Faith and Fellowship in Rodrigues

All my Rodriguan brothers and sisters who are present here, Assalamoualaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakaatuhu. I wish to first of all thank you for your presence, and today verily is a historical date: 07 November 2014. We are performing our Friday Sermon in Oyster Bay here in Rodrigues.

And like you all know, my stay here in Rodrigues is for the purpose of seeking a place and also for the construction of our Mosque. And by the grace of Allah, a place has been found, and the construction of the mosque is in progress, but there is also the fact that our opponents of the different religions and from the different sects in Islam are putting obstacles in our works, creating problems so that the construction work of our Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam mosque here in Rodrigues is stopped. It is unfortunate that after doing the necessities for the construction the authorities then reacted differently. It is unfortunate that despite our arrival in Rodrigues, with all the procedures done with the authorities so that we may go forward with the construction project of the mosque and our Mission House here, and to make our Jamaat function and also to have our centre, whereby our brothers and sisters can have a good place for them to perform their Jummah, their programmes and prayers in congregation regularly (therefore there are problems cropping up because of the plans of our opponents).

Another thing I have noticed. When I came here the last time, that is, some months back, I saw the enthusiasm, with the new members etc. But this time around, with this humble self’s presence in Rodrigues, I understood what evil strategies our opponents are using to stop us from propagating the unicity of Allah, to stop our progress. They are making their best in this direction. Therefore those new members who were still weak in faith, whose faith had not had an opportunity to be reinforced in the correct way – and that is why also we need a centre so that someone does this work, to give spiritual education to our members – therefore, the scheming people have seized these opportunities (to brainwash the new members) and unfortunately there are among them people who have left the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam. We have to be frank (reveal the truth). By the reports that we received they have come to know what kind of bad works the opposition have made to influence those people who had left the Jamaat. I need to stress that I am not talking of only one group of people, but this is the work of many who have participated to remove these people from the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam, and we can say also from Islam altogether.

Decadence in Rodrigues society

Therefore, when I analyse all that has transpired in Rodrigues (everything has changed). I used to know Rodrigues well, how its inhabitants were nice, and used to love listening to religious speeches. It was in 1993 that I came to Rodrigues for the first time, and this continued till the year 2000. Rodrigues was a very quiet place (island). There used to be no fear to stay here. You could leave the house peacefully, leave the door open and nobody would enter to steal. We did not also hear about crimes and violence.

A visit to Rodrigues: Thabligh Diary

At the heart of the Indian Ocean, at latitude 19°43’ S and longitude 63°25’ E, Rodrigues Island stretches over a surface area of 108 km², some 650 km to the north-east of Mauritius. It is the part of Africa that is closest to Australia. Born from volcanic activity between 1.3 and 1.5 million years ago, the island – 18 km long, 8 km wide – is the smallest of the Mascarene archipelago.

Rodrigues is a mountainous island with a succession of valleys plunging to the 300 km² lagoon. Its population is now around 39,500 people, the majority of them are Christians and they work as fishermen, traders and craftsmen. Rodrigues Island is till date a dependency of Mauritius, though Mauritius has given it an autonomy whereby some decisions are taken in the Regional Assembly of Rodrigues.

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, the Messenger of Allah arrived in Rodrigues in the morning of Saturday 09 August 2014. As in his habit, losing no time, the Khalifatullah (atba) after briefly refreshing himself launched into Jamaat works. A special meeting was held with the members of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam, in view of the Jamaat projects planned and also concerning the activities of the Jamaat during the stay of Huzur (atba) in Rodrigues.

Do not fight with God and His Messenger

Allah (swt) has several beautiful names. These are the attributes that He possesses. I shall mention briefly two of these attributes: Al-Khafidh, which means the One who humiliates and, Ar-Rafi, the One who elevates. Almighty Allah has the capacity to degrade/humiliate someone or to elevate him, raising him in position. It is Almighty Allah who has the power to degrade someone by dishonouring him and to elevate him and making him honourable.

Man is ever changing. He does not stay the same. There is a time when he is young, courageous and solid, and after the passage of time, he becomes unrecognizable. You may see that his courage has disappeared and he has lost his charm. In the past people used to need him and rush to him, and now nobody knows that he exists. Dreams become reality and reality becomes a thing of the past. Therefore, there is the high and low in life, and all this is found in the hand of Allah the Almighty.

Do you know who you are? All the noises/publicity/boasting that you are making… you can be a Minister, Prime Minister or a King. You can be whatever you want to be, but do you know that you are a slave? All the bossing around that you do, but verily you shall always remain a slave. You shall live like a slave and die as a slave. You shall never succeed in liberating yourself from that slavery. What remains to be known is what kind of slave are you! If you are not a slave for ALLAH, then you must be in a way or another, a slave of another thing/person. You can become slave of your passions, desires and vices. Then, if you have to be a slave, why do you become a slave for another slave? Why do you become a slave who makes you become the worst of slaves? 

Khalifatullah Visits Rodrigues Island

With the objective of spreading the message of Islam and to attend the meeting with his disciples and other truth seekers and well-wishers, the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) visited the Rodrigues Islands (located in the heart of the Indian Ocean) last week, May 20-24, 2013. The visit assumes importance as the island has a special significance in the history of the Divine Manifestation in Mauritius. Years before the Divine call and the descent of Divine revelations entrusting him with the larger mandate of revival of Islam Din in this era, Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) used to preach in the Island, calling people to the truth of the Promised Massih Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as). In his Friday Sermon of May 24, 2013 made brief remarks in which he touched upon the contemporary context of his visit within the wider backdrop of the persecution/evil plots he has had to endure from the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya in the last decade as a consequence of his Divine mission.

Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:

“It is a pleasure for me today to address my Rodrigues brothers and sisters. Today is the salaam is extended from Rodrigues to all nearby islands – Mauritius, Reunion Island, Mayotte, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar – Kerala, Trinidad & Tobago, Japan and other countries in the world where we have our members, to all I extend my “Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakaatuhu” (greeting peace, grace & blessings of Allah be upon you all).