بسم الله الحمد لله و صلاة و سلام على حبيب الله محمد و على اله

I once had a phone conversation with a doubting-Ahmadi. He was very polite and it was a pleasure speaking to him. In our conversation, he argued that Allah lifting up ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه اسلام towards the heavens would be unscientific. How could that happen! It would defy Newtonian physics! I replied by asking if he believed the Sea Split for Musa عليه السلام and he passed through it with all of Bani Isra’eel? Or that Maryam عليها اسلام conceived without touching a man? These miracles also seem to defy modern science. One by one, he gave me obscure rationalizations of the seemingly impossible. I was dumbfounded.

The Ahmadis officially canonized Imam al-Ghazali as the Mujaddid (reviver of the faith) of the 5th century. Lately, I’ve been influenced by the great works of al-Ghazali, in particular his quintessential masterpiece The Incoherence of Philosophy.

In Chapter XVII, titled Refutation of their Belief in the Impossibility of a Departure from the Natural Course of Events, al-Ghazali argues against the perceived relationship between Causes and Effects. He presents the example of fire and cotton. If you put fire next to cotton, the cotton burns. Al-Ghazali argues the most our observations can assert is that there is a correlation between the fire and the burning of cotton, but not a causal relationship. [If that’s confusing, look up the Correlation does not imply Causality fallacy] Instead, Al-Ghazali argues, the cause of the cotton burning is Allah. He is the agent of burning and he chooses to burn when fire is present. It is not because of the fire that things burn, it is Allah choosing to burn when the fire is present.

This understanding makes the following three possibilities conceivable realities:

Burning when fire is present (as expected) Not burning, despite fire’s presence (unexpected) Burning, despite fire’s absence (unexpected)

In other words, it is possible that what we deem as impossible can occur if and when Allah wills. Allah, who created our reality and is therefore not subject to its limitations, can cause reality to depart from the natural course of events. (When you truly understand this, literally everything becomes a proof of Allah.) With this framework, we wholeheartedly assert that Ibrahim عليه اسلام was thrown into the Fire but the fire was made cool for him, that Musa عليه السلام parted the sea and passed through it, that ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه السلام was ascended towards the heavens and will return, and that Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم fed hundreds of Sahaba from a single cup of milk.

Now lets compare what al-Ghazali wrote to what most Ahmadis believe. They do not envisage reality with this framework. They opine that the laws of physics are absolute and that Allah is bound to operate within them. Therefore, they argue, all of the miracles spoken of in the Qur’an have rational explanations that conform to the laws of modern science. Their explanations of miracles tend to be extremely improbable, far-fetched or outright absurd. And when they cannot find a natural explanation, they argue that the miracles were merely metaphors and should not be taken literally. After all, no rational, intellectual person would take them literally, right?

Here’s the kicker: Al-Ghazali continues to write that a previous group of the Muslims attempted to rationalize the miracle of Ibrahim عليه اسلام thrown into the fire, but when they were not able to do so, they denied its occurrence through metaphorical reinterpretation. As Ibn Taymiyya, whom the Ahmadis cannoned the Mujaddid of the 7th century, said, Tahreef (distortion) of the clear meanings of the Qur’an is a form of rejection. This is precisely what Ahmadi theology teaches. A distortion of the Qur’an and Sunnah through radical reinterpretations and a complete departurefrom the understanding of the Muslims since the time of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم.

We invite Ahmadis to return to the legacy of the very ones whom they officially consider to be the Revivers of the Faith and to testify that the miracles spoken of in the Qur’an were true. And Guidance is from Allah alone.

و صلي على رسول الله