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Beliefs of the Ahmadiyya Movement in the words of Maulana Nur-ud-Din – 2

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 12 July 2024

“Allah bears witness that there is no god but He, and (so do) the angels and those possessed of knowledge, maintaining justice. There is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise.” — ch. 3, Āl-‘Imrān, v. 18.	شَہِدَ اللّٰہُ اَنَّہٗ لَاۤ اِلٰہَ اِلَّا ہُوَ ۙ وَ الۡمَلٰٓئِکَۃُ وَ اُولُوا الۡعِلۡمِ قَآئِمًۢا بِالۡقِسۡطِ ؕ لَاۤ اِلٰہَ اِلَّا ہُوَ الۡعَزِیۡزُ الۡحَکِیۡمُ ﴿ؕ۱۸﴾
“Certainly Allah conferred a favour on the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His messages and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the Wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error.” — ch. 3, Āl-‘Imrān, v. 164.	لَقَدۡ مَنَّ اللّٰہُ عَلَی الۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ اِذۡ بَعَثَ فِیۡہِمۡ رَسُوۡلًا مِّنۡ اَنۡفُسِہِمۡ یَتۡلُوۡا عَلَیۡہِمۡ اٰیٰتِہٖ وَ یُزَکِّیۡہِمۡ وَ یُعَلِّمُہُمُ الۡکِتٰبَ وَ الۡحِکۡمَۃَ ۚ وَ اِنۡ کَانُوۡا مِنۡ قَبۡلُ لَفِیۡ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِیۡنٍ ﴿۱۶۴﴾

The first verse tells us that the belief that there is no god but Allah is so crucial and essential that Allah Himself bears witness to it. What this means is that He has created this world in such a way that its working shows that it has one creator, and is not the creation of several creators. There are, of course, people who believe that the world had no creator. But they did not reach that conclusion from previously believing that there is One God. They come from nations and traditions which are unaware of the true concept of God as presented by Islam. What they have given up and rejected is their previous imperfect belief in the oneness of God, like that of Christians, and reached the conclusion that there is no creator. The way in which angels bear witness that there is no god but Allah is that every revelation that has come to a prophet from God, brought, as we believe, by angels, taught that there is only one God. The verse then says here that those who possess knowledge, and do justice with it, also bear witness to this belief. This indicates that in order to properly realise that there is only one God we need to acquire knowledge of all kinds in this world, and to assess that knowledge with justice, putting aside our prejudices and low desires.

The second verse shows the importance of believing in the Holy Prophet Muhammad. It tells us that God raised him in the world as a great favour to his followers because they learn from him the message sent by God to humanity, then by following his example they become purified in character, and learn from him, not only the book revealed to him, but also wisdom in how to apply its teachings.

I have recited these two verses to draw attention to the fundamental creed or beliefs of Islam. As everyone knows, that consists of the two points: that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His Messenger. It is expressed by every Muslim in the Kalima of Islam. I will connect this now with the theme of last week’s khutba which was about the beliefs of our Movement as stressed by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, who was the first Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement after the death of the Founder of the Movement Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The Maulana led the Movement from May 1908 and March 1914. In his khutbas and speeches, he particularly liked to lay stress on the importance of the Kalima, or bearing witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and he explained its underlying meaning several times in his sermons and speeches.

He delivered one such Friday khutba in December 1910 on the occasion of the annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Movement. So he was addressing in person the largest gathering of Ahmadis that had taken place up to that time. He begins by saying this:

“All the khutbas that are delivered in the world, from the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to the present day, which follow his example, begin with: Ashhadu an lā ilaha illa-llāhu, wa ashhadu anna Muhammad-an ‘abdu-hū was rasūl-uh.”

In English this means: “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.” Then he explains how we benefit from this declaration. There are, he says, three benefits of its first part, lā ilaha illa-llāhu, meaning “there is no god but Allah”. The first is that: “when we hear someone reciting this loudly, we understand that he is a Muslim and has discarded the worship of anything other than Allah.” His words in Urdu are: ہم اسے مسلمان اور شرک سے بیزار سمجھ لیتے ہیں۔ This is a plain statement by Maulana Nur-ud-Din that we believe anyone who recites the Kalima to be a Muslim.

The second benefit, he says, is that if a person has true and real belief in lā ilaha illa-llāhu (“there is no god but Allah”) he realises that anything which he uses in this world is only a means which God has created with certain properties and qualities to help us achieve our objective. The means are nothing in themselves. If I may expand by giving examples, for our survival in the world we need food, medicine and other resources such as energy. These only work because of the properties placed in them by God. We get all these things from human providers, such as employers or suppliers or doctors. But these resources and their providers do not take the place of God. But if, to get something such as a job or money or some material resource, we are prepared to go against God’s teachings, and for example, lie or cheat or deceive, then we are indeed taking them as being God. The fact is that if we can’t get something from one place, we can get the same from another place, or we can find an alternative. In this way, we will not be taking that thing or its human provider as god.

The third benefit of belief in lā ilaha illa-llāhu, says the Maulana, is that by its frequent recitation, while understanding its meaning, we can overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of us reaching nearness to God. This, he says, is the unanimous evidence of all the prophets and all the saints of God. Its first part, lā ilaha, provides us with a way of avoiding sins, and its second part, illa-llāhu, is the means of us acquiring good qualities. Lā ilaha is a rejection of all the things of this world that are worshipped and loved and sought after. When those things no longer remain sought after, then you would not commit a sin to get them. If a person does not make it as his aim and desire to obtain even those material things which are lawful and allowed for him to obtain, he would not even think of taking anything which is not allowed. After lā ilaha, by saying the words illa-llāhu, a person forms a bond with Allah, and in every matter his real aim is to find favour with Allah.

Then the Maulana moves on to the second part of the Kalima: ashhadu anna Muhammad-an ‘abdu-hū was rasūl-uh, — “I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.” He explains the reason why this second part is added. He writes:

“The Holy Prophet had seen that the religious guides who had arisen before him in the world, from time to time, had been made by their later followers into gods, whom they worshipped along with God as His partners. To keep the world free from this pollution the Holy Prophet added this part so that people take the Holy Prophet to be a servant of God. And since there were going to be saints (auliya) among the Muslims, this would also stop people from making them into objects of worship.”

It is absolutely clear from the Maulana’s statement that after the Holy Prophet Muhammad there can only be saints or auliya arising among Muslims, and not any prophets. Moreover, by saying this, he is indicating to the Ahmadiyya Jama‘at that the status of the Founder of the Movement should not be exaggerated.

He goes on to say:

“Along with acknowledging the prophethood of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, we must look in the Quran to see what a man of high status he was. To find out his high rank, we have to look at the following two verses of the Quran: ‘surely you (O Prophet) have the highest morals’ (68:4) and ‘Allah’s grace (faḍl) on you (O Prophet) is very great’ (4:113). Just to have the highest morals makes a person very great. But when Allah calls someone as great, just think of the high level of his greatness. It cannot even be imagined. Then Allah granted him great grace. Just think: those people whose leader possesses great grace and the highest morals, can they desire someone else (as leader)? And he is the Khātam-un Nabiyyīn.”

I will come to the meaning of Khātam-un Nabiyyīn just below.

Maulana Nur-ud-Din then goes on to present the fundamental beliefs of Islam as follows:

“Listen! I believe in Allah, that He is One, and unique in His attributes, and in His qualities and works there is nothing which is like Him. I believe in the angels of Allah who prompt and motivate us to do good, and the purpose of believing in them is that whenever a desire arises in a person to do good he must act upon that desire. I believe in all the prophets of Allah, whether they are mentioned in the Holy Quran or not. They were all righteous servants of Allah, and they conveyed the revelation from Allah to people in their times. I also believe that all prophethoods came to an end with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. In fact, I believe with certainty and full conviction that the Holy Prophet Muhammad not only combined in himself all prophethoods and brought them to an end them, but he combined in himself, and brought to completion, the qualities of all prophets, all saints, and all humans. This is my belief. After him I cannot even imagine that a person could possess such qualities.”

At this point Maulana Nur-ud-Din says:

“I will quote a verse of poetry about this by Hazrat Mirza sahib: ‘O you who deny and doubt the King of Religion (i.e., the Holy Prophet Muhammad), take a look at his servants and devotees first’. To find the effect produced by the qualities of the Holy Prophet, we see that his Companions were a greatly righteous group of people, but that seems to be past history. Your existence in this village (of Qadian) is a testimony of the grace which Allah bestows on someone who becomes a servant (Ghulam) of Ahmad.”

He is referring here to the name Ghulam Ahmad of the Founder of the Movement. He means that if the stories of the Companions of the Holy Prophet are from the past of long ago, then here, in this village of Qadian, you have witnessed for yourself the grace which Allah bestowed on the man who became Ghulam or servant of Ahmad. Therefore, Maulana Nur-ud-Din’s belief was that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad came to serve Islam in the present age as the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s Companions served Islam in the past. It follows from this that, like the Companions, he was not a prophet.

May Allah enable everyone to benefit from the simple and straight-forward explanations given by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din marhūm — Ameen.

(Note: The original Urdu source of this khutba by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din is the book Mirqāt-ul-Yaqīn. The pages from this book containing this khutba are at this link: https://www.aaiil.uk/khutbas/friday-12jul-2024-mirqat.pdf)

Website: www.aaiil.uk