CoB.book Page 237 Tuesday, June 6, 2006 9:46 AM
The Spiritual Revolution
Islam permits four marriages, which some take as a commandment. Anyway, the permission is there. It is a tradition in Africa in certain tribes where a man has high standing or wealth or is a chief that he marries more than four and up to nine to ten women. When ‘Ali Roger of Sierra Leone accepted Ahmadiyyat he was a young man and had twelve wives. The missionary of the Community, Maulana Nazir Ahmad ‘Ali, told him that now that he was an Ahmadi, according to Qur’anic teaching he could keep only four wives. He would have to divorce and send off the rest with livelihood maintenance. Not only did he promptly act on this instruction, but on his suggestion he kept the first four wives and let the younger ones go. This change was revolutionary. Another missionary, Yunus Khalid, writes: V. V. Kahlo accepted Ahmadiyyat as a result of a vision at the time of Maulana Muhammad Siddiq Amritsari. Later he also served as the Amir of Ahmadiyyah Community in Sierra Leone. Before accepting Ahmadiyyat he had a totally liberal lifestyle, so liberal that by profession he was a dancer. However, soon after bai‘at he brought about changes in himself and made a reputation in taqwa (righteousness) and purity, worship, fear of Allah the Almighty and honesty. Allah the Almighty conferred great successes on him. He was also the paramount Chief of his area—an area where large diamond mines were located. The Chiefs in those area wield great power. If he wanted he could have taken advantage making huge amounts of money. However, due to the beautiful and pure teachings of Ahmadiyyat, he considered such wealth haram (forbidden) for himself and lived a simple life. It 237