Today Friday 06 June 2014, a historical Jummah by
the grace of Allah (swt). After the registration of our Jamaat (Jamaat Ul Sahih
Al Islam, Seychelles) here and by this divine blessing many Christians in
Seychelles like (in Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and the other small Islands etc.)
took baï’ats in the hand of this humble self, the Khalifatullah, and
I hope that after my departure, all of you will continue this noble work and to
spread this divine message which you have received during the one week’s work I
am here. Insha-Allah.
Here in Seychelles most of the population is
Christian, so before coming on my sermon of today, first of all I must thank
all of you for welcoming me and my delegation here and all of you work have
worked hard together with me and Allah has put His blessing in this noble work
and now by grace of Allah the Jamaat (Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam) is registered
officially in all islands of the Seychelles. And now we have our Managing
Committee and a national president and we rented a house for all the activities
of our Jamaat and Jummah Prayer and Tarbiyyat class,Alhamdulillah. (For a related Report on the visit, click here).
So my dear brothers and sisters, that if a perfect
religion exists in the world – as the followers of all religions believe that
it does – at the same time we find that all religions fail to produce men as
perfect as they produced in ages past, and that they are now incapable of
establishing that relation between man and God which used to exist between them
in earlier days. Why does not God present the true religion to the world in a
manner calculated to demonstrate His power and bring about that change in the
hearts of men, the working of which alone is the object of religion?
I ask all of you a question: Does man build a fine
house and furnish it richly and then neglect its repair and let it fall to
ruin? Or, does a man plant a beautiful garden and then let it dry up for want
of means to conduct water into it? If this does not happen, how is it possible
to imagine that God revealed a perfect religion for the guidance of mankind,
but failed to take measures for its protection? Do we not find that after Moses
God sent prophet after prophet to keep alive the Jewish religion and to fulfill
the object for which that religion had been revealed; and that after Jesus He
appointed those who kept the spirit of Christianity alive. So it happened
towards the end of Mosaic Dispensation. Despite the appearance of numerous
prophets during the course of thirteen centuries after Moses, a great reformer
had to be raised in the person of Jesus whose mission was greater and far more
comprehensive than that of other Jewish prophets.
It was given out beforehand in a prophecy that
sometime later the rising tide of Islam would not only receive a check, but
would also lose its spiritual hold on the hearts of Muslims themselves and
wrong and varied interpretations would take the place of its pure teachings. It
was also promised that at such a juncture God would raise a Messiah from among
the Muslims to do the same work as did Jesus for the mosaic dispensation. The
Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim
Association, has, therefore, appeared thirteen hundred years after the Holy
Prophet (saw) in the same manner as Jesus of Nazareth appeared thirteen hundred
years after Moses (on both of whom be peace) and on the appearance of the
Promised Messiah men have fallen into the same error into which they had fallen
on the appearance of Jesus.
At that time men awaited the coming from the heaven
of the prophet Elijah, but in place of the latter, John the Baptist was sent to
them, who had been born of a woman, in the same manner as other men are born. In
the present age, men await the coming down from the heavens of Jesus himself,
but a messiah is sent to them who, in the eyes of those who have no spiritual
vision, was from the heavens and had nothing in common with the earth, for, had
it not been so, he would not have been able to lead thousands of men to the
heavens. How inconsistent is the memory of these men!
They await the coming down of Jesus from the
heavens, but they have forgotten his words that are present on earth, for Jesus
said, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from
heavens.”
Now, is it not strange that, that knowing that
Jesus was born on the earth and did not descend from the heavens, these people
believe that in his second advent he would descend from the heavens? He himself
said that only that person ascends up to heavens who has come down from heaven,
so that if he was born on the earth he could not ascend up to heaven, and
consequently could not descend from it. And if his being born of Virgin Mary be
described as descending from heaven, why should we not ascribe a similar
meaning to his ascending up to heaven? Again, if Jesus, being born of the
Virgin Mary, could be described as having descended from heaven, why should we
not describe the birth of the Promised Messiah from a woman as a coming from
heaven?
So my dear brothers and sisters and children, to
end my sermon I would like to mention what Allah (swt) has said in the Holy
Quran: There is no nation but has had its Warner. God has sent
me as His reviver of faith after the Holy Prophet (saw) and the Promised
Messiah (as) among all nations in this era, and as the sun lights up the whole
world, the light of revelation has ever lit up the darkest corners of the
earth. If today you people cannot discover the light of revelation in this
humble self, it does not mean that no prophets have appeared among them, but
that they have allowed their national tradition to die out.
The doors of revelation and spiritual advancement
are, however, still open and will continue to remain open forever. No new law
shall henceforth be revealed. The commandments contained in the Quran are the
last commandments and it is through its blessings that Allah shall continue to
pour revelations down on His chosen servants to enable His elects to
explain His book and make it open to mankind, opening the doors of divine
realization and thus these revelations shall continue to arise, for no new law
is required in the presence of a perfect code, and yet man is always in need of
attaining to the realization of God. There can, therefore, be no new law, but
the door of such prophethood as its attained by spiritual perfection is open
and should remain open for all time.
God is as much our providence as He was of our
ancestors. So think not that I have come to destroy, but to fulfill, for verily
I tell you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Insha-Allah. May
Allah bless all of you and make your faith stronger day by day. Ameen.
(Friday Sermon of June 6, 2014 delivered by the Khalifatullah
Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius at Mahe Island, Seychelles).