Many thoughtful Ahmadis today seek answers for the aforesaid questions in their own midst, despite being deeply aware of the limits of the current system of leadership in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya to honestly and frankly address the same. On his part, instead of guiding people on the reality of Divine guidance, the present Caliph, Khalifatul Massih V Mirza Masroor Ahmad Saheb, has been evading and avoiding this question for long through adopting evasive strategies; often ridiculing the intelligence of the questioners and attributing motives to truth seekers who raise this issue of Divine guidance. Against the lessons of history, and the manifest wisdom of Prophetic teachings on the advent of a Mujaddid in a new century of Islam, the Fifth Caliph has been challenging common sense- claiming that Nizam-e-Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya is enough for spiritual guidance for the whole world of Islam even in the new century, and there is no need for a Divinely-inspired Mujaddid for the same!
Divine
revelations and miraculous signs that accompanied the Promised Messiah (as) in
his spiritual mission are now a matter of distant memory within the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya. Not being a recipient
of Divine revelations in this era, Masroor Saheb, in his sermons, continues to
delude himself with stories of the sacred past; from the days of the Promised
Messiah (as) and the early caliphs, as if those old stories will be enough for quenching
the spiritual thirst of the devout faithful who needs signs of living faith in
their own lives. It is as though at present religion has no living reality,
only folktales to offer in this era. Hence, with no fresh divine revelations or
Signs to offer, the present Caliph has been hiding behind the old view points
of the earlier caliphs whenever spiritual issues are brought before him.
Consider
the events of 2021. In November 2021, Khalifatul Massih V Hazrat Mirza Masroor
Ahmad issued a letter of guidance, apparently in response to questions raised
by Arab Ahmadis, seeking to know whether a Prophet or a Mujaddid can appear now.
The Ahmadiyya newspaper, ALHAKAM of 13 January 2023, carried extracts from this
letter for a larger audience as well, as if the Caliph’s Letter is the final
authority on the question of future Divine Guidance for all Ahmadis everywhere.
Before exposing the ‘game-plan’ hidden behind the Letter [- theoretically
agreeing with the coming of a Mujaddid/Ummati-Nabi,
while denigrating the same possibility for all practical purposes!], it is
worth quoting what the Caliph recognizes as spiritual doctrine on future Divine
Guidance:
“The sending of a prophet or a reformer by
Allah the Exalted to guide and reform the world is such a blessing, that it has
no substitute in the world. Whenever Allah the Exalted felt the need to send a
prophet or a reformer for the guidance of the world, out of mercy for humanity,
He sent a prophet or a reformer to guide the world. This attribute of
Allah the Exalted is ever-present and eternal and no human has the right
to declare this sunnah [practice] of Allah the
Exalted to be suspended, because there is no textual basis for this in the Quran
or the sunnah [of the Holy Prophet (sa)]. In what way God’s sunnah will be
manifested in the future, only God knows best.”
After stating the spiritual doctrine thus, the fifth Caliph goes on to add speculative conjectures based on certain statements of the Promised Messiah (as) and the second caliph Hazrat Musleh Maoud (ra) without considering other relevant statements made by the Promised Messiah (as) and Hazrat Musleh Maoud (ra) on the same topic. A glaring omission in this deceitful thesis is the clearly-expressed opinion of the Promised Messiah (as) that ‘Islamic Khilafat’ included not just the righteous caliphs of the early Days, but also the Mujaddidin who followed them in every century and that the Islamic Khilafat is a permanent institution. Moreover, the Promised Messiah (as) firmly believed and clearly stated on several occasions that there will be many other spiritual servants- Maseel Massih, Waliullah who will follow in his footsteps in future:
"I have been appointed at the highest station of Wilayat just as our Chief, the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was at the highest station of Nubuwwat. He was the Seal of the Prophets and I am the Seal of the Auliya’. There is no wali after me except the one who is from me and is under my covenant." [See Khutbah Ilhaamiyyah, pp. 77-78, UK: 2023 English Edition].
To suit the institutional perpetuity requirements of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman, the second Caliph wisely devised certain schemes and policies in his own times vis-a-vis Ahmadiyya Khilafat, and today the same is being abused by the present chiefs and leaders by putting the elected-system of Khilafat on a lofty pedestal even against Divine Sunnah. According to the Fifth Caliph Mirza Masroor Sahib, “...if ever there is a need for a reformer for the reformation of the world, Allah the Exalted will raise someone from among the followers of the Promised Messiahas for that reformation, who will be the Khalifa of the time and will also be granted the status of his like [mathil] and a reformer [musleh] in addition to being a caliph...”
In other words, only a sitting Khalifa [elected by the assembly of the people] can be a Mujaddid or a Prophet in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya! Whereas the Holy Qur'an teaches us: Say, ‘O Allah, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honour whom You will and You humiliate whom You will. In Your hand is all good. Indeed, You have power over all things. (Al-Imran, 3: 27).
Alas, they challenge the divine wisdom of raising an Elect of God among them because of their mundane considerations of institutional prestige, family power and pelf! Choosing a messenger is no longer a Divine prerogative, God Forbid!!
Consider the
magnificent Divine Will of our times: Hazrat Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of
Mauritius, a great ambassador of Islam,
and a follower of the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of
Qadian, has been raised with sublime spiritual titles such as Muhyiuddin, Mujaddid and Khalifatullah-
to bring about reform in the morals of the people. As an
Ahmadi recipient of Divine revelations and holy visions and pious dreams over
the last 23 years, Hazrat Saheb (aba) has been calling attention to the need
for reforms within the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, especially the need for justice-orientation
and for fighting corruption and malpractices within and outside. And yet,
deceitful persons who hover around the Nizam-e-Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya conspired to engineer his
expulsion from the system. Instead of embracing a great blessing of God
Almighty in this era, they ended up courting the rejection of God as their
fate. Indeed, if Ahmadis are to receive Divine mercy and grace in this era,
they ought to wholeheartedly reject this doctrinal corruption on the question
of Mujaddidiyat being perpetuated by the institutional authority of
the present-day Caliphs in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya.
The Holy Qur’an emphatically affirms God’s true measure. According to the Qur’an, ‘God chooses messengers from among the angels and from among men.’ (22:76) ‘God knows best where to place His messages’ (6:125) Community leaders have no right to doubt His choice of messengers, nor can they question Divine decisions in this regard on the basis of weak or inadequate social standing; indeed, they will be questioned by God about what they were doing when God's chosen messengers came to them. ‘He cannot be called to account for anything He does, whereas they will be called to account.’ (21: 24)
In encouraging Ahmadis to reject every
claim of spiritual status espoused by an Ahmadi recipient of Divine revelations, or an Ahmadi Mujaddid or a Prophet in the new era only on the basis that the claimant does
not have the social standing of an assembly-elected ‘Khalifatul Massih’ in the
Nizam-e-Jamaat; the present Caliph is deceiving or misleading people on true spiritual doctrine. ‘They seek to deceive
God and the believers but they only deceive themselves, though they do not
realize it.’ (2:10)
‘Some of the People of the Book would dearly love to lead you [believers] astray, but they only lead themselves astray, though they do not realize it. People of the Book, why do you deny God’s revelations when you can see they are true? People of the Book, why do you mix truth with falsehood? Why do you hide the truth when you recognize it?’ (3: 70- 72)