The Light (English) August 2014

August 2014

August

2014 Webcasting on the world’s first real-time Islamic service at www.virtualmosque.co.uk Christianity and other nations, leading to the conclusion that it is only the Christians who have been delivered and saved, whereas all the other nations are deprived of and without salContents: Page vation. The truth however is just the other way.

The Call of the Messiah 1 The Christian nation is itself wholly denuded Gratitude by Nazra Ali 3 and bereft of spirituality, and heavenly favour and grace, as well as the spiritual signs and Judiasm, Islam and Pacifism 6 blessings of salvation. How then, and in what Concept of God in Islam 7 manner, can resemblance and similarity be established? It is absolutely necessary that resemblance should be in (matters) visible and seen so that with this sure knowledge people may be enabled to proceed to the recognition of the right man. If a man should come forward today and claim that he is the like of Moses, The Call of the Messiah and adduce this similarity that spiritually he is

by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the deliverer of the nation, but display not any the Promised Messiah and Mahdi palpable sign of giving salvation, will the Christians accept him, believing that he is really the Christians Hollow Claim like of Moses? The correct and true decision, A sane person can understand that this liketherefore, is that Jesus is certainly not the like ness and similarity is the very essence of this of Moses, nor has he set forth any example of prophecy hence, if this resemblance be not in external events by means of which resemmatters seen and perceived, and not of the charblance between him and Moses be established acter of an established fact, or a wonderful sign, in the matter of giving deliverance to the beor a professed principle in the sight of an oppolievers and chastisement to the unbelievers. nent, how can such an absurd claim lead to the The believers, on the contrary, suffered the sevguidance of a seeker-after-truth? That Jesus erest trouble and torment during his time,1 and was a deliverer, is merely a hallow claim of the of whose sting even Christians which Jesus could not rethey have not been main unaffected and able to prove by immune. We shall, rational argument, therefore, be losing nor show in the our faith, and becolour and characcome dishonest in ter of an extraordithe sight of God, if nary wonder. You we admit and affirm may just ask them not that the like of to ascertain and Moses spoken of in know that they are Deuteronomy unable to point out (Torah), is the same any distinctive feaProphet of God who, ture between having suffered eveAmbesh Lake, Pakistan Editors: Shahid Aziz Mustaq Ali

‫ْ س مِباہللْالرَّ م ٰ ن‬ ‫ْحالرَّ ْ ی م‬ ‫حم‬ ْ ْ

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2 ry kind of pain and persecution for 13 years, had at last to take to flight together with his followers, and was given a hot chase by the enemy, but within a few hours, on the field of Badr, Abu Jehal and all his army were done to death by the sharp edge of sword in the same way as were destroyed Pharaoh and all his hordes by the annihilating current of the Nile. How beautifully and perceptibly the two historical events of Egypt and Makkah, of the river Nile and the field of Badr, bear a close resemblance to each other?

Likeness of Khalifahs In short, when it is established and proved that our Holy Prophet is, of a truth, the like of Moses, perfect likeness demanded that there should be likeness also among their followers and Khalifahs; and it was essentially necessary that just as there existed a perfect and complete resemblance between Moses and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon them) in the matter of giving salvation to the believers and chastisement to the unbelievers, there should also be found some sort of likeness between the last caliphs of these two Great Prophets. So when we give thought to this point, we find, as I have already stated above, that there is not only one but many similarities between me and Jesus.2

The Term Messiah A question naturally arises at this stage, why one and the same name, Messiah, has been given to both the persons, the one of whom a promise had been held out to the Jews in the Torah that he would make his appearance at the time of their kingdom's decline, and would be the last caliph of the Mosaic order, and the other, promised in the Holy Quran and hadith that he would come in the last age when the Religion of Cross would be at its height? The answer to this question is that the term masih (Messiah) in reality is applied to a particular man of righteousness and piety whose anointment has the blessing and grace of God, so that his preaching and precept stirs up and stimulates new life.

This term has been applied, in particular, to the prophet who waged no war, but worked out and accomplished the reformation of his people only by spiritual blessing. As against it, the name

Masih has also been given to the foretold dajjal whose foul and filthy breath will give rise to calamity, atheism and unbelief, and whose infernal attention, word or association will, even without employing any aggressive means for the destruction of truth, cause goodness and love of god to melt away and disappear, and push forward and promote licentiousness and wine-bibbing, fraud and falsehood, worldliness and vice, tyranny and oppression, famine , and disease. And this is apparently the significance which we arrive at by casting a collective look upon the meanings given in Lisan al-Arab and other lexicons of high degree; and this, again, is the significance which the Most High God has revealed unto me. And although other prophets also possessed the quality of Messiah-ship, but the prophet who appeared in such an age, yet resorted not to Jihad, nor made use of other violent means, but took to prayer and spiritual force, has this name specially. Such a Messiah of exalted degree there had been only one among the Children of Israel, and he was Jesus the Christ (peace be on him) who came 1400 years after Moses, and became the last caliph of the Mosaic dispensation.

1: If the Christians should think that Jesus from the spiritual point of view, has created disgust and aversion for sin in the minds of people, even then he enjoys no distinction. All the prophets have been raised for this purpose that they may, as far as possible, rectify, reform and improve the moral, doctrinal and everyday life of the people; and their efforts, too, undoubtedly bore good fruit. And if the Christians should put forth the claim that the punishment of sins has been averted through the intervention of Jesus, they have not been able to produce any argument in support of it.

2: If the Christians should think that Jesus from the spiritual point of view, has created disgust and aversion for sin in the minds of people, even then he enjoys no distinction. All the prophets have been raised for this purpose that they may, as far as possible, rectify, reform and improve the moral, doctrinal and everyday life of the people; and their efforts, too, undoubtedly bore good fruit. And if the Christians should put forth the claim that the punishment of sins has been averted through the intervention of Jesus, they have not been able to produce any argument in support of it.

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3

Gratitude Nazra Ali (Text of a speech delivered at Dar us Salaam, London on 1st June 2014)

Definition of gratitude Gratitude means thanks and appreciation, which rhymes with “attitude, “comes from the Latin word gratus, which means “thankful, pleasing (Vocabulary.com).

very ungrateful), Allah mentions this weakness in man and the same sadness is expressed in chapter 27:73 (And thy Lord is full of grace to men, but most of them do not give thanks), and in 44:6 1 (Surely Allah is Full of grace to men, but most men give not thanks).

It is God who has made the night for you, that you may rest therein, and the day, as that which helps you to see. Verily God is full of grace and bounty to men, yet most men give no thanks. It is God who has made for you the earth as a resting place, and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape--and made your shapes beautiful --and has provided for you sustenance of things pure and good; such is God, your Lord. So glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds! (Qur'an 40.61, 64)

Gratitude to a Muslim is to acknowledge being treated well by Allah, it is also to praise the One who has done many favours. A true believer, either poor or rich, should always be Chitral, Pakistan A sense of gratitude and thankful to God whatever indebtedness to others is an his state is; he should express his certainty that important wellspring of a generous and virtuous God is loving and kind, and cares for all his crealife. All people can recognize that they are indebttures; he should be thankful for the great bounties ed to their parents, who gave them birth and that God has provided him because: raised them at considerable sacrifice. But our indebtedness extends much further than that. Fun“It is he who brought you forth from the wombs damentally, we are indebted to God our Creator of your mothers when you knew nothing, and he and the powers of nature that nourish and sustain gave you hearing and sight and intelligence and our life. Then, since the food we eat travels from affection so that you may give thanks (to God)” (Anthe soil to our dining table by passing through Nahl Ch 16:74) many hands--that cultivate, harvest, clean, package, transport, sell, and prepare it--we should recWhy do we need to show gratitude to Alognize that we rely on the labours of many people lah? in order to survive. A sense of gratitude to others is thus acknowledging our interdependent existThe word(s) "grateful" appears 11 time(s) in ence; it is an antidote to the illusion of egoism.

47 verse(s) in Quran. SO there is obviously a message in this for Muslims that they should show Such gratitude is recalled and expressed in the gratitude to their maker. prayer of grace or thanks offered before meals.

Another dimension of gratitude is directed toLet us look at some verses of the Quran. wards those who are responsible for our education CH 2 v 112 al baqara - So remember Me, and I and enlightenment in the way of truth andsalvawill remember you; and be thankful to Me; and be tion. Gratitude towards one's teachers, and espeyou not ungrateful towards Me. cially towards the sages and founders of religions who offered their lives to find the truth, is a proper In 14:34 (And He gives you all that you ask of attitude of faith. Most of all, we should be grateful Him. And if you count Allah’s favours, you will not to God, who quietly has been guiding and nurturbe able to number them. Surely man is very unjust,

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4 ing each person toward salvation, and without whose grace the world would be plunged in darkness.

giving to God: "O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever "(30:12) and "I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart "(9:1).

Gratefulness for rewards:-

Christianity

And no person can ever die except by Allah's Leave and at an appointed term. And whoever desires a reward in (this) world, We shall give him of it; and whoever desires a reward in the Hereafter, We shall give him thereof. And We shall reward the grateful. Ch 3 vs 144

Gratitude has always been central among Christian virtues and appears in classical and modern devotional writings as well as in the Old and New Testaments. In Christian gratitude, God is the giver of all gifts and the ultimate foundation for thankfulness.

Prophets admonished to be Grateful-(Allah) said: "O Musa (Moses) I have chosen you above men by My Messages, and by My speaking (to you). So hold that which I have given you and be of the grateful." Ch 7 v 144

Buddhism. Anguttara Nikaya i.61

Gratefullness for good childrenHe it is who created you from a single soul, and of the same did he make his mate, that he might find comfort in her. So when he covers her she bears a light burden, then moves about with it. Then when it grows heavy, they both call upon Allah there Lord; saying if thou give us a good one, we shall certainly be of the grateful.

Ch 7 V 149

Gratefulness in times of need He it is who makes you travel by land and sea; until, when you are in the ships, and they sail on with them in a pleasant breeze, and they rejoice at it, a violent wind overtakes them and the billows surge in on them from all sides, and they deemed that they are encompassed about.

Then they pray to Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience. If thou deliver from this we will certainly be of the grateful ones. Ch 10 v 22

The unworthy man is ungrateful, forgetful of benefits [done to him]. This ingratitude, this forgetfulness is congenial to mean people... But the worthy person is grateful and mindful of benefits done to him. This gratitude, this mindfulness, is congenial to the best people.

African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria) One upon whom We bestow kindness But will not express gratitude, Is worse than a robber Who carries away our belongings.

Gratitude in world scriptures and religions

The 17-century revivalist preacher and theologian, Jonathan Edwards, described two types of gratitude in his classic work, “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections." He described these two types as natural gratitude and as a gracious or spiritual gratitude. Natural gratitude is thanks expressed to God for the benefits a person has received, whereas gracious gratitude has its source in the knowledge of the goodness of God independent of favours received.

Judaism

The Psychology of being grateful.

In Judaism, gratitude is a vital component of worship and permeates every aspect of the worshiper's daily life. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the poetry of the Psalms is saturated with thanks-

An Attitude of Gratitude This list of benefits was compiled by aggregating the results of more than 40 research stud-

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1 ies on gratitude.

1. Gratitude makes us happier.

A five-minute a day gratitude journal can increase your long-term well-being by more than 10 percent.a1,a2,a3 That’s the same impact as doubling your income!a4 How can a free five minute activity compare? Gratitude improves our health, relationships, emotions, personality, and career.

Sure, having more money can be pretty awesome, but because of hedonic adaptation we quickly get used to it and stop having as much fun and happiness as we did at first.

2. Gratitude makes people like us.

Gratitude generates social capital – in two studies with 243 total participants, those who were 10% more grateful than average had 17.1% more social capital.b1 Gratitude makes us nicer, more trusting, more social, and more appreciative. As a result, it helps us make more friends, deepen our existing relationships, and improve our marriage.b2

3. Gratitude makes us healthier.

Several studies have looked at the benefits of gratefulness. These are found here.

There is even reason to believe gratitude can extend your lifespan by a few months or even years.

4. Gratitude develops our personality.

It really does, and in potentially lifechanging ways.a2,b2,d2,e1,e2 Gratitude impacts on our Health 6) Gratitude improves your sleep.

Gratitude increases sleep quality, reduces the time required to fall asleep, and increases sleep duration. Said differently, gratitude can help with insomnia.a2,j1 The key is what’s on our minds as we’re trying to fall asleep. If it’s worries about the kids, or

anxiety about work, the level of stress in our body will increase, reducing sleep quality, keeping us awake, and cutting our sleep short.

If it’s thinking about a few things we have to be grateful for today, it will induce the relaxation response, knock us out, and keep us that way.

Yes – gratitude is a (safe and free) sleep aid.

7) Gratitude keeps you away from the doctor.

Gratitude can’t cure cancer (neither can positive thinking) but it can strengthen your physiological functioning.

Positive emotion improves health. The details are complicated, but the overall picture is not – if you want to improve your health, improve your mind. This confidence comes from 137 research studies.

Gratitude is a positive emotion. It’s no far stretch that some of the benefits (e.g. better coping & management of terminal conditions like cancer and HIV,k1,k2 faster recovery from certain medical procedures, positive changes in immune system functioning,k3 more positive health behavior,k4,k1 etc…) apply to gratitude as well.

In fact, some recent science shows just that – those who engage in gratitude practices have been shown to feel less pain, go to the doctor less often, have lower blood pressure, and be less likely to develop a mental disorder.a1,a2,k6

Scientific background to Gratitude It is, according to Emmons, a “chosen attitude.” We must be willing to recognize and acknowledge that we are the recipients of an unearned benefit.

Emmons’ research indicates that gratitude is not merely a positive emotion; it also improves your health if cultivated. People must give up a “victim mentality” and overcome a sense of entitlement and deservedness.

As a result, he says, they will experience significant improvements in several areas of life including relationships, academics, energy level and even dealing with tragedy and crisis.

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6 Research has also suggested that feelings of gratitude may be beneficial to subjective emotional well-being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). For example, Watkins and colleagues (Watkins et al., 2003) had participants test a number of different gratitude exercises, such as thinking about a living person for whom they were grateful, writing about someone for whom they were grateful, and writing a letter to deliver to someone for whom they were grateful. Participants in the control condition were asked to describe their living room. Participant who engaged in a gratitude exercise showed increases in their experiences of positive emotion immediately after the exercise, and this effect was strongest for participants who were asked to think about a person for whom they were grateful. Participants who had grateful personalities to begin with showed the greatest benefit from these gratitude exercises. In people who are grateful in general, life events have little influence on experienced gratitude (McCullough, Tsang & Emmons, 2004).

Conclusion By the time! Surely man is in loss, except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to patience (103:1-3). Finally, in order to preserve, reinforce and develop this quality of gratitude to the highest degree, we are advised to keep the company of the grateful ones, as the Holy Quran bids us: Nay, worship Allah alone and keep the company of those who are grateful(39:66).

Is there room for pacifism in Judaism and Islam?

A Quaker can be a pacifist on the basis of his religion. Maybe a Christian can too “Turn the other cheek.� Jews and Muslims can not be. It is quite clear that our scriptural and legal traditions view violence as a reasonable and often unavoidable means of resolving human conflict.

Both traditions set limits on who you may hurt, when you may hurt and the conditions under which you can hurt them. Both traditions are very realistic about recognizing the ugliness that violence raises in its participants, the possible abuses that place in time of war. Both traditions strive to manage that. They create limited room for dividing the spoils (which in ancient times certainly included humans as property) and for the harm of noncombatants who happen to be in the way. Judaism and Islam both decry the intentional attack on innocents and the wanton destruction of property. We are not pacifist religions in principle. In practice though, I wonder however whether the nature of violence in the modern age, may not call us to be pacifists, in practice.

The scriptures, narratives, examples and legal precedents upon which both Jewish and Islamic legal traditions base their rulings on war and violence are largely ancient and medieval and nature. They speak of a time of relatively small scale warfare. Armies lined up against other armies or perhaps small groups of insurgents fought guerilla wars with larger armies. Combatants were clear and well-defined. Weapons were smaller. There were stones, knives, hatchets, swords, bows, long-bows, cross bows and eventually cannon and muskets. These short range weapons required a virtual face to face engagement with the enemy. Even in the heat of battle, it would be hard to forget the humanity of your opponent.

Though tragic, such wars were necessarily limited in scope and damage. They were wars that could be won. Territory could be conquered and successfully held. In one to one engagement with the enemy, the killing of non-combatants was certainly possibly but not likely. Commanders fought at the head of their troops. When those in power face the same imminent danger as their troops, it can create powerful incentives to make peace (or accept submission).

In modern warfare, we move further and further from face to face engagement. The incentives for peace are largely gone. The war makers are in boardrooms far removed from their battlefields.

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7 Aerial bombings and the use of unmanned drones alienate even the soldier from the heat of battle, reducing the enemy to pixels on a screen.

The drone soldier who prowls the plains of Afghanistan for his targets from the airconditioned comfort of Las Vegas knows nothing of the ancient “nobility” of war or has any reason to avoid its savagery . Big powerful weapons from assault rifles to cluster bombs make “collateral damage” the killing of innocents and absolute certainty. As human beings crowd themselves into denser and denser population centers, war begins to look more and more like shooting rats in a barrel. Collective punishment also becomes a certainty. Nuclear and biological weapons make the wanton destruction of environment an inevitable consequence of pulling those triggers. There is little face-too-face engagement to humanize the enemy. The horrors of war make less impression on minds and hearts awash in endless dramatized violence.

The limitations that our religious traditions put on the practice of violence have effectively become meaningless today. If war was ever noble, it can’t be now. Jews carry the image of the Godcommanded struggle to conquer The Land in the time of Joshua. Muslims see the glory days of Islamic expansion, the violent struggles of the early Muslim community. Americans fantasize about the conquering of the West, the brave cowboy. I have come to believe that F-16s, drones, assault rifles, bunker-busters, cluster bombs, phosphorous weapons, and biological weapons have rendered all of that a quaint fantasy. The goals and values that our religions teach us can no longer be furthered by modern war.

If the facts on the ground make the limitation on violence an impossibility, we have two possibilities; to obliterate those limitations or to embrace some kind of collective practical pacifism. The movement has clearly been to do the former. The definition of non-combatant becomes more and more narrow. Scholars will find reasons to consider children and women as “legitimate targets.” They dig deep into our complex traditions to find texts to defend the indefensible We invent euphemisms like “collateral damage” to cover up our wanton destruction of human life and human environ-

ment.

I am not really a pacifist. I recognize that people sometimes have to defend themselves. I would use violence to defend myself, my family, or others from harm. I am not prepared to argue that somehow it would have been better not to fight the Nazis. (The inevitable challenge.) I humbly recognize that my faith acknowledges the legitimate use of violence and I take that very seriously. At the same time, I can’t ignore the growing disconnect between the kind of warfare we see in the real world and any possibility of building the world that both Judaism and Islam envision, a world devoted to the service of God in peace.

I am struggling and now sharing the struggle with you. I look forward to your reasoned, polite, heart-felt thoughts and comments. (From http://jihadiyehudi.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/isthere-room-for-pacifism-in-judaism.html? showComment=1404464041114#c44497996117344141 79)

Concept of God in Islam (From : ARAB NEWS Published — Friday 4 November 2013 http://www.arabnews.com/news/474046) EVERY language has one or more terms that are used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with the term ‘Allah,’ which is the specific name of the one true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word ‘god,’ which can be made plural, as in ‘gods,’ or made feminine, as in ‘goddess.’ It is interesting to notice that the name ‘Allah’ is referred to in Aramaic, the language of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and a sister language of Arabic.

The one true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to Him. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was asked by his contemporaries about Allah, the answer came directly from God Himself in the

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4 form of a short chapter of the Qur’an, which is considered to be the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism: "Say: He is God, the One! God, the eternally Besought of all! He begets not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable to Him." (Qur’an, 112:1-4) Allah’s concept in Islam is that of merciful.

Hence, except Surah Taubah, each of the 114 chapters of the Qur’an begins with the verse, "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate."

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear child."

power or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.

The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are considered blasphemy in Islam.

The term ‘Allah’ is a reflection of Islam’s emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the essence of the message of all God’s messengers. Because of this, Islam considers associating any deity or personality with God as a sin that God never forgives, despite the fact that He may forgive all other sins.

And, God in Islam is Just. Hence, evildoers and sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must have His bounties The Creator must be of a different nature and favors. Actually, God’s attribute of mercy has from the things created because if He is of the full manifestation in His attribute of justice. Peosame nature as they are, He will be temporal ple suffering throughout their lives for His sake and will therefore need a maker. It follows that should not receive similar nothing is like Him. If the Rainbow Mountain, China treatment from their Lord as maker is not temporal, then people who oppress and exhe must be eternal. But if he is ploit others. Expecting simieternal, he cannot be caused, lar treatment for them would and if nothing caused Him to amount to negating the very come into existence, nothing belief in the accountability of outside Him causes Him to man in the Hereafter and continue to exist, which thereby negate all the incenmeans that he must be selftives for a moral and virtuous sufficient. And if He does not life in this world. depend on anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence can have no The following Qur’anic verses are very clear end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everand straightforward in this respect: "Verily, for lasting: "He is the First and the Last." the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?"

Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth,

He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur’anic term, Al-Qayyum. The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing things into being, He also preserves them and takes them out of existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.

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