Did Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (A.S) claim to be God?

Introduction

Another allegation that the Anti-Ahmadis use is that Promised Messiah (A.S) claimed to be God (Nauthubillah). It is not only a lie but shows the ignorance of such people regarding the Quran, Ahadith, and Islamic dreams.

His dream is as follows:

In a vision I saw that I myself was God and believed myself to be such. I felt that I had no will or thought or action of my own left, and that I had become like a vessel with holes, or something which was being completely overpowered by something else that had absorbed it wholly so that its own being had completely disappeared. At that time, I saw that the spirit of Allah the Almighty had enveloped my soul and, covering my body, hid me completely in itself so that not a particle of me remained. I beheld my physical self as if all my limbs had become His, my eyes had become His eyes, my ears had become His ears and my tongue had become His tongue. My Lord seized me with such great force that I disappeared in Him and I felt that His power and strength was surging in me and His divinity was coursing through me. The camps of the Lord of honour were set up all around my heart and the Lord of power ground down my ego so that there was no more of me nor any desire of mine left. My whole structure was demolished and only the structure of the Lord of the universe remained visible. Divinity overcame me with such force that I was drawn to Him from the hair of my head to the nails of my toes. Then I became all kernel, which had no shell and became an oil which had no dregs. I was separated completely from my ego and I became like something which was not visible; or like a drop, which had become merged in the river so that the river comprehended it in its vastness. I no longer knew what I had been before or what my being was. Divinity coursed through my veins and muscles. I was completely lost to myself and God Almighty employed all my limbs for His purpose and took possession of me with such force that nothing could exceed it. Being so seized by Allah, I became non-existent. I believed that my limbs had become God’s limbs and I imagined that I had discarded my own being and had departed from my own existence and that no associate or claimant had remained as an obstruction. God Almighty entered wholly into my being and my anger and my gentleness, my bitterness and my sweetness and my movement and my inertness all became His. In this condition I said: We desire a new universe, a new heaven and a new earth. I then created the heaven and the earth in a mass without order or distinction and then, according to the divine will, I arranged and classified this mass. I felt that I had the power to create it. Then I created the lower heaven and said: “We have decorated the lower heaven with lamps.” Then I said: We shall now create man from the essence of clay. Then my condition moved from vision towards the reception of revelation and my tongue uttered: “I determined to make a vicegerent so I created Adam. Then We created man in the best mould.”

[Kitabul-Bariyyah, pp. 78–79, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 13, p. 103–105 translated in Tadhkirah English pp. 248-250]

Explanation

Firstly, this is only a vision and vision always requires an interpretation. Visions like these are Islamic and numerous scholars and saints of the past have received similar visions.

Secondly, the author himself clarifies that this does not prove his divinity. This is in response to the Christians who claim that Jesus (A.S) claimed divinity in the Gospels. What more proof does one need after reading the words of the author himself?

These are the revelations from the Exalted God about myself which have been disclosed to me. There are many other revelations of this kind which I have been publishing for about twenty-five years, and many of these have been published in my book Bara¯hı¯n Ahmadiyya and other books. Now let the respected Christian clergymen think and reflect and compare these revelations with those of Jesus the Messiah, and then let them testify with fairness whether those revelations of Jesus from which they infer his Divinity say anything more than these revelations. Is it not true that if someone’s Divinity can be inferred from such revelations and statements then from these revelations of mine my Divinity — I seek refuge with God — will be better established than that of Jesus. And more than that of anyone, the Divinity of our leader and master, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace and the blessings of Allah, can be established. For, his revelation does not only contain the verse “those who swear allegiance to thee do but swear allegiance to Allah”, and not only that the Exalted God has called the Holy Prophet’s hand as God’s own hand (48:10), and has declared each of his actions as God’s own action, and by saying “Nor does he speak out of desire, it is naught but revelation that is revealed” (53:3–4) He has declared all his words to be God’s own words, but at one place He has called all the people his [the Holy Prophet’s] servants, as He has said: “[O Prophet] say [to people]: O my servants”. (39:53) Hence it is obvious that the Divinity of our Prophet, on whom be peace and the blessings of Allah, can be established so plainly and clearly from these sacred words that the Divinity of Jesus cannot possibly be established to the same degree from the statements in the Gospels.

[Kitab-ul-Bariyyah, pg 103-104 [Translation by Lahori Ahmadis]

In a state of vision I saw that I had created a new earth and a new heaven and then I said: Now let us create man. At this the ignorant maulavis raised a cry: Watch now, this man claims to be God. Actually, the meaning of the vision was that God will bring about through me such a change as if the heaven and the earth had been renewed and true men will come into being.

[Chashma-e-Masihi, p. 58 footnote, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 20, pp. 375– 376 footnote translated in Tadhkirah English pp. 250]

Thirdly, he explains it using a hadith of Muhammad (S.A.W) also:

It was conveyed to me that when God Almighty determines to create a man He creates the heavens and the earth and all that is necessary in six days and creates Adam towards the end of the sixth day. This is His settled way. It was also conveyed to me that the creation of a new heaven and new earth, which I saw in my vision, indicated heavenly and earthly support and provision of appropriate means for the achievement of the true purpose and the bringing into being of people with natures fitted to make them righteous and pure. It was also conveyed to me that Allah the Almighty commands from heaven everyone with the appropriate nature to become ready to help His servant and to run towards him. I had seen this vision in Rabi‘uth-Thani, 1309 AH, Allah be praised for this. This did not mean pantheism or incarnation of God, but was illustration of the hadith mentioned in Sahih Bukhari which describes how through voluntary prayer the virtuous draw near to God.

[A’ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, pp. 564–566, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 5, p. 564–566 translated in Tadhkirah English pp. 250-251]

The hadith that he is referring to is this:

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said,

“Allah said, ‘I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of Mine. And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection (Refuge), I will protect him; (i.e. give him My Refuge) and I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him.”

[Sahih al-Bukhari 6502]

These are the words of Muhammad (S.A.W) himself where he says that a person who does Nawafils become the ears, eyes, hands, and legs of Allah. How is becoming body parts of Allah different than becoming Allah himself? And it does not even say that is possible in a dream or vision but in real life.

Will the Anti-Ahmadis also claim that Muhammad (S.A.W) was committing shirk? Nauthubillah!

Fourthly, this vision actually proves the truthfulness of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (A.S). Allah would not show a vision like this to a liar. This is also confirmed by the Sunni Fatwa site Islamqa:

The meaning of this part of the hadeeth is that when the believing slave strives to draw closer to Allaah by doing obligatory acts of worship, then naafil acts, Allaah will bring him closer to Him, and will raise him from the level of eemaan (faith, belief) to the level of ihsaan, so he will start to worship Allaah as if he can see Him, and his heart will be filled with knowledge of his Lord, love and awe for Him, fear of Him, and glorification and veneration of Him…..

Whoever suggests a meaning other than this is wrong and is transgressing the limits and showing disrespect towards Allaah, and he is going against the Arabs’ own understanding of their language and what they understand by such words.

[Meaning of Allaah’s words in the hadeeth qudsi – IslamQA]

Fifthly, Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani explains this hadith in the same way as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (A.S) and other Sunni scholars. This is what he writes in his commentary on Sahih Al Bukhari:

And when I love him, I am his ear with which he hears, his sight with which he sees: in ‘A’isha’s narration in the account of “Abd al- Wahid: ‘his eye with which he sees’; in Ya‘qiib ibn Mujahid’s narration: ‘his two eyes with which he sees’, using the dual also for the ‘ear’, the ‘hand’ and the ‘foot’. “Abd al-Wahid’s narration also adds: ‘And the heart with which he comprehends, and the tongue with which he speaks,’ a version which resembles also the narration of Abi Umama.

Here the problem arises of how the Creator can be a slave’s hearing and sight, and so on. The answer has several aspects. Firstly, the expression denotes representation and abstraction, so that the meaning is: ‘I am his hearing and his sight in his choosing My command, so that he loves My obedience and prefers My service.’ Secondly, the meaning is: ‘His whole being is occupied with Me, so that he listens with his hearing only to what pleases Me, and sees with his eye only that which I have commanded him to behold’. Thirdly, the meaning is: ““I am the One Who sets his objectives,”” so that it is as though he attains them by His sight, His hearing, and so on. Fourthly, the meaning is: ‘I support him as do his sight, his hearing, his hand and his feet, in his struggle against his enemy.’ Fifthly, on the opinion of al-Fakahani, there is an abbreviation in the text, so that the full meaning is: ‘I. am the protector of his hearing, with which he sees, so that he hears only what is permissible, and I am the protector of his eye, etc.’ Sixthly, al-Fakahani states: “The text supports another, more subtle interpretation, which is that “his hearing’ means ‘that which he hears’, since a gerund may take the sense of the passive participle, as when we say, ‘So-and-so is my hope’, meaning, ‘So-and-so is the one for whom | hope’. Here the meaning would be that ‘he hears only My remembrance [dhikr|, and finds delight only in the recitation of My book, and experiences intimacy only in close converse with Me, and beholds only the wonders of My kingdom, and holds out his hand only to that in which is My sxood-pleasure, etc.’

In his Book of Renunciation [Kitab al-Zuhd|, al-Bayhaqi relates that one of the imams of the Path, Abi ‘Uthman al-Hiri, said: ‘Its meaning is that I will be swifter in fulfilling his needs than his own hearing, his sight, his hand, and his foot.’ Some of the later Sufis apply it to the spiritual degrees [maqams] of Annihilation and Obliteration, which they mention, these being the utmost point beyond which is the void. In this station, the Muslim is established by God’s establishing him, he loves through God’s love for him, he sees through His sight of him, without there remaining with him anything to which a name could be attached, or which relates to any matter, or can be characterised by any predicate. The meaning of this discourse is that he witnesses Allah’s establishment of him so that he is established, Allah’s love of him so that he loves Him, and His sight of him so that he comes, looking to Him with his heart.’

[Selections from the Fath Al-Bari by Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani, Translated by Abdal Hakim Murad, pg 19-20]

Sixthly, Ibn Kathir also explains this in his famous tafsir:

The meaning of the hadith is that when a person is sincere in his obedience towards Allah, all his deeds are done for the sake of Allah, so he only hears for the sake of Allah, he only sees for the sake of Allah – meaning he only listens to or looks at what has been allowed by Allah. He does not strike or walk except in obedience to Allah, seeking Allah’s help in all of these things. Thus in some versions of the Hadith, narrated outside the Sahih, after the phrase “his foot with which he walks“, there is added:

“So through Me he hears, through Me lie sees, through Me he strikes and through Me he walks.” (Fath Al-Bari 11:348)

Thus Allah says,

وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْأَبْصَـٰرَ وَٱلْأَفْـِٔدَةَ ۙ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

“And He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts that you might give thanks.” (Quran 16:78)

Elsewhere, He says:

قُلۡ ہُوَ الَّذِیۡۤ اَنۡشَاَکُمۡ وَ جَعَلَ لَکُمُ السَّمۡعَ وَ الۡاَبۡصَارَ وَ الۡاَفۡـِٕدَۃَ ؕ قَلِیۡلًا مَّا تَشۡکُرُوۡنَ
قُلۡ ہُوَ الَّذِیۡ ذَرَاَکُمۡ فِی الۡاَرۡضِ وَ اِلَیۡہِ تُحۡشَرُوۡنَ

“Say it is He Who has created you, and endowed you with hearing and seeing, and hearts. Little thanks you give. Say: “It is He Who has created you on the earth, and to Him shall you be gathered (in the Hereafter).”” (Quran 67:23-24)

[Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol 5 scan]

Seventhly, another book of dreams by the Sunni Muslims says that if one sees themselves as Allah, it means they are guided.

If some person sees themselves as God then its interpretation is that they will be guided.

[Khawab Aur Tabeer by Shaykh Abdul Ghani Ibn Ismail Nabalsi/Ta’tirul Anam Vol 1. p 10]

Conclusion

In short, Muslims who bring up these allegations must actually learn and understand Islam before they think about making such allegations. They are indirectly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) himself and don’t even realize it. Moreover, it shows their lack of knowledge of what their own scholars have written and makes them look like fools. May Allah guide us all.