1. "It is conclusively stated about the previous Messiah that he was a prophet. But the coming Messiah has been called a 'follower' [of the Holy Prophet Muhammad], as is obvious from the hadith: 'He shall be your imam from among yourselves'. And in the hadith 'The ulama of my Umma are like the Israelite prophets', the news is implicitly given regarding the like of the Messiah. Therefore, according to this, the coming Messiah, due to being a muhaddas, is also metaphorically a prophet." (Izala Auham, September 1891, p. 349)

2. "It is true, of course, that the coming Messiah has been described as 'prophet' (nabi). But he has also been described as a 'follower' [of the Holy Prophet Muhammad], and in fact the news has been given: O you followers, he shall be from among you, and shall be your imam. ...

"Now it is clearly obvious from all these references that he shall not possess the attribute of complete prophethood in the actual and real manner. However, imperfect prophethood will be found in him, which in other words is called muhaddasiyya, and has within it one of the qualities of complete prophethood. So the fact that he has been called follower and also prophet shows that the qualities of both being a follower and of prophethood will be found in him, just as it is necessary for both these qualities to be found in a muhaddas." (ibid., pp. 532-533)

3. "God has promised that no rasul shall be sent after the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and the students of Hadith have surely made an extremely grave error in believing, by just seeing the word 'Jesus' or 'son of Mary', that the very same son of Mary, who was a rasul of God, shall descend from heaven. It did not occur to them that his coming is tantamount to the departure of the religion of Islam from this world. ... In Sahih Muslim there is a hadith about this, namely, that the Messiah shall come as a nabi of God. Now if, in a symbolic sense, by 'Messiah' or 'son of Mary' is meant a member of the Umma who holds the rank of muhaddas, then no difficulty arises. For, a muhaddas is a prophet in one sense, but he is a prophet who obtains light from the lamp of the prophethood of Muhammad, and receives knowledge not directly on his own account, but through the agency of his Prophet." (ibid., p. 586)

So Hazrat Mirza's belief was that the sense in which the Messiah-to-come has been called nabi in Sahih Muslim is as meaning muhaddas, not as meaning a real prophet. He further wrote:

4. "The epithet 'prophet of God' for the Promised Messiah, which is to be found in Sahih Muslim etc. from the blessed tongue of the Holy Prophet, is meant in the same metaphorical sense as that in which it occurs in Sufi literature as an accepted and common term for [the recipient of] Divine communication. Otherwise, how can there be a prophet after the Khatam al-anbiya?" (Anjam Atham, January 1897, footnote, p. 28)

5. "And it should also be remembered that in Sahih Muslim the word nabi has occurred with reference to the Promised Messiah, that is to say, by way of metaphor." (Ayyam as-Sulh, August 1898, p. 75)

6. "These words are by way of metaphor, just as in Hadith also the word nabi has been used for the Promised Messiah. ... And he who discloses news of the unseen received from God, is called nabi in Arabic. The meanings in Islamic terminology are different. Here only the linguistic [root] meaning is intended." (Arba'in No. 2, September 1900, p. 18, footnote)

7. "I say it repeatedly that these words rasul and mursal and nabi undoubtedly occur about me in my revelation from God, but they do not bear their real meanings. And just as they do not, similarly the Promised Messiah being called nabi in Hadith, is not meant in a real sense. This is the knowledge which God has given me. Let him understand, who will. This very thing has been disclosed to me that the doors of real prophethood are fully closed after the Khatam al-anbiya, the Holy Prophet Muhammad. According to the real meaning, no new or ancient prophet can now come." (Siraj Munir, March 1897, p. 3)

He says that no prophet, new or old, can come after the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and so the Promised Messiah being called as nabi in the Hadith prophecy must be taken metaphorically as denoting a muhaddas.