Ahmadiyas: Islams outcasts By Mohammad Wajihuddin Headquartered in Punjab,the Ahmadiyas, whose mosques were blown up in Pakistan l ast month,

have been ostracised by co-Muslims for their beliefs Visiting a graveyard can be an uninspiring detour during a pilgrimage. But if yo u are in Qadiyan, the headquarters of the Ahmadiyas in Punjabs Gurdaspur district , visiting the massive graveyard called Bahishti Maqbara is mandatory. For, here rests Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908 ),their founder. To this Muslim sect, whose followers are also known as Qadiyanis, Ahmad is the a waited Mahdi, the Promised Messiah as prophesied by Prophet Mohammed. But to the zealots who butchered nearly 100 worshippers in Lahores two Ahmadiya mosques on May 28,and even to those Muslims who denounce such wanton brutality, Ahmad, the self-appointed Mahdi and Promised Messiah was an imposter and heretic. Ahmad claimed he received Gods revelations, much like the Prophets did. But neit her the Shias nor the Sunnis, Islams two major sects, buy this: Sunni Muslims be lieve the Mahdi is still to come, while Shias believe he has appeared but is in hiding. The Ahmadiyas, who believe in Ahmads messiahdom, are paying for this crim e as Burhan Ahmad Zafar, a scholar who heads the publication wing of the Central Ahmadiya Association in Qadiyan, puts it. Our crime is that we believe in a Had ith (tradition) of the Prophet who said a Mahdi would come to kill Dajjal (the n otorious deceiver) and establish peace and justice on earth, he says. Circled by lush, green fields fed by the Ravi and Beas, Qadiyan in Punjabs Gurda spur district, is a tiny town of 40,000 people, of which nearly 4,000 are Ahmadi yas. Among Mirza Ghulam Ahmads many prophesies was one that said that whoever wa s buried in the massive graveyard would reach heaven. To book a place here, ever y Ahmadiya must will at least 1/10th of his/her property to the community trust. A few minutes walk from the graveyard is the whitewashed, old complex resembling any walled city. The complex houses two massive mosques (Masjid Mubarak and Al Aqsa Mosque), the red brick house where the sects founder was born ,his personal prayer room and a 125-ft tall minaret made of white marble called Minaratul Mas ih. Built in 1906,the minaret is a symbolic fulfilment of one of the conditions prescribed by the Prophet for the Promised Messiah. The Prophet had said that th e Messiah would float on the wings of an angel and descend on a white minaret, e ast of Damascus. Muslim scholars, who are wary of Mirza Ghulam Ahmads audacious c laim, call this minaret part of the web Mirza Ghulam Ahmad allegedly spun around himself. Mirza Ghulam Ahmads claim of being the Messiah contravenes a vital rule of Messia hdom. Only a prophet declares himself a divine messenger the Promised Messiah wi ll be identified through his character by the people of the era he lives in, say s Delhi-based senior Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Unarguably the fac e of moderate Islam in India, the octogenarian Khan, while refuting the claims o f Ahmadiyats founder, condemns the maulvis fatwas which made the Ahmadiyas wajibul qatl (deserving to be killed).Neither the Quran nor the Hadiths sanction the ki lling of even those who create innovations in the faith. To declare a person kaf ir (infidel) or sinner is the prerogative of God; man can only perform dawah (pr opagation of faith) works, explains Khan, whose recent book The Prophet of Peace tears apart the ideology of Islamic terrorism. The Ahmadiyas beliefs have brought them much suffering, especially in Pakistan, w here most of them migrated after Partition. In 1974, Pakistans first prime minis

ter, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, declared Ahmadiyat as non-Muslim. A decade later, as p art of the frenzied Islamisation process, dictator Zia-ul-Haq brought out an ord inance which prevented the sect from using Islamic descriptions and titles. Thus , the Islamic greeting, the azaan or call to prayer by the Ahmadiyas became puni shable and their mosques were reduced to just ibadatgahs (places of worship). Another feature of the Ahmadiyas, unique to them, is the institution of the Khil afat or Caliphate in the contemporary world. Its pure, theological form was abol ished after the assassination of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph. In modern times, Mustafa Kemal Pasha formally ended the Abbasid Caliphate, monarchical in nature , in Turkey in the 1920s. But the Ahmadiyas consider it part of the faith and fa natically root for it. Their fifth Caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmed, lives in London and commands unchallenged respect. Immediately after news of the Lahore blasts came in, Mirza Masroor Ahmad went on Muslim Television Ahmadiya (MTA), the sects exclusive 24X7 channel which almost every Ahmadiya household around the world subscribes to, appealing to his follow ers not to retaliate. If the Ahmadiyas in Pakistan and elsewhere remained calm a fter the bloodbath in two mosques in Lahore, the credit goes also to our caliph or imam who counselled patience and prayers, says Mohammed Hameed Qausar, princi pal of one of the communitys two colleges in Qadiyan. Much before the Ahmadiyas became official outcastes in Islamic Pakistan, there u sed to be thousands of them mainly cocooned in Qadiyan, living with their Hindu and Sikh neighbours (even today a Shiva temple shares the boundary of their mosq ue in Qadiyan).Then Partition happened and, heeding their first Caliph Hakim Noo ruddins call for migration, all of them, barring 313,moved. Ahmad Hussain, 82,is among the few surviving ones who stayed back. We were young and asked to guard t he mosque, the minaret and the graveyard, says the frail Hussain who earns his b read by sewing sherwanis at his tiny tailoring shop opposite the whitewashed Mas jid Mubarak. Hussain, with the handsome remittances his children send from abroad, has booked a place in the Bahishti Maqbara and hopes to enjoy the luxuries of heaven. Iron ically, the terrorists who killed Hussains co-religionists in complete cold bloo d in Lahore on May 28 anticipated similar rewards. They were lured by the promis e of paradise after killing the kafir Ahmadiyas. mohammed.wajihuddin@timesgroup.com Source: Times of India URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndTolerance_1.aspx?ArticleID=30 61