Ilham: “Diamond will cut diamond”

Future: Riches and people

In his testamentary will, known among the Ahmadis simply as the Al Wassiyat, the Promised Massih (as) indicated in profoundly subtle language, the future trajectories, his Jamaat, and especially the administrative mandarins within it, shall pass through in the ebb and flow of time when he wrote about the larger challenge awaiting it in the time of riches:  

“Where will the money come from? And how will such a community be born- a community of people willing to perform heroic feats for their faith? These are not the questions that worry me. I am more concerned that people coming after me may stumble when entrusted with such large amounts of wealth and that they may take to the love of this world”.  

     

  -Hadhrat Ahmad (as) [ Al Wassiyat,  p.28, Qadian: Nazarat Nashro Ishaat, (2003) ]

The Conditional Continuity

In 1939, the establishment of the Jamaat e-Ahmadiyya completed its 50^th anniversary, since the first Bai’at was initiated by the Promised Massih (as) in March 1889. Speaking at the Annual Jalsa at Qadian that year, Hadhrat Khalifa Sani (ra) famously observed:

“…O Community of believers, and O workers of righteousness, I say to you that Khilafat is a great bounty of God Almighty. Value it as such. So long as the majority of you continue established in faith and righteous conduct, God will continue to bestow this bounty upon you. But should a majority of you be deprived of faith and righteous conduct, then, it will be for the Divine will to determine whether to continue this bounty or to withdraw it. Thus, there is no question of the Khalifa going wrong. You will be deprived of the Khilafat when you yourselves become corrupt.”

[1939 Dec 28-29-Proceedings of the Annual Conference at Qadian, quoted in “Fazl-e Umar”: The Life of Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad Khalifatul Masih II , p. 234, by Mujeebur Rahman, London: Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya, UK (2012).

The ‘Deconstruction’ of Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya

The noted French philosopher Professor Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) famously argued that every philosophical, religious and social institution, no matter how framed and secure it seems, is never fully complete and self-sufficient by itself. Instead the system depends on non-systematisable elements that produce and sustain the system's very possibility. If we are to understand the true nature of power and authority being exercised by the institutional elites through privileged interpreations, the demystification and deconstruction of the ideas, values and meanings that are embedded in the system is inevitable and unavoidable.     

In the Islamic religious order, the idea of Divine revelations and the possibility of Divine Reformers appearing in every century is central to any discussion on the continuing vitality of Islam as an ethical way of living and being for individual believers. Against this backdrop, the description of the Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya as a complete way of institutional life for all times to come hangs on a precarious hope. The idea that the man-elected Khalifa will remain immune from injustice and that the Ahmadis may not stumble in course of time and that they will protect themselves against the onslaught of moral corruption had been belied by the experience of history and the incidents of our own times.   

In its re-examination of the fundamental norms and premises of a number of dominant discourses within the institutional framing of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, the Jamaat Ul Shih Al Islam only questions the spiritual discordance emanating from the existing arrangement. If the JUSAI is seen as 'at war with the institution of Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya’, it's not because we wish to destroy it, but rather because we want to recall how they could never be as authoritative as they seemed. 

If the work of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam today seems so threatening to the mainstream Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya leadership that they apply boycott on us, this is because it isn't simply eccentric or strange, incomprehensible or exotic. For, if that was the case, it would have allowed them to dispose of it easily. Thoughtful Ahmadis know, more than they admit that the foundations of the Divine Manifestation in Mauritius are deep-rooted in the bedrock of the teachings of Islam and the explanations of the Promised Massih (as) are central to it.

Just as ‘disruptive’ technologies unsettle and obsolete the existing practices and redraw the human imagination and experience, Divine revelations disrupt the obsolete, existing social order and create a new heaven and earth in the spiritual realm of man, with the rising of a Khalifatullah. In his Friday Sermon of 19 November 2010, the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius spoke about the glaring disconnect between the word and deed in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya in our times, in the backdrop of incidents of social boycott being applied on his disciples in India. The sermon is an eloquent commentary on the existential predicament of an institutional leader caught up unprepared in the cauldron of an evolving present where “diamond will cut diamond”.

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:

The victims as tormentors

“Before I end my sermon, I want to reassure all my disciples in India who are undergoing all sorts of persecutions, never to despair come what may, of the help of Allah.

Nowadays, the Ahmadiyya Association are victimising themselves due to the fact that they are undergoing all sorts of persecutions (at the hands of the other Muslims) but the irony of the situation is that they themselves are being the tormentors and persecutors of the disciples of the Messiah of this era. In his Friday Sermon itself (made on 12 November 2010), the fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Movement has clearly stated that:

(I cite a part of the summary of his sermon): it is “through patience and prayer a Momin will achieve success and blessings of Allah. This is what all the previous Prophets of Allah taught their followers and this is what the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) taught us. There are different verses in the Holy Quran that have covered this topic and through which we get the real meaning of patience. Patience means that we remain steadfast through any sort of trial and tribulation that comes our way without objecting.

We have seen in the history of religion that all the Prophets and their followers have gone through hardships. No Prophet is dearer to Allah than the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) and he and his followers also went through these trials and tribulations, but they did not complain and remained steadfast in their faith. It is human nature that if we go through a prolong period of trials that we get tired and we say that when will that time come when we will be victorious and our enemies will be defeated. Allah reassures His believers that I am with those that remain patient and steadfast. To achieve this closeness to Allah, we must be vigilant in our prayers and remain steadfast.”

Afterwards, he cited also a Hadith about how the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) advised his disciples to remain ever firm even if they had to undergo the worst of persecutions like the like of the past prophets and their disciples.

Precept and Practice: East and West?

So now I ask the fifth Caliph who is flowery in his speech, words which are filled with sense, but yet unfortunately he himself is being senseless in practice. Unfortunately he does not listen; he does not hear what he is saying.

It is in his presence that Allah raised His prophet, His Messiah and Messenger and despite this, he (the fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Movement) makes believes that he is deaf and dumb, and in his turn he is encouraging his officials to persecute my disciples. Do not worry, Insha-Allah, this is only the trial of the era whereby my disciples will have to show themselves firm like my master and his companions in the past, and also like le Messiah of the past era and his disciples and also like all the past prophets and their followers who marked the history of humanity and of religion in the past. 

The Jihad of this present era will be very difficult to wage, but only (a sure fact) Allah will always be with me and my sincere disciples, Insha-Allah. This is the complete trust which I place in the One who has raised as His beloved prophet and messenger, and come what may Insha-Allah, the moment will come (like I said in my Eid sermon last Wednesday), when we will bring about this victory (with the help of Allah). The victory of Islam (and Ahmadiyya) will be made through the Sahih Al Islam for I had never rejected my beloved master Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (on him be peace). On the contrary, I have come to confirm their veracity.

Like I said in my Eid sermon, do and say are two different things. The fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Movement is saying one thing, but he himself is not putting what he is saying into practice. He is advising his followers to be patient and steadfast in the face of all kinds of persecutions, but on one hand, he himself is encouraging his officials and other of his followers to persecute and boycott the Messenger of this era and my disciples. Shame on him! Does he not realise how lowly he has fallen?

One day Allah revealed to me (in English): “Diamond will cut diamond”. This revelation is realising, where although beautiful words are being preached, but only the one who is putting into practice what he says (of the teachings of Islam) for the pleasure of Allah, it is him who shall be successful, for Allah shall always be and help His Elected Servant and not the ones who have turned their backs to him and went astray.

O my brothers, sisters and children, you can now be few in number compared to the large numbers of people of other sects and communities, but the time will come when Allah will make you become lights bearers of truth which shall pervade this universe, where people in thousands will come to embrace ISLAM in all its splendour, and they shall recognise this humble self as the Messenger of my era. This day is not far, and thus, all those who have rejected the message of Allah and had turned their backs to Allah and His chosen Messenger and Caliph, they shall shed not ordinary tears, but indeed tears of blood!