Contents August 2003, Vol.98, No - Review of Religions No: 0034-6721 Contents August 2003, Vol.98, No.8 1 Chief Editor and Manager Chairman of the Management Board Naseer Ahmad Qamar

Special contributors:Amatul-Hadi AhmadFarina Qureshi

Proof-reader:Shaukia Mir

Design and layout:Tanveer Khokhar

Publisher:Al Shirkatul Islamiyyah

Distribution:Muhammad Hanif

Mansoor Ahmed Shah

Basit Ahmad

Bockarie Tommy Kallon

Daud Mahmood Khan

Fareed Ahmad

Fazal Ahmad

Fauzia Bajwa.

Mansoor Saqi

Mahmood Hanif

Mansoora Hyder-Muneeb

Navida Shahid

Sarah Waseem.

Saleem Ahmad Malik

Tanveer Khokhar

Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the opinions of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

All correspondence should beforwarded directly to:

The EditorThe Review of Religions

The London Mosque16 Gressenhall RoadLondon, SW18 5QL

United Kingdom

© Islamic Publications, 2002ISSN No: 0034-6721

Contents August 2003, Vol.98, No.8

1

Chief Editor and Manager Chairman of the Management BoardNaseer Ahmad Qamar

Editorial – Five spheres of activity for the revival of Islam:Sarah Waseem – UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Notes and Comment: WhoSwitched Off the Lights – With power outage humbling the mighty,should man begin to take the blame for his chaos?Fazal Ahmad – UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

History of Islam – A brief history of Islam from the Caliphats, through the medieval era, the Mongols and Ottoman Empires to today (well, 1947), including a background to the political history of some Muslim countries: Late Professor Abdus Salam – UK). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Efficacy of Repentance – Part 1I – God is now quickening the earth after its spiritual death; the time is ripe for the arrival of he Messiah; God’s promise would be fulfilled.Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

QUESTION & ANSWER – Response to Questions – Spiritualism is a material world; life after death;is animal slaughter cruel; and idealising pop-stars.Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Euphesus – Turning Points for Christianity – Paul and John visited this town in Turkey, with its caveswhere Christians fled persecution and where a council changed Mary’s status.Fazal Ahmad – UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Future of Revelation – Part II The rationale for the concept of the finality of Prophethood.Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan: An Analysis Under International Law and International Relations: Concluding a detailed review of the background to the persecution of Ahmadis – Part 3Amjad Mahmood Khan – USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Cover: Abdullah Mosque: Photo by FazalAhmad

In his book Fat-he-Islam (Victory ofIslam) the Promissed Messiah(as) h a swritten ‘what is called “Faith” has beensubstituted by a few words ofdeclaration uttered by the tongue;...Truepiety and virtue have been completelyforgotten.’ He writes that there are fivespheres of activity neccessary to ensurethe revival of Islam.

Before describing these, it is worthreflecting on how Islam progressedfollowing the demise of the HolyP r o p h e t(sa) and the first four Khalifas.This month’s issue contains an articlewritten by the late Professor AbdusSalaam in which he presents a synopsisof the history of Islam following thedemise of the Holy Prophet( s a ) and thefirst four Khalifas. It is a story ofconquests and of the establishment ofempires. Contrast this then with the fivesteps needed for the revival of Islam aspresented in 'Fat-he-Islam.

The Promised Messiah( a s ) writes that hisfirst sphere of activity is that he has beenguided to write and publish books. Alongwith this, leaflets would be publishedwhich proclaim the truth of Islam overother creeds. A further task is to ensurethat those people who are seeking ‘thetruth’ are cared for. During his lifetime,the Promised Messiah(as) a c c o m m o d a t e dseveral thousand guests who visited him

in Qadian in order to establish the truthof his claim to be the Messiah of the age.He writes: ‘..the circle of those who cancome and stay near me ..should also be

gifted with that sublime taste which Ihave been gifted.’

The fourth branch of activity iscorrespondence with those who seek thetruth and those who are antagonistic toit. Finally the Promissed Messiah( a s )

writes that he has been directed byAllah to broaden the circle of devoteesand those who take the oath ofInitiation. He writes that Allah hasinformed him ‘Anyone who slips hishand in your hand in allegiance, slips itnot in your hand but rather in the Handof God.’

The Promissed Messiah(as) stresses thatall five of these spheres of activity areneeded to bring about the revival ofIslam. All of these are based upon logicand reasoning. ‘Seekers after the truth'are also to be cared for, as demonstratedby the immense hospitality and lovewhich the Promissed Messiah( a s )

displayed for his guests.

It is only through these methods thatIslam will be revived in its true beautyand purity.

Sarah Waseem – UK

2 The Review of Religions – August 2003

Editorial

3The Review of Religions – August 2003

Who Turned Off the Lights14th August 2003 could well havegone down in history in the sameway that September 11th did. Itwas the day that several cities inAmerica and Canada foundthemselves without power formany hours in the worst poweroutage in history. In a scenereminiscent of a Hollywood film,traffic lights stopped working andpeople were stuck in building liftsor in metro systems underground.Mobile telephones suddenlystopped working leaving peopleworried about how to commu-nicate in an emergency with lovedones. In temperatures of well over30ºC, even the air- c o n d i t i o n i n gsystems had stopped working,making conditions moreunbearable. In a matter of seconds,all of the facilities that people hadcome to rely upon in daily life hadvanished leaving people to theirown devices. Over 50 millionpeople in New York, To r o n t o ,Ottawa and Detroit emerg e dgingerly from offices, cars andsubways worried that they were

involved in yet another terroristincident. In the evening rush hour,there was traffic chaos, cities werein darkness, and thousands of cityworkers who were left strandedwith no route home were forced tosleep rough on the streets. Trains,ferries, cars and aircraft all groundto a halt as fuel became scarce andsignalling became impossible.(This scene was repeated on 28thAugust 2003 in London with twopower outages creating an eveningrush-hour chaos).

As night descended on these greatcities, the eerie darkness seemedto be sending out a message thateven these industrial giants are notas powerful as they may imagine.Even behaviour such as lootingwhich is normally associated withlesser nations, was witnessed inNew York and Ottawa. It is easy tofeel comfortable behind theluxuries of life, and to think thatour existence is totally different tothat of our ancestors. But eventssuch as this bizarre incidentremind us of how fragile our

Notes & Comments


communities and structures are.Without these crutches, we veryquickly return to basic instincts.People worried about how to findfood and drink, how to commu-nicate and how to get home. Thiswas ironically the scenario paintedaround the potential millenniumsoftware bug which nevermaterialised. Even a formere n e rgy secretary in the USdescribed his nation as asuperpower with a Third Worldelectricity grid. The next day, asfamilies woke up to the horror ofthe previous day’s nightmare,realities such as discovering afridge full of rotten food struckhome. In the modern age of globalcommunications, we sometimesbelieve the illusion that thesepowerful push-button facilitieswill always be there, and as aresult, many modern thinkerseither deny or relegate the positionof God, as they feel they havecreated all of the facilities thatthey need for themselves. Suchincidents remind us that all ofthese things are fragile and have alimited lifetime, but God is alwayspresent everywhere. Maybe the14th or 18th of August alsoprovided us with a valuable

reminder of our true status andposition in the universe. Chillingthen to think of the Day ofJudgement as the time when thelights would go out on ourexistence on Earth, and we wouldbe forced to evaluate what weactually achieved from our time onthis planet without the assistanceof our worldly crutches!

Fazal Ahmad– UK

Notes and Comments

In The Review of Religions ofApril 2003, Hadhrat Mirz aNasir Ahmad, KhalifatulMasih III, was described asthe cousin brother of HadhratM i rza Tahir Ahmad (P. 1 5 ) .The dictionary defines acousin as a relative descendedf ron one of one’s commonancestors. For the avoidanceof doubt, both persons has thesame father and as such, werepaternal brothers butmaternal cousins as each camef rom a diff e rent wife ofHadhrat Khalifatul Masih II.

In this paper I will try to sketchan outline of Islam’s politicalhistory and how the gloriousfaith preached by the HolyP r o p h e t( s a ) spread out of theconfines of Arabia to the farthestcorners of the world. I will try togive an outline political historyof present day Muslim countries.It will necessarily be a very shortsketch but I hope it will givesome idea of what power Islamonce was-and God willing, willonce again be, throughAhmadiyyat.

Islamic history may convenientlybe divided into five periods:

(1) The first period may be calledthe Arab Period. This comprises

the times of (a) the first fourCaliphs of Islam; (b) theUmayyads at Damascus; (c) andthe Abbasids at Baghdad.

This period runs from 632 CE(Christian Era) to 950 CE,approximately 300 years. Duringthis period the centralism ofIslam was intact. The Caliph wasboth the spiritual and thetemporal head.

Next followed around 100 yearsof divided principalities when theC a l i p h ’s temporal power wasreduced to nothing, and itappeared as if Islam’s politicalhegemony would be goneforever.


History of Islamby the late Professor Abdus Salam (Nobel Laureate)

The following paper was read at one of the weekly meetings at the LondonMosque in 1947 by Professor Dr. Abdus Salam, who was later awarded theNobel Prize for Physics in 1979. He was then a student at Cambridge doinghis three year Tripos course. In this partly revised paper, originallypublished in the June 1983 issue of the Muslim Herald, he presented anoverview of the political history of Islam. This article may be of greatinterest to those who are unfamiliar with this history, especially givenrecent events in the Middle East.

(2) Around 1050 a new peopleappeared on the scene-theSeljuqs. They accepted Islam andunder them the centralism ofIslam was restored. The Caliphin Baghdad was now the spiritualhead of most Muslims, whilepolitical power was in the handsmainly of priests of Tu r k i s horigin.

(3) The third period begins withthe Mongol attack on Islamiccountries-when Baghdad wassacked and the Caliphateextinguished. But 50 years later,the Mongols themselves hadaccepted Islam. This period(including that of Ti m u r l a n e )extended until 1500 CE.

(4) From 1500 we enter thefourth period, that of Safavis inPersia and Osmani Turks inTurkey and Mughals in India.

(5) Finally, the fifth period is theone from 1700 CE till today,when European powers alsobegan playing their sinister partin the history of Islam.

If history has a moral, then the

only moral I wish to draw fromIslamic history is that the religionof Islam has won its greatestvictories when the arms andmight of Islam were at theirlowest.

With this introduction we shallnow go on to a detailedconsideration of the periods Ihave mentioned.

The Arab PeriodAt the time of the death of theHoly Prophet of Islam, peace beon him, in 632, practically thewhole of Arabia had acceptedIslam. Under his first dulyelected Successor, the firstCaliph, Abu Bakr, the power ofIslam was consolidated inArabia.

But it was during the time of thesecond Successor, HadhratUmar, that Islam spread outsideArabia and won its victories. TheByzantines and the Persians boththought Arabia belonged to themand construing the rise of Islamas a rebellion against them theyhastened to march to chastise theArabs. A handful of Muslim

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The Review of Religions – August 2003

armies faced numbers, in somecases, ten times larger. But thefiery zeal of faith swept allbefore it. Damascus fell to theMuslim armies in 635, Yarmukin 636 and with it Syria. Persianarmies were defeated at Qadisiyain 637 and Egypt was conqueredin 640. But the reign of CaliphUmar was memorable not onlyon account of its military glory. Itwas in his reign that for the firsttime in world history theprinciple was recognised that thestate was responsible for thematerial welfare of all itscitizens. The saying with whichhe began his caliphate is unique:

‘By Allah, he that is weakestamong you shall be in my sightthe strongest for I shall vindicatefor him his rights, but him that isstrongest will I treat as theweakest until he complies withthe laws.’

After Umar came HadhratUthman and Hadhrat Ali. AfterAli, the principle of electing theCaliph died out. Muawiyya, whosucceeded Ali in 661 as Caliph,made caliphate hereditary and

thus the Umayyad dynastybegan.

During the reign of Muawiyya’sson, Yazid, the battle of Kerbalatook place in 680 CE. HadhratA l i ’s son, Hadhrat Hussain,declined to pay homage to aCaliph who had not been electedin a Shura. He was martyred onthe plains of Kerbala.

Among the Umayyads, CaliphWa l i d ’s reign was the mostglorious. During his reign in 711CE, a handful of Muslims underTariq crossed over into Spain. Ina few years they had overrun itwith irresistible force and for thenext 500 years the bulk of Spainwas a Muslim country.

During this period Muhammadbin Qasim invaded India andconquered Sind and Multan. TheUmayyads lost power in 750 CE,and were succeeded by theAbbasids, who though Sunnis infaith came to power with the helpof Khurasani Shias. Theytransferred their seat ofgovernment from Damascus toBaghdad. The most glorious

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reign among the Abbasids wasdoubtless that of Harun-alRashid, the hero of the celebratedArabian Nights, and his sonMamoon. Islamic learning andthe prosperity of the Muslimcountries were at a pitch that hadnever been reached before.

Around a hundred years afterH a r u n ’s death, the power of theAbbasid Caliphs began to wane.In Khurasan, Samanids took overp o w e r, in Fars Buyids, in Africathe Fatmids and in Arabia theCarmathians. All these dynastiesacknowledged (except theFatmids) the sovereignty of theCaliph in name but thedisintegration of Islamic politywas so complete that it appearedthat Islam was politicallyd o o m e d .

The SeljuqsDuring this period when theempire of the Caliphate hadvanished, a new people acceptedIslam. The Turkish Seljuqsaccepted Islam; they bred ageneration of Muslim warriors towhom more than anything else,the Crusaders owed their failure

to conquer Islamic lands. Thefirst Seljuq Sultan was Tu g h r a lwho died in 1063. His brilliantson Alp Arslan followed him.This period was of unequalledprosperity and security. It alsoproduced the greatest Muslimstatesman of all times, Nizam-ul-Mulk. The Abbasid Caliph stillheld sway over Baghdad but herelegated all temporal power tothe Seljuq Sultans. The Seljuqkingdom extended from theborders of Afghanistan to theends of the Arabian peninsula.Except for Egypt and Spain, theentire Muslim world was united.Never after that period has it beenunited again, in a like manner.

Alp Arsalan was succeeded byhis son Malik Shah. His periodwas the heyday of learning andoriginal research in mathematicsand sciences. In 1074 anobservatory was founded wherethe celebrated Umar Khayyamworked. The Jalali calendar wasinstituted which in the judgementof modern scholars is moreaccurate than the Gregoriancalendar.The Nizamia Universityin Baghdad was founded. This

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university had the honour ofhaving one of its chairs beingoccupied by the celebratedMuslim scholar AI-Ghazali.

The Seljuq power begandeclining towards the end of thetwelfth century. But even in itsdecline, it had enough vitality torepulse the Crusaders. The greatSaladin of Scott’s novelsflourished about 1175. It iscurious that the attitude towardsthe Crusaders was entirelyd i fferent in the Christiancountries and in the Muslimlands. While in the West theCrusades were proclaimed asHoly War and the whole militarymight of Europe was behindthem, in Muslim countries theywere considered as a local affairand local depredations, which thegovernors of the provincesconcerned could effectively dealwith. In 1171, after the decisivebattle of Hattin when Saladinsent several Frank prisoners tothe Caliph Alhasir at Baghdad,the booty included a bronze ironinlaid with wood of the truecross. It was duly buried nearBaghdad.

In the later part of Seljuq period,the Ismailis (commonly knownas the Assassins) gained strengthin the land of Islam. Though theyheld absolute sway over only afew forts, their political powerthrough their ability toassassinate the leaders of Islamwas great.

By the beginning of the thirteenthcentury the Seljuq power haddeclined. Some other Islamicdynasties may have taken theirplace but by about 1220 thereoccurred one of the greatesteruptions in the history of thew o r l d .

The MongolsThe nomadic tribes of CentralAsia-the Mongols-swarmed overthe whole civilised world in bothEurope and Asia under GenghizKhan. Like an avalanche, theyswept all before them. Around1260 it appeared that Islam’spolitical power had disappearedfor good. Baghdad had beenrazed to the ground, theCaliphate obliterated the lands ofIslam, Persia, Transoxonia, andIraq laid waste. But then once

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again a miracle happened. Thereligion of the conquered,conquered the conquerors.

Why the Mongols rose like that,nobody has finally ascertained.In its suddenness, its devastatingdestruction, its appalling ferocity,its passionless and purposelessc r u e l t y, its irresistible thoughshort-lived violence, the Mongolepisode resembles rather somebrute cataclysm of blind forces ofnature than a phenomenon ofhuman history. Around 1220they fell on the lands of Islamand Europe. In Europe theysacked Moscow, Rostov, Kievand Cracow. Their second wavein 1258 under Halgu obliteratedBaghdad and the Islamiccaliphate. It seemed they came,merely to kill and to ruin. One byone all the Muslim countries fellbefore their onslaught. If theyspared the inhabitants of a town,which surrendered, it was eitherto profit by their skill or toemploy them against theircountrymen. Dozens of wretchedcaptives accompanied theadvancing hordes, erected thetents of the besieger, to be driven

afterwards to the breacheseffected in the walls, to fill moatand trench with their bodies; andwere finally, if they still escapeddeath, put to sword, to give placeto a new batch of victims drawnfrom fresh conquests.

Their cruelty was calculated tostrike with a paralysis of terrorthose whom they proposed nextto attack while they left behindthe smoldering ruins anddemolished houses. The extent ofterror they aroused can begauged from the followingquotation from Ibn ul Athir(written in 1230):

‘I have heard that one of thethem took a man captive buthad not with him any weaponwherewith to kill him and hesaid to his prisoner: Lay yourhead on the ground and donot move and he did so andthe Tartar went and fetchedhis sword and slew himtherewith.’

They professed no religion buttheir destruction of the centres ofIslamic civilisation advanced

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them so much in the favour of thePope, that His Holiness waspleased to write to Ogtai Khanand others letters with his ownsignature. The Pope only realisedtheir perfidy when their hordesbegan devastating the Christianlands with equal impartiality.

The destruction of Baghdad asthe metropolis of Islam wasthorough. The murder of theCaliph struck a fatal blow at thesemblance of unity, which hadsubsisted among the nation ofIslam. The sack of Baghdadlasted a week while 80,000people were put to death.

The loss suffered by Muslimtowns, which never againreached their previous level,defies description and almostsurpasses imagination. Not onlywere thousands of pricelessbooks annihilated, the verytradition of accurate scholarshipand learning was destroyed. Inspite of all this they could not killthe religion of Islam. Theythemselves fell victims to it. In1275 the Mongol rulers hadaccepted Islam. Thereafter those

very Mongols were Islam’sgreatest champions.

The political history of the next200 years consists of the rule ofMuslim Mongol princes in Persiatill about 1350 CE, while OsmaniTurks established themselves inAsia Minor, and Egypt was ruledby the descendants of Saladin.After 1350 CE another CentralAsian conqueror, Ti m u r l a n e ,arose. He professed Islam but hehad no other motive except worldconquest and world domination.He swept over Persia, India,Afghanistan, parts of Russia andsome parts of China like GenghizKhan before him. His mostnotable victory ever was overBayazid 1, Sultan of Turkey in1402. It checked for a while theprogress of Osmani Turks. Buthis influence proved ephemeral.His successors ruled over CentralAsia and Persia for no more thana 100 years when the Safavissupplanted them.

It would not be out of place tostop here and take some stock ofMuslim religious thought duringthis dark period.

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We came across some of thegreatest Sufi names in thisperiod. The first is that of ShahShams Tibriz. His disciple,Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, wrotehis Mathnawi around 1260 CE.The author describes his work inthe Mathnawi as ‘The Roots ofthe Roots of the religion anddiscovery of the Mysteries ofReunion and some knowledge.’The Sufi movement had itsheyday in the thirteenth century.Sheikh Muhiyyud Din ibn-Arabi,the greatest name in medievalIslam, a native of Andalusia,went to live in Damascus anddied there in 1240.

In the literary sphere Saadi andHafiz belong to this period.

The Safavis and Osmani TurksNow we start with the fourthperiod of our history the periodstarting around 1500 CE whenwith Shah Ismail Safavi, a Shiad y n a s t y, seized power in Iran.This was the first time that a Shiadynasty had come to power inIran. This had a profound eff e c ton the course of future history ofI s l a m .

The Islamic world was dividedinto two antagonistic camps: aShiite Iran, parts of Afghanistanand Iraq on the one hand and theOsmani Turkish Empirecomprising Turkey, parts of Iraq,Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Algiers.Spain by now had passed out ofMuslim hands. In India, ruled thedescendants of Ti m u r l a n e - t h eGreat Moghuls.

From 1500 to 1700 we witnessthese absolute autocracies: theMoghuls in India, with Akbar,J e h a n g i r, Shah Jehan andAurangzeb, Safavis in Iran withShah Abbas; while MohammadII, Selim 1 and Sulaiman theMagnificent in Turkey. India wasa great power in the Moghuldays. For Persia this was thegolden period of her prosperityand well being, while the Turksruled the biggest empire theyever had.

Thus while Selim 1 conqueredEgypt, Syria and Hedjaz andassumed the title of Caliph,Sulaiman the Magnificent, whoruled from 1510-1566,

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conquered Belgrade and parts ofPoland. Vienna was besieged byTurkish armies while Tu r k e ypossessed the strongest fleet inthe world. The Turkish Empireextended from the frontiers ofGermany to the Persian border.Although during this period thecentralism of Islam haddisappeared, politically theMuslim world was at its zenith.As a contemporary Europeanhistorian wrote ‘Except for hiswar with Persia, there is nothingthat can keep the Tu r kannihilating us in Europe.’

I shall not dwell on this period,but will trace the main eventsafter 1700.

After 1700Turkish power in Europe heldintact till about 1800. But theMoghul Empire in India hadbegun disintegrating and duringthe course of the next twocenturies was graduallysupplanted by British supremacy.The Safavis in Persia lost theirhold on the country and in 1727the Afghans conquered Persia.The Afghans were Sunnis and

bitterly hated the Shiite Persians.This was the first time afterSultan Mahmud (around 1000CE) that the Afghans assertedthemselves as an independentpower. They were soon howeverdriven out of Persia by NadirShah, who rising from humblebeginnings, ultimately seizedpower and ruled over Persia. Hiscareer of conquests was asamazing as that of Timurlane orNapoleon.

To finish with Persian history,after Nadir Shah, his family lostpower and the Qajars took theirplace. They ruled over Persiaeffectively till the revolution of1906, when the Persians won forthemselves the constitution. TheQajars were supplanted by RezaShah Pahlvi in 1925. Reza Shahas you all know abdicated infavour of his son who is thepresent Shah (1947 Ed.).

Concerning Turkish history, after1700, an important element wasthe rise of Russia. Wars withRussia started about 1700. TheTurkish army was victorious inthe beginning. In 1710 Peter the

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Great’s army was menaced withtotal destruction. But around1770 Turkish fortunes began towane. Crimea got herindependence from Turkey in1788. France, the traditional allyof Tu r k e y, broke with Tu r k e ywhen Napoleon occupied Egyptin 1798. Egypt underMuhammad Ali went out of theTurkish orbit and became quasiindependent. Later Egyptianhistory and Great Britain’s role init is familiar to you all so 1 willnot go into its details.

Around the same time Algierswas captured from the Turks bythe French. The Greeks won theirindependence around 1820 withthe help of European powers.The Turkish caliphate went onlosing ground till power wasseized from the Caliph by theYoung Turks in 1910. Turkeyentered the war of 1914 on theside of Germany and lost all herEuropean and Asiaticpossessions. The Arab countriesbecame independent of Turkishrule after this war.

The Stage in 1947Before concluding, I will com-ment on all the Muslim countriesone by one and summarise theirhistories-each from their nationalpoint of view, starting from theextreme east.

PAKISTAN:Muslims came to Sind andMultan in the eighth century.However Muslim sway in thesub-continent began in earnest inthe twelfth century. For 400years India was ruled by variousAfghan dynasties. They weresucceeded by the Moghuls in1526. The Moghul power passedafter 200 years to the Britishwho left India in 1947 whenPakistan was born.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan was a part ofUmayyad and Abbasid empires.It first acquired a separateexistence around 1000 CE whenGhaznavi (who had the capital atGhazni in Afghanistan) dynastyruled over it. After thatAfghanistan shared the fate ofPersia, all through its chequeredh i s t o r y. It was no more than a

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province, sometimes that ofMuslim Indian Empire,sometimes of Persian.

In 1725, however, Afghanistanbecame independent. In thenineteenth century the Afghanclashed with the British but theBritish could never make anyheadway in conqueringAfghanistan. Since then it hasexisted as an independent power.

PERSIA: Persia was a part of Umayyadsand Abbasid empires. It wasunder the Seljuqs in the eleventhand the twelfth centuries. Forabout 100 years Mongol princesruled over it, which from 1350till 1500 Ti m u r, and hisdescendants held sway. From1500 to 1700 Safavis were therulers followed in the nineteenthcentury by the Qajars.

CENTRAL ASIA: Transoxonia formed part ofPersia till the eighteenth centurywhen the Russians slowlyexpanded south. In the nineteenthcentury they conquered Bokharaand Samarqand.

IRAQ AND SYRIA: Syria (including Palestine whichthroughout Muslim historyformed part of Syria) and Arabiashared the fate of Persia till 1500CE. After that they formed partsof Osmani Turkish empire. Thesenations became independentduring the war of 1914. After thewar, the British defected fromtheir promises to grant Iraq itsindependence. Syria wasparcelled out to the French, Iraqand Transjordan were madeBritish protectorates. It was onlyafter the war of 1939 that Syriaand Transjordan gained theirindependence.

TURKEY:First conquered for Islam by theAbbasids. Osmani Turks took itin 1288; Constantinople wastaken in 1453 by Mohammad I.Turkey rose to greater power butthere was decline in thenineteenth century. During the1914 war, alliance with Germanycost Turkey all its possessions.

EGYPT:Ruled by the Umayyads till 750then by Fatmids till 1170, then by

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Mamluks till 1500 when Selim,the Turkish Balkan, conquered itand incorporated it into theTurkish Empire. It wonindependence in the nineteenthc e n t u r y, lost it again to theBritish, and has won it again veryrecently.

SPAIN: Spain was taken by the Muslimsin 710. Ruled by the Umayyads.Never submitted to Abbasids;this Arab Muslim power finishedabout 1400 - Muslims wereeither expelled or made toreconvert to Christianity.

I have not covered in this quicksurvey, Malaysia, Indonesia orAfrica.

I have said before that at thelowest ebb of Islamic politicalpower, Islam’s religious vitalityhas displayed itself again andagain. Islam’s political mightreached its nadir towards the endof the nineteenth century whenwithin Islam rose the AhmadiyyaMovement. Hadhrat Ahmad, thePromised Messiah and Mahdi,was raised at Qadian in 1889 and

through him Islam will beregenerated spiritually andpolitically, Inshallah.

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PLEASE NOTE:In this journal, for theinformation of non-Muslimreaders, ‘(sa)’ or ‘sa’ after thewords, ‘Holy Prophet’, or thename ‘Muhammad’, are used.They stand for ‘Salallahu alaihiwassalam’ meaning ‘Peace andBlessings of Allah be upon him’.Likewise, the letters ‘(as)’ or ‘as’after the name of all otherp rophets is an abbre v i a t i o nmeaning ‘Peace be upon him’derived from Alaihi salatowassalam’ for the respect aMuslim reader utters.Also ru or (ru) forRahemahullahu Ta’ala means theMercy of Allah the Exalted beupon him

[ Tr a n s l a t o r’s Note: Allreferences to the verses of theHoly Qur’an are given in Arabicas they occur in the text. TheEnglish translation, presented inItalics, is taken from thetranslation of the Holy Qur’an byHadhrat Maulvi Sher AliS a h i b( r a ). Where the PromisedMessiah(as) has himself stated acertain interpretation of anArabic verse, this is incorporatedin the main body of the text].

There are many matters that anignorant person considersobjectionable but in the sight ofGod these are considered to beworship of God. However, ifthere is no sincerity of intentionthen even Salat [an act ofworship] becomes a curse. Thebelievers have been commanded


Efficacy of Repentance – Part II

The founder of the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community was Hadhrat

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as).

In 1891, he claimed, on the basis ofDivine revelation, that he was thePromised Messiah and Mahdi whoseadvent had been foretold byMuhammad, the Holy Prophet ofIslam (peace be upon him) and by thescriptures of other faiths.

His claim constitutes the basis of thebeliefs of the Ahmadiyya MuslimCommunity.

Presented below, in translation, is the second and final part of the address ofHadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi(as)

that was delivered in Qadian on 21 February 1904. The Urdu text of the speech istaken from Malfoozat, Volume 6, PP 352-359. Malfoozat is the title of the tenvolumes that contain the collection of discourses, speeches and addresses ofHadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.

Translated by Amatul Hadi Ahmad

[in the Holy Qur’an] to eat anddrink,

....eat and drink (Ch.7:V.32)

and those who do not offer theirSalat for the sake of God havebeen referred to as [the cursedones]:

So woe to those who pray...but are unmindful of theirprayer(Ch.107: V.5)

To eat, Kuloo, is a command andwhen a believer performs this acthaving understood the point ofthis command it will berewarded. Similarly, there is areward upon the fulfilment of thecommand [to be kind to wives]:

And consort with them in

kindness(Ch.4: V.20)

H o w e v e r, if ostentation formspart even of Salat which is an actof worship, then that, too,becomes accursed.

In this age that which is calledIslam has become different [fromits true form]. All the negativecapacities have come to the foreand the capacity of sinceritywhich has been mentioned in [thefollowing verse of the HolyQ u r’an] has ascended to theheaven.

Being sincere to Him inobedience(Ch.98: V.6)

True loyalty to God and sincerityand love and trust in God areattributes that have becomealmost extinct. God Almightyhas now decided to revive thesecapacities anew. God has alwaysrevived the dead earth back tolife, [as is stated in the HolyQur’an]:

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[He] is now quickening theearth after its death(Ch.57: V.18)

God has decided [to bring backto life the good capacities] andfor that He has chosen andadopted various means. On theone hand He has sent anappointed one who is to invitepeople with gentle words andguide them. On the other handthere is the progress of know-ledge and science and graduallythere is a trend towards greaterunderstanding. There is not nowthe rough condition that existedat the time of the Sikh rule andpeople are generally beginning togain a greater understanding. Yetanother means [adopted by GodAlmighty] is the manifestation ofsigns which is by way of Itmam-e-Hujjat, that is, providing a fulland complete argument. Hence,when the book ‘Nuzul-ul-Masih’,[meaning ‘The Sending Down ofthe Messiah’] is published,people will know [more about

the signs] as it contains nearlyone hundred and fifty signs forwhich there exist hundreds ofthousands of witnesses. Among the system of signs, thereis also the system of signs thatcreate fear and awe in peopleamong which the plague is oneand it is spreading with suchforce that in previous generationsthe like of it had never beenknown. There are many people,however, who are taking note ofthese signs and benefiting fromthem. Not a day goes by withoutthere being received, by letter orin person, initiation of peoplewho wish to join thisC o m m u n i t y. Even though theworld has advanced much insinfulness and impiety, inmischief and in self-seekingimmorality, those who come tojoin our Community also comefrom the same society and thisshows that there are many goodpeople mixed with others. Godwill bring out these people andwill grant them understandingbut some others will become thevictims of the plague. This ishow [matters in] the world willbe finalised and a complete and

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conclusive proof would havebeen provided.

(Here Janab Muhammad IbrahimKhan Sahib mentioned Karachiand the region of Sindh and statedthat people there were totallyoblivious and did not haveknowledge of such matters. Atthis the Promised Messiah ( a s )

s t a t e d ) :

A person becomes perplexed inthe face of a completely ignorantperson. However, there must besome educated people there. Thesystem of English education is inplace. There may be manyharmful effects of the Englisheducation, but it has the benefitthat it expands intellect andincreases the capacity tounderstand. It is such people thatwe need and they will graduallya p p e a r. What kind of conver-sation could one hold with savagepeople who have no concern otherthan to eat and drink? Eventhough there is a ‘veil’ ofmaterialism over the educatedgroup of people, good people dounderstand and as a result arecoming towards us. A section of

our Community is now made upof such people. It is not the casethat we are calling them to usfrom here, they are comingthemselves after havingunderstood. In short, there is greatexpectation from a person who isintelligent and has understanding.What can one say to an ignorantperson who lacks understanding?

People have been led astraypartly by Mullahs, the religiousclerics, and partly by the ignorantF a k i r s and some follow thescantily clad hermits. Whateverthe situation may be, God’s workdoes not stop. When a personwishes to make a garden, he firstensures that the chosen ground iscapable of producing a garden. Ifhe finds the ground to be awasteland, he first prepares it byclearing it and by breaking upclusters of earth and such like. Itis only after much preparationthat he would make his gardenthere. In short, He who is theKing of Kings is about to preparethis ‘garden’ and He would haveseen that some people of a goodnature exist. It is due to theblessing of education that many

20



people have gained guidancefrom our books whereas at thebeginning they were very muchopposed.

An intelligent person doubtlessbecomes perplexed at the chal-lenge posed by the Cross and itsactivities that have progressed toa very high degree. Their booksare spread far and wide and,collectively, their extreme effortsseem so powerful that one couldeasily be led to despair as to howthat power could ever be brokenand how the Unity of God wouldspread on the surface of theearth! All the means ofweakening Islam are present andthe Cross is in force. However, itis always the case that GodAlmighty does what He wills andwhatever He decides comes intobeing.

Dost thou not know that Allahhas the power to do all thatHe wills?(Ch.2: V.107)

[The message contained in thisverse] is the only thing thatreassures even in the face ofimmense difficulties such thatone’s intelligence may give theverdict that Islam cannot be re-established. I do not, however,accept such a verdict. Opinionsof this type are heard from timeto time but they are proving to bewrong. When God intends to dosomething, it happens. At thetime of the Holy Prophet(sa) didpeople have a positive opinionabout his mission? Who wasthere who believed that a poorperson who had neither powernor any grandeur, who had noarmy and possessed no wealthand who faced opposition fromall sides would eventually besuccessful and that the promisesof victory, support and glorymade by God Almighty would allbe fulfilled? Despite apparenthopelessness, there was hope andall the promises came to befulfilled and the testimony[contained in the following verseof the Holy Qur’an] was gained.

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This day have I perfectedyour religion.(Ch.5:V.4)

Furthermore, there was revealedthe Chapter [containing thefollowing verse]:

When the help of Allahcomes, and the victory.(Ch.110: V.2)

S i m i l a r l y, it is possible thatsomeone in our Community mayconsider it an impossibility thatthe power of the Cross will everbe broken but I say this that Godcan do everything. God musthave various means with whichthis trial will come to an end butwe have no knowledge of these.Nevertheless, we need to havefaith that God’s promises are trueand even if all material meanspoint to the negation of Hispromises, even then His promiseis true. If it was the case thatthere was not a single personwith me, even then His promisewould be true. The promise isweak of a person whose power

and control is weak but there isno weakness in our God. He isOmnipotent and that which Hehas set in motion, continues. OurCommunity should hold fast tothis belief.

At times the Community is facedwith trial and tribulation andthere occur some splits. TheCompanions of the HolyProphet(sa) migrated from Meccato Medina and to Ethiopia butGod brought them together againin one place. It is the practice ofGod that He tries and such trialscan take on such a severe formthat it seems as if a powerfulearthquake has erupted when oneis forced to call out:

When will come the help ofAllah?(Ch.2: V.215)

At such times some people’sthoughts turn to the idea thatperhaps God’s promise is wrongbut eventually God’s wordproves truthful.

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This system has been establishedin the heaven at its appropriatetime and if all other proofs areoverlooked then the timing itselfis a great proof. It is now twentyyears since the beginning of the[Islamic] century and God’spromise is contained in the HolyQur’an and in the Ahadith thatthe Promised Messiah would beborn at the time of the trial posedby the Cross. The extreme natureof the force of this trial can easilybe observed. Numerous reportsreveal that nearly thirty hundredthousand Muslims have aban-doned their faith. Previously,even if one person becameapostate from among the peopleof Islam, it was considered agrave act and caused muchconcern. Should God not takecare even at a time such as this?Consider also the poor state ofthe practice [of the Muslims].They are Muslims in name -some are even addicted to andremain under the influence ofsuch drugs as marijuana andcannabis. Is there not need evennow [for a Reformer]? Christianstoo are expectant [of a Messiah]and they indicate the present time

[for the Second Coming of theMessiah]. Holy people whoexperience visions have alsopointed to the same period.Circumstantial evidence andother indications also point tothis time. If God had not takencare now, the world would haveeither gone completely astray orthere would be Christianity. Hewho believes in God and theHoly Qur’an has to accept [themessage of the time] but thosewho like the Jews are obliviousto the significance of the time,suffer deprivation.

People also present the argumentof Sawad-e-Azam, that [the claimto be the Promised Messiah] goesagainst the principle of collectiveagreement. These are foolishpeople who do not even knowthat a Reformer only comeswhen people have gone astray.What kind of significance canthere be in the unity of suchpeople and their witness? TheHoly Prophet(sa) of God states thathe has seen the Messiah(as) amongthose who have passed away inthe Mi’raj and then the death ofthe Messiah(as) is proven from the

23



Holy Qur’an. Thus the HolyProphet’s word and deed haveboth proved the death of theMessiah(as). John(as) died and itwas with him that the HolyProphet(sa) saw Jesus(as). How cansomeone be alive who is with thedead for so long? Apart fromthis, God states that we shouldnot accept anything that iswithout a precedent. For theProphethood of the HolyP r o p h e t( s a ) of Islam, God pro-vided precedence. Hence, thereought to be a precedent for thefact that Jesus(as) is still alive.

This age is the time of spring forIslam. Even if we had remainedsilent, God would not desist. Inreality, we are doing nothing, it isGod who is doing everything. Wewrite and speak only for the sakeof earning God’s reward. Thedoor of His blessing has nowbeen opened and whatever Godhas intended, He will mostcertainly bring it into being. Youcan see that we have neitherspeakers nor lecturers, nor do wehave any societies working onour behalf but our Community isprogressing. There are thousands

who have taken the oath ofallegiance merely on the basis ofdreams. There was no one toexplain matters to them or tomake them understand. It wasGod who guided them. Did wehave it in our power to do allthis? It is His hand that isworking. Truth is such a thingthat once it enters the heart, it isdifficult for it to be removed.Those who accept our teachingafter investigation, consider it tobe dearer than their lives. Oneexample of this is Maulvi AbdulL a t i f( r a ) who himself hadthousands of disciples. He owneda large estate and possessedmuch wealth. He was a religiousscholar at the royal court yet heleft everything and accepteddeath. Can falsehood possesssuch power and blessing? Exceptfor truth, does anything elsepossess such power? Here in thePunjab there are many that areput to great hardship merelybecause of their belief. Theirnation, their brotherhood and thevillagers all create hardship andpainful circumstances for themmerely because they haveaccepted the truth. In short, if

24



God had not placed this in theirhearts why would they undergosuch tribulations of such a harshnature that their own fathers andbrothers separate from them.There are some that earn just twoanna daily after much hard workand from that they pay theirsubscription to us. They offer theTahajjud prayers and they aresteadfast upon Salat. They bowbefore God with extremehumility and deep feeling. Thepoint to ponder is that except forthe fact that God should grantthem the light of faith and pourtruth into their hearts, how elsecould all this be achieved?

For seeing and understanding,the book Braheen is a sufficientsign in itself. As is stated [in aPersian verse]:

One word is enough to discoverif there is someone inside thehouse

For an intelligent person just onething is sufficient. God promisedlong life - is anyone able to say

that he would live for so manyyears? Most of the promisesmade in the book Braheen havealready been fulfilled and someare still outstanding. If this wasthe work of a human being howcould there have been so muchsupport and if the promises werenot from God how could theyhave been fulfilled?

In short, consider the time, theage, the deviation, the inner andouter state [of the Muslims] andyou will realise yourself [that it istime for the appearance of aReformer]. We are not angrywith our opponents because truthis always challenged to the bitterend. If one looks at the life of theHoly Prophet( s a ) of Islam, onewill note how many challengeshe had to face but did Musailma[the false claimant] face anychallenge at all?

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How can we develop ourselvesspiritually when we have tospend so much of our day dealingwith materialistic matters?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru):The question has its in-builtanswer. The only way for you tobecome spiritual is by dealingwith the matter and yetremaining aloof enough so thatyou are not influenced by thematerial life, instead youinfluence the material life.

There are two types of people.

Those who shape things aroundthem with their goodness and inthe area in which they moveother people become better thanbefore because of their goodinfluence. There are others whoare themselves influenced by theevil atmosphere in which theymove or by people with whomthey make friends. These peoplegradually drift away fromrighteousness to ill practices.Hence, when we talk ofmaterialism it is the latter groupthat we have in mind, people whoin their daily contact with thematerial world becomeoverwhelmed by it yet the

QUESTIONER


Response toQuestions

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, theF o u rth Head of the AhmadiyyaMovement in Islam, (May God’smercy be upon his soul), offered topeople of all nationalities, faiths andbeliefs the opportunity of raisingquestions and issues that were ofinterest to them. Presented below areanswers to some questions that were

raised in sessions held in London in 1993 and 1997. Compiled by Amatul Hadi Ahmad

contact itself must exist in thecase of every one who is living. Itis impossible for a man to beliving and yet to break awayentirely from his contact withm a t t e r. The Prophets of Godhave this contact with thematerial world when they aremarried or when they are notmarried, when they eat, whenthey feel hungry, when they walkand talk. It is impossible for theliving to break the link with thematerial world that is aroundthem but the way one goes aboutit is the distinguishing factor.Hadhrat Maulana Rum hasspoken of this in one of hispoems and described this processas a contact between the boat andwater. I am not going to quotehim verbatim but the meaning ofwhat he has said is simply thisthat you cannot conceive of aboat without water. Anythinglying uselessly on the groundcannot be a boat until you havean association of that thing withwater. Hence, a boat must have acounterpart that is water.However, as soon as it becomessubmerged it is a boat no longer.So this is the state of material life

here on earth according toMaulana Rum who was one ofthe greatest Sufis in Islam. Hesays that you cannot do awaywith your contact with matter oryou will not be human.Therefore, keep that contact butbe above it. One should be themaster of the world around onewith the spiritual teachings onereceives from God. One shouldnot permit oneself to be masteredby the material world.S p i r i t u a l i t y, as the questionerasked, is bound to develop,remaining within the materialrealm and material contacts, nototherwise.

As a Muslim, I understand thatthe object of human existence isto seek consciousness of God andto become a manifestation of Hisattributes. However, it is clearthat God takes away the lives ofsome human beings withoutgiving them the opportunity ofachieving this objective. Inparticular, I would like to findout, from an Islamic point ofview, what the fate of infants and

QUESTIONER

27

Response to Questions


children would be on the Day ofJudgement?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru):These are, in fact, two questionsrolled into one. The second partof your question is easier tounderstand and explain and I willbegin with that.

As far as children are concerned,they are the closest to God and totheir objective because they havenot yet reached an age wherethey would be tried or begradually influenced by suchthings as ungodly conduct andb e h a v i o u r. They do not facetemptation by Satan because thatis an age of innocence. That iswhy the Holy Qur’an states thatall children are created inaccordance with ‘nature’.However, the question arises asto what is ‘nature’? It isFitratullah, that is, the ‘nature’of God and every child is createdbased upon that nature. Hence,children have already achievedthe goal by the act of having beenborn. As they travel towardsmaturity, gradually and steadilythey begin to be transformed.

They start to make choices, andalso wrong choices, in earlychildhood and here they can bemonitored as moving in the rightor wrong direction. Once acourse of action is maintainedand when that is extended andprojected further into the age ofm a t u r i t y, it then begins tomanifest itself as pious behaviouror as bad behaviour.

Hence, when some children arecalled back by God, they arefortunate in the sense that theywere saved from trials and thepossibility of failure. However,they are not fortunate in anothersense because trials are notmeaningless. If one goes throughthe age of trial and then achievescorrectness, that is a much higherachievement than remainingcorrect without ever having beentried. It has been stated by theHoly Prophet(sa) in a tradition thatsuch people who die early beforereaching the age of maturity willbe forgiven, of course, becausethey are innocent, but they willhave missed something and thatsomething would be taught tothem by Prophet Abraham( a s ).

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The Holy Prophet( s a ) f u r t h e rstated that Prophet Abraham(as)

would have an ‘institution’ in thehereafter for training suchchildren who died early and,hence, did not achieve thepurpose of creation of mankind.They would, therefore, undergo alengthy period of training in thehereafter and when they success-fully complete that training, theywill, God willing, be given asimilar treatment to the rest ofhumanity, similar to those whosucceeded in life and becamegood people.

Turning to the first part of thequestion, what happens when Goddecides to have someone (who isnot a child) called back to him,that is, when he decides forsomeone to die? By the time ofhis death, a person’s trends arealready visible and under-

standable. He had already startedmoving along a certain trajectory.If life were to be terminatede a r l i e r, a person would only reacha certain portion of that trajectory,but if it were to be extendedf u r t h e r, we would be able to seethat he is moving in the samedirection until he reaches anextended point. Thus, when oneconsiders a person dying at amature age, one thinks,m i s t a k e n l y, that it should beenough. However, if we think interms of eternity, the questionwould arise: why end his lifethere, at only seventy or eightyyears? Maybe, if he had muchl o n g e r, a thousand years or so, hewould have rectified himself orchanged from bad to good or fromgood to bad. The question, itwould seem, is always there [as towhat may have been the case hadthe time of death been different].

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THE HOLY PROPHET(SA) FURTHER STATED THAT PROPHET

ABRAHAM(AS) WOULD HAVE AN ‘INSTITUTION’ IN THE

HEREAFTER FOR TRAINING SUCH CHILDREN WHO DIED

EARLY AND, HENCE, DID NOT ACHIEVE THE PURPOSE OF

CREATION OF MANKIND.

The decision is taken by an All-Knowing Being who knows towhat degree a person hadbecome set in his goodness or inhis badness. The Holy Qur’anrepeatedly tells us that when atthe time of death a person says,‘Oh God, give me some moretime and I will do goods deeds’,or after death he says, ‘Pleasesend me back to the earth. Thistime I promise I will do gooddeeds’. According to God, thatperson is a liar, ‘Even if We didsend him back, he would doexactly the same as he didpreviously’ – this is the verdict ofthe Holy Qur’an. This is in factsomething that applies to allmankind in that this is exactlyhow people behave. Whensomeone is about to die, they areoften observed to have said, ‘Oh,we were not just to you, we werenot good to you. If we were givena longer lease of life, we wouldmend these shortcomings andwould be very good and kind toyou’, and so on. They almostnever do. Whenever they aresaved, they begin to behave inexactly the same way as before.Thus, the question of coming to

an end early or late is immaterial.God knows whether somecharacteristics have acquiredpermanence or not.

According to some people,slaughtering of animals is acruelty. Why should we then eatanimal meat at all when we canlive on vegetables?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru):But when people live onvegetables do they know howmuch animal life they kill withevery mouthful? Bacteria andother insects that live onvegetables are destroyed by manthrough the use of pesticides orby fumigation and suchpractices. Apart from that, thevegetable that they eat is also aliving cell and the scientists havenow reached a stage in theirunderstanding that they cannotrule out some sort of a ‘nervous’system existing in vegetable life.There is certain evidence of plantlife behaving as if it possessed a‘nervous’ system. That evidenceis so powerful that nobody can

QUESTIONER

30



ignore it. There is a plant knownas ‘touch-me-not’ that shrinks asone brings a finger close to it.This is a visible sign. But apartfrom that, the fact is that everyplant follows a course ofbehaviour that requires theexistence of some ‘nervous’system because when the plantgrows there are two parts of it.One begins to grow away fromthe light and then gets embeddedas a root in the soil, and the otherbegins to grow towards light.Why should the same type ofcells have different preferencesand why should they grow awayfrom light? Moreover, when theposition of the plant in relation tothe sun is changed and as itchanges also in the differenceregions of the earth, from northto south, the branches of trees are

d i fferently patterned, and theyalways tend to grow more in thedirection of the sun. There areother similar behaviour patternswhich indicate that there is somesort of a ‘nervous’ system thatwe cannot trace yet it does existin the plant kingdom. That is alsoa sort of life. Why destroy life atall? That is the question.

We live in a world in which lifelives on life. This is the plan ofthings and when one understandsthe plan of things, one can gofurther and begin to understandGod’s philosophy that the lowerorder of life is permitted to besacrificed for life of the higherorder. There is an entire plan ofeco-system in life. Hence, whenthis is true of the stage below thatof man, why should man be

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......SCIENTISTS HAVE NOW REACHED A STAGE IN THEIR

UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY CANNOT RULE OUT SOME

SORT OF A ‘NERVOUS’ SYSTEM EXISTING IN VEGETABLE

L I F E. T H E R E I S C E RTA I N E V I D E N C E O F P L A N T L I F E

BEHAVING AS IF IT POSSESSED A ‘NERVOUS’ SYSTEM.....THERE IS A PLANT KNOWN AS ‘TOUCH-ME-NOT’ THAT

SHRINKS AS ONE BRINGS A FINGER CLOSE TO IT. THIS IS A

VISIBLE SIGN.

deprived of it? When in nature allother species of animals belowman are permitted by God tosurvive on the comparativelylower order of species, whyshould man be deprived of it? Ifa person takes pity on a hen, weneed to ask has he ever observedthe hen eating worms or insects?Whatever animal you eat, it livessomehow on lower orders of lifeand all birds do the same thing.Birds of comparatively higherorder kill their own species –birds of a lower order. This is ageneral plan of things andnobody can change it. There is noreason why man should beexempt from this.

Islam teaches not to idolisehuman beings. So, what does itthink of ‘pop stars’ and otherpeople that teenagers follow andidolise?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru):Idolising is a different thing fromhaving ideals. Strictly speaking,the term idolising means to raisesomeone’s status to the status of

God, a deity whom you worship.Idealising, on the other hand,means that you believe inimaginary principles, ideals,which do not exist in real life.For example, some people livean ideal life, or attempt to live anideal life or want to have an idealhusband which means a husbandthat can only be found in ideasbut not in real life whereas tomake an idol of somebody is ad i fferent thing altogether.Idolising is to follow somebodyin such total submission thatnothing of your own will is leftand you are, in a way, enslavedor captured by that person. Thisis idolising as I understand it - Imay be wrong. Now that I haveexplained these differences, whatis your question in view of this?

Some people say that those whocontinually follow ‘pop stars’ areidolising them but what aboutidealising them?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru):Without idealising you cannot dojustice to yourself because every-

QUESTIONER

QUESTIONER

32



body’s concept of what is perfectis different. For instance, youmay have a completely differentideal from mine. Therefore, youmust realise what your ideal isand you must remain in search ofthat ideal. If you find your idealand it so happens that you arealso an ideal for that person thenin that case life can be heaven onearth, a real paradise. However,most often this does not happen.More often than not what we findis that one may believe someoneto be one’s ideal but it turns outnot to be the case and this isbecause of acting and deceit -because of distorted humanattitude in that people are proneto cheat others in relation to theirown inner selves. What they poseas and what they purport to be ismost often not true. Someonemay present a personality that isyour own ideal but if that personis acting then you could bedeceived and fall into the trap ofhis acting. Idealising, therefore,is a must but with this precautionthat when you search for yourideal you should remember thatpeople sometimes try to cheatothers and they are not what they

show themselves to be. The testfor this is very simple. In theordinary daily practice of life, ifthey easily tell lies to please you,leave them alone. This is becauseif a person is true he does not atany stage, even in extremecompulsion, tell lies to savehimself or gain some advantagefrom others. Such a person is theonly person who will betrustworthy. If he happens to beyour ideal then you are theluckiest person on earth. Withouttruth no one must ever be trustedand it is not difficult to judge atall because it is impossible for afalse man to pose as true in everysituation. It is absolutely impos-sible. He may be true from oneside, but from another he will befalse. His inner self will revealitself from this or that corner. Anuntrue person will be caught andhe should be caught. In short,with this principle to guard yourinterests, I hope, God willing,you will find your ideal - so Ihope and pray.

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IntroductionThe town of Ephesus (modernEfes) is on the western coastlineof Turkey. Nowadays, there is asmall local town called Selçuknearby, but Ephesus is now apopular tourist destination withso much of its Roman heritagestill visible. Probably the moststriking structures are thetheatres (O d e i o n) and theimpressive Library of Celsus,which at one time held 12,000volumes.

At the dawn of Christianity,Ephesus was the capital of AsiaMinor (having been given thathonour by the Roman EmperorAugustus in place of Pergamon)and was the meeting point of theeast and west, both for trade and

ideas. It had a population of some250,000 people (mainly Greeks)at the time and there was a largecommunity of Jews in the city.

Ephesus was at that time one ofthe major centres of the Romanworld alongside cities such asCorinth, Rome, Alexandria andAntioch. It was the major seaportof Asia. Its people also had astrong interest in pagan religionand were soon to build anindustry around the worship of agoddess.

Pagan BeliefsEphesus was subject to a widerange of religious influences dueto its strategic location betweenEurope and Asia, just as Istanbulwould centuries later.


Ephesus – Turning Points for Christianity

By Fazal Ahmad– UK

On the South-West coast of Turkey is the town of Efes, historically knownas Ephesus. It is known for its historical Roman ruins - a theatre, palaces,temples - but more crucially, this town seems to have played a major rolein the history and shaping of modern Christianity. In this article, we take alook at the different influences that the people and background of the townprovided.

From the 6th century BC,Ephesus hosted the grand Templeof Artemis; Artemis being theancient Roman mother goddess,and the temple became one of theseven wonders of the ancientworld. The worship of such amother goddess was not unusualamong the pagans of the timewith similar cults springing upelsewhere around Diana, Cybele,Isis in Egypt, and the goddess ofÇatalhöyük. The significantposition of a mother goddess inEphesus was to have a dramatic

effect on Christianity centurieslater.

Ephesus came under Persianinfluence when it was seized byCyrus the Great in 546 BC. Twocenturies later while still part ofthe Persian Empire, the Templeof Artemis actually burned to theground in 356 BC. A few yearslater in 334 BC, the city wascaptured by Alexander the Greatas part of the Macedonian Greekworld, and under his influencethe temple began to be re-built

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Paul’s Missionary Journeys

but was not complete until 250BC. From 133 BC, Ephesuscame under the direct control ofRome and the Romans built upEphesus as a major trading port.It was at this point that the citygained its great power and status.

Near the ancient Roman ruins ofEphesus is the Church of theVi rgin Mary built in the 2ndcentury, and the first such churchdedicated to Mary. This was thevenue for the major ChurchCouncil of Ephesus in 431 CE,which will be discussed later.The Church was originally aRoman Business Centre housingmany shops, but was laterconverted into a Basilica in the4th century.

The Romans still held on to theirpagan beliefs and by now hadstarted to treat their Emperors asgods just as the Egyptians haddone centuries earlier with theirPharaohs. Emperors such asNero and Domitian used the cityto boost their own egos and to‘encourage’ the locals to worshipthem and pay their dues. Theremains of a huge statue of

Domitian was discovered yearsago that adds weight to this. TheTemple of Artemis was nowdevoted to Diana; again the citywas the centre for the worship ofthe mother goddess.

Other foreign deities such as Isisfrom Egypt had also beenimported to Ephesus and wereworshipped here just as we sawat Pompeii in Italy. A temple tothe Egyptian goddess Serapisstill stands and dates from the2nd century CE. There are alsoshrines and temples dedicated toZeus, Demeter, Pluto, Apollo,Poseidon and a host of otherpagan deities inherited from theGreeks, Romans and Egyptians.

Paul’s VisitPaul(also known as St. Paul) hada great influence in taking themessage of Jesus(as) to the non-Jews. On his third missionaryj o u r n e y, Acts describes hisnumerous visits to Ephesusaround 53 CE:

When they reached Ephesus,he (Paul) left them there, butfirst he himself went into the

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synagogue and had adiscussion with the Jews.(Acts 18:19)

Now there came to Ephesus aJew named Apollos, a nativeof Alexandria. He was aneloquent man, well-versed inthe scriptures. He had beeninstructed in the Way of theLord; and he spoke withburning enthusiasm, andtaught accurately the thingsconcerning Jesus, though heknew only the baptism ofJohn ... he powerfully refutedthe Jews in public, showingby the scriptures that theMessiah is Jesus. (Acts18:24-28)

When Paul visited Ephesus overthe course of three years, notonly was there a well-establishedJewish community present withtheir synagogue, but also themessage about the imminentarrival of the Messiah hadalready reached here throughJohn the Baptist (as) (Acts 19:1-7),although not many of thefollowers were aware that Jesus(as) had already arrived. Scholars

also point to the fact that theversion of Christianity thatpeople in Ephesus werefollowing was from the time ofJesus(as) and John the Baptist (as) upto 30 CE, and was not up to datewith the changes which hadtaken place in the Churchbetween 30 - 50 CE.3

Ephesus is the place where Paulprobably stayed the longestduring his travels. Interestingly,given the discussion earlier aboutthe mother goddess, Paul’spreaching received a backlashfrom the local silversmiths led byDemetrius who feared a drop intheir business of selling silverstatues of Artemis. The localscame in hundreds to protestagainst Paul, but despite this,Christianity soon gained manyfollowers in the city.

John of EphesusIn early Christian history, therewere two notable people inEphesus by the name of John: theapostle John also known as Johnthe Evangelist, and later John theElder who was still alive at thetime of the Church elder

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Papias(60 - 130 CE).2 There weretwo tombs of John in Ephesusalso.

John the Evangelist is thought tobe the St. John of the Bible andhad a Basilica dedicated to him atnearby Selçuk. He is thought tohave lived the last few years ofhis life there according to localtraditions. Some of thesetraditions even suggest that Maryaccompanied St John herearound 37 CE and spent hereremaining years here. Indeed,there is even a house here calledthe Meryemana which stillattracts pilgrims today, althoughthere are many such legendsacross Turkey.

John the Elder is thought to havebeen a senior priest living inEphesus and responsible for theSecond and Third Epistles ofJohn found in the Bible. Thismay also be the personresponsible for the book ofRevelations in the Bible.Dabbous (1997) suggests thatthis was actually John theBaptist, who survived an attempton his life, traveled west through

Turkey to Ephesus, and thensettled on the nearby Greekisland of Patmos where hereceived his revelations asdocumented in the Bible.3 Thereis a Tomb dedicated to St Johnthe Baptist in the fortress situatedon the rock at Ephesus.

Roman PersecutionThe Roman Empire did not knowwhat to make of the newreligious fervour of theChristians and Jews. The Jewshad been troublesome for theRoman authorities as they wereanticipating the advent of aMessiah, and since the Romanshad annexed Palestine, the Jewshad become increasingly militantexpecting that Messiah to alsofree them from Roman rule.Even in the second century CE,the Roman Governor Pliny (69-113 CE) wrote to Emperor Trajanthe punishment meted out toChristians for resisting worshipof the Emperor.

One period of persecutionrecorded, is under the RomanEmperor Decius in the year 250CE when the people were told to

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worship their Emperor. Themany Christians who refused andwere steadfast in theirmonotheistic beliefs werepersecuted. There is a legend ofMaximus who is said to havebeen stoned, and his fellow sevensleepers and their dog wereforced into their caves (moreabout this later).5

The famous Church historianEusebius recorded thepersecution endured by Origen, arenowned Christian philosopherunder Emperor Decius in thefollowing words:

As for Origen, the terriblesufferings that befell him inthe persecution ... chains andbodily torments, agony in ironand in the darkness of prison;how for days on end, his legswere pulled four paces apartin the torturers stocks. 7

This was followed by theharshest persecution under theEmperor Diocletian whoprohibited Christian meetings,had Churches burnt down, andmany Christians were arrested,

tortured, exiled and evenexecuted.8

There is no doubt that the crueltyof the persecution inflicted onChristians by the RomanEmperors was very severe, andthat the Jews and Christiansliving in Ephesus suff e r e dsimilar consequences.

Cave of the Seven SleepersThe eighteenth chapter of theHoly Qur’an is Al-Kahf whichhas an account of how a group ofyoung men took to caves to fleefrom persecution for many years.The Qur’an begins to describethe men as follows:

Dost thou think that thePeople of the Cave and theInscription were a wonderamong our Signs? When theyoung men betook themselvesfor refuge to the Cave andsaid, ‘Our Lord, bestow on usm e rcy from Thyself, andprovide for us right guidancein our affair.’ So We sealed uptheir ears in the Cave for anumber of years. (Ch.18: Vs.10 - 12)

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Some say ‘They were three,the fourth was their dog,’ andothers say ‘They were five,the sixth was their dog’,guessing at random. ... Andthey stayed in their Cavet h ree hundred years, andadded nine more.(Ch.18: Vs.23 - 26)

Not far from the old Roman ruinsat Ephesus near Mount Pion is al a rge cave structure knownlocally as the Caves of the SevenSleepers. The cave is a networkof catacombs and caves just amile from the old city. The caveswere discovered in 1928 byFranz Miltner, an Austrianarchaeologist. The complexconsists of four floors (possiblyeven as many as seven) andwithin it were two rock carvedchurches.

Local legends speak of sevenyoung Christians who fled fromRoman persecution and refusedto denounce their faith. TheImperial Guards mercilesslysealed up the caves to prevent theyoung men from escaping (someaccounts suggest that this was

done on the direct order ofEmperor Decius who accordingto the legend had come toEphesus to celebrate a paganfestival). According to mosttraditions, the boys fell asleep for200 years, and then awoke andleft the cave in search of food.They were surprised to see thatChristianity had become theState religion.

The duration of the stay of thegroup of young men has been asource of debate for many years.Some scholars argue that themeaning of verse 26 in the HolyQur’an is that they stayed in theCave for 300 solar years, whichis approximately 309 lunar years(a lunar year is 11 days shorterthan a solar year). Anotherinterpretation is that out of a totalperiod of 300 years, they resortedto the Caves to flee persecutionfor a total of 9 years.

Whatever the truth of thelegends, these caves are certainlymore plausible than the series ofburial chambers in Romeforming the great catacombs.The caves of Ephesus also show

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meeting rooms and places forworship whereas the complex inRome was just for burials. Thecomplex at Ephesus may not bethe actual place of the sevensleepers, but is one of the moreplausible candidates. There areother similar structures with theirown legends elsewhere in Turkeyin Akhisar, Sardes, Tarsus andAntakya among others.

In Ephesus at the site of thecaves, the story of the sevensleepers inspired the localpopulation to the extent that theybuilt a Church above the Grotto,and established a graveyard herewith over a thousands tombs andgraves placed here. Someinscriptions related to the sevensleepers have even been foundhere.

Council of EphesusIn the year 431 CE, a hundredyears after another Christiancouncil at nearby Nicaea hadcreated the concept of Trinity in325 CE, another Church Councilwas held here in Ephesus. Thistime, the subject under debatewas the status of Jesus’ mother,

M a r y( s ). At the Council, aproposition was put forward thatsince Jesus(as) had been declareddivine a century ago, Mary mustbe the Mother of god. This wasopposed by Nestorius whoargued that even if Jesus((9s0as) hadbeen both human and divine aswas now accepted in the Church,Mary could only have been themother of his human nature, buteven this was rejected asNestorius was outnumbered atthe Council, and thereafter, thecult of Mary was born.

Modern Catholics sometimesseem to worship Mary more thananyone else, and there are tales of‘weeping’ statues of Mary, whichattract pilgrims from around theworld. How ironic that the city,which for centuries was home tothe pagan traditions of a mothergoddess, had now hosted aconference at which Mary toohad been turned into a mothergoddess!

ConclusionsAs we have seen, Ephesus hasplayed a major role in some ofthe pivotal points of early

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Christianity. It is highly likelythat John the Baptist(as) was in thevicinity and had a majorinfluence on the local Jewishpopulation. Later, Paul preachedextensively to the pagans here. Inthe next few centuries, Christianssuffered persecution at the handsof the Romans but survived, andas they became a force and theirfollowers grew rapidly innumber, Ephesus also hosted oneof the most significant ChurchCouncils, which was to changethe status of Mary in Christianityforever.

References1. Perished Nations, Harun Yahya,

Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd, London1999.

2. John the Baptist - Part X, MahaDabbous, Review of Religions,Vol.92, No.1, January 1997.

3. John the Baptist - Part XI, MahaDabbous, Review of Religions,Vol.92, No.2, February 1997.

4. Jesus:the Evidence, Ian Wilson,London 1984.

5. Pagans and Christians, Robin

Lane Fox, Penguin Books,London 1986.

6. Cities of the Biblical Wo r l d,Lamoine F. Devries, HendricksonPublishers, Massachusetts 1997.

7. The History of the Church, Part39, Eusebius, Penguin Books1989.

8. Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire, Edward Gibbon, PenguinBooks 1985, p.326-327.

9. The Religions of the RomanEmpire, John Ferguson, Thames &Hudson 1982.

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The Rationale of FinalityThe finality of any prophet can be observed withreference to his message as well as with reference to his status. It ispossible for a prophet to be final in his message and his status, yet itis also possible for another lesser prophet to come after him withoutviolating his finality. It is this aspect of prophethood that we are goingto thoroughly examine now.

The belief in the finality of the Qur’anic law and in the finality of theProphet(sa) to whom this law was revealed, is unanimously held by allMuslims. The Qur’an – a complete code of life – claims for itself apromise of eternal Divine protection from interpolation by humanhands. If this claim is right, as the Muslims believe and demonstrate itto be, the bearer of such a book must be accepted as the lastlawbearing prophet. This is clearly understandable and is so endorsedby the entire world of Islam without exception. But from the non-Muslim vantage point, it is difficult to comprehend how any Bookcould fulfil the needs of all ages and defy the requirements for changeduring the times to come. Add to this the Qur’anic claim ofuniversality and the problem will increase manifold. How can it belogically explained that any Divine Book could satisfactorily addressthe ethnic and parochial problems of all mankind alike? There areEuropeans, Americans, Africans, Arabs, Russians, Israelis, andnumerous people of Asian origin with different ethnic backgroundsand inherited cultures. Their political and social traditions also differ


Future of Revelation

This is an extract taken from the book Revelation,

Rationality, Knowledge and Truth, written by HadhratMirza Tahir Ahmad(ru).

so widely that it is difficult to visualize how a single universal code ofreligious law could satisfy them with equal justice.

In answer to both these questions, the Qur’an claims that all itsteachings are founded on the human psyche which is common tomankind and unchangeable in relation to time. Any teaching whichperfectly corresponds to the human psyche becomes unchangeable. Itis this principle that the Qur’an alludes to when it says:

So set thy face to the service of religion as one devoted to God.And follow the nature made by Allah – the nature in which. Hehas created mankind. There is no altering the creation of God.That is the right religion. But most men know not.1

(Ch.30; v.31)

Indeed the nature created by God cannot be altered. Even the atheistmust concede that human nature has remained universally unalteredsince time immemorial. But a Book of Law corresponding to thisunalterable nature can itself be changed all the same by theinterference of humans. The Qur’an takes care of this danger bydeclaring it is a well-protected Book.

Verily, it is We Who have sent down this Exhortation, and mostsurely We are its Guardian.2(Ch.15: V.10)

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History has proved this claim to be right. Hence the Prophet(sa) whowas bestowed this Book has to be accepted as the last law-bearer.Nothing in this claim is irrational, but when it is suggested that evennon-law-bearing prophets cannot come, the jurisdiction of finality isoverextended without any rational justification. No sooner have theymade this claim of absolute finality than they venture to demolish itthemselves. The cracks begin to appear the moment they hasten toexempt Jesus(as) from this all pervasive law of finality.

When confronted with this dilemma, they dismiss it with a mere waveof their hand as though it were no dilemma at all.

The reappearance of Jesus(as) as a prophet after Prophet Muhammad(sa),they argue, does not contradict his absolute finality on the followingcounts:

• Jesus would be brought back from a stock of prophets who hadalready been commissioned before the advent of ProphetMuhammad(sa). Thus his finality will not be violated. It can onlybe violated if a prophet is raised after his advent even if thatprophet brings no new law and is selected by God from within hisown Ummah (people).

• Jesus’(as) prophethood would be the one granted to him during hisadvent prior to Islam.

• Moreover because during his second advent he would besubordinated to the Holy Prophet(sa) , he would no longer be heldas independent.

Hence by being an older prophet and by becoming subordinated, hewould not violate the seal of prophethood. As such, their concept of

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finality only means that new prophets cannot be commissioned whileold prophets can be brought back; but this is sheer absurdity. Whatmanner of an All-Wise God would He be Who would pass the verdictof absolute finality in favour of anyone despite His knowledge that aprophet would certainly be needed after him? The question of old ornew is irrelevant. Central to the issue is the question of need.

The need for another prophet after the advent of the last is anintrinsically contradictory belief. Faced with this dilemma the Ulemaalways twist the issue by arguing that the need for the advent of aprophet may occur after the final prophet had come and gone. Yet, theabsoluteness of his finality would remain intact as long as the newneed is fulfilled by an old prophet. But anyone should be able to seethrough this transparent effort at cheating. The difference of old ornew is just a childish attempt to confuse the issue. If Jesus(as) ofNazareth reappears and submits to the supremacy of ProphetMuhammad(sa), he would still be a prophet after him. To fulfil the newneed by borrowing an old prophet from a bygone people is far worsethan fulfilling the same need by raising a new prophet from within thepeople of Islam. If the former does not violate the Doctrine of Finalitythe latter most certainly cannot.

Al-Imam AI Mahdi (The Guided Leader)We may now be permitted to deviate from the issue of Jesus’s(as) re-advent, but only for a while, to turn our gaze upon the status of AI-lmam. AI-Mahdi.

According to the prophecies of the Holy Prophet(sa), Jesus(as) does notseem to be the only one whose appearance is predicted in the latterdays. One finds the repeated mention of another Divine Reformer.under the title of Al Mahdi, which means ‘The Guided One’. Mosttraditions speak of Isa(as) (Jesus) and AI-Mahdi (the Guided Imam) astwo different persons. But there is one prominent exception. Ibn-e-

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Majah – one of the six authentic books of tradition – creates a strongimpression that the two Promised Reformers would in fact be oneperson, only holding two different titles. The exact words of thetradition run as follows:

There would be no Mahdi other than Isa (Jesus)3

This can only mean that the promised Mahdi himself is referred to asJesus(as). However, Al-Mahdi is to be born within the Ummah,according to most traditions. How then, could he be the person ofJesus(as), if Jesus(as) is to descend from heaven after him? This can onlyhappen if Jesus(as) is a mere title which AI-Mahdi would possesstogether with his own so that no separate Jesus(as) would descend fromthe heavens. His role will be performed by AlI-Mahdi instead. Itensues that the prophet Jesus(as) would be born metaphorically, as AI-lmam Al-Mahdi within Islam. This leads us to the issue ofdetermining the real status of Al-Mahdi. As will be shown presently,his status has to be that of a non-law-bearing subordinate prophetthough the mainstream Ulema do not refer to him as such. In the caseof Jesus(as), they can freely refer to him as a prophet because of thereasons mentioned above; but in the case of Al-Mahdi they cannot doso lest this admission should clearly clash with their Doctrine ofFinality.

Their strategy regarding the Mahdi is completely different. For them,he will remain an uncrowned prophet to whom all attributes of aprophet are freely granted except for the title. It is like defining a manwithout calling him one, while calling him by any other name wouldnot make him less than a man. The Ulema must realize that the statusof Al-Mahdi must be determined by virtue of his attributes. Hisentitlement to the status of a prophet cannot be denied him as long as

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he functions as one. If the prerequisites of a prophet are combined inany person, then call him by whatever title you may, a prophet hewould always remain. A denial of him, while he will be directlycommissioned by God, will be tantamount to a denial of God. Assuch, whoever refuses to believe in Al-Mahdi as a subordinate prophetwill lose his right to be counted among the true believers. Belief inhim will be incumbent upon every Muslim, as admitted even by theorthodoxy. Thus he would enjoy a prerogative which is shared only bya prophet and by no one less than a prophet. The act of not grantingAl-Mahdi the status he is entitled to enjoy can in no way deprive himof that right. The inconsistency in their beliefs will by no meansbecome less glaring.

Non-Law-Bearing Prophets and RevelationIn Islam, the status of a prophet is the highest a man is granted. Aprophet is not just a person who prophesies, he is the one who isspecifically commissioned as such by God. All reformers are notessentially prophets but all prophets are essentially reformers.Revelation by itself does make one a prophet. Even non-prophets canbe granted revelation and be blessed by communion with Him.

Revelation has a much wider field of application with manyconnotations such as dreams, visions, inspirations and even verbaladdresses. As such it has never been denied by most scholars even inthe medieval ages. The controversy only arose in relation to theinstitution of prophethood and it is this particular aspect of revelationthat is being presently examined.

One can easily understand the wisdom behind the discontinuity oflaw-bearing prophets in the light of the foregoing discussion. Thequestion which must be examined at length is, why should non-law-bearing prophets also be discontinued and why should the institutionof prophethood in its entirety be brought to an abrupt end?

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The history of religion proves beyond a shadow of doubt that it hasnever been essential for every prophet to bring a new law. There aremany among them like Isaac.., Jacob(as) Joseph(as), Lot(as) and Isaiaha(as),who did not bring any new law. However, they shared with theprophets before them the distinction of having been commissioned byGod as Divinely appointed spiritual leaders.

References1. Translation of Ch.30:V.31 by Maulawi Sher Ali.

(Note: The author has replaced the word ‘Allah’ by ‘God’)

2. Translation of Ch.15: V.10 by the author.

3. Sunan Ibn-e-Majah. Kit-abul-Fitan. Babo Shiddatiz-Zaman.

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Readers’s NoticeAs announced by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V at the 37th AnnualConvention UK, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is invitinganyone who can undertake the work of translating the writings of thePromised Messiah(as), mainly in Urdu, into English. If you can renderthis service, please write to Mr M.D. Shams at the followingaddress:

Mr. M.D. ShamsAdditional Wakilu Tasneef

‘Islamabad’Sheephatch Lane

TilfordSurrey

GU10 2AQ

IV. The Anti-Blasphemy Provisions Under Regional InstrumentsA. African Charter on Human and People’s RightsThirty African nations, including thirteen Muslim states, signed theAfrican Charter on Human and People’s Rights on October 21, 1986.75

Apart from the ICCPR, the African Charter stands as the only legallybinding treaty that includes Muslim states. The 62-Article Charterenshrines sweeping rights including those of free speech, association,and property. Article 8 guarantees the freedom of conscience and theprofession and free practice of religion. Although Pakistan isobviously not a signatory, the Charter, along with the ICCPR, is anindicator that religious freedom can be protected in Muslim states. Intargeting a particular religious group by attaching criminal penalties tothe public declaration or display of an Ahmadi’s faith, the anti-blasphemy provisions violate Article 8 of the Charter.

B. Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in IslamThe Charter of the Islamic Conference formed the Organisation of theIslamic Conference (‘OIC’) in 1972, opening membership to everyMuslim state in the world, roughly 50 in all. The Conference aimed tooffer an Islamic conception of human rights and express Muslimsolidarity in international human rights norms. Members of the OIC


Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community inPakistan: An Analysis Under International Lawand International Relations – part 3

This is the final part of an article looking at the illegitimacy of the positionof Pakistan in the way that it deals with minorities such as the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community.

First published in Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol.16, Spring 2003, pp.217-245 byAmjad Mahmood Khan.

passed the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam on August 5,1990.76 The Declaration makes no guarantee of freedom of religion,nor offers any of the explicit safeguards found in the UDHR, ICCPR,and U.N. Declaration of 1981. The closest it comes to the language ofthe above instruments is in Article 10, which prohibits ‘any form ofcompulsion on man in order to convert him to another religion or toatheism.’77 The language of this Article resembles that of Article 18(2)of the ICCPR, which provides, ‘No one shall be subject to coercionwhich would impair his freedom to have or adopt a religion or beliefof his choice.’78 Where Article 18(2) prohibits compulsion as it relatesto basic religious freedoms for minorities, Article 10 of the CairoDeclaration merely prohibits compulsion as it relates to conversion toa religion other than Islam or to atheism. In other words, the CairoDeclaration does little to advance international customary humanrights law in the Muslim world.

The anti-blasphemy laws do not seem to run counter to the basicArticles of the Cairo Declaration. Indeed, they seem wholly consistentwith them: they are laws restricting blasphemy against the Prophet ofIslam in accordance with ‘the tenets of the Shari’a’ and for thepreservation of the ‘unspoiled nature’ of Islam. Though, in fact, theCairo Declaration appears as Pakistan’s best, and perhaps only, chanceto justify its anti-blasphemy provisions under an extra-territorialcovenant, it is important to recognise that the Declaration itself camewell after the issuance of the anti-blasphemy provisions. Indeed, aretroactive attempt at reconciling legal persecution of religiousminorities with the precepts of a fledgling regional instrument notendorsed by the majority of the world79 is but a contradictory andperfunctory attempt at saving Pakistan’s once leading commitment toreligious freedom while still advocating a debilitating, strictlyShari’a-based legal system.

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Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan – Part 3


V. TH E AN T I- BL A S P H E M Y PR O V I S I O N S A N D IN T E R N AT I O N A L

RELATIONS THEORY

The persecution of Ahmadis is fundamentally an issue of the legalentrenchment of restrictions on religious minorities in Pakistan.Though I argue that the issue is best resolved through internationallaw, it nevertheless requires a deep understanding of Pakistan’spolitical and social milieu. Foreign policies concerning the issuewould necessarily involve paradigmatic prescriptions. It is a usefulexercise, therefore, to assess the issue through the lenses of variousstrands of international relations theory, so as to anticipate the majorpolicy arguments for and against its resolution. Admittedly, many ofthese arguments cut against my own argument for the repeal of theanti-blasphemy provisions in Pakistan’s Penal Code.

A. The Realist Paradigm80

A realist would argue that Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws target onlyabout 5% of Pakistan’s total population. These laws were enacted bydemocratically elected officials in the National Assembly and arewholly constitutional. The majority of Pakistan’s people seeminglyfavour a system of Shari’a and deem Ahmadis as non-Muslims. TheUnited States, or any nation, should therefore treat the persecution ofAhmadis no differently than other human rights concerns around theIslamic world, that is, as a minor problem relative to the concern ofmaintaining the balance of power among Muslim states. Considerabledeference must be paid to the central authority in Pakistan, namelyPresident Musharraf and his appointed cabinet and justices. Byintervening on behalf of oppressed religious minorities in Pakistan,some have argued, the international community would not only beviolating the sovereignty of Pakistan, but also disrupting its delicateand crucial partnership in the war on terrorism.

Pakistan has endorsed only the UDHR, which is a mere moralaffirmation of universal rights and has no binding force. The ICCPR,

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in contrast, is binding on its signatories, which does not includePakistan. Pakistan has asserted its preference for the Shari’a by notendorsing the U.N. Declaration of 1981 and by justifying its anti-blasphemy provisions under the Cairo Declaration. A young andunstable country like Pakistan should not bind itself by the whims ofits founding fathers, whose mandate was short-lived. To underminethe strictures of the Shari’a with an international referendum to repealthe anti-blasphemy laws would damage Pakistan’s political and legalmachinery, perhaps leading to the increase of violence along itsborders. Such a referendum would also fail to account for the fact thatPakistan, since October 1999, and until only recently, has beenessentially a military regime that solves its problems, particularly theKashmir dispute, through military means.

The persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan can be resolved via politicalmeans, not legal ones. To hold Pakistan to international customaryhuman rights law as it relates to its anti-blasphemy laws is animpractical and futile pursuit because political treatment of religiousdissidents is what drives the legitimacy of such laws. Rather thandealing with individual political actors within Pakistan, a moremanageable approach would be to treat the nation as a unitary politicalactor, whose internal political insurrections are not the concern of theinternational community, particularly not of Western, liberal nations.Of greater concern is who controls Pakistan’s central authority, howbest to deal with that authority, and how to preserve Pakistan’spowerful alliance with the West against other, more volatile, Muslimstates in the region and the world.

B. The Institutionalist Paradigm81

According to the institutionalist point of view, the anti-blasphemyprovisions violate Article 18 of the UDHR, which Pakistan itselfadvocated in 1948. According to a developing body of internationalcustomary human rights law, Pakistan, in passing Ordinance XX,

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violated Articles 18, 19, 20, 27 of the ICCPR and Articles 6 and 7 ofthe U.N. Declaration of 1981. Pakistan justified its anti-blasphemyprovisions and the persecution of religious minorities under theprovisions of a regional instrument, namely the Cairo Declaration,post hoc, years after its promulgation. The United States, or anynation, should therefore treat the persecution of Ahmadis in a mannerthat defers to international institutions as a way to promote andmaintain basic and universal religious freedom to religious minorities.

Pakistan has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the universalhuman right of religious freedom in its founding era, being the leadingMuslim nation to endorse the UDHR. This commitment, thoughburied in history, must be renewed by holding Pakistan accountablefor its promulgation of anti-blasphemy laws that fly in the face ofexisting international norms. All states have an interest in preservingthe basic freedoms of ethnic minorities within their borders. Byrendering Pakistan subject to international law, the internationalcommunity posits a collective interest in prescribing state activitiesthat champion freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief.With a history marred by corruption, violence, and instability,Pakistan has a vested interest in proving to the world that it canfunction as not only a progressive democracy capable of honouringcommitments to international law and custom, but also as one of thefew Islamic states that encourages religious pluralism.

Pakistan, though not a party to the ICCPR, reconciled its anti-blasphemy provisions with the limitations to non-derogable rights inthe Covenant itself. Pakistan acted in a way prima facie incompatiblewith recognised rules concerning freedom of thought, conscience,religion, and belief. However, it defended its conduct by appealing toexceptions or justifications contained within the rules themselves.Whether or not Pakistan’s conduct is in fact justifiable on the basis ofthese exceptions is not the key issue. Rather, the important thing is that

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Pakistan constructively consented to external institutions governingits conduct, thereby strengthening rather than weakening the spirit ofthe rules and the system.

C. The Liberalist Paradigm82

The liberalist view holds that Pakistan criminalised the activities ofAhmadis to acquiesce to the wishes of its major political parties andinterest groups, including the clerics. The majority of Pakistan’speople favour the 1974 amendment declaring Ahmadis non-Muslimsand subsequent amendments to the Pakistani Penal Code throughOrdinance XX and the Criminal Law Act of 1986. Non-Muslimminorities (and Ahmadis) are in fact represented in the parliamentthrough separate electorates. The United States, or any nation, shouldtherefore defer to the organised collective action of a sovereign anddemocratic nation and the legal procedures it adopts to protect itsinterest in preserving public order.

Pakistan’s commitment to religious freedom for minorities, thoughcertainly an integral part of its founding era, is not entirelyrepresentative of its people. As the Shari’a evolved in Pakistan andIslam became the official state religion, domestic support of lawsrestricting activity that blasphemed Islam and its founder, the ProphetM u h a m m a d( s a ), increased. Indeed, although Pakistan endured anumber of military coups, its intensity of purpose to treat Ahmadis asnon-Muslims remained consistent. To call for the repeal of the anti-blasphemy laws and thus allow the wishes of less than 3% of thenation to prevail would render meaningless the precise interactionsbetween Pakistan’s institutions and its citizens. What is required toalleviate the plight of Ahmadis in Pakistan is an overhaul of publicopinion towards them; to repeal the anti-blasphemy provisions so asto afford religious freedom to Ahmadis as Muslims would proveineffective.

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Altering individual and group behaviour within states requires statedeference to international institutions. Though the anti-blasphemyprovisions offend notions of freedom of thought, conscience, religion,and belief in the UDHR and U.N. Declaration of 1981 as well as thelegal provisions of the ICCPR-that is to say, though the laws goagainst international norms-it is not necessarily the case that repealingthem will make Pakistan more tolerant of religious minorities.External opinion of Muslim states within the region, andinternationally as well, may disfavour the repeal of the anti-blasphemyprovisions, which, in turn, may result in the severance of internationalcommitments by Muslim states in the future. If the provisions areretracted, Ahmadis may then have the law on their side, but the rest ofPakistan and the Muslim world against them.

More integral to the advancement of religious minorities in Pakistanis an analysis of Pakistan’s current conflict of interests. Pakistan’squest to eradicate violent zealotry within its borders is genuine,though not without its limitations. The world has recently seen Frenchnaval engineers and an American journalist terrorised by a militantcomponent of Pakistan.83 Yet, as President Musharraf clamps down onP a k i s t a n ’s internal terrorist network,8 4 this militant componentstruggles for legitimacy within Pakistan. Public opinion polarises asthese crucial interests collide, altering the dynamics of representedinterests. One emerging interest that the Pakistani government isbound to reflect is that of religious minorities like the Ahmadis, whofavour emphatically an assault on Islamists. It follows, therefore, thatthe international community’s methodical appraisal of PresidentMusharraf’s regime and its support of Islamists, rather than a slapdashattack on the anti-blasphemy provisions in particular, will likely resultin resolving the persecution of Ahmadis.

D. The Constructivist Paradigm85

Under the constructivist model, Pakistan, during its founding era,

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expressed a felt obligation to grant the fundamental right of religiousfreedom to minorities. Pakistan’s prevailing social norms evolved toreflect a more restrictive Shari’a-based government protective ofIslam’s integrity. The rise of President Musharraf and the devastatingimpact of September 11 again re-shaped the social norms in Pakistan,so that militant Islam’s hold on Pakistan was cast into doubt. TheUnited States, or any nation, should therefore work discursively withPakistan’s leadership to repeal the anti-blasphemy provisions inPakistan’s constitution.

By affirming the UDHR, Pakistan advocated a norm of internationalreligious freedom. Its founding visionaries, led by Jinnah, deliberatedover the construction of an Islamic Republic respectful of non-Muslims. Indeed, as the mouthpiece for millions of Muslims jaded bytheir brutal conflict with Hindu India, Jinnah constructed the basis fora constitution that ensured the right to profess freely one’s faith.Interestingly, this fundamental protection afforded to non-Muslimsand Muslims alike was part of a patently secular impulse prevailing inPakistan, at least up until 1953. Norms, however, are built up andbroken down by state actors. The hegemonic discourse of the mullahs,essentially legislating from the pulpit, eviscerated the advancement ofinternational norms in Pakistan. Sure enough, one such norm, that ofbasic freedom for religious minorities, eroded, leading to theinstitutionalised persecution of Ahmadis.

Perhaps the only consistent pattern to glean from Pakistan’s brief andtumultuous history is that the norms that shape its government haveconstantly changed. Five military coups are testimony enough thatPakistan’s citizens are unsettled. They assault retrogression andchampion an Islam not manipulated for political gains. Now, withPakistan’s newfound responsibility to the ‘civilised’ world to uprootmilitant Islam from within, a significant next step by the internationalcommunity would be to include experts on religious liberty on

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delegations to Pakistan and appropriate regional and internationalmeetings, to decry Pakistan’s punishment of quotidian religiousobservances by its minority Ahmadis, and also to work with thosewithin Pakistan who advocate new legal norms and who hold a morebroad-minded attitude toward Islam.

VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Ahmadis in Pakistan have been called ‘the most persecuted Muslimreligious group today.’86 Those defending the anti-blasphemy lawswould be quick to argue that Ahmadis are not Muslims to begin with,so they cannot be the most persecuted Muslim group in the world.Their persecution stems from their false hope for self-identification asMuslims; should they renounce their identity as Muslims, they wouldameliorate their position. Such reasoning is counter to one of the veryquests that sustained Pakistan’s statehood: self-identification asMuslims in lieu of persecution under Hindu India. Freedoms ofthought, conscience, religion, and belief are what drove millions ofpeople to die for the creation of a safe haven for Muslims in Pakistan.To subject Muslim religious minorities today to the same persecutionMuslims endured during partition would be to relinquish theprinciples of justice Pakistan sought at its inception to justify itscreation.

Until international law speaks to the issue, the persecution of Ahmadiswill continue. One of the virtues of international institutions andinstruments is their ability to regulate problems of politicalproportions though legal means. The anti-blasphemy provisions inPakistan are legal mechanisms cloaked in political trappings. Theyvalidate the ascension of strict Shari’a as well as the militant whimsand ambitions of extreme Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan.They construct and regulate an invisible threat by religious minoritiesand in so doing earn the backing and support of Pakistan’s institutionsand a significant part of its people. But a State’s political ruse cannot

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withstand the authority of a larger body of law. As an institutionalistmight argue, where a nation once committed to universal human rightsnow stands opposed to a body of international customary human rightsnorms, it nevertheless cannot escape being bound by the norms of themajority, and it remains liable for its gross deviations from the set ofregulations that govern that majority.

A constructivist is correct to put faith in changing norms in Pakistan.The October 1999 military coup in Pakistan, though decried by muchof the international community, was a joyous occasion for many ofPakistan’s citizens. On the streets of Karachi shortly thereafter, onecould sense a movement towards governmental reform,accountability, and justice. The events of September 11th have onlyfuelled this impulse, with Pakistan’s citizens demanding moreaccurate census counts, more fair geographic and demographicrepresentation in the National Assembly, and a more consistentadministration of justice. These new norms initially began to bodewell for Ahmadis, albeit tenuously.87 For example, on April 21, 2000,President Musharraf required that deputy commissioners rather thanlocal police officers review all blasphemy charges prior to filingformal cases.88 He later rescinded this requirement due to strongpressure from right-wing Muslim groups. Though Pakistan has a longroad ahead, the minimum effect of these emerging norms is to renderless clear the claim that the majority of Pakistan’s peoples truly favourthe anti-blasphemy provisions in place.

It is also crucial for a liberalist to note that Ahmadis represent themoderate thread of Islam in Pakistan. In the face of persecution inPakistan, Ahmadis advocate universal human rights, tolerance, anddeliberation. They have condemned militant Islam in vociferousterms.89 In Pakistan itself, Ahmadis have set up progressive schools,hospitals for the sick and needy, and welfare programs. They havebeen built inter-religious coalitions against affronts to basic civil and

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religious liberties. Some estimates calculate that Ahmadis in Pakistan,though only representing 3% of the country’s total population,represent nearly 20% of its literate population.90 Two of Pakistan’smost respected personalities: Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan,Pakistan’s first foreign minister and the only person ever to serve asboth the president of the U.N. General Assembly (SeventeenthSession from 1962 - 1963) and president of the International Court ofJustice (1970 - 1973); and, Professor Abdus Salam, the first PakistaniNobel laureate, were both Ahmadis.91

Intervening on behalf of Ahmadis in Pakistan by calling for the repealof the anti-blasphemy provisions under the authority of internationallaw is, in fact, entirely consistent with the realist paradigm.92 MostMuslims are far less militant than one would gather from the harshrhetoric of their “spokesmen.” What results often from the politicalpower of militant Islam is not only systemic cruelty toward innocentdomestic groups, but also the creation of a regime many times moredangerous to the interests of the international community than amoderate, tolerant Islamic regime. To empower Ahmadis would be toencourage political alternatives to emerging militant Islamic groups inPakistan. Healthy political struggle paralyses militant Islam. Theinternational community, the United States in particular, would bewise to understand the nature and function of moderate and credibleopposition groups to militant Islam like the Ahmadiyya Community.

In sum, the case of the Ahmadis in Pakistan represents a visible andpractical outlet by which the United States and other We s t e r ndemocracies may empower moderation in Muslim regimes. To call forthe repeal of the anti-blasphemy provisions in Pakistan is a primeopportunity for the international community to gain enormouspolitical advantage over militant Islam, while at the same timeelevating the status of the fundamental universal right of religiousfreedom.

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References

75 See African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, June 17, 1981,O.A.U. Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3/Rev. 5 (1981), reprinted in DOCUMENT

SUPPLEMENT, supra note 20, at 489.

76 An English translation of the Declaration is included in U.N. GAOR,World Conf. on Hum. Rts., 4th Sess., Agenda Item 5, U.N. DOC.A/CONF.157/PC/62/Add.18 (1993).

77 Id.

78 ICCPR, supra note 52, art. 18 § 2, 999 U.N.T.S. 171.

79 For a discussion of the intractability of the Cairo Declaration as astatement of international law, see Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Universal VersusIslamic Human Rights: A Clash of Cultures or a Clash With a Construct?,15 MICH. J. INT’L L. 307, 327 - 51 (1994).

80 Considered the dominant approach to international relations theory, therealist paradigm identifies the state as the only crucial actor ininternational politics. International norms reflect power relations amongstates, and a state’s given policy is driven by its relative gains to otherstates. The essential goal of a state is to survive by maintaining orenhancing its own power. See ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, INTERNATIONAL

LAW AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 9 - 14 (2000).

81 Traditionally considered as opposing the realist paradigm, theinstitutionalist paradigm identifies institutions as modifiers of a state’spower-driven interests. Institutions link common issues and posit acollective interest between states so as to change state behaviour to reflecta norm. See id. at 14 - 17.

82 Questioning the realist and institutionalist view of the state as a unitaryactor, the liberalist paradigm gives primacy to the social actors that makeup a state. Government interests are but a reflection of the preciseinteractions between individuals and states. Domestic representation is thedecisive link between societal demands and state policy. See id. at 17 - 20.

83 On February 21, 2002, authorities confirmed that Pakistani militantskidnapped and murdered Daniel Pearl, an American journalist for the WallStreet Journal. Fallen Journalist: Daniel Pearl is Dead, Abducted in

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Pakistan and Killed by Captors, WALL ST. J., Feb. 22, 2002, at A1. On July15, 2002, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Islamic militant, wasfound guilty of the crime and subsequently sentenced to death. SteveLeVine, Pakistan Convicts Four in Pearl Slaying, WALL ST. J. (EuropeEdition), July 16, 2002, at A2. On May 9, 2002, a Pakistani suicidebomber, allegedly with ties to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, killed 11French naval engineers in a Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. Pakistan BlastKills 14, Marks Growing Risks for Musharraf, WALL ST. J. (Asia Edition),May 9, 2002, at A1.

84 See generally, Raymond Bonner, Pakistan Seethes as Militants Lash Out,N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 17, 2002, at A22.

85 Taking the liberalist view of the state as a composition of individual actorsone step further, the constructivist paradigm recognises that the realities ofinternational politics are shaped by the social structures that governindividual actors. Individual actors are discursively competent and,therefore, construct norms over time. SLAUGHTER, supra note 80, at 23 -26.

86 Arzt, supra note 50, at 408.

87 Within fourteen months of President Musharraf taking office, Islamicfundamentalists set on fire and destroyed two Ahmadi mosques in theSialkot and Punjab districts respectively, killing ten Ahmadis and injuringa score of others. See Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour,U.S. Department of State, Annual Report On International ReligiousFreedom: Pakistan,

http://www.state.gov/documents/organisation/9001.pdf (Dec. 2001).

88 See id. at 518.

89 For example, denouncing a militant perversion of Islam, the then SupremeHead of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Community, Mirza Tahir Ahmad,remarked: “No religion with a universal message . . . under one flag caneven momentarily entertain the idea of employing force to spread itsmessage. Swords can win territories, but not hearts. Force can bend heads,but not minds.” MIRZA TAHIR AHMAD, ISLAM’S RESPONSE TO CONTEMPORARY

ISSUES, 42 (1992).

90 See Siddiq, supra note 4, at 283.

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91 Internationally, now estimated as over 100 million strong, Ahmadis arelauded as peace-loving, law-abiding citizens with remarkablehumanitarian interests. Ahmadis can be found in the highest offices ofpublic service, in Europe and West Africa in particular. See AhmadiyyaMuslim Community, The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam: An Overview, athttp://alislam.org/introduction (last visited Dec. 17, 2002).

92 Intervention under the authority of international law on behalf of Ahmadisby the United States, or any nation, can be channelled through Pakistan’sexisting institutions. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, in fact, has deferredto international legal norms in its adjudication. For example, in Shehla Ziav. WAPDA, a case decided only a year after Zaheerudin, the majority courtcited as persuasive authority the 1972 Declaration of the United NationsConference on the Human Environment and the 1992 Rio Declaration todeclare that the construction of a grid station in a residential area inIslamabad constituted an affront to a Pakistani citizen’s right to life andwould lead to environmental degradation. See Shehla Zia v WAPDA, 46P.L.D. (Sup. Ct. 1994) 693, 710 (Pak.).

93 See H.R. Res. 348, supra note 9.

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Contents August 2003, Vol.98, No - Review of Religions No: 0034-6721 Contents August 2003, Vol.98, No.8 1 Chief Editor and Manager Chairman of the Management Board Naseer Ahmad Qamar