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The Ahmadiyya
Movement of Lahore
A Survey of the Origins,
History, Beliefs, Aims, and Work of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam
Lahore
by Zahid Aziz
(From The Light & Islamic
Review, September - October 1997, with minor changes.)
Introduction
[Top]
Much is heard these days of jihad and of militant Islamic
parties in Muslim countries, and elsewhere, calling on the faithful
to put this teaching of Islam into practice in order to overthrow
"man-made" or "satanic" systems of government
and replace these with what is called Islamic rule and government.
What is less in the public eye is the jihad which a certain
Muslim movement has been engaged in throughout the twentieth century,
of peacefully disseminating knowledge of Islam in the world and
striving to prove its truth, doing so particularly in Western countries.
The battlefield of this jihad is not any territory on earth
but the hearts and minds of human beings, and the weapons with which
it is fought are not the gun and the bomb but argument and evidence.
This, then, is the jihad which the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
has been conducting for more than eighty years. This form of jihad
is not merely a metaphorical or secondary interpretation of this
well-known Islamic teaching, but it is, in fact, the real, the
permanent and the greatest form of jihad. The repeated
exhortations of the Holy Quran to the believers, to strive (do
jihad) with their lives and property, all apply to the
jihad of the peaceful propagation of Islam as much as they
did to the battles which the Muslims had to fight in self-defence
during the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
How did the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement come to be undertaking
this rather unusual jihad? What is the source of its firm
conviction that such a jihad will be ultimately successful,
when in today's materialistic environment it is held -- by non-Muslims
and Muslims alike -- that success can only be achieved by means
of political, military or some other worldly form of power? And
how can one believe that Islam, of all religions and ideologies,
shall spread in the world without the support and backing of some
power or state? These are the questions we now explore.
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Challenges
to religion and to Islam
[Top]
In modern times, beginning in the early nineteenth century, religion
has fallen into much disrepute. As a consequence of man's scientific
discoveries and technological advances, serious doubts were created
regarding the existence of God. Firstly, if man can himself unravel
the mysteries of nature and can acquire control over its forces,
then he does not stand in need of the concept of God to explain
existence or to call upon the All-Powerful for help. Secondly,
the super-natural phenomena upon which religion was based -- the
existence of God, communication from Him to human beings, His
extraordinary intervention in the form of miracles -- could not
be proved or discovered by scientific enquiry. Thirdly, several
discoveries of science, particularly about the origin of the universe
and of man, plainly disproved the history of creation as understood
from religious scriptures.
The assault by science as well as by other modern thinking, and
indeed some regrettable aspects of religious history itself, led
to religion being regarded as synonymous with superstition, ignorance,
intolerance, bigotry, bloodshed, repression, etc.
Besides this crippling assault by modern ideologies upon religion
in general, the faith of Islam was suffering further devastating
blows as a result of the downfall of Muslim political power in
the world. Muslims had long viewed their conquests and rule as
being proof of the truth of their religion, because the Divine
promise made for its triumph over the unbelievers had been fulfilled.
But now the faithful were facing defeat upon defeat at the hands
of the unbelievers. This consequently led to a deterioration in
faith. Moreover, the Muslims were also facing an ideological assault
against their creed by the West. European writers and Christian
proselytisers had amassed mountains of objections against the
teachings of Islam and the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to
show that Islam was not of Divine origin but was based on notions
borrowed by the Prophet from earlier religions which he then moulded
to suit his own ends. Its teachings and moral values, it was asserted,
appealed only to the primitive mind, and were utterly out of place
in the modern, civilized and enlightened world. It urged its followers
to resort to crude violence, and that was how it had succeeded
in the past. Christian polemicists, in particular, attributed
the gravest failings to the personal character and conduct of
the Holy Prophet Muhammad and sought to show that Jesus, in stark
contrast, was at the very opposite end of the moral scale, being
the sinless teacher and exemplar of the finest qualities, and
the true saviour of mankind.
It may be rightly said that at no time in the history of Islam
had there been such ferocious and overwhelming attacks upon its
teachings and its Holy Prophet. The condition of the Muslims --
moral, social, intellectual -- was so decrepit that they were
unable to repulse these threats to their faith. They were intellectually
totally ill-equipped to meet the onslaught of modern thought and
science against religious verities. As regards the specific attacks
upon Islam, it was an unfortunate fact that many religious notions
prevailing commonly among Muslims actually lent strength to many
of the criticisms against Islam as a violent, intolerant and repressive
system of faith. The Muslim religious leaders and thinkers slavishly
followed the interpretations derived by their forebears in entirely
different times of centuries ago, which were irrelevant and inapplicable
now. The minds of the Muslim people were pre-occupied with their
worldly losses and misfortunes, and they showed complete apathy
and indifference to the disrepute of the religion of Islam in
the world.
There were some rare intellectuals and writers who lamented over
the state of the Muslims. One such was Altaf Husain Hali (1837-1914)
who penned a famous Urdu poem known as the Musaddus-i Hali,
in which he refers to the fallen condition of the Muslim community
as follows:
"Whose ship is trapped in a whirlpool, far from the shore,
storm raging around it; likely to flounder and sink at any moment.
And yet those on the ship have no sense of danger, and remain
in deep slumber, unconcerned. Clouds of misfortune are gathering
overhead, adversity is showing itself all around. Evil is threatening
from all directions. From left and right the warning is sounded:
'What were you yesterday and what are you today? You were awake
then, you are asleep now!'
"But the community's heedlessness is such, that it is
content with its decayed existence. It grovels in dust and clings
to its foolishness. The sun has arisen but it remains asleep
in a land of dreams. It shows no regret about its disgrace,
nor does it feel envious of the greatness of others." (From
Selected Verses of Hali's Musaddus, translated by Farooqi
Mehtar, Durban, South Africa, 1982.)
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Coming
of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
[Top]
It was in such circumstances of despair, gloom and despondency that
a man by the name of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad grew up in the village of
Qadian, Punjab, in India in the middle of the nineteenth century.
From his youth, he showed no inclination towards the worldly business
to which he was expected to devote his attention by his father,
but was absorbed in religious study and contemplation. As he himself
writes: "In those days I was so much absorbed in the study
of books that it was as if I was not living in this world".
In deference to his father's wishes, he pursued some law suits for
the recovery of their ancestral land, and also dealt with the family's
agricultural matters, but as he writes: "I was by nature thoroughly
averse to such a life" and he "greatly abhorred"
those activities because of the kind of business-like dealing this
work required. (These quotations are from his book Kitab al-Barriyya,
published January 1898.) After his father's death in 1876, he devoted
himself entirely to religious study as well as to spiritual exertion.
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Reason
and revelation
[Top]
By himself he had made a study of the major religions, their various
tendencies, and modern criticism of religion in general as well
as of Islam in particular. From 1880 onwards he began the writing
of a book, in parts, to prove the truth of the Quran and the Prophethood
of the Prophet Muhammad. In this book, published under the title
Barahin Ahmadiyya, he clarifies the role and mutual relation
of reason and revelation. This being the great age of reason, he
proceeded on the principle that the teachings of a Revealed Book
should satisfy human reason. While religious beliefs cannot be derived
from reason, but can only be taught by revelation, it is still a
necessary condition for a true belief that it must conform to reason
and not violate it. He also laid down some other criteria for a
Revealed Book, one condition being that such a book should itself
put forward its claims, its teachings, and arguments in support
of its claims, and not be dependent on its followers to make claims
and provide supporting arguments on its behalf. He then carried
out a comparative study to show that only the Holy Quran satisfies
any of this criteria. He sought to prove, so far as it can be proved,
that the Quran was the Word of God and the Revelation of the most
perfect order.
While giving due recognition to the place of reason, he also
established that man's intellect could only take him a part of
the way towards God, but not actually bring him to full conviction
of the existence of the Supreme Being. That could only be done
by God showing Himself to man through revelation. Thus revelation
was a necessity, and quite indispensable, for the higher, moral
and spiritual development of mankind.
Ours is an age not just of philosophical reasoning but of experiment
and observation as well. No phenomenon can be accepted merely
on the basis of being reported or recorded in a book, but requires
to be demonstrated or reproduced in practice. As Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad sought to show that revelation from God containing
knowledge unknown to man did indeed occur, which was being widely
doubted and denied, and this of course is the basis of belief
in the Quran as the Word of God, he had to demonstrate the coming
of revelation as a living experience. Islam recognises the continuance
of a form of revelation that was shared by both prophets and other
righteous human being, coming to Muslims of high spiritual rank
even though prophethood ended with the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
Hazrat Mirza was extensively a recipient of such spiritual experience,
and he put forward his visions, dreams and revelations to prove
that there does exist God Who communicates with man. According
to Hadith reports from the Holy Prophet Muhammad, among the Muslims
there shall arise "men who are spoken to by God without being
prophets", and he has used the term muhaddath for
such men. (See the Hadith collections Bukhari and Muslim
in their books on 'Qualities of the Companions' under Umar.)
He thus performed a service not only for Islam but for religion
in general by showing to the modern materialistic world, which
believed only in things that could be detected physically, that
revelation from God, the basis of all religion, is an objective
reality.
Hazrat Mirza thus reached a happy medium between reason and revelation.
He did not reject reason and enquiry in the spiritual realm, as
the traditionalists in religion were prone to do, but accepted
its value in judging between truth and untruth. However, he pointed
to the limitations of intellect alone, unaided by spiritual guidance,
and held that reliance purely on reason cannot lead man to the
higher truths.
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Acclaimed
book
[Top]
His first book, which contained this line of thought and pointed
to his own experience of revelation, was the Barahin Ahmadiyya,
mentioned above. Its appearance, at the very commencement of the
fourteenth century Hijra (1883), was welcomed by most Muslim
Ulama and leaders of Muslim opinion in India, and lavish tributes
were paid to it and to the services of the author to the faith of
Islam. One reviewer wrote that:
"the like of it has not appeared in Islam up till
now ... all the followers of Islam, whether Ahl-i-Hadith, Shiah
or Sunni, are obliged to support this book and its printing."
(Muhammad Husain Batalvi in Isha'at as-Sunna, June-August
1884, p. 169 and 348.)
Another, after referring to the attacks upon Islam from all quarters,
calls it the book:
"which had been desired for so long ... a marvellous
book, every word of which proves the true faith and shows the
truth of the Quran"
(Muhammad Sharif in Akhbar Manshur Muhammadi, Bangalore,
25 Rajab, 1300 A.H., p. 214.)
and goes on to say:
"The arguments have been put forward strongly and
vigorously. The author has disclosed his visions and revelations
to the opponents of Islam."
(Ibid., 5 Jamadi al-Awwal, 1301 A.H.)
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Mujaddid
of the century
[Top]
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad also announced in this book that, in accordance
with the promise of the Holy Prophet Muhammad that:
"Allah shall raise for this Umma at the head of
every century a man who shall renew (or revive) for it its religion"
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Kitab al-Malahim, ch. 1.)
he was that man for the fourteenth century Hijra, the mujaddid
(reformer or reviver of faith) of the century. This statement was
generally accepted due to his reputation as a champion of the Islamic
cause, and certainly it aroused no opposition.
Besides modern thought and criticism, the other great adversary
facing Islam since the middle of the nineteenth century was the
Christian missionary effort directed at Muslims. A chief line
of attack adopted by these proselytisers was to argue that the
Quran itself ascribes to Jesus certain divine-like qualities and
works which are impossible in the case of a mortal human being,
and were beyond the capacity of the Prophet Muhammad. Therefore,
Muslims must accept the divinity of Jesus as confirmed by their
own faith, and join Christianity. Islamic religious leaders were
greatly handicapped in refuting this line of attack because certain
traditional Muslim interpretations did appear to support the Christian
contention. One such notion was the generally-held belief by Muslims
that Jesus had not died but had been taken up to God in bodily
form while physically alive, and in the last days he would descend
physically from heaven to lead Muslims to triumph in the world.
To put it starkly, this misconceived but widely-prevalent belief
implied that Jesus was alive with God in heaven while the Prophet
Muhammad lay dead in the ground in Madina; the latter could no
longer do anything for his followers while the former was to come
in great glory as their saviour; the biological laws of human
survival, old age and death applied to the Prophet Muhammad (and
all other prophets) but Jesus was free of all these limitations,
being alive for almost 2000 years without eating and drinking,
and unaltered till today as if he were still 33 years of age.
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Death
of Jesus
[Top]
As Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the mujaddid inspired by
God to defend and extend the cause of Islam, his mind was illuminated
by Divine light to receive the solution to this intractable problem.
He announced, in 1891, that the belief in Jesus being physically
lifted up to heaven was erroneous. Just as other prophets had been
saved by God from death at the hands of their enemies and then died
a natural death later on, similarly Jesus, having survived death
on the cross, had died on this earth after spending his remaining
life. Hazrat Mirza established this on the basis of the Holy Quran
and Hadith reports. Jesus was not alive now, but had died long ago,
and would not return.
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Promised
Messiah
[Top]
But what of the Hadith prophecies speaking in detail of his return,
and of the signs of the last days such as the coming of a monstrous,
one-eyed creature and fiend called dajjal who would wield
divine-like power over the world and reduce the Muslims to utter
helplessness, and who was to be vanquished by Jesus on his return?
These Hadith reports are so widespread and well-recognised that
they cannot all be rejected as spurious. (For example, see Bukhari,
Kitab al-anbiya and Kitab al-fitn, and Muslim, Kitab
al-'iman and Kitab al-fitn.) Hazrat Mirza, again under
Divine inspiration, offered a solution to this most perplexing riddle.
Prophecies generally must be interpreted metaphorically, not literally,
and by the coming of Jesus is meant the coming of a mujaddid
of the Muslims bearing a likeness to Jesus, at a time and in
circumstances similar to those in which Jesus arose. And who and
where was the dajjal against whom the Messiah was to fight?
All the signs of this dajjal were met with in the materialistic
and the religious sides of modern Western civilisation. The Messiah
of the prophecies, or the Promised Messiah, would have to counter
the materialism and atheism of this civilisation, and show to it
the existence of spiritual realities, and he would also have to
refute the religious propagandists of this civilisation who were
preaching the divinity of Jesus while he had taught the oneness
of God.
The expected coming of Jesus was associated, in the prophecies,
with the triumph of Islam in the whole world, and that was the
mission which Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed as being his.
We may quote here from some of his writings published at the time
when he made the claim to be the Promised Messiah:
"Do not wonder that Almighty God has, in this time of
need and in the days of this deep darkness, sent down a heavenly
light and, having chosen a servant of His for the good of mankind
in general, He has sent him to make uppermost the religion of
Islam and to spread the light brought by the 'best of His creatures'
[i.e. Prophet Muhammad] and to strengthen the cause of the Muslims
and to purify their internal condition . . . The truth will
win and the freshness and light of Islam which characterised
it in the earlier days will be restored, and that sun will rise
again as it arose first, in the full resplendence of its light."
(Booklet Fath-i Islam, published 1891, p. 7 and pp. 15
- 16.)
Referring to a sign in Hadith that "the sun will rise from
the West" (Bukhari, Kitab al-fitn and Kitab al-tafsir
under Sura 6), he writes:
"What has been shown to me in a vision is this,
that the rising of the sun from the West signifies that the Western
world which has been involved of old in the darkness of unbelief
and error shall be made to shine with the sun of Truth, and those
people shall have their share of Islam. . . . In reality, the
Western countries have, up to this time, shown very little aptitude
for religious truths, as if spiritual wisdom had in its entirety
been granted to Asia, and material wisdom to Europe and America
. . . now Almighty God intends to cast on them the look of mercy." (Izala
Auham, published 1891, pp. 515 - 516.)
"In this critical time, a man has been raised up by God
and he desires that he may show the beautiful face of Islam
to the whole world and open its ways to the Western countries." (Izala
Auham, p. 769.)
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Islam
for today's world
[Top]
These were not merely claims. In his writings and lectures, particularly
from 1891 when he claimed to be the Promised Messiah till his death
in 1908, Hazrat Mirza has presented the principles of Islam in such
a way as to show that they answer the doubts and questions of the
modern age and meet the needs of the time. In this article, we have
not the scope for giving even a proper summary of all the teachings
that he put forward. However, it is essential to mention certain
points as below.
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Islam
and other religions
[Top]
Islam teaches that, before the Holy Prophet Muhammad, God raised
prophets among all nations, and as is well-known, Muslims believe
in the Israelite prophets many of whom are mentioned in the Holy
Quran. Hazrat Mirza explained, much more explicitly than any previous
Muslim thinker or theologian, that this implies that the founders
of the other great religions, besides the prophets of the Bible,
were also prophets raised by God who received revelation. So Muslims
should accept, for example, the great Hindu sages, Buddha, Confucius,
etc. as true prophets of God. He laid great stress on the Islamic
teaching of the universality of revelation, and contrasted it with
the views of various religions which confined the great gift of
God's guidance to just their own nation, tribe or land. Commenting
on the first verse of the Quran where Allah is described as "Lord
of the worlds" he writes:
"Opening the Holy Quran with this verse, which embodies
such breadth of view, is a reply to those nations who limit,
each to itself, the universal bounty and providence of God,
and regard other peoples as though they were not a creation
of God. . . . In the Holy Quran it is explained by various examples
that just as Almighty God has been providing for the physical
needs of the people of every country, so also has He been providing
for the spiritual sustenance of every land and nation."
(Message of Peace, English Translation of lecture Paigham-i
Sulh delivered 1908, p. 2 and p. 3.)
He believed that Muslims could establish peaceful relations with
followers of other religions, such as the Hindu religion in his
own country, by accepting the Divine origin of those faiths, and
he proposed that followers of the other religions reciprocate
by showing respect for the Holy Prophet Muhammad. In the modern
world of travel and movement, with a much greater inter-mingling
of followers of different religions than in the past, Hazrat Mirza
has clarified the relation of Islam with other religions on a
basis enabling Muslims and others to live in peace and harmony.
He strongly supported the holding of inter-faith conferences where,
in his words, the advocate of each faith would show the virtues
and merits of his own religion, rather than find fault with others.
It is essential to point this out because he was forced to devote
much of his time to refuting the most vituperative, scurillous
and bitter attacks on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad by Christian
missionaries and leaders of the Arya Samaj Hindu sect. His statements
made in response are often quoted out of their proper context
to create an entirely false impression that he aggressively assailed
other religions, while in fact he made it clear that such responses
were specifically directed against venomous attacks from particular
individuals.
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Tolerance
and the true meaning of Jihad
[Top]
A related point upon which he laid stress is the Islamic teaching
of tolerance and generosity towards other religious communities.
This is also connected with clarifying the doctrine of Jihad and
associated questions. Hazrat Mirza reiterated that Islam teaches
its followers to show the greatest human sympathy, respect and kindness
towards all men, regardless of their religion. Religious and doctrinal
differences with others must never incite us to be unjust to them.
Jihad as taught by Islam was not, as generally thought, the act
of physically attacking non-Muslims or fighting a war against them.
It may only take that form under special circumstances if an enemy
seeks to destroy Muslims by force of arms. Jihad is a permanent
struggle of two main kinds: (1) an individual's struggle to conquer
his or her own wrongful desires, and (2) the individual and collective
struggle to present the message of Islam to the world by means of
knowledge and argument. It was to this true Jihad that Hazrat Mirza
directed his followers. The Quran itself commands Muslims: "Wa
jahid-hum bi-hi jihad-an kabir-an" (25:52), meaning, Conduct
a mighty jihad against the unbelievers by means of the Quran.
At that time, the doctrine of Jihad was greatly misunderstood
by most Muslims as well as the critics of Islam. It was taken
to mean that Muslims were required to attack unbelievers physically.
Naturally this portrayed Islam as a violent religion. By giving
the true meaning of this teaching, as found in the Quran and the
example of the Prophet Muhammad, a great stigma was removed from
the name of Islam. It was also taught by Hazrat Mirza that Muslims
could not only live peacefully under non-Muslim rule, but indeed
it was an obligation upon the Muslim citizens of a non-Muslim
state to be law-abiding citizens of that country if they had the
freedom in it to practise and preach their religion. He had a
deep conviction that if Islam was propagated by argument and peaceful
means it would win over the hearts of the non-Muslim nations ruling
the Muslims. Therefore he wished to dissociate Islam altogether
from force, violence and fanaticism. He also believed that, being
in the likeness of the Messiah, he too should adopt peaceful means
of preaching, and reject recourse to force.
Another consequence of his teaching in this respect is that Muslims
can do their duty, as citizens, of obeying the secular authorities
and at the same time follow their religious obligations of moral
and spiritual progress, rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar's
and rendering unto God that which is God's -- a distinction which
it is generally thought impossible for a Muslim to make. There
are today Muslim minorities in every Western country, and also
in other non-Muslim countries, who have to do exactly that. However,
Hazrat Mirza did not believe that Muslims should do this out of
opportunism, pragmatism or hypocrisy, but sincerely out of conviction.
His approach was entirely opposed to the notion of rebelling against
the authorities to establish a so-called Islamic government. In
this age of argument and reasoning, he wanted Muslims to prove
the truth of their religion and thereby bring their rulers within
its fold.
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Freedom
of religion given by Islam
[Top]
A final point in this connection is that the Islamic teaching giving
every individual the freedom of religion and of expression was greatly
stressed by Hazrat Mirza. Not only does Islam recognise the freedom
of non-Muslims to follow their faith, but a Muslim too is free to
adopt another religion without fear of any legal penalty. Followers
of Hazrat Mirza, as well as some other Muslims, have proved from
the Holy Quran and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad that it
is a sheer misconception to believe that so-called 'apostasy' is
punishable in Islam by any penalty whatsoever, still less the death
penalty. Similarly, there is no punishable crime in Islam of 'blasphemy'
or 'insulting or abusing' the Holy Prophet Muhammad, who himself
underwent the bitterest abuse in his lifetime yet never sentenced
anyone to any punishment for it. As regards vituperative and offensive
books written against Islam, Hazrat Mirza was of the view that the
allegations contained in them must be refuted. Calls for the banning
of such literature, which in any case is quite widespread and impossible
to eliminate, or demands for action against its authors, merely
encourage the impression that Muslims are unable to refute it. Hazrat
Mirza believed that once doubts and questions have been raised in
people's minds, they cannot be removed by banning books but by countering
them with accurate and authentic knowledge.
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Real
spirit of religion
[Top]
The last point that we mention regarding the reform work of Hazrat
Mirza is that he presented Islam as a religion which enables contact
to be attained with the Living God, thus allowing man to free himself
from sin and reach a high moral plane through a true, heart-felt
belief in God. The acts of worship prescribed by Islam had generally
come to be performed as mere mechanical rituals. People laid the
greatest stress on fulfilling meticulously the minute details of
the outward forms, but they generally neglected the true spirit
which should be in the heart, nor did they care much for achieving
the real aim and purpose of these devotions. Likewise, there would
be intense discussions on whether some small and insignificant thing
was lawful or unlawful, while the committing of much greater wrongs
would just be ignored. This was one of the stark similarities between
the condition of Muslims in Hazrat Mirza's time and the state of
the Jews in the time of Jesus. He also advanced this as an evidence
of his being the Promised Messiah:
"Just as in the last days of the Mosaic law a prophet
arose named Jesus, in a time when the moral condition of the
Jews had deteriorated completely, they had strayed very far
from real virtue . . . and their knowledge was confined merely
to formalism and worship of the letter . . . similarly it is
necessary that among the Muslim people too there should arise
a muhaddath (i.e. inspired saint) in the likeness of
that prophet and of his time, when they have also degenerated
in the same manner as that of the Jews in the time of Jesus."
(Testimony of the Holy Quran, English translation of
Shahadat al-Quran published 1893, p. 67.)
Note that while claiming to have come in the likeness of the
prophet Jesus, he explains his position as that of being a muhaddath,
which is a term originating in Sahih Bukhari, as noted earlier,
whose meaning is given in that collection of Hadith as: "one
to whom God speaks but who is not a prophet".
Hazrat Mirza wrote, stressed and stated, again and again, that
mere lip-profession and performance of rituals is not accepted
by God unless it is accompanied by an actual transformation in
one's character and behaviour, and the giving up of low desires
and bad habits and their replacement by purity of thought and
sincerity of action. He believed that the effect of faith and
religious practices upon anyone should be measured by an observable
reform in their behaviour and dealings with others. If no positive
change takes place in a man who says his prayers, does fasting,
etc., then this is proof that there is something wrong with the
way in which he carries out these obligations, no matter how much
attention he may be paying to the details of the outward forms.
Hazrat Mirza once explained his mission of Muslim reform as follows:
"Our religion is the same Islam. It is not new. There
are the same prayers, the same fasts, the same pilgrimage, and
the same zakat. But the difference is that these duties are
now performed in outward form only, without any true spirit
in them; we want to infuse in them the spirit of sincerity.
We want these duties to be performed in such a manner that they
are effective."
(Talk on 12 July 1907, reproduced in Malfuzat, vol. 9,
p. 312.)
He urged Muslims to make these observances, especially the daily
prayers, as the means of realising the existence of God in their
lives, by performing them from the heart and mind, and not with
the body only. He warned against the false satisfaction and self-deceiving
sense of achievement which a person feels when he fulfils the
external form of a religious duty, deluding himself that his past
sins have been washed off by merely performing a mechanical ritual.
To followers of other religions too, he argued that salvation,
which is promised by all faiths, cannot simply be deliverance
from punishment in the next life, but its signs must be observable
in the 'saved' person in this life in terms of the Divine assistance
which he receives.
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Name
Ahmadiyya
[Top]
For about twelve years after the Ahmadiyya Movement was founded,
it had no name. Its members were often referred to by others as
'Mirzaees' (or followers of Mirza). When the census for the year
1901 was to be taken, and Hazrat Mirza learnt that on the census
form a person could indicate his sect in addition to his religion,
he issued an announcement giving his movement the name 'Muslims
of the Ahmadiyya Section'. The rationale for this name, he explained,
was that 'Ahmad' was one of the two main names of the Holy Prophet
(the other name, of course, being Muhammad). 'Ahmad' and 'Muhammad'
stood for the qualities of the Holy Prophet which he displayed in
his life at Makka and at Madina respectively. The name 'Ahmad' symbolised
the inner beauty of Islam, and the name 'Muhammad' its outward glory.
While at Makka Islam was devoid of political rule, and spread by
means of pure preaching, at Madina Muslims possessed physical power
and rule, and they overcame their enemies by responding to their
aggression with force. The condition of the Muslims in the present
age and the way forward for them, said Hazrat Mirza, corresponded
to the Holy Prophet's life at Makka. Therefore it was appropriate
that the Movement which believes that Islam's mission in the present
age is to show the beauty of its teachings by gentle preaching,
while being devoid of worldly power, should be named after the Holy
Prophet Muhammad's name Ahmad.
|
Finality
of Prophethood
[Top]
As there are very serious misconceptions about the claims of Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, we now turn to this topic. Because of his claim
that the Messiah prophesied in Hadith was himself, and not Jesus,
he was accused by his opponents from among the Muslim Ulama of claiming
to be a prophet and denying the belief that the Holy Prophet Muhammad
was the last and final prophet of God. In reply, he issued repeated
denials of having made this claim and affirmed that he believed
the Holy Prophet Muhammad to be the Last Prophet. In fact, one argument
he advanced in support of his own claim, and against the common
view that Jesus would return to this world, was that Jesus being
a prophet cannot come after the Prophet Muhammad. Referring to the
Holy Prophet's description in the Quran as the 'Seal (khatam)
of the Prophets', he wrote:
"The Holy Quran does not permit the coming of any messenger
after the 'Seal of the Prophets', whether he would be a new
messenger or a former one." (Izala Auham, p.
761.)
"By saying 'There is no prophet after me', the
Holy Prophet Muhammad closed the door absolutely to any new
prophet or the return of any old prophet." (Ayyam
as-Sulh, published 1898, p. 152.)
"The real fact, to which I testify with the highest testimony,
is that our Holy Prophet is the 'Seal of the Prophets', and
after him no prophet will come, neither any old one nor any
new one." (Anjam Atham, published 1897, p.
27, footnote.)
Thus, neither a previous prophet and messenger such as Jesus,
nor a new prophet and messenger, could arise after the Holy Prophet
Muhammad. (For further quotations,
go here.)
Denying the allegation against himself of claiming to be a prophet,
he wrote:
"Those people have fabricated a lie against me who say
that I claim to be a prophet." (Hamamat al-Bushra,
published 1894, p. 8.)
"I have not claimed prophethood, nor have I said to them
that I am a prophet . . . I did not say anything to the people
except what I wrote in my books, namely, that I am a muhaddath
and God speaks to me as He speaks to those who are muhaddath.
. . . It does not befit me that I should claim prophethood
and leave Islam and join the disbelievers. . . . How could I
claim prophethood when I am a Muslim." (ibid.,
p. 79.)
"I also curse the person who claims prophethood, and I
believe that 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His
Messenger', and I have faith in the finality of prophethood
of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. . . . there is no claim of prophethood
on my part either, only a claim of sainthood (wilaya)
and reformership (mujaddidiyya)." (Announcement
issued in January 1897. Majmu'a Ishtiharat, vol. 2, pp.
297 - 298.)
(For further quotations, go
here.)
The position held by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was that of a
saint (wali), an inspired one (muhaddath), and the
reformer of his time (mujaddid), all of which are recognised
spiritual ranks among Muslims. In his capacity as mujaddid,
he received from Allah the title 'Messiah', reflecting the
kind of work he was appointed to do.
|
Metaphorical
application of word 'prophet'
[Top]
In the writings of the spiritual savants of Islam, terms such as
prophet (nabi) and messenger (rasul) are sometimes
used to refer to Muslim saints in a metaphorical sense when it is
necessary to show the likeness of a saint's work to that of a prophet.
When Hazrat Mirza claimed to be the Promised Messiah, his opponents
raised the objection that the Messiah to come must be a prophet
because he is so described in the Hadith prophecies; so how, they
asked, could he be the Messiah as a non-prophet? The reply given
by Hazrat Mirza, over a number of years repeatedly, was that the
term 'prophet' in Hadith should be taken metaphorically, not in
a real sense, and that a Muslim saint may be metaphorically called
prophet and messenger. He cited instances of such clear metaphorical
usage, even in the Quran and Hadith. He explained:
"The epithet 'prophet of God' for the Promised Messiah
to come, which is to be found in Sahih Muslim etc. from
the blessed tongue of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, is meant in
the same metaphorical sense as that in which it occurs in Sufi
literature as an accepted and common term for the recipient
of Divine communication. Otherwise, how can there be a prophet
after the Seal of the Prophets." (Anjam Atham,
footnote, p. 28.)
"God speaks to, and communicates with, His saints (auliya)
in this Ummah, and they are given the colouring of prophets.
However, they are not prophets in reality." (Mawahib
ar-Rahman, pp. 66 - 67.)
Thus the terms 'prophet' or 'messenger' as referring to Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whether when applying the Hadith prophecies
to him or occurring in his own spiritual experiences, are used
metaphorically. He himself has stated again and again that these
terms:
- "do not bear their real sense" (Siraj Munir,
published 1897, pp. 2 - 3.)
- "are not meant by way of reality" (Anjam Atham,
pp. 27 - 28, footnote.)
- "are used by way of metaphor" (Arba'een,
No. 2, published 1900, p. 18, footnote.)
- "are meant in a metaphorical and figurative sense"
(Arba'een, No. 3, p. 25, footnote.)
And he wrote in one of his last books:
"I have been called a prophet by God by way of
metaphor, not by way of reality".
(Haqiqat al-Wahy, Supplement, p. 64.)
Those of his statements which are frequently quoted by the anti-Ahmadiyya
propagandists, as well as by the Qadianis, to try to prove that
he claimed to be a prophet, must be read in the light of his own
explanations; and by doing so it will be discovered that his claim
is not of being a prophet, as is commonly alleged. (For further
details, go here.)
|
|
Tributes
upon death
[Top]
When Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died in May 1908, after a life
devoted to the service of Islam, he was paid the highest tributes
by many Muslim religious leaders and journalists, from which some
short extracts may be given here.
"The services of the deceased which he rendered to Islam
in its confrontation with Christianity and the Arya Samaj deserve
the highest praise." (Curzon Gazette, Delhi,
1st June 1908.)
". . . justice requires that one should condole the death
of such a resolute defender of Islam, helper of the Muslims,
and an eminent and irreplaceable scholar." (Sadiq-ul-Akhbar,
Rewari, May 1908.)
"Undoubtedly the deceased was a great fighter for Islam." (The
editor, Aligarh Institute Gazette, June 1908)
"Such people who produce a religious or intellectual revolution
are not born often. . . . In spite of our strong differences
with Mirza sahib in respect of some of his claims and beliefs,
his separation forever has convinced the educated and enlightened
Muslims that one of their very great personages has left them.
. . . he acted against the enemies of Islam as a victorious
general . . . this service rendered by Mirza sahib will place
the coming generations under a debt of gratitude, in that he
fulfilled his duty of jihad by the pen, and he left behind him
as a memorial such literature as will last so long as Muslims
have blood flowing in their veins." (Wakeel,
Amritsar, edited by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.)
|
Spread
of Islam in the West
[Top]
In his capacity as the Promised Messiah who was to fight the dajjal,
as mentioned earlier, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad considered it a
most vital and essential part of his mission to present the teachings
of Islam to the Western world. Such great importance did he attach
to this that when he established the annual conference of the Ahmadiyya
Movement, to be held for three days every December, he announced
as one of its permanent objects that:
"one of the essential requirements of this gathering
will be to consider plans for the spiritual well-being of Europe
and America, for it is now established that the good-natured people
of Europe and America are getting ready to accept Islam".
(Announcement issued December 1892. Majmu'a Ishtiharat,
vol. 1, pp. 340 - 341.)
He expressed the deepest conviction that Islam, in its true and
original form, was the religion that would satisfy the spiritual
needs of the modern West, despite the fact that the modern world
appeared to be rejecting religion as an anachronism, and despite
the fact, of course, that Islam was looked upon in the West at that
time with the greatest detestation and abhorrence. Indeed, he saw
visions of Western people accepting Islam, and described the British
of his times as:
"the eggs from which the young of Islam shall hatch
in the future."
(Nur al-Haq, Part I, published 1894, p. 44.)
Referring to the Western countries, he wrote:
"I would advise that . . . writings of an excellent kind
should be sent into these countries. If my people help me heart
and soul I wish to prepare a commentary of the Quran which should
be sent to them after it has been rendered into the English
language. I cannot refrain from stating clearly that this is
my work, and that no one else can do it as well as I or he who
is an offshoot of mine and thus is included in me." (Izala
Auham, p. 773.)
|
Maulana
Muhammad Ali
[Top]
These words were written in a book published in September 1891.
Some six years later, a young Muslim in his early twenties, by the
name of Muhammad Ali, who was one of the very few among the Muslims
receiving a Western-style education, joined the Ahmadiyya Movement.
Hazrat Mirza recognised his potential immediately and foresaw that
he was destined to be a source of great strength to the Movement's
cause. He announced:
"I am very pleased that another righteous young man has
joined our community, namely, Maulvi Muhammad Ali, M.A., advocate.
I have very high hopes of him. . . . I am sure that my prediction
will not go wrong that this young man will make progress in
the way of Allah, and set such examples of being steadfast in
righteousness and love of the faith as ought to be emulated
by his peers." (See Announcement dated 4th October
1899. Majmu'a Ishtiharat, vol. 3, pp. 157 - 158.)
Having completed his education, the young Muhammad Ali was ready
to start his career in law in the year 1900 when Hazrat Mirza
asked him to devote his life wholly for the cause of Islam and
to edit an English language journal which he was proposing to
establish. Hazrat Mirza wrote:
"It was always a matter of concern and anxiety for me
that all the truths, spiritual knowledge, solid arguments in
support of the religion of Islam, and things to satisfy the
human soul, which were disclosed to me, and are still being
disclosed, had not given any benefit to the modernly-educated
classes of this country and to the students of truth among the
Europeans. This pain was so great as to be unbearable any more.
. . . Therefore, to fulfill the object which is the real purpose
of my life, a proposal has arisen, and that is to bring out
a magazine in English for the objects mentioned above." (Announcement
in January 1901. Majmu'a Ishtiharat, vol. 3, pp. 393
- 394.)
Thus, to fulfill what he calls "the real purpose of my life"
Hazrat Mirza appointed Maulana Muhammad Ali as editor of this
magazine, entitled The Review of Religions, which started
publication in the year 1901. The circulation of this magazine
-- a unique Islamic magazine for its time -- extended beyond India
to the U.S.A. and Russia. In this monthly journal Hazrat Mirza
spoke to the West through the English words of Maulana Muhammad
Ali.
It is recorded in the Ahmadiyya community's newspaper Badr
that one day in February 1907 Hazrat Mirza called Maulana Muhammad
Ali to him and directed him as follows:
"It is my wish that, to fulfill the duty of propagation
of Islam to Europe and America, a book be written in English.
This is your work. The reason why Islam does not spread in those
countries at this time . . . is that those people do not know
its real teachings nor have these been put before them. They
have the right to be shown the real Islam . . . All those matters
with which the honour of Islam is connected in this age, and
all those arguments which God Almighty has given me to prove
the truth of Islam, should be collected together so as to compile
a comprehensive book, from which these people can greatly benefit." (Malfuzat,
vol. 9, pp. 191 - 192.)
Thus Hazrat Mirza had charged Maulana Muhammad Ali with the general
task of presenting to the world, in a systematic and detailed
form, the faith-reviving picture of Islam which he had unveiled
in his capacity as the mujaddid of the time. The particular
book which the Maulana wrote in fulfilment of this specific instruction
is mentioned later in this article.
|
Muhammad
Ali continues Hazrat Mirza's work
[Top]
The Maulana set himself to this work and continued it incessantly,
expanding it step by step, till his life came to an end in 1951.
However, shortly after he had begun this work, a schism took place
in the Ahmadiyya Movement in the year 1914. This led to the founding,
in Lahore, of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam, meaning
the Ahmadiyya Society for the Propagation of Islam, under the Maulana's
headship. Later in this article we give some details of the background
and causes of these events. Suffice it here to note that much the
greater part of the Maulana's work which we now discuss was done
after he became the head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.
|
English
translation of Quran with commentary
[Top]
The first great step in this path was producing the English translation
of the Holy Quran, with full commentary, which he began in the year
1909, shortly after Hazrat Mirza's death. This voluminous work was
published in 1917. Though, very strictly speaking, it was not the
first English translation by a Muslim, as two had appeared before
it, it was certainly the first by a Muslim to have any kind of general
circulation. Moreover, as a Muslim reviewer noted many years later,
it was:
"the first work published by any Muslim with the
thoroughness worthy of Quranic scholarship and achieving the standards
of modern publications". (H. Amir Ali, The Student's Quran,
London, 1961, p. iv.)
Many were the tributes paid to it, by Muslims as well as non-Muslims,
such as:
- "accurate and reliable",
- "a valuable service not only to Islam but to the public
at large",
- "chaste and simple language",
- "among human productions of literary masterpieces, it
undoubtedly claims a position of distinction and pre-eminence",
- "a work of which any scholar might legitimately be proud".
An Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi,
who himself later translated the Quran, wrote that:
"to deny the excellence of Maulvi Muhammad Ali's
translation, the influence it has exercised and its proselytising
utility, would be to deny the light of the sun".
He added:
"The translation certainly helped in bringing thousands
of non-Muslims to the Muslim fold and hundreds of thousands of
unbelievers much nearer Islam."
He went on to relate how this translation:
"brought me towards Islam when I was groping in
darkness, atheism and scepticism".
(Such, Lucknow, 25 June 1943.)
Another Sunni Muslim reviewer wrote:
"the simplicity of its language and the correctness
of the version are all enviable. The writer has kept his annotations
altogether free from sectarian influence with wonderful impartiality".
(Wakeel, Amritsar, India.)
The Maulana's translation made a considerable impression among
Muslims as well as in the West, and was for several years the
only Muslim English translation and commentary available. The
other well-known English translations by Muslims appeared several
years later, and undoubtedly had the benefit of the Maulana's
work. Towards the end of his life, after the Second World War,
the Maulana thoroughly revised his 1917 translation and commentary.
The language of the translation was made simpler and the commentary
was brought up to date in the light of the changed world conditions.
The revised edition was first published in 1951.
Recently, the U.S.A. branch of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
has printed and distributed this translation on a far vaster scale
than ever before, with several thousand copies being distributed
every year at this time. It has also undertaken to fulfill a much
expressed desire of the late Maulana -- to produce versions of
this work in other languages. As a result, to date (August 1997)
the Spanish, French and Russian versions have been published,
and the German, Dutch and Polish versions are due to appear in
print in the near future. (
Go here for further details of these translations.)
|
Book
The Religion of
Islam
[Top]
As quoted above, Hazrat Mirza had wanted Maulana Muhammad Ali to
write a comprehensive book on Islam in English. This the Maulana
did in the form of the voluminous work The Religion of Islam
which was first published in 1936. It deals in full detail with
the sources of Islam (the Quran, Hadith, Jurisprudence), the beliefs
and doctrines of Islam, and its practices. It earned a magnificent
review from Marmaduke Pickthall, a British Muslim and himself a
translator of the Quran into English. He wrote in the Islamic
Culture quarterly, of which he was editor:
"Probably no man living has done longer or more valuable
service for the cause of Islamic revival than Maulana Muhammad
Ali of Lahore. His literary works, with those of the late Khwaja
Kamal-ud-Din, have given fame and distinction to the Ahmadiyya
Movement. In our opinion the present volume is his finest work.
. . Such a book is greatly needed when in many Muslim countries
we see persons eager for the revival of Islam, making mistakes
through lack of just this knowledge. . . . We do not always
agree with Maulana Muhammad Ali's conclusions upon minor points
-- sometimes they appear to us eccentric -- but his premises
are always sound, we are always conscious of his deep sincerity;
and his reverence for the holy Quran is sufficient in itself
to guarantee his work in all essentials." (Islamic
Culture, Hyderabad, India, October 1936, pp. 659-660.)
The fact that Mr. Pickthall was an orthodox Sunni Muslim, and
one who had not previously looked upon the Ahmadiyya Movement
with favour, makes the above tribute most remarkable and extraordinary.
Muhammad Ali's commentary of the Quran as well as his book The
Religion of Islam are based upon the principles and interpretations
expounded in the writings of Hazrat Mirza, and this fact is clearly
mentioned by the Maulana in his Prefaces to these works. In his
Preface to the translation of the Quran he writes while acknowledging
his sources:
"And lastly, the greatest religious leader of the present
time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, has inspired me with all
that is best in this work. I have drunk deep at the fountain
of knowledge which this great Reformer -- Mujaddid of
the present century and founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement --
has made to flow."
In the Preface to The Religion of Islam, he tells the
readers that "Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had charged me with
the writing of an English book which should contain all that was
necessary for a Muslim, or a non-Muslim, to know about the religion
of Islam, and to give a true picture of the religion which was
largely misrepresented".
Therefore, the ideas of Hazrat Mirza presented by the pen of
Maulana Muhammad Ali, which he clearly ascribed to the Ahmadiyya
founder, have been applauded by orthodox, recognised Sunni religious
leaders as being the true picture of Islam, as being the most
valuable service for Islamic revival unmatched by anyone else,
and as bringing large numbers of lost Muslims and non-Muslims
towards and into Islam. How different this is from the venomous
and scurillous propaganda carried out today against the Founder
of the Ahmadiyya Movement which portrays him as an enemy of Islam!
|
Other
writings
[Top]
Maulana Muhammad Ali also wrote several other books in English,
the most important being the following: A Manual of Hadith
(selections from Hadith works relating to practical life, with Arabic
text, translation and explanatory notes), Muhammad The Prophet
(biography of the Prophet), The Early Caliphate (history
of the first four Caliphs), Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad,
The New World Order (how Islam can solve the social, economic
and political problems of the modern world), and The Founder
of the Ahmadiyya Movement (short biography of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad). These have been, and are being, translated into other languages,
notably German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Russian. He also produced
a large number of tracts and booklets on Islam and the Ahmadiyya
Movement.
(Go
here for further details of his books.)
It must also be mentioned that the Maulana wrote even more extensively
in the Urdu language for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.
In the mid-1920s he produced an Urdu translation and commentary
of the Quran, entitled Bayan al-Quran, which is much more
detailed than the English work. A little later came his voluminous
Urdu translation and commentary of the whole of Sahih Bukhari.
Then there are several comprehensive works on the Ahmadiyya Movement,
such as Tahrik-i Ahmadiyyat and Al-nubuwwat fil-Islam
(both later translated into English), which deal with the claims
of Hazrat Mirza and refute the Qadiani beliefs, in particular
the false doctrine that he was a prophet and must be accepted
otherwise one cannot remain a Muslim.
|
Other
work of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
[Top]
Besides the writings of Maulana Muhammad Ali, a vast amount of other
missionary and literary work has been done by the Movement. There
have been quite a number of intellectual giants, renowned missionaries,
powerful speakers, and illustrious scholars and writers who have
served the Movement. Among these we will, for brevity, mention only
the names of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Maulana Sadr-ud-Din, Dr. Basharat
Ahmad, Maulana Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi,
and of more recent times Hafiz Sher Muhammad. This list is not complete
by any means. Their work and writings are far too vast to be noted
in individual detail in this article.
|
Woking
Muslim Mission
[Top]
As regards missionary work, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din (1870-1932) founded
the Woking Muslim Mission at the Woking mosque in England as far
back as 1913. In those colonial times, for an Indian subject to
establish a mission in England to refute the church doctrines so
staunchly believed in at that time, and to preach Islam to the ruling
masters, required the most exceptional courage and vision. It shows
the extraordinary strength of faith, confidence and inspiration
with which Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's followers became charged
by contact with him. The Khwaja quite quickly gained a large number
of British converts to Islam, including highly-educated members
of the nobility such as Lord Headley (d. 1935).
The Woking Mission presented a non-sectarian Islam, without reference
to the particular beliefs of any group, not even the Ahmadiyya
Movement, but its interpretation of Islam was that of the Lahore
Ahmadis (for example, on issues such as the Islamic view of Jesus,
war in Islam, meaning of jihad, etc.) and the Lahore Ahmadiyya
literature was distributed from there. For over half a century,
this Mission was the centre of Islam in England and was regarded
as representing the entire Muslim community. Its Imam, an office
generally held by a Lahore Ahmadi, was considered as the Imam
of all Muslims of the U.K. The history of Islam in Britain during
this century till the mid-1960s is closely connected with the
history of the Woking Mission. Besides work in Britain, the Woking
Mission was also in contact with Muslims in many other parts of
the world, and its literature went to countries all over the globe.
The most famous public figures of the Muslim world, such as heads
of state, royalty, intellectuals, politicians, writers etc., when
visiting or staying in England, attended functions at the Woking
Mission. Reports of these visits, with photographs, may be found
in the pages of the Mission's monthly The Islamic Review
over many decades. It is unimaginable today that the most prominent
Muslim political, religious, and intellectual leaders said their
prayers following an Ahmadi imam.
In the 1960s, when the anti-Ahmadiyya Ulama from Pakistan began
to come to England in the wake of the immigration of a large number
of Pakistanis to this country, they could not tolerate the existence
of a Lahore Ahmadiyya mission in a Muslim mosque and expelled
the mission from the Woking mosque.
|
Berlin
Mosque and Mission
[Top]
Another pioneering mission is in the heart of Berlin, Germany, where
a grand mosque and adjoining mission house were constructed by the
Movement in 1926, under the supervision of Maulana Sadr-ud-Din.
This mission again, like Woking, was regarded as the centre of Islam
in Germany and the representative of all Muslims, its influence
also extending to other parts of Europe. Again like Woking, this
mission too is of historical importance, and famous Muslims and
converts to Islam have had contact with it. Miraculously, the buildings
survived the Second World War, though much damage was incurred in
the fighting towards the end when Berlin was captured by the allied
forces. The mission is actively functioning to this day, and all
the major publications of the Anjuman mentioned earlier have been
translated into the German language to support the mission's work.
|
Other
missions and branches
[Top]
The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has also done extensive missionary
work to help Muslim communities of Indian origin settled in various
countries such as Fiji, Suriname, Trinidad, Guyana, South Africa
etc. As in the Indian subcontinent, the Muslims in these countries
were facing attacks on Islam by Christian missionaries and the Arya
Samaj Hindu sect, which the Movement went to refute and counter.
As a result a large Lahore Ahmadiyya following grew up in these
countries. Indonesia is another country where the Movement has worked
since the 1920s, and now has a numerous membership.
|
'Split'
in the Ahmadiyya Movement
[Top]
The literary works of Maulana Muhammad Ali are not his only great
achievement. Posterity will be ever indebted to him for having rescued
the Ahmadiyya Movement from extremism and preserved the true ideals
of the Founder, Hazrat Mirza. The Ahmadiyya Movement had not been
created as just another sect of Islam which, like other sects and
factions, would engage in sectarian bickering and denounce fellow-Muslims
of other persuasions as being kafir and 'expelled from Islam',
but it was created as a force for the presentation of true Islamic
ideals. Hazrat Mirza, upto even the last few days of his life in
May 1908, in his reported conversations with other Muslims while
staying at Lahore, spoke of himself as a mujaddid (Statement
on 25 May 1908. Malfuzat, vol. 10, pp. 451 - 452, under title
'Need for a Mujaddid.') and assured them that he did
not regard Muslims outside his Movement as kafir; far from
it, it was the other ulama who were denouncing him and his followers
as being outside the fold of Islam. (Statement on 15 May 1908. Malfuzat,
vol. 10, pp. 376 - 378.)
After Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's death, his right-hand man and
a highly-learned Islamic scholar, Maulvi Nur-ud-Din, who was greatly
respected by Muslims outside the Ahmadiyya Movement as well, was
unanimously chosen as the Head of the Move ment. However, certain
members of the Founder's family entertained the desire to establish
a hereditary spiritual succession, but were not in a position
to fulfill their ambitions as yet, especially since Hazrat Mirza's
eldest son, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, who would be the
contender, was too young at this time.
Some 3 years later Mirza Mahmud Ahmad and his supporters, in
order to create a platform for a leadership campaign, began to
promote the view that a person could not remain a Muslim by belief
in the Kalima Shahada and the prophethood of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad only, but had in addition to acknowledge that Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad was a prophet of God. The position taken was that, just
as when the Holy Prophet Muhammad arose, the followers of earlier
prophets were required to believe in him in order to become Muslims,
similarly with the appearance now of the prophet Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad belief in him must be acknowledged in order for anyone to
be a Muslim. And belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, it was further
asserted, is acknowledged by taking the pledge of entry (bai'at)
with the Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement who is the real and true
khalifa of all the Muslims. In a book published a little
later, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad expressed this doctrine
in the following exact words (in English):
". . . all those so-called Muslims who have not entered
into his bai'at formally, wherever they may be, are Kafirs
and outside the pale of Islam, even though they may not have
heard the name of the Promised Messiah." (The Truth
about the Split, first published 1924; 3rd edition, Rabwah,
Pakistan, 1965, pp. 55 - 56.)
"I wrote that as we believed the Promised Messiah to be
one of the prophets of God, we could not possibly regard his
deniers as Muslims." (ibid., page 135.)
Maulana Muhammad Ali and other prominent members of the Movement
repudiated these notions as being both contrary to basic Islamic
teachings as well as against the expressed beliefs of Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad. The Maulana explains these events in an English
tract published shortly afterwards in 1918 as follows:
"M. Mahmud, a son of the founder of the movement,
who is the present head of the Qadian section of the community,
began to drift away from the basic principles of the Islamic
faith about three years after the death of the Promised Messiah,
going so far as to declare plainly that the hundreds of millions
of Muslims, living in the world, should be no more treated as
Muslims. . . . A large number of the educated members of the
community, who had the moral courage to dissent openly from
the erroneous doctrines taught by him, perceived the great danger
to the whole community, when after the death of the late Maulvi
Nur-ud-Din a particular clique in the community succeeded in
raising M. Mahmud to headship at Qadian without any general
consultation. They at once rallied round the true doctrines
of the Promised Messiah, and after in vain trying for over a
month and a half to keep up the unity of the movement, formed
themselves into a separate Society, known as the Ahmadiyya
Anjuman Isha'at-i-Islam, on 2nd May 1914, which is now earnestly
working for the propagation of Islam." (The Split
in the Ahmadiyya Movement, Preface.)
(For further discussion of these points, go
here.)
Thus came into being the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, with two
characteristic beliefs: (1) that the Holy Prophet Muhammad is
the Last Prophet after whom no prophet whatsoever can appear,
and (2) that believers in the Holy Prophet Muhammad form
a brotherhood, and so long as a person claims membership of the
brotherhood of Islam by declaring the words 'There is no god but
Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', he cannot be expelled
from Islam or branded as a kafir by any power on earth.
Maulana Muhammad Ali wrote extensively on these two issues, particularly
in Urdu, and it may be said without exaggeration that never before
in the history of Islam had any Muslim scholar discussed these
questions so comprehensively and established these beliefs with
such conclusive arguments. The general body of Sunni Muslims would,
no doubt, appear to subscribe to these beliefs; however, a close
inspection shows that their acceptance of these beliefs is not
absolute but is subject to some conditions. The Prophet Muhammad
is believed to be the Last Prophet, but it is also asserted that
Jesus, a prophet, shall appear after him. And while lip-service
may be paid to the Kalima as defining the Muslim brotherhood,
nonetheless perfectly good Muslims (not just Ahmadis) are being
regularly denounced as kafir and murtadd (apostate)
by edicts issued by religious leaders and schools.
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Headship
of Ahmadiyya Movement
[Top]
Another related belief promoted by the Qadiani leader, Mirza Mahmud
Ahmad, was that every Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement, after Hazrat
Mirza, is actually appointed by God, he acts by Divine authority,
he should possess absolute power, and he must be obeyed unquestioningly
like an autocrat. In fact, he is supposed to be the real ruler and
khalifa of all the Muslims of the time, whom it is obligatory
on every Muslim to accept and obey.
Quite contrary to this, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had revived
the true Islamic principle of 'rule by consultation' in the governing
of the Ahmadiyya Movement. Some 2 to 3 years before his death,
he had published his 'Will' by which he created a body of men,
fourteen in number, as the supreme executive of the Movement.
This body he described as his "successor", and he stipulated
that its majority decisions would be final and binding after his
death. No individual head was to wield absolute, autocratic power.
It was, in fact, such systems of absolute religious authority
that had brought previous Muslim spiritual movements to corruption
and ruin. The executive body created by Hazrat Mirza was set into
operation by him immediately, two years before his death.
After the Split in 1914, the Qadiani Movement under Mirza Mahmud
Ahmad's leadership discarded the system established by the Founder
of the Ahmadiyya Movement and replaced it by an autocratic system
of absolute rule by the khalifa. As time went on, the office
of the khalifa appropriated more and more power, reducing
the followers to a position of utter servility and total blind
obedience.
(For a further discussion, go here.)
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Opposition
to Movement
[Top]
The Ahmadiyya Movement had from the beginning faced severe opposition,
especially from the common Ulama and religious leaders. The extreme
doctrines adopted by the Qadianis from 1914 onwards gave further
ammunition to the opponents, who were able to point to Qadiani beliefs
in support of their allegation that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had
claimed to be a prophet. Moreover, the Qadiani claim that their
khalifa is the real head of the Muslim Umma, their portrayal
of themselves as a kind of Muslim government-in-waiting, and their
formation inside Pakistan of almost their own state within the state,
caused much resentment among the general Muslim community and suspicion
in the eyes of the government. This has enabled the politically-ambitious
Muslim religious leaders (now known as Muslim fundamentalists) to
start large-scale anti-Ahmadiyya campaigns whenever they wished
to gain prominence or to demonstrate their strength.
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Ahmadis
declared as non-Muslim in Pakistan
[Top]
In 1974, a campaign of this kind by the religious political parties
in Pakistan forced the secular government of Mr. Z.A. Bhutto to
concede to their demands and insert articles in the Constitution
categorising all members of the Ahmadiyya Movement, whether Qadianis
or those of Lahore, as being non-Muslims. In 1984, building on this
foundation, President Zia-ul-Haq issued an Ordinance which prohibits
Ahmadis from calling themselves Muslims or representing themselves
as Muslims in any manner, or from performing certain Muslim practices
and using certain Islamic terms, and stipulates criminal penalties
for breaching these prohibitions. In Pakistan, the forms for applying
for an identity card (which is a compulsory requirement for every
citizen) or for a passport require the applicant to state his or
her religion, and in that column 'Ahmadi' is listed as a religion
alongside 'Muslim', 'Christian' or 'Hindu'. Anyone describing himself
as 'Muslim' is required to sign a statement declaring that he (or
she) is not an Ahmadi, that he considers Mirza Ghulam Ahmad "to
be an imposter" and his followers to be non-Muslims. Thus every
Muslim adult in Pakistan, a large majority being illiterate, and
many not even knowing who Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was or what Ahmadis
are, finds himself having to declare that he believes the Founder
of the Ahmadiyya Movement to be an imposter and all Ahmadis as being
non-Muslim.
The legal and social repercussions of these repressive measures
in Pakistan are well-documented in press reports. In the wider
world too, these measures and associated false propaganda have
encouraged and provoked opposition to and harassment of Ahmadis,
both in Muslim and in non-Muslim countries, even in the West,
by the Ulama of the general Muslim communities living there.
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Legal
definition of 'Muslim'
[Top]
It must be noted that Islam has given clear and simple definitions
of who is a 'Muslim' for the purposes of law; for example, one who
professes the Kalima Shahada by word of mouth or one who
prays in the Muslim manner facing the qibla in Makka. To
alter these definitions is entirely contrary to Islamic teachings
and sets a very dangerous precedent. Thus our view is that these
particular laws of Pakistan have no validity in Islam whatsoever.
Most well-informed Muslims in Pakistan consider these laws to be
a mockery and travesty of both justice and Islamic teachings, and
some of them have been courageous enough to say so publicly.
The question whether Lahore Ahmadis are Muslims has been tested
in the civil courts of South Africa. In the early 1980s, a member
of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Cape Town filed a suit against
a body of Muslim clerics (known as the Muslim Judicial Council),
claiming that it was defaming Lahore Ahmadis by calling them as
kafir, and depriving them of their right to enter mosques
and to be buried in a Muslim cemetery. The local anti-Ahmadiyya
Ulama received full support from the very top-most Ulama, official
Islamic law specialists and religious court judges of Pakistan
in the preparation of their defence of calling Ahmadis as kafir.
The defendants were reluctant for the courts to examine from Islamic
sources the question of who was entitled to be known as a 'Muslim',
and in the final stages of the case in 1985 they chose not to
defend their stand. The judgment was thus pronounced that the
Ahmadi plaintiff "is declared to be a Muslim and as such
to be entitled to all such rights and privileges as pertain to
Muslims". (The proceedings of this litigation, the final
judgment, and all the evidence presented by the Movement to show
that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Lahore Ahmadis are Muslims,
have been compiled in book-form by myself under the title The
Ahmadiyya Case. See further
details.)
The Lahore Ahmadis believe that this oppression and persecution
which they are facing today is part of the hardships that a Muslim
must bear in the struggle to spread the truth. They consider their
Movement to be fulfilling the purpose laid down in the Holy Quran
in the following words in which the believers are addressed: "There
should be from among you a party who invite to good and enjoin
the right and forbid the wrong, and these are they who are successful"
(3:104). They believe that they are presenting the pristine picture
of Islam as found in the Holy Quran and in the life and example
of the Holy Prophet Muhammad; and it is the picture which meets
the needs of all mankind in these modern times.
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Ahmadiyya
views influencing other Muslims more and more
[Top]
It is a fact that much of the knowledge and interpretation of Islam
produced by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, which was originally
condemned as "unorthodox" and even un-Islamic, has gradually
been accepted by other Muslims. A work such as Muhammad Asad's English
translation and commentary of the Holy Quran, on almost every key
point of difference of interpretation between the Sunnis and the
Lahore Ahmadiyya, has given the same view as the latter. Yet this
was a work originally published by the Muslim World League of Makka.
In the general Muslim books today, one often finds not only the
influence of Lahore Ahmadiyya ideas but wholesale passages taken
from its literature, reproduced without acknowledgement of the sources.
Indeed some publishers have produced reprint editions of complete
books of the Movement, removing all indications of the original
publisher (though not the author). I have myself seen in Pakistan
such reprints of two books of Maulana Muhammad Ali, with the author's
name on them, displayed in well-known book stores for sale, while
exactly the same books as published by the genuine publisher (Ahmadiyya
Anjuman Isha'at Islam Lahore) are strictly prohibited for distribution
or sale by law as constituting "preaching of Ahmadiyya beliefs
to Muslims"! All this gives confidence to the Movement that,
despite the most powerful attempts at suppression and ostracism,
its view of Islam is continuing to spread among Muslims.
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Summary
[Top]
To summarise, there are several facets to the beliefs and work of
the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.
It is a spiritual movement in that it
believes spiritual experiences to be actual, objective realities,
and it stresses the necessity of man attaining nearness to God.
Yet it is also a rational movement which
applies the test of reason in understanding belief, and does not
accept blind belief nor accounts of 'miracles' and supernatural
occurrences when these are unsubstantiated and without purpose.
It is a liberal movement in the interpretation
of Islamic teachings and law, but it derives its liberal stance
from the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet Muhammad themselves and
firmly believes in totally adhering to their injunctions.
It is a modern movement in that it believes
that Muslims must accept all the good that the modern world has
to offer and adjust to the new times, not retreat into a closed
world of their own. Yet it also preaches most emphatically that
the modern world cannot survive unless it accepts Islamic principles
for its moral and spiritual development.
It is a tolerant movement, which believes
that Islam allows full freedom of thought, belief, religion and
expression to all, to non-Muslims as well as to those within its
fold; and it believes in developing dialogue, understanding and
co-operation both between Muslims and others, and among Muslim
sects. At the same time, the Movement strives to the utmost to
convince others that the truth, in its whole form, is to be found
in Islam only, and that the mission of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
is the most effective and appropriate way for the progress of
Islam in this age.
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