The Ahmadiyas’ beliefs have brought them much suffering, especially
in Pakistan, where most of them migrated after Partition. In 1974, Pakistans
first prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, declared Ahmadiyat as non-Muslim. A
decade later, as part of the frenzied Islamisation process, dictator Zia-ul-Haq
brought out an ordinance which prevented the sect from using Islamic
descriptions and titles. Thus, the Islamic greeting, the azaan or call to prayer
by the Ahmadiyas became punishable and their mosques were reduced to just
ibadatgahs (places of worship).
Another feature of the Ahmadiyas, unique to them, is the institution
of the Khilafat or Caliphate in the contemporary world. Its pure, theological
form was abolished after the assassination of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph. In
modern times, Mustafa Kemal Pasha formally ended the Abbasid Caliphate,
monarchical in nature, in Turkey in the 1920s. But the Ahmadiyas consider it
part of the faith and fanatically root for it. Their fifth Caliph, Mirza Masroor
Ahmed, lives in London and commands unchallenged respect. -- Mohammad Wajihuddin
By Mohammad Wajihuddin
Headquartered in Punjab,the Ahmadiyas, whose mosques were blown up in
Pakistan last month, have been ostracised by co-Muslims for their beliefs
Visiting a graveyard can be an uninspiring detour during a
pilgrimage. But if you are in Qadiyan, the headquarters of the Ahmadiyas in
Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, visiting the massive graveyard called Bahishti
Maqbara is mandatory. For, here rests Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908 ),their
founder.
To this Muslim sect, whose followers are also known as Qadiyanis,
Ahmad is the awaited Mahdi, the Promised Messiah as prophesied by Prophet
Mohammed. But to the zealots who butchered nearly 100 worshippers in Lahore’s
two Ahmadiya mosques on May 28,and even to those Muslims who denounce such
wanton brutality, Ahmad, the self-appointed Mahdi and Promised Messiah was an
imposter and heretic.
Ahmad claimed he received Gods revelations, much like the Prophets
did. But neither the Shias nor the Sunnis, Islams two major sects, buy this:
Sunni Muslims believe the Mahdi is still to come, while Shias believe he has
appeared but is in hiding. The Ahmadiyas, who believe in Ahmad’s messiahdom, are
paying for this crime as Burhan Ahmad Zafar, a scholar who heads the publication
wing of the Central Ahmadiya Association in Qadiyan, puts it. Our crime is that
we believe in a Hadith (tradition) of the Prophet who said a Mahdi would come to
kill Dajjal (the notorious deceiver) and establish peace and justice on earth,
he says.
Circled by lush, green fields fed by the Ravi and Beas, Qadiyan in
Punjabs Gurdaspur district, is a tiny town of 40,000 people, of which nearly
4,000 are Ahmadiyas. Among Mirza Ghulam Ahmads many prophesies was one that said
that whoever was buried in the massive graveyard would reach heaven. To book a
place here, every Ahmadiya must will at least 1/10th of his/her property to the
community trust. A few minutes’ walk from the graveyard is the whitewashed, old
complex resembling any walled city. The complex houses two massive mosques
(Masjid Mubarak and Al Aqsa Mosque), the red brick house where the sects founder
was born ,his personal prayer room and a 125-ft tall minaret made of white
marble called Minaratul Masih. Built in 1906,the minaret is a symbolic
fulfilment of one of the conditions prescribed by the Prophet for the Promised
Messiah. The Prophet had said that the Messiah would float on the wings of an
angel and descend on a white minaret, east of Damascus. Muslim scholars, who are
wary of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s audacious claim, call this minaret part of the web
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad allegedly spun around himself.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s claim of being the Messiah contravenes a vital
rule of Messiahdom. Only a prophet declares himself a divine messenger the
Promised Messiah will be identified through his character by the people of the
era he lives in, says Delhi-based senior Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin
Khan. Unarguably the face of moderate Islam in India, the octogenarian Khan,
while refuting the claims of Ahmadiyat’s founder, condemns the maulvis’ fatwas
which made the Ahmadiyas wajibul qatl (deserving to be killed).Neither the Quran
nor the Hadiths sanction the killing of even those who create innovations in the
faith. To declare a person kafir (infidel) or sinner is the prerogative of God;
man can only perform dawah (propagation of faith) works, explains Khan, whose
recent book The Prophet of Peace tears apart the ideology of Islamic
terrorism.
The Ahmadiyas’ beliefs have brought them much suffering, especially
in Pakistan, where most of them migrated after Partition. In 1974, Pakistans
first prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, declared Ahmadiyat as non-Muslim. A
decade later, as part of the frenzied Islamisation process, dictator Zia-ul-Haq
brought out an ordinance which prevented the sect from using Islamic
descriptions and titles. Thus, the Islamic greeting, the azaan or call to prayer
by the Ahmadiyas became punishable and their mosques were reduced to just
ibadatgahs (places of worship).
Another feature of the Ahmadiyas, unique to them, is the institution
of the Khilafat or Caliphate in the contemporary world. Its pure, theological
form was abolished after the assassination of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph. In
modern times, Mustafa Kemal Pasha formally ended the Abbasid Caliphate,
monarchical in nature, in Turkey in the 1920s. But the Ahmadiyas consider it
part of the faith and fanatically root for it. Their fifth Caliph, Mirza Masroor
Ahmed, lives in London and commands unchallenged respect.
Immediately after news of the Lahore blasts came in, Mirza Masroor
Ahmad went on Muslim Television Ahmadiya (MTA), the sect’s exclusive 24X7
channel which almost every Ahmadiya household around the world subscribes to,
appealing to his followers not to retaliate. If the Ahmadiyas in Pakistan and
elsewhere remained calm after the bloodbath in two mosques in Lahore, the credit
goes also to our caliph or imam who counselled patience and prayers, says
Mohammed Hameed Qausar, principal of one of the community’s two colleges in
Qadiyan.
Much before the Ahmadiyas became official outcastes in Islamic
Pakistan, there used to be thousands of them mainly cocooned in Qadiyan, living
with their Hindu and Sikh neighbours (even today a Shiva temple shares the
boundary of their mosque in Qadiyan).Then Partition happened and, heeding their
first Caliph Hakim Nooruddin’s call for migration, all of them, barring
313,moved. Ahmad Hussain, 82,is among the few surviving ones who stayed back. We
were young and asked to guard the mosque, the minaret and the graveyard, says
the frail Hussain who earns his bread by sewing sherwanis at his tiny tailoring
shop opposite the whitewashed Masjid Mubarak.
Hussain, with the handsome remittances his children send from abroad,
has booked a place in the Bahishti Maqbara and hopes to enjoy the luxuries of
heaven. Ironically, the terrorists who killed Hussains co-religionists in
complete cold blood in Lahore on May 28 anticipated similar rewards. They were
lured by the promise of paradise after killing the kafir
Ahmadiyas.
mohammed.wajihuddin@timesgroup.com
Source: Times of
India
9:10 PM
Sultan Shahin
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