MUFTI MUHAMMAD SADIQ AWARD COMMENTS LINK

Link (below) to YouTube video of my comments upon receiving the Mufti Muhammad Sadiq Award -- how I became Ahmadi Muslim. . .  Below that is the link to comments on receiving the same award by my friend & fellow Tabligh (preaching) Road Dawg, Rahman Abdul Aleem. Please watch his video first, as I make mention of his experiences in conjunction with mine in similarity and impact.
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Ghaffar's comments on receiving the 2016 Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) Award Ceremony May 28th: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVhlzmJrGY

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Aleem's comments on receiving the 2016 Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) Award Ceremony May 28th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HphZKX-KMQo

POLICE IN THE BLACK AND WHITE SPOTLIGHT

I have all respect for police officers, considering the nature and danger of their job, but there is the matter of responsibility. And self-control. Regarding the series of events in recent years wherein (usually) white police officers kill black men or teens who are usually either unarmed or armed with lesser caliber weapons than the officers, a thought occurred to me after hearing (yet again) how the (usually) white police officer shot the black person because the officer "feared for his life." 

You would think if there was one occupation where the ability to control NOT being in fear for your life would be a required prerequisite, being a police officer would be that job. And since many police officers are combat vets, you would think being able to maintain your calm and NOT let a dangerous situation make you act violently and impulsively out of fear would be something they were already familiar with. 

But maybe investigation would find that the majority of these officers who do shoot black people were combat vets and that maybe THAT is the problem in itself -- being involved in chaotic firefights where you might be tempted to "let all hell break loose" in a fearful encounter out of fear for your life or in revenge after seeing your fellow soldiers and friends killed. 

More needs to be done to train police officers to be able to respond appropriately and proportionally to threats. I find it very hard to buy the "I feared for my life" response when the officer has a gun and is 10 feet away from a suspect who is armed with a rock or a knife or nothing at all. Maybe it’s a matter of prevention. Perhaps better psychological evaluations are needed to prevent ex-vets with PTSD from becoming police officers in the first place. 

And for those officers already in the field, why don't they train them to use Tasers, or to shoot for the legs in such situations instead of "kill zones"? And I can't help but wonder what the statistics are for incidents of officers killing unarmed or lesser-armed suspects who are white instead of brown, compared to the scenarios we've been seeing over and over again. 

Is it just a matter of white officers fearing black males as opposed to white males in an otherwise similar police / suspect encounter? What's sad is that I even have to ask such tragic questions at all in this day and age. Sometimes I feel like D.W. Griffith’s unapologetically pro-Klan and unabashedly racist film "Birth of a Nation" was made a year ago instead of a century ago.

5,000 WORDS OF THANKS TO MR. BRADBURY

Not far from our mosque in Chino, there's a Goodwill thrift store where I often go looking for used books -- James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Walter Mosley, John D. MacDonald, et al. So what usually happens is I'm riding my bike heading for the main intersection where the Goodwill is, and I sometimes get this "urging" to go in there because there's something cool I need to check out. I've learned to listen to this quiet insistence (my being nudged, as it were, by the Higher Power I call Allah) and I am always rewarded.

This time around (about a week ago), I get nudged to go inside and peruse. . . I see a Travis McGee novel (Darker than Amber) which I promptly snap up, plus a book called "Aromatherapy A-Z" which intrigues my didactic sensibilities, and I spy a Bradury classic: "Fahrenheit 451" -- but since I've already got a copy, I do no more than give it a loving glance of appreciation and fond remembrance.

But something keeps pulling me back to it, so finally I pull it out from between some cookbooks where it was resting (did the book shelver mistake it for recipes?) and I see that it's a 40th anniversary edition with a new introduction by its esteemed author. I open the nice-but-not-mint copy and there, on the inside front page, is the large looping scrawl of a signature: Ray Bradbury and a date: 3-18-94. O-M-G as the kids today would say.

Yes, I was seeing that right: a signed 40th anniversary edition of "Fahrenheit 451" !!! Needless to say, it was soon mine for a mere $3. And the oddest part of it was that, for some unknown reason, page 58-59 had been half torn from the tome. A fitting irony about a book where firemen "censored" books by setting them on fire.

And it got me to thinking about my "homage" to Bradbury's classic, something I'd written almost as an explanation to myself in answer to the question: How could such a state of affairs evolve in the modern age? My answer was the 5,000 words you see below -- "Mightier than the Sword" -- written before I changed my name after accepting Islam Ahmadiyya in 1994. (By the way, I have in my typewriter collection a 1929 Royal just like the one displayed in the title. Can you spot the "mistake" in the image? Hint: I wanted the typewriter to face toward the lettering in the title, not away from it, so I used a manipulation common in all graphic design programs. I used Quark to create the magazine-style portfolio of my writings (and some from a few friends) which I produced when I lived on Maui from 1996-2000. That's why the issue number is "0". . .  Enjoy!)

21st ANNIVERSARY OF MY 2nd CONVERSION

Today, April 22nd, marks my 21st anniversary of emotionally / spiritually accepting Ahmadiyya Islam . . . I took Bai'at (initiation) on Jan. 22nd 1994, but that was essentially an intellectual, reason-based acceptance of the truth of Islam as it was presented by Ahmadiyyat & Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his successors & scholars.

But it was after having a decidedly non-intellectual spiritual experience that I was convinced at the core of my being of the truth of the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi. You can check out my conversion story at the link below. At the 28-min. mark is where I start discussing my conversion directly.

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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar’s Oct. 11th 2012 1-hour radio interview: “How I became Ahmadi Muslim”

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/…/Jonathan%20Ghaffar%201-…

THE NATURE OF GOD, HIS PROPHETS, AND THE PROMISED REFORMATION OF ISLAM

         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.  
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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

SOLVING THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE "TROUBLES"

I was watching Al-Jazeera America this morning -- they had George Mitchell on talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said in Northern Ireland, on the eve they signed the peace accords that pretty much ended "The Troubles" there, 85% of those polled said they saw no hope for peace. Then they had it. The same thing can happen in the Israel-Palestine situation. 

Once the situation is in place, it can be maintained -- so long as people on both sides want that to happen. Therein lies the rub. To the Muslims in this situation, I say "Remember the Treaty of Hudaibiyya!" -- it was roundly criticized by the companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) as unjust, a humiliation and an insult to their honor, etc. etc. but that did not keep Muhammad (pbuh) from signing it and choosing peace over war. The word "Muslim" means one who seeks peace with and submission to God, and by extension, His creation. You can't love God and hate your fellow man.

Islam also commands Muslims to not be the aggressors in a conflict, nor to attack or kill non-combatants (i.e., civilians), and to end aggression as soon as possible -- especially if the enemy calls for peace. In Islam, a Muslim government is required to cease hostilities and grant peace if so desired by the enemy. So as long as the Muslims violate these laws of God in the Quran and do not follow the sunnah (example) of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), they will continue to be cursed with disunity, worldliness and ignorance among themselves, and suffer violence and oppression at the hands of their Muslim brethren (as in Syria and Iraq) and from others. 

And speaking of the Israelis, they must answer to God for their intransigence and evils as well. Ironic that a group who suffered at the hands of one group of oppressors 75 years ago can become oppressors themselves and see nothing wrong with that -- defend it even, in the name of "payback" and their survival as a state and a people. If what the Israelis do with their Jewish settlements is OK, then let them allow one Palestinian settlement inside Israel for every Israeli settlement they have in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Suddenly it's not so OK anymore, is it? 

Remove labels in any conflict and leave just the actions themselves and judge the good or the evil of it then. It will be easy and clear. Now keep the labels off and treat people as you would desire and deserve to be treated as a human being. Now put the labels back on. And now apply the required justice and righteous behavior as you would have it for yourself without the labels. Problem solved.

A GEM FROM THE MASTER, RAY BRADBURY. . .

I’ve been reading one of my great inspirations, Ray Bradbury – his collected non-fiction writings called “Bradbury Speaks”. . .  On pages 46-47 I found this wonderful gem [I can “hear” this in Carl Sagan’s voice]:

“The unknown celestial environment cries out to be known. We are the delegates of cognition whose task it is to witness and celebrate. The Cosmos thrives through us. The dead stuffs of planetary time are roused to life because we say it’s so. We pitiful worms have dreamed a cocoon of metal, glass, and fire and have come forth as homely moths and then fine papillons to cross space and annul time. Our conscious mind wonders at this. Our secret mind knows. It speaks. We listen and dream ourselves better cocoons.”                                                                                                                                   – Ray Bradbury

If, in the not too distant future, we survive our own lesser natures burning to destroy us, and succeed in building and manning the ships that cross the interstellar seas, it will be the greatest ingratitude if we do not christen our ships with the monikers of those envisioneers, those literary spellbinders named Bradbury, Burroughs, Wells, Asimov, Heinlein, Clark and others who have sailed there before us, taking us with them, that we may meet ourselves in their company at some far distant time in the silent expanse of solitude and destiny that is space, our final frontier. -- JMAG