'Bigotry has no place in Islam'

Islam and Human Dignity

From the very beginning, Islam has strongly condemned racial discrimination and has done everything possible to remove the artificial barriers between tribes and between nations. For the first time in the history of humanity, a new standard for judging the qualities of man was stated in the Holy Quran in these solemn words:

“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” (49: 14)

This statement sounded the death knell for all kinds of aristocracies, whether of birth, caste or wealth. The black people found themselves on the same level as the white people. Suddenly and forever, the colour of such abominable prejudice was rejected.

Even today, with the passage of time, incidents such as those of Little Rock are hardly heard in the Islamic countries and the problems of discrimination law as before what is happening in South Africa have neither arisen in the Middle East nor the Far East.

“An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab and a non-Arab has no superiority to an Arab, you are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created from clay.”

Those are the memorable words of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) in the valley of Mina during the Farewell Pilgrimage (his first and last one). What was the result?

At these solemn words, the social pride of the Arabs was driven away. The difference between Arabs and non-Arabs, similar to that which existed between Jews and pagans, Greeks and barbarians, patricians and plebeians was brutally stripped of the halo of old antiquity. The weak and the oppressed ceased to receive alms according to the whims of the wealthy. Religion had now given them legitimate rights to the property of the rich as well as in politics. The woman, who suffered because of the weakness of her physical stature and who was simply considered as mere commodity, was put on the same footing as man.

Surah Ar-Rahman: A Commentary

Recently, a Muslim brother from India put forward a request to Hadhrat Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (aba) for exposition concerning the gardens as mentioned in Chapter 55 of the Holy Quran. In connection with the issue, the Khalifatullah (atba) turned in prayer to Allah, and the following explanations in English ensued. The explanations include a short commentary of Surah Ar-Rahman, the Jinns and the gardens which form the subject matter of the Surah.

For the spiritual enlightenment of one and all, we reproduced below the inspired commentary provided by the Muhyi-ud-Din (atba) on certain aspects of the subtle and profound verities of Divine wisdom encompassed in Surah Ar Rahman:

The Jinns and the Humans

Surah Ar-Rahman deals with the absolute power of Allah in spreading His mercy and benevolence to not only mankind but to the realm of the Jinns also who cohabit in the world of humans, invisible to the naked eyes – yet there is an invisible veil which separates the two and thus the two creations co-exist and both types of creatures of Allah are mortal.

The mortality of human is revealed when his soul leaves the body of clay and water whereas the Jinns get access to a body of felicity after inhabiting a body made of fire. Therefore, the Almighty has granted knowledge to both species so that they may accede to God.

Mubahila against Janbah Sahib: Truth Triumphs

Where a man is pure of heart,
He does not need  multiple miracles:
One single sign is enough to lead such a one, 
To the right path, if  there be
The Fear of God in the heart!
                              
                                           - Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V

“If the world witnesses at any time.... if sees at any time that those who deny me has overcome those who believe in me, then, you may conclude that I was an impostor....”

                                                -Hadhrat Khalifa Sani (ra) on his claim of being Musleh Maoud     

In recent weeks, many people ask a question: what is the outcome of the Mubahila Challenge launched by Imam Muhyi-ud-Din Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius against Abdul Ghaffar Janbah Sahib, Mansur Ahmed Sahib and their Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Islah-Pasand?

In a speech on February 20, 2014 Hadhrat Sahib (atba) of Mauritius eloquently explained the prophecy on Musleh Maoud in its classical setting, traditional explanations over it in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya and also its interpretative possibilities in the contemporary context of the Divine Manifestation in Mauritius.  The circumstances behind, and conditionalities of, the Mubahila Challenge was also dealt with, while reminding the world that the opponent parties cannot escape from the fact that “the truthful and the truth must triumph”: “And you cannot prevent it from happening”.  

Some people, however, have already reached their own “conclusions” about the apparent, perceived/alleged “failure” of the Mubahila to lead to the “destruction” of either of the parties to the challenge! 

Musleh Maoud: Declaration of 20 February 1944

Ahmadis are mostly familiar with a famous speech made by Hadhrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad (ra) in 1944. The speech pertains to the grand fulfilment of the prophecy on Musleh Maoud made by the Promised Massih (as) in his own person. What the Ahmadis generally do not know is that the same speech by Khalifatul Massih Sani contains a very important prophecy regarding the arrival of other Divinely-raised pure sons / Zaki Ghulam/ spiritually-blessed souls in future, in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya to advance the cause of Islam. 

The speech is very significant for Ahmadis to ponder over, especially at a time when Allah (swa) has redeemed His pledge and raised such a soul in the Jamaat, in the person of Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib of Mauritius. For the benefit of our readers, we reproduce below the extracts from the Speech/Declaration made by Hadhrat Khalifa Sani (ra) on February 20,1944:   

“I call to witness the One and Supreme God Who has full control over my life that the dream that I have just described was seen by me exactly as I have put it, except possibly for some slight verbal involuntary inaccuracy. I call God Almighty to witness that in a state of vision I announced: 'I am the Promised Messiah, his reflection and his Khalifa.' 

In the same state, under divine command, I said: 'I am the one for whose appearance the virgins had been waiting for nineteen centuries.' I therefore announce, under divine command, on oath, that God has appointed me the Promised Son of the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, according to his prophecy, who has to convey the name of the Promised Messiah to the ends of the earth. I do not say that I am the only Promised One and that no other promised one will appear till the Day of Judgment. It appears from the prophecies of the Promised Messiah that some other promised ones will also come and some of them will appear after centuries. Indeed, God has told me that at one time He will send me a second time to the world and I will come for the reform of the world at a time when association with God will have become widespread. 

Islam for Social Harmony

Lately, we have testified through the media how African Muslims, especially those from Central Africa easily fall prey to rebels and extremists of other religions. The latter are desperate to finish Islam and the Muslims. They move heaven and earth to reach their goals because they take the religion of Islam and its teachings as a curse (God forbid).

Therefore, my sermon today is devoted only on a message of peace and goodwill. This is an appeal to the conscience of man. Islam did not come to declare war on the ancient and contemporary religions. It recognizes the truth of the everlasting source of the spiritual river from the past, expanding from century to century, until the time when God, in His wisdom, solemnly declared: “Today I have perfected for you your religion and I have completed My favour upon you, and I have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” (5: 4)

Islam recognizes the universality of Spirituality

The Holy Qur’an has never rejected the essential truths established by the religions that preceded it. Instead, it openly states that it confirms these truths and includes them in its text. In fact this serves to keep them in their original purity, freed from changes (innovations) that have been added over the centuries. This free, frank and generous recognition of the revealed (that is, divinely sourced) religions of yesteryears, with clear statements such as: “for every nation there is a guide.” (13: 8) and “there was no nation but that there had passed within it a warner.” (35: 25) puts Islam on a pedestal of incomparable beauty in the eyes of world religions.

Revealed Poem: The Crime of Faith

My crime is crime of faith in God

Do, chain my hands and feet

A damp and dark and dungeon cell

Do, give me as a treat.

If you can pull the heavens down

Do pull them on my head

What ever is there you take it all

My purse and butter and bread

Let chasing hounds be loosed at large

And let them smell my track

Let all the damning forces come

To stab me at the back

Do all that you can do to fill

My days and nights with fright

If winds and whirling winds are there

Let all of them unite.

Revealed Poem: Love and Hate

Love demands more

Than You can comprehend

Hatred is nothing

But wrong love without end

Love needs the boarder

To meet the beloved

Hate fights the order

Of one you once loved

Love sees the eyes

Of hatred in disguise

And turns it into crises

To follow the wise

Hatred hears the sound

Of love but unbound

Is the wish of its account

To see it all around

Love bends the heart

Cause it asks not to start

Ebb or tide like moonlight

Which forgets being bride