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Books
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> Shaping the Spiritual Personality of an Ahmadi
by Imam Kalamazad Mohammed
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Shaping
the Spiritual Personality of an Ahmadi:
Kalamazad
Mohammed, BA, Dip. Ed.
Imam, Fireburn/Uquire Masjid
(Speech
delivered at the Conference Promoting Ahmadiyyat in
the Region on 30 August 2003.)
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Dedication:
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To our Ameer
Sahib, Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha, whose
avowed aim is to instil in the hearts of his
Community members, especially the young, the
burning desire to colour themselves with the Ahmadi
colours and to spread the moral, intellectual and
spiritual beauties of Ahmadiyyat throughout the
world.
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Foreword:
The Muslim Literary Trust of
Trinidad and Tobago hosted a two-day conference on
30th and 31st August 2003 at the
Fireburn/Uquire Masjid, Trinidad. The theme was
Promoting Ahmadiyyat in the Region, and
delegates from Guyana and Suriname, and a representative
from the Central Anjuman, attended and participated in the
discussions.
Eight papers on four topics were
presented and the following was the one put forward by our
Brother Kalamazad Mohammed on the topic Shaping the
Spiritual Personality of an Ahmadi.
It is fittingly dedicated to our dear
Ameer Sahib, Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha, for it is
his stated objective to give impetus to the worldwide
propagation of the beauties and excellences of Ahmadi
teachings.
We hope and pray that this booklet
will serve to inspire the hearts not only of Ahmadis but all
those who read it with an open and unprejudiced
mind.
Enayat Mohammed
Chairman
(In
the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.)
Shaping
the Spiritual Personality of an Ahmadi
Kalamazad
Mohammed, BA,
Dip. Ed.
Imam, Fireburn/Uquire Masjid
(Speech delivered at the
Conference Promoting Ahmadiyyat in the Region on 30
August 2003.)
The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement
in Islam, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib, has written that
when Allah sends a chosen servant for the reformation of
mankind He provides him with:
1. Arguments to support him
in his mission to propagate and defend the true
religion.
In Zarurat-ul Imam (The Need
for an Imam of the Age) he made the point that no opponent
can defeat a commissioned one in a philosophical
argument.
2. He is furnished by Allah
with heavenly signs in his support and he himself
provides signs of his own through Allah’s grace as
well as prophecies.
3. He comes in the nick of time or
at the time of greatest need when sin and misguidance
have reached their zenith and darkness is at its
blackest.
He explains thus: "When the world has
attained the highest stage of material advancement, the days
of heavenly help are not far, for the former serves as a
magnet for heavenly attraction just as heat attracts rain
and the deepest darkness attracts light despite their mutual
opposition. When both these attractions (material and
spiritual) are at full force, a great battle will ensue
until one is conquered."
4. To conquer the darkness of
rampant materialism, atheism, misguidance and absence of
the fear and love of God in the hearts of men, Allah,
Most High, endows His chosen reformer with a magnetic
spiritual personality in addition to arguments and signs
and thus enables him to win over not only the intellect
of men, but also the hearts of all noble truth-seeking
human beings wherever they may be found on earth.
Further, the Reformer’s task is to impart this
personality to his followers so that they, too, may carry
out the task long after the Imam has gone.
This paper is an impressionistic
attempt at explaining how the Founder charted the way for
his community to equip itself with a noble, spiritual
personality.
The first step in this direction is
embedded in ten conditions of the Bai‘at (pledge
of fealty) given below:
01. I declare in all
sincerity that from now till I am laid in the grave, I
will desist from associating anyone with Allah.
02. I will shun falsehood,
adultery, sensual gaze and all kinds of iniquity and
impiety and perfidy and sedition, disloyalty, and will
not submit to carnal passions under the most provocative
instigation.
03. I will regularly perform my
prayers five times in accordance with the injunctions of
Allah and the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him, and so far as possible, I will say the
Tahajjud Prayers (Voluntary Nightly Prayers), and
call for Blessings on the Holy Prophet, peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him (Darud), and seek
Allah’s forgiveness and will crave for His
mercy.
04. I will not inflict any injury
on people generally, and in particular on Muslims, under
any undue provocation by tongue or hand or in any other
manner.
05. I will ever remain faithful to
Allah under all circumstances whether in grief or
respite, or distress or prosperity, and will be always
content with Allah in calamity, and will be ready to bear
willingly any disgrace and affliction in His path, and
will not abandon Him on occurrence of any calamity, but
instead will move forward.
06. I will abstain from following
evil traditional customs, and indulging in
licentiousness. I will comply fully with the Quranic
injunctions, and will follow in every way, the
commandments of Allah and the Holy Prophet, peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him.
07. I will entirely shun arrogance,
haughtiness, and will spend my life in humility, and
meekness, politeness and gentleness in consonance with
the Quranic injunctions as contained in verse 63 of
Chapter al-Furqan: And the servants of the
Beneficent are they, who walk on the earth with
humility, and in verse 37 of Chapter Bani
Israel: And go not about in the land
exultingly.
08. I will hold the Faith, and the
honour of the Faith, and my sympathies with Islam, dearer
to me than my life, my honour, and my wealth and my
children, and, even more precious than everything dear to
me.
09. That I will be compassionate to
all mankind for Allah’s sake only, and as far as
possible, I will utilise my God-given energies to benefit
them with Allah’s favours.
10. I will maintain fraternal
relations with Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, exclusively for
Allah’s sake with the pledge of submission in the
right cause till my death, and in this fraternal kinship
will be so thoroughly steadfast as to be above all blood
relations and connections, and all worldly
positions.
Concomitant with the Pledge is the
central role of tauba or repentance, as the Founder
emphasises in the following two excerpts:
"The most important point in
the Bai‘at is tauba (repentance) which
means turning back. It indicates that condition in which
man is closely connected with sin, and it is as if sins
are the homeland and he is living in that habitation.
Tauba means that he is now leaving this homeland.
Turning back (ruju‘) means to adopt piety (to
become pious). Leaving one’s homeland is indeed a
hard thing to do, and it entails thousands of hardships.
When a man leaves his home, he feels it very much, then
how much more one must be feeling while leaving
one’s homeland. He leaves everything: his household
belongings, his streets and his neighbours and bazaars
and goes to another country. He does not come back to his
old homeland. This is tauba. When a man is a
sinner, his friends are different from those who are
going to be his friends when he adopts taqwa (fear
of God). The mystics have termed this change as
‘death’ or like a dry branch receiving life and
becoming green again" (Malfuzat I, p. 2).
"You must remember that this
Jama‘at has not been formed for the members
to increase their wealth and achieve success in worldly
affairs and that they should lead their lives in comfort.
A person who is hankering after these things is utterly
disliked by God. They should look at the lives of the
Companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). They did not like
to live forever. Instead, they were always prepared to
lay down their lives for Allah’s sake. The
bai‘at signifies selling one’s self.
When one has dedicated one’s life, why should one,
then, think and talk too much of this life? Anyone who
does that can be said to have initiated into this
Jama‘at as a matter of formality. He may be
expected to leave the Jama‘at at any time.
Only such a person can stay as a member who is desirous
of establishing his faith on a solid foundation. One
should study the life of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and his
Companions every day" (Malfuzat VIII, p.
185).
Over and over in his writings Mirza
Sahib has underscored the need for tazkiyya-e nafs,
that is, the purification of the inner-self of all filthy
and egoistic thoughts and desires for, without this
precondition, there can be no spiritual progress, however
exalted our intellectual powers may be. This he states
categorically in Malfuzat II:
"I do not want you when
taking the bai‘at
(pledge of fealty) to
repeat the words like a parrot. You can derive no benefit
from that. Instead, you should acquire the knowledge of
self-purification, for that is indeed the indispensable
prerequisite to progress. It was never my intention that
you should argue and quarrel over the death and life of
the Promised Messiah. That is a matter of small
importance and you should not remain stuck in it. That
was an error of belief, which I have corrected.
In fact, my work and my purpose go
very far beyond that controversy. What I really want
you to do is to perform a complete change within yourself
and transform yourself into a new personality. That
is why it is important for every one of you to understand
that secret and make such a reformation in yourself that
you can truly say: "I am a different person" (pp. 71-72).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, Speeches, Articles and Sermons, Vol. II, pp.
14-16.]
To rid ourselves of bad zann
(evil thoughts and feelings) about others, Mirza Sahib
has added to repentance the power of istighfar, but
firstly he exhorts us not to underrate the deadly, insidious
poison of thinking ill of others. He writes:
"I tell you truly that the
habit of thinking ill of others is a great affliction
which destroys a person’s faith, flings him far away
from truth and converts his friends into enemies. In
order to acquire the qualities of the righteous, it is
necessary that a person should altogether shun the habit
of thinking ill of others, and should he happen to fall
into that attitude concerning someone else, he should
seek forgiveness repeatedly and should supplicate God
Almighty that he may be safeguarded against such
sinfulness and the consequences that flow from it. This
habit should not be underrated. It is a dangerous
disease, which destroys a person very quickly. In short,
thinking ill of another ruins a person. It is written
that when those who are condemned to hell are brought
face to face with it, God Almighty would say to them: You
had become guilty of thinking ill of God"
(Malfuzat, vol. II, p. 356).
He then explains istighfar as
follows:
"The meaning of
istighfar is that no sin maybe committed openly
and the propensity towards evil may be suppressed. It is
true that in spite of being sinless the Prophets of God
also engaged in istighfar but their
istighfar was for the purpose of preventing future
lapses. But, for the common people, another dimension of
istighfar is that Allah may save them from the
repercussions of past crimes or sins and forgive them
their sins and protect them from future ones.
In any case, it is imperative for
man to be constantly engaged in istighfar. The
purpose of famines and other kinds of calamities that
descend on the earth is to remind people that they should
constantly make istighfar. But the meaning of the
word is not that one should repeat superficially
astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. In fact, because
it is an expression in a foreign language, Arabic, the
deeper meaning is hidden from people. Of course, the
Arabs are very cognizant of the various meanings of this
expression. But in our country, because Arabic is a
foreign tongue, may of the intricate realities of this
language are unknown to us.
There are many people who claim to
have made istighfar abundantly – that they
have read a hundred tasbihs (prayer of
glorification), or a thousand, but if you ask them the
purpose and meaning of istighfar, they may well
become dumbfounded. Man ought, with full sincerity and in
the depth of his heart, to ask forgiveness for the sins
and transgressions he committed in the past, that he may
not suffer punishment for them, and in the future, he
should, with genuine sincerity of heart, continuously
beseech Allah for His help in guiding him to do good
deeds and to save him from future
transgression.
Remember well that nothing is
achieved by mere words. Istighfar can be made in
your own language by asking Allah to efface your past
sins and protect you from future ones and to guide you to
do righteous deeds, for this is the essence of
istighfar. There is no need to repeat constantly,
like a parrot, astaghfirul-Lah, astaghfirul-Lah,
while your heart is untouched. Bear in mind that it is
only that prayer which is uttered with sincerity of heart
that reaches Allah, Most High. Therefore, you should make
abundant du‘a (supplication) to Allah in your
own tongue, for this makes an impression on the heart. If
there is enthusiasm in the heart and if this is shared by
the tongue, then that is a commendable thing. Without
participation of the heart, it is futile to make
du‘a with the tongue alone. Verily,
du‘as that issue from the heart are indeed
genuine.
If, before a calamity strikes, man
constantly makes sincere supplications to Allah, Most
High, and also engages in istighfar, then, through
the mercy and beneficence of Allah, that disaster is
averted. But when the disaster actually descends, it is
too late to be warded off. One should therefore always
make du‘a before the misfortune falls and one
should also immerse oneself in istighfar
beforehand. In this way, Allah protects a person in the
time of affliction.
My Jama‘at members
should display a distinctive feature in their lives. If
someone takes bai‘at (oath of fealty) and
goes away and yet shows no difference in his behaviour,
for example, he treats his wife in the same way as before
and so, too, his family and relations, then that cannot
be regarded as exemplary conduct. If, after having taken
the bai‘at, he still maintains the same bad
morals and behaviour, then what is the use of the
bai‘at? After having taken the
bai‘at he ought to present such an example of
probity that, not only his relatives, but strangers and
his neighbours, too, will proclaim for themselves that he
is not the same person he was in the past.
Remember well, too, that if you
purify your heart and do good deeds, you will certainly
cast fear in the hearts of others. Look at the
awe-inspiring personality of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
Once, the unbelievers were terribly afraid that he would
hurl imprecations on them, so they came together to him
and requested him not to curse them. A truthful person
certainly possesses a commanding personality. So, you
must purify yourselves thoroughly and do good deeds only
for the sake of Allah and you will be sure to exert a
powerful influence on others and put fear in their
hearts" (Malfuzat IX, pp. 372-374).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, Speeches, Articles and Sermons, pp.
14-16.]
In fact, Mirza Sahib goes much further
and says that he wants us to perform miracles. These he
calls akhlaqi mu‘jizat or moral miracles, and he
ends his explanation thus:
"Every person who gives up
evil morals and blameworthy habits and replaces them with
beautiful and virtuous habits is a miracle-worker. For
example, if he possesses a very harsh disposition and his
temper is easily aroused and he forsakes them for
forbearance and forgiveness or he exchanges miserliness
for generosity or adopts compassion in place of envy,
then, indeed he has wrought a miracle. And so, too, if he
relinquishes egoism and self-conceit for humility and
meekness, then, that, too, is a miraculous act. So, who
is there among you who does not cherish the ambition to
become a miracle-worker? I am sure that everybody will
like to do this in his life. So, without doubt, it will
go down as a perpetual and ever-living miracle if a man
should change his moral condition, for this is such a
miracle that is never destroyed but instead its influence
is spread far and wide.
A believer should become a miracle
worker in the eyes of God and of people, too. There have
been many drunkards and rakes who were unimpressed by any
extraordinary sign but who were forced to bow their heads
in acquiescence before a change in the moral conduct of
another person (who was like them). If you examine the
lives of many people, you will find that they accepted
the religion of truth only after having witnessed a
miraculous transformation in the moral conduct of someone
else" (Malfuzat I, pp. 141-142).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, Speeches, Articles and Sermons, Vol. I, pp.
6-7.]
To forge this personality, Mirza Sahib
has underlined the principal condition of putting Allah
first in our lives and loving the Holy Prophet (pbuh) more
than any human, together with the importance of salah
(formal prayer) and du‘a
(supplication) in moulding our personality.
In Kishti-Nuh (The Ark of
Noah), he encourages us to have a living faith in a living
God as the chief motivating factor of our body and
soul:
"In order to observe my
teachings in the proper manner, it is essential that one
should firmly believe that there is an All-Powerful,
All-Sustaining Supreme Being, that Creator of everything,
Changeless, Everlasting and Eternal. He does not beget,
nor was He begotten. He is Holy, so that there is no need
or occasion for Him to go on the Cross, nor suffer in any
way, nor be subject to death. He is such that although He
is far removed, He is still very near; and being very
near, He is still very far. Although He is One, and
absolutely unique, His manifestations are diverse and
multifarious. Whenever there occurs in man a
transformation, for the changed man He becomes a new God,
Who deals with him on the basis of a fresh manifestation.
In fact, the person witnesses a change in Allah in
proportion to the change in himself – not that there
occurs any change in Allah, He being Eternal, Changeless
and most perfect in Himself – but with every change
in man for the better, Allah also reveals Himself to him
in a fresh and clearer manifestation. With every
progressive effort on the part of man, Allah also shows
Himself with a higher and more powerful manifestation. He
displays an extraordinary manifestation of His power and
glory only when man shows an extraordinary change in
himself. This is the root and the essence of the marvels
and miracles witnessed at the hands of all servants of
Allah. Belief in this God with these powers is the most
essential condition of our Movement. Inculcate this
belief in your hearts and give to its implications and
requirements the first and topmost priority over all
considerations of self, over all comforts and
relationships. By means of actions in the field of your
daily life and with unflinching courage, show steadfast
loyalty in His way.
Others in this world do not give
Him preference over material means and the support they
hope to get from their friends and relations. But you
must give Him the first place so that in heaven you
should come to be reckoned as His people.
To show signs of grace is the
eternal way of Allah. But you can partake of this
blessing only when there remains no difference and no
distance between Him and you: only when all your wishes,
hopes and desires merge into His will; only when, at all
times, in success or failure, in hope or disappointment,
you remain in humble prostration at His door, so that He
should do with you what He may choose.
If you act like this, in you will
appear that God Who for a long time has kept His face
concealed from the world. Who is there among you, then,
who will act upon this teaching, seeking only His
pleasure, without the slightest sense of dissatisfaction
against the way His will works?
Even in distress you should put
your best foot forward, for this is the secret of your
success; and you should strive to the utmost limit of
your power to spread the idea of His uniqueness and unity
all over the earth" (pp. 1-2).
[Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad, The Ark of Noah, pp. 1-2.]
These words from Mirza Sahib bring to
mind the poetic expression of the English poet, William
Cowper, which deals with the same subject:
The Winter Morning
Walk:
Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste
His works. Admitted once to His embrace,
Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before:
Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart
Made pure shall relish, with divine delight,
Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.
Concerning the extreme love of and
obedience to the Holy Prophet (pbuh), which we must develop
if we are to advance in our spiritual life, he
writes:
"It would have not have been
possible for me to have attained this grace if I had not
followed the footsteps of my lord and master, the pride
of all the prophets, the bests of mankind, Muhammad, the
chosen one, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
Whatever I have achieved, I have achieved by following
him, and I know from verified and reliable experience
that no man can reach God and obtain a deeper
understanding of His ways without following that Prophet,
may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Now, let me
also make it known that the very first thing you are
rewarded with, after having completely submitted yourself
to the instructions and teachings of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh), is that you are granted a new heart
which is always rightly-inclined, that is to say, a heart
which has turned cold upon the love of this material
world, and instead it begins to yearn for an everlasting
heavenly pleasure. Having achieved this desire, this
heart is now fit to receive that perfect and purest love
– the love of God. Because of your complete
obedience to him all these blessings are bequeathed to
you as his spiritual heritage" (Haqiqat-ul Wahy,
pp. 64-65).
Muslims can never rise again as a
powerful world force unless we follow the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) with the same intensity as did the early Muslims.
Consider how poignantly Mirza Sahib makes this point in the
following couplet:
We became the best of nations
solely because of you, O, Most excellent of the
Prophets.
Only when we benefited from your spiritual advancements
did we march forward.
So great was his love for the Holy
Prophet that he fearlessly proclaimed to the world that if
to love the Holy Prophet was tantamount to being a kafir
(unbeliever), then he was the greatest of all kafirs
(unbelievers).
As regards salah, he
says:
"The essence of salah.
The next pillar (of Islam) is salah, the
scrupulous observance of which has been repeatedly
mentioned in the Holy Quran and, in addition, remember
that in the same Holy Quran, a curse has been placed on
those praying ones who are heedless of the nature of
salah, and are niggardly towards their brothers.
The truth is that salah is an entreaty to Allah
imploring Him to preserve us from all kinds of evils and
sins. Man is afflicted by pain and sorrow on being
separated from Allah and wishes to attain closeness to
Him through salah, by means of which he can enjoy
that peace and tranquillity which is a consequence of
salvation. But this desire cannot be achieved by man's
own ingenuity or goodness. Unless Allah summons, he
cannot approach. If He does not purify him, man cannot be
cleansed.
Innumerable people can testify to
the fact that many a time there arises in their minds a
powerful desire to rid themselves of a particular sin in
which they are enmeshed, yet they fail even after a
thousand attempts, and in spite of the persistent
pricking of their conscience, they still slide into
error. From this, it is clear that to purify a person of
sins is the work of Allah, Most High. Nothing can be
achieved through one's own power. However, it is also
true that one must strive after this goal.
In short, that inner self which is
filled with sins has fallen far from knowing Allah and
from coming near to Him and can be purified and brought
closer from afar only through the instrumentality of
salah. Through this medium, those evils are
expelled and in their place, pure feelings are generated
in the heart as the Holy Quran says: Except him who
repents and believes and does good deeds; for such Allah
changes their evil deeds to good ones. And Allah is ever
Forgiving, Merciful (25:70).
This is the secret behind the
saying that salah drives away vices or keeps one
away from evils and indecencies. Recite that which has
been revealed to thee of the Book and keep up prayer.
Surely prayer keeps (one) away from indecency and evil;
and certainly the remembrance of Allah is the greatest
(force). And Allah knows what you do
(29:45).
Again, what is salah? It is
a du'a accompanied by complete pain and
heart-burning, and so that is why it is called
salah, for with burning and pangs of separation
and pain, supplication is made that Allah may drive away
evil desires and low passions from our hearts and
engender in their stead His pure love as a sample of His
universal grace. In this regard, the word salah
constitutes strong proof that mere words and supplication
alone are not sufficient, but they must be accompanied by
heart-burning, weeping and pain. Allah, Most High, does
not listen to any du'a unless the petitioner
reaches the point of death. To make a du'a in the
proper way is a difficult thing and people are very
ignorant of the nature of it. Many people write me
letters complaining that at a certain time they made
du'a for a particular affair but it made no
difference. They thus begin to distrust Allah, Most High,
and sink into despondency and finally suffer destruction.
They do not know that if the requirements of du'a
are not fulfilled, that supplication of theirs can never
be efficacious.
One of the essentials of
supplication is that the heart should melt and the soul
should flow like water at the threshold of the Holy One,
and fear and distress should be generated in the heart,
and together with this, man should not be impatient or
hasty but should engage in supplication with perseverance
and constancy. Then it can be hoped that the du'a
will be accepted.
Salah is the highest degree
of du'a but it is a pity that people do not
appreciate the value of it, and consider it to just
consist of bowing and making prostration routinely and
repeating by rote a few sentences like a parrot,
regardless of whether they understand the meaning or
not.
Another regrettable development has
come into being, in that Muslims were already ignorant of
the true reality of salah and never paid much
attention to it. Now, on top of this, there have sprung
up many sects that have removed the requirements of
salah and substituted in its place a few
incantations and chants. Some are Noshahis, others are
Chistis, and some belong to this or to that religious
school. These people are waging an internal battle
against Islam and the commands of Allah and are breaking
the bounds of the Shari'ah and are establishing a
new Shari'ah. Please do remember that to us and to
every dispassionate seeker after truth, salah is
such a living blessing that there is no need for any
innovation. Whenever the Holy Prophet (pbuh) experienced
any difficulty or misfortune, he immediately resorted to
salah, and that is my own practice, too, and that
of all the righteous ones who have passed
away.
There is nothing greater than
salah to take a person to Allah. When man takes
the standing position (qiyam) in salah, he
assumes a posture of courtesy and submission. When a
servant stands before his master, he always stands with
folded arms.
Then in the bowing position
(ruku‘), he shows greater submission than
when standing, and prostration (sajdah) reflects
the uttermost limit of subservience. When man sinks into
the state of total self-effacement, he then falls down in
prostration. Woe to those foolish people and those
worshippers of this world's life who wish to make
amendments to salah and make objections to
ruku‘ (bowing) and sujud
(prostration). These are virtues of the highest degree.
The fact is that, until a man partakes of the experience
which takes salah to its fullness, he knows
nothing. But the man who has no faith in Allah cannot
have any faith in salah either.
Whatever I say is not mere
imitation (hearsay) or custom. Instead, I speak out of my
own experience. Furthermore, any person who performs
salah like this and tries it out himself, will see
for himself. Always keep this prescription in mind and
make use of it so that whenever any sorrow or calamity
strikes, immediately resort to salah, and whatever
the troubles and difficulties, disclose them fully to
Allah and make petition to Him, for He certainly does
exist and it is He Who extricates man from all kinds of
troubles and calamities. He hears the cry of the
supplicant and there is no helper except Him. Very
deficient in faith are those people who, when faced with
misfortunes, turn to lawyers and doctors or to others,
but leave no room at all for Allah. The true believer is
he who flees to Allah first of all.
This point, too, you ought to
remember, that if you pay no heed to Allah, and do not
look to Him, no harm can be done to His Person thereby
and He will not care for you as He, Himself says: Say:
My Lord will not care for you if you do not worship Him
with a sincere heart. Just as He is Beneficent and
Merciful, so too is He Self-sufficient, above all
needs (25:77)" (Malfuzat, vol. 9, pp.
108-113).
"The next quality of a
muttaqi (pious person) is that he upholds
salah. Here, by muttaqi is meant one who
performs salah in whatever way he can. That is,
sometimes this salah happens to "fall down" but he
sets it upright again. A muttaqi fears Allah all
the time and establishes prayer. But in this state there
arise many different kinds of distracting thoughts and
troubles which enter his mind and present an obstacle to
his concentration and "throw down" his salah.
Despite this pulling and tugging in his mind, he still
performs his prayer. Sometimes his salah "falls
down", but he sets it straight again and he remains in
this condition where, with repeated efforts, and proper
observance of prayer, he keeps it straight to such an
extent that Allah, Most High, bestows guidance on him by
actually speaking to him. And what is this guidance of
his? At that time, instead of setting upright the fallen
prayer, people reach the point where these struggles and
evil insinuations depart from their life and Allah, Most
High, by unseen means, confers upon them that rank
concerning which it is said that many men become so
perfect that salah to them is like food and it
brings them the pleasure and relish that a person in the
throes of a searing thirst receives when he drinks cold
water, for he drinks it eagerly and finds extreme
pleasure in quenching his thirst; or, just as if a person
who is suffering the burning pangs of hunger should get a
most delectable meal which brings extreme happiness to
him, so, too, in salah, that same feeling is born
and salah provides him with a kind of intoxication
in the absence of which he experiences great anxiety and
perturbation. But in fulfilling salah in the
proper manner his heart experiences particular joy and
coolness which is not the lot of every person, nor are
words adequate to describe this ecstasy. Man makes steady
progress and reaches the point where he contracts a
personal love for Allah and there is no necessity for him
to make his salah "upright" for it is already in
that condition and continues to be so all the time. A
natural transformation begins to take birth in him and to
such a man Allah's pleasure is his pleasure, too. Such a
change comes over man that his love for Allah becomes a
natural love in which there is no pretence nor hypocrisy.
Just as the animals find pleasure in their eating and
drinking and mating, so, too, does the believer find
delight in salah, but to an exceedingly greater
degree. Therefore, one must perform salah as best
as one can.
Salah is the root and
stairway of all advancement and for this reason it has
been said that "salah is the mi'raj of the
believer". In this religion, there have been hundreds and
thousands of saints and righteous ones, abdals and
qutbs. How do you think they achieved their
exalted status? It was by means of salah. Our Holy
Prophet (pbuh) himself said: "The coolness of my eyes is
in salah," and, in fact, when man attains this
station and rank, then salah provides the most
consummate pleasure for him, and that is the meaning of
our Holy Prophet's words.
Thus, after receiving deliverance
from the struggles of the ego, man attains a lofty
status" (Malfuzat, vol. 8, pp. 309-311).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, The Soul of Salah and Du'a in Islam, pp.
22-27.]
Furthermore, salah must not be
performed in a rapid, superficial and perfunctory manner but
must be performed with deep concentration and with weeping
of the eyes and the heart. As a matter of fact, salah
must become our life, as he illustrates in this explanation
of the verse: And those who keep a guard over their
prayers (23:9):
"The sixth spiritual stage is
mentioned in the verse, And those who keep a guard
over their prayers. That is, they stand in need of no
admonition or reminder. Instead, such is the strength of
their connection with Allah, Most High, and so personal
and innate to them is the remembrance of Allah, and so
much is it the source of their life and their
tranquillity that they guard and treasure every moment of
this remembrance. In fact, every second of their lives is
devoted to the remembrance of Allah and they try their
utmost not to be forgetful of Him even for the twinkling
of an eye.
It is, indeed, a fact that man will
try his best to guard and preserve continuously,
something upon which the very existence of his life
depends. Take the example of a traveller who has to
traverse a waterless desert and who has no hope of
getting food or water for hundreds of miles. Look at how
carefully he will guard whatever food and water he is
taking with him. He will consider his sustenance equal to
his life for he knows for sure that the loss of his
provisions will result in a swift death for
him.
Thus, similar to that traveller are
those believers who keep a close watch over their
salah (prayer). Even if they suffer a loss in
wealth or in honour, or sometimes feel that salah
(prayer) is a somewhat irksome task, yet they never
abandon it and are always in a state of great anguish
that their prayer may be wasted, and they even writhe as
if in the agonies of death for they do not want to be
separated from Allah even for a second.
In fact, they regard prayer and the
remembrance of Allah as the indispensable sustenance of
their lives. This condition comes into being only when
Allah loves them, for then a burning flame from His
personal love, which is like a ruh (spirit) for
the spiritual sustenance of man, descends on their hearts
and infuses them with another life and that spirit
suffuses the whole of their spiritual being with light
and power.
They then engage in the remembrance
of Allah without the slightest trace of show or pretence.
On the other hand, Allah, Who has made man's physical
life dependent on food and water, has made His
remembrance the nourishment of their spiritual life which
they love so much that they give precedence to this
sustenance over their physical food and water, and live
in constant fear of suffering any loss in it" (Supplement
to Barahin-e Ahmadiyyah).
In regard to du'a, Mirza Sahib
explains:
"Why the Quran begins and
ends with a du'a. Remember this point, that
the reason Allah, Most High, began the Holy Quran with a
du'a (supplication) and ended it with one is to
emphasise the fact that man is so weak that he can never
become pure without Allah's grace, and unless he receives
help and victory from Him, he can never advance in
righteousness. It is mentioned in a hadith that
everyone is dead except him to whom Allah gives life, and
all are astray except him to whom Allah gives guidance,
and all are blind except him to whom Allah gives
sight.
In short, it is an indisputable
fact that unless man receives the grace of Allah, the
yoke of the love of the world will always cling to his
neck. Only those whom Allah has blessed can achieve
deliverance from this. You must bear in mind that it is
du'a that initiates the fervour of Allah. However,
do not for a moment think that du'a is mere verbal
prattling for, indeed, du'a connotes the
undergoing of a kind of death and only after this can one
gain life.
Du'a possesses a magnetic
property which attracts to itself grace and fervour"
(Malfuzat, Vol. 10, p. 62).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, The Soul of Salah and Du'a in Islam, pp.
30-31.]
"The philosophy of du'a.
Behold a child, through hunger, becomes restless
and anxious and begins to scream and cry for milk and
automatically milk surges in the breasts of the mother.
Although the child does not even know the name
du'a, yet his screams are the means by which milk
is attracted. This experience is a universal one. Many
times it has been observed that mothers do not even feel
the presence of milk in their breasts and often there is
not any; yet, immediately upon the desperate scream of
the child reaching their ears, milk instantly begins to
flow as if there is a powerful connection between the
cries and the generation of milk.
I say with all sincerity that if we
display a similar helplessness before Allah, then it will
stimulate and draw His grace and mercy; and I affirm on
the basis of my own experience that Allah's grace and
mercy, which come through the acceptance of du'a,
I have felt being drawn towards me, and even more, I have
seen it, also. It is true that the modern-day
obscure-minded philosophers can neither feel nor see
this; but this truth cannot be abolished from the world,
especially as I am always ready to demonstrate the
certainty of the acceptance of du'a"
(Malfuzat, vol. 1, p.198).
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, The Soul of Salah and Du'a in Islam, pp.
31.]
In addition, he tells us that
du’a was his tool or his main weapon in his
fight for religious supremacy of Islam and exhorts us not to
let an hour of our life pass without making supplication to
the Almighty for du’a was the most potent force
in the universe, far more powerful than all the forces of
nature. In fact, he attributes the miracle of the
transformation of mankind to the supplication the Holy
Prophet made in the dead of night:
"A strange phenomenal event
took place in the deserts of Arabia, when hundreds of
thousands of the dead became alive within a few days, and
those who had been corrupted through generations took on
divine colour. The blind began to see, and the tongues of
the dumb began to flow with divine wisdom. Such a
revolution took place in the world that no eye had seen
and no ear had heard of before. Do you realise what this
was? All this was brought about by prayers during the
darkness of night of one who had been wholly lost in God.
This created such an uproar in the world and manifested
such wonders as seemed impossible at the hands of that
unlettered helpless person. O Allah! Send down blessings
and peace on him and on his followers in proportion to
his concern and suffering for the Muslim ummah
(the people of Islam), and shower upon him the light of
Thy mercy forever" (Barakat-ud Du’a, pp.
10-11).
A stellar quality with which to
decorate our star-studded personality that Mirza Sahib
emphasises repeatedly in his writings is an unbounded love
for the Holy Quran – a love that finds expression in
this poem of his:
The Quran points to God,
because it is the work of God. Without it, the orchard of
the spiritual knowledge is desolate.
The light which I find in this Book can never be found in
the thousands of suns.
This has purified my heart and soul. It stands as a
mirror to its own face.
The sadness which was found in my soul has disappeared.
The darkness which engulfed the hearts has all turned
into light.
The days of autumn have changed into the days of spring.
The fresh breeze has started blowing by the grace of the
Beloved. [Songs
of Islam, pp. 76-77.]
In A’ina-e Kamalat-e
Islam, he writes:
"It has been disclosed to me
that the garden of holiness is irrigated by the water of
the Quran, which is a surging ocean of the water of life.
He who drinks from it comes to life and brings others to
life."
When Muslims had fallen into error by
relegating the Holy Quran to a secondary position in
relationship to the Hadith, Mirza Sahib reaffirmed
the supremacy of the Holy Quran as the chief source of
guidance for Muslims (with the Sunnah and the
Hadith coming respectively second and third). He
writes in Kishti-Nuh:
"The foremost among these is
the Holy Quran, which sets forth the unity of Allah, His
grandeur and greatness and also decides all points in
dispute between the Jews and the Christians. Further, the
Quran forbids you to worship anything other then Allah
– neither man, nor beast, nor sun, nor moon, nor any
other heavenly body, nor material means, nor your own
selves. Therefore, beware! Do not take a single step in
opposition to anything contained in the Holy Book.
Indeed, I tell you truly that whosoever circumvents even
the least of the seven hundred commandments embodied in
the Holy Quran, closes the door of salvation upon
himself" (p. 16).
It is recorded that whenever he had an
important matter to answer he read the Holy Quran from
beginning to end in order to find all the verses that were
related to that subject and, in so doing, he must have read
the Holy Book from cover to cover at least ten thousand
times.
Allah, Most High, he said, revealed to
him that "all good lies in the Quran," and so he recommended
to his followers that whenever there was a group of Ahmadis,
the study of the Holy Quran should form a regular feature of
their religious training.
Another aspect of the beauteous
personality that Mirza Sahib wants us to cultivate is
steadfastness in the trials and tribulations we have to
encounter in our journey through the perilous pathways of
life. The following extract from the Teachings of
Islam elucidates:
"The highest degree of
perseverance is called forth when adversities encompass a
man all around, when he is threatened with loss of life,
property and honour in the Divine path, and whatever is
consoling or comforting him forsakes him so much so that
the Lord tries him even by closing the door of visions
and revelations for a time. It is when a man is
surrounded by these dreary sights and the last ray of
hope disappears that perseverance must be shown. Under
such ills and sufferings a man must show firmness, not
swerve from the line; hold on through fire and flood, be
willing to suffer every disgrace, wait for no succour or
support, nor even seek any good tidings from on High, and
in spite of his helplessness and the absence of all
comfort, he must stand up firmly, submitting himself to
the heavenly will without wringing his hands or beating
his breast. This is the true perseverance which reveals
the glorious face of God. It is this noble quality which
the apostles, the righteous and the faithful still
exhale. Referring to this, the Lord of the worlds directs
the believers to pray to Him in the words: Guide us on
the right path, the path of those (believers) upon
whom Thou hast bestowed (Thy) favours (1:6-7)."
[Kalamazad
Mohammed, Necessity and Benefits of Trials and
Tribulations, p. 22.]
This patient and cheerful acceptance
of the decrees of Allah will help us to develop what Mirza
Sahib regards as the chief characteristic of his followers:
the acceptance of abuse and persecution from our opponents
without replying in the same manner. Two quotations will
suffice to shed light on this attribute. The first comes
from one of his poems:
Pray for those who abuse you
and offer comfort to those who hurt you.
When you meet the haughty and proud, display
humility.
The other is taken from
Kishti-Nuh:
"Be kind and merciful to
humanity, for all are His creatures. Do not oppress them
with your tongue, or hands, or in any other way. Always
work for the good of mankind. Never unduly assert
yourselves with pride over others, even those who are
placed under you. Never use abusive language to anyone
even though he abuses you. Be humble in spirit, kind and
gently, and forgiving, sympathetic towards all and wish
them well so that you should be accepted.
There are many who pretend to be
kind, gentle and forgiving, but inside they are wolves.
There are many on the outside who look pure, but in their
hearts they are serpents; you cannot be accepted in the
presence of the Lord unless you are pure, both on the
outside and inside.
If you are big, have mercy and not
contempt on those who are small; if you are wise and well
versed in learning, serve the ignorant with words of
wisdom. Never desire to bring disgrace on their ignorance
by trying to show off your own learning. If you are rich,
instead of treating them with egoistic and scornful
pride, you should serve the poor.
Beware of the paths of destruction.
Fear the Lord, be righteous and do not worship the
creation of Allah. Turn wholly and solely to Him so that
you lose interest in this world. Become entirely His,
living wholly for His pleasure, for His sweet sake,
hating everything impure and sinful for, indeed, He is
the Holy One. Every morning should be a witness for you
that you spent the night in righteousness, and every
evening should be a witness for you that you went through
the day with the fear of Allah in your heart.
Do not fear the curses the world
may heap on you for they dissolve in the air like smoke
and they cannot turn day into night. What you should be
afraid of is the curse that comes from Allah, which
totally uproots from both the worlds those on whom it
falls" (pp. 2-3).
But to develop the above qualities is
not the work of a day, he reminds us. This is an undertaking
that calls for great resolution and discipline. Just as a
weight-lifter has to use dumbbells to increase his physical
strength, so, too, we need spiritual dumbbells to help us to
transcend the animal stages to the moral stage and then on
to the spiritual stage. This spiritual training
(riyazat) he explains in his book, The British
Government and Jihad. After elucidating the true origin
and meaning of jihad (struggle) in Islam, he charts a
course for his followers to pursue in their own jihad
against the base desires of the ego. He writes:
"At this point, I wish to
specially impress on my community members who believe in
me as the Promised Messiah that they should always keep
aloof from such despicable habits. God has sent me as the
Promised Messiah and has clothed me in the garb of the
Messiah, son of Mary. As a result, I am advising all my
followers to refrain from evil and to show true sympathy
to all mankind. They should cleanse their hearts of
hatred and malice for if they accomplish this feat they
will become like the angels.
Is that religion which does not
embody compassion for others not an impure and filthy one
and is that path which is strewn with the thorns of
selfishness and animosity not an abominable
one?
Therefore, whoever is with me
should eschew this condition. They should ask themselves
what they want from religion. Do they wish to be
oppressors at every turn? Certainly not! Religion should
serve the purpose of helping them to acquire that life
which lies in Allah and no one can gain that state of
life neither now nor in the future unless his inner self
is coloured with the colours of the Almighty. They must
show mercy to all for God’s sake so that mercy may
be shown to them. Let them come and I will point out to
them such a path that will make their light more
resplendent than all other lights. That path is the one
which bids them to renounce all kinds of base rancour and
jealousy and enjoins sympathy to all mankind and
self-effacement in God. Besides this, they should acquire
a high degree of purity for that is the way that leads to
nobility and the acceptance of supplications and the
descent of angels with assistance.
However, that task cannot be
accomplished in one day. They must continue to make
steady progress and learn a lesson from the washerman who
first puts the clothes in a kiln to boil and leaves it
there until the heat of the fire separates all the dirt
and impurity from the clothes. He gets up next morning
and goes to the river and beats it over and over on the
stones. Then the dirt, which had penetrated into the
fabric and had become as if part of it, under the heat of
the fire and the beating in the water from the
washerman’s arms, begins to be detached from the
clothes so much so that they become as white as they were
originally.
This is the method of purifying the
inner self of man whose complete salvation depends on
this cleansing of the heart. This is the point that
Allah, Most High, makes in the Holy Quran when He says:
Successful is the one who purifies it (91:9). In
other words, that soul which has been purified of all
kinds of dirt and filth has received
deliverance.
Behold! I have come to you people
with a directive that henceforth jihad with the
sword has come to an end but jihad for the
purification of your souls still remains. This injunction
is not from me but rather it is the will of God. Ponder
over those sayings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) found in
Sahih al-Bukhari in which reference is made
to the Promised Messiah stating that when he would make
his appearance he would put an end to wars. So I instruct
those who have entered my fold to refrain from
entertaining such false ideas concerning Jihad.
Instead, purify your hearts and increase your store of
human sympathy and become friends of the distressed.
Spread peace on earth for it is by this means that the
religion of Islam will gain ground. For just as God,
without the agency of normal means, has made use of all
the elements and all the matters on earth in order to
satisfy physical needs through new inventions of the age,
and the railways can be seen to outrun the horses, so,
too, in order to fulfil spiritual needs, He will not
resort to human power but will press the heavenly angels
into service.
Many signs from heaven will be
shown and there will be many flashes of light from which
many eyes will gain sight. Then, finally, people will
come to the realisation that all the human beings and
other objects they had taken as gods besides the One True
God were really false. So bear everything patiently for
God is more jealous than you of His Unity. Continue
making supplications that it may never come to pass that
you will be numbered among the disobedient.
O, my friends who are hungry and
thirsty for truth, hearken, for this is the day that was
promised since the beginning of time. God will not allow
these matters to continue for long, for just as you
observe that when a lamp is placed on a high minaret, its
light spreads far and wide, or, when lightning flashes
from on high every quarter becomes brighter, so, too,
will circumstances be in these days. For, in order to
fulfil His prophecy that the call of the Messiah will
flash throughout the world like lightning, or will light
up the four corners of the earth like a lamp on a lofty
minaret, God has created every essential means on
earth."
If we imbibe the above qualities and
colour ourselves with them, then it becomes easier for us to
forge a bond of love, understanding, compassion, tolerance,
forgiveness and unity amongst ourselves and so develop that
strength that is needed to fulfil our mission on earth. In
the following extract, Mirza Sahib gives us in detail the
salient qualities of brotherhood that we must
develop:
"The truth is that everybody
(in a jama‘at) is not at the same level of
development. Allah, Most High, has Himself described the
various classes of believers thus: So of them is he
who wrongs himself; and of them is he who takes a middle
course, and of them is he who is foremost in deeds of
goodness by Allah’s permission. That is the great
grace (35:32).
Secondly, it is also a fact that
the Companions themselves (as) also made slow and
gradual advancement both in their faith and in their
actions. It is recorded that when our Holy Prophet (pbuh)
went to Madinah he asked a companion for a piece of land
on which to build a masjid, whereupon the
companion made an excuse and said: "I need it for my own
use."
What a grievous sin that was –
that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) should request a piece of
land to build a masjid and this person, a disciple
to boot, should put his personal needs above those of the
religion! But it was that same companion who later on
willingly suffered martyrdom for the sake of
Allah.
Progress always takes place by slow
degrees. A person does something this year and in the
next year he adds to it. However, if there exists any
kind of evil thinking in our hearts, then we will be
acting like someone to whom there comes for help a sick
person who is beset by all kinds of illnesses, and after
giving him medicine for a day or two we turn him out
without paying the full attention that he deserves and so
no cure is effected
Our job is to make du‘a
for others night and day with humility, and to supplicate
Allah for their welfare. It is not fitting for a preacher
to take offence at the slightest thing and show
repugnance to people. At this stage these people are
deserving of mercy and Allah, Most High, is making
preparations for their reformation. Moreover, everyone is
not at the same spiritual level. Amongst the Companions
there were some who were close to the status of
prophethood and many at a lower level than that –
just as one finds pearls in the sea and corals, too, and
shells and other things like gold and various kinds of
creatures. The same obtains in a
jama‘at.
Jama‘at members should
make du‘a if they see a fault in a brother.
If they do not do so and instead talk about it and
circulate it, then they will be committing a sin. What
shortcoming is so great that it cannot be expunged?
Therefore we should always help our brother by making
du‘a for him.
Furthermore, we should not speak
ill of, nor backbite our fellow jama‘at
members. The Holy Quran instructs us thus: O you who
believe, avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in
some cases is a sin; and spy not nor let some of you
backbite others. Does one of you like to eat the flesh of
his dead brother? You abhor it! And keep your duty to
Allah, surely Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy),
Merciful (49:12).
When our Holy Prophet (pbuh) was
asked what constituted backbiting, he replied thus: "You
talk about your brother which he dislikes…if what
you say about him is true, still you would be backbiting
him, and if what you say about him is not true, you will
be slandering him" (Muslim).
We should realize that in a
jama‘at there are people of varying
temperaments and conditions. Some resemble people who are
now recovering from a strong bout of illness, whilst
others have acquired a bit of strength. Therefore, if
weakness is discerned in someone, then he should be given
good advice in private. If he does not heed it, then you
should make du‘a for him, and if these two
devices do not work, then he should be left to the will
of Allah, Most High.
One should not therefore be quick
to take offence at the faults of others, for we should
remember that among the ranks of the qutbs and
abdals there were many who had previously
committed wrong deeds like fornication and theft.
Therefore, we must not be too hasty to abandon a brother,
for if a person’s child is guilty of wrongdoing, he
tries all methods available to reform him. The same
treatment should be accorded a brother in
faith.
The Holy Quran has not taught us to
spread or publish abroad the defects of others. On the
contrary, it exhorts us thus: Exhort one another to
patience, and exhort one another to marhamah
(mercy) (90:17).
By marhamah is meant that if
one observes a blemish in someone, then offer him good
advice and make du‘a for him.
Du‘a has a very powerful effect and it is
regrettable that a person should observe the fault of a
brother and talk of it a hundred times without even once
making du‘a for him. One should speak of the
fault of another only after he has wept in supplication
for him for at least forty days.
How eloquently the poet Sa‘di
spoke when he observed that Allah, Most High, Who knows
everything, conceals our shortcomings from public view
but our neighbours who know nothing make a big hue and
cry over our alleged defects. One of the names of Allah
is As-Sattar – the One Who covers and hides
the weaknesses of His servants - and we should therefore
inculcate that quality of His in accordance with the
dictum of the Holy Prophet – "Colour yourselves with
the Divine colours."
It is not our intention that you
should become a protector or conniver of faults but what
is discouraged is that you should publish the defects of
your brothers and malign them in any way, for our Holy
Prophet (pbuh) has mentioned this as a sin.
Shaikh Sa‘di had two students
– one who was very brilliant in his exposition of
deep spiritual truths and insights whilst the other was
of an envious disposition. The former complained to the
shaikh that whenever he made a commentary on any
subject, his colleague would burn with envy. The
shaikh replied that one student had chosen the
road to Hell by his envy whilst the other had done the
same by ill-speaking his brother.
In short, there can never be a
jama‘at unless there exist mutual mercy,
compassion, du‘a and the habit of concealing
the faults of others" (Malfuzat VII, pp.
77-79).
In Tadhkiratush Shahadatain (A
Story of Two Martyrdoms), he warns us of allowing petty
differences to ruin our personality and our communal
solidarity and cut us off from spiritual
sustenance:
"How often I find that the
beginning and the end of many a person is not in harmony.
Owing to trivial reasons, some satanic insinuations, or
to evil influence of bad company, they fall away and cut
themselves asunder."
This feeling of brotherhood must not
be limited to our own community but must extend to all our
Muslim brothers and sisters and to all mankind also. He
advises us thus in the following two excerpts:
"The principle to which we
adhere is that we have kindness at heart for the whole of
mankind. If anyone sees the house of a Hindu neighbour on
fire and does not come forward to help extinguish it,
most truly I declare that he does not belong to me. If
anyone of my followers, having seen someone attempting to
murder a Christian does not endeavour to save him, I most
truly declare that he does not belong to us" (Siraj
Munir, p. 28).
"I proclaim to all Muslim,
Christians, Hindus and Aryas that I have no enemy in the
world. I love mankind with the love that a compassionate
mother has for her children, even more so. I am only the
enemy of the false doctrines which kill truth. Human
sympathy is my duty. My principle is to discard
falsehood. I reject paganism, wrongdoing, misconduct,
injustice and immorality" (Ruhani Khaza’in,
vol. 17).
Finally, in Kishti-Nuh he
leaves us in no doubt as to who is a follower of his and who
is not:
"Who belongs to my
community and who does not. Having explained all
these things, I repeat once more that you must not rest
satisfied merely because in an outward form you have
taken bai‘at at my hand. The outward form
means nothing. Allah sees what lies in your hearts, and
He will deal with you on the basis of what He sees
there.
I herein discharge my duty to you
by making it plain that sin is a poison. Do not take it.
Disobedience to Allah is an evil death which you should
avoid. Turn to prayer so that you should get the strength
to repel sin. At the time of prayer, if a man does not
firmly believe that Allah has power over everything
except what may be contained in a previous promise, then
such a one is not of my community. He who is caught in a
web of worldly greed and never even raises his eyes to
things which pertain to the next life, is not of my
community. Whosoever does not wholly and completely keep
away from every sin and every evil action, like wine,
gambling, looking lustfully at women, dishonesty, bribes,
and from every kind of illegal gratification, is not of
my community. Whosoever is not constantly turning to
prayer, and does not remember Allah in absolute humility
of spirit, is not of my community. Whosoever does not
respect his parents, whosoever does not render obedience
to them in things which do not run counter to the Holy
Quran, and whosoever is neglectful in rendering to them
the service to which they are undoubtedly entitled is not
of my community. Whosoever does not live with his wife
and her relations with gentleness, goodness and
generosity is not of my community. Whosoever deprives his
neighbour of the very least good in his power is not of
my community. Whosoever has no wish to forgive the faults
of those who may have transgressed against him and
desires to nurse malice is not of my community. Every man
or woman who is dishonest towards his or her spouse is
not of my community. Whosoever in any way violates the
pledge he took at my hand at the time of the
bai‘at is not of my community. Whosoever does
not really hold me to be the Promised Messiah is not of
my community. Whosoever is not prepared to obey me in all
things known to be right and virtuous is not of my
community. And whosoever, as a habit, sits among those
who are hostile towards me falling into tacit and silent
agreement with them is not of my community.
Every adulterer, debauchee,
drunkard, murderer, thief, gambler, dishonest person,
bribe-taker, usurper, oppressor, tyrant, liar, forger,
and the associate of these, and whosoever brings false
accusations and scandal against his brothers and sisters,
is not of my community unless he fully repents of his
misdeeds and totally abandons his bad associates and
turns a new leaf.
Indeed, all these things are
poisons. You cannot partake of them and live, for light
and darkness cannot exist together" (pp. 8-9).
In conclusion, Mirza Sahib presents to
us a few of the blessings that Allah will confer on us if we
accept him as the Imam of the Age and follow him as the Holy
Prophet instructed us. He says:
"The world cannot accept me
because I do not belong to this world. But those who are
gifted with a measure of other-worldliness are the ones
who accept and will accept me. The one who rejects me
rejects Him Who has sent me, and the one who is grafted
to me is grafted to Him Whom I represent. I bear a torch
which will illumine all those who come close to me, but
the one who entertains suspicion and doubt and runs away
will be subjected to darkness. I am the impregnable
fortress for this age; whoever enters my fold will be
protected from thieves, robbers and the beasts of the
wilderness" (Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 3).
May Allah bless and guide us all as we
strive to put religion above the world and offer humanity
the bounty of a personality that has taken its colour from
its leader for, as Mirza Sahib says: "The truth of the
matter is that the capacity and power of the preceptor
surely affect the disciples."
May Allah truly fulfil this noble
aspiration in our lives as Muhammad Azam Alvi encourages us
in this soul-stirring poem which captures the Ahmadi zeal
and fervour for the religion of Islam and its
propagation:
For the sake of religion we
shall sacrifice everything,
(And) will astonish everyone with the splendour of
Islam.
Our glorification of God will shake
the forces of falsehood,
We are Muslims and are determined to solve all the
problems of our nation.
After learning the languages of the
world, we shall publish the commentaries of the
Quran,
(And) present before the world the true picture of
Islam.
When mountains, forests and deserts
will resound with our cries of Allah-u Akbar (God
is Great),
We shall enlighten every heart with the light of the
Quran.
We shall wake up those who are fast
asleep in negligence,
We shall give new courage to those who have lost their
destination.
We shall come to the rescue of
those who are crying over their ill-luck,
We shall sing such songs that will cure all pains.
[Songs of Islam,
p. 61.]
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by Imam Kalamazad Mohammed
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