|
|
|
Statement of beliefs
by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
|
The following are some statements of his beliefs by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad:
|
1.
|
"We believe in the five fundamentals upon which
Islam is based, and we abide by the word of God, i.e. the Holy Quran,
which it is incumbent upon us to follow. We believe that there is
none to be worshipped but Allah, and our leader Muhammad Mustafa,
may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, is His Messenger
and the Last Prophet. We believe that whatever
Allah has said in the Holy Quran, and whatever the Holy Prophet
Muhammad has said, is true, as stated above. And we hold
that any person who removes even one jot from the Shari`ah of Islam,
or adds even an iota to it, is without faith and excluded from Islam.
"I enjoin upon my followers that they should have whole-hearted
faith in the Kalima Tayyiba: La ilaha ill-Allahu, Muhammad-ur
rasul-ullah (There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the
Messenger of Allah), and should die in that faith. They must believe
in all the prophets and all revealed books, whose truth is proved
from the Holy Quran. And they must adhere to Islam, properly and
correctly, by considering obligatory upon themselves: Salaat
(prayer), Saum (fasting), Zakaat (charity) and
Hajj (pilgrimage to Makka), and all duties laid down by
Allah and His Messenger; and by considering as unlawful all that
is prohibited. To conclude, it is obligatory
to believe in all those matters, relating to faith and practice,
on which the past righteous religious elders of Islam were agreed,
and which, by consensus of opinion of the Ahl as-Sunna, are
considered to constitute the religion of Islam. And we
call heaven and earth to bear witness that this is our religion."
(Book Ayyam as-Sulh, pp. 86-87)
|
|
2.
|
"Our Kalima is: There is no god but Allah,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I believe in Allah, the
angels, the apostles, the revealed Books, paradise and hell and
the Day of Resurrection. I accept the Holy
Quran as the Book of Allah, and Muhammad, on whom be peace and the
blessings of Allah, as the true Prophet. I lay no claim to prophethood.
And I do not allege, God forbid, that there is any addition or subtraction
to the Holy Quran as given to us by the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace
and the blessings of Allah be on him. And I bear witness that he
is the last of the Prophets and the greatest of all the prophets,
and an intercessor for the sinners."
(Book Anwar al-Islam, p. 34)
|
|
3.
|
"And brothers, you know that the fatwas
of kufr [pronouncements of disbelief against Hazrat Mirza]
were not based on proper investigation and did not contain even
an inkling of truth. Rather all those declarations were sheer fabrication
based on deceit, injustice and falsehood, out of personal jealousy.
These people know very well that I am a believer
and they have seen with their own eyes that I am a Muslim,
that I believe in the One God with Whom there is no associate, that
I profess the Kalima: There is no god except Allah, that
I accept the Book of Allah, the Quran, and His Messenger Muhammad,
on whom be peace and the blessings of Allah, as the last of the
Prophets, and I believe in angels, the Day of Resurrection, heaven
and hell, that I offer prayers and keep fasts, that I belong to
the Ahl-i Qibla [those who face the Muslim direction of prayer],
that I consider unlawful all that the Holy Prophet had declared
unlawful and lawful all that he had declared lawful, that I
have neither added to the Shari`ah, nor taken away anything from
it, not even to the extent of an atom, and that I accept
all that has reached us from the Messenger of Allah, on whom be
peace and the blessings of Allah, whether I understand its secret
or not, and that by Allah's grace, I am a believer and believe in
One God."
(Book Nur al-Haq, vol. i, p. 5)
|
|
4.
|
"These people deceive the masses and lead them
into mistakes of thinking that we have invented a new Kalima
or a new prayer. What reply can I give to such fabrications? By
similar fabrications they placed a humble human being in Trinity.
Look, we are Muslims and belong to the Ummah
[followers] of Muhammad. With us, fabricating a new form
of prayer or turning away from the Qibla are acts of kufr
[disbelief ]. We accept all commandments of the Holy
Prophet and believe that disregard of even a minor commandment amounts
to mischief. My claim is subordinate to the Word of Allah and the
word of the Holy Prophet. We have not introduced a new Kalima,
a new form of prayer, a new Hajj or a separate mosque of our own
in disregard to the obedience of the Holy Prophet. Our
mission is the service of this religion [Islam], making it overcome
all other religions, and following the Holy Quran and the
traditions which are proved to have emanated from the Prophet of
God. We consider it necessary to follow even a weak Hadith if it
is not against the Holy Quran. We consider Bukhari and Muslim
[the two compilations of Hadith] as the most reliable books after
the Book of Allah [the Holy Quran]."
(Ruhani Khaza'in No. 2, compilation of talks and discourses
of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, vol. vii, p. 138)
|
|
5.
|
"Prophets come for the purpose of changing the
religion, changing the qibla [direction in which people pray],
cancelling some of the [existing] commandments and introducing some
new commandments. But in my case there is no claim of such a revolution.
There is the same Islam as before, the same prayers
as before, the same Chosen Prophet as before, and the same Holy
Book as before. One does not have to omit any such thing
from the original faith as to cause so much bewilderment. The claim
to be the Promised Messiah would have been dangerous, and worthy
of being treated with caution, if, along with this claim, there
was some alteration --- God forbid --- in the commandments of the
faith, so that our practices would have been somewhat different
from those of other Muslims. When there is none of this, and the
only issue in dispute is the life or death of Jesus, the claim to
be the Promised Messiah being only an off-shoot of this issue, and
this claim does not mean a change in the practices of the faith,
nor does it adversely affect the tenets of Islam, then is there
any need for a great miracle or sign to be shown in order for this
claim to be accepted, the demand for which is the old custom of
people in case of a claim to prophethood? Is it difficult for a
fair-minded and God-fearing person to accept a Muslim whom God has
sent in support of Islam and whose objects are that he make manifest
to the people the beauties of Islam, and prove that Islam is free
from the objections of modern philosophy, and make the Muslims lean
towards the love of Allah and the Messenger?
If the claim of being the Promised Messiah entailed any imperatives
which adversely affect the commandments and beliefs of the Shari`ah,
that indeed would have been horrible. What ought to be looked
into is what Islamic truth have I transformed by my claim, and
which are the commandments of Islam in which I have made an increase
or decrease of even a dot? True, I have interpreted a prophecy
in a manner revealed to me by the Almighty Allah in this age.
The Holy Quran is witness to the truth of this interpretation,
and so are the reliable traditions of the Holy Prophet. Why is
there then so much hue and cry?"
(Ainah Kamalat Islam, p. 339)
|
|
6.
|
"It is preposterous to imagine that in accepting
my claim there is any fear of damage to the faith. I fail to understand
what could cause that damage? There would have been damage only
if this humble one had compelled people to follow new teachings,
opposed to the teaching of Islam, e.g. if I had declared a lawful
thing to be forbidden or vice-versa, or had introduced any changes
in those beliefs of the Faith which are essential for salvation,
or had introduced any increase or decrease in matters of fasting,
prayer, pilgrimage, poor-rate (Zakaat), etc. which are duties
prescribed by the Shari`ah. For instance, if I had prescribed
ten or two prayers in place of the five daily prayers, or prescribed
two months of fasting in place of one month, or fasting for less
than a month, then there should have been total spiritual loss,
rather disbelief and destruction. But when the situation is that
this humble one repeatedly says only this, O brother,
I have not brought any new religion nor any new teaching, but I
am one of you, and a Muslim like you, and for us Muslims there is
no other book to follow except the Holy Quran, nor is there any
other revealed book to which we invite others to follow,
and when I affirm that except for the Arabian Ahmad, the last of
the Prophets (on whom be peace and blessings of Allah) there is
none to guide us and none to be followed by us, and none whom we
would like others to follow, then where lies the risk for a religious
Muslim to accept my claim which is based on revelation from Allah?"
(Izala Auham, pp. 181,--,182)
|
|
7.
|
"In the end, I again declare
before the general public that I swear by Almighty Allah that I
am not a kafir. My belief is: There is no god but Allah,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. And regarding the
Holy Prophet, I believe [the verse of the Quran]: 'He is the Messenger
of Allah and the Khatam an-nabiyyin.' I swear to the truth
of this statement of mine as many times as there are holy names
of God, and as many times as there are letters in the Holy Quran,
and as many times as there are virtues of the Holy Prophet in the
sight of God. None of my beliefs is contrary to the commandments
of Allah and the Holy Prophet. Whoever thinks otherwise is himself
under a misunderstanding. Whoever considers
me a kafir even now and does not desist from takfir
[calling a Muslim a kafir], let him remember for certain
that he shall be questioned after death. I swear by the Exalted
Allah that I have such faith in Allah and the Holy Prophet Muhammad
that if all the beliefs of this age were placed in the balance against
my belief, then by the grace of the Exalted One, my belief will
be the heavier."
(Book Karamat as-Sadiqeen, p. 25)
|
Thus Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
believe in all the doctrines and practices of Islam as laid down in
the Holy Quran and the Books of Hadith, and as recognised throughout
history by the religious leaders of the Ahl as-Sunna.
|
|
|
Top