[ This is a response to an Email received via the 1-800-WHY-ISLAM information service from someone requesting information about Ahmadiyya Muslim beliefs and proofs thereof. Below is my answer. In my original Email response, I attached some PDFs of books which are obviously no longer attached because it is being posted here. The books listed below can be downloaded for free at the Library section of the AMC main website: www.alislam.org -- MAGhaffar)
Salaam alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatahu & a belated Eid Mubarak!
My name is Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar and I am on the Follow-up Team at the 1-800-WHY-ISLAM info line.
I was forwarded your June 27th Email requesting info about Ahmadiyya beliefs & proofs thereof. My apologies for the tardy response. I hope you find this information helpful. . .
The beliefs part is fairly straight forward, which I encourage you to examine in-depth at our main website www.alislam.org -- there you will find all the info on Ahmadiyyat in whatever language you read fluently. I suggest reading "Invitation to Ahmadiyyat" by our 2nd Khalifa, Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad (ra) which you can read at this link: http://www.alislam.org/books/invitation/index.html
-- the preface (the first 50 pgs or so) answers every major issue raised by our opponents from the start of the community in 1889 to the present time, and the remainder of the book provides all the "proofs" and evidences you would need to arrive at a rational conclusion provided you seek such with an open mind and heart. Remember, Abu Jahl was called Abu Hikam because he was considered the wisest man among the Mecaans -- yet he could not see or accept the truth of Islam when it first came with the Holy Prophet (saw). Now he is only remembered as Abu Jahl. There are never any shortages of Abu Jahls in the world, but there is only one Holy Prophet (saw).
-- the preface (the first 50 pgs or so) answers every major issue raised by our opponents from the start of the community in 1889 to the present time, and the remainder of the book provides all the "proofs" and evidences you would need to arrive at a rational conclusion provided you seek such with an open mind and heart. Remember, Abu Jahl was called Abu Hikam because he was considered the wisest man among the Mecaans -- yet he could not see or accept the truth of Islam when it first came with the Holy Prophet (saw). Now he is only remembered as Abu Jahl. There are never any shortages of Abu Jahls in the world, but there is only one Holy Prophet (saw).
Another shorter booklet which covers the same topic is by our 4th Khalifa, Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (ra) called "With Love to the Muslims of the World." I am attaching that as a PDF file, along with PDFs of other seminal books by the Imam Mahdi, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, especially: "The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam" (which convinced me of the truth of Islam), "Essence of Islam vols.1-5" and "The Need for the Imam." If you read Urdu, you can find these in Urdu in the Library section under Urdu Books. I have attached their English translations only.
Ahmadi Muslims, first of all, declare themselves to be Muslims and followers of the Holy Quran, the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (saw) and the teachings contained in hadith that do not contradict or contravene the Quran and the Sunnah.
This means: Ahmadi Muslims believe in the six Articles of Faith and five Pillars of Islam. We face toward the Ka'abah in all our five daily prayers and we profess "Laaa ilahah ilullah, Muhammadur Rasoolullah." There is none worthy of worship except Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. We greet each other and other Muslims with the salutation "As-Salaamu alaikum" and as Allah Himself commands in the Quran (4:95*) "... and say not to anyone who greets you the greeting of peace, "Thou art not a believer." . . .
As you probably know, this is exactly what the Muslim world at large does with regard to Ahmadi Muslims at the behest of Mullahs and Ulemma, not at the behest of Allah as cited in 4:95. Pakistan has even changed its constitution to legislate this declaration that Ahmadis are not "believers" and have enacted harsh blasphemy laws targeting Ahmadis by name to forbid them to "act or pose" as Muslims, call the Adhan, say Salaam alaikum, call their places of worship Mosgues, etc. etc. with punishments raging from fines, years of inprisonment or even capital punishment. All such discriminatory actions are not only forbidden by Allah and his Messenger but were also the very same acts of discrimination and persecution enacted upon the first Muslims and the Holy Prophet (saw) by the Meccan idolators 1400 years ago.
In a hadith on how the latter-day Muslims would recognize the Imam Mahdi and his community of believers (who would be like the original sahabis of the Holy prophet (saw) in their devotion and piety; see ch.62:3-5*), the Holy Prophet (saw) told his companions that the followers of the Imam Mahdi would be persecuted and called "disbelievers" just as his companions were by the Meccan idolaters. But that just as Allah had protected and granted success to him and his companions, so too would Allah protect and grant success to the Imam Mahdi and his companions, as well as to the rightly-Guided Khilafat of spiritual successors promised by Allah in hadith about the advent of the Imam Mahdi.
In the verses preceding 4:95, Allah also forbids a Muslim from killing another Muslim intentionally, with the wrongdoer promised Hell as a reward for their evil actions. The targeted killings of Ahmadis in Pakistan and Indonesia are commonplace these days, either individually or collectively, as on May 28th 2010 in Lahore, where the police did nothing to stop Taliban extremists from murdering 86 Ahmadis at two of our mosques in sieges lasting two hours. The two Talibans eventually caught by Ahmadis themselves and handed over to the police were not charged and were quickly released from jail. The murderer of Punjab Gov. Salmaan Taseer was hailed as a hero instead of a cold-blooded killer.
(* Ahmadi translations always number the bismillah at the head of all chapters except 9, so our verse numbers, except for ch.9, will be one off from translations that do not number the bismillah. We number the bismillah by the simple logic that is a part of the chapter it heads with importance and spiritual blessing by its recitation -- a prayer to Allah for His blessings of Rahman and Raheem. It is not merely a sentence to mark the start of a new chapter as some Muslims think; it is a prayer that precedes the invocation of whatever Allah has commanded in each chapter.)
Ahmadi believe that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) is Khaataman nabiyeen, the greatest and last of the Law-bearing (shariah) prophets, and that no new Law-bearing shariah prophet will ever come, because the Quran states that it is the Final and Perfect Law for all mankind, and since no new Law from God is required or coming, neither is another Law-bearing prophet required or coming.
This does not mean that a follower prophet, wholly subservient to the Holy Prophet (saw) and the Law of the Quran cannot be sent by Allah, Who repeatedly states throughout the Quran that it is He alone Who Guides whoever He pleases, that He will raise up a "witness" to the Holy Prophet (saw), and that He sends down angels with revelation upon whomsoever of His servants He pleases (7:36-37, 11:18, 16:3).
There is no statement I have ever come across anywhere in the Quran or in the hadith that says that any of Allah's Attributes or Powers are ever diminished, suspended, terminated or withdrawn from operation by His command. So anyone who says Allah no longer speaks to His devoted servants or Guides them or Hears their prayers and Answers them, or Helps them against their enemies is speaking falsehood and speaking against the statements of Almighty Allah. Such people will answer to Allah for their actions. I choose to listen to and follow what Allah says, not those mere mortals whose beliefs and pronouncements are not corroborated by Allah and His Messenger.
There is no statement I have ever come across anywhere in the Quran or in the hadith that says that any of Allah's Attributes or Powers are ever diminished, suspended, terminated or withdrawn from operation by His command. So anyone who says Allah no longer speaks to His devoted servants or Guides them or Hears their prayers and Answers them, or Helps them against their enemies is speaking falsehood and speaking against the statements of Almighty Allah. Such people will answer to Allah for their actions. I choose to listen to and follow what Allah says, not those mere mortals whose beliefs and pronouncements are not corroborated by Allah and His Messenger.
What Ahmadi Muslims believe is what the Quran and the Holy Prophet (saw) told us to expect -- that the Imam Mahdi would come in the latter days (the beginning of the Islamic 14th century - circa 1870s) to rejuvenate Islam from its decayed and corrupted state. As no power on Earth could (nor did) prevent the advent of Islam 14 centuries ago, where it prevailed against overwhelming hostility, persecution and outright warfare, so too is the case with Allah's promised reformation and regeneration of Islam back to its pristine purity in the latter days (ch. 61: 1-10*) with the advent of the Imam Mahdi & Promised Messiah. Ahmadis believe that person was Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.
What is interesting to note is that -- as the end of the Muslim 14th century is now 32+ years in the past, and the coming of the Imam Mahdi was prophesied by the Holy Prophet (saw) to occur at the beginning of the Muslim 14th century -- the only person now days who is the primary if not sole focus of the rage and invective of the Mullahs and the Ulemma with their pronouncements of apostasy and disbelief is none other than Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. And the only time all of the Islamic sects all agreed on anything was in 1974 when their representatives convened in Pakistan's national assemby to unanimously declare Ahmadis to be non-Muslim.
It is easy to listen to the Mullahs and so-called Ulemma of today and declare Ahmadis non-Muslim -- sheep will always be sheep, after all. What is harder to do is use your head and your heart and see the current state of the Muslim world and ask yourself: is this the Islam of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)? I would venture you will have to agree that you will not find that Islam in Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Iraq or any other "Islamic" country in the world today.
So the next question you should be asking is: will Allah forsake the Muslims and leave them to rot away in ignorance and fanaticism and worldly materialism and spiritual corruption? Or will He do as He has promised and raise up the Imam Mahdi & Promised Messiah when He said He would to resurrect Islam and Muslims back to the true spirituality, teachings, humanity, respect and love of the original Islam and the Holy Prophet (saw)? This is the Islam I want to follow and practice. How about you?
So the next question you should be asking is: will Allah forsake the Muslims and leave them to rot away in ignorance and fanaticism and worldly materialism and spiritual corruption? Or will He do as He has promised and raise up the Imam Mahdi & Promised Messiah when He said He would to resurrect Islam and Muslims back to the true spirituality, teachings, humanity, respect and love of the original Islam and the Holy Prophet (saw)? This is the Islam I want to follow and practice. How about you?
What you will find in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a peaceful, law-abiding (Quranic and national), Khilafat-ruled body of Muslims who have accepted and believe in the Imam Mahdi & Promised Messiah and in his divinely-promised successorship of Khalifas (we are on #5 and counting), and who guide their lives by the Holy Quran (all of it, not just the parts they like) and the Sunnah and hadith of the Holy Prophet (saw) and who strive to embody the motto: "Love for All - Hatred for None."
This is the Islam I have accepted. If there is a better Islam out there that has all the blessings promised by Allah which are exhibited in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, please introduce it to me and will gladly accept it. Feel free to contact me via E-mail or my phone numbers below.
This is the Islam I have accepted. If there is a better Islam out there that has all the blessings promised by Allah which are exhibited in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, please introduce it to me and will gladly accept it. Feel free to contact me via E-mail or my phone numbers below.
Yours in the service of Islam and the Holy prophet (saw).
Allah Hafiz wa salaam.
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-- Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar - 1-800-WHY-ISLAM Follow-up Team
Cell: 909-525-5299
1-866-WHY-ISLAM (rings at Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino, CA)
1-800-WHY-ISLAM x.109 (press 109 when intro message starts)
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