Qadiyyanis. How did they interpret this hadith? They said, "No prophet after me" means with me, during my lifetime. But after my death, there are prophets. The point of this example from the Sunnah and that example from the Qur'an is that this established sect of misguidance does not disavow the Book and the Sunnah, and yet they went astray. Why? Because they imposed their minds and followed their desires in interpreting the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, and they fell into misguidance. They should have taken a lesson from what we mentioned of the hadith of the sects and the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in describing the saved sect, that they are those who are upon what I and my Companions are upon, and the hadith: There was not a single one of the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah send prayers and blessings upon him and his family) who went to what these Qadiyyanis went to. Rather, they all agreed that it is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Their deviation from this third principle—we say the first principle is the Book and the Sunnah, and the third principle is that we return to what our righteous Salaf were upon—is not a novelty in the matter. As I have heard from some of the young Muslims today, some of whom confronted me on this when they visited me recently in Damascus. He said, "I used to hear you constantly talking about the methodology of the righteous Salaf. So I said, what is this methodology of the righteous Salaf? Are the Book and the Sunnah not sufficient for us?" He said, "I even attended a gathering where a man from the people of the Sunnah and hadith and another from the sheikhs of the Sufi orders met, and a discussion took place between them in the presence of this man who came to me in Damascus, regarding collective dhikr, dhikr with one voice, as some of the Sufis and the people of the orders do, such as saying 'La ilaha illa Allah' with one voice, for example, after the Fajr and Maghrib prayers. So the Sufi cited the general hadiths. And here lies the error, for example: to the end of the hadith... 'Gather to recite the Book of Allah.' He interprets this hadith as meaning with one voice and as one group. So the Sunni said to him, 'There is no doubt that the righteous Salaf knew this hadith much better than we do. Have you known any of the righteous Salaf who permitted this collective dhikr that you are upon?' He said, 'We do not need the hadith; it is clear and explicit that it contains gathering to recite the Book of Allah.' This is the way of the people of innovation, always and forever: they cling to texts and interpret them according to their desires, and they do not return to what the righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon in understanding them. And now we live in an atmosphere that appears easy, which is... the Book and the Sunnah. But many of the young Muslims, as I have experienced myself, do not pay attention to this condition that the two aforementioned hadiths indicated, which is returning to what our righteous Salaf were upon, and interpreting the texts of the Book and the Sunnah as our righteous Salaf did. These people neglect, and I hope they do not intentionally neglect, the point in the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): This verse is the remembrance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in which the Sunnah is embodied. And in it is something else, which is what we have been talking about. That other thing is the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the verse: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not say, "And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, We will turn him to what he has turned to." Rather, He connected it to His saying: He said: Therefore, I return now to say that among the virtues of the Sunnah is that it not only acquaints us with what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, but it also acquaints us with what our righteous Salaf were upon. So the path of the Sunnah is the path of salvation, but not by relying on our opinions in its interpretation, and perhaps on our desires, but by relying in the interpretation of the Sunnah, and also the Qur'an, on what our righteous Salaf were upon. For they are those in whom the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in the aforementioned verse is first embodied: the path of the believers. Is the path of the believers these later generations, these who have split and are still differing? Is it the path that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) connected this path to His saying, "And whoever opposes the Messenger"? Or is it the path of the first believers?