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Section presents writings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to
show that he clearly distinguished between the two main
types of revelation: wahy nubuwwat (revelation
exclusive to prophets), and wahy wilayat (the
lower form of revelation received by saints as well as
prophets); and that he considered wahy nubuwwat to have
terminated after the Holy Prophet Muhammad because it
characterises a prophet. He only laid claim to receiving
wahy wilayat. The Section then deals with the concept of
muhaddas, the proper term for a Muslim saint who receives
revelation, and shows the meaning Hazrat Mirza attached
to this term. Wahy
or revelation from God is of two kinds:
Wahy nubuwwat or wahy
risalat (revelation exclusive to prophets).
Wahy wilayat or wahy
muhaddasiyyat (revelation received by a saint, a
non-prophet).
The persons who are raised
by God for a mission are appointed either by receiving
wahy nubuwwat or wahy wilayat. Hazrat Mirza wrote:
``God says [in the
Holy Quran] that He does not clearly reveal news of
matters unseen to anyone except His messengers (rasul),
that is to say, those persons who are appointed
through wahy risalat or through wahy
wilayat, and are known as being from Him.''
(Al-Haq
Mubahasa Ludhiana, p. 117)
If such a person is a
recipient of wahy nubuwwat, he is called a nabi
(prophet) and rasul (messenger), and belongs to
the category of prophets.
If, however, he is a
recipient of wahy wilayat, he is called a muhaddas
(one who receives Divine revelation without being a
prophet) or a mujaddid (religious reformer), and
belongs to the category of saints (wali).
Wahy nubuwwat (revelation
exclusive to prophets) began with the prophet Adam and
ended with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This is what Hazrat
Mirza wrote:
``It is my belief that
wahy risalat began with Adam and ended with
the Holy Prophet Muhammad.''
(Majmu`a
Ishtiharat, vol. ii, p.\ 230)
``A seal has been put
upon wahy nubuwwat since thirteen hundred
years ago.''
(Izala
Auham, p. 534)
``It has just been
shown that wahy risalat has been terminated
till the Day of Judgment.''
(ibid.,
p. 614)
``How could it be
permitted that, despite the fact that our Holy
Prophet Muhammad is the Last of the Prophets (Khatam
al-anbiya), some other prophet should appear
sometime and wahy nubuwwat commence.''
(Ayyam
as-Sulh, p. 47)
``O you people, who
are called the progeny of Muslims! Do not become
opponents of the Quran, and do not start wahy
nubuwwat after the Last of the Prophets.''
(Asmani
Faisla, p. 16)
So, after the Holy Prophet
Muhammad, wahy nubuwwat has been ended. To put man in
contact with God now, there only remains wahy wilayat
which is received by saints. Hazrat Mirza wrote on this
point as follows:
``I believe that it is
not wahy nubuwwat but wahy wilayat which
the saints receive through the Prophethood of
Muhammad due to their perfect following of him. If
anyone accuses me of claiming anything beyond this,
he departs from honesty and fear of God.''
(Majmu`a
Ishtiharat, vol. ii, no. 151, p. 297)
``I have noticed that
at the time of revelation, which descends upon me in
the form of wahy wilayat, I feel myself in the
hands of an extremely strong external force.''
(Barakat-ud-Du`a,
p. 21)
``Has it ever happened
in the world that God should have so helped an
imposter that he could be speaking a lie against God
for eleven years, to the effect that His [God's] wahy
wilayat and wahy muhaddasiyyat comes to
him, and God would not cut off his jugular vein.''
(Ainah
Kamalat Islam, p. 323)
Even if the wahy nubuwwat
received by someone did not address him by the titles nabi
(prophet) and rasul (messenger), he would still become a
prophet as the recipient of wahy nubuwwat. The Holy
Prophet Muhammad's first revelation in the form of wahy
nubuwwat is the Quranic passage beginning with the words:
``Read in the name of thy Lord, Who creates.'' The
revelation of this passage made him a prophet, yet it did
not address him as nabi or rasul.
Conversely, if the wahy
wilayat received by a saint addresses him as nabi and
rasul, and he even receives verses of the Holy Quran in
his wahy wilayat, he still does not become a
prophet, but remains a saint. Many recognised saints
throughout the history of Islam received revelation in
which they were called nabi and rasul, and they also had
revelation which contained verses from the Holy Quran.
Imam Ja`far Sadiq, an early Imam from the line of Ali, is
said to have received the whole of the Holy Quran in his
revelation.
Therefore, the revelation
of a single sentence by way of wahy nubuwwat makes the
recipient a prophet, but the revelation upon some saint
of even the whole of the Holy Quran by way of wahy
wilayat does not make him a prophet. Regarding this,
Hazrat Mirza writes:
bolsa de valores
``It is obvious that
if it is supposed that the angel Gabriel can now
descend with even one sentence of wahy nubuwwat
and remain silent thereafter, this would still
contradict the finality of prophethood, for when the
seal of finality is breached and wahy risalat
again starts to descend, it matters not whether the
amount is little or much. Every wise person can
understand that if God is true to His promise, and
the promise given in the Khatam an-nabiyyin
verse, which has been explicitly mentioned in the
Hadith, that now, after the death of the Prophet of
God, peace and the blessings of God be upon him,
Gabriel has been forbidden forever from bringing wahy
nubuwwat --- if all these things are true and
correct, then no person at all can come as a
messenger (rasul) after our Prophet, peace be
upon him.''
(Izala
Auham, p. 577)
``After the Khatam
an-nabiyyin, the Holy Quran does not allow the
coming of any rasul, whether he is a new one
or a former one, because a rasul receives
knowledge of religion through the agency of Gabriel,
and the coming of Gabriel as bringing wahy risalat
has been closed. It is self-contradictory that a
messenger (rasul) come into the world, but not
be accompanied by wahy risalat.''
(ibid.,
p. 761)
``Will the revelation
of a prophet be called anything other than wahy
nubuwwat?''
(Siraj
Munir, p. 4)
How
explicitly and unequivocally has Hazrat Mirza stated here
that, after the Holy Prophet Muhammad, wahy nubuwwat
had ended! Even a single sentence of this type of
revelation cannot descend upon any person after the Holy
Prophet. However many saints, reformers and
Divinely-inspired holy men appear among the Muslims, they
would receive only wahy wilayat, and Hazrat Mirza
is one such personage. Never did he term his revelation
as wahy nubuwwat, but always as wahy wilayat.
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