Beliefs and Quran and hadith studies of Hazrat Imam Ahmad Raza Khan

Beliefs of Hazrat Imam Ahmad Raza Khan

Ahmed Raza Khan defended several beliefs regarding Muhammad:

• Muhammad, although human, possessed a Noor (Light) that predates creation.This contrasts with the Deobandi view that Muhammad was insan-e-kamil ("the complete man"), a respected but physically typical human.
• He is haazir naazir (can be present in many places at the same time, as opposed to God, who is everywhere by definition).
• God has granted him ilm-e-ghaib (the knowledge of the unseen).
• Raza Khan writes:

We do not hold that anyone can equal the knowledge of Allah Most High, or possess it independently, nor do we assert that Allah’s giving of knowledge to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is anything but a part. But what a patent and tremendous difference between one part [the Prophet’s] and another [anyone else’s]: like the difference between the sky and the earth, or rather even greater and more immense.

—Ahmed Raza Khan, al-Dawla al-Makkiyya (c00), 291.

• God has made him mukhtaar kul (having the authority to do whatever he desires).

Quran and hadith studies

Ahmed Raza Khan translated the Quran into Urdu, which was first published in 1912 under the title of Kanz ul-Iman fi Tarjuma al-Qur’an. The original manuscript is preserved in the library of Idara Tahqiqat-i-Imam Ahmed Raza, Karachi, and an English translation of Kanzul Iman has also been published. Ahmed Raza Khan also wrote several books on the collection and compilation of hadiths.