The Light of 'Taqwah'

 

'O believers! Fear Allah and speak correctly. He will improve what you do and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Prophet will indeed achieve a great victory.' (Surah Al-Ahzab, 33: 71-72)

 

The essence of Taqwah (awe-inspiring reverence for Allah/ fear of Allah) lies in total conformity to all divine commandments. This involves doing all that is prescribed and avoiding all that is forbidden or disapproved. It is understandable that this is a very difficult task for people. Therefore, by following the fundamental directive of “Fear Allah and speak correctly,” Allah gives the instruction that all who claim to believe in Allah and His Prophet must speak correctly, meaning they must speak good words, words that correct and improve their own speech or conversation with people.

 

Good words transform hearts. Allah has prescribed in the Quran that while there are specific laws for believers and limits they must not exceed, respecting the barriers that Allah has set for them through Taqwah, Allah has given His Prophet superiority concerning the laws He has prescribed, which are reserved only for him (the Prophet – whether it be the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), but also all prophets who will arise within his Ummah and to whom the Quran’s instructions will apply). Allah says: “Fear Allah and speak correctly.” Do not take the Prophet as an ordinary person like all of you. If Allah gives him certain permissions that He has not given to other believers, then the believers must submit to the divine will and not speak words that could cause their faith to vanish.

'Hegira' Lessons in a New Era

 

Towards the Construction of a New Life 

Today the mantra on the lips of the authorities and a section of the population of the world is: “It is imperative to be vaccinated.” But, the question arises: Where to find the vaccines? 

Rich or influential countries like Israel, have already reached rates of over 60%, or are getting there quickly, because they obtained them before the others, particularly the vaccines which are, according to them, the most effective. Some are starting to inoculate [i.e. vaccinate] those who are less at risk, such as their teenagers and even their [small] children. At the same time, in Africa, where less than 2% of the vaccine doses produced against COVID-19 is administered, even medical personnel do not have the opportunity to be vaccinated.

Less effective vaccines are for the poor because the powerful pharmaceutical companies do not want to share their patents and allow countries, like India or South Africa, to manufacture them en masse at a lower cost for their neighbours and for themselves. Forbes magazine has several hundred new billionaires, especially more than 40 enriched thanks to COVID-19, including those at the head of vaccine production, such as Moderna and BioNTech. Now imagine if tomorrow there is the requirement of other additional doses or even new vaccines every year!

The Importance of Prayer- II

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, Allah (swt) has given me this opportunity to continue my sermon on the Importance of Prayer. So, it is said in the Holy Quran: “O God, give us in this world that which will help us hereafter also, and save us from the suffering of hell.” 

So, your daily duty is to pray to God. This is your real work. Never ponder whether or not your prayer has been heard in the Court of God. That is His prerogative. Our prayers should be in harmony with the will of God, and we should feel happy in whatever He wills. 

To pray effectively, it is necessary that we should conduct our life as desired by the Master, and that we should experience happiness in the remembrance of God Almighty.

'Seek Refuge in God from All Evils'

 Holy Qur'an, Ch. 113- Surah Al-Falaq : A Commentary

1. In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

2. Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of the Dawn, 3. From the evil of that which He created; 4. From the mischief of Darkness as it overspreads; 5. And from the evil of those who spit on the knots, (i.e., perform malignant witchcraft).

6. And from the evil of the envious when he envies.

This chapter (surah) was revealed at Mecca at the beginning of Islam and it gives us an antidote, a solution to fight against the works of the satans (i.e. evil works), superstition, and fear; for it teaches us to seek refuge in Allah against all kinds of evils which may exist on earth, visible or invisible. One example is the plots which people can make to harm others. Thus this surah is also a remedy against the envy and jealousy of other people.

It is Allah Who drives away all obscurity/ darkness when He sends His light, and it is Him Who gives life to people and make them feel that they are truly alive, be it physically and spiritually also, after having gone through a spiritual death. Life and death forms part of a cycle which is in the control of Allah, in the Hands of Allah. It is Allah Who has the capacity to annul all satanic works, and all fears which people use to make you fearful, and this materialises when He sends His spiritual light. Man needs to repel his fear and put his complete trust in Allah. No harm shall befall him when he is found in the protection of Allah, and when he has Allah with him, as his Mighty Help, then no Satan can ever deviate him with its falsehoods to make him and other people become fearful and to lose their trust in Allah.

This surah is a duah (prayer/ supplication) addressed to Allah to ask Him for His help and protection against the evil/ wickedness of ignorant people and those who plot to harm others with their tongues, hands, scheming and backbiting. Man need to seek divine help and protection against jealous hearts because a jealous heart is indeed very dangerous. Why? Because jealousy is found therein and this jealousy eats away that heart little by little and makes it become dark. It works silently as a harmful device to strike physically or morally at that jealous person.

‘Qadian is Dead’, says Fourth Khalifa

Qadian- seat of the Promised Massih (as)

Qadian’s spiritual significance lies in the fact that it was once inhabited by a servant of God- a human soul deeply immersed in the Divine waters. Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), whom the Ahmadi Muslims consider as the Promised Massih and Imam Mahdi of the Later Days, lived there in the last century. For the followers of the ‘Promised Massih’, Qadian is thus a sacred space where much of the events pertaining to the life and spiritual experiences and Divine revelations and Signs of God associated with the holy founder of the community originally took place. 

Moreover, the social history of Ahmadiyya community in the last century also evolved from Qadian, including the famous institutionalization of a system of successor-ship in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya known as the “Khilafat” in May 1908, following the death of the Promised Massih (as). 

Likewise, the intellectual tensions associated with the interpretational differences over doctrinal matters leading to the Great Split in the community also evolved and took shape in Qadian in the aftermath of the death of the founder and later, after the first caliph Hazrat Maulvi Hakkim Nooruddin Saheb (ra), leading to the separation of a segment of the Community based out of Lahore under the leadership of Hazrat Maulvi Muhammad Ali Saheb. However, the majority of Ahmadis at that point of time showed preference to work with the second caliph, Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad Saheb (ra) (1914-1965) who went on to preside over the community over half a century, at a critical stage in the fortunes of the community's organizational framework. 

The many forms of Divine revelation

The Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) has said:

Out of many forms of revelation which God has disclosed to me, one is that when God desires to disclose some hidden matter to His servant, He causes to flow from his tongue some phrases in a slight slumber, sometimes gently and sometimes harshly. 

Those phrases that flow harshly from the tongue fall upon the tongue as hardly as hails falls suddenly upon a hard piece of ground, or as the hooves of a fast running steed strike the earth. 

Such a revelation arrives with speed and is so awe-inspiring that the whole body is affected thereby and the tongue runs with it so fast and in such a majestic voice as if it is not one’s own tongue. The slight slumber disappears altogether when the revelation is completed and during the time it is received one lies motionless like a corpse.

The second type of revelation, which on account of its many wonders I call perfect revelation, is that when God Almighty desires to inform a servant of a hidden matter after his supplication or on His own, He imposes a faintness upon him, whereby he becomes completely lost to himself and sinks in that faintness like a person who dives in deep water and disappears in it; then when he emerges from this diving he feels a sort of echo inside himself, and when that echo ceases he feels from inside himself words that are appropriate and fine and delicious. This diving in the faintness is a wonderful experience which cannot be adequately described in words. In this condition a whole ocean of understanding is opened for a person.

The third form of revelation is communicated to one’s heart in a gentle manner. A phrase passes through the heart which does not comprehend all the wonders in perfection that are a characteristic of the revelation that we have just described. It is not necessarily preceded by any faintness or slumber. It can be received in complete wakefulness. It is felt as if someone has breathed those words into the heart or has thrown them at the heart. One might be partially awake or might be completely awake and one suddenly feels that new words have entered one’s breast. Sometimes, immediately on entering the heart, the words manifest their forceful light and one becomes aware that these words are being conveyed by God.

Miracles and the Light of Faith

In continuation to last Friday’s sermon, the condition of the world itself demands the advent of a prophet. For, where can be find today the light and the faith of which we read in connection with the prophets? Who can show the signs and miracles which men were wont to witness at the hands of the prophets and their companions? We find a great deal written in the books of each religion, but where can be find the practical proof of it? Where is the gift of prophecy which the companions of Moses possessed? Where are the signs which the disciples of Jesus were wont to show? The books of every religion talk of a living God, but is that living God living today also? Does He still maintain with His servants the relation which Jehovah was wont to maintain with the followers of Moses or the Heavenly Father with the disciples of Jesus, or Allah with the Muslims?

If not, what reason can be assigned for this change? And, has this change occurred in God, or in man? We find that, in order to avoid having to face this question and to admit that this change has occurred, the contents of the revealed books of different religions are sought to be explained away, and meanings are assigned to passages which the words are incapable of bearing.

It may be permissible to us to say that God spoke to His servants in this or that manner, or spoke to His servants in this or that way, or that His relations with His servants were of this or that kind, but it is not open to us to assert that God has never talked to man in a manner which should exclude all possibility of doubt or misgiving nor is it open to us to say that God never showed any miracles to demonstrate conclusively the truth of a particular religion or of a particular prophet. We may be permitted to assert that the relationship which existed between God and His servants in the past was of a nature different from that ordinarily understood or accepted, but after a perusal of the scriptures of different religions we cannot honestly assert that God has never dealt with His servants in manner from which the world could judge that a Living God exists who displays his Might and Mercy for those He loves.