The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Ramadan 2018

Welcome to the Ramadan Daily Quran Studies for 2018

(Note: Any new posts during Ramadan will be filed below this post.)

Prayers urged on LAM members for Ramadan by Maulana Muhammad Ali: English translation |  Urdu original

• Fast 1 — Fasting
• Fast 2 — Fasting: Its purposes
• Fast 3 — Fasting: Developing good qualities
• Fast 4 — Fasting: The month of Ramadan
• Fast 5 — Fasting: Conclusion
• Fast 6 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — raised in all nations
• Fast 7 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — raised in all nations for guidance

• Fast 8 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — Muslims to believe in them all
• Fast 9 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — as mentioned in the Quran
• Fast 10 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — as mentioned in the Quran
• Fast 11 — Prophets and Messengers of Allah — as mentioned in the Quran

Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan (d. 1780) on prophets in ancient Hinduism

Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan (1699-1780) was a famous Sufi poet of Delhi. It is said that he is recognized as one of the four pillars of eighteenth century Urdu poetry alongside with Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir and Khwaja Mir Dard.

Regarding the Hindu religion he expressed the views that:

• "God had sent a holy book by the name of Veda for the correction of their world through an angel called Brahma,"
• "prior to the birth of Islam, God had indeed sent Prophets to India and that their activities have been recorded in the holy books of the Indians."
• "the general mercy of God did not forget the humanity of this vast landmass"

See this article in The South Asian Tribune from 2010.

His statements about the Divine origin of the Hindu religion are in a letter to a disciple, which is found in a collection of his letters. Here is the link to that Urdu book (see Letter no. 14 on pages 92-95).

Photos and brief video clips from the Berlin Mosque renovation ceremony, 17 April 2018

With the completion of the renovation of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Mosque in Berlin (built 1927), a ceremony was held on 17th April 2018 to mark this event.

Here is a link to a pdf document with some photographs of the occasion and links to two brief video clips.

Zahid Aziz

Comments by an academic researcher in the USA

An academic researcher at a prestigious USA university writes to me praising the quality of the book 'A Mighty Striving'. She says:

"The book "A Mighty Striving" is very well done, the prose is flawless and flowing, and I like the combination of original source material with a narrative that is both descriptive and analytical."

This book is the English translation of Mujahid-i Kabir done by my late mother Mrs Akhtar Aziz and myself, with supplementary material and extra references added by me. The book Mujahid-i Kabir is the biography of Maulana Muhammad Ali in Urdu.

The researcher's topic is the history of the Anjuman Himayat-i Islam, a mainstream Muslim association founded in Lahore in the 1880s. The researcher comments as follows:

"The Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam's relationship with the Ahmadiyya is very interesting, because it seemed to have changed much over time. In the beginning, there were close ties between both organizations, I think. As you probably know, Khalifah Hamid ad-Din was one of the founders of the Anjuman, and his son Khalifah Rashid ad-Din converted to the Ahmadiyya. His daughter Rashida married Mirza Mahmud Ahmad. In 1890, the Himayat-i Islam also published Ibtal uluhiyyat-i Masih by Nur ad-Din, with the permission of the author and for the "benefit of the people of Islam", as it says on the title page. It also publicly endorsed other Ahmadi writings in its monthly Risalah. In the 1890s, as you know, Khwaja Kamal ad-Din and Muhammad Ali taught at Islamia College.

I wonder though when the relationship changed, and why? There must have been a lot of interaction between the Ahmadiyya Anjuman in Lahore and the Himayat-i Islam, because since 1914, Islamia College and the Ahmadiyya Buildings were on the same street. Also, how does one explain the role of Muhammad Iqbal? He still had a positive attitude towards members of the Lahore group, such as Khwaja Kamal ad-Din in 1911 and even after that. Why did he change his position later on and attack the community?"

I may add that these are questions explored by real and proper acedemic researchers, who carry out serious, objective study. They are at the opposite end of the spectrum from bigots of little knowledge and no reasoning capability who seek the approbation of the common crowd.

Reply about a speech by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din made at Lahore in 1912

The following has been submitted by Hussun Ahmad.

In the same speech of 1912 he [Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din] also says:

The descendants and close relatives of Hadrat Mirza Sahib are all devoted to me. I tell you truly that there is not one of you who obeys me as do my dear ones Mahmud, Bashir and Sharif, and as do Mir Nasir Nawab and Nawab Muhammad ‘Ali Khan. I do not affirm this to please them, but state it as a fact that they love me out of the desire to win the pleasure of God. I have heard the Ummul Mu’minin affirm a score of times that she deems herself my servant. Miyan Mahmud is grown up, he will tell you that he obeys me sincerely. A critic might say that he does not obey me sincerely, but I know for certain that he is truly, obedient to me, more than any one of you. All the members of Hadrat Mirza Sahib’s family obey me as ‘Alira, Fatima and ‘Abbas obeyed Abu Bakr even more so. Every one of them is so devoted to me that I cannot conceive any of them entertaining a wrong notion about me.

This speech also is interesting about the question of non Ahmadis. I was wondering if i could have the Lahore Jamaat interpretation of this?

Another question on which you differ and raise contentions is: What is the status of our opponents? Now listen carefully. The Word of God has expounded the principles with regard to the acceptance and rejection of a Prophet.

Whenever a Prophet has appeared there has been no difficulty with regard to the classification of those who believe in him and those who disbelieve. Casuistry apart, God Almighty has set forth clearly the principles of disbelief, faith and association of partners with Allah. There have been Prophets in the past. In each case there were those who believed and those who disbelieved. Have you had any doubt concerning them; and have you had any problem about the classification of those who did not believe in them? You have been told of the principles of belief and disbelief.

Hadrat Mirza Sahib (as) was a Messenger of God. Had he not applied the term Prophet to himself, he would have been guilty of rejecting the Hadith narrated in the compilation of Muslim in which the one who was to come was named a Prophet. The question of believing in him or rejecting him is clear. If one who rejects him professes to be a Muslim he is that much closer to you, as the Christians are closer to you than the Jews. In the same way the Muslims who reject Hadrat Mirza Sahib can be closer to us than the others.

Can a “saved” Christian even commit murder?

Submitted by Abdul Momin.

Billy Graham, a very prominent American evangelist and who had close connections with several American Presidents, recently passed away.

Although I am not aware of anything negative that Billy Graham may have said concerning Islam, his son Franklin Graham after 9/11 once called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion".

An article about the life of Billy Graham appeared on MSN at the time of his death. In this article Billy Graham is said to have been "saved" after attending a preacher's sessions in 1934. He is then said to have made a "decision for Christ."

What is very interesting is how he felt after this conversion. The article states:

Returning home with a friend that night, Mr. Graham said, he thought: “Now I’ve gotten saved. Now whatever I do can’t unsave me. Even if I killed somebody, I can’t ever be unsaved now.”

While Billy Graham may never have killed anybody in his life, apparently being "saved" by Jesus saved him from eternal damnation, even if he killed someone. It seems that Jesus would unburden a Christian of his sin even if that person killed someone. However this concession or tolerance is not available to people of other faiths. 

I do not recall ever reading that Jesus made killing of humans lawful.

Answer to allegation that wife-beating is approved in Bukhari

Critics of Islam have widely circulated a hadith report from Bukhari to allege that when a woman, who had been badly beaten by her husband, complained to the Prophet Muhammad, he sided with her husband and told her to have sexual relations with him, and said that she could not get divorce from him despite his beating her.

I have composed a refutation of these allegations, for which please visit this link.

I am sure Muslims in general will be interested to read my article. Opponents of the Ahmadiyya Movement should be particularly interested, if their opposition to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad springs from their love of the Holy Prophet of Islam. I would welcome any comments, corrections, suggestions for improvement, etc.

Zahid Aziz

Jan Kasapa — The Orphan Prophet

In the issue of The Light, Lahore, English organ of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (1st April 1944), there is an article about a book Tarikh-i Rashidi written by the Mughal conqueror of Kashmir, Mirza Haider Beg (d. 1550), stating that in this book Mirza Haider Beg mentions that certain followers of Buddha in Tibet believe in the coming of a future prophet, and he told them that the signs they mention were fulfilled in the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

I have placed the article on a separate page of this blog at this link.

After reading this article, I traced an English translation of the book online. To see the passage referred to in The Light article, please see from the third paragraph of this link.

If you are interested in the entire book, you can download it in pdf form (13 MB) from this link. For this reference see pages 415-416 of the printed book, corresponding to pages 576-577 of the pdf file.

Note that Shaká Muni mentioned in this book is a title of the Buddha. This shows that Muslims realized in the 1500s that prophets had appeared in India and that the Buddha had prophesied the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

For information on Mirza Haider Beg, see this link.

(Note on author of article in The Light: The author is one of my elders Dr Nazir-ul-Islam (Ph.D., Germany, d. 1983). I knew him in the late 1970s when he was Imam of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Centre in London. Just before the outbreak of the Second World War he served, while a student, as temporary Imam of the Berlin Mosque.)

Re-marriage after divorce in Christianity and Islam

An article by Zahid Aziz

The question of re-marriage of a divorcee in church has come under public discussion after the announcement that Prince Harry of England is to marry a divorced woman, Meghan Markle. For example, the UK newspaper Metro carried an article on 28 November 2017 entitled ‘Will Prince Harry and divorcee Meghan Markle be allowed to get married in a church?’ The Daily Express carried an article on 27 November, ‘Prince Harry CAN marry divorcee Meghan Markle at Westminster Abbey’, which began as follows:

“Question marks have been raised over whether Meghan and Prince Harry would legally be allowed to have their wedding within the Church of England as tradition dictates.”

It goes on to quote a church spokesman for Westminster Abbey who said that since 2002 “it has been possible for divorced people to be married in the Church of England”.

Read in full… 

Death of Mrs Samina Ahmed of UK

I have to report with regret, grief and sadness, the death of Mrs Samina Ahmed of UK, which took place on 14 December 2017. Inna lillahi wa Inna ilaihi rajioon.

She was 55 years of age and had suffered from multiple sclerosis since her youth. She was my sister, and sister of Mr Shahid Aziz.

She was married to Mr Paul Selim Ahmed, an English convert to Islam and a regular and valuable contributor to the literary work of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (including the revision of the volume of Muhammad in World Scriptures dealing with prophecies from the Bible; see this link.)

In her prime Samina used to write articles in Lahore Ahmadiyya magazines and give talks at the UK Lahore Ahmadiyya Centre. Here are two examples of her articles: (1) The Light (Lahore), 24 April 1981, and (2) The Islamic Guardian, July-December 1983.

The photo below is from the summer of 1970 and shows Samina, with her mother Mrs Akhtar Aziz on the left, and on the right Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi (the father of Mrs Aziz):

The photo below is from September 2012, at Samina's 50th birthday:

— Zahid Aziz