Serious misconceptions exist among Ahmadis today about the spiritual status and authority of their 'Khalifatul Massih'. Through an incremental process of theological engineering in institutional practices over a century of its existence, the Nizam-e-Jamaat manufactured a special spiritual 'aura' around its assembly-elected leader. The institutional role and administrative authority of the office of the Khalifatul Massih has been calibrated into an 'infallible' league of its own, almost as an equivalent of an Elect of God. Today, the carefully-crafted image of 'a leader who enjoys the shadow of Divine protection' has been conferred upon the Caliph by his own sect and as such the title of 'Khalifatul Massih' holds special significance in the mind-space and religious imagination of the folks within. So much so that most members of the Jamaat today swear by a notion that 'Ahmadiyya Khilafat' is the unchanging institutional order of Islam till the Day of Judgement (Qiyamah).
Friday, September 14, 2018
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Living Islam: Importance of 'Duah'
Invocations
(Duah)
in Islam
“Seek
ways to get closer to Him.”
(Al-Ma'ida, 5: 36).
“O
Allah, You are forgiving and You love to forgive, so (please) forgive
me.” Ameen.
The
duah is an
imploration, a prayer, a request, a supplication that we, the Muslim
Ummah,
address to Allah (swt) to satisfy our needs, to grant us His
blessings, to forgive our sins, to help us overcome our difficulties,
to solve our problems, to correct our faults, to find (and tread
upon) the right path, to enlighten our hearts to make the difference
between good and evil, to find the true path and inner peace and to
draw closer to Him.
The
duah is
the favourite weapon of all prophets and true believers so as to
carry out the difficult tasks assigned to them and to endure the
ordeals they have often suffered and shall continue to suffer. That
is to say, just like there were the prophets of Allah and the pious
people who had to go through all kinds of ordeals in the past and
they used to invoke Allah to help them, likewise, presently and in
the future also, there shall be such elects of Allah and the pious
people who shall also seek the help of Allah in all their ordeals
through prayer (duahs). Through various verses of the Holy Quran, we learn how the prophets
(Hazrat) Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Ayub, Zakariah and other messengers made
duahs,
especially during the difficult moments of their lives.
And the Holy Book teaches us how the Seal of the Prophets Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) strongly urged believers to seek the help of Allah (swt) in all circumstances. So much so that to start any particular job/ task you have to do a very easy duah, saying: “Bismillah”. The duah is the best way to have a healthy, perfect, agreeable relationship between man and his Creator, as well as his rooting in the notion of faith, since even the prophets who represent the peak of humanity as to their closeness to Allah (swt) and their connection to Him always resorted to duahs.
We
must in no case neglect this act of worship, this great and best
worship of Allah (swt) – after Salat
and Quran reading. For if you meditate of its importance, you shall
find that in Salat
(prayer), it is mostly Quranic verses and duahs
which are recited. It is duahs
which embellish our Salat.
The Holy Prophet (pbuh) was right and he made it clear about duah:
“Duah (Supplication) is the essence of
worship.” (Tirmidhi).
Monday, September 3, 2018
Patience in Adversity
Patience,
Perseverance and Endurance
To
succeed in establishing in his soul beautiful qualities, such as
patience, perseverance, endurance, the Muslim must absolutely resort
to various verses of the Holy Quran and explicit Hadiths on the
subject. Certainly the Holy Quran gives us clear examples that make
us think, to boost us to take this path and succeed. Without
patience, perseverance and endurance, the believer will not succeed
in opening himself spiritually to the understanding of religion - in
this case, Islam - and the essence of faith in itself.
Our
Lord, Allah (swt) tells us in the Holy Qur’an:
“Give
good tidings to the patient, those who, when disaster strikes them,
say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.’
Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy.
And it is those who are the [rightly] guided.”
(Al-Baqara 2 : 156-158).
“O
you who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such
perseverance; strengthen each other; and fear Allah; that you may
prosper.” (Al-Imran 3 : 201).
“We
will surely give those who were patient their reward according to the
best of what they used to do.” (An-Nahl, 16 : 97).
“Bear
anything that happens to you steadfastly, for this is firmness (of
purpose) in (the conduct of) affairs.” (Luqman, 31 :
18).
“And
We made from among them leaders guiding by Our command when they were
patient and [when] they were certain of Our signs.”
(Al-Sajda 32 : 25).
“The
patient will be given their reward without account.”
(Az-Zumar, 39 : 11).
These
are some blessed verses from the Holy Qur’an that God the Exalted
has sent down to humanity for all times. They show that where
patience and endurance prevail, success is a sure cure. To these two
elements forming the character of man, we must certainly add faith
and piety as a whole. It is then that the divine blessing falls. For
Allah (swt) reminds the Ummah
through the Qur’anic verses of the value of patience and endurance.
Indeed,
among the virtues that constitute the adornment of a Muslim, there is
patience and endurance. These two elements, adopted with conviction
help to combat the harm of others for the sake of Allah. Patience is
simply the constraint of the soul to accept what is repugnant to it
and to endure with impassivity, with constancy the evil that reaches
it.
In
times of trials, Muslims and especially my disciples of the Jamaat Ul
Sahih Al Islam must restrain themselves and persevere in the
accomplishment of good deeds and become models of virtues. You must
not be alarmed or irritated or angry. On the contrary, you must have
complete trust in Allah. Remember that the difficulties you are
experiencing are only trials that you must overcome for the sake of
Allah. These are tests, exams that God makes you undergo to bring out
your true value and your true faith.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
A Poem on ‘Taubah’
On
Repentance and Returning to Allah
The
time has come for me to see after the darkness of ignorance
My
old age is a morning that calls me to its dawning rays
The
night of youth is short, so proceed deliberately
The
morning is the end of the road for the night traveler.
How
have I been deceived by the world and its adornment,
Building
my home on the crumbling ground, at the edge of a precipice?
A
home whose transgressions remain, but whose delights perish:
How
wretched is such a home!
The
happy one is not one who is delighted by his worldly trinkets;
Rather,
the happy one is the one saved from the torment of Hell.
I
have awakened from wickedness, fearful and trembling,
For
Allah knows my deeds, open and secret.
If
I hold my sins to be grave and they fill me with despair,
I
can only hope that they will be eradicated,
By
the One who alone can do so…
The
All Forgiving.
---(Written
by Hadhrat Abul Hasan Abdul Aziz al-Jurjani (ra). Translated from the
Arabic by Zaid Shakir)
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