The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Muslim decline is due to misdeeds. How can they wage jihad?

Badr, 6th June 1907, reports Hazrat Mirza sahib as referring to the following verse within his poem about the impermissibility of war-like jihad:

“Now all your life is entirely sinful. Believer you are not, as you walk in unbelief.”

Commenting on this, Hazrat Mirza sahib said:

Look how all kinds of sinful and evil behaviour is rampant today and Muslims are not like they were in the early days. This is why rule in the land was snatched away from them, because they forsook God the Most High. God is not like someone’s relative that He should continue helping the relation even if the latter goes astray.

As Muslims have a resemblance to the Jews, it was necessary that they too, like the Israelites, be punished severely twice. Once the punishment came when Halaku Khan invaded and destroyed Baghdad, killing 600,000 Muslims in Baghdad alone. The condition of the Muslims of the time is shown by this incident. People went to see a holy man and asked him to pray to God to save them. He said: “You wretches, because of you all of us are caught up in this punishment. I have seen angels saying: O unbelievers, kill the wicked people.”

The same condition has again arisen now. The rule of the British, who are unbelievers in terms of our religion, has been established in India just because Muslims themselves have become evil-doers and are not worthy of the mercy of God. This verse of my poem means just this, that as your own condition has not remained such as to deserve the help of God, how can you wage a jihad (of war)?

Divine protection during plague epidemic – 2

Note: The incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, referred to in Badr, 6th June 1907, and in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy, published May 1907, actually took place some five years earlier in 1902. As Hazrat Mirza shaib says in his announcement in this issue, this prophecy had been fulfilled during the previous years.

Divine protection during plague epidemic

In Badr of 6th June 1907 there is an announcement by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, printed in a large font size, addressing those Muslim religious leaders who accused him of fabricating revelation. He says that he has written the book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (just then published) to prove his case to them. In this announcement he cites as an example of Divine revelation to him the following: inni uhaafizu kulla man fi-d-dar wa uhaafizu-ka khassa, the interpretation of which is that God will protect everyone within his house from plague which was raging then all around in Punjab, and in particular the Promised Messiah himself would be protected.

He goes on to say that this prophecy has been fulfilled over the previous eleven years. He then challenges those who call this revelation a human fabrication to swear on oath that “may the curse of Allah be upon him who denies true revelation from God”, while Hazrat Mirza sahib would swear: “may the curse of Allah be upon him who fabricates revelation from God”. That is, each party invokes the curse of Allah upon itself, in case of being false. Also he challenges them to make a similar prophecy about themselves, as he made about himself.

He adds that the prophecy does not mean that each and every one of his followers will be safe-guarded from this disease, but that it relates to those of perfect faith, whose faith is not mixed with some weakness. It is interesting to note that in the same issue of Badr there is an excerpt about an incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, taken from the magazine Tashhiz-ul-Azhan, which had just then been started by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, son of the Promised Messiah. In this particular talk, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad relates that once Maulana Muhammad Ali, who then lived in a part of the Promised Messiah’s house, fell ill with high fever and believed that he had contracted plague. The Promised Messiah writes that when he heard this he went to see Maulana Muhammad Ali and said to him without the least hesitation: If you have got plague then our Movement is based on falsehood. “Saying that, I felt his pulse and there was no sign or trace of a fever”, says he.

Not only as a reported talk as here, but the same incident has also been recorded in written form by the Promised Messiah in his book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (see Sign number 103 on page 253).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was absolutely sure that Maulana Muhammad Ali could not have contracted plague because (1) he had full belief that his revelation was from God, and (2) he knew that Maulana Muhammad Ali was a follower of perfect faith. He did not for one moment entertain the thought that the Maulana could really have caught plague as his faith may be less than full and perfect.

It is also interesting to note that in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy he mentions two incidents when his own relations actually contracted plague, one being his wife’s brother Mir Muhammad Ishaq (see Sign number 143, pages 327-329) and the other his son Mirza Sharif Ahmad, grandfather of the present Qadiani Khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad (see pages 87-88, footnote). In both cases, the Promised Messiah mentions his great anxiety and extreme worry that if the boy died then his opponents would have the opportunity to falsify his revelation mentioned above. Indeed, he says he cannot describe the shock he felt at this thought. He then had recourse to special prayer to Allah to avert such a calamity, and the prayers were accepted.

The contrast is quite clear between the incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali on the one hand, and the incidents involving the two family members of the Promised Messiah.

“Speak to him a gentle word”

According to the Quran, God told Moses:

“Go you and your brother with My messages and be not remiss in remembering Me. Go both of you to Pharaoh, surely he is inordinate; Then speak to him a gentle word, perhaps he may be mindful or fear.” (20:42-44)

This indicates the way to preach. One might expect that a hard-hearted, arrogant tyrant such as this Pharaoh would pay no attention to “a gentle word” from a lowly man from an enslaved community like Moses, and he would only respond to some terrifying threat. But we are told to try gentleness in the first place, as this may change a mind that we don’t expect.

More from Badr, 30th May 1907

1. A book by Maulana Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan of Amroha is reported as having been published in which he has related the martyrdom of Sahibzada Abdul Latif in terms of a story in Surah Yasin (Ch. 36) of the Quran. The name of the book is Sirr-ush-Shahadatain. [One wonders if this is available somewhere.]
2. There is an announcement by a printer that Maulana Nur-ud-Din has given him his translation of the Quran to print and publish, and he has now published the first Part. [Such a translation never appears to have been heard of again.]
3. Hazrat Mirza sahib’s book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy had just been published on 15th May.

Items from Badr, 30 May 1907

The front page of this issue of Badr carried as usual the full conditions of the bai`at and, at the foot of the page, again as usual, the manner in which the Promised Messiah administers the bai`at.

Again, as usual, the front page has printed on it verses from the poem in Persian by Hazrat Mirza sahib written while addressing the saint Khwaja Ghulam Farid of Chachran (near Bahawalpur). It begins: “Ma musalmaneem az fazl-i Khuda…” (We are Muslims by the grace of God. The Mustafa is our Leader and Guide). The 6th verse in the extract given here is:

“He is the best of messengers, the best of mankind. Every prophethood came to an end with him”.

This poem was published by Hazrat Mirza sahib in his book Siraj Munir, March 1897. See Mujaddid-i Azam, p. 458-459.

So we have here a writing, a section of a poem, published well before 1901, containing a verse affirming that prophethood of every kind ended with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Then we find that regularly in Badr, for long after 1901, a part of this poem, including that verse, was always printed on the front page as giving a basic statement of his beliefs by Hazrat Mirza sahib.

This shows just how baseless the theory is that in November 1901 Hazrat Mirza sahib changed his claim from that of saint to that of prophet and began to teach from then on that the Holy Prophet Muhammad was not the last and final prophet. Pre-1901 statements on this subject were being published after 1901 as well.

100 years ago

As the 100th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is in almost one year’s time, in this category we intend to follow the events and statements of the last year of his life (June 1907 to May 1908), week by week. The category name is “100 years ago” and you will be able to select just this category for display.

That is the intention and plan. To what extent I can maintain the momentum and continuity I don’t know. I may have to adopt a “rough and ready” approach to translating the items from Urdu in order to save time.

Verse on equality of men and women

“So their Lord accepted their prayer, (saying): I will not suffer the work of any worker among you to be lost whether male or female, the one of you being from the other. So those who fled and were driven forth from their homes and persecuted in My way and who fought and were slain, I shall truly remove their evil and make them enter Gardens wherein flow rivers — a reward from Allah. And with Allah is the best reward.” (3:195)

The words highlighted above, “the one of you being from the other” (ba`zu-kum min ba`z), are generally taken to mean that men and women are born, each from the other. We too have been accepting them in this sense.

However, one or two translators render these words as “you are all as each other” or “each is like the other”. Maulana Muhammad Ali in Bayan-ul-Quran has also given this as an alternative interpretation. He writes in note 592:

“Or it means that you, men and women, are alike in terms of behaviour and qualities. … You all are one, you are like kindred.”

Thus, “you, men and women, are the same as each other” is a meaning of these words.

Towards the 100th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

On Saturday 26th May, as the session of the convention in Berlin opened, we were reminded that this day was the 99th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Some extracts were read out from his writings and statements. Thus begins the 100th year after his passing away. We will devote this year to reminding and informing people of his great contributions to the cause of Islam.

Berlin Convention, Friday 25th May to Sunday 27th May 2007

This was a European Lahore Ahmadiyya convention, conducted by members from Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. The theme from the U.K. was “Islam, Peace and Tolerance” and the damage done to the cause of Islam by the use of violence in the name of Islam.