The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for June, 2007

I quote below from Badr, 27 June 1907.

Service of the faith

14th May 1907. A man advised Hazrat (Mirza sahib):

“As you, sir, have laboured very hard in writing the book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy and proof-reading it again and again, this is why you are falling ill again and again. You should have complete rest now for a few days and avoid any reading or writing work altogether.”

Hazrat Mirza sahib said in reply:

“My labour is nothing. I feel ashamed when I look at the labours of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, as to how they cheerfully gave even their lives in the cause of God.”

So highly did Hazrat Mirza regard the work of the Companions for the cause of Islam, that he considered his exertions as nothing in comparison.

Below is an image of this item from Badr.

Apart from “trick” arguments, it is also to be regretted that members of the Qadiani Jama`at spread arguments based on complete fiction. Here is an example about Sahibzada Abdul Latif shaheed. About a year ago a friend of mine told me that Qadiani Jama`at members had told him:

“Just before Sahibzada Abdul Latif was killed he was asked to renounce his prophet Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He refused, hence his death. This news reached HGMA and he did not rectify this omission regarding his prophethood.”

This is absolute and total fiction, as I explained to my friend in detail, as below.

The whole account of this incident is in the book Tazkirat-ush-Shahadatain by Hazrat Mirza sahib. Sahibzada Abdul Latif accepted him as Mujaddid and as Promised Messiah. This is repeatedly stated in that book. I quote:

1. “Sahibzada Abdul Latif told me this: … I could see that the time had
   come when a Mujaddid of the Deen should be sent by Allah … then I
   heard that a man in Qadian, Punjab, was claiming to be the Promised
   Messiah” (Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 20, p. 11)
2. “During this period of imprisonment the Amir made him an offer several
   times that ‘if you repent from the belief that the Qadiani man is
   truly the Promised Messiah, you will be released’ ” (p. 51).
3. “All during the imprisonment the Amir advised him not to accept the
   Qadiani man as Promised Messiah and repent from this belief” (p. 52)
4. “The Amir and the Maulvies knew well that the Qadiani who claims to be
   Promised Messiah was against Jihad” (p. 53)
5. “Even if millions of posters were circulated in that country to prove
   with strong arguments that I am the Promised Messiah, they would not
   have been as effective as the blood of this martyr” (p. 53)
6. “At the end of the debate with the Maulvies, the Shaheed was asked, if
   this Qadiani man is the Promised Messiah then what do you say about
   Jesus? He replied that Jesus has died and will definitely not be
   returning … then those people became enflamed, started abusing him
   and said: what doubt is there now in his Kufr?” (p. 54)

So the chief reason for the Sahibzada being declared kafir and killed was his belief in the death of Jesus and his acceptance of Hazrat Mirza sahib as the Promised Messiah. His debate with the Maulvies did not discuss at all any claim to prophethood by Hazrat Mirza sahib. Another reason given by Hazrat Mirza sahib as to why the Sahibzada  was declared kafir is that he accepted his concept of jihad and thus rejected the Maulvies’ concept of a war-like Jihad.

It is interesting to note that Hazrat Mirza sahib further says:

“The Amir at least ought to have asked his Maulvies: For what kind of kufr have you given the verdict of death by stoning? Why is this difference a matter of kufr? Why didn’t the Amir say to them: Your own sects have great differences among them. Should all of them, except one, be stoned to death?” (p. 56)

Hazrat Mirza sahib says here that the difference of belief for which they declared the Sahibzada as kafir and deservant of death was a difference of the same kind as other sectarian differences of interpretation between various Muslim sects. In other words, differences of beliefs between Ahmadis and other Muslims are of that sort of level.

Also, in his account of the Sahibzada’s stay in Qadian, Hazrat Mirza sahib says he told him about his claim of being a khalifa of the Holy Prophet and he writes:

“I told him that as the Holy Prophet Muhammad was the
khatam-ul-anbiya, and no prophet was to come after him…”
(p. 45).

This was the teaching about prophethood that the Sahibzada was given by Hazrat Mirza sahib.

Here is just one example of a “trick” argument used by the Qadiani Jama`at missionaries. A member of our Jama`at had a dream in which Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad appeared and said: You belong to my Umma.

Our member mentioned this dream to a Qadiani missionary. He immediately said: “What more do you need! This proves to you that Hazrat Mirza sahib was a prophet because you belong to his Umma.”

The trick in this argument is, of course, that the Qadiani Jama`at members themselves do not believe that they belong to an Umma started by the prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. While themselves not believing this, they are presenting it as an argument to convince one of our members. This is a typical trick. From their mighty Khalifa down to their most subservient member, not one of them would ever say to the general Muslims: We are the Umma of the prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

As to this term itself, I said to our member that the Umma mentioned in the dream could be the Umma of this verse:

“And from among you there should be an Umma who invite to good and enjoin the right and forbid the wrong. And these are they who are successful.” (3:104)

Umma here means a party from among the Muslims, and not an Umma founded by a prophet. This, I said, is the Umma to which you belong, founded by the Mujaddid Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

I could also say that dreams or visions cannot override established beliefs (apart from the fact that the dream of an ordinary person is unreliable in any case). As Hazrat Mirza sahib himself declared, even if he had thousands of revelations that Jesus has died, they would have no value whatsoever if the Quran said the opposite.

Badr, 6th June 1907, reports Hazrat Mirza sahib as referring to the following verse within his poem about the impermissibility of war-like jihad:

“Now all your life is entirely sinful. Believer you are not, as you walk in unbelief.”

Commenting on this, Hazrat Mirza sahib said:

Look how all kinds of sinful and evil behaviour is rampant today and Muslims are not like they were in the early days. This is why rule in the land was snatched away from them, because they forsook God the Most High. God is not like someone’s relative that He should continue helping the relation even if the latter goes astray.

As Muslims have a resemblance to the Jews, it was necessary that they too, like the Israelites, be punished severely twice. Once the punishment came when Halaku Khan invaded and destroyed Baghdad, killing 600,000 Muslims in Baghdad alone. The condition of the Muslims of the time is shown by this incident. People went to see a holy man and asked him to pray to God to save them. He said: “You wretches, because of you all of us are caught up in this punishment. I have seen angels saying: O unbelievers, kill the wicked people.”

The same condition has again arisen now. The rule of the British, who are unbelievers in terms of our religion, has been established in India just because Muslims themselves have become evil-doers and are not worthy of the mercy of God. This verse of my poem means just this, that as your own condition has not remained such as to deserve the help of God, how can you wage a jihad (of war)?

Note: The incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, referred to in Badr, 6th June 1907, and in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy, published May 1907, actually took place some five years earlier in 1902. As Hazrat Mirza shaib says in his announcement in this issue, this prophecy had been fulfilled during the previous years.

In Badr of 6th June 1907 there is an announcement by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, printed in a large font size, addressing those Muslim religious leaders who accused him of fabricating revelation. He says that he has written the book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (just then published) to prove his case to them. In this announcement he cites as an example of Divine revelation to him the following: inni uhaafizu kulla man fi-d-dar wa uhaafizu-ka khassa, the interpretation of which is that God will protect everyone within his house from plague which was raging then all around in Punjab, and in particular the Promised Messiah himself would be protected.

He goes on to say that this prophecy has been fulfilled over the previous eleven years. He then challenges those who call this revelation a human fabrication to swear on oath that “may the curse of Allah be upon him who denies true revelation from God”, while Hazrat Mirza sahib would swear: “may the curse of Allah be upon him who fabricates revelation from God”. That is, each party invokes the curse of Allah upon itself, in case of being false. Also he challenges them to make a similar prophecy about themselves, as he made about himself.

He adds that the prophecy does not mean that each and every one of his followers will be safe-guarded from this disease, but that it relates to those of perfect faith, whose faith is not mixed with some weakness. It is interesting to note that in the same issue of Badr there is an excerpt about an incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, taken from the magazine Tashhiz-ul-Azhan, which had just then been started by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, son of the Promised Messiah. In this particular talk, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad relates that once Maulana Muhammad Ali, who then lived in a part of the Promised Messiah’s house, fell ill with high fever and believed that he had contracted plague. The Promised Messiah writes that when he heard this he went to see Maulana Muhammad Ali and said to him without the least hesitation: If you have got plague then our Movement is based on falsehood. “Saying that, I felt his pulse and there was no sign or trace of a fever”, says he.

Not only as a reported talk as here, but the same incident has also been recorded in written form by the Promised Messiah in his book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (see Sign number 103 on page 253).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was absolutely sure that Maulana Muhammad Ali could not have contracted plague because (1) he had full belief that his revelation was from God, and (2) he knew that Maulana Muhammad Ali was a follower of perfect faith. He did not for one moment entertain the thought that the Maulana could really have caught plague as his faith may be less than full and perfect.

It is also interesting to note that in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy he mentions two incidents when his own relations actually contracted plague, one being his wife’s brother Mir Muhammad Ishaq (see Sign number 143, pages 327-329) and the other his son Mirza Sharif Ahmad, grandfather of the present Qadiani Khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad (see pages 87-88, footnote). In both cases, the Promised Messiah mentions his great anxiety and extreme worry that if the boy died then his opponents would have the opportunity to falsify his revelation mentioned above. Indeed, he says he cannot describe the shock he felt at this thought. He then had recourse to special prayer to Allah to avert such a calamity, and the prayers were accepted.

The contrast is quite clear between the incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali on the one hand, and the incidents involving the two family members of the Promised Messiah.

According to the Quran, God told Moses:

“Go you and your brother with My messages and be not remiss in remembering Me. Go both of you to Pharaoh, surely he is inordinate; Then speak to him a gentle word, perhaps he may be mindful or fear.” (20:42-44)

This indicates the way to preach. One might expect that a hard-hearted, arrogant tyrant such as this Pharaoh would pay no attention to “a gentle word” from a lowly man from an enslaved community like Moses, and he would only respond to some terrifying threat. But we are told to try gentleness in the first place, as this may change a mind that we don’t expect.

1. A book by Maulana Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan of Amroha is reported as having been published in which he has related the martyrdom of Sahibzada Abdul Latif in terms of a story in Surah Yasin (Ch. 36) of the Quran. The name of the book is Sirr-ush-Shahadatain. [One wonders if this is available somewhere.]
2. There is an announcement by a printer that Maulana Nur-ud-Din has given him his translation of the Quran to print and publish, and he has now published the first Part. [Such a translation never appears to have been heard of again.]
3. Hazrat Mirza sahib’s book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy had just been published on 15th May.

The front page of this issue of Badr carried as usual the full conditions of the bai`at and, at the foot of the page, again as usual, the manner in which the Promised Messiah administers the bai`at.

Again, as usual, the front page has printed on it verses from the poem in Persian by Hazrat Mirza sahib written while addressing the saint Khwaja Ghulam Farid of Chachran (near Bahawalpur). It begins: “Ma musalmaneem az fazl-i Khuda…” (We are Muslims by the grace of God. The Mustafa is our Leader and Guide). The 6th verse in the extract given here is:

“He is the best of messengers, the best of mankind. Every prophethood came to an end with him”.

This poem was published by Hazrat Mirza sahib in his book Siraj Munir, March 1897. See Mujaddid-i Azam, p. 458-459.

So we have here a writing, a section of a poem, published well before 1901, containing a verse affirming that prophethood of every kind ended with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Then we find that regularly in Badr, for long after 1901, a part of this poem, including that verse, was always printed on the front page as giving a basic statement of his beliefs by Hazrat Mirza sahib.

This shows just how baseless the theory is that in November 1901 Hazrat Mirza sahib changed his claim from that of saint to that of prophet and began to teach from then on that the Holy Prophet Muhammad was not the last and final prophet. Pre-1901 statements on this subject were being published after 1901 as well.

As the 100th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is in almost one year’s time, in this category we intend to follow the events and statements of the last year of his life (June 1907 to May 1908), week by week. The category name is “100 years ago” and you will be able to select just this category for display.

That is the intention and plan. To what extent I can maintain the momentum and continuity I don’t know. I may have to adopt a “rough and ready” approach to translating the items from Urdu in order to save time.