With-Love-to-Muhammad

Alternative Qirā‘āt of the Qur’ān 31
This statement is the fatwā [i.e., Islāmic legal opinion] of Hazrat
‘Alī ra on this discussion. What he meant to say is that the qirā‘ah
with the fatah, Khātam-an-Nabiyyīn, is superior to the qirā’āt with
the kasra, Khātim-an-Nabiyyīn. Farhan Khan insists that the
phrase Khātam-an-Nabiyyīn should be judged based on the
inferior qirā’āt but the argument of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Jamā‘at is that the superior qirā’ah should be used to judge the
meaning of this phrase. If Hazrat ‘Alī ra agreed with Farhan
Khan, he should have been happy that his sons were being
taught the qirā’ah which conveys the correct meaning but the
fact of the matter is that he discouraged that qirā’ah and ordered
that khātam be recited with a fatah. Furthermore, it should be
noted that in his chapter entitled Examples of Khātam used in other
contexts, Farhan Khan says that we should stick to the definition
of a word contemporary to the speaker, not contemporary to the
interpreter 13 . However, when it comes to the qirā’āt, he rejects
the one employed by Hazrat ‘Alī ra , who was one of the earliest
companions of and contemporary to the Holy Prophet
Muhammad sa , and wants to impose his preferred qirā’āt
centuries later!
Finally, Farhan Khan uses this discussion to point out
instances where Hazrat Maulwī Nūr-ud-Dīn ra , the first
successor [Khalīfa] of the Promised Messiah as , and Hazrat Mirzā
Bashīr-ud-Dīn Mahmūd Ahmad ra , the second successor of the
Promised Messiah as , have apparently stated that Khātam-an-
Nabiyyīn means Last of the prophets. These can obviously not help
him the way he intends because the argument that these great
scholars and Khulafā’ of Islām Ahmadiyya have made is that the
Hijāzī style of recitation is superior to the others. They have not
disregarded, negated or rejected the other recitation styles. They
13
Khan, With Love, Page 43