The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Archive for the ‘general’ Category

There was a programme on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 27th May, in a series entitled Something Understood, on the topic of 'Righteous Anger', presented by a retired famous BBC correspondent Sir Mark Tully. It contained a short reading from my book Islam, Peace and Tolerance, from the beginning of chapter 7 ('Muslim Anger'). The programme producers had contacted me in advance to obtain permission.

At this link on the website of the BBC you can read the programme synopsis.

You can listen to the programme from this link, but need to register an account at the BBC and sign in to it. The reading from my book begins at 18:48.

If you scroll further down the above page, then under "Readings" you will see:

"Title: Islam, Peace and Tolerance

Author: Zahid Aziz

Published by Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore"

Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan (1699-1780) was a famous Sufi poet of Delhi. It is said that he is recognized as one of the four pillars of eighteenth century Urdu poetry alongside with Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir and Khwaja Mir Dard.

Regarding the Hindu religion he expressed the views that:

• "God had sent a holy book by the name of Veda for the correction of their world through an angel called Brahma,"
• "prior to the birth of Islam, God had indeed sent Prophets to India and that their activities have been recorded in the holy books of the Indians."
• "the general mercy of God did not forget the humanity of this vast landmass"

See this article in The South Asian Tribune from 2010.

His statements about the Divine origin of the Hindu religion are in a letter to a disciple, which is found in a collection of his letters. Here is the link to that Urdu book (see Letter no. 14 on pages 92-95).

With the completion of the renovation of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Mosque in Berlin (built 1927), a ceremony was held on 17th April 2018 to mark this event.

Here is a link to a pdf document with some photographs of the occasion and links to two brief video clips.

Zahid Aziz

Submitted by Abdul Momin.

Billy Graham, a very prominent American evangelist and who had close connections with several American Presidents, recently passed away.

Although I am not aware of anything negative that Billy Graham may have said concerning Islam, his son Franklin Graham after 9/11 once called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion".

An article about the life of Billy Graham appeared on MSN at the time of his death. In this article Billy Graham is said to have been "saved" after attending a preacher's sessions in 1934. He is then said to have made a "decision for Christ."

What is very interesting is how he felt after this conversion. The article states:

Returning home with a friend that night, Mr. Graham said, he thought: “Now I’ve gotten saved. Now whatever I do can’t unsave me. Even if I killed somebody, I can’t ever be unsaved now.”

While Billy Graham may never have killed anybody in his life, apparently being "saved" by Jesus saved him from eternal damnation, even if he killed someone. It seems that Jesus would unburden a Christian of his sin even if that person killed someone. However this concession or tolerance is not available to people of other faiths. 

I do not recall ever reading that Jesus made killing of humans lawful.

Critics of Islam have widely circulated a hadith report from Bukhari to allege that when a woman, who had been badly beaten by her husband, complained to the Prophet Muhammad, he sided with her husband and told her to have sexual relations with him, and said that she could not get divorce from him despite his beating her.

I have composed a refutation of these allegations, for which please visit this link.

I am sure Muslims in general will be interested to read my article. Opponents of the Ahmadiyya Movement should be particularly interested, if their opposition to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad springs from their love of the Holy Prophet of Islam. I would welcome any comments, corrections, suggestions for improvement, etc.

Zahid Aziz

In the issue of The Light, Lahore, English organ of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (1st April 1944), there is an article about a book Tarikh-i Rashidi written by the Mughal conqueror of Kashmir, Mirza Haider Beg (d. 1550), stating that in this book Mirza Haider Beg mentions that certain followers of Buddha in Tibet believe in the coming of a future prophet, and he told them that the signs they mention were fulfilled in the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

I have placed the article on a separate page of this blog at this link.

An English translation of this book, re-published in 2009, is available at this link. To see the passage referred to in The Light article, please see Chapter XCI (91): Tibet and the Customs of its People, the direct link to which is here.

I have saved the old 1895 edition at this link. For this reference see pages 415-416 of the printed book, corresponding to pages 576-577 of the pdf file.

Note that Shaká Muni mentioned in this book is a title of the Buddha. This shows that Muslims realized in the 1500s that prophets had appeared in India and that the Buddha had prophesied the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

For information on Mirza Haider Beg, see this link.

(Note on author of article in The Light: The author is one of my elders Dr Nazir-ul-Islam (Ph.D., Germany, d. 1983). I knew him in the late 1970s when he was Imam of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Centre in London. Just before the outbreak of the Second World War he served, while a student, as temporary Imam of the Berlin Mosque.)

Above  post revised 6 January 2020.

An article by Zahid Aziz

The question of re-marriage of a divorcee in church has come under public discussion after the announcement that Prince Harry of England is to marry a divorced woman, Meghan Markle. For example, the UK newspaper Metro carried an article on 28 November 2017 entitled ‘Will Prince Harry and divorcee Meghan Markle be allowed to get married in a church?’ The Daily Express carried an article on 27 November, ‘Prince Harry CAN marry divorcee Meghan Markle at Westminster Abbey’, which began as follows:

“Question marks have been raised over whether Meghan and Prince Harry would legally be allowed to have their wedding within the Church of England as tradition dictates.”

It goes on to quote a church spokesman for Westminster Abbey who said that since 2002 “it has been possible for divorced people to be married in the Church of England”.

Read in full… 

I have to report with regret, grief and sadness, the death of Mrs Samina Ahmed of UK, which took place on 14 December 2017. Inna lillahi wa Inna ilaihi rajioon.

She was 55 years of age and had suffered from multiple sclerosis since her youth. She was my sister, and sister of Mr Shahid Aziz.

She was married to Mr Paul Selim Ahmed, an English convert to Islam and a regular and valuable contributor to the literary work of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (including the revision of the volume of Muhammad in World Scriptures dealing with prophecies from the Bible; see this link.)

In her prime Samina used to write articles in Lahore Ahmadiyya magazines and give talks at the UK Lahore Ahmadiyya Centre. Here are two examples of her articles: (1) The Light (Lahore), 24 April 1981, and (2) The Islamic Guardian, July-December 1983.

The photo below is from the summer of 1970 and shows Samina, with her mother Mrs Akhtar Aziz on the left, and on the right Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi (the father of Mrs Aziz):

The photo below is from September 2012, at Samina's 50th birthday:

— Zahid Aziz

A bust of Mr M.A. Jinnah has been unveiled today at the British Museum, London, by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. It has been conceived and funded by the government of Pakistan, as stated by the Pakistan ambassador in the clip. The sculptor is Philip Jackson, a famous British sculptor.

I recorded this news item from the BBC News Channel just before 4 pm today, 29 November 2017, and have made it available at this link.

(If the clip starts playing without sound, please click on the clip and the sound should then play.)

The German daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegal published a large-spread feature entitled Berlin in den 20er jahren or ‘Berlin in the 1920s’ in its issue for 1st October 2017. It contained an item about the Berlin Mosque reproduced from 23 March 1929 entitled Halbmond über Wilmersdorf or ‘Crescent over Wilmersdorf’.

At the close of this brief article it is stated (translated from German):

“Many Berliners have already availed themselves of the community’s invitation and have attended events in the Muslim place of worship — among them such well- known figures as Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Martin Niemöller, Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse.” (Bolding is ours)

A similar statement occurs in the German book Islam in Deutschland published in 2002, according to which interfaith dialogue was organized at the Berlin Mosque "in the form of events, in which, up until 1933, even famous personalities such as Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse and Albert Einstein participated."

Read further at this link of our Berlin Mosque and Mission website.

Regards,

Zahid Aziz