Translation of ‘British Government and Jihad’ now online
Here is the online version of the translation of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's book British Government and Jihad.
You can also obtain it as a Kindle book from Amazon: USA, UK, Australia, etc.
The original Urdu book was first published in the year 1900.
Here are some extracts from it:
“Anyone who has eyes and reads the narrations in Hadith and looks at the Quran can realize it quite well that this form of jihad, which many savage-like people are pursuing, is not the jihad taught by Islam. In fact, these are criminal acts which are done through the arousal of base passions or in the vain hope of attaining paradise … Can it be a virtuous deed that there is a man going about in the market place, we have no connection with him so much so that we do not know his name and he does not know our name, but despite this we fire a gunshot at him intending to kill him? Is this religious behaviour?…
Can such a religion be from God which teaches that if you go on randomly murdering innocent, blameless people, who know nothing of your faith, you will enter Paradise? It is a matter of great regret and shame that we could open fire, without reason or concern, on a man with whom we have no previous enmity, in fact we do not even know him, while he is purchasing something from a shop for his children or is busy in some other lawful errand, and in an instant render his wife a widow and his children orphans and turn his home into a place of mourning. In which hadith or verse of Quran is it so written? Is there any Muslim priest who can answer this question? ” (p. 10-11)
From Ali:
I think in this case of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad I think he purposely mixed mass murder of innocent people with Jihad in order to further his own aims.
The rules of war as laid out by the holy prophet specify that innocent people should not be harmed – in fact they go much further than that. They even restrict the cutting down of trees, did Mirza Ghulam Ahmad homestly think that Jihad involved killing random innocent men,women and children?
What Mirza Ghulam Ahmad tried to do was abrogate Jihad by tainting it with mass murder in order to further his own "divine" claims.
However it's worth pointing out that one war that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad did whole heartedly support – he even went to the extent of raising money for- was the Boer war.
This was the first instance of the use of concentration camps that ended up killing innocent men,women and children.
From Zahid Aziz:
Dear Mr Ali, you are telling us about the teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad about rules of war, but in this very book Hazrat Mirza sahib has fully covered this subject. It is clear that either you are ignorant of the book you are condemning or you are purposely conducting false propaganda. Didn't you read (for example):
"Regrettably, after the time of the Holy Prophet and the Khulafa-e-Rashideen, people have grossly erred in understanding the real intent of this doctrine of jihad, the real basis whereof is the above quoted verse of the Quran, and the unjust killing of the creatures of God with the sword has been considered by them as a mark of the religion."
Ali says: "did Mirza Ghulam Ahmad honestly think that Jihad involved killing random innocent men,women and children?"
Many Muslim groups today do think that jihad means exactly this. They are declaring everyday that they are conducting jihad by killing people at random. Only a totally delusional and ignorant person would deny the fact that jihad is being presented by many Muslim groups as this sort of killing. (Presumably Mr Ali is the kind of in-denial, delusional Pakistani who denies that the Pakistani army perpetrated mass atrocities against fellow-Muslims of East Pakistan in 1971.)
As regards the Boer war, Gandhi who was in South Africa at the time actually took part in this war on the side of the British as leader of the Indian Ambulance Corps. (See this link.) So that war was supported even by those who struggled later for Indian independence.
The first war memorial built in Johannesburg "honours Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and Zoroastrians who died during the war." Yes, this means they died fighting on the side of the British in the Boer war. We also read: "Originally written in Urdu, Hindi and English, only the English inscription still exists." For this and other similar information see this link.
This proves, Mr Ali, that you are either thoroughly ignorant or a mere false propagandist!
From Zahid Aziz:
Mr Ali has also not read in this book, or perhaps he is deliberately concealing it, that Hazrat Mirza sahib has placed half the responsibility for the misrepresentation of jihad on anti-Islamic Christian writers.
If Mr Ali cannot be bothered to read the book, perhaps because of laziness or fear of finding out the truth, then he may benefit from just glancing at the list of contents (just the first page, his attention span should last that long). Some of the headings there, added by the venerable translator, are:
Can you guess whom he is portraying as "The Perfect Role Model"?
From Regis:
Some mainstream Sunni Muslims promote 'suicide bombing' as 'martrydom operations'. For example this fatwa by the late Shaykh Faisal Mawlawi, who was the deputy head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research.
Another fatwa by Mawlawi states that killing civilians in 'martyrdom operations' is permissible according to the Qur'an (quoting 16:26). Sadly, these kinds of views have achieved prominence and have credibility among many Sunni Muslims. I am ashamed to admit that I looked up to such people myself before I investigated more thoroughly the works of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. I thank Allah (SWT) for that.
From Zahid Aziz:
This very day the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has made a speech which is reported in The Nation newspaper under the headline:
"Wrong religious teachings have damaged jihad's image: PM".
He is quoted as saying: “due to wrong teachings, the image of jihad is destroyed and through masjids and maddarasas, Ullema can end this heinous practice.” (See this link.)
In the Dawn newspaper the headline is: "Religious scholars should spread message of peace and tolerance: PM Nawaz".
The report says:
Speaking about the chaos spread by what he termed incorrect interpretations of Islam, the PM urged the scholars present to disseminate the "real narrative of peace" through religious seminaries and reject the narratives that preach secular hate and the "distorted concept" of jihad. (See this link.)
Now compare this with what Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad has advised in his book mentioned above about what can be done by the Ulama:
"Indeed, one approach comes to my mind and that is, if the Ameer of Kabul… may gather together Islamic scholars and debate this doctrine of jihad. Then, through the Islamic scholars inform the common people of their erroneous behavior in the matter of jihad. Rather he should get some magazines written in the Pashto language by the Islamic scholars of this country and publish those widely. I am sure such action shall have great impact on people, and the passion, which ignorant Muslim priests have spread among the masses, will gradually decrease." (p. 16)
"Another suggestion is that if the Muslim priests of the Punjab, and India generally, are really against the erroneous understanding of the doctrine of jihad, then they should write papers about this and after getting those translated into the Pashto language publish those in the Frontier region." (p. 21)
The advice given by Nawaz Sharif concurs, in quite an amazing way, with what Hazrat Mirza sahib wrote.