English organ of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam. Presenting Islam as taught by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) as a tolerant, peaceful, inclusive, loving, rational religion. To learn more go to www.virtualmosque.co.uk
ِ ی م الرَّحم
ن
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سب اہللِ الرَّْحم ٰ
ْ م ِ
The Light
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2018
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I Shall Love All Mankind.
March 2018 The
Light 2
The Call of the
Messiah
by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad
The Promised Messiah and Mahdi
(Translator’s note: Although given in quotation
marks, the Quranic references are explanations
rather than literal translation of the verse
quoted.)
Divine revelation in other Religions 1
I will now discuss some of the more important
religions which are showing great missionary
activity, so we can see whether they can
take a human to the stage of perfect certainty
regarding Divine existence. Can their scriptures
contain the noble promise that they can make
their true followers the recipients of a certain
Divine revelation? And whether, if they do so,
this promise is borne out by facts.
First, I take the religion which is named after
Christ. The response to the questions asked
above is very easy and simple in its case. The
Christians are unanimous in the belief that, after
the time of Christ, the fountains of Divine
revelation and inspiration closed to all. The
blessing of Divine revelation has according to
them been left behind, and it now remains
closed to the day of judgment. The door of Divine
grace being shut, by which alone salvation
can be obtained, a new plan of salvation has
been set up. This plan is opposed to the established
principles of the world, and it is contrary
to human reason and Divine Justice and Mercy.
It is said that Jesus Christ bore the sins of the
world and chose to die on the cross. And that, by
his death, others may be delivered, and that Almighty
God killed His innocent son to save the
sinners. We are unable to understand how the
pitiable death of one man can purify the hearts
of others from the impure quality of sin and
how by the murder of one innocent man, others
can be absolved of the sins and crimes which
they have committed.
This course is directly opposed to justice
and mercy. To punish the innocent in place of
the offender is against justice. Causing the son
to be murdered cruelly with no fault on his part
is contrary to Divine Mercy, and the whole affair
is a meaningless transaction.
I have already stated that the real cause of
the prevalence of sin is the absence of true Divine
knowledge. If the cause is not removed, the
effect cannot be annulled, for the cause must
bring about its effect. It is a strange philosophy
that sin is supposed to be made non-existent
while its cause, the lack of Divine knowledge remains,
as strong as ever. Experience shows that
without full knowledge of a thing we cannot
know its true value, nor can we love or fear it.
But love and fear are the only incentives to action
and a person does not do or abstain from
doing a deed, without love or fear motivating
him. Therefore, it is clear that unless the love or
fear of the Divine Being is generated in the
heart, which depends upon a true and perfect
knowledge of God, it is impossible that one
should be released from the bondage of sin. But
so far as the Christians are concerned, I am
bound to state for the sake of truth that their
knowledge of God is imperfect and ambiguous.
The doors of Divine revelation are forever
closed, and miracles ended with Jesus and his
apostles.
What is left then in our hands to judge the
truth of the Christian religion except for the authority
of reason? But the deifying of a man has
already flouted reason. If the old stories of miracles
as narrated in the Gospels are adduced in
support of Christianity, various objections may
be put forth against this evidence by one who
does not admit the truth of the Christian religion.
In the first place, it is impossible to ascertain
how much truth and what reality is contained
in these narratives. There seems to be no
doubt that the evangelists were great exaggerators.
For instance, in one of the Gospels it is
written that if all the things which Jesus did had
been written in books, the world could not have
contained those books. This is a most extravagant
statement. How could the world prove insufficient
for the record of deeds which were
contained in it in an unrecorded state, deeds
1 Excerpt from “Lecture in Sialkot.
I Shall Love All Mankind.
March 2018 The
Light 3
done by one man within the limited period of 3
years in a very small province?
Secondly, the miracles stated to have been
performed by Jesus were in no way superior to
the miracles of Moses. Even the miracles of Elijah
display a greater power than those of Jesus.
If the performance of certain miracles can make
a man God, many of the prophets shall be entitled
to Divinity.(Return to contents)
The answer to the allegation
that wife-beating is approved
in Bukhari
by Dr Zahid Aziz
Critics of Islam have widely circulated a
hadith report from Bukhari to allege that when
a woman, who had been badly beaten by her
husband, complained to the Prophet
Muhammad, he sided with her husband and
told her to have sexual relations with him, and
said that she could not get divorce from him
despite his beating her. Given below is this hadith
report, from Muhsin Khan’s English translation
of Bukhari from which they quote it:
Narrated Ikrimah:-
Rifa‛a divorced his wife whereupon Abdur
Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi married her.
Aishah said that the lady (came), wearing a
green veil and complained to her (of her husband)
and showed her a green spot on her skin
(caused by beating). It was the habit of ladies to
support each other, so when Allah’s Messenger
came, Aishah said, “I have not seen any woman
suffering as much as the believing women.
Look! Her skin is greener than her clothes!”
When Abdur Rahman heard that his wife had
gone to the Prophet, he came with his two sons
from another wife. She said: “By Allah! I have
done no wrong to him but he is impotent and is
as useless to me as this,” holding and showing
the fringe of her garment. Abdur Rahman said,
“By Allah, O Allah’s Messenger! She has told a
lie! I am very strong and can satisfy her but she
is disobedient and wants to go back to Rifa‛a.”
Allah’s Messenger said, to her, “If that is your intention,
then know that it is unlawful for you to
remarry Rifa‛a unless Abdur Rahman has had
I Shall Love All Mankind.
sexual intercourse with you.” Then the Prophet
saw two boys with Abdur Rahman and asked
(him), “Are these your sons?” On that Abdur
Rahman said, “Yes.” The Prophet said (to the
wife), “You claim what you claim (i.e. that he is
impotent)? But by Allah, these boys resemble
him as a crow resembles a crow.” (Bukhari,
Book of Dress, hadith 5825)
Direct versions of this report contain
no mention of beating at all
The first point to note is that this report is
related here by Ikrimah, but it also occurs directly
related by Aishah in four places in Bukhari
and three places in Sahih Muslim. I quote
below those four occurrences in Bukhari, again
from Muhsin Khan’s translation on the Internet:
1. Narrated Aishah:-
The wife of Rifa‛a Al-Qurazi came to Allah’s
Messenger and said, “O Allah’s Messenger!
Rifa‛a divorced me irrevocably. After him I
married Abdur Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-
Qurazi who proved to be impotent.” Allah’s
Messenger said to her, “Perhaps you want to
return to Rifa‛a? Nay (you cannot return to
Rifa‛a) until you and Abdur Rahman consummate
your marriage.” (Bukhari, Book of
Divorce, hadith 5260)
In the printed edition of Muhsin Khan’s
translation however, the last sentence, beginning
“until you”, appears as follows: “until you
enjoy sexual relations (consummate your marriage)
with Abdur Rahman and he with you”.
This shows that the words translated as “consummate
your marriage”, placed here in brackets
by the translator, actually mean the enjoyment
of each spouse with the other. This literal
meaning makes it clear that by “consummation
of marriage” is meant sexual relations enjoyed
by each spouse with the other.
2. Narrated Aishah:-
The wife of Rifa‛a Al-Qurazi came to the
Prophet and said, “I was wife of Rifa‛a, but
he divorced me and it was a final, irrevocable
divorce. Then I married Abdur Rahman
bin Az-Zubair but he is impotent.” The
Prophet asked her “Do you want to remarry
March 2018 The
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Rifa‛a? You cannot unless you had a complete
sexual relation with your present husband.”
Abu Bakr was sitting with Allah’s
Messenger and Khalid bin Sa‛id bin Al-‛As
was at the door waiting to be admitted. He
said: “O Abu Bakr! Do you hear what this
(woman) is revealing frankly before the
Prophet?” (Bukhari, Book of Witnesses,
hadith 2639)
Here also, the Arabic words which have
been translated as “unless you had a complete
sexual relation with your present husband”
have the following literal meaning: “until you
enjoy sexual relations with him (Abdur Rahman)
and he with you”.
3. Narrated Aishah:-
Rifa‛a Al-Qurazi divorced his wife irrevocably
(i.e. that divorce was the final). Later on,
Abdur Rahman bin Az-Zubair married her
after him. She came to the Prophet and said,
“O Allah’s Messenger! I was the wife of
Rifa‛a and he divorced me thrice, and then I
was married to Abdur Rahman bin Az-
Zubair, who, by Allah has nothing with him
except something like this fringe, O Allah’s
Messenger,” showing a fringe she had taken
from her covering sheet. Abu Bakr was sitting
with the Prophet while Khalid Ibn Sa‛id
bin Al-‛As was sitting at the gate of the room
waiting for admission. Khalid started calling
Abu Bakr, “O Abu Bakr! Why don’t you reprove
this lady from what she is openly saying
before Allah’s Apostle?” Allah’s Messenger
did nothing except smiling, and then
said (to the lady), “Perhaps you want to go
back to Rifa‛a? No, (it is not possible), unless
and until you enjoy the sexual relation with
him (Abdur Rahman), and he enjoys the sexual
relation with you.” (Bukhari, Book of
Good Manners, hadith 6084)
4. The fourth occurrence below is, like hadith
5825, again in the Book of Dress as follows:
Narrated Aishah:-
The wife of Rifa‛a Al-Qurazi came to Allah’s
Messenger while I was sitting, and Abu Bakr
was also there. She said, “O Allah’s Apostle! I
was the wife of Rifa‛a and he divorced me irrevocably.
Then I married Abdur Rahman bin Az-
Zubair who, by Allah, O Allah’s Messenger, has
only something like a fringe of a garment, showing
the fringe of her veil. Khalid bin Sa`id, who
was standing at the door, for he had not been
admitted, heard her statement and said, “O Abu
Bakr! Why do you not stop this lady from saying
such things openly before Allah’s Messenger?”
No, by Allah, Allah’s Messenger did nothing but
smiled. Then he said to the lady, “Perhaps you
want to return to Rifa‛a? That is impossible unless
Abdur Rahman consummates his marriage
with you.” (Bukhari, Book of Dress, hadith
5792)
Here again, the words “consummates his
marriage with you” are in the original Arabic:
“he enjoys sexual relations with you and you enjoy
sexual relations with him”.
In Sahih Muslim the three reports occur together
in the Book of Marriage, each being similar
to the above-quoted reports 1–4 from Bukhari.
Thus, the reports which can be traced to
Aishah contain no mention of any mark of beating
on the woman’s body. The report cited by
the critics of Islam is from Ikrimah who does
not say that Aishah related this incident to him,
nor does he mention how he came to know of it.
So the report of the wife-beating incident cannot
be traced to Aishah.
What conclusion did Bukhari draw
from the “wife-beating” hadith?
An important point is: What conclusion did
Bukhari draw from this hadith about the wife
being beaten? These critics of Islam think that
the early Muslims were ignorant savages devoid
of all literary and scholarly skills. As a result,
these critics seem to be unaware that compilers
of Hadith such as Bukhari classified reports into
‘books’ whose titles indicate what subject a report
falls under, and they divided each book into
chapters with headings to show what conclusions
may be drawn from the reports included
in them. (It may be added, by the way, that they
also looked into the lives of all the reporters to
judge their credibility.)
I Shall Love All Mankind.
March 2018 The
Light 5
This report in Bukhari falls in his books of
Divorce, Witnesses, Good Manners and Dress. It
is easy to see why it would be included in the
book of Divorce. In the book of Witnesses, it
comes under the chapter heading “The witness
of one who listens while hidden” and this is because
Khalid bin Sa‛id bin Al-‛As could overhear
what was being said by the woman while he was
waiting outside to be admitted to see the Holy
Prophet, and Bukhari infers from this that one
who overhears, without being seen, is a witness
to what he hears. In the book of Good Manners,
it occurs under the chapter heading “Smiling
and laughing” and this is in reference to the
Holy Prophet smiling at Khalid’s statement that
the woman should not talk so frankly on such a
personal matter to the Prophet.
This leaves the two occurrences of this report
in the book of Dress, hadith 5792 and hadith
5825, the latter being the hadith mentioning
the marks of beating on the woman’s body. Hadith
5792 is given a heading by Bukhari relating
to the wearing of a sheet with a fringe (i.e., a
border) because the woman was wearing such
a sheet when she described her husband as impotent
by saying: He has nothing more than the
fringe of a garment. Hadith 5825, the one under
objection, is given the heading: “Green Clothes”.
Therefore, from this hadith, Bukhari only concludes
that a woman may wear green clothes.
Had Bukhari concluded that this hadith
5825 approves of wife-beating, he would have
repeated it in some more relevant book of his
collection, other than the book of Dress, and
given it a heading such as “One who beats his
wife”.
In Sahih Muslim this report occurs in three
forms in the book of Marriage in a chapter the
title of which relates to the remarriage of a
woman to a former husband after “irrevocable”
divorce from him. There is no mention of beating
in them.
Hadith 5825 examined
Even assuming that hadith 5825 can be
relied upon, it is clear that this woman did not
mention to the Prophet Muhammad that her
I Shall Love All Mankind.
husband was beating her. According to the Muhsin
Khan translation what she said to him was
as follows:
“By Allah! I have done no wrong to him but
he is impotent and is as useless to me as this,”
holding and showing the fringe of her garment.
Moreover, if we look at the original Arabic
words for “I have done no wrong to him”, these
words are translated in two Urdu translations of
Bukhari in the following way:
…ا ن یک ویبی ےن اہک: اہلل یک مسق، ےھجم ا ن ےس وکیئ ا ور اکشتی ںیہن اہتبل
“By Allah! I have no complaint about him except
that [he is impotent] …” (Translation by
Maulana Muhammad Daud Raz, published
2004, India, v. 7, p. 355)
رافہع یک ویبی ےن اہک: واہلل، ا ن اک ا ور وکیئ انگہ ںیہن )ینعی ےھجم ا ن ےس ا ور
وکیئ اکشتی ںیہن( رگم …
“By Allah! He has committed no other sin
but…” (Translation by Maulana Usman Ghani in
his commentary of Bukhari entitled Nasr-ul-
Bari, Karachi, v. 11, p. 34)
The second Urdu translator has added in
parentheses an alternative translation: “(I have
no other complaint about him) but”. These Urdu
translations, “I have no complaint about him except…”
or “he has committed no other sin but…”,
suit the context better than “I have done no
wrong to him” because she then mentions the
only complaint she has about him.
This clearly shows that even in the sole report
where “beating” is mentioned, the report is
not only untraceable to those present at the occasion,
but the woman put no complaint about
her husband to the Holy Prophet except his impotence,
and she made no mention to him that
her husband was beating her.
Irrevocable divorce
What is meant by their “irrevocable divorce”
in the above reports? It is that a divorce
had taken place between the couple, after which
that couple came together again (either during
the period of separation or after it by remarriage),
then there was a second divorce
March 2018 The
Light 6
after which the couple came together again, and
this was followed by divorce a third time, which
is then irrevocable and prevents remarriage
between them.
Before Islam, wives in Arabia had little right
of divorce and their husbands had the absolute
right. Divorce was followed by a period of separation
(or “waiting”), during which the wife
could not marry someone else, and during
which the husband could take her back. Aishah
says in a hadith report that “a man could divorce
his wife whenever he wanted and take her back
as wife during the period of separation, and he
could do so a hundred times or more”. She adds
that in this way a man could keep his wife permanently
in the state of separation by saying to
her: “I will divorce you, and whenever your period
of separation is just about to end I will take
you back”. So the wife would forever be in a state
in which she could neither marry elsewhere nor
have conjugal rights from this husband due to
being in the period of separation. The hadith
continues:
‘So a woman went to Aishah to inform her
about that (custom), and Aishah was silent until
the Prophet came. So she told him, and the
Prophet was silent…’
Now, reading this report up to this point, the
critics of Islam might object that the Prophet
Muhammad remained unmoved on hearing this
woman’s plight. But the account continues:
‘…until it was revealed in the Quran: “Divorce
may be (pronounced) twice; then keep
(them) in good fellowship or let (them) go with
kindness” (2:229). So Aishah said: “So the people
could carry on with divorce in the future,
(knowing) who was divorced, and who was not
divorced”. ’ (Tirmidhi, Book of Divorce, hadith
1192)
The Quran restricted a husband to divorcing
his wife, and then taking her back, to just two
occasions. If he divorced her a third time, he
could not take her back during the period of
separation nor remarry her after that. So this
cycle of separating her and then taking her
back, just to keep her in suspension, and reducing
marriage to a farce, cannot take place.
I Shall Love All Mankind.
As the Quran repeats that in divorce the
wife must be let go, or parted from, “with kindness”
(2:229, 2:231, 65:2), it means that at this
third, irrevocable divorce the husband must
wish his wife well in a future marriage. Hence
her marriage to someone else must be a genuine
one. If, unfortunately, that future marriage
fails, then the first husband is allowed to remarry
her. To remarry her after she married
someone else would show the first husband’s
true love and concern for her. It must be very
rare for a man to be prepared to remarry his
wife after she had come out of a full marital relationship
with someone else.
The ruling of the Holy Prophet in hadith
5825
In the hadith that is being objected to, the
ruling which the Holy Prophet gave was that, as
the woman had been divorced “irrevocably” by
her first husband (Rifa‛a), this couple cannot remarry
unless she were to marry a second husband
and then that were to end in divorce. However,
a woman’s marriage after an irrevocable
divorce to another man must be a genuine marriage.
What the Holy Prophet has indicated here
is that the genuineness of the marriage is
defined by its consummation, but the woman
was claiming that the husband was not capable
of consummating it.
A marriage of convenience, entered into
with the intention of ending it in divorce, is prohibited
in Islam. In such a case, both the former
and the latter husband have been cursed by the
Holy Prophet who said:
“Curse be upon the one who marries a divorced
woman with the intention of making her
lawful for her former husband and upon the one
for whom she is made lawful.” (Abu Dawud,
Book of Marriage, ch. ‘Regarding Tahlil’, hadith
2076)
Note that it is both the men who are cursed
here, and the woman is not mentioned.
The critics of Islam have jumped to the conclusion
that by this ruling of the Holy Prophet
this woman is now trapped in a marriage with
an impotent man. But in Islam she is immediately
entitled to a divorce on the grounds of lack
March 2018 The
Light 7
of satisfaction with the marriage. The issue here
is not divorce but remarriage to the first husband
after divorce. She can get a divorce and marry
any other man, so she is hardly trapped in this
marriage.
The critics of Islam are making contradictory
claims. They allege that the Holy Prophet
accepted the second husband’s claim that he is
not impotent, and thereby he ruled against the
wife’s claim that he is impotent, trapping her in
marriage with him. But by applying even the
least amount of intelligence, it can be seen that if
the husband’s claim is accepted, then it proves
that the marriage was consummated and thus if
the woman were to get a divorce (on grounds
such as ill-treatment) she could remarry the
first husband! And the second husband did
claim that he had had full sexual relations with
her because, although according to Muhsin
Khan’s translation he says “I am very strong and
can satisfy her”, what he said, in rather a graphic
language, was that he has full and vigorous intercourse
with her.
It is interesting to note that there is another
version of this incident in the Hadith collection
known as the Muwatta of Imam Ma lik as follows:
prohibition for the two of them to remarry (unless
she had a proper marriage with someone
else which ended genuinely in divorce). The restriction
on their remarriage is a restriction for
the first husband also, and not only for the
woman. And, as can be seen, there is no mention
here of the woman having been beaten by the
second husband.
Islam does not allow women to be
trapped unwillingly in marriages
As to trapping a woman in marriage, this is
contrary to the teachings of Islam. Our critics
have failed to see a basic hadith in Bukhari in
the book on Divorce, which is repeated five
times in the same chapter. It tells us that Jamila,
wife of Thabit ibn Qais, went to the Holy
Prophet and said:
“I do not blame Thabit for any defects in his
character or his (observance of) religion, but I
cannot endure to live with him.”
She said she feared that by remaining married
to him she might do something un-Islamic
(i.e., not behave as a wife should). The Holy
Prophet asked her, “Will you give back to him
the garden” which he had given her as the nuptial
gift. The result was:
Rifa‛a ibn Simwal divorced his wife, Tamima
bint Wahb, in the time of the Messenger of Allah,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, three
times. Then she married Abdur Rahman ibn
az−Zubayr and he turned from her and could
not consummate the marriage and so he parted
from her. Rifa‛a wanted to marry her again and
it was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and
he forbade him to marry her. He said, “She is not
lawful for you until she has enjoyed sexual relations.”
(Muwatta of Imam Ma lik, Book 28: Marriage,
section 7; see for example: www.sunnah.com/malik/28)
According to this account, the woman had
already been divorced by the second husband
before the matter was brought to the Holy
Prophet. It was the first husband who came to
the Holy Prophet, and it was to him, and not to
the woman, that the Holy Prophet conveyed the
I Shall Love All Mankind.
She said, “Yes.” So she returned his garden
to him, and the Prophet told him to divorce her.
(Bukhari, Book of Divorce, hadith 5273–5277)
Then, in the book of Marriage, there is the
chapter headed: “If a man gives his daughter in
marriage while she is averse to it, then such
marriage is invalid”. Under it there is a report
by a woman by the name of Khansa daughter of
Khidam, who was previously married, saying
that her father gave her in another marriage
and she disliked the marriage:
“So she went to the Messenger of Allah and
he declared the marriage invalid.” (hadith
5138)
This report occurs again in Bukhari in the
book on “Coercion” in a chapter entitled: “Marriage
is not permitted under coercion” (hadith
6945).
This incident was also cited as follows in
March 2018 The
Light 8
Bukhari as having set a precedent:
A woman from the offspring of Ja‛far was
afraid lest her guardian marry her (to somebody)
against her will. So she sent for two elderly
men from the Ansar, Abdur Rahman and
Mujammi, the two sons of Jariya, and they said
to her: “Don’t be afraid, for Khansa daughter of
Khidam was given by her father in marriage
against her will, then the Prophet cancelled that
marriage.” (Book of Tricks or Stratagems, h.
6969)
We find from this hadith that the action of
the Holy Prophet in cancelling that forced marriage
became a precedent to be followed in future
such cases.
A girl even went to the Holy Prophet, intentionally,
to get a judgment that would apply to
all Muslim women. It is reported in the Hadith
collection of Ibn Majah:
A girl came to the Prophet and said: “My father
married me to his brother’s son so that he
might raise his status thereby.” The Prophet
gave her the choice, and she said: “I approve of
what my father did, but I wanted women to
know that their fathers have no right to do that.”
(Ibn Majah, Chapters on Marriage, ch. ‘He who
gives his daughter in marriage and she is unwilling’,
hadith 1874).
The words translated here as “gave her the
choice” are literally: “He left the matter up to
her”. The next report (hadith 1875) is similar:
A virgin girl came to the Prophet and told
him that her father arranged a marriage that
she did not like, and the Prophet gave her a
choice.
The words for “gave her the choice” here
mean literally: “gave her discretion”. The Holy
Prophet Muhammad thus handed to the girl the
power to accept or reject the marriage proposal
that was agreed between her father and the
prospective husband.
The Prophet Muhammad did not regard
himself as even entitled to command a freed
slave woman as to where to marry. It is reported
in Bukhari that a slave woman called Barira was
I Shall Love All Mankind.
freed, but she was, during slavery, married to a
slave called Mughees who was still a slave. In
such cases, Islam gives the freed slave woman
the choice to remain with her still enslaved husband
or to divorce him. She divorced him, but he
loved her. The Holy Prophet said to someone:
“Are you not astonished at the love of Mughees
for Barira and the hatred of Barira for
Mughees?” The Prophet then said to Barira:
“Why don’t you return to him?”. She said: “O
Messenger of Allah, do you order me to do so?”
He replied: “No, I am only mediating.” She said:
“I am not in need of him” (Bukhari, Book of Divorce,
hadith 5283).
It is clear that the Holy Prophet Muhammad
respected this freed slave woman’s rights of
marriage and he did not order her but merely
mediated, and he gave her a choice to return to
her husband or not.
Summary
In this article, the following points have
been established regarding the hadith which
the critics of Islam have put forward as a matter
of objection (namely, hadith 5825):
1. Wherever this hadith is directly reported
from Aishah, who was the observer when
the woman came to the Prophet, there is no
mention of the wife having been beaten. The
reporter of hadith 5825, who mentions the
marks of beating, does not report from
Aishah herself and his source of information
is unknown.
2. The only conclusion Bukhari draws from
this hadith is that a woman may wear a
green dress. He does not classify this hadith
under treatment of wives.
3. In hadith 5825 itself, the wife does not complain
to the Holy Prophet that her second
husband is beating her. In fact, she says she
has no complaint against him except that he
is impotent.
4. The issue is not whether she can obtain a
divorce from this second husband. She can
certainly do so in Islam. The issue is whether
she is allowed to remarry her first husband
after their relationship had previously
ended in divorce three times.
March 2018 The
Light 9
5. Sexual enjoyment in marriage is not onesided
but is described by the Holy Prophet in
these very reports as: “you (the wife) enjoying
sexual relations with him (the husband)
and he with you.”
Islam does not trap women in marriages
against their will. On the contrary, Islam accepts
their will in matters of their marriage and divorce.
Link to HTML version of the article
How did the
Prophet
Muhammad (s)
prove his
Messengership?
by Omar Raja
(Return_to content)
When we look at the life of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad we find that the first thirteen years
of his prophethood were spent in Makkah, at a
time when Muslims were being tortured and
butchered shamelessly, only because they professed
their faith in Islam and the Holy Prophet.
Within those first few years, when persecution
was severe, the Holy Prophet had advised the
weaker of his companions to advance towards
Abyssinia. Jafar ibn Abi Talib, the head of the refugees,
upon entering Abyssinia addressed the
then King in the following words, which painted
a true picture of what was being taught and endured
by the Muslims in Makkah:
“O King! We were an ignorant people, given
to idolatry. We used to eat corpses even of a
dead animal, and do all kinds of disgraceful
things. We did not make good our obligations to
our relations and ill-treated our neighbours.
The strong among us would thrive at the expense
of the weak, till, at last, God sent a
prophet for our reformation. His descent, his
righteousness, his integrity and his piety are
well-known to us. He called us to the worship of
God and exhorted us to give up idolatry and
stone worship. He enjoined us to speak the
truth, to make good our trusts, to respect ties of
kinship, and to do good to our neighbours. He
taught us to shun everything foul and to avoid
I Shall Love All Mankind.
bloodshed. He forbade all manner of indecent
things – telling lies, misappropriating orphans’
belongings, and bring a false accusation against
the chastity of women. So we believed in him,
and followed him and acted upon his teachings.
Thereupon our people began to wrong us, to
subject us to tortures, thinking that we might
thus abjure our faith and revert to idolatry.
When, however, their cruelties exceeded all
bounds, we came out to seek asylum in your
country, where we hope shall come to us no
harm” [Living Thoughts of the Prophet
Muhammad by Maulana Muhammad Ali, pp 5–
6; referring to Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah; also
see A. Guillaume’s translation of Sirat Rasul
Allah, pp. 151-152].
At one point, the Quraish, a leading tribe in
Makkah, hostile towards the Muslims had tried
to compromise the Holy Prophet’s character
through bribery, by sending deputations with
the offer:
“If your ambition is to possess wealth, we
will amass for you as much of it as you wish; if
you aspire to win honour and power, we are
prepared to swear allegiance to you as our
overlord and king; if you have a fancy for beauty,
you shall have the hand of the finest maiden of
your own choice.” [Muhammad the Prophet by
Maulana Muhammad Ali, p. 60]
But to their surprise, the Holy Prophet replied:
“I want neither riches nor political power. I
have been commissioned by Allah as a warner
to humanity. I deliver His message to you.
Should you accept it, you shall have felicity in
this life as well as in the life to come; should you
reject the word of Allah, surely Allah will decide
between you and me.” [Muhammad the Prophet
by Maulana Muhammad Ali, p. 60]
The Prophet spoke these words at very difficult
times when persecution was very severe.
This speaks volumes about the Holy Prophet’s
character. Had he truly craved lust or power, he
would have accepted this offer in his great moment
of trial and a life and death struggle. The
Prophet was made to stand firm as Allah tells us
in the Quran:
“And if We had not made thee firm, thou
mightest have indeed inclined to them a little.”
(Quran, chapter 17, verse 74).
March 2018 The
Light 10
When the Muslims had found refuge in
Madinah, a city 200 miles to the north of Makkah,
a thirteen days journey, here too were they
not left alone. It was then revealed to the Holy
Prophet:
“Permission to fight is given to those upon
whom was war is made, because they have been
wronged — and God is well able to help them.
Those who have been expelled from their
homes unjustly, only for saying, ‘Allah is our
Lord’. And if God had not allowed one group of
people to repel another, then there would have
been pulled down cloisters and synagogues and
churches and mosques, in which God's name is
remembered.” (Quran, 22:39-40).
It would thus be in the 53rd year of the Holy
Prophet's life in old age that he would first take
up arms to fight in self-defence. Had the Holy
Prophet Muhammad ever had any inclination
for warfare, then he would most certainly have
taken part in the tribal warfare's that were the
order of the day in the society in which he grew
up. But the fact that he did not, shows he was
never a man of war, but a man of peace, and it
was when only such strenuous, life-threatening
circumstances were presented to him and the
welfare of the Muslims was at stake, did he take
up arms, but in the noblest of causes.
It would be for another near seven years
that the Quraish would put up greater numbers
in the battlefield and wage aggressive warfare
against the Muslims. Finally, after almost two
decades of Makkan tyranny, a peace treaty was
concluded at Hudaibiyah, in which it was stated
there would be absolutely no war for ten years.
This peace treaty belies the allegations against
the Holy Prophet and shows that he was compelled
to use force. The Holy Prophet was acting
upon the Quranic teaching:
“And if they incline to peace, do thou incline
to it and trust in Allah; He is the Hearing, the
Knowing. And if they intend to deceive thee,
then surely Allah is sufficient for thee.” (Quran
8:61-62).
At that time the Muslims who accompanied
the Holy Prophet Muhammad at the signing of
the truce numbered fifteen hundred. And yet it
was only two years later, that the terms of the
truce were violated when a tribe in alliance with
I Shall Love All Mankind.
the Quraish slaughtered many innocent Muslims.
The Quraish refused to dissociate themselves
with this tribe in alliance with them and
refused to renew the terms of the Truce. It was
then the Holy Prophet prepared to march on
Makkah, the city from which he had been exiled
seven years earlier.
But with how many men did the Prophet
Muhammad march to Makkah? Was it with the
fifteen hundred from two years ago? No, this
time, they numbered ten thousand! Within
those two years of peace, something remarkable
happened; thousands upon thousand voluntarily
joined Islam, such that the prophecy of
the Truce being a “great victory” (see Quran
48:1) would be fulfilled, even at a time the
terms seemed quite humiliating to the Muslims.
One must ask what the reason for this
remarkable wave of conversion was? Before the
Truce his enemies, as they do to this day, had
been trying to create this dark, sinister, and
grim picture of him. But when the saw the Holy
Prophet for whom he was, they saw him not to
be the man of terror as they had once imagined.
They saw the great moral and spiritual transformation
that he had brought about in his people.
In effect, their hearts were conquered. How true
we read in the Quran:
“Repel evil with what is best, when lo! he
between whom and you there is enmity will be
like a warm friend.” (Quran 41:34)
The Holy Prophet did not conquer by way of
aggressive warfare; he was conquering people’s
hearts and minds.
Not too long before had God had consoled
the Holy Prophet when he was being expelled
from Makkah:
“He Who has made the Quran binding on
thee will surely bring thee back to the Place of
Return.” (Quran 28:85)
“And surely they purposed to unsettle you
from the land that they might expel you from it,
and then they will not remain after you but a little
while.” (Quran 17:76)
True enough, within a short seven to eight
years, he was brought back to the “place of Return”
(Makkah) and in the most dignified manner
despite all odds!
March 2018 The
Light 11
When the Holy Prophet Muhammad re-entered
Makkah after suffering from years of persecution
along with his followers, it would most
certainly have been justified to take firm action
towards his persecutors, but did he? Did the
Holy Prophet return to Makkah with the mindset
of revenge or vengeance? No! He forgave
them! The Holy Prophet provided a general amnesty
stating: I say as my brother Joseph said:
“No reproof be against you this day; Allah
may forgive you, and He is the most Merciful of
those who show mercy.” (Quran 12:92)
This was indeed the greatest act of forgiveness
ever witnessed in all of history, an act
that would ultimately unite all of Arabia! Maulana
Muhammad Ali writes in his biography of
the Holy Prophet, Muhammad the Prophet:
“World history fails to produce the like of
the Holy Prophet’s generous forgiveness of such
arch-enemies. No example of such magnanimous
forgiveness is found in the life of any other
Prophet. Christ indeed preached forgiveness to
enemies, but he had no occasion to exercise the
quality of forgiveness for he never acquired the
authority to deal with his persecutors.” (p. 132)
This long on-going struggle was well known
throughout Arabia, and now that they had seen
the remarkable triumph against all the odds,
tribe after tribe began to declare their allegiance
to Islam; such tribes that had been in a
constant feud with one another for countless of
years. And so truly the impossible became possible.
“A more disunited people it would be hard
to find, till, suddenly, the miracle took place. A
man arose who, by his personality and by his
claim to direct Divine guidance, actually
brought about the impossible, namely, the union
of all these warring factions.” (The Ins and
Outs of Mesopotamia, p. 99).
It was only two years after the peaceful conquest
of Makkah that not 10,000, but 124,000
Muslims would witness the Prophet’s farewell
pilgrimage, a day to which he was destined to
live, to have these words revealed to him from
God.
“This day have those who reject faith given
up all hope of your religion: Yet fear them not
I Shall Love All Mankind.
But fear Me. This day have I Perfected your religion
for you, completed My favour upon you,
And have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
(Quran 5:3)
Why was it named Islam? The reason is that
Islam incorporates the same basic universal
principles as taught and preached by all the
Prophets, and is not limited to one geographic
location. Each of the Prophets had brought part
of Islam with them. Islam (‘entering into peace’
and ‘surrender’ to the will of God) was now
perfected and completed with the last of the
Prophets.
Unfortunately, today certain sections of
Muslims have regressed from the potential that
could be achieved if they truly did abide by the
teachings of the Quran. Cultural narrow intolerant
and cruel practices have replaced the most
elegant and noble teachings of Islam. Little
wonder is it then, of the state of affairs we see
in the Muslim world today. We find amongst
Muslims today rank prejudice and hatred for
one another simply due to the country, or
organisation, party, etc. with which they have
associated themselves. The open hostility and
animosity present in our times amongst ourselves
have sadly made us our own worst enemies.
It is this outright hostility that has caused
sectarianism, and not so much of the names
with which one has come to associate him or
herself. This very lack of tolerance and understanding
and narrow-mindedness has put us on
a halt to any progress in the modern world. It is
also true some false teachings amongst Muslims
lend support to the view of Islam being inherently
violent. (i.e., blasphemy, stoning, and
apostasy laws present in Muslim countries that
stem from the Old Testament of the Bible). The
lessons to be learnt from the peaceful example
of the Holy Prophet Muhammad have become
void in many of the Muslim governments of today.
As the Quran says about real reform: “Allah
changes not the condition of a people until they
change their own condition” (Quran 13:11).
And that condition is of the inner-self; the
heart! There must be real reform from within
before there can be reform from without.
Addendum:
While the Arabs went on blindly accepting
March 2018 The
Light 12
the traditions of their forefathers, the Quran repeatedly
spoke of them blindly rejecting the
Holy Prophet Muhammad.
“And some of them look at you. But can you
show the way to the blind, though they will not
see?” (Quran 10:43)
But the Holy Prophet Muhammad who had
unshakable faith, being annihilated in the love
and worship of God, and who was a living embodiment
of the teachings of the Quran, brought
about an unparalleled transformation in Arabia.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad writes in his
book, Barakat-ud-dua, about the efficacy of
prayer:
“That strange event which took place in the
desert land of Arabia, by which millions of
people who were spiritually dead were resuscitated
in a very short time, and people who
had remained corrupted for generations became
imbued with Divine attributes and the
blind regained their power of vision, and the
dumb became eloquent in respect of the
knowledge of God. A revolution took place in
the world in such a sudden manner that the like
of it no eye had seen before and no ear had
heard — what was it after all?
“At bottom was the silent prayers in the
darkness of the night of a lonely man who had
annihilated himself in God that created this
huge tumult in the world and produced those
strange phenomena which seem almost
impossible to have been affected by that
unlettered, helpless man.” [Barakat-ud-Dua, a
quotation from Does God Hear Man’s Prayers:
From the writings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, translated by Maulvi Aftab-ud-Din
Ahmad, pp. 13–14]
Western writers too, with all their bias, have
acknowledged the convincing effect the message
and eloquence of the Quran had on transforming
Arabia in less than a quarter-century.
Hartwig Hirschfeld, PhD, wrote in his publication
of 1902, New Researches Into The Composition
And Exegesis Of The Qoran:
“Never has a people been led more rapidly
to civilization, such as it was, than were the Arabs
through Islam.” (p. 5)
“The Quran is unapproachable as regards
convincing power, eloquence, and even
composition” (p. 8)
“We must not be surprised to find the Qoran
regarded as the fountain-head of all the sciences.
Every subject connected with heaven or
earth, human life, commerce and various trades
are occasionally touched upon, and this gave
rise to the production of numerous monographs
forming commentaries on parts of the
holy book. In this way, the Qoran was responsible
for great discussions. And, to it was also
indirectly due the marvellous development of
all branches of science in the Moslim world.” (p.
9).
Thomas Patrick Hughes wrote in his publication
of 1885, A Dictionary of Islam: Being a cyclopaedia
of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and
customs, together with the technical and theological
terms, of the Muhammadan religion:
“Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production
should perhaps not be measured by
some preconceived maxims of subjective and
aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced
in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow
countrymen. If it spoke so powerfully
and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as
to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic
elements into one compact and well-organised
body, animated by ideas far beyond those which
had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its
eloquence was perfect, simply because it created
a civilised nation out of savage tribes, and
shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history.”
(p. 528; also see Kindle Edition, Locations
27795-27797). (Return_to content)
Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (UK)
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