Views of Maulana Nur-ud-Din
Held same beliefs as Lahore Ahmadis
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We reproduce below some views expressed by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din
during the time when he was head of the Ahmadiyya Movement (1908
to 1914), which clearly show that he did not believe in the doctrines
later advanced by the Qadiani leader Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, but on
the contrary he held the same views as those of the Lahore Ahmadiyya
Movement.
He did not consider Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to have claimed to
be a prophet, he regarded other Muslims also as being Muslims and
not unbelievers, and he considered the Anjuman to be the supreme
executive of the Movement, and did not believe in the concept of
a khilafat within the Movement as advocated by the Qadianis.
1. Hazrat Mirza was a mujaddid
Maulana Nur-ud-Din wrote a letter to one Sardar Muhammad Ajab Khan
in October 1910, making a sworn declaration of his beliefs. In this
letter, which was published at that very time, he writes:
“To cut open the heart and look into it, or make
others look into it, is beyond human power. If one relies on oaths,
I see no oath equal to: By Allah, the Great. Neither you
nor anyone else will accompany me after my death, except my faith
and deeds. As this matter will be presented before Allah Almighty,
I swear by Allah, the Great, by Whose leave heaven and earth
exist, I believe Mirza sahib to be the Mujaddid
of this century. I believe him to be righteous. I believe
him to be a slave of Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, and a sincere
servant of his Shari‘ah. And Mirza too considered himself
to be a life-sacrificing slave of the Arabian Prophet, Muhammad
ibn Abdullah.
The dictionary meaning of the word nabi, we believe,
is one who gives news, having received knowledge beforehand from
Allah Almighty, not one who brings a shari‘ah. Both Mirza
sahib and I consider any person who rejects even an iota of the
Holy Quran or the shari‘ah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to
be a kafir and an accursed one. This is my belief, and
this was also I consider the belief of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib.
If anyone rejects this, refuses to accept it, or calls us hypocrites,
his affair is with God. — Nur-ur-Din, in his own hand,
22 October 1910.”
(Badr, Qadian, 27 October 1910)
2. Forbids adding the name of Hazrat Mirza sahib in Darood
Darood is the Urdu and Persian term for the Salat-un-Nabi,
the prayer which Muslims frequently repeat asking that Allah may
exalt and bless the Holy Prophet Muhammad and his followers (aal)
as He did exalt and bless Abraham and his followers. It was reported
in the Ahmadiyya community newspaper Badr:
“A man asked Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih [Maulana Nur-ud-Din]
whether it was permissible to say the Darood for the Promised
Messiah during the Namaz [i.e. regular Salat]. He
replied:
You can consider the word aal as including the Imam.
But you must not at all make a change in the words of the prayer;
this is a strict instruction. Of course, before closing the
prayer with salam, you may say any dua of your
own, as much as you like and in any language you like. However,
you must not, on any account, make a change in the fixed words
of the Namaz.
Nur-ud-Din, 9 August 1908.”
(Badr, 17 September 1908, page 6)
Therefore Maulana Nur-ud-Din strictly forbade anyone from
adding the name of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to the Darood
within the salat and told the questioner to regard Hazrat
Mirza as included among the followers of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
3. The Anjuman is collectively the khalifa-tul-Masih
During his period as head of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Maulana Nur-ud-Din
considered the Anjuman as being the khalifa of the Promised
Messiah for governing the Movement. During the course of his khutba
on the occasion of ‘Id-ul-Fitr on 16th October 1909,
he re-iterated the position and the powers given to the Anjuman
by the Promised Messiah. Referring to the booklet Al-Wasiyya,
he said:
“In the writing of Hazrat sahib [i.e. the
Promised Messiah] there is a point of deep knowledge which I will
explain to you fully. He left it up to God as to who was going
to be the khalifa. On the other hand, he said to fourteen
men: You are collectively the Khalifat-ul-Masih, your decisions
are final and binding, and the government authorities too consider
them as absolute. Then all those fourteen men became united in
taking the bai‘at (pledge) at the hand of one man,
accepting him as their khalifa, and thus you were united.
And then not only fourteen, but the whole community agreed upon
my khilafat.
“… I have read Al-Wasiyya very
thoroughly. It is indeed true that he has made fourteen men the
Khalifat-ul-Masih, and written that their decision arrived
at by majority opinion is final and binding. Now observe that
these God-fearing men, whom Hazrat sahib chose for his khilafat,
have by their righteous opinion, by their unanimous opinion, appointed
one man as their Khalifa and Amir. And then not
only themselves, but they made thousands upon thousands of people
to embark in the same boat in which they had themselves embarked.”
(Badr, 21 October 1909, p. 11, col. 1.)
4. ‘Muslim’ means all Muslims
The following brief extract appeared under the title Those who
deserve our special sympathy:
“A letter from a man was presented before Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih
asking about the instruction in the conditions of the bai‘at
(Pledge) to show sympathy to Muslims: Does it mean Ahmadi Muslims
or non-Ahmadis as well? He replied:
This means all Muslims, whether they are Ahmadis or
non-Ahmadis.”
(Badr, 18 July 1912, page is unnumbered)
This shows that Maulana Nur-ud-Din directed that those Muslims
who were not Ahmadis should be treated by Ahmadis as being their
Muslim brethren. This is unlike and opposed to the belief, and
indeed the actual practice, later established by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad
in the Qadiani Jamaat that other Muslims are to be regarded as non-Muslims.
5. Refusal to call other Muslims as kafir
(Point 5 has been added on 17 February 2005)
We quote below a short note from Badr, 6 March 1913 (p.
4, bottom of column 2 and top of column 3) which reports Maulana
Nur-ud-Din’s refusal to call other Muslims as kafir.
On the right is the scanned image of this note in two parts: foot
of column 2 and top of column 3. On the left is the translation
into English.
| Translation: |
Original text: |
Mas’ala-i Takfir [Calling Muslims as Kafir]
Maulvi Abdul Majid had asked Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih
the question: Do you consider non-Ahmadi Muslims as being
kafir, and do you regard me as kafir? In reply
the Hazrat had written: We do not consider any Muslim, one
who professes the Kalima, as kafir. In response
to this reply, Maulvi Muhammad Abdul Majid sent a letter to
Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih, written in the hand of Muhammad
Asmatullah, Head Maulvi School, in which it is stated: It
is said with deep regret that your writing could not be read
clearly; please inform us of your real opinion. In reply,
Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih wrote:
Maulana, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu.
Here is the respectful reply. If a man considers himself
to be a Muslim, then please tell me what right I have to
say to him: You are not a Muslim? Am I ‘Knower of what
is in the hearts’? No, certainly not. Do I control
entry to paradise and hell? Certainly not. I have in mind
the words [of Hadith]: ‘Did you cut open his heart?’
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. My reply is perfectly
clear. As to your regret, your deep regret, I say that there
must be thousands of people who express regret about me.
It causes me no surprise if you are one more added to them.
You do not need my opinion. Muslims today are useless and
ineffectual, and consider such things as important while
they do not turn towards the real purpose [of Islam]. This
writing is by my hand, I cannot write better than this.
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The words translated above as ‘Knower of what is in the hearts’
are the Quranic expression ‘alim-um bi-dhat-is-sudur,
which refer to Allah as the only one Who knows what a person has
in his heart. The words ‘Did you cut open his heart?’,
hal shaqaq-ta qalbhu, are from a Hadith report in
which the Holy Prophet Muhammad scolded a Muslim for doubting the
sincerity of the verbal claim of a person to be a Muslim and asked
him whether he was able to open up and look inside that person’s
heart.
6. What is the ‘second power’ (qudrat saniyya)?
In his Will, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad has elaborated that after
his death his community would be assisted by a second manifestation
of Divine power and support, just as it was assisted by a first
manifestation during his life. The Qadianis have interpreted this
‘second power’ to mean the establishment of their khilafat.
However, the reply of Maulana Nur-ud-Din, when questioned as to
what was meant by the ‘second power’, was published as follows:
“When the founder of a community is completing his work,
then in order to accomplish that work the manifestation of the power
of God takes place, as it says in the Holy Quran: ‘This day have
I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you’.
Its manifestation took place in the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him. But after him, this continued in the times of
his khalifas, deputies and mujaddids. They were all
the ‘second power’. The second power cannot be limited to a particular
form. Whenever any nation becomes weak, then Allah the Most High,
out of His wisdom, sends the second power in order to strengthen
it.” (Badr, 22 May 1913, pages 3 – 4)
He does not say here that there is a chain of khalifas
after Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in the Ahmadiyya Movement who are
the manifestation of the second power, and I am the first one of
these. Rather, he says that this is Divine support for the cause
of truth in a general sense.
Therefore it is the Divine support that this Movement receives
in various forms which is the qudrat saniyya.
Also, according to what is stated by Hazrat Maulana here, Hazrat
Mirza sahib himself is a part and parcel of the ‘second power’ granted
to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The members of the Qadiani Jamaat
should answer the question whether they believe that the second
power to the Holy Prophet Muhammad is still being manifested
and shall exist forever, or do they believe that it been replaced
and superseded by a new second power which came after Hazrat Mirza
sahib?
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