Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat
Encyclopedia
The Tehrik-e-Khatme Nabuwwat or Tehrik-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat was a religious movement in Pakistan
aiming to protect the finality of prophethood and to refute the repudiators of the belief in the finality of prophethood of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
.
of Qadian
proclaimed to be a prophet in Islam.
This movement gained momentum in 1934 when Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
arranged a big gathering called Ahrar Tableegh Conference, held at Qadian, the headquarters of Ahmadis in India before partition. Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
of Majlis-e-Ahrar led the conference.
The phrase Khatm-e-Nubuwwat means that Muhammad is the last of the prophets.
Allah says in the Quran:
“Muhammad is not fathering any of your Men. However, he is the Messenger of Almighty Allah and the Last / Seal of the Prophets. In addition, Almighty Allah has complete knowledge of the things.”
There are about one hundred verses of the Quran and more than two hundred sayings of the Muhammad on Khatm-e-Nubuwwat, which convey that the practice of appointing prophets has been finished after Muhammad. Some of the sayings of Muhammad on this:
“I am the Last of the Prophets and you are last of the Ummah.”
“I am the seal of the prophets and you are seal of Ummah.”
“I am the Last of Prophets and My Mosque is the Last of the mosques of the Holy Prophets.”
“Had there been any Prophet after me, Umar bin Khattab would have been that”.
“My example and example of other prophets is like the one who constructed the great, grant and beautiful place but left place of a brick in one of the corners. People came to see and went around it. They praised its beauty and grandness very much. Besides they said this is one brick has not been fixed.” The prophet said, “I am that brick and I am the last of the prophets. (I am the seal of the prophethood)”.
“There will be thirty faiths less liars of the highest order. Every one of them will claims to be a Prophet. Whereas in fact, I am the last of the Prophets. No Prophet is to come (Here) after me”.
“O; Abuzar! The primarily of the Prophets is Hazrat Adam (Alaihe-Salaam) and the last of all the Prophets is Hazrat Muhammad.”
Allah says in the Qur'an:
“Nor does he Say (ought) of (his own) desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him”.
The whole Muslim Ummah coherence on the belief of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. All the expounders and exegetics have concord on the meanings of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. I.e. there is neither any type of prophet nor any sort of messenger after Muhammad. It is also concordat that there is no other interpretation or appropriation in the meanings of the word Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. The abnegator (denier) of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat is abnegator of Allah his last messenger and coherence of Muslim Ummah.
Muslim Community and nurtured it using his office. Although no evidence was ever provided of this allegation. The Court of enquiry report on the disturbances
explains the real reasons for this violent uprising against Ahmadiyya Muslim community. Main reasons being persecution of Ahmadi Muslims due to theological differences and using the Ahmadiyya issues by religious fanatics to gain political mileage.
This was the first time that an all-parties movement to protect the finality of Muhammad started to surface. This movement — eventually called Kul Jamaati Majlis-e-Aml Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat —under Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
had three demands:
This was in 1949, when Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
had just started working informally. The movement launched countrywide campaigns and protests resulting in a ban on Majlis-e-Ahrar in 1954. After the ban, a formal Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat emerged as the substitute to lead this anti-Ahmadi campaign. The clerics also launched Aalami Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat to counter Ahmadis across the world.
, and leading clerics of the time like Mufti Mahmood Ahmed, Shah Ahmad Noorani, Professor Ghafoor Ahmed and many others participated in the 15-day debate in the Pakistan parliament. The government's case was prosecuted by the secular Attorney-General, Yahya Bakhtiar of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party
. Some members of Parliament were initially sceptical, but in the end, voted unanimously to pass the Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
in December 1974. This amendment declares Ahmadis 'non-Muslim' for the purposes of the Constitution as Pakistan's President and Prime Minister must be of the Muslim faith.
(PPC) that called for punitive sanctions on Ahmadis in 1984, commonly known as Ordinance XX
. This was another target achieved by the Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
aiming to protect the finality of prophethood and to refute the repudiators of the belief in the finality of prophethood of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
.
History of Movement
The roots of Tehrik-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat can be traced back to the 1880s when the Mirza Ghulam AhmadMirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
of Qadian
Qadian
Qadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....
proclaimed to be a prophet in Islam.
This movement gained momentum in 1934 when Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam or Majlis-e-Ah'rãr-e-Islam , also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Sunni Muslim political party in Pakistan prior to the Partition of India...
arranged a big gathering called Ahrar Tableegh Conference, held at Qadian, the headquarters of Ahmadis in India before partition. Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari , was an Indian Muslim scholar, religious and senior political leader from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam's founding members...
of Majlis-e-Ahrar led the conference.
Faith behind Movement
The theological basis is summarised below:The phrase Khatm-e-Nubuwwat means that Muhammad is the last of the prophets.
Allah says in the Quran:
“Muhammad is not fathering any of your Men. However, he is the Messenger of Almighty Allah and the Last / Seal of the Prophets. In addition, Almighty Allah has complete knowledge of the things.”
There are about one hundred verses of the Quran and more than two hundred sayings of the Muhammad on Khatm-e-Nubuwwat, which convey that the practice of appointing prophets has been finished after Muhammad. Some of the sayings of Muhammad on this:
- “I am the Last of the Prophets. No Prophet is there after me.”
- Saad Bin Abi Waqaas narrates that Muhammad said to Ali
- “Ali! You have the same status and relation with me as Haroon had with Moses with the exception that there is no prophet after me.”
- Abu Amarah narrates, the prophet said
“I am the Last of the Prophets and you are last of the Ummah.”
“I am the seal of the prophets and you are seal of Ummah.”
- Ummul-Mumineen Ayesha (Razi-Allah-ho-Anha) narrates, Muhammad said
“I am the Last of Prophets and My Mosque is the Last of the mosques of the Holy Prophets.”
- Uqba bin Aamir (Razi-Allah-ho-Anha) narrates, Muhammad said
“Had there been any Prophet after me, Umar bin Khattab would have been that”.
- Abu Hurerah (Razi-Allah-ho-Anhu) narrates, the holy prophet said
“My example and example of other prophets is like the one who constructed the great, grant and beautiful place but left place of a brick in one of the corners. People came to see and went around it. They praised its beauty and grandness very much. Besides they said this is one brick has not been fixed.” The prophet said, “I am that brick and I am the last of the prophets. (I am the seal of the prophethood)”.
- Sobaan(Razi-Allah-ho-Anhu) narrated, Muhammad said
“There will be thirty faiths less liars of the highest order. Every one of them will claims to be a Prophet. Whereas in fact, I am the last of the Prophets. No Prophet is to come (Here) after me”.
- Abuzar (Razi-Allah-ho-Anhu) narrates, Muhammad ( said to me.
“O; Abuzar! The primarily of the Prophets is Hazrat Adam (Alaihe-Salaam) and the last of all the Prophets is Hazrat Muhammad.”
Allah says in the Qur'an:
“Nor does he Say (ought) of (his own) desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him”.
The whole Muslim Ummah coherence on the belief of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. All the expounders and exegetics have concord on the meanings of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. I.e. there is neither any type of prophet nor any sort of messenger after Muhammad. It is also concordat that there is no other interpretation or appropriation in the meanings of the word Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. The abnegator (denier) of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat is abnegator of Allah his last messenger and coherence of Muslim Ummah.
Movement in Pakistan
The movement’s history reads that after Pakistan came into being, as a result of the partition of the subcontinent, Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, better known as Sir Zafarullah Khan, the first foreign minister of Pakistan, allegedly started patronising the AhmadiyyaAhmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...
Muslim Community and nurtured it using his office. Although no evidence was ever provided of this allegation. The Court of enquiry report on the disturbances
Punjab Disturbances Court Of Inquiry
On 19 June 1953 a Court of Inquiry was established to look into disturbances in the Punjab, Pakistan.-Disturbances:In the beginning of March 1953, widespread disturbances broke out in the Punjab, Pakistan, which in some places continued till the middle of April 1953...
explains the real reasons for this violent uprising against Ahmadiyya Muslim community. Main reasons being persecution of Ahmadi Muslims due to theological differences and using the Ahmadiyya issues by religious fanatics to gain political mileage.
This was the first time that an all-parties movement to protect the finality of Muhammad started to surface. This movement — eventually called Kul Jamaati Majlis-e-Aml Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat —under Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam or Majlis-e-Ah'rãr-e-Islam , also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Sunni Muslim political party in Pakistan prior to the Partition of India...
had three demands:
- removal of Zafarullah Khan from the foreign ministry
- removal of Ahmadis from top government offices;
- declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims.
This was in 1949, when Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam or Majlis-e-Ah'rãr-e-Islam , also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Sunni Muslim political party in Pakistan prior to the Partition of India...
had just started working informally. The movement launched countrywide campaigns and protests resulting in a ban on Majlis-e-Ahrar in 1954. After the ban, a formal Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat emerged as the substitute to lead this anti-Ahmadi campaign. The clerics also launched Aalami Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat to counter Ahmadis across the world.
Ahmadis declared Non-Muslims in 1974
In 1973, the then president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Abdul Qayyum declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, a step which the Pakistani government had not yet taken. In the same year, Rabta-e-Alam-e-Islami Conference in Saudi Arabia also gave its stamp of approval to oust Ahmadis from the circle of Islam. The unfortunate beating of the students of Nishtar Medical College, Multan, on May 29, 1974, proved to be a major incident that infuriated Muslims in Pakistan. The students, going on train, started shouting against Ahmadis while reaching Rabwah – the headquarter city of Ahmadis in Pakistan – resulting in a violent reaction of Ahmadis to the students on the train on their way back. This incident ignited violent protests across the country, and resulted in the issue coming before the Pakistan Parliament later the same year. A delegation of Ahmadiyya scholars, including their head, Mirza Nasir AhmadMirza Nasir Ahmad
Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih III, head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was elected as the third successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on November 8, 1965, the day after the death of his predecessor and father, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad.Nasir Ahmad is credited with...
, and leading clerics of the time like Mufti Mahmood Ahmed, Shah Ahmad Noorani, Professor Ghafoor Ahmed and many others participated in the 15-day debate in the Pakistan parliament. The government's case was prosecuted by the secular Attorney-General, Yahya Bakhtiar of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
. Some members of Parliament were initially sceptical, but in the end, voted unanimously to pass the Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
The II Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan became a part of Constitution of Pakistan on September 7, 1974. The II Amendment declared the religious status of Ahmadis as minority and as 'non-muslim'...
in December 1974. This amendment declares Ahmadis 'non-Muslim' for the purposes of the Constitution as Pakistan's President and Prime Minister must be of the Muslim faith.
Anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance of 1984
After meeting the first agenda, Khatm-e-Nabuwat started the next phase of their campaign – to force Ahmadis to comply with the new law. They started demanding legal sanctions on Ahmadis barring them from using the title of Muslim. This campaign was at its peak when Maulana Yousaf of Jamia Banori (Karachi), and Punjab-based Maulana Khawaja Khan Muhammad were leading the Majlis-e-Amal Tahafuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat in 1984 and 1985. The then president General Zia ul Haq passed an ordinance in 1984 amending the Pakistan Penal CodePakistan penal code
The Pakistan Penal Code usually called PPC is a penal code for all offences charged in Pakistan. It was originally prepared by Lord Macaulay with a great consultation in 1860 on the behalf of the Government of British India as the Indian Penal Code...
(PPC) that called for punitive sanctions on Ahmadis in 1984, commonly known as Ordinance XX
Ordinance XX
Ordinance XX is an legal ordinance of the Government of Pakistan that was promulgated under the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq and is meant to restrict members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from applying certain Islamic terms to their own religious practices and beliefs.-Precedent:Ordinance XLIV...
. This was another target achieved by the Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam or Majlis-e-Ah'rãr-e-Islam , also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Sunni Muslim political party in Pakistan prior to the Partition of India...
.
Leaders
- Syed Ata Ullah Shah BukhariSyed Ata Ullah Shah BukhariSyed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari , was an Indian Muslim scholar, religious and senior political leader from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam's founding members...
, founder of Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam - Abdul Latif Khalid CheemaAbdul Latif Khalid CheemaAbdul Latif Khalid Cheema is Secretary General of Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam and Central convener of Muttahida Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat Rabitta Committee. He is also the head of Darul Uloom Khatm-e-Nubuwwat in Chichawatni...
, Secretary General of Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam Pakistan - Agha Shorish KashmiriAgha Shorish KashmiriAgha Shorish Kashmiri was a scholar, writer, debater, and leader of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam party. He was a figure of the freedom movement of undivided India. He was the chief editor of the weekly Chattan.-References:...
- Janbaz MirzaJanbaz MirzaJanbaz Mirza was a writer, poet, and journalist from the Indian subcontinent and later Pakistan. He played a role in the Pakistan Movement and was the leader and official historian of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam party. He joined the Ahrar Party in 1932. After the partition of India, he started to...
- Yousuf LudhianviYousuf LudhianviMaulana Muhammad Yousuf Ludhianvi was a Muslim scholar and Naib Amir of Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. He was born in EsaPur, Ludhiana, Eastern Punjab, India and was martyred in Karachi, Pakistan....
, leader of Khatm-e-Nubuwwat - Akber Choudhry
See also
- Khatme NabuwwatKhatme NabuwwatKhatim an-Nabuwwah , or Seal of Prophethood, is an Islamic belief unique to Prophet Muhammad. However, there is a difference of interpretation within Muslims; orthodox Muslims hold a consensus that this implies that prophethood came to an end after Muhammad, whereas other groups such as Ahmadiyya...
- Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-IslamMajlis-e-Ahrar-ul-IslamMajlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam or Majlis-e-Ah'rãr-e-Islam , also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Sunni Muslim political party in Pakistan prior to the Partition of India...
- Pasban Khatme NabuwwatPasban Khatme NabuwwatPasban Khatm-e Nabuwwat "Guardians of the Seal of Prophethood" is the name of a Pakistani organisation that has made it their business to combat, often violently, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
- Khatm-e-Nubuwwat AcademyKhatm-e-Nubuwwat AcademyKhatm-e-Nubuwwat Academy claims to be simply an Ahmadiyya-awareness organisation located in Forest Gate, London, United Kingdom. It has been the subject of the 2010 controversy in the United Kingdom regarding an alleged hate campaign against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community...
- Muttahida Tehrik-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat Raabta Committee