Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Divine Favour of Ahmadiyya Khilafat


The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community takes pride in the Khilafat system which they have instituted among themselves. They elect their Khalifa from among themselves once a vacancy arises within the leadership. Both literally and in fact, that is the practice. Yet, Ahmadi leaders delude themselves to believe that they did not elect their Khalifa and that the electoral process in the International Majlis Shuura, is simply and merely a method for the implementation of the Divine Will, as their minds conceive it. And the Ahmadiyya theology would have us believe that the Khalifa or the man-elected-man enjoys the shadow of Divine favour and protection. 


With such theological technologies at hand, the leadership practices sophistry with élan: common folks in the Jamaat have been hoodwinked into vain desires of Divine nearness by their leaders for too long. Yet when you question Ahmadis about the Divine connection of their Khalifa, honest among them will admit: they have no sure knowledge on it, and they are merely following conjectures within the Jamaat and they never applied their reasoning power on their beliefs. It is instructive for Ahmadis to remember the admonition of the Holy Qur’an which provides a simple method to test the veracity of claims: And they say, ‘None shall enter Heaven unless he be a Jew or a Christian.’ These are their vain desires. Say, ‘Produce your proof, if you truthful.’ [Surah Al Baqarah, 2:112].

Unfortunately for the Jamaat –e- Ahmadiyya, the deep waters of Divine favour seem to have been dried up in our times. The present Khalifa Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Sahib seems to have been deprived of the great and august blessing of Divine revelations. There is damning evidence that corroborates the assertion that Masroor Sahib does seem to have been stripped of this great Divine favour: for he completes almost a decade on the high seat of Khalifa, without ever presenting a Divine Message.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Heavenly Signs of Hadhrat Ahmad (as)


One of the most important beliefs among the Muslims is the appearance of Al Imam Al Mahdi in the Latter Days. The grand prophecies of the Holy Prophet of Islam (sa) regarding the appearance of his substitute in the Latter Days also point to the sign of solar and lunar eclipses. The appearance of the Divinely-ordained soul took place at the appointed time and the signs of celestial events also fulfilled as foretold in the holy traditions. Allah the Most High kept his side of the bargain. Yet, the world in general and the contemporary theologians in particular, rejected him. 

In his Friday Sermon of 22 March 2013, Hadhrat Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius reflects on the personal background of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian who was raised to the august spiritual office of Al Imam Al Mahdi by Allah the Most High, against the backdrop of the decline of the fortunes of Muslims in India and their capacity to articulate Islam’s spiritual appeal in general. In his speech, the Khalifatullah (atba) bears witness to the sublime truth of Hadhrat Ahmad (as) and further, confirms that his own Divine Mission in this era is inextricably intertwined with the Divine Mission of the Promised Massih (as) in the previous era.

Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:

The year 1835 holds a proud place in the human calendar. During that year a child was born in Qadian, an obscure village in northern India. For generations his ancestors had ruled with distinction over the region around Qadian. Prior to his arrival even Islam fell in decline and lost much of its glory. The child who was born was not ordinary. He was intended to bring about a great revolution not only in the realm of the spirit, but also well into the realm of matter. He was born on 13 February 1835 and was named Ghulam Ahmad by his parents and later became famous under the name of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. He was appointed by God as the Messiah and Mahdi.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Interpreting the Prophecy on Musleh Maoud


In a special speech delivered on the occasion of the Musleh Maoud Day on February 20, 2013 Hadhrat Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius paid glowing tributes to the grand prophecy revealed to the Promised Massih Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) regarding the birth of an auspicious, blessed, fortunate son who would be a servant of Islam. Extolling the literal and physical fulfilment of that great prophecy in the time of the second Khalifa of the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya, Hadhrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad (ra), the Chosen Messenger of Allah of our times points to the contemporary relevance of this prophecy.

A revelation of Allah can be realised in many ways and in different eras also. Just as there was the physical fulfilment of this prophecy in the previous period, the metaphoric and spiritual fulfilment of the prophecy takes place in this era on 20 February 2004, when Allah the Most High raised Hadhrat Khalifatullah with the title: Musleh Maoud”.  Further, drawing upon the principles of interpretation of numerical values familiar to the great, mystical saints of Islam, Hadhrat Sahib provides an interesting explanation regarding the fulfilment of the prophecy in this era on his august personhood, Alhamdulillah.

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:    

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Questioning the Violence Against Women


“And when people are brought together,
And when the girl-child buried alive is questioned about,
‘For what crime was she killed?’
And when books are spread abroad,”

              -The Holy Qur’an [Ch: 81, v. 8-11]

The great Qur’anic prophecies regarding the Signs of the Latter Days certainly seem to have come to fruition in our age. A question to ponder: When the signs are apparent and obvious, wouldn’t Allah raise His Messenger as well? As the Qur’an tells us: “There are lessons for those endowed with reasoning”.

Reflective and discerning individuals would be awestruck by the stunning, literal fulfilment of Divine prophecies in our times. Consider this: the single most important fact of our times is the unprecedented and extraordinary phenomena of globalization. The great prophecy of the Holy Qur’an “when people are brought together” is magnificently fulfilled, literally in our times, in several, different ways thanks to the explosion in communication technologies and transportation mechanisms. Likewise, no age before ours has witnessed the transnational exchange of books and ideas as much as we do today: in the age of Internet, the virtual world of cyberspace fosters an information revolution of unimaginable proportions.

It is also of particular interest to note that in our times, at a time when even in Muslim societies, the equality of legal protection offered by Islam to women had been subverted by the misogynist, traditional interpretations, the assertion of women’s dignity and rights, identity and choices have begun to gain legitimacy and recognition in the public sphere. In any case, no age before ours has witnessed as much concern for the protection and dignity and rights of women and girls as much as our own age. 

Meeting on the heels of high profile violence cases against women in India and elsewhere that fuelled global outrage and rising demands for justice, the 57th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, March 04- 15, 2013, adopted a forward-looking Agreed Conclusions. The document strongly emphasizes that violence against women is a human rights violation and calls special attention to the need for women’s and girls’ safety in public spaces, and for attitudinal changes through challenging gender stereotypes. It highlights the need to strengthen legal and policy frameworks, with important provisions on ending impunity, and ensuring accountability and access to justice, as well as addressing domestic violence. 

Reproduced below is extracts from a Speech delivered on March 08, 2013- International Women’s Day- by the distinguished Executive Director of UN Women, Madame Michelle Bachelet on “Gender-Motivated Killings of Women, Including Femicide”: