Lecture Sialkot

Lecture Sialkot

Background

During the sojourn of the Promised Messiah(as) in Lahore, his followers from Sialkot came to see him and requested him for the same honour for Sialkot. The Promised Messiah(as) agreed and it was settled that he would leave Qadian for Sialkot on October 27, 1903. On his way to Sialkot, thousands of his followers met him at all the railway stations that came on the way to Sialkot. There were large gatherings at the railway stations of Batala, Amritsar, Attari, Lahore, Gujranwala, Wazirabad, and lastly, at the Sialkot railway station where elaborate arrangements were made for the reception of the Promised Messiah(as) by his followers. The Promised Messiah(as) was taken from the railway station in a huge procession through the city and there was such a surging crowd that the people who were not Ahmadis tried to avail themselves of the opportunity of having a glimpse of the Promised Messiah(as) by making a plea that they were “disciples of Mirza Sahib and wanted to catch a glimpse.”

The Book

According to Hazrat Jalal-ud-Din Shams(ra), this lecture by the Promised Messiah(as) was delivered on November 2, 1902. The heading of the lecture is Islam but it is known as Lecture Sialkot. The Promised Messiah(as) wrote this lecture and surprisingly it was printed and published within two days and a poster announcing his lecture was issued saying “Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, the Promised Messiah’s Lecture on Islam.” It was to be delivered on the morning of November 2, 1903, at Sirae Maharaja. The lecture was read by Maulavi ‘Abdul Karim.

In this lecture, the Promised Messiah(as) presented a lucid comparison of Islam with other religions. He opened the lecture with the remarks: “If we have a book of all the religions of the world then we find with the exception of Islam there is no religion, which does not have some shortcoming or drawback in it. This is not because these religions are false but because of the fact that after the emergence of Islam as a religion, God neglected all other religions and these religions have become like a garden which has no gardener.”1

With this effective opening, the Promised Messiah(as) then marshalled his arguments in support of his claim as the Promised Messiah and for the first time in this lecture, the Promised Messiah(as) declared:

Hence this promise has been fulfilled with my coming. Among other revelations regarding myself, I also received this revelation: “O’ Krishna, slayer of swine and protector of cows, thy praise is recorded in the Gita.”

Hence, I love Krishna because I have come in his image. Another resemblance between the two of us is that the same qualities that have been attributed to Krishna (for instance, his being the destroyer of sin, the consoler, and the nourisher of the poor) are also the qualities of the Promised Messiah. From the spiritual point of view, therefore, Krishna and Promised Messiah are one and the same; it is only the regional terminology that is different Now, in my capacity as Krishna, I warn the Aryas against some of their errors. One of them, which I have already mentioned, is that it is not right to believe that all the souls and particles of the universe, also known as Purkarti or Purmano, are uncreated and eternal.2

Ending his lecture, the Promised Messiah(as) said:

I have the same attachment to the soil of Sialkot as I have with the soil of Qadian, for I have spent my early days in this city and I have seen much of the city. I have still a friend and sincere person in this city of that time, namely, Hakim Hissam-ud-Din. He had an attachment with me at a time when I was an unknown figure. He is here and you may ask him. Now I ask you who could make a prophecy that hundred of thousand of people would become my followers and a crowd upon crowd of people would come and queue up for bai‘at all this in teeth of stiff opposition in such a large number that they will tire me. This can not be a man-made affair. Can such prophecies be made by an impostor that a man, who twenty four years ago was completely lonely and helpless, now speaks of his glory and success.3

Specimen of Writing

A study of the religions of the world reveals that every religion, except Islam, contains some mistake or the other. This is not because they were all false in their origin, but because after the advent of Islam, God gave up the support of other religions and they became like neglected gardens which had no gardener to look after them, and for the irrigation and upkeep of which no arrangement had been made, so that gradually they began to decay. Their fruit-bearing trees became dry and barren, and thorns and weeds spread all over. Those religions lost all spirituality which is at the root of all religion and nothing was left but bare words. God did not suffer this to happen in the case of Islam as He desired that this garden should flourish throughout. He made provision in each century for its irrigation and thus rescued it from decay. Although at the beginning of each century when a man of God was appointed for its reform the ignorant people opposed him and were averse to the reform of anything which had become part of their habits and customs, yet God Almighty adhered throughout to His way. In these latter days also, which is the time of the last battle between guidance and error, finding the Muslims heedless and neglectful in the beginning of the fourteenth century, God recalled His promise and made provision for the revival of Islam. But other faiths were never revived after the advent of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him; and they all died. There was no spiritual life in them and errors took root in them, as dirt accumulates in a garment which is much in use but which is never washed. People who had no concern with spirituality and who were not free from the stains of earthly existence corrupted these faiths to a degree that they no longer resemble the originals. Consider the case of Christianity, how pure was its origin. The teaching set forth by Jesus was not perfect as compared with the teachings of the Holy Quran, because the time had not yet come for the revelation of the perfect teaching and people were not yet strong enough to bear it, yet that teaching was an excellent one and was appropriate for its own time. It guided to the same God to Whom the Torah guided but after Jesus, the god of the Christians became another god who found no mention in the Torah and was not at all known to the children of Israel. Belief in this new god upset the whole system of the Torah and all the guidance contained in the Torah, for deliverance from sin and attaining true salvation and a pure life, was frustrated. Salvation and deliverance from sin now depended upon the confession that Jesus had accepted crucifixion for the sake of the salvation of mankind, and that he was very God Himself. Many permanent laws of the Torah were abrogated and the Christian faith was so changed about that if Jesus were to come back to the earth he would not be able to recognize it. It is a matter of surprise that the people who were admonished to adhere to the Torah set aside its commandments at one stroke. For instance, it is nowhere stated in the Gospel that though the Torah forbids the eating of the flesh of swine yet it is now permitted, nor does the Gospel say that though circumcision is prescribed in the Torah yet that commandment is now abrogated. But all this was done and that which had never been said by Jesus became part of religion. However, as it was God’s design to establish a universal religion namely Islam, the decay of Christianity was an indication of the appearance of Islam. It is also well established that Hinduism had been corrupted before the advent of Islam and that throughout India idol worship had become common. Part of this corruption resulted in the doctrine that God Who is not dependent upon matter for the exercise of His attributes is, in the view of the Aryas, so dependent for the creation of the universe. This led to another false doctrine that all particles of matter and all souls are eternal and uncreated. Had they considered deeply the attributes of God, they would never have said so; for if in the exercise of His eternal attribute of creation, God is dependent like a human being on matter, then how is it that in the exercise of the attribute of hearing and seeing He is not so dependent as is man. Man cannot hear without the agency of air and he cannot see without the aid of light. Then is God also dependent upon light and air for seeing and hearing? If He is not so dependent, be sure that He is not dependent upon matter for the exercise of His attribute of creation. It is entirely false that He is dependent upon matter for the exercise of any of His attributes. It is a great mistake to attribute human weaknesses to God; for instance, that He cannot create something from nothing. Man’s being is limited and God’s Being is unlimited. By the power of His Being, He can create another being. This is of the essence of Godhead. He is not dependent upon matter for the exercise of any of His attributes, for had that been so, He would not be God. Nothing can obstruct Him. If He were to desire to create a heaven and earth instantly, He would be able to do so. Of the Hindus those who, in addition to knowledge, partook of spirituality also and were not committed to bare logic, never believed that concerning God which the Aryas set forth today. This is the result of the lack of spirituality altogether.

All this corruption, some of which is unmentionable and is opposed to human purity, was an indication of the need of Islam. Every reasonable person is bound to confess that a short while before Islam, all other faiths had become corrupt and had lost all spirituality. The Holy Prophet, peace be on him, was a great reformer in the cause of truth who restored the lost verities to the world. No prophet shares with him the pride that he found the whole world in darkness and by his advent that darkness gave place to light.4