Mosque in England signs “Armed Forces Covenant” with British Minister of Defence
Please see this image of a recent news item from a UK local newspaper of last Wednesday, which begins:
"A Nottingham mosque has signed the Armed Forces Covenant, ushering in a wave of Muslim-owned businesses which are now committed to supporting members of the military."
Several Muslim-owned businesses in the area are mentioned as having signed this "pledge" to help current and former members of the British Armed Forces.
Incidentally, since the word "bai`at" is usually translated as "pledge", one may say that this mosque and the businesses mentioned have taken the bai`at at the hand of a British Minister of Defence.
I don't somehow think that we will hear opponents of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad applying the title "British agent" to these people!
From Ali:
I'd assume that the aim of these businesses is to help increase profits.
The aim of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was to become a prophet. (The profits also soon flowed for his family of course.)
From Zahid Aziz:
Your "assumption", Mr Ali, only strengthens the hands of the anti-Muslim groups in Western countries who say that Muslims in the West are insincere when they claim to be loyal citizens of these countries. According to you, their signing of this pledge is not out of any conviction but for the sake of making a profit. Donald Trump and his supporters will, I assume, be thanking you.
As to prophets and their descendants making profits, this is exactly what Maudoodi wrote in his book Khutbaat about the Saudi rulers and the Hajj. See the widely-available English translation of this book, Let Us be Muslims, near the end of the sections on Hajj (p. 281-282). He wrote that Hajj has become a "source of business" for them. The pilgrims are regarded as "their customers". "People are induced to perform Hajj by having Quranic verses and Hadith quoted at them. The motive is … to make money." He calls the Hajj administrators as "brokers" and as "trading in religion". So this is not an enemy of Islam but a renowned Muslim leader stating that descendants of the Holy Prophet Muhammad are profiting from his prophethood.
From Zahid Aziz:
At this link you can listen to a BBC radio news item relating to the news that I mentioned above.
By the way, Mr Ali, please at least express some sympathy for Ahmadis because we have lost the opportunity to make money since non-Ahmadi Muslims have signed up to it.