Intro
24:55 (24:56 in the Qadiani Quran) of the Quran is a promise from Allah to His Messenger that He would cause his Ummah to become successors on earth, i.e., they would become the leaders and rulers of mankind, through whom he would reform the world and to whom people would submit, so that they would have in exchange a safe security after their fear. This is what Allah did indeed do, may He be glorified and exalted, and to Him be praise and blessings (See Tafsir ibn Kathir). This was true from 625-ish–1800, an era of 1000+ years. A good run! MGA gave a commentary on 24:55 in 1891 and 1893, and 1894, however, he gave a contrary commentary on this verse in 1906. MGA never wrote that there would be a Khilafat after him that would fulfill the promise given to Muslims in this verse.
Ironically, one of the sons of MGA, namely, Mirza Bashir Ahmad wrote a book in the 1960’s which implied :
“The khilafat in the Jama‘at will not remain in its pure form forever, but will degenerate into a hereditary institution after the first four khalifas. Apparently, Mirza Bashir Ahmad drew a parallel with the history of the early khalifas of Islam, when after the first four khalifas, who were truly worthy of holding this office, the headship deteriorated into a worldly monarchy in which succession was by descent, and not by the true Islamic worth of a person.” (Translation and quotation directly to the statement of Zahid Aziz, who is a Lahori-Ahmadi top scholar).
This quotation came from a Friday Khutbah by Mirza Masroor Ahmad from 2005 wherein he addresses this entire book which was written by an uncle of his. I quoted in the above a word for word explanation by Zahid Aziz. Zahid Aziz has translated many of MGA’s books into english, he also runs a blog, I discussed the split with him for many years.
After the split, the 2 sects of Ahmadiyya, the Lahori and Qadiani branch seem to have developed their own unique interpretation of 24:55, the Lahoris seem to have mentioned that 24:55 did include MGA, however, it still included mujadids and other spiritual benefactors in the islamic world, which is what Muhammad Ali wrote in his famous english commentary on the Quran, which was published in 1917. However, in 1920, Muhammad Ali wrote an essay entitled “Khilafat in Islam”, wherein he totally forgot about MGA and his connection with 24:55. However, the Qadiani branch began connecting the Khilafat of Mahmud Ahmad with 24:55.
Continue reading “Ahmadiyya and 24:55 of the Quran and their Spiritual Khilafat”