Deember 2012

Editors:

Shahid Aziz

Mustaq Ali

Contents: Page

Call of the Messiah 1

Khutba, ‘Id-ul-Adha, by Shahid Aziz 3

Honour Killings, by Zahid Aziz 7

حیم حمن الر بسم ہللا الرWebcasts: Please note that the Friday khutba

and prayers, the dars, as well as all meetings

are broadcast over the Virtual Mosque

(www.virtualmosque.co.uk).

Call of the Messiah (Continued from the last issue)

Precautionary measure

It should also be remembered here that we had, in our first notification, proposed a plan, by way of precaution, for keeping off plague. But it had never been our intention to suggest that it was an absolute and sure rem-edy, so trustworthy and infalli-ble that after it there re-mained no need nor yearning for prayer. We meant only to say that there was strong probability that it might yield some good effect. We know it for certain that with regard to a disease there is, in the hands of doctors and physicians, no such medicine in respect of which they can put forth and proffer the claim that it will, fighting with full success against the dictates of destiny,

work a cure and deliver unfailingly with the certainty of a law, all kinds of temperament from the clutches of disease. Our belief on the other hand, is that up to this time physicians have not been able to find out any such medi-cine, nor can they, which may, at all events, pro-duce a good effect upon all men of different natures, ages and countries, and never fall short and fail. It is, therefore, that in spite of plan and device, the room for prayer and sup-plication, at any rate, remains open and empty. And plague, in the list of all deadly diseases, obviously stands at the top; how, then, can a man adduce his claim in respect of such a deadly disease that a certain drug or device can save all lives without any exception, from its fatal blow?

Purpose of prayer

Again, when it is evident from the Law of Na-ture that the science of medicine in itself is merely speculative, and so are all its plans and prescriptions, how unfortunate it is, then, that one should repose all his confidence in these

uncertainties and seek not through prayer the grace of the Most High God, Who is the Su-preme Source of all good and guidance. What do we ask for and crave through prayer? We implore and entreat the Great Knower of the unseen, who knows the real nature of the disease as well as its treatment, to extend to us His helping hand, and provide us with such medicines as may be excel-lently efficacious and effective; or that He may not – out of His kind-liness and grace – cause to dawn upon us the day when we stand in need of physicians and their medicines. Is there any doubt or uncertainty about the fact that

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2012

Webcasting on the world’s first real-time Islamic service at

www.virtualmosque.co.uk

Hazrat Amir’s arrival was front-page news.

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there is a Supreme Being, possessing all kinds of power, with whose will and commandment we live and die, and that in whatever direction His will is inclined and bent, in that direction gravi-

tates the whole system of this earth and heaven? If He should wish that a country's state of health should, at any time, be sound and firm, He cre-ates such causes by means of which the water of that country remains safe from every kind of pollution and impurity, and the air suffers no unnatural or uncommon change, and whole-some food tending to produce bodily health is vouchsafed unto them, and all the other secret causes, earthly as well as heavenly, which may be harmful to human health, are not allowed to come into play; for all the sovereignty and rule of the heavens and the earth lies in His hand, and every particle of food and medicine, body and substance, listens to and obeys His word. And it is not that after creating this universe, He has been sitting aside like a powerless and idle person. He is even now the same Creator of the universe as He was before. In the course of a few years, the first cells of our body become dis-solved and die away, yielding place to new ones, so that the process of bringing into existence and creating continues unceasingly in this way; one world dies away and disappears, and an-other comes after to take its place. In the same way, our God is also the Sustainer, the Supporter, of this world, on Whom everything depends for its existence; and it is not that He has not cre-ated any soul and substance, or that, having cre-ated them, He has retired into the position of idleness and inactivity; but He is, as a matter of fact, the life of every life, and everything that

exists can remain in existence only through His grace and attain to life eternal simply through His kindness and favour; and just as we cannot live without Him, in the same way, we came not into being without Him.

No existence without God’s grace

If He is, therefore, such a God that our life and existence is in the palm of His hand, and the par-ticles of our existence unite and disintegrate by His will, what a big error it is to suppose that we can live by merely relying upon our own plan and device, without His help and grace. No; even our plans come from Him; light, when He grants it, is created in our brains; even air and water are not within our control. There are many causes which exert a great effect upon our health; but these are out of the sphere of our authority, and exclusively within the power of the Most High God, as stated by Him in the Holy Quran: “And [in] the changing of the winds and the clouds made subservient between heaven and earth, there are surely signs for a people who understand” (2:164).

And this changing is of two kinds: one, ex-ternal, which means the changing of the winds and the clouds from one direction or place to another; and the other, internal, which is the creating of such an effect, prophylactic or poi-sonous, in the winds and the clouds, as may be-come the cause of peace and prosperity for the people, or give rise to and produce epidemics.

Headquarters of Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam

Hazrat Amir arrives at the Centre.

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art commanded; if Allah please, thou wilt find me patient. (37:102)

The Quran is unique among the world’s religious scriptures in that the whole of it consists of guid-ance. It is true that in some places in other scrip-tures there is guidance such as the Ten Command-ments in the Old Testament, but most of it is full of stories of different kind. It starts with the story of creation, which does not help us in any way live our lives as God’s obedient servants. The New Tes-tament starts with the genealogy of Jesus, but again it does not help us in any way to learn how we should conduct ourselves in this world.

One way to look at the Holy Quran is to divide its verses into two parts. One set is guidance and how we can act upon that guidance, and seeking God’s help in being able to follow His instructions is a part of what we should be doing. The other set consists of verses that tell us what happens to peo-ple who act upon this guidance and what happens to those who do not. Jesus said “Turn the other cheek”, but neither the New Testament nor Chris-tians can give us an example of anyone having done so. Not only did the followers not act upon this instruction, but the proponent of the hypothe-sis itself was unable to do so. He complained when people mistreated him, and when asked for the ultimate sacrifice, shouted that God had forsaken him. Take the example of his followers: when Christians captured Jerusalem from the Muslims they killed so many Muslims that the horses of the Christian army were ankle-deep in blood. When Muslims, who are accused of being a warlike and murderous people, took over Jerusalem not a sin-gle drop of blood was shed. So how are we to know whether it is even possible for human beings to act on the guidance being given? But the Book of Islam tells us that not only is it possible to follow that guidance, but gives examples of people who did so. It gives their names and describes the incidents and what happened to such people.

There is in man’s heart a desire that others should respect him and consider him to be a great person, and we have set up standards by which we judge people and their achievements. Mostly, our human standards measure a person’s greatness or even the respect they should command by posses-sions of this world this person has acquired. A man who has two cars is regarded as being twice and successful as the man who has one. Someone whose house is furnished with expensive hand-

Man, it is but obviously clear, has no hand in either of these changes: they are wholly beyond his power and control. And there is yet another diffi-culty that the sound state of our body or health depends not on these two factors only, but that there are thousands of other causes also, subtle and more subtle, which are hidden from the eye and mind of man; and who can say that all these causes can be created by his effort and skill? There is no doubt, therefore, that man stands in need of that God in Whose hands are all these causes and sub-causes.

Khutba, ‘Id-ul-Adha

by Shahid Aziz

“O you who believe, surely of your wives and your children there are enemies to you, so beware of them. And if you pardon and forbear and forgive, surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (64:14)

“Your wealth and your children are only a trial, and Allah – with Him is a great reward.” (64:15)

“Say: If your fathers and your sons and your brethren and your wives and your kinsfolk and the wealth you have acquired, and trade whose dull ness you fear, and dwellings you love, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His way, then wait till Allah brings His

command to pass. And Allah guides not the trans-gressing people.” (9:24)

“But when he (Ishmael) became of age to work with him (Abraham), he said: O my son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee: so consider what thou seest. He said: O my father, do as thou

Built by Roshan Ghani: the first mosque to

display proudly that it is associated with the AAII

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Above and below: foreign delegates arriving

Surniame Convention – November 2012

Above: Cultural Centre built next to the mosque

Below: President, Suriname Jamaat welcomes delegates.

Above: opening of the Conference Centre

Above and below: opening the convention

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Addressing the conference were

The leader of the Jewish community

The leader of the Christian community

The Home Minister of Suriname

Hazrat Amir, Deputy US and a previous

Suriname ambassador to Indonesia

Below: foreign delegates (seated)

Audience: high military and civil officials Below: other members of the audience

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woven carpets and hand-made furniture de-serves much more respect than a person who furnishes his house with second-hand items, we say. But even if a man does not possess riches but has connections with those that do, this somehow rubs off on him. Even the misdemean-ours of such people are forgiven. A prince found misbehaving in a hotel in Vegas has his actions cleansed by the fact that he is of royal blood. We make every effort to seek out people who may have such connections. In modern vocabulary it is called networking.

The first of the verses that I recited to you goes so far as to say that some of our wives and children are our enemies. This seems to be a strange statement to make. But the point being made is this, that anything and everything that takes you away from Allah is your enemy. A per-son may not do something wrong to gain some advantage or protection for himself but may do it for the sake of his family. He may not lie to protect himself but provide a false alibi for his child, because his wife and other children pres-sure him into doing so. But even if there is no pressure, our natural instincts and desire make us do these things. Even the Prophet Noah cried out and prayed to God to save his son from the flood. This natural desire in all of us to protect our families makes us behave in this way. This is why Allah says that our wives and children are our enemies, because even if they do not pres-sure us to do something wrong, our instinct to do so makes us forget Allah’s commands to be honest and truthful.

Is this then like Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek and, while it sounds fine on paper, impossible to act upon? No, it is not, because the Quran gives us an example. It says that Allah asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, and both the father and the child readily agreed. If one human being can do it, then so can others. I have seen and known people who, to my astonishment, put love of Allah before their love for their children and families. These people left wives who were on their deathbed and they left their children with no one but Allah to look after them and went to serve the cause of Islam. They left their near and dear ones in Allah’s care. Those of our missionaries and imams who went to Woking, Berlin, Holland, Fiji, Trinidad and so on, all of them did this. Their connection with the Mes siah promised to the Muslim Ummah

in fused such great love for Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (s) in their hearts that nothing else mattered.

You see, in summary, what these verses are telling you is that duty comes before anything else. These verses are not just a story about a man willing to sacrifice his own upon Allah’s command. They are more than that. Allah has set forth a parable to show that if even you have to sacrifice your most precious possession to do the right thing you must do so. Hazrat Ibrahim prayed for a son and in old age he is given a son. We struggle to go to work to earn money to bring up families. At the end of his life Hazrat Ibrahim fulfils his ambition. He has a son. We, too, fulfil our ambitions and desires, whatever they may be, by using that money for our chil-dren and our wives and ourselves. And then Hazrat Ibrahim is told to sacrifice everything that he had achieved by doing his duty. His greatness lies in that, without flinching, without question or reservation, he makes ready to do his duty. And the son, too, willingly and happily agrees with him. Here is where we part com-pany with these noble people. Our child wants a newly released iPad by Apple, and the Jamaat makes an appeal for some noble cause. We only have money for one of these. Will we follow Ibrahim’s and Ismail’s example and sacrifice our own desires for duty? Unfortunately, many will not. There have been people in this Jamaat who did do so, and this is what makes this Jamaat great – the sacrifices of its elders. Dr Basharat Ahmad comes to Lahore to buy his daughter’s dowry. Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ali makes an appeal for funds for the Berlin Mosque. What did this father do? He consulted his daughter, who said: “Father, tell me, how long does bridal wear last? But a good deed lasts for ever; give money to the Jamaat.” These people were the living embodiment of the pledge they took to hold their duty above their personal interest, which was exactly what Hazrat Ibrahim did.

We are also faced by the same dilemma to-day. Our brothers and sisters from a long way away, people that we do not know and have never met or seen, they have called out to us for help. The Jamaat in India has undertaken to build a mosque and a school in New Delhi and in Bihar. We are one brotherhood and from which-ever corner of the world comes the call for help, we must help. Our jewellery and cars and

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houses will be left behind for our children to fight over. Our good deeds will go with us to the hereafter. Chaudhry Saeed said to me about the Berlin mosque: “I will protect this mosque with my life, because my mother’s jewels are buried in it.” Will our children stand here and tell an audience the same story? I ask the parents among you to follow Hazrat Ibrahim and make a sacrifice for this project. You cannot sacrifice a lamb in the UK: give the same amount to build these schools in India. And I want the young-sters present here to revive the example of Haz rat Ismail, so that one day someone remem-bers your sacrifice like the daughter who pre-ferred that her father use the money to save the Berlin mosque rather than buy her dowry.

May Allah grant us all the wisdom to follow the guidance set out in our Holy Quran.

Islam Forbids So-Called Hon our Killings

Compiled by Zahid Aziz

Below, we quote Hadith reports from Sahih Buk-hari and Sahih Muslim which show most clearly that the Holy Prophet Muhammad strictly for-bade Muslim men from meting out their own punishment on women whom they considered to have committed gross immoralities. He in-structed that the due process of law should be invoked to determine guilt and award punish-ment. Those who take the law into their own hands to declare women guilty and then punish them would themselves be punished by the Holy Prophet. These reports refer to the following passage of the Holy Quran:

“And those who accuse their wives and have no witnesses except themselves, let one of them testify four times, bearing Allah to witness, that he speaks the truth. And the fifth (time) that the curse of Allah be on him, if he is lying. And it shall avert the punishment from her, if she tes-tify four times, bearing Allah to witness, that he is lying. And the fifth (time) that the wrath of Allah be on her, if he speaks the truth.” (24:6–9)

As can be seen, this passage places the man and wife on terms of complete equality. The sworn denial of the wife is exactly equal to the sworn accusation of the husband. After the fifth swearing, which is that of invoking Allah’s curse on one’s own self in case of being the liar, the woman is free of the accusation and no one can

punish her. A man is reported to have asked the Holy

Prophet concerning the following predicament: “If a man were to find with his wife a man

and if he were to talk about it, you would lash him; and if he killed [the man], you would kill him, and if he were to keep quiet he would be consumed by anger.”

He means that according to Islam if he ac-cused her in front of others, he would be pun-ished for slander, and if he killed the man he would be treated as a murderer. So what is he to do? The report continues that the Holy Prophet prayed to Allah for an answer, and Allah re-vealed to him the verses quoted above. Then both the man and his wife came to the Holy Prophet and swore in the manner prescribed. The woman was then free to go, even though the report casts doubt on her truthfulness. (Sahih Muslim, Book of Divorce, under Li‘an, ‘Invoking A Curse’. See translation of Sahih Muslim by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui, Book 9, Report Number 3564 of the edition online at www.iium.edu.my/deed/hadith/.)

According to a Hadith report in Bukhari, a man called Hilal bin Umaiya accused his wife of committing illegal sexual intercourse with an other man and brought the case before the Holy Prophet.

“The Prophet said (to Hilal): Either you bring forth a proof (i.e., four witnesses) or you will receive the legal punishment (lashes) on your back. Hilal said: O Allah’s Messenger, if any-one of us saw a man with his wife, would he go to seek after witnesses? The Prophet kept on repeating: Either you bring forth witnesses or you will receive the legal punishment (lashes) on your back.”

The report says that it was then that the verses quoted above were revealed to be applied for the case of “those who accuse their wives and have no witnesses except themselves”.

(Sahih Bukhari, the book as above, Report Num-ber 272.)

The above two reports show that the Holy Prophet was prepared to punish the husband for slander against his wife, and that if the husband had killed the other man the Holy Prophet would have punished him for murder. Contrast this with the situation in many Muslim countries today, such as Pakistan, where a husband can get his wife arrested by merely reporting to the

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po lice that she had committed adultery. When this procedure of swearing was in-

voked between husband and wife, the Holy Prophet would then order a divorce between them:

“A man accused his wife of illegal sexual in-tercourse and denied his paternity to her (conceived) child during the lifetime of Allah’s Messenger. He ordered them both to do the cursing as Allah decreed and then gave his deci-sion that the child would be for the mother, and a divorce decree was issued for the cou-ple.” (Sahih Bukhari, the book as above, Report Number 272.)

In such cases the man was not entitled to claim back the mahr (marriage gift) from the wife. (Sahih Muslim, the book as above, Report Number 3557.)

In another report, a man called Sa‘d bin Ubada al-Ansari asked the Holy Prophet:

“If a man finds his wife with another person, should he kill him?”

The Holy Prophet replied, “No.” According to another version this man asked him:

“If I were to find with my wife a man, should I not touch him before bringing four witnesses?”

The Holy Prophet replied that this was cor-rect. The man replied:

“By no means! By Him Who has sent you with the Truth, I would hasten with my sword to him before that.”

Upon this, the Holy Prophet said to people: “Listen to what he is saying. It is his sense of

honour, but I have a greater sense of honour than he, and God has a greater sense of honour than me.” (Sahih Muslim, the book as above, Re-ports 3569 and 3571.) By this, the Holy Prophet means that a person cannot be more moral, more concerned about morality and honour than the Messenger of Allah and Allah Himself. When Allah and His Messenger, who are the greatest guardians of honour, decency and mo-

rality, do not teach the action the man wants to take, how can it be moral for him to do so?

Note that here a Muslim openly says that due to his high sense of honour he cannot act on the teach-ing of the Quran and the Holy Prophet! We find, quite commonly, such an argument being put for-ward today in Muslim societies by those who deny women the many rights that Islam has given them. Islam allows, in fact recommends, remarriage of widows and divorced women, and gives a woman the right to reject a marriage proposal. But these rights are denied to them under the claim that it would be against the standard of honour.

The following is an example in which the Holy Prophet Muhammad dismissed a man’s claim that the child born to his wife was not his:

“A desert Arab came to Allah’s Messenger and said: My wife has given birth to a dark-complexioned child and I have disowned him. Thereupon Allah’s Messenger said: Have you any camels? He said: Yes. He said: What is their colour? He said: They are red. He said: Is there anyone dusky among them? He said: Yes. Allah’s Messenger said: How has it come about? He said: It is perhaps due to some inherited strain to which it has re-verted. Upon this the Holy Prophet said: The (birth of the) black child may be due to the strain to which he (the child) might have reverted.”

And as added in another version: “He (the Holy Prophet) did not permit him to disown him.” (Sahih Muslim, the book as above, Reports 3576, 3575.) This again shows that the Holy Prophet did not ac-cept mere allegations made by husbands against their wives, while having no evidence or witnesses.

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (UK)

The first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission

Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ

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