Family Khilafat?
Introduction
Anti-Ahmadis allege that because four out of the five khulafa are related to the Promised Messiah and Khalifatul Masih !! then because of that, they claim that Khilafat is a Gaddi Nasheen which refers to how certain Sufi Orders have their leaders be continuously in the same family
The Khulafa-Rashideen were all of the Quraysh
Abu Bakr (RA), Umar(RA), Uthman(RA), and Ali(RA) were all from the tribe of the Quraysh and all either were related to Muhammad SAW or were matrimonially linked. So a Non-Ahmadi Muslim making this allegation fire back on them
The First Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Movement was not from the Family of Promised Messiah(AS)
Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Awwal(RA) was not from the family of the Promised Messiah(AS), who was a Mirza. Maulvi Noor-ud-deen(RA) was an Awan from his mother side, and from his father side he was a direct descendant of Hazrat Umar al Farooq(RA)
Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din RA sttates:
:“Even though there exist not one but four sons of Hazrat Mirza Sahib and a grandson, there exists Mirza Sahib’s son-in-law who combines the names Muhammad and Ali [Nawab Muhammad Ali of Malerkotla] and is able and worthy, and there exists Mirza Sahib’s father-in-law who is like a father, yet the entire community took the pledge at the hand of an outsider.”
(The Review of Religions, Urdu edition, June-July 1908, p. 260.)
Hazrat Musleh Maud RA’s goal was not to make a gaddi Nasheen
Anti-Ahmadis lie and act as if Hazrat Musleh Maud(RA( goal was to establish a family khilafat. when in fact he denied the intention of giving khilafat to his son and the first quote shows this.
In December 1914, at the first annual Jalsa of the Qadiani Jama‛at since he became khalifa, Hadhrat Mirza Bashirudeen Mahmud Ahmad RA delivered a speech entitled Barakat-i Khilafat. In it, under the subheading: “Has the khilafat become an inherited seat?”, he declares:
“As to the foolish one who says that a hereditary seat has been established, I swear to him: I do not even consider it allowable that the son should succeed the father as khalifa. Of course, if God makes him His appointed one, then that is a different matter. But like Hazrat Umar, I also believe that the son should not be khalifa after the father.”
Anwar-ul-‛Ulum, v. 2, book number 7, p. 171.
Now some ignorants use the above quote and the following to say “look Mirza Nasir Ahmad RH and Mirza Tahir Ahmad RH ended up being the khulafa after all” but Musleh Maud(RA) states “Of course, if God makes him His appointed one, then that is a different matter.”. The Majlis e Shura (the conduit through which Allah chooses) was not obligated to choose Hadhrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad RH or Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad RH due to a rule or an inheritance but they chose them due to their best judgment as the man who would be most capable to lead the jamaat at that time.
In his book Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam, first published in 1924, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad stated near the beginning
“It is not necessary that the head of the Community should be, in any way, related to the holy founder of the Movement, as, for instance, his first successor was not related to him either by blood or by marriage, nor, on the other hand, is it necessary, that the Head of the Community should not be related to the holy founder of the Movement, as, for instance, I have the honour to be his son.
Ahmadiyyat or the True Islam, ch. ‘History of the Movement’, p. 6. The Urdu version of this book is in Anwar-ul-‛Ulum, v. 8, book number 5; see p. 115.
At the 1956 annual gathering of his Jama‛at, Hazrat Mirza Bashirudeen Mahmud Ahmad RA made a speech under the title Khilafat Haqqah Islamiyya (‘The True Islamic Khilafat’). In it he said about some of his critics:
“These people say that I want to make my sons khalifa. At present the spiritual descendants of the Promised Messiah are one million, while of his physical descendants there are only three persons alive, and if a son-in-law is included they become four. For such a large group I am saying that any one of them can be khalifa. … I consider the four physical descendants of the Promised Messiah and his spiritual descendants who now number one million to have the right to khilafat. The man who says that you may chose as khalifa anyone from among these believers in the khilafat, to allege about him that he wants to make a son of his as khalifa is a most foolish claim.”
Anwar-ul-‛Ulum, v. 26, p. 34–35
Khalifatul Maseeh V ABA: It is actions, not lineage
Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa, speaking on the martyrdom of Syed Taalay Ahmed Shaheed, said in his Friday Sermon of 3 September 2021:
“The honour of the family [of the Promised Messiahas] or being physically related to them does not give a person status. If anyone respects them […] it is due to them being servants of the faith and giving precedence to their religion over worldly matters.
“To be the son or daughter of a revered person is not a source of pride if your actions do not make you worthy of that honour.
“[Taalay] was a diamond that has now departed from us. May Allah the Almighty continue to grant the Jamaat such people who are loyal, have a sincere and dedicated relationship with Khilafat, and give precedence to their faith over worldly matters.”