Text Box: بسم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Friday Sermon HAZRAT AMIR’UL MOMENEEN MUHYI-UD-DIN AL KHALIFATULLAH Munir Ahmad Azim 05 February 2010 (20 Safar 1431 Hijri) (Summary of Friday Sermon) After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Khalifatullah read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and then he said: قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ۝ قُلْ أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْكَافِرِينَ ۝ Qul in-kuntum tuhibbuunallaaha fattabi-‘uunii yuh-bib-kumullaahu wa yagfir lakum zunuubakum: wallaahu Gafuurur-Rahiim. Qul ‘atii-‘ullaaha war-Rasuul: fa-‘in-tawallaw fa-‘innallaaha laa yuhibbul-Kaafiriin. Say: If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Say: Obey Allah and the Messenger; but if you turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers. (Chapter 3 Verses 32-33) In the Creator, our beloved Allah we find love for us, His creatures. Based on the verses of the Holy Quran which I mentioned last week in my Friday Sermon, we find that Allah has provided us with all our necessities. He has manifested His “Rahmaniyat” upon us. He gave us all without us first asking from Him. He has established the earth as our living habitat so that we may feel comfortable and realise that all these creations are not without an Origin, a sole Source: Allah (Exalted is He). Thus, by giving man and all of His creations means of sustenance be it on earth or in the sky, we find love of Allah manifest for His creatures. This love of Allah sourced from His wish to have His creatures recognise His grandeur, but alas it is not so, especially for man. Being in the pursuit of this world, he neglects his prayers, and to thank Allah for everything that He has been provided with, and the needs and desires which he asked from Allah and which Allah has granted him out of His “Rahimiyat”. If we analyse both attributes of Allah, “Rahman” and “Rahim” we will find that Allah’s fundamental wish is goodness for one and all, to have all of His creations happy in His worship and by maximising the favours from Allah, they get to get closer to Allah, in complete submission to His will. The other creatures of Allah are subservient to Him, except man, or at least the majority of humanity (except a few of them who are really sincere and grateful towards their Creator for the favours witnessed). The ones who recognise the magnanimity of Allah are the true intelligent ones, those who accept to pass through the trials laid out by Allah to be passed through existence in this temporal world. For true lovers of Allah, these trials, these difficulties may be defined as trials of love; such a love which binds the Creator with His creature, especially man who has been granted with intelligence; such an intelligence which overpowers the capacity of mere animals or other living entities. For such true lovers of Allah, Allah put in their path such fires which they accept to walk through with faith and complete trust in Allah. Such love demonstrated by these kinds of people is divinely spirited and thus Allah’s tranquillity (Sakina) descends upon them as good news of their accomplishment of all trials passed. The trials, the examinations as we may say, that Allah makes His sincere believers take are not like the trials and exams which people among people take and pass through. Allah’s examinations are more profound, to the extent that it brings about complete satisfaction from both Allah and His devoted servants. Now, we may find that Allah tries other people also. Nay, I may say that He tries all of humans. Why? By this means, Allah uncovers the intentions and purpose of these creatures, to make manifest their thoughts on Allah; to make known if they are really grateful towards Allah or merely being grateful on the lips for show! We must remember the promise that Allah has taken from us, the testimonial which He made us take against ourselves. We can find it mentioned in the Holy Quran, in Chapter 7 Verses 173-175: And when your Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants, and made them bear witness against their own souls: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes! We bear witness. Lest you should say on the day of resurrection: Surely we were heedless of this. Or you should say: Only our fathers associated others (with Allah) before, and we were an offspring after them: Wilt Thou then destroy us for what the vain doers did? And thus do We make clear the communications, and that haply they might return. From this verse, it is clear that the original religion and faith of all mankind is Islam – completely submission to Allah the Almighty. Allah has well established the purpose of mankind – His worship – and thus, He made all of us testify against ourselves that Allah is our Lord. Therefore, it is our duty to keep firm the pact we made with Allah before our coming on earth. The soul needs Allah, its beloved Lord. “Without Allah, the soul dies” – even though we know that as the soul is of the essence of Allah, therefore the soul is immortal, but yet when I say that the soul dies without Allah, means that the soul’s existence is nil, without any purpose. The soul who has gone astray shall live a miserable life in Hell; thus it dies a slow death, without actually dying. In this world also, thousands of souls merry in other pleasures instead of having their pleasure in the worship of Allah. This is death for them, for they have missed the purpose of their creations, forgetting the pact they made with Allah. Allah has clearly said that the people who after having taken this vow, this pact would deny having taken this engagement with Allah and would put the fault of the breach of contract on heads of their ancestors, their forefathers. Allah loves His creatures so much that He does not punish them quickly, giving them time to repent and to recognise His manifestations and signs which He had scattered widespread around the world, in the universe and even in the individual creature himself! Such love of a Creator for His creatures is exemplary. We shall never see a sweeter manifestation of love than that of the Lord for His creatures. Even if there exist lots of types of love manifesting in the heart of man for his surroundings, like brotherly love, sisterly love, love shared between parents and their children, and love between husband and wife, but these loves are nothing compared to the One Love which the Creator, our Allah has for us. Yes, it is He Himself who has granted us all these loves, even input into us family feelings (which do not go overboard) which makes us demonstrate such attributes of Allah like generosity, kindness, politeness – attributes which propels man to serve mankind as he would himself and his closest family members. Such sentiments Allah input for the progress of one’s own spirituality and closeness to Allah. And whoever submits himself wholly to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others), he indeed has taken hold of the firmest thing upon which one can lay hold; and Allah’s is the end of affairs. (Chapter 31 Verse 23) But what happens when family feelings go overboard? When man takes family feelings as more important than Allah’s instructions, especially through the advent of His Chosen Messenger? Allah has said in the Holy Quran: And We have enjoined man in respect of his parents -- his mother bears him with faintings upon faintings and his weaning takes two years -- saying: Be grateful to Me and to both your parents; to Me is the eventual coming. And if they contend with you that you should associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them, and keep company with them in this world kindly, and follow the way of him who turns to Me, then to Me is your return, then will I inform you of what you did. (Chapter 31 Verses 15-16) Now, we all know how much respect and love one must have for one’s parents, especially our Mother who has gone through the hardships of labour to put us on earth. She had spent many a day and night to care for us and make us aware of the beauty of creations, and the Creator behind them, a Creator whom we must all submit. But alas, there exist mothers also who instead of making her child or children come closest to Allah, she directs him or them the opposite way. We have the example of the mother of a companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) – Abu Hurairah – who in the times of Islam, she used to mock and curse the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Abu Hurairah (her son) could not stand her mother abusing his beloved master (peace be upon him). Thus, he asked the Holy Prophet to send curse upon his mother, which the Prophet refused. Instead he prayed for her to have faith, and the miracle came when faith in Allah and His Holy Prophet entered her heart. Although Allah has said not to obey such parents (who are still unbelievers), but Allah has said to be only kind to them. This example above is one example of how Allah can turn a heart and direct it to Islam, but it is a fact also that there exists mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters who are die-hard enemies of Allah and His Messengers, signs and manifestations. Many were witnessed in the times of the Holy prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and thus such verses of the Holy Quran were revealed, as firm instructions for the true believers of his time and others who shall follow till the end of days (each time Allah shall send to the world His Messenger): O you who believe! Take not your fathers and your brothers for friends, if they prefer disbelief to faith. And whoso befriends them from among you, it is they that are wrongdoers. Say, if your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your kinsfolk, and the wealth you have acquired, and the trade whose dullness you fear, and the dwellings which you love are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His cause, then wait until Allah comes with His judgement; and Allah guides not the disobedient people. (Chapter 9 Verses 23-24) Moreover Allah says: You shall not find a people who believe in Allah and the latter day befriending those who act in opposition to Allah and His Apostle, even though they were their (own) fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their kinsfolk; these (believers) are they into whose hearts He has impressed faith, and whom He has strengthened with an inspiration from Him: and He will cause them to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein; Allah is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him these are Allah's party: now surely the party of Allah are the successful ones. (Chapter 58 Verse 23) Thus, the true believer is instructed by Allah not to have such family feelings which can hinder them in His path, in the path of “Laa Ilaaha Illallah”, which can make them drift away from Allah and His Chosen Messenger. Instead, their true family is those who have accepted Allah and His Messenger and who struggle day and night to make the beauty of Islam shine in humanity’s heart. Allah’s love is guaranteed for those believers who strive in His cause, regardless of the mockeries of their family members who have rejected the signs of Allah. Allah gives them time to repent, to turn to Him and reform themselves, but if they exceed all limits in disbelief and calumniate the Chosen Messenger of Allah and his followers and reject the thousands of signs they received from Allah, where day and night they witnessed revelations coming from Allah, who stood on the mimbar of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to depict the veracity of the Messenger of their era, then these people (if they stay firm in their disbelief – even after having first believed) they shall taste the wrath of Allah; this wrath sources from the same love which Allah beforehand had for them, because He must have loved them so much that He made them witnessed countless revelations and when even they themselves received revelations to confirm the veracity of the Elect of Allah. Therefore, we can say that love of Allah is directly linked with obedience to Him and His Chosen Messenger. In the times of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), it was he that the believers had to follow as guide amongst them, in the times of the Promised Messiah Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (on him be peace), it was he the guide, and now in this era, Allah has sent His humble Khalifatullah Muhyi-ud-Din as a guide for you all – humanity as a whole – to guide you towards the worship of Allah, the One True Lord. Now, in the times when there is no Envoy of Allah (through direct divine appointment), the believers are enjoined by Allah to follow the instructions of Allah and to maintain the ties of kinship, blood relations, because they are closer to you than other believers. But whenever there is a Messenger of Allah, those blood relations who calumniate the Messenger of Allah and reject all signs coming from Allah, then Allah like mentioned in the verses above, Allah instruct the real believers (for the hypocrites will turn their back to the messages of Allah) not to take these same family members, blood relations as friends for they would make their best to deviate them from the right path, the path of the divine favours, where the Holy Spirit is descending upon a humble prophet or Messenger of Allah, as a revival of the teachings of the Quran. It is our duty as believers in the Divine Manifestation of Allah to strive hard in the path of Allah so that we may be considered true in the eyes of Allah, and be amongst those from the party of Allah (Hizb’Allah) and not amongst the party of Satan (Hizbush’Shaytan). Whenever Allah sends a Messenger unto mankind, this is to test all humans, especially those who say that they believe, to really make either their true belief in Allah or so-called belief in Allah manifest. Thus, Allah says not to befriend even your blood relations who are from amongst the party of Satan who day and night make plots over plots to deviate you from the right path, from the path which you, believers have chosen to tread. Why this path? Because this path shall lead you straight to Allah, in His Mercy and Love. Such exquisite love which Allah has for the real believers will be manifested in forms of the treasures of Paradise, such favours which the eyes have not witnessed before, which no lip has ever tasted before. So there manifest the glory of Allah in all His loving attributes as the recompense of the joyous souls of unlimited beauty – the beauty of their faith – ISLAM! Such is our vocation, to please Allah and His Messenger, not man and man who plot day and night to harm us in our belief in Allah, in His divine signs and manifestations. Love of Allah flows upon the heart of the sincere and steadfast, who prefers faith over family feelings. Such an example, we find in the sweet example of Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique, who preferred his love for Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) rather than his love for his son Muhammad who at one time was a disbeliever, and fighting in the ranks of the enemies of Islam. This message is for all Muslims, and especially the Sunnat Jamaat who are persecuting their families who have accepted the divine manifestations and this humble Messenger of Allah. Thus, as the “Yaum-un-Nabi” date is approaching and their so-called leaders are coming, where they will organise many conferences, they will seize the opportunity of “Yaum-un-Nabi” to calumniate the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (on him be peace) and this humble one. Furthermore, these so-called defenders of Islam have printed pamphlets filled with hatred towards the Ahmadi Muslims and my followers. By the grace of Allah, we have already replied all their dirty calumnies against Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (on him be peace), to make shine the beauty of his apparition as the Reviver of faith of his era. May Allah perfect our faith in Him more and more; may the unbelievers and hypocrites realise their errors before it is too late and come forward to obtain the love of Allah, instead of staying in their present stand and attract the wrath of Allah upon them all the more! Ameen…