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The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be
upon him, said: ‘I asked God for three things, He gave me two and didn’t give
me one. I asked God to save my nation from being destroyed by natural
calamities and He gave it to me. I asked God to protect my nation from defeat
at the hands of a foreign enemy and He gave it to me. I asked God to save my
nation from being destroyed from within, and He did not give it to me.’ (Ibn
Khuzaimah)
Introduction
‘Dominion over palm and pine’; that’s how the British Empire was described by the historians. By the late 17th century it had
colonized many parts of the world, including vast regions of the Muslim world.
_001.jpg) Colonization was not only about exploiting natural resources; but
also to indoctrinate the conquered peoples to uphold British ideology and faith.
Missionaries worked feverishly in different areas of the British Empire to
spread the message of Christianity. Schools were set up and different tactics
were employed to reach their goals.
As the Muslims began to realize the danger of what they
were facing, they united, mobilized and launched ‘freedom’ assaults to free
their lands from the clutches of the ruthless Empire. Hand to hand combat and
armed confrontations were nothing new to the British, but as the Muslim attacks
grew relentless and deadlier, they adopted a new tactic, ‘divide and
dominate’. Instead of squaring off with the Muslims face to face, they
incited individuals among the Muslims to form their own groups and to split
away from Mainstream Sunni Islam. Ideological warfare was launched against the
Muslims, as were the instructions of Louis IX, the so called “Lieutenant of God
on Earth” who failed miserably in his Crusader attempts.
One of the groups that formed during that time were the
Qadiyani group, also known as Ahmadis, which came into existence in the year
1889.
Fable Steps to Fame
Of course, not just anyone can come up and announce
himself to be a ‘Prophet’ of God. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed understood this and took
his mission one step at a time. Initially he claimed to be a Revivalist of
Islam. He said: “We are Muslims. We believe in the One God without a
partner and in the Testimony of Faith. We believe in the Book of God, the
Quran, in His Messenger Muhammad. We believe in angels, the resurrection, Hell
and Paradise. We observe the prescribed prayers and the fast. We turn to the
Qibla for prayers and forbid ourselves what is forbidden by God and His Prophet
and permit ourselves what is permitted. We add not a thing to the Islamic Law,
nor subtract any thing from it. Islamic law is above change.”
With claims such as this and possessing powerful
articulate skills, he was able to gain considerable ground with many Muslims. In
the year 1891 he claimed to be the ‘Promised Messiah’ and the Mahdi. Finally,
in the year 1901 he took the plunge and announced that he was a Prophet of God.
The 31 flavors of Qadiyanism…
In order for Mirza to gain favor with all people, he incorporated
into his faith elements of every religion that was present in his area; thus,
his doctrine incorporated Indian, Sufi, Islamic, and Western elements.
Mirza Ghluam Ahmed had claimed so many things that it is
difficult to chronologically arrange them.
a. He claimed to be God and the Creator of the
Heavens and the Earth. He has written, “I saw in my dreams that I AM
ALLAH/God and I believed, no doubt I am The One Who created the Heavens.”
[Aaina-e-Kamaalaat]
b. He claimed to be nine prophets. He
said, “I am Adam. I am Noah. I am Abraham. I am Ishmael.
I am Moses. I am Jesus and I am Muhammad.” [Roohaani Khazaaim]
c. He claimed to be the mother of Prophet Jesus
and then he claimed to be Prophet Jesus himself. He said the ‘first
God’ converted him into Mary. After two years, God made him pregnant for ten
months, after which God converted him into Jesus. [Roohaani Khazaain]
d. He claimed that he was Muhammad, the
Messenger of God. “Muhammad is the Messenger of God and those with him
are hard against the disbelievers and merciful amongst themselves.”(Quran
48:29) He claimed that in this divine revelation, he himself was
named Muhammad and also the Messenger. [Roohaani Khazaain, vol. 18, page
207]
e. He claimed to be the Mahdi and the Promised
Messiah, though he did not fulfill any of the conditions laid by Prophet
Muhammad regarding the Mahdi and the Promised Messiah.
f. In a lecture given in Sialkot in 1904, he
declared that God had informed him that Krishna who had appeared among the
Aryas thousands of years ago was indeed a prophet of God upon whom the Holy
Spirit descended from God, but that later his teachings were corrupted and he
began to be worshipped. Here he claimed that he was the avatar whom the Hindus
were awaiting in the latter days, and that he had appeared in the likeness of Krishna invested with the same qualities.
Breakout
The Ahmadiyah group split into two individual groups. This
occurred after the death of Hakim Noor-ud-Din, the first successor of Mirza
Ghulam Ahmed. The first group is known as ‘Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’
and the second, the smaller one, is known as ‘Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for
the Propagation of Islam’.
The differences between the two can be summarized in two
points. The first point is their belief regarding the prophethood of Mirza
Ghulam Ahmed. The Lahore Ahmadiyya group considers Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a
Prophet in the metaphorical sense of the word; whereas, the Ahmadiyyah Muslim
Community holds that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a Prophet, holding all necessary
qualities a Prophet should have.
The second difference is how they view mainstream Sunni
Muslims. The Lahore Ahmadiyya group believes that any person who professes the
Testimony of Faith to be a Muslim, and cannot be called a non-Muslim.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that any Muslim
who has not accepted Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claim is a non-Muslim, even if the
person has not even heard the name of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in his life.
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