Monday, September 6, 2010

Allah is sufficient unto us: Response of an individual Baha'i to Ahmadi leader Mirza Masroor Ahmad's Friday Sermon Jan 30th 2009

(Opinion expressed is not necessarily the view of any other Baha'i)

The Friday sermon can be cross referenced at http://www.alislam.org/archives/friday/FSS20090130-EN.html

Masroor begins the sermon by reciting from the holy Qur’an;

“And if he had falsely attributed even a trivial statement to Us, We would surely have seized him by the right hand, And then surely We would have severed his jugular vein, And not one of you could shield him from him.” [(69:45)-(69:48)]

He then interprets this to mean that anybody who attributes a lie to Allah would suffer the same punishment, “...is Allah not to seize any other person who would attribute falsehood to Him? Indeed this is the measure with which each truthful person should be evaluated.”

If the clear implications of Masroor’s interpretation of this verse were consistently followed, then His holiness Baha’u’llah who laid claim to being the Messenger of Allah for this age and yet lived to a ripe old age and passed away gently of natural causes must certainly be a true claimant. Let us read on to see if Masroor holds consistently to his own interpretation.

In the next section Masroor points out that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s life was in danger several times, from which Mirza G. Ahmad survived. However His holiness Baha’u’llah also survived being poisoned by His half brother Mirza Yahya, as well as the intention of Mirza Mahmud to assassinate Him in Akka, as well as numerous other occasions on which he was in danger of being assassinated. He also survived mortal danger in severely inhumane prison conditions in which fellow believers passed away. Given the thousands of Baha’is martyred for belief in Him it is truly fair to say that for over a quarter of a century there was hardly a single moment when His life was not in danger, all of which He survived. However, we find no acknowledgement of this in Masroor’s sermon.

We read on...

“Despite opposition and restrictions on governmental level the [Ahmadi] Community continues to spread.”

Baha’is have also known considerable opposition at the government level in nominally Muslim countries, for example they have had friends and family put to death, been expelled from universities and institutions, places of employment, been refused government issued ID cards, had property destroyed or confiscated, as well as other forms of government orchestrated persecution. In spite of this the Baha’i faith has over the space of 150 years become a global community with over 5 million members in more than 100, 000 localities spread around the world.

“Indeed even after his passing away each time hostility raised its head Allah’s help came and the [Ahmadi] Community was saved from any bad consequences of enmity.”

If by bad consequences are meant bad physical consequences, it is evident from the following article that they have not been spared such consequences by their detractors;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Ahmadis

On the other hand if by bad consequences is meant “spiritual” consequences, given that there appears to be no objective measurement by which the impact of such consequences may be determined, and that the Baha’is continue to enjoy success in swelling the ranks of it’s adherents in spite of misrepresentations made about their beliefs by certain non-Baha’is, I feel it fair to assert that the Baha’is are not being held back by negative consequences of the hostile either.

We read on...

“They do not mention his claim to divinity at first but later implement the religious law that he, as a god revealed to himself. That is, he was god as well as human.”

It is interesting to note, that Masroor is repeating similar claims about Blessed Baha’u’llah comparable to those made by the more traditional members of the Islamic community against Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, for example at the website;

http://selfdevelopmentedge.com/how-can-you-call-mirza-ghulam-ahmad-as-a-prophet-while-he-himself-claims-to-be-a-god/

Its authors miscontextualise a quote by the Ahmadi founder saying, ““I saw in my vision that I myself am God and believed that it is true …”
(Roohani Khazain vol.13 p.103)

Now Masroor would likely and quite rightly point out that it is incorrect to judge such statements given that Mirza G. Ahmad has stated elsewhere that these statements are allegorical in nature. Then shouldn’t Masroor also do Baha’is similar justice given that His holiness Baha’u’llah gave the explanation of similar statements in Baha’i scripture?

In the Baha’i faith Allah is metaphorically likened to the sun, the holy Spirit to the rays of the sun, and the Messengers of God (termed in the Baha’i faith “Manifestations of Allah”) are likened to perfect mirrors in which the attributes of the sun (for example heat and light) are reflected (symbolising the attributes of Allah such as justice, mercy etc). Thus although the image of the sun appears reflected in the mirror, the sun does not leave it’s lofty position in the heavens to dwell in the mirror. Likewise that although the attributes of Allah are reflected in the Manifestations of Allah, Allah does not descend from His exalted position to dwell in the Messengers of Allah.

An example of the writings in the Baha’i scriptures which explain this is as follows;

“Gracious God! How could there be conceived any existing relationship or possible connection between His Word and they that are created of it? The verse: "God would have you beware of Himself"[1] unmistakably beareth witness to the reality of Our argument, and the words: "God was alone; there was none else besides Him" are a sure testimony of its truth. All the Prophets of God and their chosen Ones, all the divines, the sages, and the wise of every generation, unanimously recognize their inability to attain unto the comprehension of that Quintessence of all truth, and confess their incapacity to grasp Him, Who is the inmost Reality of all things.

[1 Qur'án 3:28.]

The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, according to His saying: "His grace hath transcended all things; My grace hath encompassed them all" hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. These sanctified Mirrors, these Day-springs of ancient glory are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory. They are the Treasuries of divine knowledge, and the Repositories of celestial wisdom. Through them is transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed the light that can never fade.”

(His holiness Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 97)

Closely related to this subject people in whom the fear of Allah exists wishing genuinely to know the truth may find the link to the article below explaining the difference between the Baha’i interpretation of the relationship between Jesus and Allah and the traditional Christian Trinitarian view to be of interest;

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-27.html

Speaking of the Baha’i community, Masroor states, “Their method is to gradually entrap ill-informed, peaceful people.”

Regarding the methods of doing this, Masroor states, “Maulana Abul Atta who was in Palestine, mentioned that some among them, including one of his sons, would come to our mosque to offer Salat five times a day, although congregational prayer is not common among them”

Yet it must be pointed out to the fair minded that the holy Messenger Muhammad was also instructed by Allah to pray in the early days of Islam facing Jerusalem in the manner the Jews did, as a mercy to them so they would not be forced to change too suddenly more than what they were capable of bearing. To imagine that Allah who extended such a mercy to the Jews would not extend such a mercy to Muslims is a strange idea for Masroor to entertain.

We read on...

“To gain sympathy with Christians they maintain that Baha’ullah is a Manifestation of God, just as the Christians consider Jesus (on whom be peace) to be Son of God.”

Lol, for what kind of Christians is telling them that the resplendant light Jesus has equals an easy way to gain their support?

Further down Masroor relates an alleged incident in which a western English lady meets with Mirza Basheer-ud-Din - the second Ahmadi successor to Mirza G. Ahmad, who Mirza Masroor refers to as "Huzur". Mirza Masroor relates that they discuss the Baha’i law of monogamy. He states incorrectly that Abdul-Baha had 2 wives.

Masroor correctly points out that Beloved Baha’u’llah had more than one wife and it comes across to him as strange that Blessed Baha’u’llah had more than one wife, whilst Baha’is are allowed only one. One of the more significant objections from those amongst the people who reject the Prophethood of His holiness Muhammad was that Muhammad was allowed 11 wives, whereas Muslims are only allowed 4, in this sense Masroor only utters what those who disputed the testimony of Allah aforetime said.

If we must be open minded to there being a reason for the difference in the number of wives permitted to Muhammad Rasul Allah then justice and consistency demands that we be open minded to the possibility that there was valid reason for the difference in the number of wives of Blessed Baha’u’llah.

It is necessary to understand that Baha’u’llah (on whom be peace) was not born into a vacuum, He came into a culturally Persian religiously Islamic society. The web page;

http://www.iranchamber.com/culture/articles/iranian_marriage_ceremony.php

States, “In the past the parents and older members of the family arranged almost all marriages. This is still the case in rural areas and with traditional families.”

The Ahmadis themselves currently practice arranged marriage and believe that polygamy is still acceptable under certain conditions in the modern age. Thus, having a culture which is in these aspects similar to the Persian culture at the time of holy Baha’u’llah, Masroor is in a good position to be aware that Blessed Baha’u’llah who married prior to the revelation of Baha’i law would have had His marriages in accordance with obedience to elders. Another reason for this is that as explained in the example above where Muhammad (on whom be peace) initially practiced prayer after the manner in which the Jewish leaders did in the early days of Islam is that it mercifully allowed the minds of an unfetteredly orthodox people to be expanded gradually and not stretched all at once beyond their limits. For this reason holy Baha’u’llah at first continued to practice some of the customs current amongst the people, then when Allah knew the time was ripe Blessed Baha’u’llah revealed laws which reduced the number of wives allowable explicitly to 2 and implicitly the number allowable to 1, and left an explicit covenant naming Abdul-Baha as His successor. Later on Abdul-Baha explicitly stated that only 1 wife is permissible, and never married more than one wife.

We read on;

“Huzur concluded we should always avoid these people, they attack silently. They have kept their religious law secretive by command.”

Masroor has acknowledged in his sermon that the Kitab-i-Aqdas is the Baha’i law book. However he doesn’t acknowledge that this book was published in it’s original language Arabic in India in 1890-91, nor does he acknowledge it being translated in 1900 provisionally by Anton Haddad which circulated among the American Baha’i community, nor does he acknowledge that in 1973 21 authoritative pages of the Aqdas had been published, nor does he acknowledge that in 1992 an entire 16 years prior to Masroor’s 2009 sermon a complete official Baha’i translation was published, nor does he point you to the link to read it for yourself online at the Baha’i website http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/

Furthermore Baha’u’llah states;

“O my loving friends! Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness; that all the world of being may be filled with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Baha, that ignorance, enmity, hate and rancor may vanish from the world and the darkness of estrangement amidst the peoples and kindreds of the world may give way to the Light of Unity”
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 445)

Considering this i also wondered why Mirza Basheer and Mirza Masroor feel we should be avoided? Is it that we are keeping our laws secret? I think not. Is it that he is worried people might seek to independently verify the claims he has made about Baha’is? That is for you to decide.

“Huzur said Allah states about those who make false claims to prophethood that He severs their very jugular vein and disgraces them in this world. However, regarding those who claim divinity Allah states: “And whosoever of them should say, ‘I am a God beside Him,’ him shall We requite with Hell. Thus do We requite the wrongdoers.” (21:30).”

Given that Allah did not sever Beloved Baha’u’llah’s jugular vein it is evident that this verse does not condemn Baha’u’llah (on whom be the eternal blessings of Allah). Given that Masroor has mis-applied the first verse is it not also possible that he mis-applied the second part?

May Allah enable us to be completely obedient to the One who is sent by God so that He may keep us in His mercy and grace and continues to make us those who attain His near-ness (unless we are not ye in His near-ness in which case may He guide us to His nearness).

Kind regards,
Daniel De Mol