Defining a Muslim, Article 290 of the Constitution of Pakistan says, " 'Muslim' means a person who believes in the unity and oneness of Almighty Allah, in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him), the last of the Prophets and does not believe in, or recognize as a prophet or religious reformer, any person who claimed or claims to be a prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever, after Muhammad (peace be upon him)."
The bit which deserves our attention from this article is that it has declared all, all Muslims as non-Muslims with the exception of Ahl-ul-Qur´an I think, or whichever sects believe not in the coming of any Prophet. Now, all the mainstream Muslims believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) as a Prophet. Now, you would be very keen to argue to that it´s the return of an old Prophet as opposed to the appearance of a new one, but the article emphatically declares ".... any person who claimed or claims to be a prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever.... " It leaves no room for any kind of Prophethood, whether it be old or new: "In any sense of the word", it says.
Another problem with the wording of this article is this, "Any person who claimed or claims to be a prophet, after Muhammad (peace be upon him)." The problem here is that for the Christ to begin his mission, he´ll have to claim, he´ll have to speak up and tell masses that he´s the same Messiah, the same Prophet whom they´re waiting for, and that constitutes making a claim. The "Old Prophet" excuse doesn´t serve us much here either, because, due to the interval in the Christ´s life, he´ll have to make a claim once again so that people realise that he´s the right one. Now, will this second claim be made before the Holy Prophet Muhammad or after him? Obviously, after him in terms of time!
The third problem is that the article says, "..... in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him)..... " The re-appearance of an old Prophet does in every way violate the concept of absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet, because we would then obviously be re-opening the door, albeit for an old Prophet. The moment we pose this question to our non-Ahmadi friends, the answer always follows with a "but" or a "because" - that is to say, "but" or "Because the Christ is an old Prophet." The problem here is that words such as "absolute" and "unqualified" do not leave any room for any exception to be made. If I say that I shall render an absolute and unqualified obedience to my mother, then there cannot be made any exception to this, that in such or such case I will disobey her.
So the minute you believe in the concept of the Second Coming of the Christ, you become a non-Muslim according to the constitution of the country. You´d obviously deny being a non-Muslim, and the minute you do that, you too aren´t accepting the Constitution of Pakistan - something which people accuse Ahmadis of! So welcome to the club, brothers and sisters, in particular those mainstream Muslims out there from Pakistan who take great pride in this particular clause of the constitution and think themselves to be Muslims according to it. To be honest, this particular clause is one of the most hilarious examples of what kind of things are wrought under the supervision of Mullahs! The so-called learned men and those possessing knowledge on religion have readily declared over 95% Pakistani Muslims as non-Muslims! The making of such a law which only ends up pointing back at you reminds me of a wonderful verse......
"And when their Messengers came to them with manifest Signs, they exulted in the knowledge which they possessed. And that at which they mocked encompassed them" - Qur´an 40:83.
So much for the knowledge of the Ulema who ended up declaring a vast majority of the Ummah as non-Muslims!
*Note: in this article, I´ve dealt with this issue in the light of logics and examples only as the aim was to offer an analysis on an article from the Constitution of Pakistan. The return of Jesus Christ in light of the Holy Qur´an will be addressed in another write-up of mine (Insha´Allah), which in a sense will be a sequel to this article.*
Warm regards,
Rawal Afzal (Twitter: @R_A_Azaad / @The_Traveller27).
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