An excellent example was shown by the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when he allowed a delegation of Christians to say their prayer of their own way in his mosque. Could Huzoor most kindly advise us whether we find at any other occasion in the history of Islam when a similar delegation of non-Muslims representing their religion was allowed to pray in a Muslim mosque in their own way, observing the teachings of their religion?
As far as I remember, you have already asked this question before, haven’t you? No, not Huzoor. I think so. That’s what I think, Huzoor. Sure. That’s what I think. I don’t know whether anybody can remember that. Was this question asked before or no? Well, it’s something similar that was asked, perhaps. May be similar, Huzoor. Yes, right. The fact is, I mentioned it, this aspect. I think it was, this issue was discussed here in public somewhere, whether it was his question or some other occasion, I don’t remember exactly. The fact is that such incidents are only recorded when their recording means something for the future generations, when they have some historic import.
So if any Tom, Dick and Harry had done this or is doing it, nobody would record those events. How many virgin births are taking place in the world? And who takes, who makes, goes into the trouble of recording it historically and making such a fuss about it? Only one virgin birth, that is of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, has been given such importance because that was special. So there might have been many events in the history of Muslims where various non-Muslim visitors were provided the facility of saying their prayers in Muslim mosques, there might have been.
But because nobody would care to record such events as, you know, as something very important, so we don’t find any record of such events in Islamic literature. But everything done by the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, was very special. Even the most minor things, minor in the sense that in ordinary life these things are never related about people, even about kings. But those minor things were preserved about the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, and they were recorded in Islamic traditions and history books.
How he ate, how he did, how he walked, how he absolved himself and how he slept and how he woke and how he did this and did this and how he did that, all these minor things of ordinary life have been recorded about the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him. So it is because of his importance that this event which we have noted has been recorded. But that doesn’t mean that this occurred only once. It might have occurred many times. But with one condition, this is also a very important condition laid down.
This is why during my opening address in Spain, I repeated this invitation to all, all the audience and those to whom the message would be carried, amen, that if they want to say their prayer in our mosques, the doors would remain open for everybody. With one condition which has been laid down by the Holy Qur’an, that these mosques are built entirely and solely for the worship of one God and one alone. So if you have to worship that one God, if you tell us that we are only going to worship one God, then you may do it as you please, in the way you please. But if you tell us that you have come here to worship Jesus Christ or Mary or the Holy Ghost or anyone else in the mosque, then we are not permitted by Allah to provide you with this facility, to extend you this facility.
If somebody is lying about it, then we are not concerned, let him. You know we are not going to try to play God, what we are obliged to do is simply this, that if someone belonging to any religion, he says I want to worship Allah and I believe in one God and I want to worship Allah alone, can I do it in your mosque, we would say, every Ahmadi would say yes, go ahead and do it, most welcome.
But if someone says that I am going to worship Kali Devi, can I use your mosque, we would say no, please, go to some other place. This is not the place to worship Kali Devi, this is against the objective of this building.
