Mad Takfīrism

Aḥmad Riḍā Khān states:

The worst of the murtaddīn is the murtadd munāfiq –whose company is more harmful than the company of a thousand kāfirs, since they teach kufr while behaving as Muslims. Especially the Deobandī Wahhābīs, because they call themselves specifically Ahl al-Sunnah wa l Jamā‘ah, and behave as Ḥanafīs, behave as Chishtī Naqshbandīs. They pray and fast like we do; they read and teach our books; and they swear at Allāh and His Messenger.* They are the deadliest poison. (Aḥkām-i-Sharī‘at, p. 130)

* When quoting this passage, Mawlānā Sarfrāz Khān Ṣafdar comments on these words: “Allāh’s curse be on the liars.” (Rāh-i-Sunnat, p. 7)

Aḥmad Riḍā Khān also says:

The Tabarrā’ī Rāfiḍī, Deobandī Wahhābī, Ghayr Muqallid Wahhābī, Qādiyānī, Chakrālwī (“Ahl al-Qur’ān”), naturists (Sayyid Aḥmad Khān etc.) – the slaughtered meat of all of these is pure filth and carrion, and categorically ḥarām, no matter if they take the divine name a thousand times, and however pious and scrupulous their behaviour, because these are all murtaddīn; and there is no slaughter for a murtadd. (Aḥkām-i-Sharī‘at, p. 140)

He makes a blanket rule for all “Deobandīs”, grouping them with Qādiyānīs, Rāfiḍīs and Chakrālwīs, making no exceptions whatsoever!

Aḥmad Riḍā Khān further states:

Nadhīr Ḥusayn Dihlawī, Amīr Aḥmad Sahsawānī, Amīr Ḥasan Sahsawānī, Qāsim Nānotwī, Mirzā Ghulām Aḥmad Qādiyānī, Rashīd Aḥmad Gangohī, Ashraf Alī Thānawī, and all their adherents, followers and devotees and those who praise them are by agreement of the notable scholars kāfirs; and those who do not recognise them to be kāfirs, and doubt their kufr, are also without doubt kāfirs, let alone regarding them to be leaders and masters! (‘Irfān-i-Sharī‘at, p. 54)

In other words, even those who praise the elders of Deoband or regard them to be their teachers and leaders are also kāfirs according to Aḥmad Riḍā Khān Barelwī!

In a fatwā dated 1331 H (1912/1913 CE), Aḥmad Riḍā Khān Barelwī was asked:

Zayd’s father-in-law is Deobandī. He buys meat with his own money and sends it to him. The person bringing it is also Deobandī. Is this meat ḥalāl or not? How is the qurbānī meat of a Deobandī?

He answered:

The slaughter of a Deobandī is carrion. The meat sent by a Deobandī is carrion, even if the person bringing it is a Muslim. (Fatāwā Riḍawiyyah, 20:249)

In a fatwā from 1335 H (1917 CE), Aḥmad Riḍā Khān Barelwī said:

The first condition for someone giving religious talks is that he is Muslim. Someone with Deobandī belief is not Muslim. It is ḥarām to listen to his religious talk. Knowingly appointing him as a religious speaker is kufr…The same applies to all Wahhābīs and Ghayr Muqallids as they are all brothers of the devil. (Fatāwā Riḍawiyyah, 29:71)

He also states:

My approach is that [Shāh Ismā‘īl] is like Yazīd: if someone calls him kāfir I wouldn’t stop him and I wouldn’t call him [this] myself. However, anyone who doubts the disbelief of Ghulām Aḥmad [Qādiyānī], Sayyid Aḥmad [Khān], Khalīl Aḥmad [Sahāranpūrī], Rashīd Aḥmad [Gangohī] and Ashraf ‘Alī [Thānawī] is himself a kāfir. (Malfūẓāt A‘lā Ḥāḍrat, Da‘wat e Islāmī, p. 172)

He treats these Sunnī Ḥanafī imāms of the Deobandī tradition as being equal to the false prophet Ghulām Aḥmad Qādiyānī and the extreme modernist Sayyid Aḥmad Khān. And, on what basis? Misattributions and lies.