The sect’s current leader, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, currently resides in London, instead of at the sect’s international head-quarters of Rabwah, Pakistan because the Pakistani government prohibits Ahmadis from practicing their faith.
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| Imam Zafar Sarwar, who leads a mosque on Old Owen Road in Monroe. |
Source/Credit: Tribune
By Patricia Therrell | February 17, 2016
Imam, in the Arabic language, means he who leads the prayers.
Imam Zafar Sarwar does that, but he is much more to his Ahmadiyya Muslim community. He is the Regional Missionary in Monroe and Lynnwood. He is a husband and father. He is a proud American. He is a leader of an international nonviolent Muslim sect that values all human life.
He believes, in his own words, “God has made the blood, property and honor of every human being sacred … Love of one’s country of residence is part of faith.”
“Love for all. Hatred for none,” he said, echoing a statement embraced by the Ahmadiyyas.
He organizes blood drives that benefit all agencies. He opens the door to people of all religions to worship in his sect’s new mosque on Old Owen Road outside Monroe.
His only stipulation is that whoever enters is quiet. He believes that if we are quiet God hears our prayers better. The facility proudly flies the American flag.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which is Sarwar’s life, is an Islamic sect that explicitly rejects terrorism in any form.
The Ahmadis practice their religion in 207 countries and have been doing so since 1889.
A few tenets within the Ahmadi’s beliefs puts it at odds with the more well-known Sunni and Shiite Muslim sects, including a core disagreement on whether there was the second coming of a messiah. The Ahmadis believe their sect’s founder was that messiah.
This difference led to persecution abroad. The sect’s current leader, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, currently resides in London, instead of at the sect’s international head-quarters of Rabwah, Pakistan because the Pakistani government prohibits Ahmadis from practicing their faith. The government deemed them heretics.
Sarwar grew up in Rabwah, Pakistan. He studied for the ministry at a university there for seven years before being sent to Nigeria for three years as a missionary. He was sent to New York in 1984 before being reassigned to the West Coast in 2014.
His devotion is to living and teaching the message that, “Love and affection establish peace and harmony amongst different religions and nations.”
I cannot pretend to know much about Sarwar, or his beliefs, from our brief, pleasant interview.
I do know that his mosque is now my country neighbor so I would like to know them better. Old Owen Road is one I drive to enjoy the proud old homes, dilapidated barns, cows and horses placidly grazing in backyard pastures. It is a country road that advertises things such as horse boarding, culvert repair, bulldozing, excavating and tree removal. Over the last 30 years this small lane that leads up to magnificent views of the jagged foothills of our snow covered Cascade Mountain Range, was known for its cedars and pines. Now it has a new neighbor with three acres.
Everything changes. This curvy pot-holed road now brings peaceful people across the region to worship at the mosque.
The children who worship at the mosque attend public schools, play on local sports teams and worship with their families. The mosque on Old Owen now brings Muslim women who are lawyers, doctors, wives, to pray for peace with their loved ones. It brings Muslim fathers and husbands, who are American soldiers, such as Sarwar’s son, to pray with Muslim mothers, like Sarwar’s wife, Naheed. They pray for the safety of all people as they serve this country with unfailing loyalty.
Some of the explanations I received about the Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s reasons for having some unfamiliar differences made real sense to me.
For example, when I asked why some of the women and girls choose to wear the Hijab (a covering of the head), he responded that “they cover their beauty to reduce distraction.”
In my humble opinion there is some merit to that way of dressing. It is quite beautiful and the fabrics appear soft and possibly quite comforting.
This reasoning may also be extended to why men and women worship separately inside the mosque.
Sarwar gently explains to me, “the conversation is to be one only between the person and God.” Again, if I am open minded, it is difficult to concentrate when the sexes are together, especially if one is seriously trying to talk to God. Sarwar calls the mixing “gas and fire.”
It must work as very few of the Ahamadiyya Community ever leave its teachings. They always try to pray quietly five times a day from when they are little. They pray for peace.They pray for love. No matter where they go in life they are bound together through these prayers. When they cannot come to the mosque they try to pray with their families or alone. That way they don’t
lose their children because, “he has control of everyone’s heart.”
Sarwar is intense when asked about ISIS and the other terrorist organizations that prey on all of us today.
He calls them “a cancer that must be surgically removed. That is the only cure.”
“They have hijacked true Islam and are using the name of Islam for their own evil purposes,” Sarwar said.
“There is no compulsion (force) in religion,” he said.
The Ahmadiyya’s founder was vigorous against jihadist violence. He spent his time crisscrossing India and the Punjab region with his message.
Sarwar’s mission is to quietly and gently educate others to the beauty and peacefulness of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. He speaks at schools and meets with politicians on a regular basis to foster better relations between the known and unknown that too often divides people.
Many in the United States worry about a third world war, a nuclear war or terror-ism by anyone who may look, dress, or talk differently. The Ahmadiyya community has the same worries about such violence. They want a good peaceful future for their children and grandchildren right here in Snohomish County and anywhere they might go in the world. Sarwar will continue to devote his life to that just cause.
There is a book called “World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace.” It speaks to their journey and better explains these spiritual people than I ever will.
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Patricia Therrell’s column traditionally appears on the third Wednesday of the month in Tribune.
Read original post here: USA: "Welcome Neighbor" | Profile of an Ahmadiyya Muslim Imam
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