The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for November, 2013

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

Nadeem F Paracha is a famous columnist in Pakistani English language daily Dawn. He is left leaning writer. In his articles he does recap of history on any particular subject. His writes ups are based on a reasonable research. In his articles he has been sympathetic to state of ahmadis (basically Qadianis in Pakistan) in general. His recent article published in Dawn online on November 21, 2013: The 1974 ouster of ‘heretics’: What really happened?

Some quotes from article:

“To do so I did go through some literature produced by orthodox Sunni and Shia ulema and those associated with the Ahmadiyya community during the commotion, but that literature is largely theological.”

“Instead, my findings in this respect are squarely based on, and culled from the writings of historians and authors who, I believe, have transcribed the history of the event in the most objective and informed manner.”

“A series of modern, as well as puritanical reformist Muslim movements emerged after the complete fall of the Muslim Empire in India in the mid-1800s.

The Ahmadiyya movement was one of them. The Ahmadiyya community was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed he was under divine instruction to fulfil the major prophecies contained in Islamic and other sacred texts regarding a world reformer who would unite humanity.

He announced to Christians awaiting the second coming of Jesus, Muslims anticipating the Mahdi, Hindus expecting Krishna, and Buddhists searching for Buddha, that he was the promised messiah for them all, commissioned by God to rejuvenate true faith.

When Mirza died the Ahmadiyya split into two sects: the ‘Qadianis’ and the ‘Lahoris’. The Qadianis claimed that Mirza was a prophet, and accused all Muslims who did not accept him as being non-Muslims. Claiming prophethood is regarded to be a major and unpardonable sin by a majority of Muslims, even though the Lahori faction believes that Mirza never claimed prophethood. Orthodox Muslim sects in South Asia believe that he did.

—————

Till about 1913, the Ahmadiyya movement was seen as a spiritual and evangelical branch of the modernist reformist Muslim initiatives triggered by the likes of Sir Syed and Syed Ameer Ali.

In fact, for a while, a number of Indian Muslim intellectuals were closely associated with the Ahmadiyya movement and considered Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a modern redeemer of faith in India.

Brilliant poet and philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal, too was once a great admirer of the movement.

Contrary to popular belief, agitation against the Ahmadiyya movement (by the orthodox Muslim sects and sub-sects in India) was not an immediate happening that emerged right after the formation of the community in 1889.

The more vocal accusations against the community first arose 24 years later in 1914 when an influential Ahmadiyya leader, Mirza Muhammad Ahmad, began to publicly declare that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a messiah and those Muslims who disagreed with this were infidels.

This further split the movement, with the so-called ‘Qadianis’ sticking to Mirza Muhammad Ahmad’s assertions and the ‘Lahori’ faction denouncing him and accusing him of inferring something that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had not claimed.

Nevertheless, the schism within the Ahmadiyya community and Mirza Muhammad Ahmad’s unabashed claims left the movement vulnerable against accusations of being heretical.”

“Along with the working classes and the petty-bourgeoisie of the Punjab, the Ahmadiyya had overwhelmingly voted for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the province during the 1970 election.

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On May 22, 1974, some 160 members of the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba (IJT — the student of the Jamaat-i-Islami), boarded a train headed for Peshawar in the former NWFP. On its way to Peshawar, the train stopped for a while at the Rabwa railway station. The city of Rabwa was predominantly an Ahmadiyya town and also housed the community’s spiritual headquarters. As the train stopped at Rabwa, IJT students got out and began to raise slogans against the Ahmadiyya and cursed the community’s spiritual figurehead, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The train then left the station taking the charged students to Peshawar. No untoward incident was reported apart from the slogan-chanting and cursing.

However, when the incident was related to some Ahmadiyya leaders in Rabwa, they ordered Ahmadiyya youth to reach the station with hockey sticks and chains when the train stops again at Rabwa on its way back from Peshawar.

After finding out that the students would be returning to Multan from Peshawar on the 29th of May, dozens of young Ahmadiyya men gathered at the Rabwa station. As the train came to a halt, the men fell upon the bogeys carrying the IJT members. A fight ensued and 30 IJT men were severely beaten for insulting the religious sentiments of the Ahmadiyya.

A non-Ahmadiyya man who witnessed the commotion at the station told reporters that both the incidents (the slogans and retaliation) were unprecedented.”

Link to NFP article: http://dawn.com/news/1057427/the-1974-ouster-of-the-heretics-what-really-happened/1

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

Orya Maqbool Jan on Anti-Christ, Gog and Magog

OMJ is retired bureaucrat, columnist and analyst. Frequently he comes on political talk shows on Pakistani TV channels. He is popular in conservative audience of Pakistan. Few days ago he wrote a column in Pakistani daily newspaper, and mentioned Dajjal, Yaajooj-aur-Maajooj (Anti-Christ, Gog and Magog). He presented concept similar to Lahore Ahmadiyya Movment understanding. I sent him following email. I was hoping to receive reply, as I did in reply to my email in 2010. This time I am still waiting. Link to my last email correspondence with him is at the bottom of this post.

Dear Orya Maqbool Jan sahib, Aslam Alikum,

Last we exchanged emails over three years ago. I sent you links, in reply to your question, to beliefs and articles on Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Lahori-Ahmadi) official website that considers EVERY RECITER OF KALIMA-SHAHADA AS MUSLIM. I was hoping to hear back from you. I take it you must be very busy.

Today, I want to congratulate you on raising a GREAT POINT in your recent column ‘Andalib Bagh-e-Hajaz’ published in published in newspaper ‘Roznama Dunya’ on November 9, 2013.

In this column you identified Dajjal, Yaajooj and Maajooj (Anti-Christ, Gog and Magog). You identified how interest based modern banking system is NOT letting Muslims live their lives as guided by Holy Quran. It was this fear that Sahaba-Akram were scared, when Rasool Allah Muhammad SAWS mentioned attributes of Dajjal. This Dajjali system has influenced lives of people in Pakistan who are considered Scholars of Islam, and extremely pious people such as Chairman of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, whose salary comes from account on which government of Pakistan pays interest (Riba). No wonder our Master Holy Prophet Muhammad PBUH warned us that even Momin will not be spared from the dust of Dajjal. I am glad in your column you have dared to educate Pakistani readers that Dajjal mentioned in Ahadith and Yaajooj-Maajooj mentioned in Holy Quran is not some super natural animal but Caucasian Christian nations of Europe. Interestingly in 2004, in one of the TV program ‘Alif’ Mufti Muneebur Rehman sahib could not identify Dajjal.

My question to you: Do you think time will ever come in Pakistan when you could write in your column that per Hadith of Rasool Allah SAWS, the person who will identify Dajjal first will be Imam Mahdi. And Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib of Qadian, who was only a Mujjaddid (reformer) of 14th Islamic Hijra century, was the first person to identify Dajjal about whom you have written more than 100 years later? Do you also think you will be able to mention book, in your column, by Lahori-Ahmadi elder Maulana Muhammad Ali sahib:Al-Maseeh-ud-Dajjal-o-Yaajooj Maajooj: by Maulana Muhammad Ali.Urdu Translation of 'The Anti-Christ and Gog and Magog'

http://aaiil.org/urdu/books/muhammadali/maseehdajjalyajujmajuj/maseehdajjalyajujmajuj.pdf

The Anti-Christ and Gog and Magog: by Maulana Muhammad Ali

http://aaiil.org/text/books/mali/gog/antichristgogmagog.shtml

Orya sahib, I look forward to your reply. Please do acknowledge when you receive my email.

Thanks, and Allah Hafiz.

Link to OMJ column:

 http://dunya.com.pk/index.php/author/orya-maqbool-jaan/2013-11-09/4946/14361948#.Uor5JSrTmP8

See following link for my previous email exchange with OMJ:

https://ahmadiyya.org/WordPress/2010/08/09/correspondence-with-orya-maqbool-jan/

BBC News today reports:

"Sir John Tavener, one of the leading British composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, has died at the age of 69. Sir John was known for music that drew on his deep spirituality."

In his obituary it is stated:

"In 2007, the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered his work The Beautiful Names, which is based on the 99 names of Allah from the Koran."

Sir John himself explained:

"The 99 beautiful names of Allah (God) as culled from The Koran have formed the basis and inspiration of my work The Beautiful Names set in Arabic.   It was composed in 2004.   The divine names fall into two categories those of majesty and those of mercy.   The 99 names are universal insofar as they are theophanies of the eternal primordial being.  A companion of the prophet Mohammed said “I never saw anything without seeing God”,  Man’s mission therefore is to join the outward to the inward.   This is the aspiration of The Beautiful Names and perhaps by doing this in the language of music one may contribute a little to the appalling strife that permeates the modern world.   The Beautiful Names came to me as a vision. I meditated on the individual names on an almost daily basis and the music seemed to come to me fully grown.   It was never random or chaotic but seemed to have the logic of cosmic music or the music of the spheres.

I regard The Beautiful Names highly and think of it as one of the most important of my works.   It was first performed in Westminster Cathedral in front of a large throng and in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales who commissioned it and to whom it is dedicated.   It was later performed at a very moving occasion in Istanbul.   Critics noticed the unlikely influences of Beethoven and Elgar, which I can now hear after listening to it again." (See this link)

His obituary in The Guardian says:

"Never afraid of controversy, Tavener found it head-on with The Beautiful Names (2007), a meditation on the 99 names of Allah which was given its premiere in Westminster Cathedral, much to the consternation of many Catholics, who staged an open-air demonstration before the performance. Nonetheless, the work was warmly received, and the critic Robert Maycock observed that "if Tavener were to write nothing else, this would surely stand as a summation of what he has tried to achieve".

Before its opening in June 2007, the British daily The Telegraph carried an article about it, which begins:

"God will be invoked in Arabic in Westminster Cathedral on June 19, with the first performance of Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names. Sir John's work, commissioned by the Prince of Wales, lasts for 70 minutes and will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the choir of the cathedral.

Here is an interesting article in Urdu by a newspaper columnist on the contribution of British rule to the Punjab in preserving local history and culture, and how it is being neglected now.

I notice the article begins by saying: "Recommendations to convert the syllabus in government schools to Urdu will be finalised in November". I think news along these lines has been appearing every few years since partition!

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan also tried something of this kind. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Ahmad_Khan#Advocacy_of_Urdu