Download - The Light, Deember 2012
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Editors:
Shahid Aziz
Mustaq Ali
Contents: Page
Call of the Messiah 1
Khutba, Id-ul-Adha, byShahid Aziz 3Honour Killings, byZahid Aziz 7
Webcasts: Please note that the Friday khutba
and prayers, the dars, as well as all meetings
are broadcast over the Virtual Mosque
(www.virtualmosque.co.uk).
Call of the Messiah(Continued from the last issue)
Precautionary measure
It should also be remembered here that we had,
inour first notification, proposed a plan, by way
of precaution, for keeping off
plague. But it had never been
our intention to suggest that it
wasan absolute and sure rem-
edy, so trustworthy andinfalli-
ble that after it there re-
mained no neednor yearningfor prayer. We meant only to
say that there was strong
probability that it might yield
some good effect. We know it
for certain thatwith regard to
a disease there is, in the hands
of doctors and physicians, no
such medicine in respect of
which they can put forth and
proffer the claimthat it will,
fighting with full successagainstthe dictates of destiny,
work a cure and deliver unfailingly with the
certainty of a law, all kinds of temperament
from the clutches of disease. Our belief on the
other hand, is that up to this time physicians
have not been able to find out any such medi-
cine, nor can they, which may, at all events, pro-
duce a good effect upon all men of different
natures, ages and countries, and never fallshort and fail. It is, therefore, that in spite of
plan and device, the room for prayer and sup-
plication, at any rate, remains open and empty.
And plague, in the list of all deadly diseases,
obviously stands at the top; how, then, can a
man adduce his claim in respect of such a
deadly disease that a certain drug or device can
save all lives without any exception, from its
fatal blow?
Purpose of prayer
Again, when it is evident from the Law of Na-
ture that the science of medicine in itself is
merely speculative, and so are all its plans and
prescriptions, how unfortunate it is, then, that
one should repose all his confidence in these
uncertainties and seek not
through prayer the grace of the
Most High God, Who is the Su-
preme Source of all good and
guidance. What do we ask for and
crave through prayer? We implore
and entreat the Great Knower ofthe unseen, who knows the real
nature of the disease as well as its
treatment, to extend to us His
helping hand, and provide us with
such medicines as may be excel-
lently efficacious and effective; or
that He may not out of His kind-
liness and grace cause to dawn
upon us the day when we stand in
need of physicians and their
medicines. Is there any doubt oruncertainty about the fact that
December
2012
Webcasting on the worlds first real-time Islamic service at
www.virtualmosque.co.uk
Hazrat Amirs arrival was
front-page news.
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Above and below: foreign delegates arriving
Surniame Convention November 2012
Above: Cultural Centre built next to themosque
Below: President, Suriname Jamaat welcomesdelegates.
Above: opening of the Conference Centre
Above and below: opening the convention
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Addressing the conference were
The leader of the Jewish community
The leader of the Christian community
The Home Minister of Suriname
Hazrat Amir, Deputy US and a previous
Suriname ambassador to Indonesia
Below: foreign delegates (seated)
Audience: high military and civil officials Below: other members of the audience
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woven carpets and hand-made furniture de-
serves much more respect than a person who
furnishes his house with second-hand items, we
say. But even if a man does not possess riches
but has connections with those that do, thissomehow rubs off on him. Even the misdemean-
ours of such people are forgiven. A prince found
misbehaving in a hotel in Vegas has his actions
cleansed by the fact that he is of royal blood. We
make every effort to seek out people who may
have such connections. In modern vocabulary it
is called networking.
The first of the verses that I recited to you
goes so far as to say that some of our wives and
children are our enemies. This seems to be a
strange statement to make. But the point being
made is this, that anything and everything that
takes you away from Allah is your enemy. A per-
son may not do something wrong to gain some
advantage or protection for himself but may do
it for the sake of his family. He may not lie to
protect himself but provide a false alibi for his
child, because his wife and other children pres-
sure him into doing so. But even if there is no
pressure, our natural instincts and desire make
us do these things. Even the Prophet Noah cried
out and prayed to God to save his son from the
flood. This natural desire in all of us to protectour families makes us behave in this way. This is
why Allah says that our wives and children are
our enemies, because even if they do not pres-
sure us to do something wrong, our instinct to
do so makes us forget Allahs commands to be
honest and truthful.
Is this then like Jesus teaching to turn the
other cheek and, while it sounds fine on paper,
impossible to act upon? No, it is not, because the
Quran gives us an example. It says that Allah
asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, and both the
father and the child readily agreed. If one human
being can do it, then so can others. I have seen
and known people who, to my astonishment, put
love of Allah before their love for their children
and families. These people left wives who were
on their deathbed and they left their children
with no one but Allah to look after them and
went to serve the cause of Islam. They left their
near and dear ones in Allahs care. Those of our
missionaries and imams who went to Woking,
Berlin, Holland, Fiji, Trinidad and so on, all of
them did this. Their connection with theMessiah promised to the Muslim Ummah
infused such great love for Allah and His
Prophet Muhammad (s) in their hearts that
nothing else mattered.
You see, in summary, what these verses are
telling you is that duty comes before anythingelse. These verses are not just a story about a
man willing to sacrifice his own upon Allahs
command. They are more than that. Allah has
set forth a parable to show that if even you have
to sacrifice your most precious possession to do
the right thing you must do so. Hazrat Ibrahim
prayed for a son and in old age he is given a son.
We struggle to go to work to earn money to
bring up families. At the end of his life Hazrat
Ibrahim fulfils his ambition. He has a son. We,
too, fulfil our ambitions and desires, whatever
they may be, by using that money for our chil-
dren and our wives and ourselves. And then
Hazrat Ibrahim is told to sacrifice everything
that he had achieved by doing his duty. His
greatness lies in that, without flinching, without
question or reservation, he makes ready to do
his duty. And the son, too, willingly and happily
agrees with him. Here is where we part com-
pany with these noble people. Our child wants a
newly released iPad by Apple, and the Jamaat
makes an appeal for some noble cause. We only
have money for one of these. Will we followIbrahims and Ismails example and sacrifice our
own desires for duty? Unfortunately, many will
not. There have been people in this Jamaat who
did do so, and this is what makes this Jamaat
great the sacrifices of its elders. Dr Basharat
Ahmad comes to Lahore to buy his daughters
dowry. Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ali makes
an appeal for funds for the Berlin Mosque. What
did this father do? He consulted his daughter,
who said: Father, tell me, how long does bridal
wear last? But a good deed lasts for ever; give
money to the Jamaat. These people were the
living embodiment of the pledge they took to
hold their duty above their personal interest,
which was exactly what Hazrat Ibrahim did.
We are also faced by the same dilemma to-
day. Our brothers and sisters from a long way
away, people that we do not know and have
never met or seen, they have called out to us for
help. The Jamaat in India has undertaken to
build a mosque and a school in New Delhi and in
Bihar. We are one brotherhood and from which-
ever corner of the world comes the call for help,we must help. Our jewellery and cars and
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houses will be left behind for our children to
fight over. Our good deeds will go with us to the
hereafter. Chaudhry Saeed said to me about the
Berlin mosque: I will protect this mosque with
my life, because my mothers jewels are buriedin it. Will our children stand here and tell an
audience the same story? I ask the parents
among you to follow Hazrat Ibrahim and make a
sacrifice for this project. You cannot sacrifice a
lamb in the UK: give the same amount to build
these schools in India. And I want the young-
sters present here to revive the example of
Hazrat Ismail, so that one day someone remem-
bers your sacrifice like the daughter who pre-
ferred that her father use the money to save the
Berlin mosque rather than buy her dowry.
May Allah grant us all the wisdom to follow
the guidance set out in our Holy Quran.
Islam Forbids So-CalledHonour Killings
Compiled by Zahid Aziz
Below, we quote Hadith reports from Sahih Buk-
hari and Sahih Muslim which show most clearly
that the Holy Prophet Muhammad strictly for-
bade Muslim men from meting out their own
punishment on women whom they considered
to have committed gross immoralities. He in-
structed that the due process of law should be
invoked to determine guilt and award punish-
ment. Those who take the law into their own
hands to declare women guilty and then punish
them would themselves be punished by the Holy
Prophet. These reports refer to the following
passage of the Holy Quran:
And those who accuse their wives and have
no witnesses except themselves, let one of them
testify four times, bearing Allah to witness, thathe speaks the truth. And the fifth (time) that the
curse of Allah be on him, if he is lying. And it
shall avert the punishment from her, if she tes-
tify four times, bearing Allah to witness, that he
is lying. And the fifth (time) that the wrath of
Allah be on her, if he speaks the truth. (24:69)
As can be seen, this passage places the man
and wife on terms of complete equality. The
sworn denial of the wife is exactly equal to the
sworn accusation of the husband. After the fifth
swearing, which is that of invoking Allahs curse
on ones own self in case of being the liar, the
woman is free of the accusation and no one can
punish her.
A man is reported to have asked the Holy
Prophet concerning the following predicament:
If a man were to find with his wife a man
and if he were to talk about it, you would lashhim; and if he killed [the man], you would kill
him, and if he were to keep quiet he would be
consumed by anger.
He means that according to Islam if he ac-
cused her in front of others, he would be pun-
ished for slander, and if he killed the man he
would be treated as a murderer. So what is he to
do? The report continues that the Holy Prophet
prayed to Allah for an answer, and Allah re-
vealed to him the verses quoted above. Then
both the man and his wife came to the Holy
Prophet and swore in the manner prescribed.
The woman was then free to go, even though the
report casts doubt on her truthfulness. (Sahih
Muslim, Book of Divorce, under Lian, Invoking A
Curse. See translation of Sahih Muslim by Abdul
Hamid Siddiqui, Book 9, Report Number 3564 of
the edition online at www.iium.edu.my/deed/
hadith/.)
According to a Hadith report in Bukhari, a
man called Hilal bin Umaiya accused his wife of
committing illegal sexual intercourse with
another man and brought the case before theHoly Prophet.
The Prophet said (to Hilal): Either you
bring forth a proof (i.e., four witnesses) or you
will receive the legal punishment (lashes) on
your back. Hilal said: O Allahs Messenger, if any-
one of us saw a man with his wife, would he go
to seek after witnesses? The Prophet kept on
repeating: Either you bring forth witnesses or
you will receive the legal punishment (lashes)
on your back.
The report says that it was then that theverses quoted above were revealed to be applied
for the case of those who accuse their wives
and have no witnesses except themselves.
(Sahih Bukhari, the book as above, Report Num-
ber 272.)
The above two reports show that the Holy
Prophet was prepared to punish the husband for
slander against his wife, and that if the husband
had killed the other man the Holy Prophet
would have punished him for murder. Contrast
this with the situation in many Muslim countries
today, such as Pakistan, where a husband can
get his wife arrested by merely reporting to the
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police that she had committed adultery.
When this procedure of swearing was in-
voked between husband and wife, the Holy
Prophet would then order a divorce between
them:A man accused his wife of illegal sexual in-
tercourse and denied his paternity to her
(conceived) child during the lifetime of Allahs
Messenger. He ordered them both to do the
cursing as Allah decreed and then gave his deci-
sion that the child would be for the mother, and
a divorce decree was issued for the cou-
ple. (Sahih Bukhari, the book as above, Report
Number 272.)
In such cases the man was not entitled to
claim back the mahr(marriage gift) from the
wife. (Sahih Muslim, the book as above, Report
Number 3557.)
In another report, a man called Sad bin
Ubada al-Ansari asked the Holy Prophet:
If a man finds his wife with another person,
should he kill him?
The Holy Prophet replied, No. According to
another version this man asked him:
If I were to find with my wife a man, should
I not touch him before bringing four witnesses?
The Holy Prophet replied that this was cor-
rect. The man replied:By no means! By Him Who has sent you
with the Truth, I would hasten with my sword to
him before that.
Upon this, the Holy Prophet said to people:
Listen to what he is saying. It is his sense of
honour, but I have a greater sense of honour
than he, and God has a greater sense of honour
than me. (Sahih Muslim, the book as above, Re-
ports 3569 and 3571.) By this, the Holy Prophet
means that a person cannot be more moral,
more concerned about morality and honour
than the Messenger of Allah and Allah Himself.
When Allah and His Messenger, who are the
greatest guardians of honour, decency and mo-
rality, do not teach the action the man wants to
take, how can it be moral for him to do so?
Note that here a Muslim openly says that due to
his high sense of honour he cannotact on the teach-
ing of the Quran and the Holy Prophet! We find,quite commonly, such an argument being put for-
ward today in Muslim societies by those who deny
women the many rights that Islam has given them.
Islam allows, in fact recommends, remarriage of
widows and divorced women, and gives a woman
the right to reject a marriage proposal. But these
rights are denied to them under the claim that it
would be against the standard of honour.
The following is an example in which the Holy
Prophet Muhammad dismissed a mans claim that
the child born to his wife was not his:
A desert Arab came to Allahs Messenger and
said: My wife has given birth to a dark-
complexioned child and I have disowned him.
Thereupon Allahs Messenger said: Have you any
camels? He said: Yes. He said: What is their colour?
He said: They are red. He said: Is there anyone
dusky among them? He said: Yes. Allahs Messenger
said: How has it come about? He said: It is perhaps
due to some inherited strain to which it has re-
verted. Upon this the Holy Prophet said: The (birth
of the) black child may be due to the strain to which
he (the child) might have reverted.And as added in another version: He (the Holy
Prophet) did not permit him to disown him. (Sahih
Muslim, the book as above, Reports 3576, 3575.)
This again shows that the Holy Prophet did not ac-
cept mere allegations made by husbands against
their wives, while having no evidence or witnesses.
Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)
The first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission
Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ
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