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In
the modern world, the Muslims have a national presence in almost all the countries,
whether as the majority or as a minority community. Yet, the fact is that the Muslim
Ummah is caught up in the cauldron of political and economic imperialism of
the outside forces, everywhere. They can’t see any Messiah arising among them
to redeem their predicament. Yet, the latent consciousness within them suggests
that navigating through the troubled waters of the modern age is almost
impossible without the leadership of someone immersed in the Divine waters. In
the quest for a spiritual solution to meet the guidance imperative of our
times, the religious scholars are searching for the practical embodiment of the
idea of Khilafat.
Yet,
the religious divines are grossly divided among themselves and are unable to
rise above sectarian differences. Even when they elect a man to preside over
their affairs, the man is unable to give them the requisite spiritual and
material advice as he himself is bereft of Divine guidance in the absence of nourishing
Divine revelations. As the Islamic ideal of Divine Khilafat is based on the
precept of Nubuwwat, the declaration of “Khatme Nubuwwat” (end of
Messengership) by the general Muslims and the declaration of “Khatme Massih
Maoud” by the Ahmadis, mean that they are unable to recognize the
Divine Khilafat when it is established by Allah (twa). In his Friday Sermon of September 20, 2013
the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir
Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius profoundly reflects upon the problems and
perils of man-elected Khilafat systems that the Muslim Ulema and the various
sects are conjuring up and devising for themselves.
Read the Extracts
from the Friday Sermon:
“Allah (swt) has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds, that He will certainly make them successors in the earth, as He made successors from among those who were before them, and that He will establish certainly in exchange, after their fear, safety and peace. “They worship Me and do not associate anything with Me.” Then whoever is ungrateful after that will be among the rebels.” (Al-Nur 24: 56).
“Allah (swt) has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds, that He will certainly make them successors in the earth, as He made successors from among those who were before them, and that He will establish certainly in exchange, after their fear, safety and peace. “They worship Me and do not associate anything with Me.” Then whoever is ungrateful after that will be among the rebels.” (Al-Nur 24: 56).
Any form of caliphate made by the hand of man is doomed to failure. Why? There are obviously
several answers to this question but it is possible today to only mention a
few.
First: It is not for any human to
choose a Khalifa, this being the prerogative of Allah who promised to raise
caliphs among ‘those who believe and
do righteous deeds’ (24: 56).
Instead of striving to install a Khalifa by consensus or through voting, the Muslim community
would do better to look among some seventy-three groups, or more, which
constitutes the Ummah, one whose adherents really believe (have faith) and do
good works, and who would be in the sight of Allah, the most likely to receive
the blessing of the Divine caliphate.
Second: It is understood that the
type of Divine Caliphate which I am talking about is the natural, logical or chronological consequence of the apostolate of
Hazrat Muhammad (saw), apostolate which is itself dependent on the Rahmaniyat (grace) of Allah, and
which the Divine Khalifa holds as well as the Rahimiyat (mercy) of Allah.
Third: The honour and privilege to
bring Muslims under the banner of Divine Caliphate to better defend Islam.
It is therefore only this
community who will reign in Islam which has been created following the
appearance, the advent of the first of the Islamic Messiah. As we know, last
century the first Messiah was Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) and it is in the Jamaat of the same Messiah (as)
that Allah has raised for this century a Khalifatullah
and Promised Messiah.
So how can other Muslim sects accept the Khalifatullah of this century
if they have not accepted the Promised Messiah (as) of the past century? Like (the people of) other
religions, they could not accept Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) as the Messiah
had they not accepted our beloved Hazrat Muhammad (saw) and believe in the
oneness of Allah and believe sincerely in the first pillar of Islam.
Given the division that exists within the Ummah, how can we hope that a
Khalifa chosen by a sect is accepted by members of other sects if they already
label (each other) among themselves as Kafirs (infidels)? As to the chances of
success of non-religious organizations within the Ummah, in their attempt to
select a Khalifa, the possibilities are so small that we should not even think
about it at this stage.
We must not forget that
Allah teaches us in the first chapter of the Holy Quran to pray among others,
not to take the path of the Jews, Maghdhubi
alaihim. Their greatest sin, their greatest misfortune is to have
refused their Messiah Jesus (as), because they were
expecting a warrior Messiah who would restore to them the kingdom of David
which was under foreign occupation. In his place came a humble Jesus, with a stick, with just divine signs
and convincing arguments in his favour. His
kingdom was not of this world.
This Surah Al-Fatiha, we
recite it in each Rakah of
our Salat. For our
hearts to be receptive, Allah (swt) wills, by His grace, that we repeat this
severe warning over thirty times a day. It is for us to open our heart to
understanding. So it is not essential that the Khalifatullah of our time has a
temporal kingdom. On the contrary, he comes
more with a spiritual kingdom, but with time, through the help of Allah, he
obtains both spiritual and material kingdom? How come material? This he
obtains only for the advancement of this spiritual kingdom and to re-establish
Islam as the perfect religion which Allah first trusted to our beloved prophet
Hazrat Muhammad (saw).
Fourth: It is obvious that any kind
of caliphate or reformer (Mujaddid)
made by humans will be controlled directly or indirectly by them. Why I have
mentioned reformer (Mujaddid), it is because Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani Siddiqui said he is the reformer of the
15th century and now the Sunnis have published a book to make
understand that late Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani Siddiqui is (was) reformer of
the 15th century and after the publication of this book, he died,
and I personally have never heard the
formal proclamation of Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani Siddiqui in which (he is said
to have declared) declares that he is Mujaddid or reformer of the 15th
century. Even there are many Sunnis who did not know that, and now his
followers take him as a Pir (saint)
and go to his grave and make the Urs. This is contrary to the words of
Allah that require of the Muslims the following course of action: “They worship Me and do not associate
anything with Me.” (24: 56).
The danger of ‘Shirk’, that is to say,
worship, in whatever form it may be, of a being other than Allah, is here
severely condemned. Therefore to emphasize that any form of
caliphate or reformer who would be supported financially, politically or
otherwise by any temporal power symbol is a deviation combined with ‘Shirk’ and which constitutes in
the sight of Allah an unacceptable deviation from the very foundations of the
Caliphate.
From this observation, what
are the prospects for the Muslim world? It seems appropriate to remind the
Muslim community of the divine utterance contained in the following verse: “And whoever obeys Allah and His
Messenger will be among those on whom Allah has poured His blessings, namely,
the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous, and these are
excellent companions.” (4: 70).
The promise in this verse
made solely to the Muhammadiyya Ummah and no other Ummah should be sufficient
to fill the heart of all Muslims with joy and hope till eternity. Allah (swt) promises this Divine
Caliphate to the Muslims who shall obey Him and obey His Messenger, no less, in
terms of spiritual blessing being the apostolate after the Holy Prophet
(saw).
Allah promises beyond the rank of the righteous, martyrs and truthful,
the statuses of the non-law-bearing apostolate. That is to say, among other things, that
apostolate (Nabuwwat) which would trigger among the last people (the Aakhareen), the second cycle of
Divine Caliphate (Chosen by God) not by humans, based on the precepts of the
apostolate and which cycle is destined to last in time. So for the salvation of
the Ummah it is question here to simply get rid of this (false) reasoning, that
is, make the Muslims understand that the
door of Nabuwwat is still open, but this Nabuwwat shall not be
one to bring another Quran, but such
a Nabuwwat which would be the perfect reflection of the Nabuwwat
of Hazrat Muhammad (saw), without ever going beyond the perfection of
Hazrat Muhammad (saw), such a Nabuwwat which would enable Islam to
regain its glory, and this, till the Day of Judgement. So is the Ummah ready to
revise its conception of “Khatme Nabuwwat”?
I wish wholeheartedly that this be so. May
Allah open the heart, the spiritual eyes of Muslims and humanity so that they
attach to the value that Allah has given to truth, especially with the advent
of His chosen representative to guide you all safe and sound to Allah. Insha-Allah,
Ameen.