Why I Returned to the Qadiani Ahmadi Jamat from the Lahori Ahmadiyya Jamat

[An] Arabic booklet included arguments to answer all the points that the Lahoris were raising against the Ahmadis. Now it became obvious to me that I was hasty in my decision to join the Lahori group before investigating the matter more thoroughly.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Excerpts
Source & Credit: Al Islam | alislam.org
By Maha Dabbous

A few months ago, I joined the Lahori Jamat and I stayed on that condition for about two and a half months. After that I returned to my homeland - the Ahmadiyya Jamat.

In the following pages, I will explain the reasons for my return to the Ahmadi Jamat. But before doing so, and for the sake of the reader who is not familiar with the difference between the Lahori Jamat and the Ahmadiyya Jamat, I will first explain that difference. The Ahmadiyya Jamat is the mother Jamat. It is the Jamat that is following the leadership of the Khilafat system. It is the only community existing in the world today that is enjoying the blessings of the true Islamic Khilafat system. As for the Lahori Jamat, it is a minority that has strayed away from the system of the mother Jamat and rebelled against the leadership of the Islamic Khilafat.

Now after this brief introduction, I will relate my story.

I got to know about the Lahori Jamat from its websites on the Internet. It was new information for me to know that the Lahoris had a proper organized Jamat that was propagating the teachings of the Promised Messiah. I was very impressed by the information they advertised on their website. I contacted them and I got to know more about the Lahori beliefs and, thinking that they were following the true teachings of the Promised Messiah, I joined the Lahori Jamat. When I did so, I never ever meant to make enemies with the members of my original Jamat, the Ahmadis. It just seemed to me that the members of both Jamats were true Ahmadis who loved Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad very dearly and who were striving hard to propagate his message all around the world. It appeared to me that there were only minor differences between the two parties, so why should there be any enmity between them?

Concerning faith, joining the Lahori Jamat did not change my beliefs in the truth of the Promised Messiah. My beliefs were exactly the same as before. I still believed that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the Imam Mahdi and the Promised Messiah and the Mujadid of the fourteenth century. I also continued to believe that he was a prophet, but in a metaphorical sense.

This point needs further clarification. My belief in the prophethood of the Promised Messiah did not change in any way. Only my attitude towards this prophethood has changed. As before, I did not take it as a separate or independent prophethood. I understood it to be an image of the Holy Prophet's prophethood. As if a person is standing in front of a mirror and looking at his image. The image is not the real person. It does not have a separate or an independent entity. If the person does not exist, then his reflection in the mirror will also not exist. So this is the prophethood of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad - a reflection. This is what he himself explained in his writings and this is what every one of his followers must believe it to be, whether this follower is from Qadian or Rabwa or Lahore.

Now back to my story, after I joined the Lahori Jamat, I started to be more familiar with the differences between the two Jamats. I received messages from some members of the Ahmadi Jamat to explain to me the truth of the situation and to answer my queries and remove my misunderstandings. I also got the chance to meet some of the Lahori members and to read more literature produced by the Lahori Jamat.

I started to realize that deep hatred and extreme enmity existed between the Lahoris and the Ahmadis. This point upset me and worried me very much. I could never rest while feeling that there was an enmity or a fight between two parties who were both claiming to be the true followers of the Promised Messiah.

My intense love for the Promised Messiah was the cause for my disturbed feelings. I really love him more than my own self. The only two loves that come before his love are the love of Allah and the love of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). As a matter of fact, the reason for my deep love for the Promised Messiah is that he taught me the true love of Allah and His Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The advent of the Promised Messiah granted me a new spiritual life and opened for me the doors of a very pleasant paradise. It also created many new hopes and renewed many old desires in my heart.

I recall my condition before accepting Ahmadiyya, when I was a Sunni Muslim. I remember how miserable I used to feel, before knowing about the advent of the Promised Messiah. I used to be extremely sad and distressed when I saw the Muslims divided and fighting together. I used to suffer badly because of their condition. I used to cry and pray to Allah to come to the aid of the Muslims, to provide help and support for His religion, to unite all the Muslims of the world under the true teachings of Islam, and to spread the message of Islam all around the globe. When Allah guided me to the truth of the Promised Messiah, my happiness knew no limits. I could see that Allah had already sent the solution for all the problems of Islam. I realized that the Ahmadiyya Jamat was the means by which Allah will unite all the Muslims under one banner, and will also lead them to the Victory they were promised. This was the beginning of the triumph of Islam in the world. So, in short, when Allah guided me to the truth of the Promised Messiah, my wishes and desires were renewed and strongly intensified.

But when I got to know about the split in the Ahmadiyya Jamat, and after I joined the Lahori Jamat, my expectations started to fade away. My hopes were being shattered in front of my own eyes. Instead of uniting the whole world under the true teachings of Islam, I found the followers of the Promised Messiah divided among themselves. My happiness disappeared and was replaced by deep grief. My heart was filled with sorrow when I realized that instead of bringing about the internal reconciliation between the different Muslim sects, the followers of the Promised Messiah have divided among themselves and hence they created yet another internal split. I imagine if the Promised Messiah was now alive, what could his feelings be?

At that time, it appeared to me that both the Ahmadis and the Lahoris were responsible for this split in the Jamat. I felt that it was the duty of all the Ahmadis and the Lahoris to strive hard to suppress and destroy this enmity between the two groups of their Jamat. This is because it was one of the purposes of the coming of the Promised Messiah to bring about the internal reconciliation of the Muslims, and it is the duty of his true followers to be the first to achieve this purpose. It is their duty to set a good example for the rest of the Muslims. It is their duty to be prepared to face any kind of hardship and to offer any kind of sacrifice to see the end of this split.

I feel frightened when I look back into the history of Islam. When I see what happened just a few years after the death of the Holy Prophet. Just a few years after his death, his followers were divided and fighting each other. They were all very close to him during his holy life. They all must have drunk from the fountain of his perfect teachings. All must have witnessed the perfect example in the life of the best man ever born on this earth. But still only a few years after his death they were fighting each other and the results of the division of the Muslims which took place at that time continues until today. The gap that was created at that time did not even remain fixed, it continued to expand over the ages and it is obvious to everybody what state the Muslims have reached today because of these initial disagreements.

It terrifies me when I think that this might be repeated in the case of the followers of the Promised Messiah. We must strive hard to prevent his followers from following that same route.

With these feelings I continued to receive messages from the members of the Ahmadi Jamat and in the same time I continued to read the Lahori literature. I never stopped or ignored reading the ideas and points of view of both parties.

They were both quoting passages from the books of the Promised Messiah to prove their own point of view. It amazed me that both parties were supporting their arguments by quoting passages from the same books. They were even both referring to the same passages in these books and using them to reinforce their two different stands. This fact was very confusing indeed. I wanted to follow the teachings of the Promised Messiah and both parties were insisting that they were the ones following his true teachings. How could anybody find out which one was the right view? I wondered!

As these thoughts were in my mind, I received an e-mail message including an Arabic booklet written by a brother from the Ahmadi Jamat. It included the answers for all the points that I had raised earlier in my discussions with my Ahmadi brothers and sisters through e-mail messages. The booklet included a part addressing me in a reproaching manner. I was very upset about this. In the beginning I thought that I was upset because of the mention of my name and the criticism attached to it that was included in the booklet. But when I thought deeply about the matter, I found out that it was not this that bothered me. I have faced worse experiences before that in the past. As a matter of fact, since I accepted Ahmadiyya, I have been facing rebuke from all directions - family, friends, religious scholars, etc. So this time it was nothing new for me, I am used to this anyway. Furthermore, this was a much milder reproach compared to my past experiences. So what was bothering and upsetting me then? When I searched deep in my heart to find the real reason, I found out that what really upset me was that I realized that the Ahmadi Jamat and myself became enemies. That was the reason for my deep grief.

It is my nature that I never allow anybody to become my enemy. I cannot live with it. I would do anything to end up any quarrel or misunderstanding between me and anybody else, as soon as possible. But all of a sudden I found myself an enemy of the people whom I loved most. The believers in the truth of the Promised Messiah are the dearest people to me in this world.

I could not live with these feelings for long. This Arabic booklet was like a slap on my face that woke me up from my slumber. It caused me a severe shock. It aggravated the problem to a level that I could not bear. I was continuously crying and praying to Allah to end my suffering and to remove my pain and distress.

Moreover, this Arabic booklet included arguments to answer all the points that the Lahoris were raising against the Ahmadis. Now it became obvious to me that I was hasty in my decision to join the Lahori group before investigating the matter more thoroughly.

I felt very depressed. By that time I had already met some members of the Lahori Jamat and I genuinely and truly loved them very much. But on the other hand I also continued to feel deep affections and intense love towards my Ahmadi spiritual family, who looked after me and nourished me spiritually for more than ten years, since I joined the Ahmadiyya Jamat in the year 1989.

I wished that this battle between the two groups would disappear so that I would not need to choose one and desert the other. I was like the child who was watching his parents fighting together. Regardless of who was wrong and who was right, he loved them both very dearly and he wanted them to stop fighting and be together all the time. He would do anything to see an end for their fight.

With these feelings, I was praying to Allah to end this calamity and to bring the peace back to my heart.

It was time for me to forget about my personal affections and to think about the real facts of the matter. As far as I understood, the differences between the Ahmadis and the Lahoris were all based on the belief in the prophethood of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The Ahmadis say that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed prophethood and the Lahoris say that he did not claim prophethood; he only claimed muhadathiyya or prophethood in the metaphorical sense. After I studied closely the beliefs of each group, I realized something very interesting. I noticed that concerning this issue - in my view - there isn't much difference between the two parties. The differences in the beliefs of the two parties are artificial and false.

To illustrate this let us assume that somebody asked a follower of the Promised Messiah a question:

"Did Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claim to be a prophet?"

The initial response to the question will depend on whether the person who was asked this question, belongs to the Ahmadi Jamat or to the Lahori Jamat. But the rest of the answer will be exactly the same in both cases.

This means that if the person who was asked that question, belonged to the Ahmadi Jamat, his answer will be:

"Yes, he claimed prophethood, but his prophethood was a (burooz) and an image, a reflection of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet of Islam. So it is not a separate or an independent prophethood. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a follower prophet - Ummati Nabi - who did not bring a new law."

And if the person who was asked the above question, belonged to the Lahori Jamat, his answer will be:

"No, he did not claim prophethood, but he only claimed a metaphorical prophethood - in other words, muhaddathiyya - which was a (burooz) and an image, a reflection of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet of Islam. So it is not a separate or an independent prophethood. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a follower prophet - Ummati Nabi - who did not bring a new law."

If I am the person who asked that question, I might not even notice that there was a difference in the two answers. The end result is exactly the same. The description of the claim of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is that he claimed a "kind of" prophethood, which is a (burooz) and an image; it is a reflection of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet of Islam. It is not a separate or an independent prophethood. So Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was an (Ummati Nabi) - a follower prophet who did not bring a new law.

One team calls this "prophethood", the other calls it "metaphorical prophethood - or muhaddathiyya".

But a word of truth must be said here. If a clear one-word answer is required for the above question (Did Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claim to be a prophet?), then the truthful answer should be a "YES" because Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed a kind of prophethood. If a "NO" is given as the answer, then it will be an incorrect statement. This point was highlighted and discussed in detail by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself in his Urdu book: "Ayk Ghalati Ka Izala" that was translated to English by both the Ahmadi and the Lahori Jamats.

Although the two parties disagree about the interpretations concerning many passages of this book, they both agree at least on one point. They both believe that this book represents the true teachings of the Promised Messiah that he preached up to the time of his death.

I will quote here from the English translation of that book, which was published by the Lahori Jamat on their website. The reason for this is that what I will quote gives credit to the Ahmadi point of view. So it is better to use the translation of the Lahoris so that nobody would think that the Ahmadis are misrepresenting these writings or changing its meanings for their advantage. The Lahoris themselves understand these passages in the sense that gives credit to the Ahmadi point of view. 

Read the entire article here:  Why I Returned to the Qadiani Ahmadi Jamat from the Lahori Ahmadiyya Jamat