The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Roots of Pakistani Christians

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

The British Empire after militarily conquering India and taking power from Muslims changed its tactics to rule her subjects, especially Muslims. In order to rule India perpetually in a peaceful manner they launched missionary efforts with aim to convert Muslims of India to Christianity. It was good luck of Indian Muslims that Allah SWT appointed his Mujaddid of 14th Islamic Hijra Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib, who with power of his pen, and employing tactics introduced to India by missionaries i.e. debates, discussions, publications, announcements, seminars prevented Christians missionaries to have significant success in converting Muslims to Christians. Had it not been the case, today, a high proportion of Pakistani Muslims, especially in Punjab, would be Christians.
As Christian Missionaries failed in their mission they turned their focus on Hindus.

Dil Nawaz, a researcher on religion and minorities’ rights at the National University of Ireland writes in his article, published on Pak Tea House blog:
“Pakistan’s approximately 2.8 million Christians constitute about 2 percent of the country’s 180 million people and are most concentrated in the province of Punjab. Christians are split evenly between Catholics and Protestants. Almost all embraced Christianity in mass conversions from Hinduism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in an effort to escape their status as “untouchables” (now referred to as Dalits).”

I hope opponents of HMGA, who accuse him of failing in his mission of preventing Muslims conversion to Christianity, can learn truth from Mr. Dil Nawaz.

Link to Dil Nawaz article:
Pakistani Christians and the Myth of Clash of Civilizations
http://pakteahouse.net/2011/08/06/pakistani-christians-and-the-myth-of-clash-of-civilizations/

Ramadan Message from Dr A.K. Saeed, Head of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement

Read the 2011 Ramadan Message from Hazrat Ameer Dr A.K. Saeed, along with his translation of some verses of poetry by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in praise of the Holy Quran.

Ahmadiyya on Al Jazeera English

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

Opponents of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib (mostly former Qadianis) and current Qadianis had debate on Al Jazeera English program ‘The Stream’. Since members of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement believe that both anti-HMGA and Qadianis are WRONG about status, mission and teachings of HMGA, so to make the picture more clear to the viewer LAM representative needs to contact ‘The Stream’ management and ask for a chance to present our beliefs.
Link to ‘The Stream’ program online:
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/believers-or-heretics-battle-between-mainstream-muslims-and-ahmadiyya-community

Starting Ramadan / holding Eid on same day across Muslim world

Rizwan Jamil has asked for the following question to be posted.

Can you please open a new thread with the topic relating to moon sighting? I want to inquire what is Ahmadiyyah’s stance regarding this controversy i.e. Should the Muslims of the whole world start Ramadhan and celebrate Eid on the same day on the testimony of the sighting of the moon anywhere in the world? Or that the Muslims should respect the borders of their countries or nation states (created by the Non-Muslims by ending the Ottoman Caliphate on the basis of their “divide-and-rule” policy) and start Ramadhan and celebrate Eid on the testimony of the sighting of the moon in their own country only, irrespective of its sighting anywhere else in the world?

Qadiani Khalifa 5 Mirza Masroor Ahmad visits Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Mosque in Berlin, Germany

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

According to the news:

“Mirza Masroor Ahmed, Khalifa 5 of Qadiani Jamaat visited Berlin Mosque that belongs to Lahori Jamaat on 29th June 2011. Mirza Masroor Ahmed is the firstever Khalifa to visit a Lahori Jamaat Mosque in last 96 year after the death of Hazrat Hakim Noor-ud-Din, Khalifatul-Masih in March 1914. The details of his 15 minutes visit with about 50-60 people in his entourage shall be given soon.”

According to another information, Qadiani Khalifa 5 asked LAM member present in mosque to “Come and join them (i.e. Qadiani Cult)”.

I wish I were there. I would have replied:

“Khalifa sahib, I will join your jamaat at this very moment, just help me answer one objection of opponents of your jamaat: While in presence of your entourage, standing in mosque, holding Holy Quran in your hands could you please say on oath that your maternal Grandfather Khalifa (QK2) Mirza Mahmud Ahmad NEVER said–

“All muslims who are not included in the bai`at of Maseeh Mauood, even if they have not heard the name of Maseeh Mauood, they are Kafir and out of the fold of Islam. I admit that these are my beliefs.”;

“Non-Ahmadis [here Ahmadis means Qadianis i.e. Non-Qadianis] are the disbelievers therefore their funeral prayers should not be offered, but if you ask: an infant of non-ahmadi [Non-Qadiani] dies, why should we not pray his funeral prayer, he is not a disbeliever of Maseeh Mauood? I ask the inquirer, that if this is true than why don’t we offer funeral prayer of a Hindu or a Christian child? How many people offer their funeral prayer?”;

“It is our obligation that we do not consider non-ahmadis [non-Qadianis] as muslims and do not pray behind them, because for us they have rejected one prophet (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) of God. This is a religious matter and no one has any right to do anything in it.” ”

I am sure QK5 would have NEVER answered request, but it would have certainly educated the TRUE BELIEFS OF QADIANIS to his 50-60 stooges who escorted him to show off his “majesty”.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

Submitted by Ikram.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

13:03. Verily, in all this there are messages indeed for people who think.

7:179 And certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and the people —they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. They are as cattle; rather, they are more astray. These are the heedless ones.

The above verses emphasize that any divine system has to pass the test of human intelligence and reasoning, else following such a system would be a blind fellowship of a dogma. By stating these verses Quran exposes itself and Islam to this challenge first and foremost. Thus any institution that is developed in the name of Islam, must pass the secular standards first before any spirituality could be attributed to it.

Contrary to general religious views, secularism is the underpinning of Islam i.e.

“Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.” [George Jacob Holyoake]

For example, humbleness, hard work, love, kindness, sincerity, truthfulness, honesty, accountability etc. are all secular values, which Quran encourages, nurtures and guides to. In doing so, Quran takes the secularism to next level of spirituality and outlines the moral laws governing those values. Not only that, Allah Himself becomes the guarantor of such laws and their outcomes which are both secular and spiritual in their nature e.g. the hard work:

79:1. I call to witness those groups of beings, who perform their duties (towards their Lord and mankind and themselves) with intense zeal and to the best of their capacity,
79:2. And those who exert themselves vigorously,
79:3. And those who steer their course swiftly and skillfully,
79:4. Then those who going foremost greatly excel (all others and attain the topmost positions),
79:5. Then those who administer the affairs in an excellent manner (shall reap the fruit of their striving).

Similarly, to manage an organization, Quran sets the following secular standards:

4:58. Surely, Allâh commands you to make over the trusts (such as the affairs of the state) to those who are competent to it, and that when you judge between the people you should judge with justice. That which Allâh exhorts you to do is best indeed. Allâh is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.

In context to the recent posts on this blog, any Divine and his mission has to have the amalgam of both i.e. spiritualism that emanates from the foundations of pristine secularism. HMGA passes these standards with highest honors. Like any decent society or government he established an independent Senate i.e. Anjuman as the governing body to manage the secular aspect of his mission, while he remained the spiritual head. So did Noourddin sahib. [Read details…]

Then came the coup of QK-2, which is no different than that of Zia-ul-Haq or other dictators who claim to be the greatest democrats that were ever born and in doing so trample the very basic institutions that assures the secular goodness of the society i.e. the Senate and all representative bodies. The word of the dictator is final over all decisions and yet the dictators darn the garb of pseudo-democracy and pack the Senate with their cronies and rubber-stampers. While monopolizing the control over all national resources, they make every rule and effort to stay above accountability. It is their utmost effort to convert their rule into a dynasty. For public display, they make speeches in front of rent-a-crowd and in the process do actually become popular to some extent that they may even walk in full view of the public naked, but no one in the audience has the guts to yell “Emperor has no clothes.”

This is what the QK-2 onwards did [-read details…] and that is what the Qadiani members believed and rode the bandwagon for a century. Hopefully they enjoyed the ride of non-accountability, ignominy, extortion, bigotry, ridicule, ostracism, pseudo-representation, pseudo-spirituality, pseudo-piety in the pope-mobile. The first step in recovery is to admit the wrong. Maybe its time for them to stand up to their khalifas and yell at the top of their lungs:

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

More accrately: its the fifth khalifa i.e. “…fool me fourth (QK-5), shame on me.”

Advantages of a Muslim burial

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

Growing up in densely and over populated country Pakistan, where graveyards and tombs have created traffic congestions. Lives in this world for living has become “hell” in some way for those who live near the dead. I was of the opinion that only solution for this problem is cremation and Muslims should adopt it. About couple of decades ago I discussed it with Mian Abdul Mannan Omar sahib (marhoom). He gave me reasons and advantages of Muslim burial along with stating that Islam does not prohibit leveling of Muslim graveyard every few years and reusing it as fresh place of burial. I can appreciate what he said then more after watching following report on Al Jazeera English website:

‘Ecofunerals’ on the rise in the US
Environmentally conscious Americans are opting for ecofriendly “green” funerals.

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/07/201175233513693105.html

Lahore Ahmadi elders were lovers of, and loved by, the Promised Messiah — Qadiani leaders’ admission

In a recent comment I referred to a speech by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad in 1925. See: http://www.ahmadiyya.org/qadis/khil2.htm#sp1925. In it, he also stated:

“For the sake of the khilafat we had to make an unparalleled sacrifice. And that was that we sacrificed for its sake the old followers of the Promised Messiah, those who were called his friends, those who had a very close relationship with him. If this religious difference had not arisen between them and ourselves, they would be dearer to us than our own children because they included those who knew the Promised Messiah and those who were his companions.” (bolding is mine.)

In the book Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Mirza Bashir Ahmad (the younger brother) makes the following incidental observation about two Lahore Ahmadi leaders:

“I further add that among those people who stumbled at the second khilafat there were two who, in my opinion, loved the Promised Messiah very greatly during his life, and he too loved them. One was Mirza Yaqub Baig marhoom and the other was Shaikh Rahmatullah marhoom. Regrettably, they stumbled at the death of the first khalifa.” (Seerat-ul-Mahdi, v. 3, p. 112)

At least it is admitted here that during the life of the Promised Messiah the Lahore Ahmadi elders were his close, beloved followers. Yet the Qadiani Jama’at also alleges, elsewhere, that even during the life of the Promised Messiah these people were hypocrites and weak-hearted!

We suggest that it was their love for the Promised Messiah, which they displayed all through his life, which led to their so-called “stumbling” in 1914!

Interview with Maulana Abdul Mannan Omar

This article has been written and submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.

A question about words in the Quran

An esteemed friend has sent the following question.

I was participating in a discussion and i suggested that cure for all social ills, result of serving other-than-Him, is to get a clear understanding about Tauheed.

the argument in response to it was – get us the word ‘tauheed’ from Quran. I do not know if that term is used in Quran or not. I used this term to refer to the phenomenon of Unity of God, His excellence above all in all regards.

That argument did not make sense because if that term is itself not mentioned but the concept then what term should be used to refer to it?

i was asked – I dont know what you mean by tauheed or unity of Allah, is the word tauheed used for the unity of Allah in the Quran?
…if the term tauheed is not used in the Quran, not as a description of the “concept of oneness”, then who thought its nessecary to find a word out of the Quran, to describe the “oneness of Allah”?

what does oneness of Allah mean?

It is a non quranic term which would also make it’s “concept” non quranic as well. Those who came up with the term are also the ones who provide the definition of that term. So, I believe the first thing we should do is ask ourselves if the quran agrees with the concept that has been assigned to this term “Tauheed”.

Did the Quran allowed anyone to make up concepts about Allah which are not in the Quran?

Is Allah THE GOD or THE ONLY GOD?
Tauheed is a concept, is Is Allah’s oneness a hypothesis or an actual practical reality?

ANYTHING said about Allah, his Deen, His Rusools must be proven throught the Quran itself, otherwise anyone can come up with stories and concepts as they like.

My question is – what is meaning of this arabic term Tauheed. We are asked to believe in His superiority – saves us from slavery to man and from man made ideas about Him. i ve been using this term in this context – Tauheed furnished us with knowledge which can stand against any other-than-Him.

If you could comment on it. Thanks.