OBEDIENCE TO ALLAH AND TO HIS MESSAGE
Hazrat Muhyi-ud-Din Al- Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) opened his Friday Sermon
stressing on Obedience to Allah and His Khalifatullah, for therein is true
salvation for a true believer. A true believer never seeks to hurt the feelings
of the Messenger of Allah, Khalifatullah. The one who truly loves Allah and His
Khalifatullah will always show obedience to Allah and His Khalifatullah.
During the course of his explanations which Huzur
(atba) explained to be divinely inspired – for he relates that ever since the
beginning of the Divine Manifestation, before doing any Jummah Khutba (or discourse) he seeks divine succour and guidance
on which topic/ subject to bring before the Jamaat and the world at large – and
Alhamdulillah, he also received on the
spot (11 December 2015) the following
revelation (in English): “These are the words
coming from Allah. These are not the words of Munir Ahmad Azim.”
Shun Arrogance and Cheap victories
He reiterated the need for each member of the Jamaat
Ul Sahih Al Islam, National and International to ever remain firm in his or her
belief and to always project the authentic facets of Islam, and forego all
kinds of arrogance and attachment to minor/trivial things which can thus become
major impediments in our faith. Arrogance can exterminate one’s faith, and an
arrogant person can become like those who left the Divine Manifestation and
sought to create problems for Allah and His Messenger and Jamaat. Huzur (atba)
said that there is no difference between someone who left the Divine Manifestation
and the one who does not pay obeisance to Allah and His Khalifatullah and
manifest his or her nafs (ego,
passion). Allah does not love the arrogant.
He made the congregation ponder over the situation of
those who left the Divine Manifestation, who noted down the divine revelations,
where are they today? Or even on those who at the very beginning of the Divine
Manifestation itself rejected Allah’s revelations and signs! Now, with the
celebrations of the centenary Jubilee of Ahmadiyyat establishment in Mauritius,
how hurt they felt when their own Khalifa (elected by man) did not attend this
function! Mauritians from all over the world came back to their country in the
hope of having that grand celebration with their Khalifa, but all in vain!
Allah has showed that there is no Khalifa except His very own Khalifatullah,
His Chosen Khalifa who could have celebrated that particular centenary Jubilee.
All the programmes done were through the helping hand of Allah. Are you still
blind? Are you not still recognising that sign? Are you still manifesting your nafs (passion)? Are you still disputing over
petty things? Are you trying to put the Messenger of Allah and the Jamaat of
Allah in a fix? In the times of the Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh), the latter
stressed on unity, for it is united that we can progress – not divided and
having petty arguments!
Huzur (atba) states: Being the Jamaat of the Promised
Messiah (as) we (Ahmadis) always thought that we were that 73th
Jamaat who shall go to Paradise – we judged this by ourselves! This, we can
never tell!
Furthermore, the Khalifatullah (atba) related many
anecdotes to make the Jamaat members (as well as the world at large) understand
the importance of a Khalifatullah. He at first related part of the
anecdote/Hadith Qudsi whereby the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) quoted Allah to
have said:
“… O son of Adam, I asked you
for food and you fed Me not. He will say: O Lord, and how should I feed You
when You are the Lord of the worlds? He will say: Did you not know that My
servant So-and-so asked you for food and you fed him not? Did you not know that
had you fed him you would surely have found that (the reward for doing so) with
Me?…”
– Huzur (atba) said that if for a simple servant of Allah, Allah was
hurt, now imagine how grievous the case of someone or people who disobey/s a
Messenger of Allah, Khalifatullah?
Truth and the perceptions
Furthermore, under divine inspirations, in the course
of his sermon Allah taught His Khalifatullah an anecdote which Huzur (atba) was
not aware of:
“There once was a Saint, a Waliullah who was praying under the
shade of a tree, but that saint was not concentrating in his prayers and his
eyes were roaming everywhere, spying on what people were doing. He saw a youth/
young man and a woman sitting together on a wall – near a river – and there was
a bottle and also glasses in their hands. The Waliullah kept on looking with suspicion at the man and woman while
supposedly having his tongue in Zikr and prayers. The suspicion which he had on
the two of them was thus an established fact for him that he was superior to
them and that the latter were inferior (and sinning).
Suddenly, a cry was heard
and the man and woman quickly went to go to rescue a group of people who were
drowning while the Waliullah kept
looking on. Each of them saved 3 people (a total of 6 people) and pulled them
from the river and onto the earth.
While the Waliullah was still looking on, the man came to him and told him:
“You are spying on us, on me, but then if you think that you are on the right
path, go and save those people. You are taking the name of Allah, but the fact
is that you have committed a great sin when you have wrongly judged me. Do you
know that woman? That woman is my mother. My mother got married very young and gave
birth to me. She still appears young. You also thought that the bottle which
was with us contained alcohol, but that bottle contained river water. My mother
and I were sitting over there and with each sip of water we were meditating on
the grandeur of Allah.”
Sectarian Hubris among All
While nowadays some are taking themselves as truthful
while (according to them/ in their eyes) the others are not, it is the Ummah of
the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which is now suffering from all this. Each
person/people/group/Jamaat is divided today and taking itself as more
knowledgeable than the others but this was one of the greatest fears of the
Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). During his farewell pilgrimage, he told the
people that nobody should take himself as more superior to the others.
During
his lifetime, he preached that shoulders (in prayer) should be in line and
close to each other. Before prayer, he used to look behind to see if all the
ranks (saff) were correctly aligned. Like
all Messengers of Allah, he used to have a staff (cane) whereby he used to
redress the saff, and put the people
in their lines with correct measure. And he also showed all postures to be
correctly done during Salat (prayers).
Purify your Heart
Each believer must try to keep himself clean, and Huzur then mentions a
revelation which he received back in the year 2000 whereby in a revealed text Allah
showed a prayer about the purification of the heart with snow. “Oh Allah, purify my heart with snow…”
The heart must be like a clean mirror to reflect also a good image of
ourselves. Indeed each person must look in himself to find his faults and try
to reform himself.
Huzur (atba) then said that the Holy Prophet of Islam,
Hadhrat Muhammad (pbuh) is our role model. The Promised Messiah Hadhrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad (as) had immense love for Nabi Karim (pbuh) and he wrote many
poems on him (pbuh). We therefore need to follow the Holy Prophet’s example,
and the ladies and girls should follow the Ummahatul-Mumineen
(Mothers of Believers), the wives of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
Be Mindful of God, cultivate Perseverance
Afterwards Huzur (atba) talked about the need to
cultivate in oneself Taqwa and
patience/ steadfastness. Sometimes a believer may be in the right, but for the
sake of Allah, to preserve unity he accepts that he is wrong (even though he is
not) just for the sake of establishing peace. Huzur (atba) said that it is this
kind of person that Allah supports and raises his position and degree of Taqwa, and then he (atba) reminiscence
the beginning of the Divine Manifestation when the non-believers in the Divine
Manifestation of this era (i.e. the Ahmadi Muslims of Mauritius etc.) made
every kind of plots and talks on his person. It was not in vain that Allah first
revealed to Huzur (atba) even before those hardships:
“Laa Maqsooda Illallah,
Laa Ma’booda bil
Haq-Illallah,
Laa Majooda bil Haq-Illallah,
Fasbir Sabran Jamil”.
Allah therein directs His chosen servant to turn to Allah and make Allah his
destination and priority and to take a beautiful patience (for he would have to be extra steadfast in those times of trials).
When Allah says to take patience, this means that he needed/ needs not revolts
in the aftermath of all these evil plots from their part.
Then Huzur (atba) said that today this beautiful
patience saw to his being elevated by Allah to the position of Khalifatullah,
you want it or not, for all people of the world and particularly for the
Muslims and definitely also for the Ahmadi Muslims, for Huzur (atba) said he is
a follower of the Promised Messiah Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as). Others may
think what they like, for if he was to take their taunts and bad words into
consideration (and lose time in thinking about that), then when shall he have
the time to do the needed Deen works? Will that reflect a good image (of
Islam)?
Afterwards, Huzur (atba) related an anecdote, about
something which happened to him during the course of the week.
A group of
Ahmadi youths saw him in Rose-Hill and gave some snide remarks on his person,
calling him “so-called Khalifatullah”.
Instead of being angry with them, the Khalifatullah (atba) approached them (and
this frightened them!) and then turned the situation around, saying that in a
way they recognise that he is the Khalifatullah and thus to give their hands to
take the Bai’at (oath of allegiance).
These youths were disconcerted and upon seeing that they were frightened, the
Khalifatullah (atba) gently put his hand on their heads in a reassuring way and
went on his way. These lads kept on looking in the direction of Huzur (atba).
They were absolutely speechless. Huzur (atba) said that this situation and the
way it was dealt with bore its fruits. Huzur (atba) said that had he also
reacted in a negative manner, replying back in an angry tone, then this would
have worsened the matter.....
CHENNAI FLOODS
The first week of November witnessed a great calamity (a
major one in the course of a century) in Chennai, in the south of India.
Torrential rainfall as well as the overflow of reservoirs caused major floods
in various parts of Chennai, and this major flooding has continued till date
(11 December 2015) whereby about 280 people have died and thousands were forced
to leave their wrecked homes. In these times of utmost desolation the Jamaat Ul
Sahih Al Islam and this humble self stand up in prayer for the victims and those
who were forced out of their homes and invoke Allah to remove all traces of
this desolation and forgive all inhabitants therein and bless them and their
offspring with a better future in the obedience of Allah. Insha Allah.
----Extracts from the Friday Sermon delivered by Hadhrat Muhyi-ud-Din Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) on 11 December 2015 ~(28 Safar 1437 Hijri).