The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

UK Lahore Ahmadiyya Jamaat’s written submission to UK Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee

Please visit this link of 'Countering extremism inquiry' of the UK Parliament's Home Affairs Committee, and look under the heading Latest oral and written evidence to find the link to our submission.

Here is the direct link to it.

Zahid Aziz

Review: How Pakistan Abandoned Its Minorities

Here at this link is a review of the book Purifying the Land of the Pure: Pakistan's Religious Minorities written by Farahnaz Ispahani.

Zahid Aziz.

Lesley Hazleton: No 72 Virgins in Quran

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

Lesley Hazleton, a British-American author in her Ted Talk tells audience that there is no mention of 72 sexually attractive female virgins in Holy Quran. This Ted Talk was given in 2010. I came to know about it today. I am happy to find that intellectual non-Muslims have started to see beyond the popular Muslim, and non-Muslim misconceived rhetoric about paradise mentioned in Holy Quran.

Lesley Hazleton: A "tourist" reads the Koran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y2Or0LlO6g

Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Hazleton

“Few questions against your propaganda of jamat e Ahmadiyya”

An e-mail with the above subject line was received at our website e-mail account.

Dear all ,

I am an ahmadi muslim , wish to ask you few questions that from your site I got the info that you are against the current Ahmadiyya leadership of Khalifa as he wants a blind obedience of his order, don't you think its a very natural and obvious that if you are under a jamat you have to follow the rules and regulations of it and its quiet obvious that those rules must be made by the khalifa of jamat only .

           At the time of Muhammad (sa:) his followers undoubtedly follow him and never asked any question against his leadership and this is the true spirit of islam . The followers of true islam will never ask a single question on His leadership as the leader and his guidance is divine and not made in the world as the decision is taken at the sky and its not his own mental decision but the decision of Allah is getting circulated by him as the Jamat is not a organisation by some learned people well organised by a team but it is the team of Allah Himself .

           We Ahmadis are  the blessed one who undoubtedly accepted the Masiha Imam Mahedi and I find your organisation is lucky enough that you have accepted the Imam Mahadi but I feel sad seeing that your organization again left behind by disagreeing with Khalifa and his authority as said by Imam mahedi that some branches of my tree(jamat) will be dried and fallen  down .

          I want to oppose on your statement that Ahmadis  said all are Kafir except them , we never declared or given fatwa to  anyone as Kafir and we do believe in kalema LA ILAHA ILALLAH HU MAHAMADUR RASULULLAH and we never said and believe less than it or more than it .

           On your site you people said you are like other muslims believe in Qur'an and prophet Muhammad we do believe the same and we have accepted the Imam mahedi and the divine Khilafat to rescue the whole world till the last and lead our lives according to His guidance .

        I feel there are two types of muslims in the world one is Ahmadi who obey the Khalifa and other who don't obey the Ahmadiyya Jamat and its Khalifa .
         I pray that all of us may receive hedayet of Allah .

Khaksar ,
Ataul Monem Ahmad 

Qadiani Jamaat presents Lahore Ahmadis beliefs to Americans

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

I am sure Mehmudis present Lahori-Ahmadis beliefs to American.

In recent weeks Mehmudis (Qadianis who believe QK2 Mirza Mehmud Ahmad was “Musleh Mahud”) have started outreach to Americans to remove misconceptions about Islam. In their presentations and conversations they must be presenting “their” beliefs. I am sure the only beliefs that can keep them within fold of Islam and acceptable to Americans as true presentation of Islam are Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement beliefs.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib, based on his ilham, had foretold us that how his biological progeny will go astray in matters of their beliefs and character, but finally will correct their wrong ways. With Mehmudis presentation of LAM beliefs as THEIR belief, I see initial sign of fulfillment of HMGA prediction. I pray for fulfilment of this prediction sooner than later. Ameen.

http://www.newsweek.com/us-muslim-group-launches-campaign-reclaim-meaning-true-islam-extremists-410240

A Christmas and Milad-un-Nabi message

Mortality of Prophets

Christmas and Prophet Muhammad’s birthday come together in December 2015

by Zahid Aziz

• This year there is almost a conjunction of Christmas and the birthday of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him).
• Interestingly, neither of these great personalities ever asked their followers to celebrate their birthdays.
• In case of Islam, no such celebration of the birth of the Holy Prophet is found in its first six centuries. Then some people in the Middle East started observing it.
• In the Indian subcontinent the practice of commemorating his birthday only began as recently as a century ago, around 1910.
• It was in fact the pioneers of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement who held the first such meeting in Lahore in April 1908 to mark the Holy Prophet’s birthday. At this public meeting, in Ahmadiyya Buildings, there were speeches and poems about the Holy Prophet and his life. Non-Muslims were also present in the audience.
• A famous Muslim newspaper, Watan, wrote about this occasion as follows:

“Just as there was great regret that there were no arrangements in Lahore for holding this great occasion of remembrance, there was equal pleasure that on 14th April, corresponding to 12th Rabi-ul-awwal 1326 A.H., on behalf of the Anjuman-i Ahmadiyya Lahore a magnificent meeting was organised by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, lawyer, High Court. Capable speakers delighted the audience by telling them about the life of the Holy Prophet and his excellent and praise-worthy qualities. It is hoped that in future many people in Lahore will organise events for such a sacred remembrance.”

• Other Muslims then took it up and expanded it to an elaborate “Eid” function, celebrated with much fanfare, including activities that are in no way a part of Islam, nor do they serve any useful purpose for Islam. There now seems to be an eleven-day preamble leading up to the 12th day of the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal.
• What the Lahore Ahmadiyya pioneers started was a simple meeting with speeches and poems to inform the public about the Holy Prophet’s life, mission and qualities, and to refute allegations against him. It was not an “Eid” festival as it has now become.
• Islam’s great contribution to religion is to show that all prophets were mortal human beings. Any person who has a birthday was born as a human being, and born as a helpless baby.
• Both Jesus and the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and other prophets, were born exactly like other human beings. As babies they depended on other human beings to feed and wean them. Throughout their lives they had to eat and drink and satisfy other physical needs, like every other human being. They all completed their lives and their physical bodies went to dust, like every other human being.
• The Quran says that all prophets had mortal needs:

“And We did not send before you (O Prophet Muhammad) any messengers but they surely ate food and went about in the markets.” (25:20)

“We did not give them (i.e., prophets) bodies not eating food, nor did they live forever.” (21:8)

“And certainly We sent messengers before you (O Prophet Muhammad) and appoin­ted for them wives and children.” (13:38)

• All prophets declared to their people about themselves:

“We are nothing but mortals like yourselves, but Allah bestows favours (i.e., message of guidance) on whom He pleases of His servants.” (14:11).

• The Prophet Muhammad declared the same:

“I am only a mortal like you — it is revealed to me that your God is one God.” (18:110 and 41:6)

“Am I anything but a mortal messenger?” (17:93)

• Their opponents raised this as an objection against them, that they were only mortals. To their minds, a mortal like them could not be a messenger of God:

“They said: You are only mortals like ourselves, nor has the Beneficent revealed anything — you only lie.” (36:15).

“…their messen­gers came to them with clear arguments, but they said: Shall mortals guide us?” (64:6)

“And the chiefs of his (Noah’s) people who disbelieved … said: He is only a mortal like you, eat­ing what you eat and drinking what you drink.” (23:33)

“Their messengers came to them with clear arguments, but … They said: You are nothing but mortals like us; you wish to turn us away from what our fathers used to worship” (14:9–10)

“…they say: Has Allah raised up a mortal to be a messenger?” (17:94)

“And they say (about Prophet Muhammad): What a Messenger is this? He eats food and goes about in the markets.” (25:7)

• Like prophets before them, both Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad were mortals who would die:

“The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger — messengers had indeed passed away before him. And his mother was a truthful woman. They both used to eat food.” (5:75)

“And Muhammad is but a messenger — messengers have already passed away before him. If then he dies or is killed, will you turn back upon your heels?” (3:144)

• The prophets and messengers of God were mortal human beings because their mission was to act as models and examples for others. They came to show what human beings can achieve. About the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran tells Muslims:

“Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.” (33:21)

He was a husband, father, worker, teacher, soldier and general, ruler, lawmaker and judge, and had all kinds of social, business and official dealings with both ordinary people and their leaders. He forgave his persecuting enemies after overcoming them, he overlooked the faults of his followers even if he had suffered as a result, and he punished tyrants for wrongs they had inflicted on innocent persons. Hence he was an excellent exemplar and a perfect model in all walks of life, and he not only gave practical rules of guidance, but gave by his life a practical illustration of all those rules.

How the Holy Prophet Muhammad was an “excellent exemplar” is mentioned in the Quran in the following verse, where God says to the Holy Prophet:

“And surely you have sublime morals.” (68:4)

The word for “sublime” here is ‛aẓīm, which also means “very great”. The exalted height of his moral values and conduct made him an exemplar for his followers.

• The Quran also requires Muslims to follow the examples of other prophets, who appeared before the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and their immediate loyal followers. Regarding Abraham and his followers of his time, the Quran says:

“Certainly there is for you in them a good example, for him who hopes for Allah and the Last Day.” (60:6)

For preaching the message of truth and adhering to it under great difficulties, the Quran asks Muslims to follow the example of Jesus and his disciples:

“O you who believe, be helpers (in the cause) of Allah, as Jesus, son of Mary, said to the disciples: Who are my helpers in the cause of Allah? The disciples said: We are helpers (in the cause) of Allah.” (61:14)

• Both Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad, instead of asking their followers to celebrate their birthdays, gave them the same basic commandments to follow. Jesus was asked: “Which is the first commandment of all?” He replied:

“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark, 12:29–31).

In another place, giving the same answer, Jesus added: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the (teachings of the) Prophets.” (Matthew, 22:40)

The Quran says the same in these words:

“And they say: None shall enter the Garden (of heaven) except he who is a Jew, or the Christians. These are their vain desires. Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful. No, whoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others), he has his reward from his Lord, and there is no fear for such nor shall they grieve.” (2:111–112)

Here the Quran rejects the idea that merely by calling oneself a Jew or Christian, or anything else, entry into heaven is guaranteed to you. Submitting “entirely” (or your whole self) to God has the same meaning as what Jesus said about loving God “with all your heart”, etc., and being a “doer of good to others” is the same as loving your neighbour as you love yourself.

• The Quran also says:

“It is not for a mortal that Allah should give him the Book and the (authority of) judgment and the (rank of) prophethood, then he should tell people: Be my servants besides Allah’s; but (he would say): Be wor­ship­pers of the Lord because you teach the Book and because you study (it); nor would he command you to take the angels and the prophets for lords. Would he command you to disbelieve after you submit?” (3:79-80)

As every prophet was a mortal, no prophet taught his followers to worship him in addition to worshipping God, nor could any prophet teach this to his followers. Both Jesus and the Holy Prophet Muhammad came to make people into worshippers of the One God and to do good to everyone around them.

Birthday of Prophet Muhammad marked by Ahmadis of Lahore in 1908, two years before other Muslims in India started doing it

At this link you can read the post I published in January 2015 (one year ago according to the Hijri calendar), in which I quoted a news item from the Ahmadiyya newspaper Badr, dated 30th April 1908 or 26th Rabi-ul-awwal 1326 A.H., reporting that Ahmadis in the city of Lahore held a 'Holy Prophet Muhammad' function, organised by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, on 12th Rabi-ul-awwal 1326 A.H.

I have an Urdu book entitled Islami Encyclopaedia, published in 1933, compiled by a very famous Muslim journalist, Maulvi Mehboob Alam, founder of the newspaper Paisa Akhbar, and regarded as a pioneer of Urdu newspaper publishing. It has an entry on "Bara Wafat" under which it is written that the campaign arose in the Middle East in 1327 A.H. to hold this festival under the name Eid-ul-Maulood An-Nabawi on a grand scale and as a result this was done in various cities in India in 1328 A.H.

This seems to show that in the Indian subcontinent this kind of function was held by Ahmadis in Lahore two years before other Muslims started holding similar functions about the Holy Prophet.

Interestingly, this entry goes on to say: "Followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, who claimed to be Promised Messiah, hold a special conference on this day." This is clear recognition that Ahmadis were pioneers in this field.

However, the reason given by the writer as to why Ahmadis hold this fucntion is not at all correct (he says that Ahmadis commemorate on this day that while the Prophet Muhammad died, prophethood itself did not die, and will continue, and Mirza sahib was a prophet). Perhaps he should have attended this or any later function held by Ahmadis (at least by Lahore Ahmadis), or read the report in Badr, and he might not have expressed this false impression.

I have put together the report from Badr and this encyclopaedia entry in one document, which is available at this link.

The Exegesis of The Holy Qur’an: Commentary and Reflections by Allamah Nooruddin

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

A few weeks ago, a much awaited English Tafseer of Holy Quran by Allamah Nooruddin is published by Noor Foundation. It has two parts.

Part I: Reflections-Selected Pearls.

This part has 259 pages essays on different topics. Topics include:

Who is Allah? The Divine Essence. Self-Disclosure of the veiled reality. “We-ness”, “He-ness” and “I-ness” of Allah. Monotheism in its absolute purity. Four divine graces of mercy. Attributive names of Allah. “Light upon light”. Glorification of the All-sustained Lord. All praise reverts to Allah. What is worship and servitude? Supplications and its blessings. Ritual prayers of Muslims. Invocation and “Remembrance” of God. What is trust in God? Sainthood in Islam. Source of morality and the origin of evil. The Qur’anic concept of paradise. Divine punishment and concept of “Hell”. Notions of the Doctrine of “Atonement”. Dogmas of trinity and divinity. Dogmas of the “sonship” of God. Jesus of the Holy Qur’an. An invitation to the purification of souls.

Part II: Commentary-Selected Verses.

This part has 818 pages of commentary on selected verses of the Holy Qur’an. When a Qur’anic verse is quoted, only the relevant part of the verse is presented with its English translation. For complete verse and its translation into English, the reader is recommended to refer to the English Translation of the Holy Qur’an by Ms. Amatul Rahman Omar and Abdul Mannan Omar. 

Will Muslims in USA (and the West) face similar situation to Ahmadis in Pakistan?

Some forty years ago the government of Pakistan declared that being an Ahmadi was incompatible with being a Muslim, and therefore by law it deprived Ahmadis of being Muslim citizens of the state. This fuelled discrimination against Ahmadis, their ostracism in all fields of life, and their social denigration and exclusion.

At that time, and since then, many Muslims in Pakistan urged Ahmadis to adopt a simple solution to their problems. It was that Ahmadis should renounce being Ahmadis and declare that they are Muslims, and moreover, to prove that this declaration is genuine, they should add that their forefathers had made a mistake in accepting Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (and for further convincing perhaps utter some terms of abuse against their fathers and grandfathers).

I wonder what advice these people would offer to Muslims in Western countries if these countries were to make laws that being a Muslim is incompatible with being a citizen of that country, and Muslims were thus forced to choose between calling themselves Muslims and being (for example) US or French citizens.

Some of the people in Pakistan who gave Ahmadis this advice subsequently themselves migrated to Western countries, or their offspring did.

Would they, under the above circumstances, advise Muslims of Western countries, including their own relatives and in some cases including themselves, to declare that they are not Muslims and that their forefathers made a mistake in embracing Islam?

After all, I recall these people saying to Ahmadis: Why do you want to risk becoming a minority? Join the majority and you will be safe. They always said: It is important to be considered as Muslims under the law of Pakistan and for people to consider you as Muslims. I don't recall them ever saying: It is important to act on the teachings of Islam.

If these are their principles, that right and wrong are not any criteria, and what matters is seeking the approval of society and maintaining a status in it, then what can one expect from them when they are placed in a trying situation?

George Bernard Shaw’s quotation about the Prophet Muhammad’s religion

I have compiled the following article about a quotation attributed to George Bernard Shaw ("I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality….") which should be of general interest:

www.ahmadiyya.org/islam/bernard-shaw.htm

Zahid Aziz