The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for February, 2014

The month of March 2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore, which came about in March 1914 although this Anjuman formally came into existence at the beginning of May 1914.

Consisting to a large extent of new research, which has unearthed material that was forgotten or lying buried in archives, I have completed a book of almost 150 pages bearing the title The True Succession. The title indicates the theme and thesis of the book, namely, that the AAIIL represents the true succession to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din and the continuation of their real mission.

I thank Allah the Most High for enabling me to complete this book on time and provide a definitive and substantiated record of how and why the AAIIL came into being. The burden of debt we owe to the Lahore Ahmadiyya pioneers cannot be repaid, but I hope this book counts as a minisicule recognition of it.

Read the book at this link.

Submitted by Dil Sooz

Respected Javed Ahmad Ghamidi is a noted contemporary Islamic Scholar. He is known for objective analysis of issues. Recently, I came across this video of Javed Ahmad Ghamidi Sahib where he explains that respected Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was "Sufi" and did not claim to be Prophet as he is accused of. He also clarifies that founders of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement did not consider him to be a Prophet.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=647159602014434

I'm not a scholar of Mr Ghamidi stature, but I do want to humbly bring this to his kind attention that Respected Mirza Sahib claimed to be Mujadid or reformer of his team. So he was under naturally divine command to declare his mission Statement before the world and then get on with his works, despite immense  opposition. In contrast " Sufi" has one to to one with Allah and is not required to have broad spectrum of audience. I think Mr Ghamidi should not mix and match two different Job descriptions meant for two different persons.

Submitted by Ikram.

If one casts a glance on the recently transpired Valentine’s Day, a few things come to light. It is a day usually associated with love that is primarily focused, besides others, on the bonds between couples, married or otherwise. Based upon this ‘love’ the ever present commercialism comes into full gear with its special candy, flowers, attire, jewelry, gift wraps, songs, movies and numerous other trappings. The undertones of sin, sensuality and sexuality on that day are almost synonymous with the very term Valentine, the name and title of various early Christian Martyrs and Saints. The love on a Valentine Day somewhat reflects the God of Christianity which is summed up by Khwaja Kamaluddin:

“we read of God as the Possessor of love. But love has got its wicked side too, if we yield to the dictates of lust.”

(GOD AND HIS ATTRIBUTES by Khawaja Kamal-ud-din, The Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust, The Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England, 1936.)

If Christmas is a Christened Pagan festival of birth of a Sun God at winter solstice, so is the Valentine Day, a reliving of Hellenistic festival of Lupercalia, a drunken revel of fertility and love, though with a religious twist after the slaying of two separate men with similar name, three years apart by the same emperor, at least one of whom was later made into a Saint (see link).

While keeping the dynamics of Valentine Day in mind it becomes difficult to understand Christianity as to where does it’s doctored love in the name of the Son ends and when does its unbridled lust takes off and is there even a separation between the two? It thus behooves to read Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s (HMGA) reply to a Padre who raised objections against Islam. In his discourse HMGA shines with his mastery of the Scriptures – Quran and Bible, the life and works of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Christian myths ascribed to Jesus of Bible, Islam as a religion and Christianity as a formulated doctrine. He compares and contrasts these from angles that, unbeknownst to him, intersect with the above enumerated themes of a Valentine Day for their inherent insinuations that seem naturally embedded in the general Christian doctrine. In HMGA’s analysis, Christianity, which if from God, instead of acting as a bulwark against paganism, itself becomes the root cause of a dogma that is not too holy.

Read extract from Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's book Nur-ul-Quran

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri

On January 2, 2006 i along with marhoom Abdul Manan Omar sahib and his children visited final resting place of Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb, in Rutherford, New Jersy, USA. We offered Fatiah.

Today i came across a website that has written about him. Post about him says: "Although he was originally introduced to Islam through members of the unorthodox (and frankly, un-Islamic) Ahmadiyya Movement, he eventually found a path to mainstream Islam.". Of course author did not mention that he proofread/ edited Lahore Ahmadiyya Movment's publication 'Teachings of Islam'. This post is another example of damage caused by Qadianis Khalifa 2 Mirza Mahmud Ahmad. Where author does want to give credit to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam sahib, but then ends up calling his movement "Un-Islamic". Anyways following is complete post and link:

Alexander Russel Webb (1846-1916)

In late 19th century America, journalism was beginning to take off as an effective and influential medium for influencing the public. One of the men who helped spur this journalistic wave was Alexander Russell Webb. Unconvinced about his Christian religion, and being a well-read journalist, he began to read extensively about other religions, and was particularly interested in Islam. When he was appointed by the U.S. State Department to work in the American embassy in the Philippines in 1887, he took the opportunity to begin a correspondence with Muslims in India about Islam.

Although he was originally introduced to Islam through members of the unorthodox (and frankly, un-Islamic) Ahmadiyya Movement, he eventually found a path to mainstream Islam. He proceeded to travel throughout the Muslim world, studying Islam and meeting with scholars. In 1893, he resigned his post at the State Department and returned to America. Back in the United States, he published numerous books on Islam and started an Islamic newspaper explaining the religion to the American public. In the early decades of the 20th century, he continued to be a prominent voice for Islam in the United States, even being appointed an honorary Ottoman consul by Sultan Abdulhamid II. He died in 1916 and was buried outside Rutherford, New Jersey.

Lost Islamic History

http://lostislamichistory.com/6-great-converts-to-islam/

This, as you know, is a common charge against Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, that in his writings he has used insulting language when speaking of Jesus.

I was reading the book Taqwiyyat-ul-Iman by Shah Ismail Shaheed (d. 1831), the right hand man of Syed Ahmad Barelvi, and found that commenting on the verse of the Quran "The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; messengers before him had indeed passed away. And his mother was a truthful woman. They both used to eat food" (5:75), he writes:

"At this point both Baidawi and the author of Jalalain [commentators of the Quran] have written that Jesus and Mary were like other animals, that just as animals are dependent on food, weak and helpless, so were these two venerable persons. By this statement, these two commentators did not mean to be insulting to their dignity and to ignore their high status. May Allah guard us from wrong understanding." (Urdu translation of Taqwiyyat-ul-Iman, p. 256-7).

Baidawi and Jalalain (the latter by Jalal-ud-Din Suyuti) are two well known, classical commentaries of the Quran, and are among the sources referred to by Maulana Muhammad Ali and other commentators of the Quran. This shows that classical Islamic works also contain statements which can be misread or misrepresented as insulting to Jesus. It is also possible that such accusations were actually made against these two renowned commentators and Shah Ismail Shaheed is writing in their defence.

Please refer to this brief document I have compiled on this subject. Its synopsis is as follows.

First I have translated (not necessarily all that well in poetic terms) some verses from a very long poem by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, written in 1905 and included in one of his books published posthumously in 1908, the verses which later on came to be regarded as a prophecy of the devastation of the First World War. But when later on? Only after the war? I have then quoted from the front page of Paigham Sulh of 13 August 1914, showing that followers of Hazrat Mirza sahib applied these verses to this war just as this war began that month of August 1914, before its horrors were known to anyone!

The centenary of the First World War is being commemorated in the UK and there are several TV documentaries on its various aspects being broadcast at present. One of the leading documentaries is Britain's Great War made by the BBC, whose first part was shown last Monday 27th January. Looking at the opening few minutes of this part, which give an overview of this war, I have compared the comments made in documentary about this war's key features with the prophesied description of this war in Hazrat Mirza sahib's pen. From this we see clearly that his prophecy was so lucidly fulfilled.

At the end I have provided the original Urdu text of these verses.