Telling it like it is - The Split: Anjuman V. Khilafat | Part D | Final

This article was first published in its entirety in the 2008-2 issue of The The Muslim Sunrise, the oldest Muslim publication of the United States. Due to the obvious lack of space to reprint the entire article in one 'shot' here at Ahmadiyya Times, this is the last in a four part series addressing the question of the split of Ahmadi Muslims that occurred in the early 20th century. Each of the next three parts will be released on successive days at 5:00 AM [PST]. You can read the previous part here. [Part A, Part B, Part C]

Ahmadiyya Times | Articles | Part two of four
Source & Credit: The Muslim Sunrise | Issue 2/2008
By Fazil Jamal

Final | Part D | In Lieu of Conclusion

Test of character is a recurring theme in religious experience and spiritual history. Perhaps no other single event overwhelms a bunch of believers than the death of their prophet or spiritual master. The experiences of disciples at the time of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad point to the complex questions and forces at work at a time of crisis. For the Ahmadiyya Community, the Split was both a test of character and a blessing in disguise. While faith is a framework to look for directions at crossroads of conscience, it is important for believers to be constantly on the alert and to examine their own inner urges and external stimulations. You never know which way channels of vanity and material interests may overcome pure belief and corrupt your faith in God. No wonder, one of the most poignant prayers that the Holy Qur’an teaches us, is as follows:

“Our Lord, let not our hearts become perverse after Thou hast guided us; and bestow on us mercy from Thyself; Surely, Thou Alone art the Bestower” (Surah Al Imran, v. 9).

Apart from fervent supplication of prayers, the believer must also distrust the human intellect and its vagaries or in any case, be critically aware of one’s own subjectivity. As Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi observed in Mathnawi: “Would he had been less full of borrowed knowledge! Then he would have accepted inspired knowledge from his father. When, with inspiration at hand, you seek booklearning, Your heart, as if inspired, loads you with reproach. Traditional knowledge, when inspiration is available, Is like making ablutions in sand when water is near. Make yourself ignorant, be submissive, and then You will obtain release from your ignorance.”

This is especially relevant when one reflects on the stature of Maulana Muhammad Ali whose considerable grasp of religious subjects and the intellectual foundations of Islam, coupled with his command of English language made him an especially able ambassador of the community in its early days. His scholarship and learning was so much that the Promised Messiah himself advised him to write books in English to spread his ideas in Europe and America. During his lifetime, Hadhrat Ahmad, however, also warned the community against the sin of arrogance and defined it in the following terms: “Everyone who looks down upon a brother because he esteems himself more learned, or wiser, or more proficient than him is arrogant, inasmuch as he does not esteem God as the Fountainhead of all intelligence and knowledge and deems himself as something”( Nuzulul Masih, pp. 24-25 , quoted in The Essence of Islam, Volume II).

Instead of a deeper realization of the vagaries of the human nature and inducing humility, knowledge and scholarship made Maulana Muhammad Ali ambitious and power- thirsty. From the majestic tower of the Maulana’s learning and scholarship, the young Khalifa appeared to be a “mere sapling,” an object to be contemptuously dismissed and disregarded as inconsequential. It is instructive to observe that plants and trees appear in the Holy Qur’an as a metaphor of divine blessing. When “a sapling” grows up to be a big tree with deep roots in the land and its branches stretch out to the clouds, it testifies to the blessings of Allah in its own way. (Surah Ibrahim, v. 25-26)

The extraordinary progress that the mainstream Ahmadiyya Community has made since the Split and that too, under the “sapling,” is perhaps the single most important testimony to the blessings of Allah and the truth and vitality of a divinely inspired Khilafat system. The darkest hour is before the dawn.



Previously Published:
February 10, 2010 | 5:00 AM [PST] | Part A | The darkest hour is before the dawn
February 11, 2010 | 5:00 AM [PST] | Part B | The Split: A Moment Frozen in Time
February 12, 2010 | 5:00 AM [PST] | Part C | Anjuman v. Khalifa: The Debate Within


-- Ahmadiyya Times staff selection