Excerpts from Da’watul-Ameer (Invitation to Ahmadiyyat) by Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad(ra), Khalifatul-Masih II
Ahmadiyya Beliefs
We believe that God exists and to assert His existence is to assert a most important truth.
We believe that God is One without an equal in heaven or in earth. Everything else is His creation, dependent upon Him and His subsistence. He is without son or daughter or father or mother or wife or brother. He is one and unique.
We believe that God is Holy; free from all imperfections and possessed of all perfections. There is no imperfection which may be found in Him and no perfection which may not be found in Him. His power and knowledge are unlimited. He encompasses everything and there is nothing which encompasses Him. He is the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden, the Creator, the Master. He is the Loving, the Enduring. His actions are willed, not constrained or determined. He rules today as He ever ruled before. His attributes are eternal.
We believe that angels are a part of God’s creation. As the Quran has it, angels do what they are bidden to do. They have been created in His wisdom to carry out certain duties. Their existence is real and references to them in the Holy Book are not metaphorical. They depend on God as do all men and all other creatures.
We believe that God speaks to His chosen servants and reveals to them His purpose. Revelation comes in words. Man lives by revelation and through it comes to have contact with God. The words in which revelation comes are unique in their power and wisdom. Their wisdom may not be revealed at once. A mine may be exhausted but not the wisdom of revelation. Revelation brings us divine ordinances, laws, and exhortations. It also brings us knowledge of the unseen and of important spiritual truths. It conveys to us the approval of God as well as His disapproval and displeasure, His love as well as His warnings. God communicates with man through revelation. The communications vary with circumstances and with the recipients. Of all divine communications the most perfect, the most complete, the most comprehensive is the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran is to last forever. It cannot be superseded by any future revelation.
We also believe that when darkness prevails in the world and man sinks deep in sin and evil, it becomes difficult for him to rise again without the help of God. Then out of His mercy and beneficence God chooses one of His own loving, loyal servants, charges him with the duty to lead and guide other men. As the Quran says, ‘There is no people to whom a Warner has not been sent’ (35:25). God has sent Messengers to every people. Through them God has revealed His Will and His Purpose. Those who turn away from them ruin themselves, those who turn to them earn the love and pleasure of God.
We also believe that divine messengers belong to different spiritual ranks and contribute in different degrees to the fulfilment of the ultimate Divine Design. The greatest of all messengers is the Holy Prophet Muhammad (on whom be the peace and the blessings of God!). He is the chief of all men, messenger to them all. The revelation he received was addressed to all mankind. The whole of this earth was a mosque for him. Time came when his message spread to lands and climes beyond Arabia. People forsook gods of their own conception and began to believe in the One and only God that the Holy Prophet Muhammad taught them to believe. The coming of the Holy Prophet marked an unparalleled spiritual revolution. Justice began to reign instead of injustice, kindness instead of cruelty. If Moses and Jesus had existed in the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad they would have had to believe in him and to follow him.
We also believe that God hears our prayers and helps us out of difficulties. He is a living God, His living character being evident in all things at all times. God continues His benevolent interest in His servants and His creatures. When they need His help He turns to them with His help. If they forget Him, He reminds them of Himself and of His concern for them. ‘I am near indeed; I answer the prayer of every supplicant when he supplicates to Me. Let them, therefore, hearken unto Me and believe in Me, so that they may go aright’. (2:187).
We also believe that from time to time God determines and designs the course of events in special ways. Events of this world are not determined entirely by unchanging laws called the Laws of Nature. For, besides these ordinary laws there are special laws through which God manifests Himself. It is these special laws which bring to us evidence of the Will, the Power and Love of God. Too many there are who deny this. They would believe in nothing besides the laws of nature. Yet laws of nature are not all the laws we have. Laws of nature are themselves governed by the wider Laws of God. Through these laws, God helps His chosen servants. Through them He destroys His enemies. Moses could not have triumphed over a cruel and mighty enemy, but for the special laws of God. The Holy Prophet Muhammad could not have triumphed over Arabs determined to put an end to him and his mission except for the laws of God, which worked on his side. In everything that he encountered, God helped the Holy Prophet. At last with 10,000 followers he re-entered the valley of Mecca out of which 10 years before he had to flee for his life. Laws of nature cannot account for these events.
We also believe that death is not the end of everything. Man survives death. He has to account for what he does in this life, in life hereafter. The Power of God guarantees human survival.
We believe, that unless forgiven out of His infinite Mercy, non-believers go to Hell. The object of Hell is not to give pain to the inmates but only to reform them. In Hell non-believers and enemies of God spend their days in wail and woe and continue so until the Mercy of God encompasses the evil-doers and their evil. Truly did the Holy Prophet say, ‘A time will come when Hell will be emptied of all sinners.’ (Tafseer al-Ma’aalimut-Tanzeel)
Similarly we believe that those who believe in God and the Prophets, the angels and the books, who accept the guidance which comes from God, and walk in humility and abjure excesses of all kinds, will all go to a place called Heaven. Peace and pleasure will reign here and God will be present to all. Low desires will disappear. Men will have attained everlasting life and become an image of their Creator.
These being our beliefs, one may begin to wonder why the ulema of Islam are so violently against us? Why should we be branded as kafirs?