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| Qadian |
In India of the early 1900s there lived a poet-philosopher whose influence in the political world was so great that he is now revered- whether rightly or wrongly- by the Muslims of Pakistan as one of the minds who created that nation. This poet looked around him at the condition of the Muslims and was compelled to lament:
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| Sir Muhammad Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) |
What made Allama Iqbal so publicly lament the condition of the Muslims?
Prior to the advent of The Holy Prophet s.a.w the Arabs had been one of the most backward and weakest people in the world, who were at almost perpetual civil war with one another and often didn't hesitate to kill their own daughters. The advent of Allah's Apostle, Muhammad s.a.w, changed everything and Islam reached it's absolute zenith in the 620s. At that time, The Holy Prophet s.a.w was still amongst the Muslims and most of Arabia had accepted him both as their prophet and as their king and the surrounding areas were beginning to come under his influence.
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The results of these sustained attacks over the following two centuries were horrendous. Millions of Muslim soldiers and civilians were martyred, Jerusalem was lost to the Christians and Baghdad was lost to the Mongols. After a period, the Muslim world did to some extent recover, but the golden era which had been ushered in by The Holy Prophet s.a.w. of unchallenged Islamic supremacy in every field was over.
Nevertheless, the successes of Islam continued. Saintly Muslims would gain wide renown. The Muslims also held empires in almost every region of the known world. Islam had spread and gained significant footholds in Russia and Eastern Europe, Spain, France and Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Asia, South Asia and East Asia. There was virtually no part of the known world- bearing in mind that the Americas and Australia were undiscovered- in which Islam did not have a powerful foothold.
However, history shows that as the centuries passed a slow decline began to take hold of the Muslim world. This decline began to correlate with the exponential advances of the Christian nations, following the industrial revolution in 1750. The Muslim strongholds and powers in Europe were obliterated. Egypt and Africa were gradually lost in their entirety to the Europeans- who also discovered and controlled the Americas and Australian continents. East Asia and the Mughal Empire (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India etc.) were both lost to the advancing Christian nations.
The few remaining independent Muslim nations were characterised by their shocking weaknesses, their obvious internal decline and their shrinking borders. For example, Ottaman Empire (Turkey) was occasionally at war with their fellow Muslims from Persia. However, they Muslims weren't just busy killing Muslims from other nations, they were often found to be rebelling or betraying or in a state of civil war amongst themselves in their very own country. The Muslim rulers were also cruel and in the name of Islam would implement barbaric laws that would persecute their own people.
However, the decline of the Muslims was not limited to the temporal fields. The Christians, the atheists and other religions were united in openly publishing the most disgusting kinds of literature attacking Islam and The Holy Prophet s.a.w. The Muslims were too busy to respond- they had divided into dozens of sects and were more interested in insulting and fighting one another than in defending Islam.
The results of this was the advance of the Christian religion in the Muslim worlds. Certainly thousands and probably millions of Muslims were converted to Christianity and the Christians themselves were gleefully taking note of this trend:
The confidence gained by the Christians in their continued successes against the Muslims were so great that they even envisaged an ultimate victory and the total annihilation of Islam:
Over the period of just a few decades, there had been a total reversal in the fortunes of the Muslims in both religious and worldly terms and it was to this terrible state of affairs that Allama Iqbal referred to in the poem we have mentioned above.
The Modern Era of Islam
Although, at least officially, the Muslim nations have gained independence and there are now 57 of them around the world and so there situation has improved over the last few decades. Moreover, they have discovered that 70% or more of the world's most valuable commodity- oil- is found in Muslim countries. It was the extreme wealth of these Muslim nations which once lead the former U.S. vice-President, Dick Cheney, to observe:
It has proven to be one of the great modern tragedies that despite possessing so much of the world's wealth, such a huge chunk of the world's population and sovereignty in one third of the world's independent states, the Muslims haven't really benefited in any way from any of these blessings. In every field, from military, to economy, to technology, to art, to sport, the Muslims remain far behind their Western counterparts and their problems have continued to mount.
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The situation in other Muslim countries is little better. Many are currently or have recently been ruled by cruel dictators. Libya was recently destroyed by Western powers and Al-Qaeda are increasingly influential in that nation. Syria and other countries in the Middle East are effectively in a constant state of civil war between the Sunni and Shia sects.
In countries like Pakistan and Egypt, there are regular reports of Muslims killing non-Muslim minorities such as Christians and Hindus. However, they never limit themselves to just non-Muslims and often enjoy killing Ahmadis and Shias in their spare time. Muslim countries like Pakistan and Nigeria are considered two of the most corrupt in the world, so much so that the joke in Pakistan goes that Nigeria was the most corrupt country in the world, until Pakistan bribed the officials to promote it to the number one spot...Pakistan is also a particularly sad case, as it invited Western powers to use it's cities as a base to destroy another Muslim nation, only for those same Western 'allies' to turn on Pakistan and start to use drone attacks to kill it's civilians and sometimes even deliberately attack Pakistan's military personnel. Huge parts of Pakistan are so wild that they are effectively ruled by the local branch of the Taliban, rather than the central government.
We do not have time to discuss all the Muslim nations that are either in a state of civil war or have been so recently, but there is no harm in giving one or two more examples. In Iraq, some of it's cities are considered the most dangerous in the world because there is so much sectarian violence between the Sunnis and the Shias. The case of Iraq is particularly sad, as it was ruled by a cruel dictator who massacred his own people for many decades, before being invaded and destroyed by Western powers not once but twice.
Afghanistan is another country where the warlords regularly ignite the fire of civil war. The only time the country has any rest from this exercise seems to be when they are invaded and destroyed by a Christian nation, whether it is Russia in the 80s or USA over the last few decades.
It would be a total waste of time to discuss the human rights violations Muslim countries are so often committing against their own people. The list is lengthy and includes basically every Muslim country and anyone can look this stuff up by reading the human rights reports of various charities and organisations.
Muslim countries also regularly join and help Western powers in going to war with one another, despite being forbidden by the Quran to do so. Apparently they have never heard of 'divide et impera' or 'divide and conquer', a phrase used by Julius Caesar a couple of thousand years ago and still being used by the West successfully to divide and destroy Muslim nations.
Then there is the sad case of Iran. This country was at war with Iraq only a few decades ago and this was a war in which approximately a million people were killed and which cost the two nations an estimated 1 trillion US dollars. Now, the Muslim countries are encouraging Israel to attack Iran on their behalf. Many of the world were shocked when wikileaks revealed that the King of Saudi had given Israel permission to fly over it's land to bomb Iran and was even actively encouraging the U.S.A to do so.
The state of the religious beliefs of the Muslims is not much better. The spread of communism in Eastern Europe, Russia, Northern Asia, China and East Asia did a great deal of damage to the religion in those nations. Pew Forum recently did a survey on religious beliefs and practices in Muslim countries. The results were shocking. For example, 98% of the Muslims in Albania do not perform the five daily prayers. Huge proportions of the Muslims round the world believe strongly in superstitions and many even do not know or believe in the Kalima according to the same survey. Then again, perhaps this should not be a surprise when the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia- the most prominent position in Sunni Islam- has stated his belief that all churches in Muslim countries should be destroyed, a statement directly in contradiction to the Quran, the words of The Holy Prophet s.a.w. and his Khalifas.
Economically speaking, having been blessed with most of the world's natural wealth, the Muslims are busy squandering it at unprecedented levels. Despite it's huge oil wealth, Dubai recently had to be bailed out to the tune of 10 billion dollars. The reason was that although the country outwardly adheres to Islam, economically they had been totally betraying Islamic law and spending extravagantly using interest based loans. Meanwhile, the Islamic bank of Britain, supposedly the first Islamic banking institution in the country, had to receive tens of million of pounds in a bailout too. The debts of Muslim nations continue to pile on and various economies are to all extents and purposes wrecked.
It also seems that the Muslim leaders and people are in many places morally bankrupt too. You only have to pick up a newspaper to find almost daily stories to the effect. Islam is constantly associated with terrorism and various immoral social practices. In fact, the crusade being made by the media and western 'academics' against Islam is perhaps more dangerous than the military expeditions of these countries. Never before has Islam been so viciously and openly attacked around the world.
The awful situation of the Muslims was surmised by Akber S. Ahmed, the non-Ahmadi Muslim who is currently chair of Islamic Studies at the American University of Washington:
Why is the condition of the Muslims so sad?
In the Quran, the Muslims have been promised the Help of Allah and the victory from him, so how is it possible that the Muslims keep being invaded, conquered and destroyed by the non-Muslim powers? The answer to this question was given by The Holy Prophet s.a.w:
The first part of the hadith is a clear prophecy that in the latter days the spread of promiscuity will result in new diseases such as AIDS, which came into existence in the 1980s- about twenty years after the 'sexual revolution' of the 1960s. Anyhow, it is the end part of the hadith in which we are interested in, in which The Holy Prophet s.a.w. clearly states that when the Muslims break their convenant with Allah, meaning leave the true teachings of Islam, they will suffer from two indignities. Firstly, they will suffer from non-Muslim powers taking 'their possessions by force' and secondly they will suffer from 'making them fight one another' meaning civil wars, both of which have occurred commonly in the Muslim nations in the last few centuries and been a regular source of their destruction. So it is today that the Muslims have totally left the true teachings of Islam and are suffering for this and anyone who denies this fact also denies the words of The Holy Prophet s.a.w.
It has never happened in human history, not even once, that a nation has removed itself from the right path and been returned to goodness without the aid of a divine messenger or mujaddid. Never has humanity reformed itself without the aid of divine guidance. If there has been such an example, we challenge our readers to find a single one from the Quran or the Bible or the Hadith.
The reality is that whenever humanity has gone badly astray and suffered a great deal, they have been brought back to truth by the guidance of Allah being brought to them by a prophet or reformer He has sent. When the descendants of Adam had turned to idolatry they were sent Noah and then later Abraham. When the Jews were enslaved and cruelly persecuted and murdered by Pharaoh, they were sent Moses. When they were conquered by the Romans and had been scattered during wars, they were sent Jesus. When the Arabs had become the most backwards nation of an era of human darkness, they were sent the light of mankind, The Holy Prophet s.a.w.
So what is to become of the Muslim nation now that it too has gone astray? Even this was answered by The Holy Prophet s.a.w:
The Holy Prophet s.a.w vividly described the terrible conditions which the Muslims will endure, where people who speak their own language and are from their own nation, meaning other Muslims, will be the ones calling them to Hell. However, he has also advised them of the way to save themselves from these conditions. Firstly, The Holy Prophet s.a.w. has said that there will be many sects, but only one will be rightly guided. Of course, we all are aware how in 1974 the entire Muslim Ummah, with representatives from every country, unprecedentedly united against a single sect- The Ahmadiyya Muslim sect- to make declarations against the Ahmadis.
Secondly, The Holy Prophet s.a.w. said one of the people of Salman the Persian will bring the religion of Allah back, even if it has escaped to The Pleiades, meaning far off stars. Of course, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was, like Salman the Persian, was a non Arab and of Persian descent.
Finally, The Holy Prophet s.a.w advised that the truthful Muslims would form a Jamaat and would have an Imam and that the Muslims must stick to this community and it's Imam. Of course, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has called itself a Jamaat from it's very inception and have had an Imam on whose hand we unite throughout: The Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi and his Khalifas who have succeeded him turn by turn.
What did the Persian Imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Achieve?
Often non-Ahmadi Muslims think, okay it is absolutely correct that The Holy Prophet s.a.w. predicted this age of problems and predicted that a reformer would come to resolve those problems amongst the Muslim Ummah. However, they ask, many of the problems still exist, so what did the Imam actually achieve?
Let us just briefly touch on a few short points. Firstly, the Imam of the age told the Muslims as early as the 1800s to reform their conceptions of the Jihad. He requested the clerics and leaders to issue a joint fatwa which he himself would publish in numerous languages, which informed the masses not to think of violent Jihad. However, they refused and we have seen the result in the development of 'Islamic' terrorism and today we have the situation where the leading clerics have been humiliated to the extent that now on the command of Christian nations such as the USA, Islamic clerics such as Tahir-ul-Qadri have had to issue a fatwa informing the Muslims that suicide bombing is against the teachings of Islam. They could have avoided this abject humiliation at the hands of a Christian nation had they followed the instructions of their Messiah to do the exact same thing over a century ago and the problem could have been averted.
Then there is the hadith:
Again, in accordance with the hadith above, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad has successfully been blessed with the only Khilafat in the Muslim world. Another hadith says:
Whilst Christianity, the religion of the cross, held sway until the 1900s in Europe and North America, huge parts of these continents have seen the death of this religion in recent years, with empty churches closing and large swathes of the population turning towards atheism and other beliefs and this is recorded in the statistics and studies of the Europeans themselves. Africa and Asia were two of the continents on which this religion made most progress during the 1800s, but the arrival of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad reversed this trend and it is now Islam which is the fastest growing religion on the planet and Ahmadiyya is the fastest growing sect of this religion- and this was reported by a study carried out by Christian scholars! In fact, even some of the most prominent Christian and non-Ahmadi Muslim leaders and scholars admit that Ahamdiyya is has produced the greatest refutations of Christian theology in modern history.
Today, the followers of the Persian Imam have built thousands of mosques and hundreds of free schools and hospitals in the poorest parts of the world. They have built the first free global Islamic T.V. channel in history and it continues to air 24/7 without a single advert. They have spread to almost every country and are spreading the message of peace and love which has already been accepted by tens of millions of people. And there is no power on Earth which can stop the spread of that message which will, God willing, conquer the hearts of mankind and conquer the religious world, if not in this day and age then one day soon.
Today, the followers of the Persian Imam have built thousands of mosques and hundreds of free schools and hospitals in the poorest parts of the world. They have built the first free global Islamic T.V. channel in history and it continues to air 24/7 without a single advert. They have spread to almost every country and are spreading the message of peace and love which has already been accepted by tens of millions of people. And there is no power on Earth which can stop the spread of that message which will, God willing, conquer the hearts of mankind and conquer the religious world, if not in this day and age then one day soon.
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