Infidel

Pronouncement of the entire Muslim Ummah as kafir (infidel)

When Mirza found with the passage of time that the number of person responding to his call continued to remain very thin, he declared that all those who did not believe in him and his message were infidels. Here are some of his sayings on this point:

·      God has revealed to me that every person who has received my message but has not believed in it is not a Muslim.

·      God has also said to me: “Anyone who does not follow thee, or does not pledge allegiance to thee and opposed thee, is guilty of disobedience to Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and is therefore hell-bound”.

·      In the official Qadyani newspaper, Al-Fadl, dated 15 December 1921, it was reported that “Mirza Sahib had not joined the funeral prayers of his own son (Fadl Ahmad) simply because he had been a non-Ahmadi”).  

Factors and forces at the back of Qadianism

It is not very difficult to identify the anti-Islam forces that were providing tacit and veiled support to the movement launched by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Following the War of Independence of 1857, and the role of the Indian Muslim community in that war, the then British Government of India had become suspicious and wary about the Indian Muslims in general. Yet it continued to treat Mirza and his party with special indulgence. The petitions and reports submitted by Mirza to the Government against some Muslim leaders and single, ulama excerpts from some of which reproduced below, show clearly that he was a special lacy of the Government of the day:

“It appears expedient to me, as a well-wisher of the British Government (of India), that the names of those misguided Muslims who, in their heart of hearts, consider British India to be a dar-ul-harb (land of belligerency), should be entered in the government records------, I have therefore prepared a list of names of persons with such rebellious minds------ who harbour secret anti-government intension----- we submit respectfully to the Government, however, that such lists should be allowed to remain in our possession as a ‘political secret’ until the Government feels the need to call for them. In the latter event, we would expect our ‘judicious-minded’ Government also to keep these lists in its safe custody as a ‘state secret’. The names and addresses are given below”   (cf., Tabligh-e-Risalat op. cit, Vol. V)

Further more, seeing that the Hindus of India were engaged in a struggle for India’s liberation from British rule along side the country’s Muslims, Mirza started writing and lecturing in favour of the scriptures and holy personalities of the Hindus in order to win the latter’s sympathies for his own party addressing the Hindu public in a lecture delivered in November 1904 at Sialkot, he said:

“It has been revealed to me that Lord Krishna was an accomplished person, the like of whom is not found in any other holy Hindu personality. He was an avatar or Prophet of his time, and was visited by the Holy Spirit (i.e., Angel Gabriel).------ God has promised that in the last period of history, He would create a ‘projection’ of Krishna, and this promise has now been fulfilled in my appearance. Besides other inspiration, I had also received this inspiration: O Krishna Gopal! Thy praise has been recorded in the Bhagvad Geeta”.                 

In his book Shahadatul Quran (Testimony of the Quran), Mirza observed that the allegiance of the British Government amounted to “half of Islam”. In the same vein, he wrote in his Tiryaq-ul-Qulub as follows:

“I have written so many books on the subject of prohibition of jihad and on allegiance to the British as to fill no less than fifty book-cases. I have also had these books distributed to far-off lands such as the Arab countries, Egypt, Syria, Kabul and Rum (i.e., Turkey). I have tried to ensure that the Muslims should become truly loyal to this government and also that the baseless tales about the Blood-thirsty Mahdi and the Blood-thirsty Messiah, as well as the violence-inciting beliefs like jihad, which corrupt the minds of the foolish ones, should be obliterated”.

Hindu expectations from the Qadianis

It was writings and declarations like the above that made the Hindus of India entertain expectations that the rise and success of the Qadyani movement would help them to counter the insistence of India’s Muslim in general upon their identity as a nation as separate from other communities inhabiting India, and thereby enable them to offer a united front to the British in collusion with the Qadyani community of India. An idea of the Hindus hopes in this behalf can be had from the following excerpts from an article by one Dr. Shankar Das Mehrubi of Lahore, which was published in the 22 April 1932 issue of the Hindu Newspaper Band-e-Matram and which was later published in the form of a pamphlet by the Qadianis themselves with a sense of pride:

“--------The most important problem now facing the country is how to create a national spirit among the Indian Muslims, who regard themselves as a separate nation. They constantly sing the praises of Arabia, and would not hesitate to name even India as an Arab land if they could.

“ In this state of despair, the only way of hope lies in the Ahmadiya movement. As more and more Muslims join this movement, they would tend increasingly to regard Qadian (which is a part of India) as their Makkah, and would eventually become loyal to India and therefore staunch nationalists. The progress of the Ahmadiya movement alone can finish off the Arab cultural influence on the Indian Muslims and spell the end of pan-Islamism.

“ ------A Qadyani Muslim believes firmly that:

1.      From time to time, God sends for the guidance of people persons who are prophets of their time;

2.      God had sent Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) among the people of Arabia in their period of moral decline;

3.      After the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), God again filled the need for a prophet and He has therefore sent Mirza Sahib for the guidance of the present-day Muslims.

Just as a Hindu convert to Islam transfers his allegiance from Rama, Krishna, the Vedas, and the Geeta to the Quran and the Arab land so is the point of view of a Muslim transformed on his becoming an Ahmadi, and his faith in the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) undergoes a gradual decline. Furthermore, his Khilafat (Caliphate), which he considered hitherto to be in Arabia and in Turkey, now shifts to Qadian. Makkah and Madina then become only traditional holy places for him. In whichever part of the world an Ahmadi may be, he turns towards Qadian for a spiritual satisfaction. Qadian then becomes the land of deliverance and salvation for him. And herein lies the secret of India’s superiority. Qadian being a part of India, and Mirza and his successors being Indians, every Ahmadi will love India.-------- The day is not far-off when the Ahmadis will openly declare that they are “Ahmadi” Muslims and not “Muhammadi” Muslims.

“The Ahmadis have not sided with other Muslims in the Khilafat movement, because they wish to establish the Khilafat in Qadian rather than in Turkey or Arabia.--------All this explains why the Muslims look upon the Ahmadiya movement as being inimical to Islam as well as to Arab culture.

“ ----------- Howsoever despairing this situation may be for the Muslims in general who are constantly dreaming of Pan-Islamism, it is nevertheless a matter of delight for every nationalist (Indian)”.

The relationship of mutual consideration and trust between the Hindus and Qadianis grew with the passage of time. Thus in May 1936, the then President of the All India National (Hindu) Congress, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, was accorded a grand welcome by the Qadianis and their volunteer corps on his visit to Lahore. When Allama Muhammad Iqbal, world-famed poet-philosopher of the East, cautioned the Muslims about the implications of this situation, several exchanges of correspondence took place between him and Pundit Nehru.