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An Evening with the
Ahmadiya Muslims
June 13, 2008...3:45 pm
They’ve been going door to door
in the local area for a couple of weeks now, and had called on my home while I
was away. Their message was ‘Love to All, Hatred to None’ and I at first
presumed they might be trying extra hard to to counter the reputation that
Islam has gained of late. I wasn’t too sure whether or not
I had been specifically targeted as a Vaishnava, or whether their public
meeting - just 200 yards from Bhaktivedanta Manor in the little village hall of
Letchmore Heath - was arranged to reach the Hindu community, but since they
were quite determined - and a missionary group - I went along thinking that I
might learn something. It turns out that this is a
special year, 2008 is the centenary of the death of their founder. Their
movement, which now has 190 branches, started in the Punjab region of India
back in 1889. The first leader of the community, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,
declared himself the messiah, or successor to the prophet Muhammed. One thing
that’s sure when you declare yourself to be the messiah is that some people are
going to love you, and many more will hate you. Because of this significant
departure from conventional Islam, the community was eventually persecuted, a
situation that persists today in Pakistan, where preaching on behalf of
Ahmadiya will get you a stiff prison sentence. The Ahmadiya Muslims describe
themselves as a renaissance within Islam, a fact that might come as good news
to those who wish to see a reformation within the religion. Of course,
renaissance doesn’t exactly mean reformation. The former can indicate a revival
of a religion back to its early days of glory, the latter a revival of
popularity due to useful changes in philosophical understanding or practical
application, or adjustments in organisational structure. Their distinctive
characteristic, which they take great pains to articulate, is that both
Muhammad and his essential messages are peaceful; a position that many these
days would contest. Back in 1979-80 when, as a young
man on the streets of Nairobi and Kisumu, trying to interest the locals in the
message of Krishna (try being a white man selling religion in Africa and you’ll
get to hear some heartfelt opinions) I had seen the Ahmadiyas with their
Saturday book tables attracting big crowds. More recently I’d heard of their
huge, tented gatherings on their 200 acres down in Surrey. That’s a very
English county to host a temporary Islamabad of 25,000 people, but now its an
established annual convention - the jalsa salana. As a relatively early member of
the Hare Krishna movement, I admire and sympathise with any religious group
thats established itself through hard graft and honest outreach. I know what
they’ve been through and all the effort it takes. My evening with them was pleasant
enough, and I found them gentle and well mannered. I also liked the fact that
they’d invited us and had requested another devotee to speak to the public at
the event. The assembled masses in the Letchmore Heath Memorial Hall amounted
to a few Krishnas and the local Church of England vicar and some of his
parishioners. Not a great turnout for all the effort they’d put in, but thats
life in a world of HD plasma screen TV. Religion is not much competition. The vicar and I were both
presented with a Holy Qur’an and another, smaller summary of Islamic teachings.
I will definitely have a go at the smaller book. Whatever else we do in life,
we can always spend a few minutes trying to understand other people and their
beliefs. Besides, you never know when you might need to know something about
Islam these days. Always better to be prepared. 2 Comments
where is
it from??
When it
began it was the Punjab of India, now modern-day Pakistan http://deshika.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/an-evening-with-the-ahmadiya-muslims/ |
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