Did Mufti Abdul Khaliq say the Gujaratis gave the Deoband Fatwa?

A pro Maulana Saad channel has circulated a clip of Mufti Abdul Khaliq Madrasi of Darul Uloom Deoband saying, three times:

"This Deoband fatwa was given by the Gujaratis."

That line came at the end of a long phone call, and the clip removes everything before it. In the full call, Mohammed Yusuf of Vapi held Mufti Abdul Khaliq to Deoband's written fatwa, and Mufti Abdul Khaliq agreed with Yusuf on point after point.

The full call between Mufti Abdul Khaliq and Yusuf Vapi

Yusuf: I saw your video. You say the dispute is only a matter of disagreement and scholarly opinion, and both sides are on the truth.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: Those are Maulana Saad's issues. But the work being done from the Markaz is separate.

Yusuf: How can you separate them? Darul Uloom Deoband wrote that whoever follows Saad will become a deviant sect. Only his words and his arrangement are spread at Nizamuddin.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: Whoever spreads his words is wrong. We consider Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa to be correct. There is no problem with that.

Yusuf: The fatwa says his method is completely different from Maulana Ilyas, Maulana Yusuf and Maulana Inamul Hasan.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: The method is not different.

Yusuf: It is different, Maulana. Saad says giving dawah outside the mosque is against the principle, and that gasht is as necessary as faith. Deoband says the method is different and you say it is not.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: All right, I accept the method is different.

Yusuf: That is the problem. Neither Saad nor his followers are following those ways.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: We are not attached to this philosophy. We are Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah.

Yusuf: That is washing your hands of it, Maulana. Is this a question of the Tablighi work, or of Shariah and Sunnah?

Unable to answer Yusuf Vapi's question, Mufti Abdul Khaliq changes the subject to the Gujaratis. This is the line the pro Saad channel cut out and circulated, and Mufti Abdul Khaliq repeats the line three times:

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: This Deoband fatwa was given by the Gujaratis. This Deoband fatwa was given by the Gujaratis. This Deoband fatwa was given by the Gujaratis.

Yusuf's reply is the part the pro Saad clip leaves out:

Yusuf: Maulana, when you cannot win the argument, do not change the subject. Are all the muftis of Darul Uloom Deoband Gujarati? Are Raiwind and Kakrail Gujarati?

Mufti Abdul Khaliq then ended the call.

What Yusuf got Mufti Abdul Khaliq to concede

That whoever spreads Maulana Saad's words is wrong.
That Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa is correct, with "no problem with that".
That Maulana Saad's method is different from Maulana Ilyas, Maulana Yusuf and Maulana Inamul Hasan, after first denying it.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq says two contradictory things, in two different calls

The pro Saad video contains a second and completely separate phone call, made to Mufti Abdul Khaliq at another time. The caller is from Maulana Saad's side, and asks the opposite question:

Caller: It is being spread on YouTube and WhatsApp that Darul Uloom Deoband has declared Maulana Saad astray. Did Deoband say that?

Mufti Abdul Khaliq: No. No one said that.

Mufti Abdul Khaliq cannot be right both times. To Yusuf, Mufti Abdul Khaliq said the fatwa against Maulana Saad is correct. To a Maulana Saad supporter, Mufti Abdul Khaliq said Deoband never declared Maulana Saad astray. That answer changed with the caller, so nothing Mufti Abdul Khaliq says on the telephone proves anything, for either side. Only Deoband's written fatwa settles the matter, and that fatwa still stands.

Our Analysis

Yusuf quoted the written fatwa. Mufti Abdul Khaliq did not. Every point Yusuf made is in Deoband's written fatwa. Mufti Abdul Khaliq gave way on each point, and changed position on the method question inside a single conversation.
The claim that the Gujaratis gave the Deoband fatwa is false. The same position was issued by more than 40 institutions outside Gujarat, including Darul Uloom Karachi, Binori Town, Jamia Malibagh Dhaka, Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur and the Majlisul Ulama of South Africa. Yusuf asked Mufti Abdul Khaliq whether Raiwind and Kakrail are Gujarati, and Mufti Abdul Khaliq had no answer.
The pro Saad video attacks Yusuf's manner, not what Yusuf said. The video opens by listing the scholars Yusuf has supposedly been rude to. Yusuf's tone in the call is sharp, and that is a fair criticism of the tone. But it does not answer a single point Yusuf made, and the channel never tries to.
Mufti Abdul Khaliq telling each caller what that caller wants to hear is normal. A scholar who takes an unexpected phone call will usually agree politely with whoever is asking. We said the same about Mufti Taqi Usmani when a recording of Mufti Taqi Usmani was used to claim Maulana Saad is on Haq. A phone call proves nothing, whichever side it appears to support.
Darul Uloom Deoband's position on Maulana Saad is in writing, and it has not changed. Deoband's Muhtamim Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani reaffirmed that position in 2025: "Neither has Darul Uloom Deoband's position changed, nor has any announcement been made from its side."
The whole pro Saad video rests on one sentence. Everything else Mufti Abdul Khaliq said on that call goes against Maulana Saad, so the channel cut out the one line that did not, and built a video around that line.

Summary

Yes. Mufti Abdul Khaliq did say that the Gujaratis gave the Deoband fatwa. Mufti Abdul Khaliq made that statement at the end of one phone call, at the point where Mufti Abdul Khaliq could no longer answer Yusuf Vapi's questions.

But the claim that the Gujaratis gave the Deoband fatwa is not true. The same fatwa was issued by more than 40 institutions outside Gujarat, including Darul Uloom Karachi in Pakistan, Jamia Malibagh Dhaka in Bangladesh and Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

On that same call, Mufti Abdul Khaliq also accepted that Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa is correct, and that Maulana Saad's method is different from our elders.

Cutting up recordings is how the pro Maulana Saad channels work. The same was done to Maulana Arshad Madani, whose words were clipped to claim Deoband had accepted Maulana Saad's rujoo. The same was done to Mufti Taqi Usmani in Madinah, whose words were clipped to claim Maulana Saad is on Haq. Each time, a short piece is cut out of a longer recording and circulated as proof that Maulana Saad is right. Each time, the full recording says something different.

Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa against Maulana Saad still stands.