The Deobandi duo have now released another video presenting it as a continuation of the prior video we engaged with earlier in this thread.
In this latest video, their focus shifts to
'Shān-i Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān min Āyāt al-Qurʾān', the work of Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān Naʿīmī. Specifically, their contention lies with a poetic couplet cited under Verse 38
Firstly, it must be emphasised, that the couplet is merely quoted by the author and not his own composition.
Let's look at the entire section under 'Verse 38'for context.
Prior to citing the couplet, Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān explains that there exists no distinction between displeasing Allāh ﷻ and displeasing His Beloved ﷺ. The implications are the same. A man may torment his parents, harm all of creation, and still not fall into disbelief. But if he shows enmity to the sacred person of the Messenger ﷺ, he has committed
kufr.
The path to Divine mercy, he notes, is through the Prophet ﷺ. But—and this is the crux—should the Beloved himself be displeased with a person, who then shall mediate for that said person?
Satan’s expulsion was not due to a denial of Allāh’s ﷻ
tawḥīd, nor because he refused to prostrate before Allāh ﷻ directly. Rather, his downfall lay in his refusal to obey a divine command—namely, the command to prostrate before a prophet of Allāh ﷻ, Sayyidunā Ādam ʿalayhi al-salām.
Only after constructing this theological edifice does Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān present the couplet. And thus, it is not a loose poetic musing, but rather the distilled essence of an established theological principle expressed with poetic concision. Only one who wants to wilfully misconstrue the couplet will analyse it in the way the Deobandis did so.
The lines in question are:
خدا جس کو پکڑے چھڑا لیں محمد
محمد جو پکڑیں، چھڑا کوئی نہیں سکتا
A refined rendering into English might read:
Whom God seizes, Muḥammad ﷺ may yet redeem;
But whom Muḥammad ﷺ seizes—none shall ever rescue him.
The meaning is that if, in accordance with Divine justice, one is destined for punishment, the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ—who is the embodiment of Divine mercy
[raḥmat li al-ʿālamīn] and the supreme intercessor—may, by Allāh’s ﷻ permission, intercede on behalf of that soul, and obtain forgiveness. However, if the Prophet ﷺ disapproves of a person—then Allāh ﷻ will also disapprove of that said person. None from creation will be then able to intercede for that person. Ultimate sovereignty lies with Allāh ﷻ, and intercession
[shafāʿah] is granted by His decree.
Importantly, this is not a matter of conjecture. Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān himself explicitly clarifies the meaning of the couplet immediately after the couplet. He states:
“That is, if someone is seized by God, then the Prophet ﷺ may intercede for them and secure forgiveness. But if one is seized by the Prophet ﷺ and by Islam, then who can liberate them?”
Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān proceeds to substantiate his point with the following:
"In al-Durr al-Mukhtar, under the chapter on apostates, it is stated that anyone who shows disrespect towards Allāh is a disbeliever and deserving of death. However, if they repent, forgiveness is possible. But anyone who insults the threshold of Prophethood is a disbeliever, and even if they repent later, they must still be punished by death. This is because it concerns the sanctity of Allāh’s Messenger, and forgiveness of the right of Allāh does not extend to the right of His appointed Messenger."
From this, it is clearly evident that in terms of worldly juridical rulings, the transgression of dishonouring the Messenger of Allah ﷺ invokes a far graver consequence than any other.
To further anchor his argument, Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān references
'Madārij al-Nubuwwah', recounting the episode of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sarḥ—formerly a scribe of revelation, who apostatised and fabricated slanders against the Prophet ﷺ, alleging that he composed the Qurʾān himself. When he died and was buried, the earth persistently rejected his corpse, casting it forth no matter how deep the grave was dug. Thus, those expelled from the court of Prophethood find no refuge, not even in the earth itself.
This is the context of the entire quote.
This is, quite frankly, a textbook instance of selective quotation—what can only be described as intellectual dishonesty—on the part of the Deobandi duo. By extracting a poetic couplet from its context—context which Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān himself clarifies—they present a misconstrued and ultimately misleading narrative.
Their interpretation—claiming it draws an impermissible comparison between Allāh ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ—is fundamentally flawed. The couplet does not posit parity between Allāh ﷻ and the Prophet ﷺ, but rather underscores the Prophet’s ﷺ intercessory authority as granted by Allāh ﷻ Himself.
Incidentally, I had previously addressed their mischaracterisation of so-called 'omnipresence' in a Twitter thread. I shared a comment on their YouTube video when they brought up that allegation again. However, the comment has mysteriously disappeared—presumably deleted.
In their most recent video, the Deobandi pair request that any rebuttal of this present allegation should be made in light of this video and the previous video, i.e., the one discussing Muftī Fayḍ Aḥmad ʿUwaysī’s statements.
On that note, it should be stated unequivocally that Mawlana Abu Ḥasan has already censured the problematic wording found in Muftī Fayḍ Aḥmad ʿUwaysī’s work. While the phrasing is indeed objectionable, it does not warrant
takfīr, since there is reasonable
tawil that can be made.
So, if the Deobandi duo are reading this, let it be clear: we do not agree with Muftī Fayḍ Aḥmad ʿUwaysī’s incorrect wording. But your treatment of Muftī Aḥmad Yār Khān’s quotation of a couplet is disingenuous and misleading. The poetry in question has been stripped from its context, misconstrued, and manipulated to suit their polemical narrative.
