The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for December, 2007

In Badr, 26th December 1907 on page 5, there is a report about the arrival of members in Qadian for the annual gathering and the preparations for this gathering.

At this link you can view, in pdf format, the scanned image of the page from Badr where this report is printed.

Many of us knew a person who attended this Jalsa! This was Hazrat Dr Saeed Ahmad Khan, late Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, who was either 7 or 8 years old at the time. He came to Qadian with his father, Maulvi Muhammad Yaqub, and they stayed in Qadian till March 1908.

On page 9 of the same issue it outlines the purposes of the Jalsa and the general form that it usually takes.

At this link you can view that part of page 9 in pdf format. (In this scanned image the first two paragraphs are rather light but still legible.)

As so often in the past, the Saudi Arab authorities announced a date for Eid which caused confusion all over the world. The date of Eid-ul-Adha had been expected by all Muslims to be either Thursday 20th or Friday 21st December 2007. I compute dates of Ramadan and the two Eids in advance for the Lahore Ahmadiyya branch in the U.K. We had set this Eid-ul-Adha as Thursday 20th some four years ago.

Saudi Arabia has now announced that Eid-ul-Adha is to be on Wednesday 19th December. This has led many Muslim organisations around the world to change their earlier plans and hold Eid on this date.

The Muslim astronomical website www.moonsighting.com has quoted this announcement and then given their own comment as follows:

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Official Decision and Announcement of the High Judiciary Council of Saudi Arabia:

Since the moon of Dhul-Hijjah was sighted Sunday, December 9, 2007 evening here in Saudi Arabia, we shall be completing twenty nine (29) days of Dhul-Qi’dah, inshaa’Allaah.

… and the Muslim Ummah shall be celebrating ‘Eid al-Adha on Wednesday, December 19, (10 Dhul-Hijjah 1428), inshaa’Allaah.

Comment by Moonsighting.com:

The moon was not even born on Sunday, December 9, Maghrib time in Saudi Arabia, and moon actually set 23 minutes before sun set at Makkah.

According to the research conducted by Moonsighting.com the Universal date for Eid-al-Adha is on December 20, 2007 (Thursday) because actual authentic sighting was confirmed from Mauritius, Tanzania, South Africa, and Barbados on Monday, December 10, 2007.

(See: http://www.moonsighting.com/1428zhj.html)

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Thus it was impossible for the new moon to have been sighted in Saudi Arabia on the 9th as claimed. As it had not even been born, it means that neither by calculation nor by actual sighting could the moon be considered new on the 9th (and hence Eid-ul-Adha on the 19th).

It would also have been impossible to sight it by eye on the evening of 10th December in most parts of the world (including Saudi Arabia), and only on the basis of calculation could it be accepted as new for 10th December (giving Eid-ul-Adha on 20th). This is why in many countries Eid-ul-Adha is being held on 21st December.

If the Saudi authorities accept the evidence of their eye-witnesses who claimed to have seen the new moon on 9th December 2007, then they should also announce that the calculations of the moon’s movement and position as accepted by astronomers and others have been proved incorrect. Are they prepared to do that? Why do they not come forward to claim credit for disproving these predictions of modern science? They should be easily able to claim several Nobel prizes for correcting the universally-accepted data published by scientists.

The Qadiani Jamaat has placed on its website the book Kalimat-ul-Fasal by Mirza Bashir Ahmad (younger brother of the second Khalifa Mirza Mahmud Ahmad). You can read it here:

http://www.alislam.org/urdu/pdf/Kalma-tul-Fasal.pdf

This is the book in which the Qadiani doctrine is presented most vigorously and emphatically that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a prophet just like Moses, Jesus and the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and that any Muslim who does not believe in Hazrat Mirza sahib is (1) a kafir, (2) a full-fledged kafir, (3) excluded from the fold of Islam, and (4) that Ahmadis must treat other Muslims in the same way as if they belonged to a religion of the past like Christians, and that Ahmadis should only say assalamu alaikum to other Muslims in the same way as a Muslim can sometimes greet a non-Muslim with this greeting.

It is laid down in this book absolutely blatantly that Ahmadis must not have any religious or social dealings with other Muslims in the ways that a Muslim is meant to have dealings with his fellow Muslims.

If you want to know what caused the split in the movement in 1914, read this book written in 1915.

The Qadiani Jamaat has spent decades trying to distance itself from the views expressed in this book, so I don’t know if they have completely lost their senses by making it available online. It is the perfect gift to the opponents of the Ahmadiyya movement and gives them all the grounds for declaring Ahmadis as kafir.

In Badr, 31st October 1907, pages 5-6, there is an article by an Ahmadi answering the question “Why did you accept Hazrat Mirza sahib?”.

The scanned image of this article is at this link as a pdf file.

The author repeatedly refers to Hazrat Mirza’s claim as mujaddid in accordance with the Hadith report about mujaddids and seeks to prove the truth of this claim.

For example, he writes:

“If someone … argues that the first fifty years of a century constitute the head of the century, so it is not necessary to accept Mirza sahib as mujaddid  at the very beginning of the century, the answer is as follows. Since the teaching of Mirza sahib is consistent with the Quran and authentic Hadith, and thousands of signs have appeared in its support, it would be foolish to wait for fifty years for a mujaddid. However, if his teaching had been against the Quran and Hadith, then this objection would have been worthy of acceptance. …

No opponent can raise a valid objection against the teaching of Mirza sahib. The objection is only on his claim to be Messiah and Mahdi. The opponents say: if Mirza sahib had not made this claim to being Messiah and Mahdi, the Muslims would generally have accepted him as the mujaddid of the time, but these claims have prevented us from accepting him as mujaddid. In reply, we say respectfully that if you accept Mirza sahib as mujaddid of the time, this will not harm your faith in Islam. Considering that all other prophets died, what is the wonder in the death of Jesus? And since all those sent by God have been appointed in this way, and none descended from heaven, what is the wonder in Mirza sahib being appointed as such a time of need?”

It is plain from this that the claim of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is being presented in this article, just seven months before his death, as that of mujaddid of the century. Other Muslims are said to take exception to his claim of being Messiah and Mahdi, and this is why they do not accept him as mujaddid. However, the author argues that the claim of being Messiah and Mahdi should not prevent his acceptance as mujaddid. Therefore it is clear that mujaddid is his real claim.

In Badr of 21 November 1907, a letter by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is printed in connection with the receiving of dreams and revelations by ordinary people, and whether they can be considered to be inspired by God or not.

I have uploaded the original Urdu page to this blog in pdf format.

Please read by clicking here.

I hope to translate it into English later.