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From the Friday Khutba by Maulana Muhammad Ali, 18 February 1944, Lahore

Mirza Mahmud Ahmad has made religion into a children’s game

Terrible fate of those who associate others with the One God

Young Ahmadis should learn different languages

“There are some people who take for themselves objects of worship besides Allah, whom they love as they should love Allah. And those who believe are stronger in love for Allah. … Thus will Allah show them their deeds to be intense regret to them, and they will not escape from the fire.” The Holy Quran, 2:165–167

Those who ascribe partners to Allah

In these verses Allah has spoken of those people who take others as equals or partners of Allah and love them as they ought to love Allah. By “objects of worship” here are meant persons who, because of possessing some kind of  power or hold or strength, make the masses follow them, and these followers love and adore them as one ought to love and adore Allah. The right of Allah to be loved is given to these objects of worship.

Right along with this are mentioned the believers, that their love for Allah is stronger than the other loves that they have.

Fate of those who are followed and the followers

In the next verse it is made clear: “When those who were followed renounce those who followed, and they see the chastisement and their ties are cut asunder” (2:166). A time comes when the leaders renounce the followers and their relationship is cut off because the grip of Allah catches them so powerfully that they find it difficult to answer for their misdeeds.

Those who followed will say at that time: “If we could but return we would renounce them as they have renounced us. Thus will Allah show them their deeds to be intense regret to them, and they will not escape from the fire.”

Islamic concept of tauhid

Islam had taught a very lofty concept of tauhid (Oneness of God), namely, that love for God the Most High must be supreme over love for any other. In Hadith it is explained by saying that the sweet taste of faith comes to a person with three qualities, one being that Allah and His Messenger are dearer to him than anything besides these two. The Messenger holds a very high position due to being from God and teaches people the way to attain the pleasure of God. This is why love for him has been mentioned along with love for God.

An incident of the Holy Prophet Muhammad is that once one of his Companions, being respectful towards him, used the words: “Whatever Allah pleases and whatever you please” [instead of just the well-known expression “whatever Allah pleases” or masha’allah]. Hearing these words, the Holy Prophet said: “Do you make me a partner with Allah?” This was how the Holy Prophet Muhammad was.

As contrasted with this, the condition of the spiritual leaders of this country today is that they can make their acolytes follow any path. The disciples may take the leader to be the Messenger of God, to be God, or even greater than God, the leaders do not bother correcting them.

There is an incident from the early days [after the Split in the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1914], that a man belonging to the Qadiani Jama‘at addressed the khalifa Mirza Mahmud Ahmad with the words: Assalamu alaikum, O Messenger of Allah. The Mian sahib (Mirza Mahmud Ahmad) says I was too embarrassed to say anything to him. This is the condition of the spiritual leaders of today, that whatever heights the followers raise them to, they keep on accepting that position.

What Allah requires: Allah says here “And those who believe are stronger in love for Allah”.  It is not said that you should not love anything else. To love certain things and people in this world is natural. All Allah requires is that love for Allah should exceed the love of anything else.

Condition of the Companions: It is recorded about the Companions that they used to be very busy and absorbed in their trade and work, but when a command from God came they would forget all their business and run to fulfill the command of God. Their condition was not like that of the Muslims of today, that there is a mosque in their street, the Azan is being called out, but they are sitting at home indulging in idle talk. These Muslims have no love for God, but the Muslims at the beginning of Islam really had love for God. In their actions you could see love for God. Regardless of whether their worldly business pros­pered or suffered loss, they obeyed every command of God.

In your deeds too, love for God should be visible. I want to draw your attention towards this need, that from your actions it should be apparent that your love for doing the work of God is greater than your love for anything else. There should be a zeal for the service of the Divine religion in your hearts, unmatched by love for anything else. You must have love for your wives and children, for your country and community, but do not make them partners with God. Let love for other things be placed lower, and let love for God be uppermost so that your heart is attracted towards it with a force with which you are not attracted towards anything else.

I am compelled to mention certain things. The work we have before us is most magnificent. Sometimes obstacles arise in the way but we should not really be concerned with them, and continue in our work which is our concern. Nonetheless there are some matters that have a bearing upon the Jama‘at, and they have to be mentioned.

Blind-following in Qadian

When we left Qadian [in 1914] we were certain in our hearts that the foundations of blind-following were being laid in Qadian. We realized this at that very time. Some people may remember that in those days too dream after dream used to be put forward by the Qadiani Jama‘at [to support that Mirza Mahmud Ahmad should be khalifa]. Even if someone said that a horse cart driver has had a dream, the order was issued that the dream should be recorded. No one even bothered to ask who was the man who had the dream? The Qadiani khilafat was founded on those dreams.

Promised Reformer (Muslih Mau‘ud) on basis of dreams. Now he is becoming the Promised Reformer on the basis of dreams. What a dream, which has turned everything upside down! The things which could not be attained otherwise have now been obtained by a dream. In the first place it is entirely wrong to base a belief on a dream. Revelation is different, and it is also admitted that this dream is not the dream of a holder of a Divine office (mamur).

I had also said that even in this dream which the Mian sahib [Mirza Mahmud Ahmad] has seen there is no mention anywhere that he is the Promised Reformer. At the most it was said in the dream that he is the like and the khalifa of the Promised Messiah. The Promised Messiah himself wrote that thousands could be the like of the Messiah. By being ‘like’ is not meant ‘Promised’.

Three stages that Mirza Mahmud Ahmad passed through

This stream of desires has been running for a long time, beginning in 1914. In those early days Pir Manzur Muhammad wrote an article [claiming that Mirza Mahmud Ahmad was the Promised Reformer]. After that, for a long time the Mian sahib kept on denying that he was the Promised Reformer. After the stage of denial came the middle period (of neither denial nor confirmation), and after that has come the third stage.

Reason for pretence?

In the khutba about this dream he has said that people used to say to him “you are the Promised Reformer”, but he would never even read the prophecy, and whenever he came across it he would quickly pass over it. I do not understand the reason for this pretence. Did the Mian sahib think that by studying the prophecy he would start wanting to be the Promised Reformer? Was he afraid of falling prey to temptation? He has certainly prey to it now by having this dream.

Curious reason for holding meeting in Hoshiarpur

Now it is written in the newspaper of the Qadiani Jama‘at that a gathering will be held in Hoshiarpur because:

“The Promised Messiah was given this prophecy during a journey when he had gone to Hoshiarpur, and it was in  Hoshiarpur that he wrote that announcement in which this prophecy is published in detail … The strange coincidence is that I too had this dream on a journey while in Lahore, so the prophecy and the dream have a likeness in terms of journey. …Another similarity is that, as far as I remember, the house in which Shaikh Bashir Ahmad lives, where I was staying when I had the dream, was owned by a man who lived in  Hoshiarpur, the late Shaikh Niyaz Ahmad, Pleader”.

What a great proof that he is the Promised Reformer, what great arguments!

Similarities between the prophecy and this dream

Then he writes that there are so many similarities between this dream and the prophecy:

“In the dream I saw that the following words issued from my lips: ‘I am the Promised Messiah, his likeness and his khalifa’, while it is written in the prophecy that he shall come to the world and, by his Messianic soul and the blessing of the holy spirit, he shall cleanse many sick of their maladies. I saw that I am running and the earth is being shrunk under my feet, while the prophecy says that his fame shall reach the ends of the earth. Then the prophecy says that he shall be filled with worldly and spiritual knowledge, and so I saw myself declaring forcefully in the dream that I am the one who was fed the knowledge of Islam, knowledge of Arabic and the principles underlying this language at the time when I was in my mother’s lap being fed with milk from her breasts. It is written that he shall be a manifestation of the glory of God; regarding this too the dream contains clarification, for as I have said, in the dream my tongue was taken in the control of God and He spoke from my lips. Then it is written that he shall be a possessor of glory, greatness and wealth, while in the dream I saw a nation and I was appointing a man as its leader, using words in which a powerful king addresses a subject. The prophecy mentions ‘We shall breathe Our spirit into him’ and this points to the fact that he will receive revelation; and the dream also makes mention of it so that I saw that I am in the control of God and not speaking out of myself but God was putting words upon my tongue by revelation.”

I am embarrassed to read this

I tell you the truth that I was deeply embarrassed by reading these arguments. Is this the Jama‘at of the Promised Messiah, people who talk so childishly? And what kind of people are the followers, who keep on swallowing such things? I say, firstly, that this dream has no value because there is no foundation of any claim in it. And now others are also claiming to have had dreams [in support of this dream].

Condition of the Qadiani Jama‘at

This reminds me of what the Mian sahib [Mirza Mahmud Ahmad] once said about his Jama‘at, that it is like children sitting in a swing: whichever way you push the swing, that is the way it goes. If he says that a certain thing is right, the entire Jama‘at says: “yes huzoor, it is right, there is nothing wrong with it”. If he says about the same thing that it is wrong, the entire Jama‘at says: “it is wrong, there is nothing good about it”!

No strength of action left

I assure you that the Jama‘at that lays its foundation on dreams does not remain a Jama‘at capable of doing any work. It loses its strength of action. Undoubtedly they can make worldly advancement, but they have no connection left with the work and the objectives of the Promised Messiah.

The Mian sahib bears no comparison with the Promised Messiah

How far removed from this is the resplendent mind of the Promised Messiah who gave light to the unlearned people who sat in his company! The Holy Prophet Muhammad also showed the same scene, that he made unlearned ones the leaders of knowledge. Now the Mian sahib is being made equal to these two. The Holy Prophet Muhammad and the Promised Messiah and the Mian sahib are mentioned as if all three are equal! The first one was a prophet of Allah, and the second one was an appointee of Allah (mamur). How far removed is this third man who does not even call himself appointed by Allah but places himself along with them! What the Mian sahib is calling people towards  was not the goal of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Create a transformation within yourselves

I say to you, create within yourselves such a transformation that in your hearts love for God the Most High is supreme over love for all other things that you hold dear. Whenever you are faced with a command of God, bow to it. This is what God require of you.

Attaining the pleasure of God

People think that it is difficult to attain the pleasure of God. Certainly it is difficult, but it is also very easy. If a person firmly resolves within his heart that when faced with a command of God he will leave his own desires and bow to the Divine order, then it does not remain difficult for him to walk in the ways of the pleasure of God.

Work of the Promised Messiah

Firmly set yourselves on the principle that the objective placed before us by the Promised Messiah was to spread the Quran in the whole world and to take Islam to the world. This was the mission of the Promised Messiah.

Signs of coming of Promised Messiah admitted by all

People perhaps think that Hazrat Mirza sahib merely said that he fulfilled the prophecy of the coming Messiah and some persons accepted this. No, he shed such strong light on these facts that, although people may deny him being the Promised Messiah out of opposition, but the signs that had been appointed for the Promised Messiah were identified by him so clearly that no one could deny them. Today the appearance of Dajjal and Gog and Magog is generally accepted. The coming of those signs which are connected with the advent of Promised Messiah is widely accepted.

Signs of Promised Reformer (Muslih Mau‘ud) only fulfilled in dreams

However, as regards the signs of the Muslih Mau‘ud, the sign of “turning three into four” has been completely ruined by the Mian sahib, as have the other signs been. It is in his dream that nations received blessings, in his dream that a radical change came in the world, and in his dream that all the other signs of the Muslih Mau‘ud were fulfilled. Everything was solved by this dream.

Translation of Quran could not be produced in thirty years

The real work of Hazrat Mirza sahib was to take the Holy Quran to the world. The Qadiani Jama‘at has lost all energy for this work. In the beginning [in 1914] the Qadiani Jama‘at made the claim that every month they would produce one part of the English translation of the Holy Quran with commentary and publish the whole work in thirty months. But today thirty years have passed and that work has not been done and that translation has not been printed. This too could have been assumed in the dream that the Holy Quran has been printed and reached the whole world!

Our young people should learn languages

Today I want to put a proposal before you. I have previously drawn your attention to this, that our young people should make an effort to learn other languages. Only those people who have acquired knowledge of religion can present Islam and the Holy Quran in other languages. If you have the zeal in your heart you can learn anything. Our young people should not give up. If each of them takes one language, and then tries hard, he can acquire skill in that language in two to three years. Especially those young people who have passed B.A. or M.A., they can learn other languages quickly.

Fall in prayer before Allah

If you cannot do anything else then fall in prayer before Allah and beseech Him for help in this work. The Holy Prophet Muhammad had a hut set up in the battlefield of Badr in which he prayed before Allah all night. Allah granted his prayers and he was victorious. If we fall in prayer before God with the same zeal and urge, will He not help us? Certainly He will help us. Never think that a person can still remain unsuccessful even by falling in prayer before God. Fall in prayer before Allah; He has power over everything and will make resources available. On the one side prepare yourself for the work, and on the other pray to God the Most High.

Learning languages not enough, learn Quran also

For this work it is not sufficient to learn languages only. Knowledge of religion is also required. To read and learn the Holy Quran is easy, but to apply it to the problems of the world and to present solutions to these problems based on the Quran is a difficult task. Continue your individual study of the Quran in your own places, and then on a free day such as Sunday bring any questions and problems, and ask me about them. There is also Maulvi Sadr-ud-Din sahib and Maulvi Abdul Haq sahib, you can ask them as well.

It is essential to learn the Holy Quran. Some knowledge of Hadith and the history of Islam is also required. Along with that, learning languages is important. If you do this work, I assure you that it will benefit you in this world and the hereafter, and Allah the Most High will make you progress in every way.

Khutbas in this series:
4 Feb. 1944
18 Feb. 1944
3 March 1944