Why we shouldn’t combine Salat: Answers to three excuses
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The 73rd heavenly sect: Response to allegations
The Bible and the truthfulness of the Promised Messiah
Part I
Part I
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100 Years Ago... Launch of The Moslem Sunrise in America, Jamaat in Baghdad and foundation of Ahmadiyya Mosque in Kohat Page 8
THE WEEKLY
www.alhakam.org AL HAKAM | Friday 23 July 2021 | Issue CLXXV Ahmadiyya Archive & Research Centre (ARC), 22 Deer Park Road, London, SW19 3TL. UK info@alhakam.org | ISSN 2754-7396
Sacrifice: The élan vital of love The sentiment of love has arguably been the rock of the vast amount of literature produced in the world since time immemorial, albeit in different forms and shapes – love for a person, for a place, for faith, for a nation and so forth. Read through the literature produced in the many centuries of human existence and one will find that sacrifice has been the bloodline for love in all its shades and derivatives. From Homer’s Odyssey to Wordsworth’s romanticism and all the way to modern-day fiction and poetry, love has remained the current that runs through human expression, and sacrifice, the undercurrent. What we know as Eid-ul-Adha is a reminder to all Muslims that love on its own is a body without a soul. Ahmadis are lucky not to have to wait for the annual cycle for this reminder; the pledge that every Ahmadi proclaims – from weekly meetings to annual ijtemas – is all about the love for the cause of the Promised Messiahas, resting on the pivot of sacrifice. “I shall be ready to sacrifice my time, wealth, honour, children …”: Anything and everything dear to us is sworn in by every Ahmadi – children or adults, women or men. So what makes sacrifice so important in Islam is not different from what makes sacrifice so very important in any affair of human society: Love. True love calls for sacrifice, not just words, and it is this distinction that defines true love and a hollow sense of belonging. The first reference to sacrifice in the Holy Quran is found in the story of Hazrat Adam’s two sons, who both offered sacrifice but not both were accepted by Allah the Almighty; acceptance of the sacrifice, the story
Hadith-e-Rasul – Sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammadsa
How the Holy Prophetsa used to offer Salat
ُ َّ َ َ ْ ُ ْ ُ َ ُ ْ َ ُ ّ ٰ َ َ ُ َ ْ ُ ْ الن ِ� ّي الم ِﻐيرة ر ِﺿی الله عنه يﻘول ِإن كان َ ّ ٰ َّ َ ّ َ ُ َ َّ َصلی الل ُه َعل ْی ِه َو َسل َم ل َیﻘ ْو ُم ل ُِی َﺼ� ِ َ� َح ّتی ت ِر ُم ُ ُ َ َ ُ َ َ ُ َ َُ ََ ف ُیﻘال � ُ� ف َیﻘ ْول،قد َماه أ ْو َساقاه ُ َ ً َ َُ َ َ َ أفلا أﻛ ْو ُن ع ْبدا ﺷ� ْ� ًرا Hazrat Al-Mughirara narrates, “The Holy Prophetsa used to stand in the prayer or pray till both his feet or legs swelled. He was asked why he offered such an unbearable prayer, to which he replied, ‘Should I not be a thankful servant?’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Tahajud, Hadith 1130)
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, In His Own Words
What causes the divinely commissioned to be opposed?
indicates, is down to Allah Who accepts or rejects on the basis of “righteousness”. So, we see that what attracts Allah’s acceptance is not based on the quantity of the offering but the quality, and quality is added to the sacrifice through the love that works behind the act. The most detailed account of sacrifice mentioned in the Quran is of that of Abrahamas offering his son Ishmaelas to be slaughtered in the way of Allah the Almighty. Abrahamas passed what was only a test of his love and is honoured by Allah as “Khalilullah” (the friend of Allah) and certified as “loyal”. The strongest teaching of sacrifice and its philosophy found in the Holy Quran is, however, in the verse: ُ َ َ ََۡ ٌ َ ٌ ُ ّٰ � لﻘد ان لَﻜ ۡﻢ فِ ۡی َر ُﺳوۡ ِل الل ِہ ا ۡﺳوَة َﺣ َﺴﻨﺔ “Verily, you have in the Prophet of Allah
an excellent model.” (Ch.33: V.22) If Allah prescribes the practices of the Holy Prophet, Muhammadsa as the best model for the believers, then Allah is undoubtedly asking for a life of sacrifice to live up to it. A child born orphan, or, as some accounts suggest, became an orphan at a very early age, the Holy Prophetsa was to live a life of sacrifice from his birth to the time that he passed away. What kept him going, as is evident from his biographical accounts, was the sheer love of Allah the Almighty. From his self-imposed solitude in the blossom of his youth to offering every belonging in the way of Allah, the Holy Prophet’s life is the epitome of both love and sacrifice.
There is the question as to why the Prophets, peace be upon them, and those who are commissioned by God Almighty, are opposed, and why people disregard their teaching? This is caused by the state of people themselves – a state which becomes the very reason for the advent of these holy personages in the first place. An ocean of sin and impiety rages on amidst the people, while they indulge in all forms of malefaction and wickedness, distancing them and depriving them of God Almighty; and it is this that suppresses their fine and virtuous essence. Since evil actions are at their pinnacle, the essence of human nature, which drives towards every form of perfection or uppermost limit, is diverted to follow a course of evil. It is this very hidden reality, which causes people to initially oppose the Prophets, peace be upon them, and those who are Continued on page 3
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