‘Jesus is in the Third Heaven’

Religious beliefs sometimes have a tendency to challenge common sense. Thus, the Christians hold the belief that the founder of their religion, i.e., Jesus, Son of Mary is the literal ‘Son of God’. Likewise, defying gravity, logic of reason and experience of history, sections of the Muslims continue to hold the belief that the Prophet Jesus (as) is still ‘alive’, two millennium after his birth and they say that he would physically descend in our times among the Muslims as their Imam!

     

No doubt, in the Muslim spiritual tradition, Jesus (as) is one of the great messengers of the Almighty, celebrated along with Hadhrat Muhammad (sa). However, the ‘belief’ on or the myth of, a physically alive Jesus crept into Islam/among the Muslims in the medieval period when the influx of Christians into Islam led to a mixing of ‘cultures’ and the dogmas of the Christians found their way into, replacing the traditional Muslim understanding on the matter, shaped by the Qur’an and taught by the Holy Prophet of Islam (sa). In a special Sermon delivered on September 07, 2013 the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius throws searching light on the physical death of Jesus (as), as emerging from the express Qur’anic verses and the opinions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) on the matter.    

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:

Allah says in the Holy Qur'an:

Fa lammaa tawaffay tanii kunta ‘Antar-Raqiiba ‘alayhim: wa ‘Anta ‘alaa kulli shay-‘in Shahiid.

But when You cause me to die, You were the Guardian over them, and You are, over all things, Witness. (Al-Maida 5: 118)

Death and life are not alike. If God has given us life, He also decreed death for us, humans, and all living creatures that He has placed in the universe. And verily, in death, there is life and in life, there is death.

A 'Khalifatullah' among Ahmadis

In his Friday Sermon of 06 September 2013, Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius provides an illuminating commentary on the continuity of Divine guidance in Islam in the Later Days. 

The great prophecies regarding the Second Manifestation of the Holy Prophet of Islam (sa) appearing among the “Aakhariin” have been fulfilled at one level with the appearance of the Promised Massih/Khalifatullah Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian in the last century. Till the appearance of a Divine Elect as a Khalifatullah who shall speak with the help of the Rooh-ul-Qudus, Ahmadis have been advised by the Promised Massih (as) (in Al Wassiyat) to remain united under an elected leadership and accordingly, the Khilafat-e- Ahmadiyya was established. Now that in the new century of Islam, Allah (twa) has raised His own Khalifa in the person of Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius, there is no scope for a man-elected Khalifa to play a spiritual role. Instead of propagating 'Khatame Massih Maoud' to continue with the mundane Khilafat system within and thereby  commanding Allah to do as per their liking, the scholars and members of the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya would do well to introspect, show spiritual humility and follow the new Divine Messenger.  

Read the extracts from the Friday Sermon:

“And He will raise him from among others of them who have not yet joined the first (ones). He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (62: 4) 

To add to what has been mentioned in this verse of the Holy Quran on the appearance of a Khalifatullah, the Messiah of the last days, and the one who shall in fact symbolize the Spiritual Second Manifestation of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) among the “Aakhariin” this verse of the Holy Quran is indeed very revealing: He regulates the affair from the heaven to the earth; then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand years of those which you count.” (32: 6)

According to this verse, Islam shall go through a dark period that would last a thousand years, after a first period of progress and prosperity. This first glory would last three hundred years, according to the traditions. Indeed the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “My century is best. Then it will be the century of those who come after my companions (the Tabi’in) then it will be one of those who will come after Tabeïnes (the Tabi-Tabi’in).”

The Case against War on Syria

The US President, Barak H. Obama, is currently seeking domestic Congressional endorsement and international political support to legitimate his decision to invade Syria. The US war against Syria has the strategic support of Israel, which shares the goal of containing Iran and the Hizb-Allah of Lebanon, which are viewed as the last threat to Israel’s national security interests in the wider Middle East. As Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria come under external attacks one after the other, the unfolding humanitarian disaster it represents for the common Muslim peoples is a matter of grave concern. The recent reports about the usage of chemical weapons in the on-going Syrian civil war provide the perfect pretext for the planned invasion. The unilateral intervention, without sufficient approval from the broader international community and the UN Security Council in particular, will be a naked violation of the rules and principles of international law. In the name of protecting the people, the US military intervention will only repeat the tragic history of destruction of the very edifice of yet another Muslim society.  

Ambassador Kanwal Sibal, India’s former Foreign Secretary and a distinguished scholar of international affairs, in his article “Two-faced in West Asia”, published in The Hindu (New Delhi), September 4, 2013, comments upon the US case for intervening in Syria as “legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow”. For the benefit of our readers, we reproduce the article below:

President Barack Obama’s case for intervening in Syria is legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow

A Message to All Seekers of Truth

Whenever a Divine Messenger is raised in the world, it represents a spiritual test for all believers. To re-examine the validity of one’s father’s traditions and other inherited notions of belief systems requires a full commitment to be aware of the larger truth of the Divine reality. A matching humility of the heart to accept and follow the narrow and straight path of the Divine as one finds it is also necessary. Likewise, a courageous spirit to face the world with one’s innate conscience and the confidence of one’s convictions rooted in the sublime feeling of being mindful of Allah (twa) in all of one’s deeds constitute the identity of the new believer. Thus, to accept a Divine Reformer in a new era often means to put Allah (twa) and His judgement over all our ‘comfort zones’ of family and friends, relatives and brothers in faith. To be on the vanguard of creating a new world by following the Divine servant requires one to believe that Divine guidance is true guidance.  

Muslims, including the Ahmadis, today face this challenge of spirituality as Allah (twa) has raised His Messenger in the personhood of the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius in the new century of Islam. It is for them to shun the arrogance of intellectualism and the hubris of special claims of Divine privileges and to adjust their spiritual doctrines and theological understandings to match step with the times of a Divine Messenger. In August 2013, some members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Kerala followed their innermost spiritual convictions and accepted the new Mujaddid of the era, leaving aside their previous association with the man-elected Khilafat system in the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya.

In a special Message issued on the occasion of the new Bai’ats on Saturday, August 10, 2013 the Khalifatullah (atba) reflects upon the empirical conditions in the Jamaat-e- Ahmadiyya that has necessitated the raising of a Divine Reformer as per Sunnat Allah (Divine practice) and also on the trials and rewards that await those who follow true Divine Guidance.   

Read the Special Message Below: