I was invited by Shaykh Suliman Gani to talk on the subject of Ahmadiyya at Hendon Mosque & Islamic Centre on Saturday evening. Alhamdulillah, it was a packed house. It always amazes me to see packed mosques full of observing Muslims of all backgrounds. Islam is  a beautiful deen and it beats strong in the hearts of many.

Sadly, I have no audio recording of the talk, but it went very well alhamdulillah and the brothers who greeted me afterwards gave uniformly positive feedback. There was a good round of Q&A at the end.

My talk was the last one of the programme, following Shaykh Suliman Gani’s impassioned defence of the Finality of Prophethood. His talk in turn followed an inspiring talk by one of the local shaykhs on the status of the sahabas. I covered some of the Myths and Misconceptions that Ahmadis have about Islam, Muslims and themselves. The substance of this talk was covered in greater detail in a video that I made with the team that produced my interview on Iqra. It will be made available on the web soon insha’Allah.

Myth 1: Ahmadis are United, Muslims are disunited

I conducted a straw poll and asked the attendees who the Last Prophet was. The result was unanimous. I told the audience that the answer would be the same in just about any mosque in the world and that was our true unity – that and our shared `eeman. I explained that our theology is broadly similar. Credit must go to brother Farhan for inspiration.

I then referred to the Ahmadiyya, whose membership backbite amongst themselves and are not even united on whether their founder was a prophet or not.

Myth 2: Mullahs

Mullahs are bogeymen, used by the Mirzology clergy to frighten their children, the way Victorian parents used “Saladin” as a bogeyman to terrify their kids at bedtime. And in any case, Ahmadiyya clergy have spread hatred about Muslim `ulama since the time of the founder of Mirzology himself, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, which kind of makes them ideal arhcetypes for their “mullah” fantasy, inverting the “Love for All, Hatred for None” credo neatly.

I then asked if Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, Professor Tariq Ramadan or Shaykh Suliman Gani (who had already spoken at this gathering) were preachers of hate or mullahs? The audience was incredulous, of course not!

Myth 3: That Ahmadis are better educated and better thinkers than the low-life Muslims.

Prospect magazine, which ran a poll on the Top 100 public intellectuals in 2008, showed that the top 10 were… ALL MUSLIMS. That’s right. Not a single Mirzologist in the top 10. Not one in the top 100 either. That’s because there are currently no notable thinkers from the Cult of Mirzology.

Myth 4: That Ahmadis are growing in number all the time.

I pointed out that in 2002, Mirza Tahir claimed a membership of 200M. The audience laughed. In 2003, Nasim Rehmatullah claimed 50M. I wondered where the 150M had disappeared to.

For more, have a look here.

I plan on continuing, insha’Allah to give as many talks as my schedule permits. Having previously talked at Morden Islamic Centre, Kingston and Tooting Islamic Centre, this was my first talk on Mirzology in North London.

May Allah (SWT) guide the Ahmadis to Islam.