Bismillah,
An Ahmadi commentator on Shahid’s post recently described his community as the “Epitome of Unity”, and cited the system of Khilafah as a symbol of this fact. Is their unity really as solid as they would like to admit? Lets take a closer look.
For starters, most of us know that the Ahmadi community split into two sects: Lahori and Qadiani. The Lahori group claims to be the true followers of Mirza Ghulam. They condemn the mainstream Qadiani leaders as misguided and aggressively argue against Qadiani Ahmadiyya. They venerate Mirza Ghulam, but citing his own books, they do not consider him to be a prophet.
That split is well-known. But, most do not know that even the Qadiani sect split. Not once, but several times. Each claims to be the true Qadian sect. Here are some examples:
- Anwar-ul Islam Movement of Nigeria
- Jama’at Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen – This group considers the mainstream Ahmadis to be misguided, heavily criticizes the Ahmadi concept of Khilafah, and cites Mirza Ghulam’s own writings.
- Jamaat ul Sahih Al-Islam
So much for unity! They cannot even agree if he was a prophet or not! Thus is the fate of those who invent lies in the religion of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
Now compare this to Islam. It is undeniable that there are differences amongst Muslims. Anyone who says otherwise is deceiving himself. But contrary to what the Ahmadi leaders say, Muslims are nearly theologically homogeneous. The Islam preached in China is the same practiced in Sweden, South Africa or Mexico. I always say, if you were blindfolded and listened to a talk in a masjid in any random part of the world, you would not know which “school of thought” that community belonged to unless you asked very specific questions.
Why are we theologically unified? It is because our scholars and intellectuals do not reinvent the entire faith every few years. We do not expect divine reformers to completely alter the interpretations of the faith. Most importantly, we do not put utmost prophetic faith in any individual except the Prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him. Instead, we refer to the interpretations and understandings of the earliest Muslims. We recognize that they were closer to the prophetic cup of guidance. So, when there are disputes in understanding, we look to see how the first few generations understood the religion and submit ourselves to their pure conclusions. From personal experience, I have attended lecture events where Shaykhs from Syria, Pakistan and New York held the same positions and conclusions- no differences!
When disputes occur, they come in two flavors:
- High-level, trivial issues of rationalized beliefs that are not explicitly found in the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions. In general, these kinds of differences do not manifest and most Muslims are not even aware of them.
- How to react to modern political events – These are not theological disputes, they are purely based on politics.
Orthodox Muslims do not feel the need to adhere to any group or ideology, except when necessary to distinguish ourselves from those who have clear sectarian approaches to Islam. If you have more questions about this, kindly refer to Differences in the Ummat and Siraat-e-Mustaqeem by Mufti Afzal Hoosen Elias. His explanation is far more thorough and complete.
So, what about a Khalifah? After all, Muslims don’t have a Khalifah and Ahmadis do. Isn’t that a point for the Ahmadi side? Well, not quite. Mirza Masroor Ahmad can call himself whatever he likes, but he is not a khalifah. For a better explanation, kindly refer to this video:
To my dear Ahmadi readers, Islam is your Birthright! You are our brothers who were torn from us. Take back what Mirza Ghulam stole from you! Leave Ahmadiyya and become a Muslim!
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
mashaAllah. AWESOME post. You rock! SubhanAllah!
Masha’Allah Excellent article….May Allah swt guide the Qadianis and lahoris to Islam.
i ask brother farhan
how many prophets of Almighty Allah died with out having any control over any country but they were all Khalifat-ullah, even prophet Isa (as) can’t get control on any stat but He(as) was a khalifah, khalifa is one who contnue the mission of a jam’at after the death of any prophet, that can be a Propeht or non prophet,
a Khalifa need a jam’at but not land,
when khulafa-e-rashideen were there, they were not looking after political metters even in makka whith Hazrat Ali ra,there was Amir moawiah was the amir(a political head) makkah,
if khalifa is a political leader then yazeed was a khalifa politically,
can brother farhan give defination of khalifa what he want, through the Holy Quran or Hadith?
Bro: he was explaining that a true khalifa is defined as one who controls a country, he wasnt referring to Khalifa-tullah (which are the prophets of GOD).
Masroor Ahmad claims to be the like of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. He is not like them, Masroor is a leader who is exiled, he lives under the protection of the white man.
In 1985, when Tahir Ahmad ran to England, the brits could have arrested Tahir Ahmad and returned him to Pakistan as a fugitive. The brits decided to protect Tahir Ahmad.
^ Where was allah???
I don’t know about the other prophets, but the job of the Prophet Muhammad SAAWS was to establish a complete way of life, including a government. I hinted on this in the video, but perhaps I was not too clear. We know this from the Sunnah of the Khulafa’.
Abdullah ibn Zubayr (RA) also went after the *political* system. If it has no political element, as the Ahmadis claim, Abdullah ibn Zubayr (RA) would not have gone after it.
Mirza Masroor can call himself whatever he wants, but he’s certainly not a Khalifah.
Farhan will you be criticizing Jesus?
Jesus brought a message. Those who consider him a genuine person differ on his beliefs. Some have belief in unity of God i.e. Unitarians. Others believe in Trinity. Still others have belief which is close to Islam i.e. Barnabas. And of course Muslims differ with all Christians. Now, the question comes, whose fault is that? Is problem with Jesus that he did not make his message clear enough or problem is with followers who for their own vested interests have changed Jesus claims?
Reading Farhan’s blog, tells us he is of the opinion that Jesus should be criticized for his followers having different claims about Jesus belief. Because Farhan has criticized Mirza Ghulam Ahmad for his followers difference about him.
You are insinuating that MGA’s claims have been altered. After lengthy study, me and over 100+ bloggers have came to the conclusion that MGA was very smart and this ahmadiyyat thing is a business, not a religion.
As far as jesus goes, we follow the guidance of Allah. Jesus was a messenger, he never went on any cross, he was never killed by any mortal, allah collected him (or killed him, or caused him to die shortly after his escape), and he will return in the end days (see hadith for his return).
Allah also told us that Jesus never asked men to worship him or his mother. YOU SHOULD READ THE QURAN.
Step your religion game up!
If you watch some of my earlier videos and my newer videos, you’ll see a difference in the style. I’ve changed over the years. That’s natural. One of the things I learned is to recognize that some people wrote in strange, metaphorical language, but their *meaning* is the same as the traditional way.
If you are saying that I am completely misunderstanding Mirza Ghulam and that in reality he was an orthodox Muslim who just had different expressions, than I can respect that.
But, if that was the case, why would Mirza Ghulam have challenged the Muslims? Why would many of his writings completely differ than Islam? Why would he bring death prophecies against Muslims?
Islam is not a new religion. Its 1431 years old. And even if Muslims became corrupt, we know what the earliest Muslims believe, through their writings. If Mirza was true, what he said would have agreed with that. But it didn’t.
wa Allahu ‘Alim
Farhan will you be criticizing Jesus?
Jesus brought a message. Those who consider him a genuine person differ on his beliefs. Some have belief in unity of God i.e. Unitarians. Others believe in Trinity. Still others have belief which is close to Islam i.e. Barnabas. And of course Muslims differ with all Christians. Now, the question comes, whose fault is that? Is problem with Jesus that he did not make his message clear enough or problem is with followers who for their own vested interests have changed Jesus claims?
Reading Farhan’s blog, tells us he is of the opinion that Jesus should be criticized for his followers having different claims about Jesus belief. Because Farhan has criticized Mirza Ghulam Ahmad for his followers difference about him.
Interesting that “honest muslim” is also “straight talker”. It’s transparently obvious that given your attempted deception, you are neither.
I have different pen names.
Why you deleted my post, in which i asked Farhan not to build case against Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib, based on statements of Mirza Mahmud Ahmad.
This is tantamount ti building case against Jesus, based on statements of St. Paul.
I take it you’re a Lahori. Frankly, I do not concern myself with Lahorism.
Rationalist
dear can you refer me a definition khalifa through the Holy Qur’an or Hadith, if can’t, then don’t try to create what Almighty Allah and his messenger did not created, so they new khilafat could be in many forms,
millions of people (human beings with sense and educated) took ba’at of one man as a khalifa,
If this is possible plz try to do this,
if you are thinking a khalifa could be political then bush had control on world big land can you accept him khalifa,
Khalifa need a jama’at of righteous only, and most of the khalifa never have any land under there control in the past,
Bcoz you are a materialistic, your khalifa should be a political, but a righteous don’t need any materialistic things,
What the heck are you talking about?
You should buy Rosetta Stone and learn english!!
WE CAN WHAT WE WILL DO—CIRCA 1883
I am not here in English test, but if you don’t understand any thing i can define you..
as a true Muslim, it is not essential to learn English.
Even in the life of our beloved Holy Prophet (saw), when some Arab recited Holy Qur’an in their mother tongue (in different accent ), Holy Prophet (saw) allow them,
Correction of my English is not important but correction of you faith (according to Sunnah) is very important
@Farhan:
“I take it you’re a Lahori. Frankly, I do not concern myself with Lahorism.”
Then, you should accuse Qadiani Khalifa 2 Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, and NOT his father Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib.
Just the way you will accuse Paul and NOT Jesus for stupid claims associated with Jesus.
Farhan, where is your sense of justice???
Animosity towards your enemy should NOT let you lose your sense of justice.
Farhan, like every human, you will die one day. And will be answering to Allah SWT for what you write on this blog. Don’t forget that.
Isn’t it true that Mirza Ghulam criticized ‘Esa bin Maryam (AS)? When asked about this, Ahmadis say he’s criticizing the ‘Esa of the Christians, not the ‘Esa of the Qur’an. I’ll borrow that response. Right now, I’m criticizing the Mirza Ghulam of the Ahmadiyya-Qadiani-British sect (as opposed to the sects based on the UK)
Please do not refer to ‘Esa bin Maryam (AS) as merely “Jesus”.
Brother Farhan,
This article is a real disappointment. You are unable to define for yourself the meaning of “unity” or the context in which you want to use it. You are confusing the notion of unity with the agreement among the majority of the followers of a given religion on a set of shared beliefs. This is not just specific to Islam. And it is not necessarily a good or bad thing. More than one billion Roman Catholics share quite a bit of theological homogeneity. On the other end of the spectrum more than one billion Hindus exhibit quite a bit of theological diversity.
as-salaam ‘alaykum,
Thanks for your constructively critical comments. I can respect them.
I implicitly defined two types of unity: Theological and Political/Organizational. The Muslims masses are theologically united, more so than disunited. As I said, the issues of disagreement are relatively small.
Politically/Organizationally, the Muslims have not been under one leadership since…Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufiyan(RA)?
Compare this to the Ahmadis; There are numerous break-away sects and groups and they cannot even agree if their founder was a Prophet or what even the basics of his teachings.
Brother Farhan,
Your logic about theological unity is deeply flawed. And in order to support this flawed logic you are trying to trivialize the role of political unity. There was no major theological difference between Ali ibn Talib and Maawiya ibn Sufiyan or between Ali ibn Talib and Ayesha, however the number of Muslims killed in these two wars were more than the combined total of Lahore group ,Jama’at Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen and other straw men that you are beating up in your article.
In a way you are accepting that this theological unity ( as defined by you ) is completely useless in providing Muslims with any reasonable framework to come up with some agreed upon solutions for managing their collective lives in this world.
Its almost funny to think of the scenario: ” Well … you know …. we Muslims are theologically united .. but we just killed these 70,000 Muslims … because they did not agree with us politically .. But you know ..Allah is all knowing ….. he would understand the difference between theology and politics ”
Anyway, brother Farhan, there is nothing wrong with Islam. The theological unity as you are trying to define just does not mean anything. Every religion has certain principles that majority of the followers of that religion agree upon. It does not imply anything.
i like to see more of this kind of people they are really inspiring
=================MASHALLAH=======================