Friday Sermon of
Hazrat Amirul Momeneen
Zafrullah Domun

 
08 OCTOBER 2010

After reciting the Tashahhud, the Ta’uz and the first chapter of Al Fatiha Imam Zafrullah Domun said:

These days we see that most of our young men and women follow tertiary education so that they might qualify themselves for a profession. This is a noble aim as long as you understand its limits. You will exercise a profession that will give you an above average salary and worldly speaking you will be well off. As good Ahmadis who understand the spirit of financial sacrifice for the progress of Islam, you will be most eligible to contribute to realize the objectives set by Hazrat Masih Maood ^as. But if you content yourself with the limited objective of becoming a professional and being an Ahmadi by just saying your prayers, participating in Ijtemas and Jalsas and presenting your financial contributions, it will not be enough. One may become a great professional without being a good Ahmadi Muslim as defined by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as , the Promised Messiah and Mahdi. It is common knowledge that there are many good professionals but they fail being good Ahmadis. The reason for this state of affairs is that many of these professionals do not invest the necessary time to improve their religious knowledge as they do to excel in their particular profession. Since these days the number of professionals within the Jamaat is increasing therefore it is very important that this group of people increase their knowledge of Islam and Ahmadiyyat as well. 

You will be mistaken if you ever thought that these are my ideas. We all know quite well what the Holy Prophet Mohammad ^saw said about the need to acquire knowledge for both the Muslim man and woman. There are many Hadiths about the need to acquire knowledge especially religious knowledge. The Holy Prophet ^saw is reported to have said “He to whom Allah wishes good, He opens his heart to Islam” In other words Allah gives to such persons the understanding of Islam. Now as an Ahmadi it is our belief that no one has explained Islam better than Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ^as for this age and for ages to come. Hence in order for us to understand Islam we need to understand what Hazrat Masih  Maood ^as has said about it. Hence as a good Ahmadi we should try to understand his writings so that we might enlighten our own selves and others also with the light that we have obtained from Hazrat Masih Maood ^as. Furthermore Hazrat Masih Maood^as himself has told us that we should read his writings at least three times. Although this is common knowledge yet unfortunately it is not at all common practice. When one talks with an Ahmadi one can easily judge whether that person knows anything about Ahmadiyyat or he just repeats what he heard and very often he heard badly.

Hence what I am trying to say is very simple. There is a great need for all those who are furthering their education to also educate themselves about the history of Islam and Ahmadiyyat. This means that as much as you can you should read what Hazrat Masih Maood ^as has said from his writings. When we do so we come to know exactly what he said. If we rely on what others tell us our knowledge will be defective because these “others” will choose to tell us only what they want us to know. But we can know what has to be known only by reading the books in their original language and form our opinion about them. Had all the professionals within the Jamaat in Mauritius and elsewhere been really aware of the writings of the Promised Messiah and had they learned how to prevent bias from clouding their judgment, some of the problems that exist today within Jamaat Ahmadiyya would have been easily solved. But the ignorance that prevails among the majority of Ahmadis laymen and professionals alike who have an emotional attachment with the Jamaat makes it impossible for them to understand something that is new to them and like the people of yore they reject any new thing that they are told. In the Holy Quran Allah says of this situation:

“There comes not to them any new admonition from their Lord, but they listen to it while they make sport of it.”(21:3)

So when we spoke about the revelations that were being received from Allah, the fourth caliph, in order to defend his khilafat rejected it completely and even spoke ill about us and our final end. But by the Grace of Allah we are still here and we have challenged the mainstream Jamaat and the actual caliph many times without receiving any response from them. They are thoroughly dumbfounded and because of the biases that have covered their judgment they are unable to understand right from wrong and they try by all un Islamic means to harm those who have recognized only Allah as their sole Lord. In the Holy Quran Allah says:

And they witnessed what they did to the believers. [85:8]

And they hated them not but because they believed in Allah, the Almighty, the Praiseworthy, [85:9]

To Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and Allah is Witness over all things.[85:10]

 
There was a time when these verses were being cited when we talked about how the non- Ahmadis used to persecute the Ahmadis in Pakistan. Unfortunately these days these verses depict appropriately the attitude of mainstream Ahmadis against other minority Ahmadis who dare to tell them that they have vitiated the teachings of Hazrat Masih Maood ^as. So had Ahmadis been as knowledgeable in the teachings of Hazrat Masih Maood ^as as they are in their respective professions they would have easily been able to understand what they are being told instead of adamantly clinging to what their present day leaders tell them. Such an attitude is the same as the Jews in the time of Hazrat Isa ^as and that of the Christians in the time of the Holy Prophet Mohammad ^saw and that of the Muslims in the time of Hazrat Masih Maood ^as. All those groups thought in their heart of heart that they were properly guided and that they were justified in rejecting someone who said he came from Allah. Later events have proved all of them wrong in their rejection. So will it be  incha Allah with the mainstream Ahmadis.

 In the early days of the divine manifestation in Mauritius after we had been separated from the mainstream Jamaat, I saw in a dream that I was in Darus salaam mosque in the company of the caliph Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad. At the place where we do ablution one of the tap was open and water was flowing out of it. A young man whose name was Mansha Elahi was standing besides the place of ablution. The caliph ordered peremptorily to him to close that tap. The young man did not budge. He did not close the tap. The caliph was angry and the dream ended. Since then I knew that the fourth caliph would have wished that such revelations as we spoke about should not have been forthcoming. He would try to stop it as he did by breaking our bai’at with him thinking that like others who were thrown out of the Jamaat we would come forward on our knees with apologies. But we knew for certain with the teachings of Hazrat Masih Maood ^as that the caliph was wrong and we were right and so we should not cave in under the pressure that he could exert on us. We knew that he was quite powerful but we knew also that Allah had greater power than he had. Water in dreams symbolizes revelation and Mansha Elahi means “the pleasure of Allah or the desire of Allah”. Mansha Elahi did not wish that these revelations should stop. By the grace of Allah we have been witnessing even more revelations both in quality and quantity. By the grace of Allah the writings of Hazrat Masih Maood^as make it crystal clear that Allah reserves the privilege of making His Appointees. Man has nothing to do with it. In fact the so called representatives of Allah are themselves tried by this appointment of Allah and in this case they have failed. No one is safe of a trial of Allah. One should be really god-fearing and oft-returning to Allah to be saved from such trials. But those who are buoyed up only by their inner pride fail such tests from Allah. Had the caliph been aware of what Hazrat Masih Maood ^as said in his book “Zarouratoul Imam”, he most probably would have saved himself from having to reply to why he said “You are but men like us and the Gracious God has not revealed anything. You only lie.” Of course the reference is to Sura Yasin,chapter 36 verse 16.

And if we know our Islam we cannot be misguided. If our leader is saying something that we know is against the Holy Quran or what Hazrat Masih Maood ^as has said it is our duty to question him in a most polite manner. Unless we are satisfied with his answer we should not stop asking him for clarifications. In such a way we might even help him from making misjudgment as well. But unfortunately in Jamaat Ahmadiyya such divergence of views is not tolerated. Here the leader is right even if he is wrong. Very rare we will see a leader admitting his errors of judgment. Everything wrong is easily justified. And I say it again that the late fourth caliph was wrong by acting the way he did even if he relied on his amir’s opinion. He was mistaken; hence he has deprived himself and the Jamaat of certain spiritual blessings that Allah wanted to give. In the same token the present caliph also is wrong in following on the footsteps of his predecessor and in ignoring what we have been telling him. 

Sometimes it happens that I reflect about the wisdom behind the words of the Holy Prophet Mohammad ^saw. I was wondering why did he say that surah Yasin is the heart of the Holy Quran and why he said that we should regularly read surah Al Mulk(67) before sleeping and that this surah will plead for us on the day of resurrection. Among other things what is common in both these chapters is the denial of Allah’s representative. In both surah Allah speaks about the arrival of messengers and how they are denied and rejected and how they are treated as liars. In surah Al Mulk when groups of people will be entering hell, its inmates would ask them “Did not any Warner come to you?” “They will say, “Yea, verily, a Warner did come to us, but we treated him as a liar, and we said: ‘Allah has not revealed anything; you are but in great error.” Allah says: And they will say, ‘If we had but listened or possessed sense, we should not have been among the inmates of the blazing Fire.’ Mind you these verses were not being addressed to the followers of the Holy Prophet only in his time but for all time to come. It also applies to the Ahmadis of today who have miserably failed in the trial in which Allah has thrust them. But of all people they are those who should have understood in the best possible way what was happening. But the blind following of their misguided leadership will put them in the position that they will have to reply to Allah for their misdeeds in rejecting Allah’s representative.

Therefore all those who are following tertiary studies should apply their critical thinking skills to the beliefs that they have been brought up with and to other challenges that are made to bear upon those beliefs. Although in matters of religion, it is not only reason that counts. But one cannot deny that reason is a light that Allah has given us so that we might be enlightened. But even if we can apply all our reasoning faculties to arrive at conclusions even then it would be inadequate in our quest for Allah. But it can help us a lot in understanding Allah’s instructions and remove all types of contradictions that we may find on our way. May Allah help each one amongst us so that He may develop all our faculties to their full potential and that we may use them in the best possible way to understand His Book and the wisdom that it contains. Ameen