The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for May, 2008

From now till the end of May, I will have very limited opportunity to operate this blog.

So for this period I have turned off the submission of comments by our esteemed contributors till 2nd June or so.

In place of the usual comment box, you will see a message saying: You must be logged in to post a comment. This means it can’t be done.

Zahid Aziz

Our friend Bashir has posted the following conclusions he has reached after study.

HMGA was a contradicting author. Hence his followers were left to explain his(HMGA) teachings and prophecies. That’s why the split happened. HMBMA interpreted HMGA’s writings in his own way. M. Ali did the same. So whats the true interpretation. One thing is for sure, HMBMA accused m. Ali of believing that HMGA was a perfect prophet(ummati and nabi) from 1901 to 1911. That is totally incorrect. M. ali wrote this in 1904:

“If the doors of Prophethood had not been closed, then a Muhaddath has elements and potentials of becoming a Prophet and with reference to these elements and potentiality application of word Prophet on a Muhaddath is permissible, i.e., we can say that ‘A Muhaddath is a Prophet’. (Review of Religions, Urdu edition, Vol. 3, 1904, p. 117)

HMBMA had his followers (500k) believe an un-true allegation. It is ironic how HMBMA never commented on this reference. He knew it existed, but he turned a cold shoulder to it. Also, the letter by Syed Maulvi Muhammad Ahsan(written after EGKI) should seal the case. But once again HMBMA never commented on this article. Fact is 95% of 400k people were illiterate. They followed the son of HMGA, irregardless of the issues. HMBMA was able to use the donations from this large body and multiply his jamaat, while M. Ali started from scratch. My estimations show 4 out 5% of literate people joined M. ali. They read about the issues between the two groups. M. ali won the argument. HMBMA won their hearts. When the vietnamese beat the USA in the vietnam war, the vietnamese commented that they didnt win the war in vietnam, they won the political war in the USA. Get the picture?????

Our friend Bashir has sent the following post:

Referring to my previous post:

There seems to be one thing that i left out. HMGA legally made the Sadr Anjuman his successor. The jamaat panicked upon the death of HMGA. They decided to choose Hazrat Maulvi Noorudin as their leader and gave him the title of khalifa.

This seems to be done as a precaution. There was one member of the sadr anjuman who didnt accept this. He never took bait at the hand of HMN. HMN did not ex-communicate him. In 1914 he joined the aaiil. This person later accepted bait at the hand of HMBMA in the 1940’s. I think his name was Maulvi Ghulam Hasan (not sure).

This was the proof that there was opposition to an autocratic system of khilafat. M. ali and others admired HMN so much that they considered him to be an exception to the rule. I agree with their admiration.

Even HMGA said about HMN, “If only everyone was Noorudin”.

Thats why m. ali and other afforded HMN with exceptionary privileges.

Blog Editor: Yes, Bashir, it was Maulvi Ghulam Hasan Khan of Peshawar. He was father-in-law of Mirza Bashir Ahmad (the middle son). Despite this, he joined the AAIIL in 1914 and was in it till about 1940. He died in 1943. I know several of the Maulvi sahib’s grand-children and great grand-children, as they are my wife’s cousins. See his photo here.
(Opens new window.)

At this link, you can access the special issue of The Light (U.K. Edition), commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. (Link opens a PDF file in a new window.)

Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig was a missionary sent by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha`at Islam Lahore to Java in 1924 to counteract Christian missionary activities against Muslims. He stayed there till 1937. As a result of his highly successful work, Muslims of that country rose out of their slump and despondency and were able to counter the attacks of the Christian missionaries. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement expanded in large numbers, the Holy Quran and other essential literature of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Anjuman was translated into Dutch, and a strong, magnificent Jama‘at was established.

In this connection, Dr Hamid Rahman, a learned member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in the USA, has recently sent me a brief account that Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig related to him in the 1960s, showing the high respect in which he was held by President Sukarno (d. 1970), the famous figure who became the first President of Indonesia in 1945, and was President till 1967.

I quote Dr Hamid Rahman below:

This incident was narrated to me by Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib in 1969 or thereabouts when I was taking lessons from Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib in German in Karachi.

Actually there were two incidents.

1. Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib had come to know Sukarno well during the time he was our missionary in Indonesia. Sukarno was at the time leading the fight for independence in Indonesia against the Dutch, and Sukarno had received some lessons from Mirza Baig sahib in Islam. He therefore looked upon him as his teacher.

Immediately after partition, Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib got stranded in India. He wanted to come to Pakistan but it was impossible to get a visa to Pakistan because of all the bad blood between India and Pakistan. The Pakistan High Commission had turned his visa application down several times. Just when all of Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig’s attempts at getting the visa had been frustrated, Sukarno, now as the President of Indonesia and a close friend of Nehru in the nonaligned movement, came for a visit to India. Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib learnt that Sukarno was going to say his Friday prayer in Jamia Masjid Delhi. So he went and waited for him on the steps of the Jamia Masjid. When Sukarno arrived with his entourage, Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig was able to catch his attention; no doubt a voice from the onlooking crowd beckoning to him in Indonesian must have been the reason. But Sukarno recognized him immediately and came over to talk to him. Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig asked for his help to get him a visa to go to Pakistan. Sukarno immediately issued instructions to his embassy staff to take up the matter immediately with the Pakistan High Commission and to see to it that his teacher got a visa. The visa was given to Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig sahib and he came to Pakistan.

2. Much later during the administration of Ayub Khan and I think it may have been soon after the 1965 war when Indonesia sent its submarines to guard the coast of Pakistan to prevent a surprise attack by India from the sea, Sukarno came to visit Pakistan. He sent a message to the Pakistan Government that during his visit to Pakistan, he would like to meet his teacher Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig. The Pakistan Government, of course, was totally oblivious to the existence of a Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig and the matter was entrusted to the Intelligence Branch to find him, which they did.

On the day that Sukarno was to arrive, Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig was taken in an Intelligence Branch jeep to the airport and put in the line up of the dignataries on the tarmac with whom Sukarno would shake hands. As President Ayub led Sukarno to the dignataries, he had a formal handshake for everyone but when he came to Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig, he shook his hands and then bent down to touch his knees, apparently a mark of respect in Indonesia for one’s teacher.

Contrast this with today’s situation.

Dr Tahir Ijaz has submitted the following:

Forget the theory about the next mujaddid to come 200 years after Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, he is now here with a website!

http://www.jamaat-ul-sahih-al-islam.com/