The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for June, 2008

Our respected, learned brother Abdul Momin had submitted the following as a comment on the post “False Statement by a Maulana in South Africa”. Due to its length and comprehensive nature, I have added it as a new post.

There was the Nawa-i-Waqt of Hameed Nizami, its founder, and a staunch supporter of the creation of Pakistan. From the Munir Commission report, it is obvious that the Nawa-i-Waqt that he founded was highly objective in its reporting. Having been a supporter of the creation of Pakistan, he must have been fully aware of the credentials of the new proponents of the “idealogy” of Pakistan -the Ahraris -who opposed Pakistan’s creation tooth and nail, and were bent on creating mischief during the disturbances and riots of 1953 in the Punjab.

After Hameed Nizami, the stewardship of this newspaper fell into the hands of Majid Nizami. For this person, any thing said against the Ahmadis is considered the gospel truth. So it comes as no surprise when one reads about the views of some obscure mullah in South Africa as reported in the Nawa-i-Waqt. Since Majid shares the same surname with Hameed Nizami, for years and even decades, I wondered how it was possible that one relative could have taken a position against the Ahmadis so much at variance with that of his relative (if indeed he was his relative). Recently I managed to find some information about this Majid Nizami in an article at the following link:

http://www.nation.com.pk/majid-nizami.html (link opens in new window)

According to this article, this Nizami is the younger brother of Hameed Nizami. It states:

“In 1962, owing to the martial law imposed by Ayub Khan and his takeover of the country, the pressures on Majid Nizami’s beloved brother Hameed Nizami, became too intense for him to bear, resulting in his sudden demise.”

Also according to this article:

“During his stint as a student at the Islamia College, Majid Nizami took an active part in the Pakistan Movement from the platform of the Muslim Students Federation. In recognition of these services, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan awarded him the honour of Mujahid-e-Tehrik-e-Pakistan along with a sword as a symbolic gesture”.

So Majid Nizami must have well known who the opponents of Pakistan were at its creation, when he took over the editorship of Nawa-i-Waqt. He is staunchly opposed to friendly relations with India as well, as the above article states:

“Owing to the illegal occupation of Kashmir, he remains a fierce and open opponent of friendly relations with India, unless and until the issue is resolved according the UN Resolution on Kashmir. Having visited nearly every country on the world map (most of Europe, including Eastern Europe and Russia during his years in London), Majid Nizami refuses to visit India, even when invited by various Pakistani delegations to accompany them. He cites Bangladesh as being a direct creation of India and believes that India never accepted partition and is relentlessly conspiring to undo Pakistan and undermine its strength.”

Elsewhere, I have read about Majid Nizami’s views concerning the Ahmadis. His pet (rather petty) argument is that HMGA was a “British Agent” to create “disunity” amongst the Muslims. Again when one reads the above quoted article, one finds:

“Majid Nizami proceeded to England in 1954 after obtaining his M.A. degree. Here he remained a student of International Affairs at the University of London and attended Grey’s Inn for the Bar. During this time he wrote consistently for the Nawa-i-Waqt and even before he left for London wrote the famous editorial column SareRahe for two years in Lahore. At the same time he diligently assisted his brother Hameed Nizami in the day-to-day running of the affairs of the business. While in London, Majid Nizami acted as a political reporter for Nawa-i-Waqt and in doing so met many heads of state and other notable world leaders.”

After the death of his brother in 1962, the articles states:

“Majid Nizami’s returned to Pakistan and vowed to follow in his brother’s footsteps. It was early on in Ayub Khan’s dictatorial regime that Majid Nizami took over the reigns of Nawa-i-Waqt. With great courage he opposed the military government and in the presidential elections fearlessly backed the Quaid’s sister, the Madr-e-Millat, Fatima Jinnah as the opposing candidate to the then Foreign Minister”.

It is indeed strange that a person refuses to go to India because it has not reconciled itself with the creation of Pakistan, yet manages to spend 8 years in England (and only returns back to Pakistan when his brother passed away) – a country which tried to “subvert” Islam by introducing a “new prophethood” in it. Not only that, for years after Majid took over, Nawa-i-Waqt has been spewing anti-Ahmadi hatred and giving prominent coverage to everything that comes out from the mouths of the Tahafuzz Khatam-e-Nabuwwat people- the reincarnation of the Ahraris.

Why have the Ahraris been forgiven their anti-Pakistan stance? Could it be that since all those anti-Ahmadi and anti-Pakistan Mullahs were later also in direct opposition to President Ayub Khan, Mr Nizami (far from being an intellectual as the above article would have us believe) just follows the age old saying: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

Please click on this link to view an extensive photographic archive of the recent Convention in Lahore to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. (The link will open in a new window.)

(Courtesy: www.aaiil.org)

During the recent Convention in Lahore, at the Centre of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, when the clock reached 10.15 a.m. on 26th May, the exact day and time when Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died one hundred years ago, the Head of the Movement Dr A.K. Saeed went to the stage and said tearful prayers for the Movement.

Click here to listen to his brief statement and prayers (mp3 format). The language is Urdu.

(Courtesy: www.aaiil.org)

An audio archive of the speeches at the Centenary Convention in Lahore, held from 24th to 26th May 2008, is being placed online. Many speeches are already available there, and others are yet to be added.

Click here to access the speeches and talks. (The link will open in a new window.)

It was by complete chance that, during my return flight from Lahore on 31st May, a fellow passenger discarded a copy of the well-known Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt of that date, and I picked it up. By further chance, my eye struck a short interview in it with one Maulana Mufti Zubair Bayat, introduced as President of the Jami`at-ul-Ulama of the Natal province in South Africa. The Maulana was interviewed during a visit to Makka where he was performing Umra.

A question he was asked by the interviewer was: “How many Qadianis are there in South Africa, and what line of action are the Muslims there taking in order to defeat the mischief of Qadianiyyat?”

The Maulana gave the following reply:

“A few years ago, Muslims in South Africa instituted a court case against Qadianiyyat in the High Court. They made it clear that the Ahmadiyya community is not a sect of Islam but is a new religion. They have no connection with Muslims; in fact, the Qadianis are a non-Muslim group. The High Court of South Africa considered the beliefs of the Qadianis and, being sensitive to the feelings of the Muslims, it ruled in favour of Muslims by declaring the Qadianis as kafir. On the side of the Muslims, Ulama from Pakistan such as Maulana Manzoor Ahmad Chinioti and others played an important role.” (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Lahore, 31st May 2008, p. 20, lower half, column 3)

The Maulana is from South Africa and therefore cannot plead ignorance for his mis-statements in this reply. While being on Umra in Makka, he has uttered a number of absolute untruths in his reply. Due to my involvement in our Cape Town court cases, I know it for a fact that the Maulana has made the following misrepresentations:

1. No “Qadiani” was at all involved in any such court case in South Africa. In one case it was a member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and in another it was a Sunni imam who was being persecuted by the ulama because he regarded Ahmadis as Muslims.

2. The “Muslims in South Africa” never instituted any court case against any Ahmadi. Both court cases were instituted against the Ulama.

3. No court in South Africa has at all, ever, ruled that Ahmadis (or Qadianis for that matter) are kafir. In fact, in the case that concluded in 1985 the court ruled that Lahore Ahmadis, the plaintiffs, are Muslims. The court ruled that the Ulama were defaming our members by calling them kafir, and it prohibited them from continuing this defamation.

4. The claim of the Maulana that “Muslims in South Africa” filed a suit is quite shameful for the following further reasons. (a) The Ulama vigorously submitted to the court that the court, being secular, was not qualified to determine who is a Muslim. (b) When the court ruled in favour of the Ahmadi plaintiff, the Pakistani Ulama who had been helping the Ulama in South Africa published statements that “the judge was a biassed Jew” and as “Qadianis are agents of Israel” therefore he ruled in their favour.

But now history is turned on its head and we are told that the Ulama actually themselves asked the court to determine if Ahmadis are Muslims, and the court gave a ruling in favour of the Ulama . What happened to the “biassed Jewish judge” story that was splashed in Pakistani newspapers in November 1985 by these Ulama?

No wonder the ulama of the latter days are described in Hadith as the worst creation under the sky.

I and others are prepared to make a statement sworn on the Holy Quran that the facts I have put forward above are true and within our personal knowledge. Is the Maulana prepared to swear on the Quran that his reply is true?

Zahid Aziz

Although I am now back from the great Convention in Lahore, held to commemorate the 100th aniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, my computer has irretrievably broken down. So my access is limited for the next few days while a replacement computer reaches me.

The Convention was held from Saturday 24th to Monday 26th May. On the 26th, it so happened that a speech finished at exactly 10.15 a.m. Thereupon, the Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Ameer Dr A.K. Saeed, took the stage to inform us that that was the exact moment of the passing away of the Promised Messiah, one hundred years ago. Many moving and tearful prayers were then said, led by the Hazrat Ameer. Allah’s blessings were called for the soul of this Great Reformer who sought to breathe new life into a dead Muslim Umma.

When the next scheduled speaker, a young man, opened his speech at 10.25 or so, he began by saying that his was the first speech of the new century. It then struck me that we had entered a new era, in which others will come after us to continue our work. People like me will see less of this new century than we have done of the past one.

On this visit I also met a venerable man, Malik Saeed, who was born in 1906, still quite mobile and mentally sharp and active. He attended all the speeches. He even made a speech himself from his chair. Later I asked him about his earliest memory and he told me: “I don’t recall seeing Hazrat Mirza sahib, but Hazrat Mirza sahib saw me when I was a baby and he picked me up.” He talked to me for an hour without tiring. He can recall being present at the death of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din in Qadian in 1914.

We also visited the recently renovated Promised Messiah Memorial Room at Ahmadiyya Buildings which is in approximately the position of the room where the Promised Messiah expired.

All photos below open in a new browser window. These were taken by me on 23rd May.

Photo of the Memorial Room.

Photo of front of Ahmadiyya Buildings Mosque in centre of Lahore (which was our Centre from 1914 to mid-1970s)

Lahore Ahmadiyya plot in the Miani Sahib cemetery in Lahore, used from 1921. Lahore Ahmadiyya leaders such as Maulana Muhammad Ali and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din are buried here.

Headstone of grave of Maulana Muhammad Ali