August 2012

Editors:

Shahid Aziz

Mustaq Ali Contents: Page

Call of the Messiah 1

Ahmadiyya Movement and Others 2

Women Companions (r) 4

Justice 6

Ramadan 8

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Call of the Messiah

Agnostics’ Argument Refuted

The agnostic, obviously, finds a foothold to stand

against this presumptive evidence in the fact

that observational glance on the universe af-

fords no positive proof of the actual existence of

its Creator; it mere-

ly indicates that

one ought to be,

which makes the

case doubtful and

dubious in the eyes

of the unbelieving

agnostic. Reason

and Science, it

should be clearly

understood, point

to the need of His

existence and prove

not the actual existence itself; and there is in-

deed a vast difference between the need of the

existence of a thing and its actual, positive exis-

tence. The man who thinks that the knowledge

pertaining to the Most High God is restricted

and confined to the observation of nature has

no indisputable argument to prove and profess

that God exists as a matter of fact. His knowl-

edge takes him not beyond the line of ought to

be, provided, of course, he falls not into the lap

of atheism.

This was the reason that those of the an-

cient thinkers who clung to and drew their in-

ferences from presumptive arguments commit-

ted many a blunder, and landed the world in a

labyrinth of doubts and difficulties. Many of

them died as unbelieving atheists and incredu-

lous naturalists, and the paper boat of their

philosophy and science could not carry them

safely to the shore; for, on the one side, they

had been obsessed with the love of this world,

and, on the other side, they knew not for cer-

tain what was to befall them in the Hereafter,

and so they departed from this world in a state

of utter restlessness and disquietude of the

mind, having been cut off and snipped asunder

from that certainty which comes from realiza-

tion. Their own con-

fession is that their

knowledge with re-

gard to the Creator of

this universe and the

affairs relating to the

Great Beyond is based

on presumption and

probability, and not on

certainty and unques-

tionably established

truth. Whatever the

philosophers thought

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2012

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August 2012

with regard to a thing or matter, that it should

be so and in such a manner, thereafter they took

it for granted that it was as opined by them and

based their inferences thereon.

It was on such a shaky and conjectural foun-

dation that the philosophers of old based their

reasoning and thought. To have a real, living

faith in the existence of the real, living God

never fell to their lot; and the highest point of

knowledge reached by their wisdom and phi-

losophy was that there seemed to be a need for

the existence of a Creator. And the truth of the

matter is that, like false and faithless people,

they were caught in the quagmire of their own

doubts and misgivings, and could not set their

foot on the right path, Some of them denied the

Most High God as the All-Wise and the All-

Designing Creator. Some said that matter and

soul, being co-existent with God, were, like

brothers, on a par with the Divine Being, and the

Arya Samajists of the present age are their suc-

cessors in this queer belief. Some did not accept

the doctrine of the immortality of the human

soul nor believed in the Day of Resurrection and

Judgment. Some of them said that Time, like

God, was the Everlasting and Eternal Effect.

Some affixed sacrifices to idols and prostrated

before artificial gods. And many well-known

philosophers denied outright the very existence

of the Supreme Being; and there was none

among them who could be free from and unaf-

fected by these false and pernicious notions.

(Barahin-i Ahmadiyya, vol. 2)

Attitude of the Ahmadiyya

Movement Towards Other

Sects and Communities and

Towards Government

by Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ali,

the Second Head of the Ahmadiyya

Community

As the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at-i-Islam,

La hore, is carrying on its work of the defence

and propagation of Islam in different countries,

and its members are now met with in most of

the countries where there is a Muslim popula-

tion and its mission work is carried on either

through such members or by establishing regu-

lar missions, and as the community and its mis-

sionaries are sometimes misrepresented and

occasionally misunderstood, I have thought it

necessary to add a few words to clear up our

position and to explain our attitude towards

other communities and sects with whom we

come in contact and towards the governments

under which we live.

Our relations with the followers of other

religions are most peaceful, as we accept the

religious teachers of all nations as holy men who

were raised by God for the moral and spiritual

regeneration of those nations. This is in accor-

dance with the plain teachings of the Quran,

which says, “There is not a nation but a warner

has appeared in it” (35:24). It is true that the

names of all the prophets are not mentioned in

the Holy Quran, as it says, “And We did send

apostles before thee: there are some of them

that We have mentioned to thee, and there are

others whom We have not mentioned” (40:78).

The Holy Quran being so plain that warners

were sent to every nation, every Muslim must

respect the great religious founders of every

nation, such as Zoroaster in Persia, Rama,

A Mosque, Dubai

August 2012

3

la ilaha ill-Allah Muhammad-ur-Rasul-Ullah enters

into the fold of Islam, and no one has the right to

expel from the great Islamic brotherhood any per-

son who is admitted into it under the authority of

God and His Prophet. The strength of Islam lies in

its union, and union between the different sects

can only be brought about if they learn to respect

each other's leaders and tolerate differences of

opinion within the fold of Islam.

The third point I wish to impress here is the

attitude of our community towards the Govern-

ment of

the coun-

try in

which our

members

live. As

our aim

and object

is to re-

move the

misrepre-

sentations

that pre-

v a i l

a g a i n s t

Islam and

to invite

men to

accept the

great Islamic truths which bring about peace and

contentment of mind and establish the brother-

hood of man, we do not interfere with political af-

fairs of the Government under which we live. We

do not minimize the importance of political strug-

gles in the world, but as a body we keep aloof from

political struggles so that we may be able to con-

centrate all our attention on the great religious

object we have in view. As a natural sequence of

this attitude our members must be loyal to the

Government established by law in any country.

They must be loyal to the Muslim Government if

they happen to be in a country where the Muslims

rule, and they must be loyal to a non-Muslim Gov-

ernment if they are living under a non-Muslim

rule. They obey the laws of the State in which they

happen to be, and keep aloof from all agitations

against that Government. They are loyal to the

Krishna and Buddha in India, Tao and Confucius in

China, as the prophets of those nations, besides the

prophets whose names are expressly mentioned in

the Holy Quran, such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus,

etc. This broad Quranic teaching, which the

Ahmadiyya community has particularly empha-

sized lays down the basis of peace and brother-

hood among the various nations of the world.

Next to this I take our relations with the differ-

ent sects of Islam. We equally revere all the com-

panions of the Holy Prophet, all the saints that

have ap-

peared in

I s l a m

and all

the Mu-

j a d d i d s

that have

b e e n

raised in

the dif-

f e r e n t

centuries

of Hijra

for the

r e g e n -

e r a t i o n

of the

M u s l i m

people. We

look upon the different sects of Islam not as sects

in the real sense of the word, but as so many

schools of thought, as they are all at one so far as

the essentials of religion are concerned. The big-

gest division of Islam is into Sunni and Shia, yet

even the Sunni and the Shia do not differ in the

essentials of religion; their basic difference is as to

whether Abu Bakr or Ali was the rightful successor

of the Holy Prophet, which is more a difference of a

political nature than a religious one. We hold Abu

Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali in equal reverence, as

they all did immense service to the cause of Islam

and led simple lives of saints while sitting on the

throne of one of the greatest empires of the world.

We honour the Sunni saints as well as the Shia

Imams. Further, we deem it the gravest sin on the

part of any Muslim to call his brother Muslim a

kafir, as every one who subscribes to the formula

Sheikh Zaid Mosque, Abu Dhabi

4

August 2012

Arab Government if they are in Arabia, to the

Turkish Government if they are in Turkey, to the

Persian Government if they are in Persia, to the

Afghan Government if they are in Afghanistan, to

the Egyptian Government if they are in Egypt, to

the Italian Government if they are in Italy, to the

French Government if they are in France, to the

German Government if they are in Germany, to

the American Government if they are in Amer-

ica, and to the British Government if they are in

British Territory. But our loyalty and obedience

to any government, whether Muslim or non-

Muslim, is subject to one condition only – la

taata li makhluqin fi ma siyat-Illah, i.e., “No

obedience is due to any creature when it in-

volves disobedience to God.” In India where we

have our headquarters and where there are

more members of our community than in any

other country, we are loyal to the British Gov-

ernment, and while fully sympathising with the

national move-

ment, keep aloof

from the political

agitation that is

going on here, and

concentrate our

whole attention on

religious propa-

ganda. It is this

fact, which is mis-

represented by

some enemies of

our movement, and

our community is

reviled as though

we were the agents

of this or that Gov-

ernment. We are

loyal to the Govern-

ment under which

we live, we obey its

laws, but we are

not the agents of

any Government;

we are not uphold-

ers of the cause of

any worldly Gov-

ernment. We are the

upholders of the cause of God and His Apostle

only, the upholders of the cause of Islam and its

sacred book, the upholders of the cause of the

great Islamic brotherhood, which is spread

throughout the whole world.

Women Companions of the

Prophet Mohammad (s):

Al-Rubayyi’

A Visit to the Bride

(from Nur i Islam, Canada, July 2012)

Imagine a bride receiving the head of the state

or the king who knocks at her door the morning

after her wedding night to offer his congratula-

tions. I suppose she will feel over the moon on

receiving such an honour. Yet Al-Rubayyi’ re-

ceived a far more

honourable visitor,

the Prophet, peace

be on him, himself

who came in and

sat with her people.

She reports: “Allah’s

Messenger came to

visit us the morn-

ing after my wed-

ding, and he sat on

this couch as you

are sitting now. We

had a few maids

who were playing

the tambourine and

chanting praises of

my relatives who

were martyrs in the

Battle of Badr. He

listened to their

singing until one of

them said: ‘Among

us is a prophet who

knows what will

happen tomorrow’.

He said to her: ‘Do

not say this. Go back A Mosque, Putra, Malaysia

August 2012

5

to what you were saying earlier.’” (Al-Tirmidhi)

Perhaps we should explain here that the

Prophet did not object to the maids singing,

playing the tambourine, or extolling the praises

of Al-Rubayyi’s father and uncle. He only ob-

jected when the

maid attributed to

him something

that belongs to

Allah only, which is

knowledge of the

future.

Who was Al-

Rubayyi’ then, and

why would the

Prophet pay her

such a visit? She

was the daughter

of Mu’awwidh ibn

Afraa, a man from

the Ansar who,

with his brother,

mortally wounded

Abu Jahl during

the Battle of Badr

and he could no

longer stand on his

feet. He then was

killed by Abdullah

ibn Massoud. Both

brothers were then

killed in the battle.

Perhaps because of

this, the Prophet

wanted to reassure

her that he would

continue to be her guardian. She must have felt

elated by the Prophet’s visit, as it signified an

honour any bride would dearly love to have. In-

deed the Prophet continued to visit her. She

might offer him a meal and he would willingly

eat with her family. He accepted her gifts and

was generous to her. She once brought the

Prophet a plate of dates and a plate of grapes.

The Prophet accepted her gift and gave her a

piece of jewellery telling her to wear it. On one

of his visits, he told her to pour water for him to

do his ablution. She did and reported a Hadith

describing how he performed his ablution, men-

tioning that he washed every part three times.

Al-Rubayyi’ followed in her father’s foot-

steps. She joined the Prophet’s army whenever

there was a campaign of Jihad. Her role, like the

women who joined

the army, was to

give support, nurs-

ing the wounded

and giving the sol-

diers water to

drink. She reports:

“We used to join

the Prophet on his

expeditions, to give

water to the fight-

ers, serve them, at-

tend to the wounded

and send them and

the dead back to Ma-

dinah.” (Al-Bukhari)

Al-Rubayyi’ was

keen to learn from

the Prophet what-

ever she could. She

reported no less

than 21 Hadiths;

some of them are

related by Al-

Bukhari and Mus-

lim while the oth-

ers are reported in

other authentic

anthologies of

Hadith.

Few of the Prophet’s

companions gave us detailed description of him.

Among these were Ali ibn Abi Talib and Umm

Maabad at whose tent the Prophet stopped on

his journey when he migrated to Madinah. They

would mostly give a general description. Both

Abu Bakr and Umar describe him as the full

moon giving light. A man asked Al-Rubayyi’ to

describe the Prophet. She could only give a gen-

eral description. She said: “Son, were you to see

him, you would have almost seen the sun in its

full splendour.”

Al-Rubayyi’ died in year 37, during the reign

Char Minar, Hyderabad, India

6

August 2012

of Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with

them).

Justice

by Shahid Aziz

(Friday Khutba, 25th January 2008)

“These are the messages of Allah which We

recite to thee with truth. And Allah desires no in-

justice to (His) creatures.” (3:108)

“Surely Allah commands you to make over

trusts to those worthy of them, and that when you

judge between people, you judge with justice.

Surely Allah admonishes you with what is excel-

lent. Surely Allah is ever Hearing, Seeing.” (4:58)

“O you who believe, be maintainers of justice,

bearers of witness for Allah, even though it be

against your own selves or (your) parents or near

relatives – whether he be rich or poor, Allah has a

better right over them both. So follow not (your)

low desires, lest you deviate. And if you distort or

turn away from truth, surely Allah is ever Aware of

what you do.” (4:135)

“O you who believe, be upright for Allah, bear-

ers of witness with justice; and let not hatred of a

people incite you not to act equitably. Be just; that

is nearer to observance of duty. And keep your duty

to Allah. Surely Allah is Aware of what you

do.” (5:8)

In these verses Allah has emphasised the quality

of justice. Hazrat Ali is reported to have said that

a nation can survive everything except injustice.

Makki Masjid, Hyderabad, India

One of the oldest mosques in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India – a listed heritage building in

the old city of Hyderabad. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty,

commissioned bricks to be made from the soil brought from Makkah. The whole mosque

is constructed from these bricks.

August 2012

7

It is also said, though historical evidence for this is

to be seen as yet, that during the darkest days of

World War II, Churchill said that so long as British

courts hand down just decisions there is no danger

of Britain losing the War.

Justice falls into two categories: first, the justice

we see being done in the courts of law, and the

other is the just

distribution of the

resources of a

country. As for the

first, we have

many examples. It

is said that when

the Holy Prophet

(s) punished the

daughter of a

prominent and

influential leader,

people interceded

on her behalf, say-

ing that if his de-

cision was en-

forced, Muslims

will lose the sup-

port of this impor-

tant tribe – to

which the Holy

Prophet responded by saying that even if it had

been his own daughter his decision would have

been the same; for if we believe that Allah is the

source of our strength, then we should not be con-

cerned with losing the support of people of this

world when we do the right thing.

Look at 4:135, where Allah specifically warns

us against bearing false witness for our near and

dear, especially if they are rich or influential. It is

our natural inclination to try and help our relatives,

but if they are rich there is a special temptation,

because we may need their help or favour if we are

in trouble.

5:8 lays down another great principle, which is

that a Muslim is always to do justice even if it in-

volves people that he hates. We see examples of this

in non-Muslims, but not among our own brothers.

When a false accusation of attempted assassination

was made against the Promised Messiah it was a

Christian magistrate who exonerated him. Simi-

larly, when our beliefs were discussed, Christian

judges declared them to be in line with Islam,

but our own brothers displayed no spirit re-

quired of them by this verse.

There is also the example of Hazrat Umar. A

Jew accused him of borrowing money and not

returning it.

Hazrat Umar at

the time was

the Khalifa and

Head of State,

yet he was

called to court

of the local Qazi

or magistrate to

answer the

charge. Hazrat

Umar appeared

before the Qazi

without com-

plaint and ex-

plained that he

had repaid

the loan. On

being asked

to provide

evidence he could only put forward his own son

as a witness. But the Qazi refused to accept the evi-

dence of someone as great as Hazrat Umar’s son in

favour of his father. The Qazi gave a decision in the

Jew’s favour. Is there such an example in the

Muslim world today?

What wonderful words did Hazrat Abu Bakr

speak on becoming the Khalifa: “If I obey Allah

and His Prophet, support me, but if I go against

their commands stop me.” He added that the

weak living under him are strong because they

have his support and strength, and the strong

are weak because he will not let the strong

usurp the rights of the weak.

This also leads to the concept of justice en-

shrined in equitable distribution of resources.

But this is not to be restricted to government or

official action only. We can do justice to our fam-

ily, to our neighbours, to our colleagues and as-

sistants. All of this is embodied in the Islamic

The Quranic verse “taught with the pen” calligraphed

in the shape of a pen

8

August 2012

concept of jus-

tice. Is it just that

we go to bed with

our stomach full,

but our neigh-

bour, whatever

his religion, col-

our or creed, go

to bed hungry?

It is doing of

justice which

leads to building

of a nation and to

success. We do

not need rules or

laws to do justice

to our family, neighbours and colleagues. We do

not need rules to bear true witness, and I am

proud that I have personal experience of mem-

bers of this jamaat bearing true witness against

their own children.

Ramadaan

The Muslim month of fasting called Ramadaan

starts on July 21st, 2012 C.E. and the ‘Id celebra-

tions which mark its end will take place on

Sun day, 19th August, 2012 C.E.

Because Islam is a rational religion and does

not require blind faith, Allah gives us the rea-

sons in the Holy Quran for enjoining fasting

upon the human race – “so that you may guard

against evil”, it says. Fasting is for our own good

because it helps us keep away from evil and sin.

More than this, fasting, like all other Islamic

in stitutions is meant to remove the superiority

humans feel because of material possession. It

levels that difference between them. When one

cannot eat, regardless of whether one is rich or

poor, there is no value in possessing riches and

wealth. Islam

wants to teach

humans the les-

son that what

matters is the

richness of the

soul and not the

richness of the

wallet. Material

possessions are

only outward

signs of what you

are. Remove them

and see what you

are really like. For

when you fast you

are required to be even more kind, considerate and

polite than you may be otherwise. If you do not do

so then you are not fasting in the Islamic sense, you

are just going hungry.

Fasting also makes a person realise how it feels

not to have food or water. When one sees images of

the hungry and the thirsty on TV, one is moved by

their plight. People donate their hard-earned

money to help those in such dire circumstances.

How much greater will be the impact on a person if

he could identify with the hunger and the thirst

that these people are feeling! Fasting is to teach a

Muslim that he is on the side of the poor, the needy

and those in difficulties.

But fasting is not a new institution. The Holy

Quran tells us: “O you who believe, fasting is pre-

scribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before

you…. So whoever does good spontaneously, it is bet-

ter for them; and that you fast is better for you if you

know.” (2:183–184)

We invite all of you to come to us and see

and hear for yourself that Islam stands for “I

Shall Love All Mankind”.

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (UK)

The first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission

Dar- us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ

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