As far as the Ahmadiyya is concerned and the persecution of Ahmadiyyat, there is not the least reason for politics to be involved in it directly, because we have never played any political game, we have never posed any political threat to anybody in the world. We are truly a religious people, and yet those Ahmadis who live in a country, if under the laws of the country they are permitted to take part in the local politics, they have their civic right to do that, because Islam does not forbid using your civic rights. So the politics, the role they play in that sort of politics, which is their natural politics, does not turn the nature of the community to a political party. They are two distinctly different things.
They join Ahmadiyyat as a religious party. We speak to them on religion, we train them according to religious values, so much so that when as individuals they are permitted to take part in politics, they take part quite differently from the ordinary people who are not trained in religious values. For example, politics is understood to be a game of lies. Who tells better lies and louder lies and goes for propaganda, unscrupulous propaganda, generally he wins. But if an Ahmadi is permitted to take part in politics as a right to him, I mean as a right of every other citizen, he would not be permitted to do this. So we have turned Ahmadis out of Ahmadiyya community for behaving like this in politics.
So the politics of the two Muslims is very different. It is bound by certain laws and regulations. That is the general answer. The particular answer, I am getting closer to this problem now. The particular answer applicable to this problem is this, that the motivation of our enemies is not religious. That is entirely political. So under the garb of religion, a religious community is used as a stepping stone for their nefarious objectives and they trample upon us so that they can save their own skin. That is the situation. Now, we have to wage our war in every direction to defeat this purpose. We will be doing it for the sake of Allah, for the sake of the integrity of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya. But the means we will be using may not be entirely religious, but they will be religious in the sense that they will follow the dictates of the Holy Quran and never step outside the dictates.
For example, if we launch a propaganda, an iota of that propaganda will be false. It will always be restricted to truth and facts of life and nothing but the truth. So this is the religious politics, quite different from ordinary politics. Now, if somebody attacks you, the Holy Quran gives you the right to defend. And from whichever direction the attack comes, you have to use the same weaponry. The fact is that if somebody is attacking you politically, trying to destroy you politically, you must use the political weapons as well, as long as you can wield them properly and as long as you stick to the Islamic values. So to expose the game of a people who are deceiving another people and trying to convince them that your safety lies in our safety, so you help us, suppose this is the situation and they are deceiving, if we expose that game, how can you call it politics? You expose that game to save your own interests, which are wrongly trampled upon. So a fine distinction is made when you go into the details of what is happening.
But the major, as I just mentioned, the two major on which we depend is just closeness to Allah and our prayer to Him. And to Him alone we turn for succor and for help and He has never deserted us in the history. Never was. The greater the danger, greater was the help which came from Allah and it was made distinctly known to the people that the help which came lay beyond the reach of Ahmadis. It was never the doing of Ahmadis. It was beyond the reach, absolutely beyond, and yet it came. So that proved that it was not directly related to the means taken by us. It was something which came from Allah Himself. Yet we are expected to take all means. This is the philosophy of true religion. There is another aspect which you must understand. Islam tells us to do whatever is in our power to show earnestness and honesty of purpose.
If we do whatever we can do, only then we can prove that we are sincere to that cause. And if having done everything we can do, there is a large chunk left beyond our reach which has to be performed or done before we could succeed. That large chunk will be supplied by Allah. This is the promise. This is the philosophy of prayer. So prayer is never a phenomena beyond the natural phenomena. Their borders meet. You reach to the limit of natural phenomena, that is your efforts, and then whatever is left out, that is supplicated, supplemented by prayer. And most often than not, that chunk which is supplemented by prayer is much larger, out of all proportion larger, to your efforts. Now, in this light, when you will read the history of Ahmadiyyat, then you will understand what I mean. Things were completely beyond us.
For example, Bhutto, what he tried to do to Ahmadiyyat, in fact he initiated all this. He was so powerful that even dead, he is more powerful than living leaders of Pakistan. It is the threat of Bhutto which is compelling others not to go for elections. Because they know he is so powerful. He was so powerful that when he was to be hanged, this was decided. Countries all over the world recommended to the present ruler to save his neck. Strangely enough, a phenomena occurred which had never been witnessed by the world before, that Cuba recommended as well as America recommended. China recommended as well as Russia recommended. Jordan recommended as well as Syria recommended. Muslim world recommended as well as Jewish world recommended. Not a single country was left out which did not recommend mercy for Bhutto.
Now, who could have done it? That despite all these pressures, despite everything, he still hanged as prophesied by Hadhrat Naseem of the Rasulallah. And no Ahmadiyyat had to play any role whatsoever in this. Ahmadiyyat was not concerned. It was not even mentioned why this was happening, but Ahmadiyyat knew. So this is what I mean by the help from Allah. Despite the fact that whatever was in our path, we did, but we failed. But ultimately, Allah helped us from heaven miraculously. And first, He revenged the atrocities done to Ahmadiyyat in a manner that the whole world saw this miracle happening. And in the second place, He saved us from the natural consequences of that deceit. Now, this is very important. Victory is not always visible in the direction where you are looking for it. Apparently, they succeeded in chucking us out of the pail of Islam. So, a man with superficial outlook can say, where is God’s help? Bhutto, after all, did succeed in throwing you out of the pail of Islam.
So, he succeeded. But what was the objective? The objective was that of Bhutto as well as that of the Maulvis, that because Ahmadis are understood to be Muslims, this is why they are spreading among Muslims. The moment the people know that from now on, there is going to be a high wall separating the land of Ahmadiyyat from the land of Islam, then they will dare not go into the region of Ahmadiyyat, because then they will be dubbed as non-Muslims. That was a very diabolical plan. And according to human conception, it should have succeeded. The measure was taken. The wall was created and raised higher. But the result? The present government, one of their generals admitted it in so many words, and it was published in papers. It is recorded history now. Once he was put to a question when he was travelling in Azad Kashmir by some newspaper man vis-à-vis Ahmadiyyat and its spread, and the answer was, look here, we took all measures we could to stop the spread of Ahmadiyyat, but according to the government reports, they are spreading ten times as fast as before. And through preaching, they have gained 10% of their number within last few years. That’s a long ago, that’s a time long ago, and then it had just left three or four years, I mean, not a bit more, six or seven years after the decision of 74.
So it is, yes, I think it is about four or five years before that happened. So if within five years of that decision, the speed of spread is accelerated, the purpose of this decision is totally defeated and frustrated, and the opposite result is gained, who is the victorious of the two? One who gains, not the one who loses. So apparently sometimes they think in any sense that you are defeated. But in the final analysis, in the net result, the enemy has defeated himself. This is why they launched this movement. They knew they could not gain anything out of that decision, and they were both so frustrated. So they kept at it with a greater vengeance. They cried themselves hoarse that unless we take such measures as would physically destroy all Ahmadiyyat, they are going to go on spreading and winning, and we will lose the battle.
So that is what I mean, help from Allah. When the hatred increases, how can you spread among the people who begin to hate you more? When the barriers are strengthened, the crossings should be less. This is the natural phenomenon of science. But the phenomenon of prayer reverses this. And this is what we call truly a miraculous happening. We don’t believe in those miracles which are just show business like any conjurer. They are very superficial concept of miracles. The real miracles are these, that despite each odd, ultimately the weaker becomes the stronger and continues to be stronger. And no one can change this fate and this course of history. This is what is happening to Ahmadiyyat.