From the very beginning of man's
spiritual self-awareness, God has always appointed -- and taught -- righteous
human beings as His exalted prophets and messengers. Their missions have always
been the same: to deliver to their people God's divine teachings and to also
become living, holy examples and embodiments of those same divine teachings.
The desired result is for people to be righteous reflections of God's Divine
Attributes and love and serve God and His creation.
There are over 100 Divine Attributes of
God -- some of which are exclusively His, such as “The All-Knowing,” “The
Eternal” and “The All-Powerful” -- but most of these are innate and we are
meant to manifest them in our daily lives. These godly qualities include being
Kind-hearted, Generous, Loving, Honest, Just, Peaceful, Truthful, Merciful,
Forgiving and Patient.
When this happens, goodness and peace reign, and evil, hatred and
strife are combated and dissipated. What this is, in a word, is “Love.” And it
is this fostering of love -- for God and for all His creatures and His creation
-- which is the ultimate purpose of all the prophets of God. And this is also
why, in Islam, Muslims are commanded to believe in and respect all prior
prophets sent by God because of just this divine, unifying purpose.
It is also a fundamental belief in Islam that God has always
commanded His chosen prophets and messengers to proclaim to their people that
God is not -- nor has He ever been -- a force of nature or celestial object,
nor any created being (human or otherwise) nor any man-made idol -- but rather,
that God is and always has been the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the Universe
and its sole Deity. He is non-physical, wholly transcendent above His creation,
and completely unbounded by it or contained within it in any way.
God states this succinctly and clearly in verses
2-5 of the 112th chapter of the Holy Quran, called Al-Ikhlaas:
Proclaim:
He is Allah, the One -- Allah, the Independent and
Besought
by all. He begets not,
nor is He
begotten; and there is
none like
unto Him. [112:2-5]
What these verses mean is that,
fundamentally and eternally, God has always been and will always be only and
singularly One, and that there is nothing and no one in heaven or on Earth like
Him who is worthy of our worship.
All other earlier teachings -- from
whatever religion -- that present ideas contrary to this pristine Oneness can
be shown to be deviations from that clear, divine commandment to believe in the
pure, non-physical Oneness of God, which God Himself has stated so decisively
in the Holy Quran and in previously revealed Divine Scriptures such as the Torah.
All that Islam adds to this is that Muhammad (peace be upon him)
-- who represents and embodies all the eternal spiritual truths delivered by
previous prophets -- is God’s all-encompassing messenger for all mankind and
the last Law-bearing prophet sent into the world. No new Law-bearing prophet
will be sent after Muhammad (pbuh), nor will any new Holy Law be given after
the Quran.
What is promised by God is that He will appoint righteous servants
as needed to rekindle in the hearts of mankind the cleansing flame of the pure
love and worship of God. He will do this at His sole discretion as the Master
of all Creation and the Day of Judgment, and in answer to the needs of mankind
for its moral, spiritual and worldly reformation. The purpose of which is so
that human beings may rediscover, comprehend and put into practice the true
teachings of the Holy Quran and the life-giving example of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh).
To that end, most Muslims -- both Sunni and Shia -- believe that
God has done this by raising up and appointing spiritual, saintly reformers
every century following the advent of Islam and the passing away of the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) 1400 years ago.
And while most Muslims believe in the advent of a Divinely-Guided
spiritual leader known as the Imam Mahdi, as well as the Second Coming of Jesus
Christ (pbuh), only Ahmadi Muslims believe both of these advents have occurred
(as promised by Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Quran) in the person and writings
of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian, India. Ahmad established the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889 under divine decree and shortly thereafter
-- again under divine decree -- proclaimed that he was, in fact, the Imam Mahdi
for Muslims and the Second Coming of the Messiah.
“Love for All - Hatred for None” is the motto of the Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community. We now have Chapters in over 200 countries of the world with
total membership numbering in the tens of millions. We are striving for peace,
justice, serving humanity (HumanityFirst.org) and bringing spiritual
enlightenment and moral purification to all of humanity.
We oppose all forms of terrorism and oppression, be it of
individuals or groups, and we condemn all such acts as being completely
un-Islamic and against the teachings and example of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh). And while Ahmadis have frequently been the targets of extremist Muslim
violence, persecution and even murder, no Ahmadi Muslim has ever responded in
kind.
For all those peace-loving Muslims seeking the true face of Islam,
they will find it within the members and in the spiritual leadership (Khilafat)
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
And for all those non-Muslims curious to find the true face of
Islam they, too, will find it in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and its system
of Divinely-supported Khilafat. And finally, to all those who fear, hate or
despise Islam, or who decry the silence of the peaceful Muslims of the world
(or who do not believe such Muslims even exist), we invite them to study the
original and pure teachings of Islam presented by the peaceful Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community and embodied by its tens of millions of devout members from around
the world.
Those who fear, hate or despise Islam will not find within the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or in its members any evidence of what they fear,
hate or despise because Ahmadiyyat is the true Islam that we invite the world
to discover, support and freely embrace, if they so wish.
May God open the hearts of all people living in ignorance or
hatred or fear -- and all people who seek God -- so that true love and peace
may enter into their hearts, and reign as Love Supreme.
_______________________________
To learn more about Ahmadiyya
Islam or to visit Ahmadiyya mosques in Southern California (Chino &
Hawthorne), call 909-627-2252 or 1-866-WHY-ISLAM. To find an Ahmadiyya chapter
near you, call 1-800-WHY-ISLAM or go online to: Ahmadiyya.us to see all
Chapters. For information on Ahmadiyya, go online to: MuslimsForPeace.org or Alislam.org
