|
|
Statement of beliefs
by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
The following are some statements of his beliefs by Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad:
- “We believe in the five fundamentals upon which Islam is
based, and we abide by the word of God, i.e. the Holy Quran, which
it is incumbent upon us to follow. We believe that there is none
to be worshipped but Allah, and our leader Muhammad Mustafa,
may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, is His Messenger
and the Last Prophet. We believe that whatever
Allah has said in the Holy Quran, and whatever the Holy Prophet
Muhammad has said, is true, as stated above. And we hold
that any person who removes even one jot from the Shari‘ah
of Islam, or adds even an iota to it, is without faith and excluded
from Islam.
I enjoin upon my followers that they should have whole-hearted
faith in the Kalima Tayyiba: La ilaha ill-Allahu, Muhammad-ur
rasul-ullah (There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah), and should die in that faith. They
must believe in all the prophets and all revealed books, whose
truth is proved from the Holy Quran. And they must adhere to
Islam, properly and correctly, by considering obligatory upon
themselves: Salat (prayer), Saum (fasting), Zakat
(charity) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Makka), and all
duties laid down by Allah and His Messenger; and by considering
as unlawful all that is prohibited. To conclude, it is obligatory
to believe in all those matters, relating to faith and practice,
on which the past righteous religious elders of Islam were agreed,
and which, by consensus of opinion of the Ahl as-Sunna, are
considered to constitute the religion of Islam. And we call
heaven and earth to bear witness that this is our religion.”
— Ayyam as-Sulh, pages 86-87.
- “Our Kalima is: There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad
is the Messenger of Allah. I believe in Allah, the angels, the
messengers, the revealed Books, paradise and hell and the Day
of Resurrection. I accept the Holy Quran as the Book of Allah,
and Muhammad, on whom be peace and the blessings of Allah, as
the true Prophet. I lay no claim to prophethood. And I do not
allege, God forbid, that there is any addition or subtraction
to the Holy Quran as given to us by the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
peace and the blessings of Allah be on him. And I bear witness
that he is the last of the Prophets and the greatest of all the
prophets, and an intercessor for the sinners.”
— Anwar al-Islam, p. 34.
- “And brothers, you know that the fatwas of kufr
[pronouncements of disbelief against Hazrat Mirza] were not based
on proper investigation and did not contain even an inkling of
truth. Rather all those declarations were sheer fabrication based
on deceit, injustice and falsehood, out of personal jealousy.
These people know very well that I am a believer and they have
seen with their own eyes that I am a Muslim, that I believe in
the One God with Whom there is no associate, that I profess the
Kalima: There is no god except Allah, that I accept the
Book of Allah, the Quran, and His Messenger Muhammad, on whom
be peace and the blessings of Allah, as the last of the Prophets,
and I believe in angels, the Day of Resurrection, heaven and hell,
that I offer prayers and keep fasts, that I belong to the Ahl-i
Qibla [those who face the Muslim direction of prayer], that
I consider unlawful all that the Holy Prophet had declared unlawful
and lawful all that he had declared lawful, that I have neither
added to the Shari‘ah, nor taken away anything from it, not
even to the extent of an iota, and that I accept all that has
reached us from the Messenger of Allah, on whom be peace and the
blessings of Allah, whether I understand its secret or not, and
that by Allah’s grace, I am a believer and believe in One
God.”
— Nur al-Haq, vol. i, p. 5.
- “These people deceive the masses and lead them into mistakes
of thinking that we have invented a new Kalima or a new
prayer. What reply can I give to such fabrications? By similar
fabrications they placed a humble human being in Trinity. Look,
we are Muslims and belong to the Ummah [followers] of Muhammad.
With us, fabricating a new form of prayer or turning away from
the Qibla are acts of kufr [disbelief ].
We accept all commandments of the Holy Prophet and believe that
disregard of even a minor commandment amounts to mischief. My
claim is subordinate to the Word of Allah and the word of the
Holy Prophet. We have not introduced a new Kalima, a new
form of prayer, a new Hajj or a separate mosque of our own in
disregard to the obedience of the Holy Prophet. Our mission is
the service of this religion [Islam], making it overcome all other
religions, and following the Holy Quran and the traditions which
are proved to have emanated from the Prophet of God. We consider
it necessary to follow even a weak Hadith if it is not against
the Holy Quran. We consider Bukhari and Muslim [the
two compilations of Hadith] as the most reliable books after the
Book of Allah [the Holy Quran].”
— Ruhani Khaza’in No. 2, compilation of talks
and discourses of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, vol. vii, p. 138.
- “Prophets come for the purpose of changing the religion,
changing the qibla [direction in which people pray], cancelling
some of the [existing] commandments and introducing some new commandments.
But in my case there is no claim of such a revolution. There is
the same Islam as before, the same prayers as before, the same
Chosen Prophet as before, and the same Holy Book as before. One
does not have to omit any such thing from the original faith as
to cause so much bewilderment. The claim to be the Promised Messiah
would have been dangerous, and worthy of being treated with caution,
if, along with this claim, there was some alteration — God
forbid — in the commandments of the faith, so that our practices
would have been somewhat different from those of other Muslims.
When there is none of this, and the only issue in dispute is the
life or death of Jesus, the claim to be the Promised Messiah being
only an off-shoot of this issue, and this claim does not mean
a change in the practices of the faith, nor does it adversely
affect the tenets of Islam, then is there any need for a great
miracle or sign to be shown in order for this claim to be accepted,
the demand for which is the old custom of people in case of a
claim to prophethood? Is it difficult for a fair-minded and God-fearing
person to accept a Muslim whom God has sent in support of Islam
and whose objects are that he make manifest to the people the
beauties of Islam, and prove that Islam is free from the objections
of modern philosophy, and make the Muslims lean towards the love
of Allah and the Messenger?
If the claim of being the Promised Messiah entailed any imperatives
which adversely affect the commandments and beliefs of the Shari‘ah,
that indeed would have been horrible. What ought to be looked
into is what Islamic truth have I transformed by my claim, and
which are the commandments of Islam in which I have made an
increase or decrease of even a dot? True, I have interpreted
a prophecy in a manner revealed to me by the Almighty Allah
in this age. The Holy Quran is witness to the truth of this
interpretation, and so are the reliable traditions of the Holy
Prophet. Why is there then so much hue and cry?”
— Ainah Kamalat Islam, p. 339.
- “It is preposterous to imagine that in accepting my claim
there is any fear of damage to the faith. I fail to understand
what could cause that damage? There would have been damage only
if this humble one had compelled people to follow new teachings,
opposed to the teaching of Islam, e.g. if I had declared a lawful
thing to be forbidden or vice-versa, or had introduced any changes
in those beliefs of the Faith which are essential for salvation,
or had introduced any increase or decrease in matters of fasting,
prayer, pilgrimage, poor-rate (Zakat), etc. which are duties
prescribed by the Shari‘ah. For instance, if I had prescribed
ten or two prayers in place of the five daily prayers, or prescribed
two months of fasting in place of one month, or fasting for less
than a month, then there should have been total spiritual loss,
rather disbelief and destruction. But when the situation is that
this humble one repeatedly says only this, O brother, I have
not brought any new religion nor any new teaching, but I am one
of you, and a Muslim like you, and for us Muslims there is no
other book to follow except the Holy Quran, nor is there any other
revealed book to which we invite others to follow, and when I
affirm that except for the Arabian Ahmad, the last of the Prophets
(on whom be peace and blessings of Allah) there is none to guide
us and none to be followed by us, and none whom we would like
others to follow, then where lies the risk for a religious Muslim
to accept my claim which is based on revelation from Allah?”
— Izala Auham, pages 181–182.
- “In the end, I again declare before the general public
that I swear by Almighty Allah that I am not a kafir. My
belief is: There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger
of Allah. And regarding the Holy Prophet, I believe [the verse
of the Quran]: ‘He is the Messenger of Allah and the Khatam
an-nabiyyin’. I swear to the truth of this statement
of mine as many times as there are holy names of God, and as many
times as there are letters in the Holy Quran, and as many times
as there are virtues of the Holy Prophet in the sight of God.
None of my beliefs is contrary to the commandments of Allah and
the Holy Prophet. Whoever thinks otherwise is himself under a
misunderstanding. Whoever considers me a kafir even now
and does not desist from takfir [calling a Muslim a kafir],
let him remember for certain that he shall be questioned after
death. I swear by the Exalted Allah that I have such faith in
Allah and the Holy Prophet Muhammad that if all the beliefs of
this age were placed in the balance against my belief, then by
the grace of the Exalted One, my belief will be the heavier.”
— Karamat as-Sadiqeen, p. 25.
Thus Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Lahore Ahmadiyya
Movement believe in all the doctrines and practices of Islam as
laid down in the Holy Quran and the Books of Hadith, and as recognised
throughout history by the religious leaders of the Ahl as-Sunna.
|
|
Top