The second question, to be clear, that Islam started from Arabian Gulf area, and Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had forecasted that in the last half time near Qiyamah there will be a Mahdi, i.e. Masih-e-Maud, and that Masih-e-Maud will be from the family of Hazrat Salman Ansari, a Farsi. No, nowhere it is mentioned that Masih-e-Maud will be from the family. No mention there? No. Okay.
Then, when now Masih-e-Maud sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had came, the Muslims of Arabian Gulf areas had not shown much interest for accepting Hazrat Mahdi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. There is very much, I mean, quite some interest now-a-days. Now-a-days there is interest, but Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam belonged to Arabian area, and the Muslims of that area should have been much knowledge about Mahdi-e-Maud of the last half time. If they had that much knowledge, then Mahdi should have appeared among them. Why should have Mahdi come at all? Why should have Mahdi come at all? Why? Mahdi had to come. What was the need? Why? Huzoor, Mahdi had to come. Why?
To strengthen the Islam. No, when people are good and good Muslims and they have good knowledge of Islam, why should Mahdi come at all? No, it is correct. Mahdi had to strengthen the Islam. To rectify certain things, to remove certain faults and to improve the conduct of the Muslims. That means that Muslims, before the coming of Mahdi, would have deteriorated in every regard. Otherwise, there was no need for a Mahdi to be sent at all. This is exactly what our Huzoor, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, has himself described at length in detail in various traditions. That at the time, which is the latter days, a time would come when the Muslims would be Muslims only in name. Quran would be only in name and the Holy Quran would only be for scribing, writing. And no more purpose of the Holy Quran would be there, would there be.
And the mosques would be apparently full, but they would be totally devoid of light, of Allah’s light and guidance. And when the ulema of those people would be the worst under the firmament of heaven. These are the very words of our Huzoor, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And in so many other places, Huzoor-e-Akram, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, has painted the same picture in different words. At one time, when he said that this was going to happen, one of the president raised this question. He said, Ya Rasulullah, do you mean that Islam would die and we will finish?
Because the picture you are painting is that of near death. He said, no, how can Islam die when at the beginning, at the head of Islam, I am. And at the end of Islam would be Masih Ibn Maryam. So it would revive it before it dies. That is the spiritual life which is in fact attributed to Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. A dying, an entire dying nation would be revived with his blessing. And this was the purpose of his coming. Now if this is the state, when Jesus Christ is expected and also as is very, is manifestly made clear, that is also the age of Imam Mahdi, so that shows this applies to both. Now if this is the state of affairs, how can you conceive of light in Arabia?
This forecast applies to a total picture of total darkness in the world of Islam. Despite the fact that the name of Islam is not annihilated. Despite the fact that the mosques are full of those who worship Allah. Despite the fact that the Holy Quran is being written and read. Yet according to the verdict of Huzoor-e-Akram, peace be upon him, in reality there would not be any Islam, in reality there would not be any Quran. So when the Mahdi comes, or Messiah comes, just prior to that, if this is not Mahdi, the founder of Ahmadi community, then whenever such a Mahdi comes, just prior to him, the light of Islam should have disappeared from the entire world, virtually speaking.
In Arabia inclusive. So when at such a time, the Mahdi comes, what would happen to Arabia and the Arabs? Would they immediately believe in him? No, why not? This was your question. Will they immediately begin to cooperate with Imam Mahdi? No, I have seen in practice, Huzoor, that in Arab countries, the people of Arab have no much knowledge about the arrival of Imam Mahdi. You are exactly contradicting yourself now. Again I tell you, I want to explain this position to you.
The fact is that to say that the Arabs would recognize the Mahdi because the Holy Quran is in Arabic and the traditions of the Holy Prophet are in Arabic, and recognize him and would be in the forefront of those who accept him and extend him welcome, this is a totally erroneous concept. The same Arabs treated Huzoor-e-Akram sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in such a shocking manner that no people on earth had treated their prophets before. How can you expect of them a better treatment of a slave of Huzoor sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
They were expected to repeat the same ferocity against truth, because unless they had gone wrong, there would not be any need of sending anybody from Allah. And because they have gone wrong, they have reverted to the same attitude towards religious values as they were found at the time of Huzoor sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So the same should be their reaction and the same is their reaction, generally speaking. We are seeing their reaction, sir, Huzoor, that they are being converted to bad activities. What?
Activities which were before the time of the Muhammad Musa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that regarding this wine, regarding this bad activities, for torture to insanias, and like They have no love. No, many western scholars have made exactly the same observation. They say that the Arab of the present day, although he is called a Muslim, and he takes pride in the fact that he is a Muslim, but he has no longer any Islamic morality in him. What he has is Arabic morality. Whatever good qualities he has, he has inherited from the pre-Islamic Arab world.
And those qualities have the same lack of proportion and exaggeration as they were found in old days. One author quotes, for instance, generosity, Arab generosity. He says Islamic generosity is moderated. Islam does not permit you to be generous without limitations. It creates a balance in generosity and moderation. But the Arab generosity of today is following not the Quranic pattern, but the pattern of the pre-Arab era. They are generous to show off. They are generous at times without limitations.
But they can also be miserly. And extremely miserly in the old Arab traditions when they choose to be miserly. And that generosity according to these scholars is not based on the Islamic morality, but is based on the Arab tradition. Whatever was Bedouin, whatever was held, traditionally Bedouin, has come back to the Arab. And they still take pride in the Bedouin life and the Bedouin culture and the Bedouin system. And people today, the wealthy people even today send their young children to the desert to learn the Arab manners. So it is the revival of Arabia, not revival of Islam, which we are not nowadays witnessing.
As you have seen, you have lived there, you know, all the vices have come back to them unfortunately. Of the pre-Islamic era. But that does not mean that we should condemn the people entirely and wholly. This attitude is wrong. Among the Arabs are still very pious people. Among the Arabs are still people who love Islam, but unfortunately are misled and are being misguided by a wrong leadership. Thousands of Arabs who are sacrificing their lives, they are doing it for the sake of Islam. And thousands of youth have already offered their lives for the sake of Islam, although they don’t know what Islam is.
Only there is a confused love, they can’t define it. But they look up to their Islamic leadership to guide them and because they are misguided, because politics in the upper echelon is mixed up with religion, and political ends are gained through the instrument of religion, consciously by their leadership. This is being done, a game is played upon the poor people’s religious sentiment. So they are sacrificing their lives, they are noble-minded people, they love Islam, and even if they die a life of ignorance, death of ignorance, I am quite certain that Allah would look at their hearts and if they died out of love, even misguided love, Allah would reward them.
So I don’t condemn the people as a whole. Still I can notice a lot of good Islamic values underneath this apparent materialism of the Arab world of today. Only you have to reach the depth and bring out the good qualities. So when we started contacting the Arabs in the outside world, where they have not adopted that stiff attitude while they are within Arabia, they are more amenable, they are listening more and so on, whenever we contacted them, we found very encouraging results. Only yesterday I was reading the report of successful preaching in Germany, and it made me so happy to learn that of all the conventions during the whole year, Arabs formed the greatest part of it.
Of all the various ethnic groups and communities and people who became Ahmadi in Germany, one single group which was in majority against others was Arabs. So in other countries too where Ahmadis have started contacting Arabs, they are reporting very encouraging, very good results. So this I have explained in detail so that you should know, generally speaking this is what you see. But within their hearts there still lurks that love for Islam, which if once stirred will inshallah produce very good results. It is true. Thank you very much.
