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A Call to Faith III

Enmity Behind the Veil of Friendship

The most distinguished quality of Islam is that it is a living religion; this cannot be said about any other faith. All religions refer back to the events of the past, but only Islam meets the criteria mentioned in the following verse:

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[Do you not see how Allah sets forth the similitude] of a good word? It is like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches reach into heaven. It brings forth its fruit at all times by the command of its Lord.

Such fruit can only be found in Islam and is a magnificent proof of its vitality. The Holy Prophet(sa) referred to one such fruit as the Promised Messiah and Awaited Mahdi. For 1300 years Muslims have looked to the tree of Islam to bear this fruit and prove its ascendency over other creeds. And this era was certain to come as the Holy Prophet(sa) had inspired an eagerness for its arrival in the following words:

How can Islam perish when I am at the beginning and the Promised Messiah is at the end?3

Further, he is reported to have said:

I do not know if the period of the beginning of this umma is better or the end.4

After the demise of the Holy Prophet(sa), the most earnest desire of the Muslims was to see the era of the Promised Messiah and Awaited Mahdi. All of them, young or old, literate or illiterate, looked forward to his advent, so that once again Muslims would be worthy enough to be numbered among the companions of the Holy Prophet(sa); so that the light of God Almighty would once again dwell among them; and despite the passage of so considerable a length of time they could once again place their hand in the hand of the reflection and spiritual son of the Holy Prophet(sa), as though they were pledging their allegiance to the Holy Prophet(sa) himself. Then would Islam take pride over disbelief which would bow its head in shame before it. Muslims would call out to the disbelievers and say:

You who were taken in by the deception of false religions, look at how our living faith bears fruit in every hour of need. You who weep in the remembrance of your fallen patriarchs, know our prophet is alive and his blessings reverberate in every age through his spiritual progeny.

So as the Muslims waited with this hope and expectation, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, made his claim to be the Promised Messiah and the Awaited Mahdi. The world of Islam clamoured in protest as to how he could rise from the earth when the Messiah was to descend from heaven? How could he be a Muslim when the Messiah was to be from among the Children of Israel? All the ulema issued edicts of apostasy against him, accused him of denying the prophecies of the Holy Prophet(sa) and held him up as an enemy of Islam. Not long after, in light of the testimony of the Holy Qur’an, the Promised Messiah(as) and his followers firmly established the Messiah of Nazareth(as) had died and no messiah was to descend from heaven. The Muslim ulema, whom the Holy Prophet(sa) said would be the worst of all creation in the latter days5, came to realise the Messiah(as) could not be kept alive and there was no contesting the Ahmadiyya Community on this issue. So they immediately changed their stance, and now it is generally said there is no need for a messiah and mahdi as the Holy Prophet(sa) is a sufficient guide.

30 years ago people would allege the worst offence of the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community was that he rejected the advent of the heavenly messiah. Today, it is said his most grievous error was to believe in the advent of a messiah after the Holy Prophet(sa). Is the Holy Prophet(sa) not an ample guide [they ask]. Those who have eyes can see this tumultuous change which reaches from the east to the west does not emanate from a love for Islam but from hostility to the Promised Messiah(as). As someone once said:

What occurs is from enmity to Muawiyyah rather than love for Ali.

The same condition afflicts the Muslims of today who are determined to efface a magnificent virtue of Islam simply on account of their enmity towards the Promised Messiah(as). They think that by this they will be able to halt the progress of Ahmadiyyat. Yet they fail to realise they are instead bringing to ruin Islam’s greatest excellence and causing the faith to be humiliated in the face of disbelief.

Allah the Exalted says in Surah Al-Jumu‘ah:

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It is God Who has raised among the unlettered (people) a messenger from among themselves who recites unto them the signs of Allah the Exalted, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and Wisdom though before that they were in manifest error; and (He will raise him among) others of them who have not (yet) joined them [and teach them the same]. Allah the Exalted is the Mighty, the Wise.

This verse shows the advent of the Holy Prophet(sa) was destined to occur twice: first physically and then spiritually. Or to put it another way: in a literal and metaphorical sense. The purpose of both these advents was the same; to show fresh divine signs to the people and teach them manifest and subtle interpretations of the sharia in order to purify them. So in their hostility to the Promised Messiah(as), Muslims accept the physical advent of the Prophet(sa) but deny his spiritual coming and thereby falsify the clear meaning of this verse and many others which cannot be mentioned here, as well as hundreds of ahadith and thousands of visions seen by Muslim saints about the arrival of the Messiah over the last 1300 years.

Those who deny this may misinterpret the meaning of this Qur’anic verse or tamper with a hadith, but they cannot conceal one verse after another nor can they hide hundreds of ahadith and thousands of visions. Not a single eminent personality has ever seen a vision regarding the physical ascent of the Messiah to heaven. Conversely, almost all saints foretold something about his advent. To deny the coming of the Messiah is to reject the Qur’an, the hadith and the holy personages of the past. What can remain of Islam after so absolute a repudiation?

I appeal to all Muslims who grieve over the plight of Islam to recognise this treacherous mischief and look to combat it. If they have not comprehended the truth of the founder of Ahmadiyyat then what of it, let them await the hour of God Almighty’s blessings. However, they should at the very least cease their hostilities which hinder the cause of Islam and the abiding beneficence of the Holy Prophet(sa). Also they ought to save others from this as well.

Those who reject the advent of the Promised Messiah deceive others by suggesting that because the Holy Prophet(sa) attained perfection, there is no need for anyone else to come. But do these ignorant souls not understand God Almighty Himself is perfect, yet He still sent the Holy Prophet(sa) because His light had become hidden from the people? When it was essential for the Holy Prophet(sa) to come and manifest the light of God Almighty, what would prevent an individual who has partaken of the Prophet’s(sa) beneficence to come and restore his own light? These people accept the condition of the Muslims has deteriorated. However, they are unwilling to accept God Almighty would offer a remedy for their ills. In their estimation the decline of the umma of Muhammad(sa) is not a blemish against the perfection of the Holy Prophet(sa), whereas they view a remedy to offset this decay as a flaw in his excellence. The unabated continuance of Satan’s progeny is not an affront to the Prophet(sa) but the perpetuation of his spiritual offspring is? When closely considered, those who hold such beliefs wilfully or otherwise take after Abu Jahl who accused the Holy Prophet(sa) of being without a son, God forbid. Whereas in the Holy Qur’an Allah the Exalted says:

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Surely, it is thy enemy who shall be without issue and while your progeny will ever continue.

Whenever a satanic movement will arise, a spiritual descendant of the Holy Prophet(sa) will come to annihilate it. The prevailing dogma which denies the advent of the Messiah current in the Muslim world has its origins in Satan and the Antichrist. And this is because it is the mission of the Antichrist to confront the Messiah. And what greater opposition could there be than to convince people to reject his advent outright? Though this movement of denial may appear in friendly garbs, in truth, it is the real enemy of Islam.

Ultimately this will cause Muslims to either succumb to the belief Islam is not the beloved religion of God and He has no regard for its decline, or they will incline towards the idea their current practices and beliefs are free of error. On the one hand they will lose sight of the need for reform, and on the other, they will come to regard God Almighty as unjust—for in their reckoning. He would have abased them through no fault of their own. If any of these two viewpoints prevail, they will deprive Muslims of future success. It is not too late to fight against the movement of the Antichrist. Do not cut the roots of Islam out of animosity to the Promised Messiah(as). Otherwise, know well the rejection of God Almighty’s bounties will not go unrequited.

He says:

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If you are grateful I will surely bestow more (favours) on you; but if you are ungrateful, (then know) that My punishment is severe indeed.

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With Humility,
Mirza Mahmud Ahmad
Khalifatul-Masih II
Imam of the Ahmadiyya Community, Qadian