Chapter Three: Historic Back-ground of Ahmadism
"I dare say the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement did hear a voice; but whether this voice came from the God of Life and Power or arose out of the spiritual impoverishment of the people must depend upon the nature of movement which it has created and the kind of thought and emotion which it has given to those who have listened to it."
This quotation comes from Dr. Iqbal who has clearly unmasked "the real content of Ahmadism in the light of the history of Muslim theological thought in India at least from the year 1799". He says: "The year 1799 is extremely impor- tant in the history of the world of Islam. In this year fell Tippu; and his fall meant the extinguish ment of Muslim hopes for political prestige in In- dia. In the same year was fought the battle of Na- varneo which saw the destruction of the Turkish fleet".
"Thus in the 1799 the political decay of Islam in Asia reached its climax. But just as out of the humiliation of Germany on the day of Jena arose the Modern German Nation, it may be said with equal truth that out of the political humilia- tion of Islam in the year 1799 arose modern Islam and her problems. I want to draw the reader's atte- ntion to some of the questions which have arisen in Muslim India since the fall of Tippu and the de- velopment of European Imperialism in Asia.
"Does the idea of Caliphate in Islam embody a religious institution? How are the Indian Muslims and for the matter of that all Muslims outside the Turkish Empire related to the Turkish Caliphate? "2Is India "Dar-ul-Harb" 1 or "Dar-ul-Islam ? What is the real meaning of the doctrine of `Jihad' in Islam? What is the meaning of the expression "From amongst you" in the Qur'anic verse "Obey God, obey the Prophet and the masters of the affair, i.e., rulers, from amongst you?" What is the
1. Dar-ul-Harb - Alien country.
2. Dar-ul-Islam - Muslim country.
character of the traditions of the Prophet foretel- ling the advent of Imam Mehdi? These questions and some other which arose subsequently were for Muslims only. European Imperialism, however, which was then rapidly penetrating the world of Islam was also intimately interested in them." Mr. M. O. Abbasi of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) writes in "The Mirror" (published by Makki publi- cations):-
"In order to reach the bottom of this reality, it is necessary as a preliminary, to understand the background in which it became possible for Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to advance his claims and to achi- eve success in his mission." "The Muslims of India, after leading a life of governance, glory and honour for an approximate period of 700 years, were beset with a variety of calamities and catastrophes owing to their indif- ference, inaction and ignorance:
(1) Internal dissensions and disunion led to inter- necine quarrels and they became extremely debilitated.
(2) Due to the aggression of their age-old ene- mies, the infidels, Muslim blood flowed in profusion at the hands of the Marahtas and the Sikhs.
(3) European Imperialists took undue advantage of this and extended their Imperialist tentac- les. They knew that the Muslims were endo wed with a spirit of revenge, sacrifice and martyrdom and possessed of a passion for de- fence of their religion in the fullest degree. "It was necessary therefore, to:-
(1) Break their collective strength and disorga- nise them.
(2) Crush their sense of self-respect and their spirit of sacrifice and martyrdom.
(3) Cultivate a spirit of devotion to and expec- tations from the Imperialist Powers.
(4) Entirely expunge the spirit of `Jihad', that is, readiness to sacrifice and gamble away their lives in defence of religion and community. "In view of the above, the chess players of Western Imperialism prepared a few peculiar pawns for the political board, the choicest of which were those that entered the field under the cloak of reli- gion and exponents of its technicalities."
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani was such a pawn who served the interests of the British Impe- rialism using the religion as his tool. As will be seen afterwards, his tenets were "Obey Allah and Obey the British Imperialism." Those who want a fuller account, should read the quotations given by Professor Ilyas Berni in "Qad- iani Mazhab Ka Ilmi Muhasiba" (part 2, Chapters 11 to 14). Here a few quotations are given just as a sample.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani writes:-
"In short my father was always hopeful of mercies of the British Government and continued to render services as the need arose, so much so, that the English Government honoured him with notes of appreciation and remembered him speci- ally with their gifts and bounties and sympathised with him and favoured him and considered him among their well-wishers and sincere supporters. "When my father expired, my brother succe- eded him in these qualities, and his name was Mir- za Ghulam Qadir, and the favours of the English Government were likewise showered on him just as on my father. "A few years after the death of my father, my brother also expired and after the decease of these both, I stepped into their shoes and follo- wed them in their characteristics. "But I was not possessed of wealth or pro- perty Therefore, I rose to serve the Gover- nment with my hand and my pen, and God was assisting me, and I made a compact with God from that time that I would never write a single volume which does not contain a description of the obliga- tions of the Queen Empress of India. Nay, the vo- lume must contain a narration of all the obliga- tions done to the Muslims of India for which the Muslims of India have to be grateful to her." ("Nurul Haq ", Part I, Page 28, written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian).
"For the achievement of this object of mine I made it a practice to repeat in every writing of mine (Vide, for example, Baraheene Ahmadiyya, Shahadatul Qur'an, Surmae Chashme Arya, Ainae Kamalate Islam, Hamamatul Bushra, Nurul Haq, etc.) that `Jihad' against this Government is not at all permissible to the Muslims."
Statement Worthy of the attention of the Government, which was published for the perusal of the Empress of India (i.e., Queen Victoria), His Excellency the Governor-General of India and His Excellency Lieutenant Governor of Punjab and other High Officials from the humble Ghulam Ah- mad of Qadian; dated 10th December, 1894; reco- rded in `Tabligh-e-Risalat' (Vol. 3, p. 193, edited by Mir Qasim Ali Qadiani).
"The second matter to be submitted is this, that from the earliest age till now - and I am sixty years old now - I have been engaged with my ton gue and pen in this important task that I should turn the hearts of the Muslims of India towards true love, well-wishes and sympathy towards the English Government and remove from the minds of some senseless ones all ideas of `Jihad', etc., which stop them from sincerity of heart and hone- sty of relations and I notice that a tremen- dous impression has been made on the minds of the Muslims owing to my writings and hundreds of thousands of persons have been converted to a changed attitude."
(Petition to Nawwab Lieutenant Governor - May his fortune be eternal - from the humble Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian; dated 24th Feb ruary, 1898; recorded in `Tabligh-e-Risalat' Vol. 7, p. 10, edited by Mir Qasim Ali Qadiani). "The major portion of my life has passed in support of this English Government and I have wri- tten so many books on the `Prohibition of `Jihad' and `Obedience to the English' and have issued pamphlets that, if they were gathered together, no less than fifty cupboards could be filled with them. I have sent such books to all the countries like Ara- bia, Egypt, Syria, Kabul and Turkey. "I have always endeavoured that Muslims should become true well-wishers of this Govern- ment and the baseless traditions about Bloody Mehdi and Bloody Messiah which animate and inf- lame the hearts of fools may be obliterated from their minds."
(Tiryaqul-Qulub, p. 15, by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani). The British Government reciprocated this ser- vice as Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, the son and second Caliph of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, writes:- "The obligations of the British Government on us are great and we are passing our lives in great comfort and tranquility and accomplishing our ob ject and if we are to go to other countries for ` Tabligh' (propaganda), there, too, the British Go- vernment renders us assistance." (Barakat-e-Khi- lafat, p. 65).
How much Mirza Qadiani served the British Imperialism, is clear from the following declara- tion:-
"Thus, my religion which I do repeatedly dec- lare is only this, that Islam has two parts: One, to obey God, secondly, to obey this Government Thus, if we raise our head against the British 21 Government, we are raising our head against Islam, against God and against the Holy Prophet." (Government Ki Tawajjuh Ke Laik; by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani). It would be of interest to see what was their attitude towards the freedom movements of India. There were two organisations endeavouring to get independence: All India National Congress and All India Muslim League. Qadianis' attitude towards the Congress can be seen from the lecture of Mirza Mahmud Ahmad (the son and second caliph of the founder of Ahmadism), which was published in their newspaper `Al-Fazl' (Vol. 22, No. 91) dated 29th January, 1935. He said:-
"After that whenever the Congress launched any disturbance, we helped the (British) Govern- ment. At the time of the last movement of Gandhi, we spent Fifty Thousand Rupees on tracts and advertisement and we can prove it by records. Our men gave hundreds of lectures against that move- ment. We gave best advices which were appreciated by the High Officials." About Muslim League: The said `AI-Fazl' (Vol. 3, No. 78, dated 8th January, 1916) wrote:- "We remember that the real Reformer of the Muslims and the True Guide of the world, Prophet Masih-e-Maw'ud and Mehdi Akheruzzaman (i.e., Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani) when Muslim Lea- gue was mentioned before him, he expressed his displeasure at it. Can such a thing, which the Cho- sen of God and Ordained dislikes, be beneficial and blissful for the Muslims? No, Never."
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani went so far as to turn himself into a spy of the British Govern- ment against nationalists. He wrote in 'Govern- ment Ki Tawajjuh Ke Laiq' (recorded in Tabligh-e- Risalat) :-
"Whereas it is expedient that for the well- wishers of the English Government, the names of such Muslims also should be recorded in charts who look upon the British India as Dar-ul-Harb Therefore, this chart has been drawn up with the single object of preserving therein the names of those ungrateful people who are endowed with such rebellious nature. "Therefore, for the political sympathy of our benevolent Government, we have thought it proper on this blessed occasion that we should record as far as possible the names of such wicked people whose seditious intentions can be proved by their beliefs But we respectfully request the Government that such Charts will remain with us as a State secret in any of the Government offices until such time."
We should thank Allah that East Africa was not populated with persons of such servile menta- lity. Otherwise, these countries would have rema ined under British yoke forever, and the Union Jack would have been flying over the State Houses of Dar-es-Salaam, Nairobi and Entebbe even now. Dr. Iqbal says:- "To the intensely religious masses of Islam only one thing can make a conclusive appeal, and that is Divine Authority. For an effective eradica tion of orthodox beliefs it was found necessary to find a revelational basis for a politically suitable orientation of theological doctrines involved in the questions mentioned above. This revelational basis is provided by Ahmadism. And the Ahmadis them- selves claim this to be the greatest service rendered by them to British imperialism. The prophetic claim to revelational basis for theological view of a political significance amounts to declaring that those who do not accept the claimant's views are infidels of the first water and destined for the fla- mes of Hell.
"In primitive countries it is not logic but authority that appeals. Given a sufficient amount of ignorance and credulity which strangely enough sometimes co-exists with good intelligence and a person sufficiently audacious to declare himself recipient of Divine revelation whose denial would entail eternal damnation, it is easy in a subject Muslim country, to invent a political theology and to build a community whose creed is political ser- vility. And in the Punjab even an ill-woven net of vague theological expressions can easily capture the innocent peasant who has been for centuries exposed to all kinds of exploitation.
"As I have explained above the function of Ahmadism in the history of Muslim religious thought is to furnish a revelational basis for India's present political subjugation". (i.e., under British imperialism). To show how the Qadiani missionaries try to twist the subject, I quote here from `A Lively Dis- cussion' published by the `Ahmadiyya Muslim Mis sion Of Tanganyika' in 1967. Their Chief Missio- nary, Sheikh Muhammad Munawwar H.A., trying to refute this blame has written:-
"Muslim scholars over the ages have been pra- ising their governments for one reason or the other without being criticised by their fellow-Muslims. Here in Tanzania the Shia Alim, Sayed Saeed Akh- tar Rizvi, wrote an article in The Standard dated August 25, 1967 to show that the Arusha Declara- tion contained certain aspects that went parallel with the Islamic teaching. No finger was pointed at the writer of the article to condemn his "collu- sion" with the un-Islamic government. Nor was he given the title of a "toady" or a "Quisling". He is so naive that he does not see the diffe- rence between showing that an ideology of a free national government "contained certain aspects that went parallel with the Islamic Teachings" and supporting the tyrannical rule of an imperial power and forbidding the wretched `subjects' to rise aga- inst it and making that support an integral part of the religion, next in importance to the belief in the unity of God! If he wants to keep his eyes shut to such clear differences, nobody on earth has any power to make him see.
Dr. Iqbal further writes:- "A similar drama had already been acted in Persia; but it did not lead, and could not have led, to the religious and political issues which Ahma dism has created for Islam in India. Russia offered tolerance to Babism and allowed the Babis to open their first missionary center in Is'hagabad. England showed Ahmadis the same tolerance in allowing them to open their First missionary center in Wok- ing. Whether Russia and England showed this tole- rance on the ground of imperial expediency or pure broadmindedness is difficult for us to decide. This much is absolutely clear that this tolerance has created difficult problems for Islam in Asia."
Then Dr. Iqbal winds up his discourse with declaring the Ahmadi movement as being a "stra- nge mixture of Semitic and Aryan mysticism with whom spiritual revival consists not in the purifica- tion of the individual's inner life according to the principles of the old Islamic Sufi'ism, but in satis- fying the expectant attitude of the masses by pro- viding a `promised' Messiah. The function of this promised Messiah is not to extricate the individual from an enervating present but to make him slavi- shly surrender his ego to its dictates. This reaction carries within itself a very subtle contradiction. It retains the discipline of Islam, but destroys the will which that discipline was intended to fortify."
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Author: Allamah Sayyid Sa'eed Akhtar Rizvi
