ِ ی م الرَّحم

ن

ِ

سب اہللِ‏ الرَّْحم ٰ

ْ م ِ

The Light

International Organ of the Centre for the Worldwide

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam

2018

April

2016

March

Germany

Guyana

India

Sweden

Suriname

The only Islamic organisation upholding the finality of prophethood.

Webcasting on the world’s first real-time Islamic service at

Editors

- Amir Aziz

- Abd ul Muqtadir Gordon

- Gowsia Saleem & - Prof. Shahab

Shabbir

- Kaleem Ahmed

- Robbert Bipat M.D, PhD

South Africa-Ebrahim Mohamed

UK

USA

- Shahid Aziz & - Mustaq Ali

- Zainab Ahmad

www.virtualmosque.co.uk

Our Recent Broadcasts

‣ Protecting Women

‣ Protecting Women Part 2

‣ Protecting Women part 3

‣ Mental Health Issue in the

Muslim Community

‣ Why are we not Sunnis?

‣ Disturbing Nature

Contents

The Call of the Messiah 2

Answer_to_allegations 3

by Dr Zahid Aziz

Proof_of_Messengership 9

by Mr Omar Raja

Broadcasts (UK time)

1. Skype Urdu lecture: Sunday 09:00

2. Live on www.virtualmosque.co.uk

‣ Friday Sermon 13:00

‣ First Sunday of month lecture 15:00.

3. Radio Virtual Mosque

Our Websites

1. International HQ

2. Research and History

3. The Woking Mosque and Mission

4. The Berlin Mosque and Mission

5. Quran search

6. Blog

Interesting external links

‣ Recognise Sharia says UK Government Commission.

‣ The Torah Portion that Rattled my Jewish

Identity.

‣ When the West Glorified Islam.

External Links

The Light is not responsible for the content

of external sites. The inclusion of a link to an external

website should not be understood to be

an endorsement of that website, the views it expresses

or the site's owners (or their products/services).

Some links may have research, which disagrees

with our beliefs. It is for us to consider

such material and provide a rebuttal. Ignoring it

will not make it go away.

We welcome all scholarly contributions to

The Light.

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

Light 4

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)

Founders of the first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission.

Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ

Centre: 020 8903 2689 ∙ President: 01793 740670 ∙ Secretary: 07737 240777 ∙ Treasurer: 01932 348283

E-mail: info@aaiil.uk

Websites: www.aaiil.org/uk | www.ahmadiyya.org | www.virtualmosque.co.uk

Donations: https://www.cafonline.org/charityprofile/aaiiluk

I Shall Love All Mankind.