I would like to ask if perhaps you could clarify in what ways the Ahmadiyya movement differs from the other parts of Islam which we’ve heard more. Thank you so much. This question of how and in which respect we differ from the other Muslim sects is also related with Christianity because when I begin to explain the difference I can’t do it without reference to Christianity because there is something commonly held among Christians and the Muslims in general and in Ahmadis in particular which is the pivotal point of the future dream of the religious people.
Future as far as the rest of the world goes, a thing of the past, near past as far as we are concerned, but when I explain you will begin to understand what I mean. The whole concept of the revival of religion and redemption of the world is revolving around the concept of Christ, peace be upon him. Because the Christians believe, to begin with, that unless Christ reappears on earth the golden era which the human society is expecting would not dawn. It will only be after the arrival of Christ that we will begin to see a new era in which the whole mankind would be brought under one banner and would begin to gather round the call of Christ as one single community.
So you are expecting those golden days for the last so many centuries at least. Now very interestingly for you, this is exactly the belief of Muslims. They also believe that the redemption of the world and also those of the Muslims depends upon reappearance of Christ. And they agree with you in this respect to the extent that they are also expecting the same Christ physically, bodily to have ascended to heavens and according to them he is still awaiting his descent to earth later on. So as far as the person of Christ goes, there is no difference between Christianity and the Islam, that is the Islam as understood by the rest of the Muslim sects.
The difference only lies in the fact that you believe in the divinity of Christ while the rest of the Muslims believe in the prophethood of Christ. They say he was a prophet, a messenger of a God who was misunderstood by the later ages of Christianity and a concept of Christ developed by later centuries which was not originally the idea which was propounded by Christ. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. As far as Muslims and Christians are concerned, they all agree that the same Christ in person would descend from heaven and then the beginning of a new era would dawn. Ahmadis also believe in the reappearance of Christ but in a different way. We believe that whenever a prophecy is made in religion, wherever in the world that prophecy is made, that is irrelevant.
Whenever a prophecy is made in religion, that some religious person would reappear and there are many such prophecies like reappearance of Krishna, like reappearance of Buddha, like reappearance of Confucius and so on and so forth. In every religion this is a common aspect. Whenever such prophecies are made, they are always misunderstood by the people among them among whom the reappearance is to take place. With the result that they are looking in a very different direction from which that promised reformer is to come and they keep waiting and missing his arrival.
This is exactly what happened at the time of Jesus Christ peace be upon him. Before the coming of Jesus Christ, Jews were expecting Elijah to descend from heaven bodily. And Jesus Christ appeared in the name of Messiah holding that title. But no Elijah was seen descending from heaven bodily by the Jews. So this is exactly what their main objection was. They mocked at the followers of Jesus Christ and said of course we are going to believe in the Messiah. But first produced that Elijah. The answer to this mocking attitude as recorded by the New Testament in the words of Jesus Christ peace be upon him is simply this. John the Baptist is that Elijah which was to appear from heaven. Believe it or not. It’s up to you.
Now this is exactly the phenomena which has been repeated all over the world every time a religious reformer appears. Without fail invariably he always appears from the humblest stock of a country. A people from among people of the rest of the world cannot conceive that a reformer a person from God could appear. And they are looking skywards. So no such person has ever appeared although many are known to have ascended. So our belief is that what has never happened before will never happen again. People are making the same mistake over and over again unfortunately. And the religious phenomena will that is the Christian religious phenomena will be unfolded exactly as it was unfolded in the first appearance of Jesus Christ peace be upon him.
That was the true glorious appearance that he made and that glory will be repeated in the same manner according to us. Because if it is not repeated in the same manner the very purpose of religion is lost. No value is attained. If somebody appears in power in such glory that everybody has to accept him like the sun appearing. Then how can they get reformed. That is the phenomena of reformation. Without understanding that phenomena you cannot understand how to expect a reformer and from where to expect him. The phenomena of reformation begins with persecution. A barrier of torture and persecution and prosecution is always created around the person of a reformer. And whenever people cross over that barrier they go through fire. They go through extreme abuses. They attempt to go through hole in families sometimes but some children are left outside having been killed.
Some lose their wives in that process and some mutilated families reach the centre of that peace. Once this begins to happen half of the battle is already won. Because to meet your Lord while you are sinful while you have already gone astray from the true religious values is not like something you know falling from the blue. You have to put in some efforts. You have to move in some direction and that process of accepting hostility in the name of God for the sake of God that begins to purify a soul which travels in that direction. Then such people are in the right frame of mind to accept the yoke of religion which always is very difficult to accept by a society which has become a religious society. If they accept this phenomena then their lot is saved. If they do not then they are wiped out from the earth. In tribes sometimes in bigger tribal groups at other occasions and sometimes in the form of nations.
All that you see of the Pompeii and other big cities and the Roman Empire and all that happened to the earlier civilisations or to the Mayan civilisation of South America they are all illustrations of the same phenomena. It is always at the time of luxury when a people are destroyed. Never at the time of their origin purity. It has never happened once in the world. If you study the history of the people at the time of Noah although we don’t believe that it was a global deluge which drowned everybody. We believe according to the Holy Quran that it was original phenomena in a small area Noah addressed a certain small people because they refused him so they were destroyed.
As far as Noah is concerned it was his whole world. So that is why the Holy Bible also gave an account as if the entire world was lost but they are all relative terms. The Holy Quran makes it further clear by telling us in so many words that it was a small area only which came under the deluge and it was destroyed because of their rejection. What happened earlier, no later on at the time of Moses the civilisation of Pharaoh that was totally destroyed and Allah did not show any pity. What happened to the Roman Empire after they rejected Christianity? What happened to the Jews of the early Jews of Christ’s time when they rejected him? Now to look back in history in the afterlife it becomes so easy, so commonplace to see things and judge and understand how stupid those people were who rejected that light.
But when you project yourself back in time, go back a thousand, two thousand years or more then you will begin to understand what happened to the people of the time in which a messenger has appeared. As I have told you already the people are looking in a different direction, they are expecting different values. They want a messenger of God to confirm to their values and to their views and to their doctrines. They don’t expect one to come among them and deny what they believe in, reject what they believe in and also dismiss the society as a lost society unless they repair and reform because they are not expecting it and moreover they are not anyway expecting the yoke in any foreign yoke in any way.
So this phenomena as we stand is being repeated according to us in the Ahmadiyya community. We believe as I have already explained that reformers reappear not from the heaven bodily but reappear from the humblest stock of an area which is being looked down upon by great civilizations. This phenomena has no exception. So in 1889 when the foundation of the Ahmadiyya community was laid by the founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, this is exactly what he claimed was. This is exactly how he was treated by the then British Empire and by the people of India and by his own community that is Muslims. They all to begin with mocked at him having born in a small village of Qadian 12 miles from the nearest place of civilization that is Batala, no railways, no arrangement for telegrams anything.
Very small rejected village. There a voice is made and it says that Allah has appointed me in the name of Christ to call the entire world to that unity for which both the Muslims and the Christians have been yearning for many many centuries now. He said I know Allah has already told me that I will be rejected but those who truly stand in the name of religion are sent by God they do ultimately triumph. So he made a prophecy that Allah has told me that despite my rejection my community will spread all over the world and there won’t be a single country in the world where this name has not reached. And he also saw in dream that he visited England and was catching white birds. Not because your complexion is white that is not what he understood by the dream because there are so many other people who have white complexion. White of soul that is to say that is a symbolic complexion or color in religious terminology.
So he said that Allah has promised to me that there would be many Englishmen who would one day accept Islam at your hand and a unification of Christianity and Islam under the banner of reappearance of Christ as we understand would begin. That process has already begun but rather slowly for the first 100 years of Ahmadiyyat. It’s almost 100 years since that claim was made. But if you look back again to history and get your reference from early Christianity then perhaps you’ll begin to agree with me that that is not impossible. One man who claimed to be the promised Messiah in 1889 has grown into 10 million people. Ahmadis all over the world even behind the curtain all inclusive amount roughly speaking 10 million or a bit more. So in first 100 years of Christianity you can’t claim that much following.
But then of course the number of the whole population of the world was much less. So it’s not a reflection I’m throwing upon the early progress of Christianity only I’m making it clear to you through illustrations that the number who accepted Jesus Christ peace be upon him in the first century was much much smaller than the number which have already accepted the founder of the Ahmadiyya community as reappearance of Jesus Christ. So in this relationship we were bound to be hated by all the communities whom we want to assimilate into us.
The religious phenomena whenever it is truly unfolded it is not by lifting barriers and calling everybody God. That is hypocrisy. The true religious phenomena always begins in a different way. It’s like a little curd you put in the milk. It begins to gain ground and whenever religious begins to gain ground around through love, never through sword. Every time it happens a fear is created around in the society by the orthodox community. They think they are gradually winning us. We are losing ground and they are gaining ground. So they must be stopped. So to begin with a few discussions are held. Some parlies go on from every direction and later on heat enters that debate and then after the orthodox community begins to feel its weakness in argument and in logic and in wisdom.
They have no resort but to take to arms and to persecution and prosecution. This is a phenomena which again I should repeat is a universal phenomena and that is exactly what is happening to us in Pakistan. No blame upon Pakistan. Last two years ago when I went to Europe I was asked this question repeatedly that how do you find our treatment to you as compared to the treatment you are being given at the hands of Muslim countries. I said this question has a larger perspective. What I know is this positively that when we really begin to gain ground among you then your treatment is going to be exactly the same treatment as has always been in history of the people, earlier people towards spreading message.
So you have not come of age as yet as far as you are concerned. Wherever we are coming of age we are being treated exactly like this as earlier people have been treated. So in this relationship we stand but we do believe that it is always being persecuted in the name of God which is the best of the bargains. In the bargain you become purified. You become more sympathetic to the human suffering. You understand what it is to be looked down upon, to be ill-treated by the high-headed people of the world for whose sake you are taking so much labour, I mean you are investing so much in it, whatever you have in fact you have invested for the sake of the people around to reform them, to bring them to a better understanding, to bring them back to their Lord and Creator and to create those values which religion comes for.
But they ill-treat you and that ill-treatment further refines you, further improves your quality, sends you back to your Lord because then he is the only one who can save you because you are too small. Had you not been too small you would not have been ill-treated. So it is you run to the safety and security of your Creator the more and receive his love. So this is our relationship and this is what we expect of you. Sooner the better. I should like that persecution to begin today because then you will begin to accept us.
