Discussion of the Qadiyani sect.

The Shaykh : ... Indeed, all the sects, however deeply rooted in misguidance they may be, whether they are among the old sects or the new ones, as detailed earlier, contain no one but those who claim our claim, namely that they are upon the Book and the Sunnah. Take, for example, a sect, perhaps the last of the sects that have deviated from the Book and the Sunnah among the contemporary and modern sects, which is the Qadiyani group. Its origin was from a village in India named Qadian, and from it emerged that man who was called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyani. Then he altered his name for a purpose of his own, which we are not here to explain, and called himself Ahmad so that he could apply to his name the saying of Allah the Exalted on the tongue of Isa: meaning Ahmad al-Qadiyani. His name was actually Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyani; "Mirza" is a title, while his name was Ghulam Ahmad, meaning "servant of Ahmad." So he dropped the word "servant," i.e., "Ghulam," and kept the name "Ahmad" to apply that verse to himself. And how vast is the difference between them! For he is one of the liars and deceptions about whom our Messenger, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, informed us in his saying: This man was able, by one means or another, to lead many people, not only non-Arabs but also Arabs, astray from the Book and the Sunnah. They believed in him, accepted him, and followed him. They brought forth beliefs that contradict the consensus of the Muslims. We are not here to discuss that either; the point is that these people also claim, like us, the Book and the Sunnah. Did their claim of the Book and the Sunnah benefit them in any way, when they have contradicted the Book and the Sunnah in many of their texts? The point here is how they reconcile their followers of their claimed prophet with the saying of the Lord of the Worlds: ? Here you see the importance of two things: the Sunnah, and interpreting the Sunnah and the Qur'an as the righteous Salaf did. Interpreting the Qur'an by the Sunnah and interpreting the Sunnah by what the righteous Salaf did. These Qadiyans did not disbelieve in the saying of the Exalted: Rather, they believed in the verse as we believe. Likewise, they did not deny the saying of the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, that came in the two Sahihs from the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, that he said to Ali: They also believed in this authentic hadith. But they disbelieved in the meaning of the verse and the hadith because they interpreted them with an interpretation other than their true interpretation, and explained them contrary to what our righteous Salaf and those who followed them up to this day did. ... Their interpretation of the verse was that they said, "We believe with you that the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, is as stated in the Qur'an: But we differ with you in your interpretation of the verse. We understand its meaning to be 'the Seal of the Prophets,' i.e., the adornment of the prophets, just as the ring is the adornment of the finger, so the Messenger, peace be upon him, is the adornment of the prophets. Thus, they believed in the Qur'anic wording but disbelieved in its meaning, so their belief in the Qur'an did not benefit them at all. Therefore, in their interpretation of this verse or that hadith, they are most like the disbelieving Christians who try to extract from the Qur'an evidence supporting their misguidance and their belief that Isa, peace be upon him, is the son of Allah. Glorified is Allah above what the wrongdoers say, greatly. Now you have seen their interpretation, indeed their denial, of the verse's indication that there is no prophet after the Messenger of Allah, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him. So how did they interpret the authentic hadith? They said, "There is no prophet with me," meaning after me. Having interpreted the hadith with this false interpretation, they said that the implication of the hadith is that there is a prophet after me. Thus, they also denied other explicit hadiths and found no interpretation for them except to deny them, such as his saying, peace be upon him: They denied this hadith because, despite their skill in interpretation, indeed in denial, they found no way to interpret this text. So what did they do with it? They discarded it and did not believe in it. The point of this example is that all Islamic sects, old and new, share with us the statement of belief in the Book and the Sunnah, but they differ from us in not restricting themselves to the path of the Muslims mentioned by the Lord of the Worlds in His saying: They also did not raise their heads to the preceding hadith in which the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, described the saved sect, for it is the one that is upon what the Messenger and his Companions were upon. So they did not pay attention to his Companions, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, nor did they follow their guidance. Foremost among them are the Rightly Guided Caliphs, whom the Messenger, peace be upon him, paired with his name, mentioning them with his name and their Sunnah with his Sunnah in the hadith of al-'Arba' ibn Sariyah, which contains: to the end of the hadith. The point is that the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, informed his Ummah that whoever lives after him will see much disagreement. So what is the guarantee? And what is the way out of the much disagreement that has been and still is intensifying in this time? The guarantee, the complete guarantee, is what the Messenger, peace be upon him, placed before our eyes in this hadith by saying: to the end of the hadith. So the guarantee, the complete guarantee, is not merely holding fast to the Sunnah, but also to what the righteous Salaf were upon. If we look today at all the Islamic sects existing on the Islamic land, as I said earlier, old and new, we would find them all agreeing on the Book and the Sunnah, but they differ from us in returning to the righteous Salaf. So this is the decisive ruling between one who is truly upon the Sunnah and one who has deviated from it, even if he claims it. For the guarantee in the case of disagreement, as is explicit in this hadith, is returning to what the Companions in general and the Rightly Guided Caliphs in particular were upon. This is the beneficial knowledge. In summary, knowledge is not beneficial unless it is based on the Book, the interpretation of the Book is by the Sunnah, the Sunnah is authentic and not weak, and finally, the understanding of both the Book and the Sunnah is based on what our righteous Salaf did. Therefore, we find that all the sects existing today have no connection between them and their original Salaf, whatever their Salaf may be, because they do not have books that narrate to them the authentic hadiths, or in brief, that narrate to them the guidance of the Prophet, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him, in all aspects of his life, as he said, peace be upon him: This knowledge, this comprehensive and beneficial knowledge, is not found with all Islamic sects, let alone that they have books and reports that connect them to the righteous Salaf and indicate to them what they were upon so that they can follow them, implementing the saying of the Exalted mentioned earlier: So Allah the Exalted in this verse commands following the path of the believers and warns against contradicting the path of the believers, and considers opposing and contradicting the path of the believers as opposing the Messenger, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him. No sect has a way to return in their jurisprudence to the Book and the Sunnah to what the righteous Salaf were upon. So the beneficial knowledge is the Qur'an interpreted by the Sunnah, and the authentic Sunnah, both interpreted by what our righteous Salaf practiced. And to know what the righteous Salaf were upon, we must have books that narrate to us the reports of the Salaf, just as they narrate to us the hadiths of the Messenger, may Allah peace and blessings be upon him. ...