Contents July 2003, Vol.98, No

Special contributors:Amatul-Hadi AhmadFarina Qureshi

Proof-reader:Shaukia Mir

Design and layout:Tanveer Khokhar

Publisher:Al Shirkatul Islamiyyah

Distribution:Muhammad Hanif

Mansoor Ahmed ShahBasit Ahmad Bockarie Tommy KallonDaud Mahmood KhanFareed AhmadFazal Ahmad.Fauzia BajwaMansoor Saqi Mahmood Hanif Mansoora Hyder-MuneebNavida ShahidSarah WaseemSaleem Ahmad MalikTanveer 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 July 2003, Vol.98, No.7

1

Chief Editor and Manager Chairman of the Management BoardNaseer Ahmad Qamar

Editorial – Introducing the centenary of a noble man of great understanding who stood up for truth and made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan:Fazal Ahmad – UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Notes and Comment – Resiliance of children: Nature has endowed children with survivability butparents must address their spiritual needs as well.Fazal Ahmad – UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Martyrs of Afghanistan – Our lead article is an account of the life and times of Sahibzada Abdul Latif, his martyrdom a hundred years ago, and the prophecy made by the Promised Messiah(as): ‘the land of Afghanistan will see what consequences the shedding of his blood will entail: Muhammad Zafrulla Khan – UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

100 Years of Divine Retribution – The unfortunate land of Afghanistan contnues to pay a heavy price for the innocent lives lost there: Latif Ahmad Qureshi – UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Efficacy of Repentance – Part 1 – When people forget God, God Almighty also becomes indifferenttowards such peopleHadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

QUESTION & ANSWER – Belief and Guidance – Is there room for a theocratic state; have morepeopel been killed by religion?; why do we need prophets?Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Europe’s Debt to the Islamic World – The renaissance of Europe arose form the legacy of Islam; the contribution of Baghdad.Zakaria Virk – Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan: An Analysis Under International Lawand International Relations: Continuing a detailed review of the background to the persecutionof Ahmadis.Amjad Mahmood Khan – USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

July 2003 marks a century sinceSahibzada Abdul Latif wasmartyred in Afghanistan for hisbeliefs.

The brief account of his lifepresented in this issue can barelydo justice to the true spirit ofsacrifice and martyrdom, andcannot be compared with paleimitations that we see today.

He was a man of great standing inAfghanistan, respected by hisown people and by the Britishrulers. He was wealthy and couldhave lived a life of ease. However,when he was enthused by aspiritual guide in the form of theP romised Messiah( a s ), he wasp re p a red to stand up for hisbeliefs.

He returned to his native land inthe sure knowledge that his beliefin the Promised Messiah(as), thetrue destiny of Jesus(as) and thephilosophy behind the Islamicteaching of Jihad would make himdeeply unpopular in Afghanistan.He knew that these ideas werebetter for his people and for hisreligion, and despite being incar-

cerated, taken through a mocktrial and then stoned to death, henever shirked from his mission tomake the ultimate sacrifice for thesake of peace and love.

Nowadays there are so manymyths about Jihad played out bythe world’s media, and the viewof sacrifice is to take the lives ofothers in a violent form for thesake of one’s faith. But this iscontrary not just to Islam but to alltrue faiths. Abdul Latif’s sacrificewas as an individual standing upfor truth and making the ultimatesacrifice as a sign for others ratherthan to hurt others. It was the typeof inspirational account that weread in the case of Abraham(as)

when he was prepared to sacrificehis son for God.

Modern Afganistan is still goingthrough turmoil. Two years ago,the same people destro y e dBuddhist statues, and have sincebeen in conflict. May God givethem the wisdom to turn to thetruth, and may God be pleasedwith the soul of Sahibzada Latif.Amen!

Fazal Ahmad

2 The Review of Religions – June 2003

Editorial

3The Review of Religions – June 2003

Resilience of ChildrenYoung children are dependentupon their parents for their food,security and development, andyet, when faced with challenges,they have been blessed withamazing resilience.

In a recent tragedy, a plane wastaking off for Khartoum in aninternal flight in Sudan. Soonafter take-off, the planeexperienced difficulties andcrashed. All of the 116 passengersand crew on board were killedexcept for a solitary 2 year oldchild which survived, and GodWilling, is making a goodrecovery.

In other natural disasters, we haveseen that after terrible earthquakesin Japan, Algeria or Tu r k e y, oftenthe survivors pulled out ofw recked buildings after a few daysa re small children. They stru g g l e dsometimes for days without foodand water, and under extre m etrauma, and yet somehow theyfound the mental strength and willto survive and re c o v e r.

Even in our homes, we have seenc h i l d ren do the most dangero u sthings. They fall down the stairs,they push furniture on tothemselves, and yet, more oftenthan not, they get up, dustthemselves off and carry onplaying. An adult in a similarincident would have ended upwith broken bones and internalbleeding. Children also seemm o re resilient emotionallyt h rough marital breakups andother issues. They suff e r, and yet,they find a way to cope.

In contrast, when we look atadults and the elderly, we getstuck in our ways and find it hardto cope with change. We sufferemotionally and our bodies areless able to recover fro mtraumatic events.

So what can we learn from this?Parents spend a lot of time ande n e rgy trying to train anddevelop children in their abilityto walk and talk, and in theirability to fit into modern life.Parents worry about their child’sneed to ride a bike, use a

Notes & Comments


c o m p u t e r, play sports, makefriends, learn well at school, getgood grades ..... and yet they alsoneed to be given a strong spiritualplatform!

This is the one area which is oftenneglected. If a child is fallingbehind in its physical devel-opment, we worry straight awaythat it is too thin/ fat, too short,not walking properly, not talkingor reading early enough. Thereare elaborate charts from whichto compare the progress of a childagainst norms. These are all facetsof a child that are visibleexternally. Also, when a child isat school, we get pointers if thechild is failing to keep up with itsclass.

Is spiritual development asimportant? It is the guidance thatwe provide in this area that helpsthe child to become balanced. Ithelps the child understand itsrole in society, responsibilities toits friends and family, neighboursand the community in general. Ithelps the child understand theuniverse and creation, andbasically provides a frameworkin which it understands the goalsof life. It sets a balance for thechild in which it considers the

purpose of its creation beyondthe need to eat and survive.

Too often, this side is neglected,and when the child has growninto an adult chasing a successfulcareer, not caring about family,friends and community, then it isalready too late.

As we have seen several times,children are resilient, and that isthe time to give them guidance tohelp them cope with the trialsthat they will face in later life.They need skills and attributesboth in the physical and spiritualdomain to survive and thrive. Adeficiency in either side upsetsthe balance.

The child that cheated death onthe flight in Sudan will no doubtbe pampered by its extendedfamily. God has given the child asecond chance. Let us hope thatits guardians give it the bestpossible development bothphysically and mentally, but alsospiritually to recover from thisordeal and to live a fulfilled life.Ameen.

Fazal Ahmad– UK

Notes and Comments

Sahibzada Syed Abdul Latif was adescendant of the well-knownsaint Hadhrat Sheikh Abul HasanAl Hajveri, who is generallyknown as Data Ganj Bakhsh andis buried in Lahore. SahibzadaAbdul Latif's home wasSayyadgah in the Province ofKhost in Afghanistan. He was avery learned divine, a gre a treligious leader and a man ofsaintly life. He was a recipient ofrevelation, and had fre q u e n texperience of true visions. He wasa spiritual preceptor of note, andhad a large number of disciplesand followers in Afghanistan. Hepossessed large properties inKhost as well as in adjoiningBritish territory. He had a highstanding at court and wasnominated one of the tworepresentatives of Afghanistan onthe Boundary Commissionappointed in 1894 to demarcatethe boundary between

Afghanistan and British India,which came to be known as theDurand Commission, after SirMortimer Durand who was thesenior British re p resentative onthe Commission.

Sahibzada Abdul Latif hadbecome aware fairly early of theadvent of the Pro m i s e dM e s s i a h( a s ). During the sittings ofthe Commission one of themembers of the staff of the Britishre p resentatives presented a copyof the Promised Messiah’s(as) b o o kAyena Kamalat Islam to SahibzadaAbdul Latif, who was deeplyi m p ressed by its perusal andconceived great respect anda ffection for its author.

After the Commission hadconcluded its work SahibzadaAbdul Latif established contactwith the Promised Messiah( a s )

t h rough some of his disciples,


Martyrs of AfghanistanBy Muhammad Zafrulla Khan – UK

A century ago in July 1903, Sahibzada Abdul Latif(as) became one ofthe most significant martyrs in the history of Ahmadiyyat. Just twoyears earlier, Maulvi Abdur Rahman(as) had become the first Ahmadimartyr. This is an account of the martyrdom of Sahibzada AbdulLatif(as) taken from the authors book ‘Ahmadiyyat - Renaissance ofIslam’ published in 1978.

whom he sent from time to time toQadian and who reported back tohim and brought back with themthe latest books, pamphlets andannouncements of the PromisedMessiah(as).

Among these disciples ofSahibzada Abdul Latif ( r a ) w a sMaulvi Abdur Rahman( r a ) w h ovisited Qadian several times as hisemissary. In December 1900 theSahibzada despatched hiscovenant of Ba'iat to the PromisedM e s s i a h( a s ), together with somerobes through Maulvi AbdurR a h m a n( r a ) and some otherdisciples.

At that time in view of theagitation that had been set afoot inthe Frontier areas against theBritish and which was describedby the Mullas as Jihad, inconsequence of which severalBritish officers had beent re a c h e rously murd e red, thePromised Messiah (as) issued somepamphlets condemning suchactivities and set forth the correctteachings of Islam on the questionof Jihad.

Maulvi Abdur Rahman( r a ) s t u d i e dthe pamphlets and, having fullygrasped their import, gavee x p ression to the views set forth in

them on his return to Kabul. Thiswas brought to the notice of AmirAbdur Rahman, the then ruler ofAfghanistan, who was gre a t l yincensed and directed the arre s tand incarceration of Maulvi AbdurR a h m a n( r a ). In the middle of 1901Maulvi Abdur Rahman( r a ) w a sstrangled to death in his cell at theinstance of the Amir. He thusbecame the first martyr fro mamong the followers of theP romised Messiah( a s ). Through hism a r t y rdom a portion of therevelation ' Two goats would bes l a u g h t e re d ', which had beenvouchsafed to the Pro m i s e dM e s s i a h( a s ) several years earlier,was fulfilled.

A few weeks after theassassination of Maulvi AbdurRahman(ra), on 10 September 1901,Amir Abdur Rahman suffered as e v e re paralytic stroke whichmade him bed-ridden and towhich he succumbed on 3 October1901.

To w a rds the end of 1902Sahibzada Abdul Latif(ra) set outf rom his home, with thepermission of Amir HabibullahKhan, with the intention ofproceeding on pilgrimage by wayof Lahore, accompanied by two ofhis disciples and another divine.

6

Martyrs of Afghanistan

The Review of Religions – June 2003

He had also in mind to pay a visitto Qadian so that he could have anopportunity of meeting theP romised Messiah ( a s ) in person.Thus he arrived in Qadian andwas received by the Pro m i s e dM e s s i a h( a s ), who re c o rded theimpression that he conceived ofhim in the following words:

‘I call God Almighty, in Whosehand is my life, to witness thatwhen I met him I found him socompletely committed anddevoted to my obedience andthe confirmation of my claimthat it is not possible toconceive more of it in respectof any person. I perceived thathe was as full of love for me asa crystal vial filled withperfume. It seemed to me thathis heart was as illuminated aswas his countenance.’

He had intended to stop at Qadianfor only a few days, but hismeeting with the Pro m i s e dMessiah(as) and the members ofthe Movement at that time presentin Qadian affected him sopowerfully that he postponed hisp roceeding on pilgrimage andstayed on in Qadian for severalmonths.

As has been mentioned Sahibzada

Sahib himself had experience ofvisions and revelation. He was,t h e re f o re, able to appre c i a t edeeply and appraise accuratelythe spiritual status of thePromised Messiah(as), and was somuch overcome that he could nottear himself away from him.When in the end he asked forpermission to return toAfghanistan and was granted it,the Promised Messiah(as) accom-panied him for two or three mileson his way. The moment ofseparation proved deeplyaffecting for both, and particularlypainful for Sahibzada AbdulLatif(ra). By the time he departedfrom Qadian he was convincedthat on his return home he wouldhave to lay down his life in thecause of truth. He told some of hisfriends that during the last fewdays of his stay he had repeatedlyreceived the revelation: 'Offer yourhead! Offer your head!' He alsoreceived the revelation: 'Go toPharaoh.'

While the Sahibzada Sahib was stillin British territory he wrote a letterto Brigadier Muhammad Husain,Commissioner of Police, Kabul,explaining why he had not beenable to go on pilgrimage andrequested that the Brigadier shouldsubmit his explanation to Amir

7



Habibullah Khan and ascertainwhether the Amir would permithim to proceed to Kabul to pay hisrespects to him. The Amir sent backw o rd that he should proceed toKabul by all means and personallyexplain everything to the Amir toenable him to decide whether theclaim of Hadhrat Mirza GhulamA h m a d( a s ) was true, in which casehe himself would also accept him.Sahibzada Abdul Latif( r a ) p ro -ceeded to his home in Khost, andshortly after was summoned toKabul under guard. On his arrivalt h e re he found that the Amir wasmuch incensed against him.Without any inquiry from him, theAmir directed that he should becommitted to a cell in the citadel inwhich the Amir himself wasresiding and should be kept indurance vile pending the pleasureof the Amir. His person was s e c u re dwith heavy chains and fetters. Hepassed f o u r months in a wre t c h e dcondition in this cell. On severaloccasions it was intimated to himthat if he would repudiate theclaim of Hadhrat Mirza GhulamA h m a d( a s ) that he was the Pro m i s e dMessiah, he would be set at liberty,and would be re s t o red to all theprivileges, dignities and honourthat he had previously enjoyed. Butthe Sahibzada Sahib remained firmin his belief and each time sent back

the reply that he was an intelligentand knowledgable person whowas equipped by God with thefaculty of distinguishing betweent ruth and falsehood. He wasconvinced after full study andinvestigation that Hadhrat MirzaGhulam Ahmad( a s ) was theP romised Messiah. He realised thatin making this affirmation he wasputting his life in jeopardy and wasinviting the ruin of his family, buthe held his faith above everyworldly comfort and consideration.

The Sahibzada Sahib had held avery high position in the countryand had up to then passed his lifein great comfort.

He had a large family and a greatnumber of followers. The con-ditions of his imprisonment werepainful in the extreme, but all theprivations and pains anddiscomfort that he suffered overthis long period did not in theleast shake his determination toadhere firmly to his faith.

It appears that the Amir himselfdid not consider that theSahibzada Sahib had been guiltyof any serious offence and wasanxious to find, if possible, someexcuse to deal gently with him,but was afraid of a head-on

8



collision with the orthodoxdivines to whom the SahibzadaSahib's newly accepted doctrinewas anathema and who weredetermined to bring about hisruin. The Amir had directed thei n c a rceration of the SahibzadaSahib in the citadel in which hehimself resided so that he shouldhave no difficulty in approachingthe Sahibzada Sahib himself, ort h rough his emissaries, for thepurpose of persuading him torepudiate his erroneous doctrine.His continuous efforts in thatbehalf did not, however, have theleast effect upon the SahibzadaSahib.

One matter that must have upsetthe Amir was that the SahibzadaSahib during his imprisonmentdid not hesitate to affirm that therewas no justification in the pre s e n ttime to carry on Jihad with thes w o rd and that the teaching of theP romised Messiah ( a s ) in thiscontext was that this was the timeof propagating Islam thro u g hreason and argument and that theconcept of Jihad by the sword thatwas current among the Muslimswas not in accord with theteachings of Islam.

After the expiry of four months theAmir summoned the Sahibzada

Sahib into his presence anda d j u red him publicly that if hewould repudiate the claim of theQadiani pretender and histeachings, his life would be spare dand he would be set at liberty withh o n o u r. The Sahibzada Sahibreplied that it was not possible forhim to resile from the truth andthat the torment that a gov-ernment could inflict upon himwould end with his death, butthat he could not offend Him Whosetorment would be everlasting. Heurged, however, that the divineswho were opposed to his beliefshould enter into a discussionwith him on the question of thec o r rectness of the doctrines towhich they objected, and that ifthe arguments in support of hisbelief were effectively refuted hecould be condemned and pun-ished. The Amir approved of hissuggestion and Khan Mulla Khanand eight Muftis were selected toenter into discussion with theSahibzada Sahib. A doctor fromthe Punjab, of the name of AbdulGhani, who was bitterly opposedto the Promised Messiah’s( a s ) claimand teachings was appointed asumpire.

The discussion started at 2 a.m.and continued till 3.00 p.m. Therewas a large gathering in the

9



mosque where the discussion wasbeing held, but the exchange ofviews was carried on in writingand nothing was said orally. Atthe end of the written discussionthe Sahibzada Sahib was askedthat if this Qadiani was thePromised Messiah(as), what did hethink about the second coming ofJ e s u s( a s )? The Sahibzada Sahibaffirmed stoutly that Jesus(as) haddied and would not appear again,and that the Holy Qur'anproclaimed his death and stood inthe way of his coming again.Upon this the Muftis burst out inabuse against him and proclaimedthat no doubt was left of hisinfidelity; and they prepared andsubscribed to the formal decla-ration of his apostacy. ThereafterSahibzada Sahib was returned tohis cell burdened with his heavychains and fetters. Throughout thecourse of the discussion eightguards with drawn swords hadstood around the SahibzadaSahib.

The declaration of the Muftis wassubmitted to the Amir at nightwithout the re c o rd of thediscussion, which is a stro n gindication that the Muftis had notbeen able to refute the arg u m e n t sof Sahibzada Sahib. The Amiracting solely upon the declaration

of the Muftis passed the sentence ofdeath on him.

This was a most irre s p o n s i b l eaction for which the Amir laidhimself open to serious blame.Indeed the whole procedure wasmost unjust and tyrannical.

T h e re was not the slightestjustification for subjecting theSahibzada Sahib to the torment ofthe most painful kind of durancefor a period of four monthswithout charging him with ano ffence and aff o rding him anopportunity of clearing himself.When at long last such anopportunity was granted, he wasbrought to the trial, if it can be sodescribed, loaded with his heavychains and fetters and eightguards with drawn swords keptwatch over him, so that he mightbe overawed and handicapped inreplying to the charges preferredagainst him.

The Amir realised that thediscussion might lead to the lossof the life of an innocent person,he should, therefore, have beenpresent himself in the course ofthe discussion; but not havingdone so he should have insistedthat the written re c o rd of thediscussion should be submitted to

10



him. Indeed, not only should hehave himself perused the recordof the discussion to satisfy himselfof the guilt of the accused person,he should have directed thepublication of the entire record toshow that the Sahibzada Sahibhad failed to set forth any proof insupport of the claim of theQadiani Promised Messiah(as), orin support of the prohibition ofJihad by the sword, or in supportof the death of Jesus(as). He shouldat least have inquired from theMuftis on what was theircondemnation of the Sahibzadabased, and whether, in view of thed i ff e rences that divided thevarious sects of Muslims, all ofthem, except one, should besimilarly condemned.

The next morning the SahibzadaSahib was summoned to theSalam Khana where a large crowdwas gathered. The Amir left thecitadel and on his way to theSalam Khana noticed theSahibzada Sahib at one place andasked him what had been decidedin the discussion. He returned noanswer to the Amir's query, butone of the guards said that he hadbeen condemned. When the Amirarrived in the Salam Khana hecalled for Sahibzada Sahib andsaid to him: 'You have been

d e c l a red an apostate. Will younow repent, or will you submit tothe penalty?' He replied that hecould not repent of the truth andwould not subscribe to falsehoodto save his life. The Amir urgedhim again to repent and promisedto let him go free if he wouldrecant. The Sahibzada Sahibfirmly declined and said that hewould never give up the truth. TheAmir then wrote out an order inhis own hand, and basing himselfon the declaration of the Muftiscondemned Sahibzada Sahib todeath by stoning. This documentwas suspended round SahibzadaSahib’s neck and the Amir directedthat a hole should be bored throughhis nose and a rope should be runt h rough it and he should in thismanner be led to the place ofexecution. This painful operationwas carried out and SahibzadaSahib was led outside the town tothe place appointed for hisexecution, through the re v i l i n gand cursing crowd. The Amir alsop roceeded to the place ofexecution accompanied by hiscourtiers, Qazis, Muftis and otherhigh officials.

At the place of execution a pit hadbeen dug and Sahibzada Sahibwas made to stand in it and it wasthen filled up to his waist. The

11



A m i r, his brother Sard a rN a s rullah Khan and the ChiefQazi and commandant AbdulAhad were mounted on theirhorses, and everyone else was onfoot. The Amir again approachedSahibzada Sahib and told him thatif he repudiated the QadianiPromised Messiah(as) even now, hewould be delivered from death.He adjured him to have mercy onhimself and the members of hisfamily and comply with theAmir's suggestion. The SahibzadaSahib affirmed he could in no w i s edeny the truth and could not abjurehis faith to save his own life and tos a f e g u a rd the members of hisf a m i l y. Thereupon the Qazis andjurists raised a clamour that he wasan infidel and should be destro y e dforthwith. Thereupon the Amird i rected the Chief Qazi to thro wthe first stone. The Qazi said thatthe Amir should do so, as he wasthe sovereign. The Amir re j o i n e dthat the Qazi was the repository ofthe law and that it was his sentencethat was to be carried out. The Qazithen dismounted and aimed astone at Sahibzada Sahib whichs t ruck him with great force andmade him lower his head. TheAmir then aimed another stone athim and thereupon stones began tobe hurled at him from everyd i rection till a mound of stones ro s e

up above him. The day of executionwas 14 July 1903.

The Promised Messiah( a s )

expressed himself in the followingterms about this tragic event:

‘The martyrdom that wasappointed for Sahibzada AbdulL a t i f( r a ) was thus accomplished.The recompense of the tyrant isnow awaited: “The portion ofhim who comes to his Lord asinner is hell; he shall neitherdie therein nor live” [20:75].The Amir placed himselfwithin the operation of theverse: “Whoso kills a believerd e l i b e r a t e l y, his re w a rd shall behell, wherein he shall abide andAllah will be wroth with himand cast him away and willp re p a re for him a gre a tpunishment.” The Amir castaside the fear of God andbecame guilty of killing abeliever who had no equal inthe whole of Afghanistan. Hewas one of those who laiddown their lives with fullsincerity in the cause of faithand truth and have no care forwife and childre n .

‘I call down a thousandblessings on you, O AbdulLatif, that you proved your

12



sincerity in my lifetime, for I donot know how those of myCommunity will behave whowill survive me.’ [Tadhkaratush Shahadatain,p p . 4 7 - 5 8 1 ]

The Promised Messiah(as) furtherobserved:

‘The merciless killing ofSahibzada Abdul Latif(ra) is amost grievous event; but it isalso full of blessings that willbe manifested with thepassage of time and the land of

Afghanistan will see whatconsequences the shedding ofhis blood will entail. His bloodwill not go waste. Before this,poor Abdur Rahman ( r a ), amember of my Community,was unjustly killed, and Godtook no action. But after thistragedy He will not re m a i nsilent, and grave conse-quences will manifestthemselves. It is understoodthat soon after the martyrdomof the Sahibzada a severe epi-demic of cholera broke out inKabul and many notable

13



Map of Afghanistanand surroundingterritories

people, including some nearrelatives of the Amir, passedout of this world. This was amost merciless killing whichhas no match in this age. Whatfolly has this Amir committedthat he has ruined himself byhis merciless killing of such aninnocent person. O land ofAfghanistan, bear witness thata grave offence has beencommitted in thee. Ounfortunate land, thou hastfallen in the estimation of Godin that this great tragedy wasenacted in thee.’ [Tadhkaratush Shahadatain,p.72]

Sahibzada Abdul Latif ( r a ) l e f tbehind his widow and five sons.They were all subjected to severepersecution and torment at theinstance and under the directionof the government of Afghanistanfor nearly a quarter of a century,yet they all remained steadfast intheir faith. Two of his sons died offever in jail in Afghanistan.Eventually his widow, three sons,a sister and some of hisg r a n d c h i l d ren moved out ofAfghanistan on 2 February 1926,and came to Bannu, in BritishIndian territory, where there wassome property belonging to thefamily.

The assassination of SahibzadaAbdul Latif(ra) was followed by anumber of significant events. Onthe day of his execution a fiercestorm of extraordinary violencepassed over certain parts of thecountry, a little after sunset. Onthe following day a severeepidemic of cholera broke out inthe city of Kabul and its environswhich carried away larg enumbers of people everyday overa period of weeks. The wife ofSardar Nasrullah Khan and one ofhis sons and several members ofthe royal family died of cholera,and also some of the Muftis whohad condemned the SahibzadaSahib.

The Punjabis who had beeni n s t rumental in inciting theAfghan Mullas against theSahibzada Sahib were thre eb rothers, Dr. Abdul Ghani,Maulvi Najaf Ali and MuhammadCharagh. Amir Habibullah Khancondemned them to 11 years'imprisonment for treason. Dr.Abdul Ghani had been the umpirein the discussion betweenSahibzada Abdul Latif(ra) and theMuftis. He was still in prisonwhen his wife died in Landi Kotaland his grown up son wasm u rd e red in broad daylight inKabul. After he had served out his

14



sentence he was expelled from thecountry. His brother Maulvi NajafAli was declared an infidel and anapostate in the time of Nadir Shahand was sentenced to be stoned todeath, but was permitted to returnto India through the interventionof the British Ambassador inKabul. His brother MuhammadCharagh was also expelled alongwith him.

The condemnation of SahibzadaSahib had been certified by QaziAbdur Razzaq and Qazi AbdurRauf, of whom the former was thesuperintendent of schools and wasthe Mullah in attendance upon theA m i r. He was subsequentlycharged with some offence andhaving been found guilty forfeitedall his pro p e r t y, and his limbswere cut off bit by bit in public tillin great torment only his torsowas left. It was then skinned andhe finally perished. Qazi AbdurRauf left Kabul and his son, QaziAbdul Wase, who was appointedhis successor, was cru e l l ymurdered in 1929.

Sardar Nasrullah Khan, brother ofAmir Habibullah Khan, hadbehind the scenes taken keeninterest in the incarceration andcondemnation of SahibzadaSahib. He was also present at his

execution. He was later suspectedof treason and was brought toKabul in chains by the order ofAmir Amanullah Khan and wascommitted to prison. The shockupset his mind and sometimelater he was killed in his cell bysuffocation. One of his sons haddied of cholera which followed onthe martrydom of SahibzadaSahib and another son wasassassinated after his father ’ sdeath. Amir Habibullah Khanhimself was shot dead by someperson unknown on 20 February1919 at night in his camp nearJalalabad and was buried there.The rebels of Shinwar raidedJalalabad and stoned his grave.His son Sardar Hayatullah Khanwas subsequently secretly hangedunder the order of Bacha Saquao.

The Promised Messiah(as) set outin some detail the particulars ofthe two martyrdoms of MaulviAbdur Rahman(ra) and SahibzadaAbdul Latif ( r a ) in his bookTadhkaratush Shahadatain whichwas published in 1903. In thisbook he admonished the membersof his Community in thefollowing terms:

‘If you will adhere to truth andfaith, angels will instruct you,heavenly comfort will descend

15



upon you, you will be helpedby the Holy Spirit, God will bewith you at every step and noone will be able to overcomeyou. Await the grace of Gods t e a d f a s t l y. Listen to abuseand keep silent. Endure beingbeaten and be steadfast. As faras possible do not resist evil,so that you may be accountedacceptable in heaven.’

At the end of the book heannounced:

‘Harken, all ye people. This is ap rophecy of Him Who hadcreated heaven and earth. Hewill spread this Community ofHis in all countries and willmake it supreme over all,through reason and arguments.The days are coming, indeedthey are near, when this will bethe only religion which will beheld in honour. God willbestow extraordinary blessingson this religion and Movement.He will frustrate everyone whoseeks to destroy it. Thiss u p remacy will last till theJudgment Day.

R e m e m b e r, that no one willdescend from heaven. All ouropponents who are alive todaywill die and no one will see

J e s u s( a s ) son of Mary ( a s )

descending from heaven. Thentheir next generation will passaway and no one of them willsee this spectacle. Then thegeneration next after that willpass away without seeing theson of Mary (as) descending fromheaven. Then God will makethem anxious that though thetime of the supremacy of thecross had passed away and theworld had undergone gre a tchanges, yet the son of Mary(as)

had not descended fro mheaven. Then the wise peoplewill suddenly discard thisbelief. The third century aftertoday will not yet have come toa close when those who holdthis belief, whether Muslims orChristians, will lose all hopeand will give up this belief indisgust. There will then be onlyone religion that will prevail inthe world and only one leader. Ihave come only to sow the seed,which has been sown by myhand. Now it will sprout andgrow and flourish and no onecan arrest its growth. [Tadhkaratush Shadatain, pp.54-61].

16



On 14th July 1903, a man wasexecuted in Kabul by stoning. Hiscrime was that he proclaimed that aperson claiming to be the PromisedMessiah(as) was a truthful personand he believed in him. Theexecution was ordered by the Rulerof Afghanistan, Amir HabibullahKhan, after a decision made by thereligious Muslim leaders of hiscourt.1

His name was Hadhrat SahibzadaSyed Abdul Latif.

The Prophecy:

Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as)

of Qadian (1835-1908) wrote inTadhkaratush Shahadaitain: ‘Alaswhat has this unwise ruler done byexecuting an innocent person withsuch fierce barbarianism! He hsascompletely destroyed himself. Oland of Afghanistan, bear witnessthat a grave offence has beencommitted in thee. O unfortunateland, thou hast fallen in theestimation of God in that this greattragedy was enacted in thee.’2

The Early History:Lying between the fertile lands ofIran and India, Afghanistan

p rovided routes of invasion andconquest in the past. AlthoughAfghan historians refer to this landas Aryana, the name ‘Afghanistan’dates from the middle of the 18thcentury when Ahmad Shah Abdali(Durarani) restored national unity.Great Britain and France had theireyes fixed on India and the PersianGulf and the forces of Russia werepushing southwards. After thedeath of Ahmad Shah in 1773,constant internal revolts followed.The Afghans lost Sind andPeshawar to the Sikhs. In 1838, aBritish mission was established inKabul to halt Russian influence.Two Anglo-Afghan wars followedwith puppet rulers being installed.In 1842, out of 16,500 soldiers onlyone survivor reached the fort inJalalabad on a stumbling pony.L a t e r, a newly arrived Britishresident at Kabul was murdered.Dost Muhammad’s grandson,Abder Rahman Khan, wasrecognised as the Amir in 1880 bythe British who had marched onKandahar. Abder Rahman consol-idated his hold by taking Herat,Hadharajat and Kafiristan andentering into agreements withBritain and Russia. Habibullah


Hundred Years of Divine RetributionBy Latif Ahmad Qureshi – UK

Khan succeeded to the Afghant h rone on the death of AbderRahman in 1901 and slowed downsteps to take Afghanistan into the20th century. Since 1903, the historyof Afghanistan can as best bedescribed as chequered.

The RetributionIn the evening of 14th July 1903 anunusually fierce thunder- s t o r ms t ruck the site of execution. Next dayan epidemic of cholera broke out inthe city and a large number of peopleincluding close members of theruling family died. A member of hiss t a ff assassinated Amir HabibdullahKhan in 1919; his young son washanged to death while his other son,Amanullah, succeeded him.

In 1921, the Third Anglo-AfghanWar erupted. In 1923, Amanullahchanged his title from Amir toBadshah (King). Upon his returnfrom Europe, he made it illegal forthe Mullahs (clerics) to have anycontact with the armed forces. In1929 this ruling family finally losthold of the country and the lastruler, Amir Amanullah Khan, hadto escape and seek refuge in Italy.3

Habibullah Kalakani, known asBachai Saqao (son of the water-carrier), a ruthless brigand hadstormed the city of Kabul.Amanullah was provided cover byBritish planes flown from Peshawar

to assist him escape with his family.Mahmud Tarzai sought asylum inTurkey and died there his heart fullof sorrow and despair in 1933. Thecountry has been hit by anarchysince. Fighting and killing has goneon amongst various warlords whohave control over different parts ofthe country.

Bacahai Saqao assumed the name ofHabibullah Ghazi and set himselfup as the Amir but was executedwhen Gen. Nadir Khan took controlof Kabul. His tribal army lootedgovernment buildings and thehouses of wealthy. In 1930, a pro-Amanullah uprising was put down.In November 1933, when KingNadir was about to present a trophyto a victorious football team, acollege student stepped from theranks of spectators and assassinatedNadir Khan. Nadir Khan’s son,Muhammad Zahir Shah, inheritedthe throne. In 1939, there was a newpro-Amanullah uprising.

In July 1947 when the Britishgovernment was about to grantindependence to India, Afghanistansent a note requesting that thepeople of the Northwest FrontierP rovince, once controlled byAfghanistan, be allowed to decide.A plebiscite in the same month wasover-whelmingly, not surprisingly,in favour of Pakistan. Bord e rattacks and skirmishes since have

18

Hundred Years of Divine Retribution


led to hot and cold re l a t i o n sbetween Pakistan and Afghanistan.They almost came to a war in 1961.

In 1954, when the United Statesrejected Afghanistan’s request toupdate its military hard w a re ,Prince Mohammad Daoud, thenPrime Minister, turned to the SovietUnion and under Kruschev andBulgaria, Afghanistan began to leanto the Eastern Bloc. In 1963, ZahirShah demanded the resignation ofDaoud and replaced him with DrMohammad Yusaf. Babruk Karmal,a communist, who had been electedto Parliament, later instigated riots.Muhammad Moussa became PrimeMinister in 1972. On 17 July 1973,while Zahir Shah was on vacationin Europe, his government wasoverthrown in a coup headed byDaoud Khan and the AfghanCommunist Party.

In 1978, there was anothercommunist coup when Daoud waskilled and tensions began to rise.Mass arrests and tortures became adaily occurrence. Taraki was namedas the President. In June, theMujahideen group was born to carryout a guerilla war, sponsored by theWest and funded by the Middle Eastoil states. In 1979, the USAmbassador and later Taraki werekilled and Hafizullah Amin who hadtemporarily taken the Pre s i d e n c ywas executed.

In the 1980’s the country wasinvaded by USSR and a massivemassacre and dis-placement of thepeople of Kabul followed. DrNajibullah was brought back fromUSSR to run the secret police. Thisfighting went on for about a decade.In 1984, the UN sent itsinvestigators to examine humanrights violations. Najibullah pro-posed a ceasefire in 1987 but theMujahideen refused to deal. Havinglost some 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers,the Soviet Union ultimately pulledout on 15 February 1989 leavingbehind land mines and craters asthe joint legacy of the Mujhahideenand Soviet era in this war- t o r nt e r r i t o r y. On 15 April 1992, theMujahideen took Kabul and formedthe Islamic Jihad Council to governthe country. More fighting fromIranian and Pakistani led groupsfollowed. Professor Burh a n n u d i nRabbani was elected President.

In 1994, the Taliban militia came intoexistence and advanced rapidlyagainst the Rabbani government.Dostum and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,Head of Hizbe Islami, clashedagainst Rabbani and as a conse-quence, Kabul was reduced torubble. In 1996, the Taliban took overKabul and executed Najibullah.Taliban oppression of women mani-fested itself with women fully veiled,not allowed to go out alone, or wearwhite socks; men must wear beard s .

19



Mass graves of between 1,500 to2,000 Taliban soldiers pre s u m a b l yc a p t u red in Mazar-i-Sharif wered i s c o v e red in 1997. In Febru a r y1998, an earthquake struck NorthEastern Afghanistan killing 4,000people, destroying villages andleaving thousands of peoplehomeless. To compound this, theTaliban finally retook Mazar- i - S h a r i fin August and massacred thousandsof Hazaras. That same month, the USlaunched cruise missiles to shootdown Osama bin Laden and destro yhis terrorist bases and trainingfacilities. In February 1999, anotherearthquake hit eastern Afghanistankilling 60-70 people and leaving30,000 aff e c t e d .

In May 2000, the Taliban torturedand killed civilians in Robatak Pass.In December, the UN SecurityCouncil passed Resolution 1331 tosupplement its Resolution 1267imposing additional sanctionsagainst Taliban for their continuingsupport of terrorism and cultivationof narcotics. The Taliban response inJanuary 2001 was further tortureand killing of Hazaras inYakaolong. In March the Ta l i b a nblew up the giant Bamiyan Budhasfrom the 5th century.

Then followed the US led UN actionin the country following the eventsof September 11, 2001 in New York.This story is now very well known.

Kabul today is a deserted, ruined,dangerous and destitute place tolive, one hundred years after whathappened in July 1903 as wasforetold at that time by HadhratA h m a d( a s ), the Promised Messiahand Reformer of this age.

Bibliography:1. Shahid Dost Muhammad.

Ta re e k h - i - A h m a d i y y a t ( U rd u )Edition 2. Vol. 2. p.325.

2. Ahmad Mirza Ghulam.Tadhkaratush Shahadatain(Urdu) Edition 2, p.2.

3. Shahid Dost Muhammad.Ta re e k h - i - A h m a d i y y a t ( U rd u )Edition 2 Vol 2 pp.335-337.

20




[Following a discussion on thespread of seasonal epidemics,the Promised Messiah( a s )

stated:] When sinfulness andwickedness spread in theworld then such epidemicsspread. When people becomei n d i ff e rent and care l e s stowards God, God Almightyalso becomes indiff e re n ttowards such people. I can seethat even now there is no

Efficacy of Repentance – part 1

The founder of the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community was Hadhrat

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as).In 1891, he claimed, on the basis ofDivine revelation, that he was theP romised Messiah and Mahdiwhose advent had been foretoldby Muhammad, the Holy Prophetof Islam (peace be upon him) andby the scriptures of other faiths. His claim constitutes the basis ofthe beliefs of the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community.

Presented below, in translation, is Part 1 of the address of Hadhrat MirzaGhulam Ahmad(as) of Qadian, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi delivered inQadian on 21 February 1904. The Urdu text of the speech is taken fromMalfoozat, Volume 6, and pp.345-350. 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.

[Translator’s Note: All references tothe verses of the Holy Qur’an aregiven in Arabic as they occur in thetext. The English translation,presented in Italics, is taken from thetranslation of the Holy Qur’an byHadhrat Maulvi Sher Ali Sahib(ra).

Where the Promised Messiah(as) hashimself stated a certain inter-pretation of the Arabic verse, this isincorporated in the main body of thetext].

Translated by Amatul Hadi Ahmad


abatement in their mischief andwickedness despite the fact thatthe plague is spreading like anall consuming fire that appearsto be ready to eat up all thatcomes in its path. In spite of thist h e re is the same dishonesty,fraud and wicked behaviour.Rather than lessening, mis-conduct seems to be on thei n c rease. This gives anindication of what may the Wi l lof God Almighty be. [Peopleshould know that] God does nott i re. In earlier times whenpeople did not desist from evilb e h a v i o u r, the earth was turned‘upside down’ [i.e. great nationsw e re destroyed] and great citiesw e re wiped out.

When the plague first started tos p read [in India], peoplethought it was just an illnesslike many others, illness thatjust happened to spread at thistime and that it would soondisappear. However, God hadinformed me of it at a timewhen there was no sign of thisepidemic that this disease isabout to spread. When thisterrible epidemic re a c h e dBombay, God informed me that

it would soon reach Punjab. Atthis many who did not fear fortheir own end, laughed andmocked but now you can seehow widespread this plague is– there is now no place where ithas not reached. If there is anyplace that has not yet beenactually affected then knowthat it is surrounded by the‘fire’ of this plague and it toowill be engulfed shortly.

In reality now is a time forcareful consideration and fordeep anxiety at the fact thatthere has not been found a cureor remedy for this plague norhas there been detected anypractical action that may betaken as being effective againstit. Hence the need for seriousthought as to why thispestilence has come when ithas and what might be a curefor it? The reality is as God hasinformed me that unlesspeople turn to God with truerepentance and desist fro mmocking and abusing God’sw o rd, until that time therewould not be any re p r i e v e .H o w e v e r, when people turnt o w a rds repentance and

Efficacy of Repentance – Part 2


t o w a rds seeking forg i v e n e s sfrom God Almighty as well asmanifesting an internal change,then God too would look downwith mercy. However, I see thatto date there has been nonoticeable change. It seems tobe the same hothouse ofmischief and wickedness andnumerous sins of all descrip-tion are being committed. Fromthis it appears that ‘pre -parations’ are in hand forGod’s punishment. There areprophecies regarding this evenin the earlier Books that at thetime close to the ‘latter days’,t h e re would be a generalspread of epidemics that wouldtake a great number of lives.Such days are close at hand andthere has now broken out afatal epidemic of pestilencewhich tells us that these are the‘latter days’.

Remember this well that whenthe poisonous air of meannessand jealousy, of dishonesty andevil behaviour starts to blow,then it is the case that the lovefor God becomes cold andmankind does not display anyfear of God as it should. This ‘illwind’ is similar to the air thats p reads diseases such as choleraand it destroys wherever itgoes. At such a time some fallp rey to the illness and die butthose who survive, they too areleft feeling poorly and they donot enjoy good health. Theys u ffer from ailments such asindigestion and other similarillnesses that emerge affected bythe air of the epidemic.

Similar is the case withspiritual ailments. When the ‘illwind’ of prevalence of sinsblows, some are destro y e dcompletely but the spiritual


WHEN THE ‘ILL WIND’ OF PREVALENCE OF SINS BLOWS,SOME ARE DESTROYED COMPLETELY BUT THE SPIRITUAL

HEALTH OF THOSE WHO SURVIVE ALSO SUFFERS TO SOME

EXTENT AND THIS IS HAPPENING NOW. ..... – I T I S S U C H T H AT

T H E I R A C T I O N S A R E D I S TA N T F R O M T H E BO O K A N D T H E

S U N N A H, [I.E. T H E T R A D I T I O N S O F T H E HO LY PR O P H E T(S A)] .


health of those who survivealso suffers to some extent andthis is happening now. Thereare many that openly commitevil deeds and are engulfed indebauched behaviour and theyare a long distance away fromrighteousness and fear of God.The condition of those who arecustomarily re f e r red to as‘ religious’ has also deteriorated– it is such that their actions aredistant from the Book and theSunnah, [i.e. the traditions of theHoly Pro p h e t( s a )]. They dowhatever they think is right.They have abandoned thereality and spirit [of Islam] anda d h e re, instead, to the outershell and bones. That is whyGod Almighty has, according toHis practice, sent a punishment.In such situations, GodAlmighty turns this very worldinto an example of Qayamah,that is ‘Dooms Day’, and suchterrifying situations unfold thatlife itself appears like anexample of Dooms Day. Atp resent we are facing such daysbecause I can see that instead oflove of truth there is ananimosity towards the truth andthe standard of behaviour has

deteriorated. There is so muchs t ress on incorrect beliefs thatthe situation has now re a c h e de x t reme proportions. Observeall the diff e rent nations whow e re silent [re g a rding Islam] forthe past thirteen hundred yearseven though, from time to time,they were at war with Islam butthey were still quiet [as re g a rd sp ropaganda against Islam].They did not indulge in thecalculated wickedness that theynow manifest for the totald e s t ruction and eradication ofIslam. They did not then possessthe religious poison that theynow display. Fifty years ago ifwe were to look for a bookagainst Islam, very possibly wewould not find a single copy.Nowadays, however, there issuch an abundance of this typeof literature that if these werecollected up in one place theywould form a mountain. SomeChristian publications arepublished in hundreds ofthousands in one go. Theyp roduce literature in which ahumble mortal has been turnedinto a god. At the same time theReformer and Rejuvenator, theHoly Prophet of Islam, (peace



and blessings of God be uponhim) who came at a time whenthe world was full of impurityand impiety and who cleansedand purified the world and gavelife to a world that was dead – inrespect of such a pure and gre a tperson these people use suchfoul language the like of whichhas never been used pre v i o u s l yfor any one of the one hundre dand twenty four thousandP rophets that have gone before.

I am amazed that thesewretched people felt that theyhad to target the Holy Prophetof Islam (may the peace andblessings of Allah be uponhim). and yet have turned aweak son of Adam into a godand they carry out their illdeeds fearlessly with muchglaring boldness. They them-selves consume alcohol likewater and yet dare to attack apure and holy personage suchas that of the Holy Pro p h e t(peace and blessings of Allahbe upon him). If any onewishes to see the effect of thesalvation off e red by theChristians, he should travel toEuropean countries and see for

himself what example of purityand piety it offers!

[ T h e re is yet another gro u p ]who consider themselves to bevery sophisticated. They aretotally bent upon this worldand they are so immersed in theworld that they have in factmade the world their god. It isc o n s i d e red laughable beforethis group to utter such word sas ‘God willing’, and to suggestturning towards God and tru s tin God seem to them foolishand laughable acts. Yet theinfluence of this group is [sopervasive] that it is destro y i n gh u n d reds of thousands ofpeople. Despite the fact [thatthey consider reliance uponGod a foolish thing to do] yetfor the eradication of Islam theythink nothing of spendingmoney like water - thousandsupon thousands of Rupees aregiven to this cause. Remember,h o w e v e r, that Islam will not beeradicated despite all efforts forits eradication – its Protector isGod Almighty Himself.

Turning to the internal state ofIslam [as is being practised by



the Muslims], we see that thefountain of all knowledge andblessings used to be thereligious scholars. However,their condition has become sodowngraded and pitiable thatone feels a sense of shame toeven speak of it. It appears to bethe case that whatever error iscommitted by one of them, it isa d h e red to with such force thatit is impossible for them to letgo of it. More o v e r, shouldsomeone point out theirmistakes, they pounce on such aperson, giving him such titles as‘ K a f i r’ and ‘Dajjal’, [meaning‘non believer’ and ‘anti-Christ’]- such is their practice. Thepractise of the truthful andrighteous person, on thec o n t r a r y, is such that fro mwhichever direction he isinformed of his error heabandons it there and then - hedoes not persist in his erro r. Theexistence and persistence ofd i ff e rent sects, the hurling ofinsults amongst the diff e re n tsects, lack of awareness of theknowledge of the Qur’an and ofIslam point to their condition.That which affects only theworld, punishment and the

e ffect related to that is alsolimited to the world. However,when a matter relates to theh e re a f t e r, laxity in relation tothat could lead to the abyss.

At times I am so surprised atthe behviour of such peoplethat the thought goes throughmy mind that they do not havea belief in God; otherwise I donot understand how it is thatthey see signs and manifes-tations and I present to themargument after argument butwithout any effect. On thec o n t r a r y, before those whotruly believe if we as much asrecite God’s verses, they arefilled with the fear of God anddo not dare to falsify it or dareto open their lips against it. Theother group, however, are in astrange state. First of all, I putbefore them this point that Godhas appointed me and then insupport of my claim I presentto them verses from the HolyQ u r ’an but they refuse toaccept either of these.Thereafter, when I present tothem the witness of the HolyProphet of Islam (peace andblessings of Allah be upon



him)., they become fearful buteven that has no effect. Theysee the signs of God but theyrefute them, nor do anyintellectual arguments haveany effect. In short, whatevermeans can be employed for therecognition of a truthful personare presented to them but theydo not accept any of these.

T h e re is a story about Jesus( a s )

(in Mathnawi of Maulana Rum)that once Jesus was running andsomeone enquired as to why hewas running. He said I amrunning from the ignorant.Someone said why do you notblow upon them Ism-e-Azam[the most effective name ofGod]. He said even Ism-e-Azamdoes not have any effect onthem. In re a l i t y, ignorance, too,is a dangerous death. Here ,h o w e v e r, it is beyond under-standing as to what kind ofignorance this is. These peopleread the Qur’an, makecommentaries on it, they havethe Hadith as a check but whenwe present [the same by way ofp roof] they refute it. Theyneither believe themselves norallow others to believe.

We are living through an age inwhich human beings havecompletely forgotten thepurpose for which they werec reated, [as stated in thefollowing verse of the HolyQur’an].

And I have not created the Jinnand the men but that they mayworship Me.(Ch.51;V.57)

H o w e v e r, these days foolishman wishes to come out of thestate of being a servant of Godand seeks to become GodHimself and truthfulness andsincerity and faithfulness thatGod desires [from humanbeings] is non existent in suchpeople. Should one stand inthe bazaar, one would seethousands of people comingf rom one end and going to theother but their purpose isnothing more than the materialworld.


28



God has not stopped man fromundertaking work of this world– he should not, however, do sofor the world. He should do itfor his faith and doing sowould make the work blessed.For instance, God commandsthat Muslims should be kind totheir wives:

And consort with them inkindness.(Ch.4: V.20)

However, if a person does soon the basis of one’s ownselfish feelings then it is of noconsequence. However, if thesame treatment is done for thesake of obedience to the divineteaching then it becomesblessed. I see that people carryout their worldly chores for thesake of the world. It is the lovefor the world that makes themdo things – they do not do it forthe sake of God. For instance, ifthey wish for pro g e n y, theyshould pray that God maygrant them a child who would,under the following Quranicverse, be the cause of

upholding the ways of Islam.

And make us a model for therighteous.(Ch.25:V.75)

When there is such a nobled e s i re, God who is AllOmnipotent, can grantprogeny even as He granted toZakariah. However, I see thatpeople do not seem to lookbeyond ‘this is my garden, andthese are my possessions’, inorder that he should keep themin his own possession andtakes care that no one elseshould take them away fromhim. Such people do not eventhink that when they die, forthem friend and foe would bealike. I have heard manypeople who ask for prayersthat they may have an heir fortheir estate lest some otherfamily may become their heirs.They do not care if the childrenthey have are good or bad orvery bad as long as they haveprogeny. This would appear tobe all the knowledge of Islamthat they have. In contrast, if

29



you take a true believer, hewould place his religion beforeall else – should he build ahouse, he would think of thereligious aspect first. Hisclothing and eating, all are forthe sake of his faith. He eats,not for the sake of getting fit,but for being fit for the sake ofperforming his duty by hisfaith, just as the owner of ahorse that is used in earning hiskeep feeds the horse, keeps itw a t e red and generally takesgood care of it in order that hecan benefit well from it. Similaris the case of a person - his ownself has rights that he needs toattend to, and the family hasrights that he has to fulfil andthere is also the right of God.Should he not attend to therights of his own self or person,then he would die and thatwould be something for whichhe would be answerable.

In short, remember that a truebeliever in fact worships God[in all his worldly concerns] -his every word and every act,his state of rest or comfort, allare in reality worship of Godeven though apparently these

may give cause for objections.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.

To be continued

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 uponhim’. Likewise, the letters ‘(as)’or ‘as’ after the name of allother prophets is anabbreviation meaning ‘Peacebe upon him’ derived fromAlaih salato wassalam’ for therespect a Muslim reader utters.Also ru or (ru) forRahemahullahu Ta ’ a l a m e a n sthe Mercy of Allah the Exaltedbe upon him


Where is the line drawnbetween those who go toparadise and those who go toh e l l ?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad:The Holy Qur’an draws thisline very conspicuously formankind and yet invisibly. Ishall explain this - it is not aparadox, it is a situation ofcompulsion.

The Holy Qur’an states thatman would not be burd e n e dbeyond his capacity, (Ch.2:v.287). This is an overriding law.A person will have ‘earned’ hisreward [by way of good deeds]

and this will be for him, andagainst him is what he does byway of wrong doings. This is avery important principle. Whenwe talk of misbehaviour orwrongdoing we forget that thisshould be judged and under-stood as a relative act,dependent upon the diff e re n tc i rcumstances from whichdeeds arise. The misbehaviourof a child who has been broughtup in an impoverishedenvironment should be judgeda c c o rdingly and diff e re n t l yfrom that of a child who facesm o re fortunate circ u m s t a n c e s .For example, should the morefortunate child steal, it is in ascenario where he is notcompelled to steal for food and

QUESTIONER

Belief andGuidance

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the FourthHead of the Ahmadiyya Movement inIslam, (God’s Mercy be upon him),o ff e red to people of all nationalities,faiths and beliefs the opportunity ofraising questions and discuss issues thatwere of interest to them. Presented beloware answers to some questions that wereraised in two sessions held in London. Compiled by Amatul Hadi Ahmad


such like. [One can includemany other crimes in thiscategory]. These days, somejudges have already started totake note of circ u m s t a n c e sb e f o re passing a sentence.H o w e v e r, it is impossible forman to clearly see the line thatd i ff e rentiates between a tru l ycommitted criminal and the onewho may have somejustification.

The Holy Qur’an tells us it isonly God who would see theselines and he would re w a rdmankind justly according to thesituation in which one behavedin a certain manner.

Should state and religion bekept separate, in other words,is there a place in the modernworld for a theocratic state?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad:Certainly not - according to theHoly Qur’an there is no roomfor a theocratic state. Islam is areligion that emphasizes therole of secularism in govern-ment. I have recited to you[during the speech] many

verses of the Qur’an in whichthis has been clearly andrepeatedly mentioned. Theseverses command that one mustdischarge one’s responsibilities,as members of government,with the principle of absolutejustice – re g a rdless of thereligion, colour or creed of thepeople over whom one rules.The only known system ofdispensation of government inIslam is that based on absolutejustice.

Religion was needed at timeswhen humanity was notcultured or civilised. Do youagree that religion is makingmankind uncivilized today?More killings have been donein the name of religion.

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad:First of all I beg to differ withthe statement that more killingshave happened in the name ofreligion. I think the killings thatw e re caused by the secondworld war were far more thanall the killings in the wholehuman history done in thename of religion. If you look at

QUESTIONER

QUESTIONER

Belief and Guidance


the killings that have beenattributed to religion moreclosely, you would be horrifiedto learn that it is politics that isexploiting religion to spre a dh a t red and to encourage thekilling of others.

The people who move the pawnshave invisible hands and it is themove of ‘pawns’ that youobserve. What we understand byreligious madness is that it hasbeen employed to disturb thepeace of mankind re p e a t e d l y.H o w e v e r, it is not because ofreligion itself. No religion at itss o u rce when it is pure everadvocates hatred in the name oflove and murder in the name ofGod.

Always at the source, whenreligion is at its purest, religionis at the receiving end ofc ruelties. It admonishespatience, it admonishes love inreturn for cruelty and hatred. Itis not true religion that isresponsible for bloodshed - it iseither the misconceived orcorrupted and distorted conceptof religion or exploitation ofreligion when it has becomec o r rupted at the hands of

politicians that is re s p o n s i b l e ,(with due apologies to thepoliticians present today)!

Why is it essential for humanbeings to have the help ofProphets and why do Prophetshave certain names anddenominations attached tothem?

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad:The question raises the issuethat if a Prophet is bornamongst the Muslims, whyshould Christians change theirreligion to accept that message?The same is true of Hindus, ofConfucianists, of Zoro a s t r i a n sand of so many others. Whyshould man be put to such atrial, not only to change his wayof life but also to change thename of the religion in which heis born. This, in fact, is thefundamental obstruction in theway of acceptance of otherP rophets. However, thequestion is automaticallyresolved if the way in which theHoly Qur’an explains the officeof Prophethood is understood.

QUESTIONER

Belief and Guidance


According to the Qur’an, thetheory of Prophethood is thatGod always makes Himselfknown by manifesting Himselft h rough the agency of thosewhom He chooses to speak toand He chooses only suchpeople who are well suited toserve His cause. For example, ina society in which most peopleare not truthful - even if theydon’t lie directly but imaginethings and exaggerate – if Godchooses a certain person who isgiven to these vices, consciouslyor unconsciously, what wouldbe the result? Would God not bemisrepresented to the people? IfHe chooses someone who isweak of heart and who cannotgo through the stress ofopposition, will he not lose themessage half way? So, God hasto be selective. He has to selectonly such a person who ishighly capable, mentally as wellas in the quality of heart, to beperfectly suited to the office ofProphethood. This is how He,according to the philosophy ofIslam, chooses His messengers.

The second part is thatwhatever name He gives to areligion is just a transient thing.

What is important for man is todecide whether someone hasbeen sent by his Creator or not.That is the only thing that manshould judge. If he worriesabout labels, then he is dictatingto his Lord. He attaches acondition to God and says thatwhoever comes must have thistag with him or he would not,for instance, accept Christ if hecame with a diff e rent tag.S i m i l a r l y, Muslims naturallywould not believe in a Prophetf rom among the Christians.They would say that the nameof the religion that is true isIslam and so they will onlyaccept God’s messengers underthe condition that He sendsthem with the tags of theirchoosing and not any other.This means that one is dictatingterms to God. All that God isinterested in is that He wants tosee loyalty towards Him withno other loyalty standing in theway. That is the only test Heputs mankind through andwhenever He sends a mes-senger, man is always put to thesame test. At such times somepeople adhere to the religion ofthe people they are bornamongst. They say: ‘How can

Belief and Guidance


we accept such and such aperson when he has come froma diff e rent country, from ad i ff e rent race, from among ad i ff e rent people and in thename of a diff e rent re l i g i o nwhen we were expectingsomebody to come from withinour own religion’. These are thehindrances created in the way ofman’s acceptance of the truth.Hence, only those people accepta divine message whoseloyalties lie with their Creatoralone and not with somedenomination or name of areligion. This is why we areduty bound to seek out aP rophet wherever he comes.Why, however, is this so?

The reason why we needProphets is that Prophets comeonly during an age that isdistorted. A prophet appears ata time when mankind has, as awhole, gone astray, with theexception of a few; when manhas turned his back to his Lordand begun to feel the pride ofknowledge; when he considershimself not dependent on anyo u t w a rd source and believeshimself to have gained maturityand majority; when he thinks

that he does not stand in need ofany outside help or any super-natural interference. Only thendoes God send Prophets to cutman back to size with themessage that either he turns tohis Lord and submits to him orelse be destroyed as a civil-isation - and that is exactly whathas happened in previous ages.

There is a fallacy from which thepresent day man is suffering.We consider that we are themost advanced people on earthand a person belonging toprevious generations and ageswas backward. Since he was notmature, he could not see thingsas wisely as we can and couldnot make choices because hewas so far behind in history.This fallacy from which man issuffering is entirely deceptivebecause if one looks at themarch of humanity and takes ac ross section at any stage inh i s t o r y, the man of that agewould be the most advanced.He would be going through thesame psychological complex ofsuperiority because to him weare not visible. To the man ofprevious ages, the only visibletrace is of the man behind him.

Belief and Guidance

35

Belief and Guidance


This is the situation of manwhether he lived 4000 years agoor 6000 years ago. He wouldhave the same haughty attitudeand would be thinking that he isat the summit of things – thefirst in the procession ofmanhood. He thinks he belongsto people who have attainedmaturity in terms of humanthought and so he is fre e .According to the Holy Qur’an,the same question was raised byPharaoh some 3000 or so yearsago. ‘Why do we need a God orMoses? Are we not adultenough? We know what iswrong and what is right. Wealone are our gods and we don’tneed any other god’. Exactly thesame question was raised bypeople before the Pharaohs, thepeople of Noah and by yetothers before them. In short, thisis a question that has been askedagain and again. However, if weaccept that man needs anoutside agency, that is, aMessenger of Allah to guidehim – he needs it today as muchas he needed it in the past.

The second aspect from whichwe should look at this veryimportant and philosophical

question is this that howeveradvanced man is, in relation tohis Creator he stands at thesame place of ignorance. AsEinstein once beautifully put itthat in a way you cannot becloser to God because He isunlimited in His powers andHis attributes. The ratio that,a c c o rding to Einstein, aknowledgeable or a wise personhas with his Cre a t o r, ismathematically the same ratioas an ignorant person will havewith his Creator because man iszero as compared to the infinityof God. Hence, the relationshipwill always remain unchanged.However much pro g ress youmake in this age with respect toyour Creator and His wisdom,you remain ignorant and anignorant person always standsin need of guidance from awiser person - that relationshipcannot be changed.


‘It was under the influence ofArabian and Moorish revivalof culture and not in the 15thc e n t u r y, that the re a lrenaissance took place. ’Robert Briffault in T h eMaking of Humanity.

IntroductionIn recent years, Baghdad hasbeen the focus of world newsfor the wrong reasons, yetironically, the progress achievedby the industrialised world isdue in large part to this verycity. We will show in this essayhow Baghdad saved the Greekintellectual heritage by tran-lating old rare manuscripts intoArabic; later these Arabicversions became the source ofE u ropean re-birth andawakening.

Between the middle of the 8thcentury and the beginning ofthe 13th, the Arabic speakingpeople were the main bearers of

the torch of culture andcivilisation in the world.Ancient science and philosophyp reserved in the Sanskrit,Pahlavi, Syriac, and Gre e klanguages would have been lostf o rever had Muslim scholarsnot translated them into Arabic.These works were later to bere c o v e red, and supplementedby European scholars in the15th century paving the way forWestern Europe’s renaissance.

Baghdad was built by Caliph al-Mansur (754-775) in 762 on thewest bank of the river Tigris. Heemployed 100,000 arc h i t e c t s ,craftsmen and laboure r s .Because of its shape it wasreferred to as the Round City,although the builder hadofficially titled it Dar as-Salam(the abode of peace). The newcity comprised of the Caliph’spalace, mosque and residencesfor his children and governmentbuildings. There were offices for

Europe’s Debt to the Islamic World –How Arabic translations brought about the Renaissance

By Zakaria Virk – Canada

37

Europe’s Debt to the Islamic World


s e c retaries, halls for theambassadors, scholars andother visitors.

The buildings had green domes,some as high as 130 feet. Therewas a double wall around thecity 90 feet high with four gatesin the wall each adorned withan iron door. A new class ofbusinessman, craftsmen, mer-chants, theologians and scholarsa rose due to the suddenprosperity of the city. Trade wascarried on throughout thecaliphate, with fresh fruits andnew products finding their wayin the markets of the city.Business, industry and trademade great strides. Basra andSiraf were the busiest ports ofthe world. The Abbasid coinsrecently unearthed inScandinavia testify to the factthat trade activity wasworldwide. On Caliph Harunal-Rashid’s death, it is said, thestate treasury contained 900million dinars.

Intellectual activityThe real glory of Baghdad wasnot in wealth but in herintellectual creativity. Harun al-Rashid’s court attracted emi-

nent poets, scholars, musiciansand dancers. Science and artwas patronised by the Caliph aswell as by his learned vizierslike Khalid and Yahya Barmaki.A special bureau of poetry wasestablished which bestowedlarge sums of money on worthypoets. The intellectual activityof Baghdad passed through twostages, translation fro mSanskrit, Pahlavi, Syriac, andG reek in the 9th and 10thcenturies and later originalworks produced by eminentscientists like Ibn Sena (d.1037)and al-Tusi. The translationwork started under theUmayyad rule. Khalid ibn Yazid(d.704), an Umayyad prince isreported to have translatedworks on chemistry, medicineand astrology. The translationmovement received impetusunder caliph al-Mansur andreached its apogee under caliphal-Mamun. The translationwork was all but completeduring the caliphate of al-Mutawakil (847-861).

During the reign of Caliph al-Mansur (754-775) the trans-lation work was backed by thegovernment, unlocking the

38



treasures of Greek knowledge.He founded a department inwhich classical and scientificworks were translated fro mvarious languages into Arabic.People of high rank also tookpart in this endeavour. Thetranslation work started withtwo manuscripts, one onmathematics and the other onastronomy that were brought tohis court. The works of Greekmathematicians, which weretranslated during the AbbasidCaliphate and served as thestarting point for Arabmathematics were those ofEuclid, Ptolemy, Autolyscus,A r i s t a rchos and Arc h i m e d e s .Without these Arabic trans-lations, the philosophical,mathematical and scientificworks of Greek masters wouldhave been lost in Greek ImperialPalaces.

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari (d.796) translated intoArabic in 772 the Sanskrita s t ronomical work ofBrahmagupta called S i d d h a n t a(Arabic Sindhind) by order ofCaliph al-Mansur. Thistranslation was possibly thevehicle for the transmission of

the Hindu numerals from Indiato Islam later reaching Europein its modified form as ArabicNumerals.

In literature a book Kalila wa-Dimna was translated fro mPahlavi into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa (d758) which was thefirst literary work in Arabic. Heis mainly known for his twotranslations, one Siyar al-Mulukal-Ajam (History of the PersianKings) and Hazar Afsana (AlifLaila wa Laila), translated intoEnglish as Thousand and OneNights. Al-Hajaj ibn Yousuf ibnMater was the first translator(829) of Ptolemy’s astronomicalt reatise, Megale Syntaxis, intoArabic under the title al-Majisti.He was also the first to make anArabic translation of Euclid’sElements (830), which became as o u rce for Geometryworldwide.

Abu Yahya ibn Al-Bitriq (d758)was commissioned by al-Mansur to translate numerousmedical works. He was one ofthe pioneer translators of Greekinto Arabic. He translatedGalen's S i m p l i c i a; the D eProhibenda Sepultura and the De

39



Cura Icteri of the pseudo-Galen.He also translated Hippocrates:De Alimento (Kitab al-gida), DeSeptimanis, (Kitab al-asabi), andPtolemy’s Quadripartitum (Kitabal-Arabi'a).

Sa’id ibn al-Bitriq, was Patriarc hof Alexandria from 933 to 940whose works put him on anequal footing with Qusta ibnLuqa. In the field of medicine hew rote Kitab fi tibb (lost), inh i s t o r y, Kitab at-Ta r i k h a l - M a j m u ’a l - Tahqiq wa al-Ta s d i q, morecommonly known under thename, Nazam al-Gawahar. As anapologist, he wrote in defence ofC h r i s t i a n i t y, Kitab al-gadal bain al-muhalef wa al-nasrani.

Institute of Advance StudyDuring the Caliphate of al-Mamun al-Rashid (813-33) thetranslation work reached itszenith. Al-Mamun established ascientific academy in Baghdad,Bayt al-Hikmah in 830. Itcomprised a large library, anobservatory near Shamsiyyagate, houses for scientists, ab u reau of translation, severalcopyists, and some basicscientific instruments. Anyscientist belonging to any faith,

region or culture was free tocarry out his re s e a rch here .Mathematicians such as al-Kindi, al-Khawrizmi, al-Hajjaj,Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Sabit ibnQurra, al-Jawhari and the BanuMusa brothers were appointedby al-Ma'mun to the House ofWisdom. Works on astronomy,mathematics, geography, philo-s o p h y, and medicine w e rere n d e red into Arabic. Theg roundwork done by thesescholars provided the foun-dation by which the statelyedifice of Islamic learning wasbuilt. The caliphate of al-Mamun, undoubtedly consti-tutes the most glorious epoch inIslam.

Abu Zakariya Yuhanna IbnMasawayh (d.857) a physician,was its first dire c t o r. Hetranslated various Gre e kmedical works into Arabic. TheAcademy of Wisdom was acentre of practical and specu-lative studies and encouragednot only translations fro mSyriac, Pahlavi, Greek, andSanskrit, but also the diffusionof translated works. His bookwas translated into Latin asLiber de simplicibus.

40



Hunain Ibn Ishaq (809-873) wasthe second director of theA c a d e m y. As an outstandingtranslator he re n d e red intoArabic the complete medicaland philosophical works ofGalen as well as Aristotle’sphysics & the Old Te s t a m e n tf rom Greek. He travelled toAsia Minor to search for raremedical manuscripts andb rought these to Iraq. In histranslation work, Hunayn wasassisted by his able son Ishaq,and nephew Hubaish ibn al-Hassan. His many studentscompleted the trans-lation ofPlato, Hippocrates, Ptolemy,Euclid, and Pythagoras intoArabic, and made great originaldiscoveries in arithmetic,particularly in integral calculusand spherical astronomy. Caliphal-Mamun (813-833) is said tohave paid him in gold for histranslations, weight for weight.Hunayn also composed anumber of original medicalwritings, including theinfluential Questions on Medicinefor Beginners, Summaries &c o m m e n t a r i e s on Galen’s 16books, On the Method of Healingand On the Type of fevers.

Two methods were employedfor translations, one of themwas that the translator studiedeach Greek word and itsmeaning, chose an Arabic wordwith corresponding meaningand used it. Then he turned tothe next word until he hadre n d e red the whole text intoArabic. The second method wasthat of Hunayn who consideredthe whole sentence, understoodits full meaning and expressed itin Arabic without any regardfor the individual word. Withrespect to technical terminology,the process of trial and errorwas used. It was a diff i c u l tprocess to express many foreignideas, hence making trans-lations was not an easy task.Gradually the Arabic languagedeveloped the technical termi-nology it needed to express newthoughts, ideas and concepts.

Ishaq Ibn Hunayn (d.910) wastrained under his father’ ssupervision in Greek sciencesand the discipline of translation.His first language was Syriac,but his knowledge of Arabic wasfar superior to his father’s. Hefound special favour with Caliphal-Mutamid (870-892) and al-

41



Mutadid (892-902). His originalworks in medicine are On theSimple Medicine, Outline ofM e d i c i n e, and History ofP h y s i c i a n s. As one of the ablesttranslators, he translated variousworks of Plato, Porphyry,Alexander of Aphro d i s i a s ,Ammonious, Autolycus, Galen,Euclid, Aristotle, Ptolemy andH y p s i c l es.

Musa Al-Khawrizmi (d.780) wasone of the earliest scientists whodid his re s e a rch at Bayt al-Hikma. Al-Khwarizmi startedhis re s e a rch by translating andwriting a commentary onS i d d h a n t a. He pre p a red an atlasof the maps of heaven which hasbeen preserved. On request fro mhis patron al-Mamun he wrote abook on algebraic calculations ande q u a t i o n s translated into Latin in1143. Several of his books weretranslated into Latin in the early12th century. In fact, his book onarithmetic, Kitab al-Jam'a wal-Ta f reeq bil Hisab al-Hindi, was lostin Arabic but survived in a Latintranslation. His book on algebra,Al-Maqala fi Hisab-al Jabr wa-al-M u q a b i l a h, was also translatedinto Latin in the 12th century,and it was this translation which

i n t roduced this new science tothe West. His astronomical tablesw e re also translated intoE u ropean languages and laterinto Chinese. Several of hisbooks were translated into otherlanguages, and served asuniversity textbooks till the 16thc e n t u r y.

The three Banu Musa brothersdevoted most of their wealth tothe acquisition of Gre e kmanuscripts, and their trans-lations into Arabic. Hunayn andSabit ibn Qurra were two of themost famous translators theyemployed.

It should be emphasised thatthe translations into Arabic atthis time were made byphysicians, scientists andmathematicians, not by lan-guage experts ignorant ofmathematics, and the need forthe translations was stimulatedby the most advanced researchof the time. It is important torealise that the translating wasdone as part of the curre n tre s e a rch effort. Arabic trans-lations of mathematical worksof those times gave the Arabsthe sources to develop the

42



science of mathematics to anadmirably high degree andmodern scientists owe much toArab genius.

Sabit ibn Qurra (836-901)founded a school of translationthat included his son, twograndsons, and a gre a t -grandson. He revised oldtranslations such as Euclid, andmade new ones covering thebulk of Greek astronomical andmathematical works. Caliph al-Mutadid (892-902) was hispatron. His revision of Euclid’sElements formed the basis oflater Arabic versions.

Yaqoob Al-Kindi (801-873) wasamong the galaxy of intellectualswho occupied the scienceacademy of al-Mamun. Hismajor task was the translation ofAristotle’s Theology into Arabic.He was a physician, a musician,a mathematician and ana s t ro l o g e r. He served as courtphysician to al-Mutasim (833-842). His book on optics (Kitabal-Manazir) was translated intoLatin and was used by RogerBacon (1214-1294). He wrote 36books on medicine. In 1962 hismillenary anniversary was held

in Baghdad, and one speakerattributed 281 titles to him. Mostof his works have survived inLatin rather than Arabic. Hepolished the translations madeby others and also wro t ecommentaries. He was known asAlkindus in Latin.

Ahmad ibn Yousuf al-Misri (835-912) wrote a work on ratio andp roportion, a book On similara rcs, a commentary on Ptolemy’sCentiloquium and a book aboutthe astrolabe. Ahmad's work onratio and proportion was ac a refully constructed work thatinfluenced early Euro p e a nmathematicians such asFibonacci.

Qusta ibn Luqa (835-912) was aprominent figure in the Graeco-Arabic translation movementthat reached its peak in the 9thcentury. He made, revised, orsupervised translations of sixG reek masters Diophantus,Theodosius, Autolycus, Hero n ,Hypsciles and Aristarchus intoArabic. He also produced morethan 60 works of his own. Hew rote mainly on medicalsubjects, but also on mathe-matics and astro n o m y. There

43



was also Mankah the Indian,who translated from Sanskritinto Arabic, and translated atreatise on poisons written bythe Indian physician Shanaq.Al-Farabi (d.870) studied inBaghdad, his commentaries onAristotle’s logic, physics, andmetaphysics earned him thetitle of al-Muallim al-thani (thesecond teacher). He introducedPlato into Islam, having beeninspired by his book Republic.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74)w rote many commentaries onG reek texts including re v i s e dArabic versions of works byAutolycus, Aristarchus, Euclid,Apollonius, Arc h i m e d e s ,Hypsicles, Ptolemy, Theodosius,and Memelaus. In 1247 al-Tu s iw rote Tahrir al-Majisti (Com-mentary on the Almagest) inwhich he introduced varioustrigonometrical techniques tocalculate tables of sines. Manyhistorians claim that Copernicusused Tusi's work. One of hispupils Qutab ad-Din al-Shirazigave the first satisfactorymathematical explanation of ther a i n b o w.

Islamic Spain Al-Hakam, the ninth Caliph ofIslamic Spain (961-976) was themost scholarly ruler of Islam. Ag reat patron of sciences, heencouraged the study ofmathematics, astronomy andmedicine. Cordoba was one ofthe greatest cities of the world atthe time. Its university housedin the great mosque, embracedamong its departments theol-ogy, jurisprudence, astro-nomy,mathematics, and medicine.C o rdoba’s workshops wereproducing some 60,000 boundvolumes each year. Studentsfrom many European countriesflocked to Cordoba, To l e d o ,Granada and Seville to studysciences and other disciplines.When European rulers neededan artist, a physician, or atechnologist, they invariablyturned to the Cord o b a ngovernment. A Saxon nun( H rositha) styled Cordoba as‘The Jewel of the World’.

According to Philip K, Hitti,

‘Al-Hakam was abibliophile; his agentsransacked the book-shops ofAlexandria, Damascus and

44



Baghdad with a view tobuying or copying manu-scripts. The books thusg a t h e red are said to haven u m b e red 400,000, theirtitles filling a catalogue of 44volumes, in each one ofwhich 20 sheets weredevoted to poetical worksalone.’ (Capital Cities of Islam, p.320)

Al-Hakam, himself being anoutstanding scholar, personallyused a large number of thesebooks and wrote marginal noteson most of the manuscriptswhich made them very valuableto later scholars. The celebratedCaliph paid extraord i n a r yprices for the rare manuscripts.According to Ibn Khaldun hep u rchased the first copy ofKitab al-Aghani, written by al-Isfahani for one thousand puregold dinars.

Translations in EuropeThe knowledge translated intoArabic was from Sanskrit,Pahlavi, Syriac and Gre e ksources. Most of the translatorsw e re physicians. The firstmanuscripts to be translatedwere in medicine, mathematics,

and astronomy. A good numberof the translators were Syrians,Persians and NestorianChristians. Jewish translatorsdid participate only later andmade translations from Arabicinto Latin.

The contributions by Arabrulers were significant,consisting mainly in thepatronage of translation workand securing Greek manu-scripts. The golden age oftranslations was the ninthc e n t u r y. Muslims becamestandard bearers of civilisation.Translation work was thedriving force for Islam, as soonas it dried up the march of Islamcame to a halt. The age oftranslations lasted for 150 years(750-900), and paved the wayfor the age of composition andinnovation. The latter half of theninth and the tenth centuriesform the most creative period inthe history of Islamic scienceand learning.

In Western Europe thetranslation work from Arabicinto Latin started in the 12thc e n t u r y. Spain in this re s p e c tplayed the leading role in

45



transmitting Islamic learning toWestern Europe. There weretowering intellectual figure slike Av e m p a c e of Saragossa,Abubacer (Ibn To f a i l), andAv e r roes (Ibn Rushd), theastronomers al-Bitrogi, and IbnAflah, Maslama al-Majriti,instrument maker and designerArzachel (al-Zarqali), the greatsurgeon Albucasis (Abul Qasim-d.936), the great physicianAvenzoar (Ibn Zuhr), Avicebron(Ibn Gabirol), and Maimonides(Ibn Maimoon d.1204) whoenriched every field ofknowledge.

Within Europe men of diverselearning traveled to IslamicSpain to study; chief amongthem were Gerbert of Aurillac,Adelard of Bath, Plato of Tavoli,Robert of Chester, Herman ofCarinthia, Rudolph of Bruges,Gerard of Cremona and MichaelScott. Most of them wereengaged in translations fro mArabic into Latin. Thetranslation work was carried onat Barcelona, Tarazona, Leon,Pamplona, Toulouse, Narbonne,Marseilles, and later To l e d obecame the chief centre.

Toledo had been in Muslimhands from 712 to 1085, andsoon became the residence ofthe King of Castile. The ancientcity was the natural place forthe exchange of Christian andMuslim learning. There was awealth of Arabic books, and anumber of local scholars weremasters of two tongues. Thetranslations here started around1135 and continued until thetime of King Alfonso X (1252-84). A large part of thepopulation used Arabic as theirown language. Consequently itbecame the main channel fortransmitting the tre a s u res ofIslamic erudition to Europe.

The translators worked in pairs.A scholar would translate theoriginal Arabic into Romance(garbled Latin) and anotherwould make the Latin version.Many European scholars likeMichael Scott travelled to Spainand Sicily to learn Arabic and tomake direct translation intoLatin. Churchmen took an activerole as patrons or translators.A rchbishop Raymond (11 2 5 -1151) took the first initiative andestablished a school oftranslation on the pattern of

46



Baghdad’s Bayt al-Hikma. Thena rchdeacon of Segovia,Dominicus Gondisalvi (11 2 6 - 5 1 )made several translations ofArabic philosophy (includingK u l l i y a t of Ibn Rushd), theM e t a p h y s i c s and other works ofIbn Sena, Yanboo al-Hayat ( t h eFons Vitae) of Ibn Gabirol, I h s a la l - U l o o m of al-Farabi, andphilosophy of al-Ghazzali. Hisclassification of the sciences canbe traced to al-Farabi.

Translators of 12th centurySome of the outstandingtranslators of the 12th centuryw e re: Adelard of Bath (111 6 -1142) John of Seville (1126-51),Gundisalvo (1126-51), Hermanthe Dalmatian (1138-45), Hughof Santala (1119-51), Robert ofChester (1141-50), Plato ofTavoli (1133-50), Stephen ofAntioch (1128), Abraham benEzra (1092-1167), Abraham barHayya (1133-50) and Gerard ofCremona (1114-87).

The twelfth century was a periodin which translations fro mArabic into Latin dominated allother achievements. The impactof this activity was enormous.Toledo became a world centre of

c u l t u re. The transmission ofArabic knowledge helped pavethe way for the founding ofE u ropean universities inBologna (founded 1113), andSalerno in Italy, Paris andMontpellier (founded 1181) inFrance, Oxford and Cambridgein England. The internalo rganisation of these Euro p e a ncolleges was strikingly similar tothe Islamic ones, for example theidea of Graduate (S a h i b) andu n d e rgraduate (m u t a f a q q i h) isderived directly from Islamicterms.

The library of the MontpellierUniversity contained all thetranslations of the Arab writers.In the 14th century Montpellierwas the principle center for theteaching of Arabian medicineand astronomy. In 953 Otto theGreat, King of Germans, sent asenvoy a monk, John, whoresided in Cordoba for thre eyears, learned Arabic and tookback with him numero u sscientific manuscripts.

The teachings and influences ofthe Arabs, according to C.Elgood, spread thro u g hMontpellier and Bologna to

47



every medical school in WesternEurope. In Paris at one time thewhole faculty of medicineconsisted of books by Al-Raziand Ibn Sena, to this day theirportraits hang in the hall of theFaculty of Medicine in theUniversity of Paris. Ibn-Senaand al-Razi’s textbooks weretaught at Montpellier until 1555,while at the University ofLoraine up to the middle of the17th century, and lectures onIbn Sena continued at BrusselsUniversity in Belgium until1909. The curricula of Padua(founded in 1222), Palermo(founded in 1110) and of Oxfordin England (founded in 1167),consisted largely of Arabmedical textbooks. Al-Zahrawi’s medical masterpiece,al-Tasrif, was used for centuriesas the manual of surgery inSalerno, Montpellier and otherschools of medicine.

Roger Bacon himself foundedhis monumental Optics on thebasis of Ibn-Haytham's workKitab al-Manazir, in fact part Vof his Opus Majus which isdevoted to ‘perspective’ isvirtually an exact copy of Ibn al-Haisham’s afore m e n t i o n e d

book. He wrote a scientificencyclopedia resembling inmany ways Avicenna’s al-Shifa.(Jewish Encyclopedia, vol 6, page570). Thomas Aquinas was ledto write his Summas by Arabictranslations of Aristotle.

Adelard of Bath (1075-1160) wasone of earliest translators whomade the wholesome con-version of Arab-Greek learningf rom Arabic into Latin. Hemade Latin translations ofEuclid’s Elements from Arabics o u rces which were forcenturies the chief geometrytextbooks in the West. Histranslation of al-Khwarizmi’sastronomical tables became thefirst Latin astronomical tables ofthe Arabic type with their Greekinfluences and Indian symbols.Abraham bar Hayya (1070-1136)spent most of his life inBarcelona, an area of both Araband Christian learning, and wasactive in translating themasterpieces of Arab science.He deplored the lack ofknowledge of Arab science andlanguage among the people andhelped translate works intoLatin. He had also studied someof the important works on

48



algebra by Arab mathe-maticians, in particular al-Khwarizimi and al-Karaji.Abraham ben Ezra (1092-1167)translated al-Biruni’s commen-tary on al-Khwarizmi’s tablesand made interesting commentson the introduction of Indianmathematics into Arabic sciencein the 8th century. He was thefirst to translate Islamic writingsinto Hebrew.

G e r a rd of Cremona (111 4 - 8 7 )arrived in Toledo from Italy in1165. He was impressed by thewealth of the city’s Arabicl i t e r a t u re in science andp h i l o s o p h y. He spent theremaining years of his life intranslating the best of the Arabicbooks into Latin. All in all hemade seventy-one translations.The two most importanttranslations he made wereA l m a g e s t and the first Latintranslation of the gigantic a l -Q a n u n; the most widely studiedmedical work ever penned.

Robert of Chester (1141-50) anEnglishman, translated al-Kindi(Ahkam al-Najum), Khalid ibnYazid’s alchemical treatise, firsttranslation of al-Khwarizmi’s

algebra, Ptolemy’s treatise ona s t rolabe and also did the firstLatin translation of the HolyQ u r’an.

Plato of Tivoli (11 3 3 - 5 0 )translated Ptolemy’s first workinto Latin, i.e. a treatise onastrology from Arabic. He alsotranslated works of al-Mansur(aphorisms), al-Khaiyat, al-F a rg h a n i (Elements ofA s t ronomy), and ibn Saffar( a s t rolabe). Marc of To l e d o(1190-1200) translated the HolyQ u r’an into Latin, Hunain’stranslations of Galenic treatises,and several original works ofHunain.

Thirteenth century Some of the pro m i n e n ttranslators of this century wereMichael Scott, Samuel ibnTibbon, Ibn Hasdai, Arnold ofVillanova, Bonacost, Faraj benSalim, Herman the German,Alfonso X, Judah ben Moses,Abraham of Toledo, Solomonibn Ayyub and Moses ibnTibbon.

Michael Scott (1200-35) is thesecond most important trans-lator of the Arabic literary

49



t re a s u re for Europe. By histranslations he intro d u c e dEurope to three new things ofgreat consequence - Aristotelianz o o l o g y, al-Bitruji’s (d.1204)astronomy, and the philosophyof ibn Rushd (1198). His effortsmade it possible for ibn-Rushd’sphilosophy to reach andinfluence Europe immensely ata time when most Muslimswere unaware of him. Scott didhis best translations while inToledo. Later he moved to Sicilyto work as royal translator forthe Holy Roman Empero rFrederick II.

King Alfonso X (1252-84)o rganised an institute oftranslation where pro m i n e n tscholars like Judah ben Mosesand Abraham of Toledo did thework. He ord e red thetranslation of works such as: Al-B a t t a n i (Canons), Ibn al-Haytham (Kitab al-Bari feeAhkam al-Nujum, fee Haiyat al-Alam), Abdur al-Rahman al-Sufi(Kitab al-Kawakib), Qusta ibnLuqa (Kitab al-Amal Bilkurra al-Fulkiyya), al-Zarqali (two bookson armilery sphere and a l -S a f i h a), five books on clocks,Ubaid Allah (Book of the crosses).

The King had the translationsmade into the Castilianlanguage rather than Latin. Thebest known of such translationswere the Alfonsine Tables, basedon the astro n o m i c a lobservations made by al-Zarqali(Azarquiel) in Toledo in the 11thc e n t u r y. Copernicus lateremployed these Tables inevolving a new astro n o m i c a lsystem centering on the suninstead of the earth.

Abraham of Toledo translatedibn al-Haytham’s (d.1040)treatise on the configuration ofthe universe, al-Zarq a l i ’ streatise on the construction anduse of astrolabe, and the 70thchapter (Surat al-Muarij) of theHoly Qur’an. Shem Tob benIsaac translated importantmedical works, thus Muslimmedicine became available toJewish physicians who did notknow Arabic. Nathan Hameati,an Italian known as the princeof translators, made translationsfrom Arabic into Hebrew.

It is noteworthy that ibn Sena’smasterpiece al-Qanun fee al-tibb(Lat. Canon) was translated 57times, and was first published in

50



1473 and by 1500, sixteeneditions had been published. Itwas published for the last time in1593. In the works of Ferrari daGrado, who was steeped inIslamic medicine, Ibn Sena iscited more than 3000 times, al-Razi and Galen 1000 times, andHippocrates only a hundre dt i m e s .

The French surgeon Guy deChauliac in his Great Surgery,completed in about 1363,quoted At-Tasrif over 200 times.Jacques Delechamps (1513-1588), another French surgeon,made extensive use of At-Tasrifin his elaborate commentary.Abu Mashar (Lat. Albumasar)held the belief that astralinfluence controlled life anddeath. He communicated toEurope the fact that the laws oftides were based of the relationto the moon’s rising and setting.(Hitti, p. 252). Raymond Lullwas a great Arabic scholar. Hewrote several works in Arabicwhich he later translated intoCatalan, Latin or both. In hisCompendium of al-Ghazzali’s logic,he made a summary ofGhazzali’s logic and translatedit into Latin. The Arabic college

in Majorca was founded at hisrequest in 1276 by Pope JohnXXI.

14th century translatorsDuring the fourteenth centurythere was a gradual decline intranslations from Arabic intoLatin. By the end of the centurythey had almost ceased. Arabicinto Hebrew replaced thesetranslations. The Jews enjoyedcomplete freedom in IslamicSpain. Arabic being the mediumof education in Spain, they tooka leading part in the translationsof Arabic works into Hebrew.Jews were the great exponentsof Islamic learning. In Italy theyfounded schools along the lineof the Andalusian schools inBari, Salerno and Tarentum aswell as others in France andEngland.

The period of translation wasfollowed by a period whenArabic learning was classifiedand assimilated. The gro u n dwas now ready for theEuropeans to produce their owncreative works. This paved theway for the intellectual growthand re-birth of Western Europe.Some of the outstanding

51



translators of 14th centuryinclude Moses ben Solomon,Qalonymos, Samuel ben Judah,Samuel ibn Motot, AbrahamA b i g d o r, Solomon ben Davidand Stephen son of Arnold.

Role of SicilyAnother place wheretranslations were made was theisland of Sicily. After theconquest of Islamic Sicily by theNormans in 1091, the NormanKings exercised tolerancetowards their Muslim subjects.Roger (d.1101), the first King ofSicily, calling himself al-Malik al-Muazzam al-Qidees, was accusedof being more Muslim thanChristian. Kaiser Frederick II( 1194-1250), the enlightenedruler adopted Islamic customsand did more than others in thediffusion of Islamic learning.

Jews played a vital role in thet r a n s l a t i o n s f rom Arabic. Farajben Salem translated al-Razi’sKitab al-Hawi, (Latin L i b e rC o n t i n e n s) in Sicily. Mese ofPalermo translated astro -nomical and medical worksf rom Arabic into Latin.Southern Italy also assisted ind i ffusing the Islamic culture .

Bonacosa translated the Kulliyatof Ibn Rushd at Padua in 1255,Paravisius translated in 1290Ab-Taysir of Ibn Zuhr in Venice,and Andrea Alphago of Baluno(1520) translated the biograph-ical dictionary of Ibn al-Kifti aswell as works of Ibn Sena andIbn Rushd. Mention must bemade of ConstantanusAfricanus (1010-87) who wasborn in Carthage, but moved toSalerno, before retiring in 1076to Monte Cassino. There hespent his remaining years ingreat activity; among the 30-oddmedical works attributed to himare translations of Hippocrates,Galen, Isaac Judaeus, and AliAbbas (Haly Abbas).

Impact of translationsSome of the pro m i n e n tE u ropean scholars influencedby Islamic learning includeA d e l a rd of Bath, St. ThomasAquinas, Roger Bacon, DanteAlgheri, Pascal, Copernicus andNewton. The effect of thesetranslations on Western Europewas revolutionary. The influx ofnew books stirred the world ofscholarship, compelled newdevelopments in grammar,p h i l o l o g y, and above all

52



provided curriculum for schoolsand universities. Theory andpractise of medicine along withother disciplines was advancedby these translations. A wholenew range of ideas provided anew stimulus. In a nutshellthese translations were acatalyst for the European mindand brought about the dawn ofthe Renaissance in the 15thcentury.

References1. Capital Cities of Islam by Phillip

K. Hitti.

2. Arabic Thought and its Place inHistory by De Lacy O’Leary.

3. Jewish Encyclopedia, 17 volumes.

4. The Arabic language by AnwerChejne, 1969.

5. Renaissance of the 12th Centuryby C.H. Haskins.

6. Arabic Thought and the WesternWorld by E.A. Myers, NY.

7. Dictionary of ScientificB i o g r a p h y. 16 volumes, NY,1970.

8. The Classical Heritage in Islam,by F Rosenthal, 1975

9. Studies in the History ofMedieval Science, by C.H.Haskins, 1924.

10. How Greek Science passed toA r a b s, by De Lacy O’Leary,1979.


III. THE ANTI-BLASPHEMY PROVISIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

A. The U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of HumanRightsGiven Pakistan’s once staunch advocacy of Article 55(c) of the U.N.Charter and Article 18 of the UDHR, it is striking that it should so clearlyc i rcumvent them in its promulgation and constitutionalisation ofOrdinance XX and the Criminal Law Act of 1986. Where Article 18guarantees the right to ‘freedom of thought . . . and to manifest this[thought] in . . . community with others and in public or private, inteaching, practice, worship and observance,’ Ordinance XX subjects onewho thinks critically about the Holy Prophet Muhammad and manifeststhis thought ‘by words, either spoken or written, or by visiblerepresentation,’ or “any person . . . who calls himself or herself Ahmadi. . . and calls or refers to his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates hisfaith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words either spoken orwritten, or by visible representations in any manner whatsoever thatoutrages the religious feelings of Muslims” to ‘imprisonment . . . andfine.’ Moreover, Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, in its 1986amended form, undermines completely the crucial right to manifestone’s beliefs and goes so far as to punish the exercise of this right withcapital punishment, particularly as it relates to Ahmadis.

Pakistan’s state practice establishing the hegemony of a strictinterpretation of the Shari’a makes such a glaring circumvention of aninternational declaration it formerly supported less surprising, thoughno less disturbing. As one of only a few Muslim countries to accept fully

Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community inPakistan: An Analysis Under InternationalLaw and International Relations – part 2

This is the second part of an article looking at the illegitimacy of the position ofPakistan in the way that it deals with minorities such as the Ahmadiyya Community.

By Amjad Mahmood Khan


the provisions of the UDHR, it is ironic that Pakistan would endorse ap roposition, advanced by Saudi Arabia, that it once condemnedvociferously: that freedom of conscience is antithetical to the Shari’a.The irony is both tragic and fatal, for under a less strict interpretation ofthe Shari’a, Pakistan’s state practice holds no logic. Pakistan attaches atemporal penalty to apostasy, something the Qur’an, the primaryinformant of the Shari’a, labels a spiritual offence.50 The presumptionthat the state should assess the truthfulness of a believer is equallycontrary to Qur’anic injunction.51

B. The International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsArticle 18 of the UDHR arguably became a peremptory norm ofinternational law in 1966 with the passing of Articles 18, 19, 20, and 27of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’).The covenant concretised the basic freedoms of religion and consciencearticulated in the UDHR and made its signatories legally bound by it. Inaddition to prohibiting state coercion that would impair a person’sfreedom to practice or adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice, theICCPR also prohibits states from denying religious minorities the right,in community with other group members, to enjoy their own culture,profess or practice their own religion, or to use their own language.52

These rights are non-derogable except if the interests of public safety,order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms ofothers, if prescribed by law, justifies their limitation.

Though Article 18 of the UDHR was a resounding declaration ofreligious freedom, without the backing of the ICCPR it lacked the forceof a binding legal instrument. The ICCPRs long drafting periodencompassed eighteen years of wrestling with issues the UDHR did notexpound upon, including religious conversion, proselytism, and thetension between universal human rights and cultural relativism.53 Thedurability and universalisability of the precepts of the ICCPR wereevident in its implementation ten years after its formulation in 1976. Onehundred and twenty-five countries, including 23 Muslim states, ratifiedthe Covenant.54

Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan


Twenty-seven years after the Covenant’s introduction, the U.N. HumanRights Committee issued a General Comment describing the state ofinternational norms of religious freedom at that time.55 The Commentdescribed how international law recognised twelve non-derogable corerights, including the right to freedom of religion and prohibition ofdiscrimination on the basis of religion. Even the key right of the freedomto manifest one’s religion, which customary international human rightslaw recognises as derogable, has adequate safeguards built around it.

In 1984, thirty-one international law experts from seventeen countriesmet in Siracusa, Italy, to consider the ICCPR’s Article IV limitation andderogation provisions.56 The Siracusa Principles on the Limitations andDerogation in the ICCPR clarify that any limitation imposed on one’sfreedom to manifest one’s religion, or on other derogable rights in theCovenant, must be justifiably necessary and must constitute a responseto a pressing public or social need, pursue a legitimate governmentalpurpose, and be appropriate to that purpose.57 States face a number ofrestrictions if they choose to place a domestic legal limitation on a rightprotected in the ICCPR, including prohibitions against laws that arevague, arbitrary, or unreasonable in content or application, and lawsthat discriminate expressly on the basis of religion. Fundamentally,domestic legal systems must grant protections at least equal to thosespecified under international law.58

Pakistan is not a signatory to the ICCPR; in particular, it could notendorse Articles 18, 19, 20, and 27. Pakistan’s state practice, asmentioned above, involved the ascendancy of the S h a r i ’ a a n ddevolution from its fundamental acceptance of religious freedom in itsfounding era. Ironically, Pakistan’s distinguished jurists contributed tothe opinio juris in Pakistan that regards the ICCPR as an affirmation ofinternational human rights norms. Commenting on the relevance ofinternational human rights law to common law jurisdiction in Pakistan,Justice Muhammad Haleem, then Chief Justice of Pakistan, at theBangalore Colloquium in 1988,59 exclaimed:

All rules of general international law created for humanitarian purposesconstitute jus cogens. A valid domestic jurisdiction defense can no



longer be founded on the proposition that the manner in which the statetreats its own national is ipso facto a matter within its domesticjurisdiction . . . because a matter is essentially within the domesticjurisdiction of the state only if it is not regulated by international law. Inthe modern age of economic and political interdependence, mostquestions which, on the face of it, appear to be essentially domestic onesare, in fact, essentially international. . . . The international human rightsnorms are in fact part of the constitutional expression of the libertiesguaranteed at the national level. The domestic courts can assume thetask of expanding these liberties. . . . The present thinking at theinternational level supports an expanded role of domestic courts for theobservance of international human rights norms. This re a p p r a i s a lenables domestic courts to extend to citizens via state constitutions,greater protection of internationally recognised rights.60

That the Supreme Court of Pakistan would declare Ordinance XXconstitutional only five years later in Zaheerudin is troubling because inso doing, Pakistan violated Article 18 of the ICCPR. To mar theconsciences of Ahmadis by foreclosing their right to profess and practisetheir interpretation of Islam is a breach of Article 18’s instruction that ‘noone shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to haveor to adopt a religion or belief of his own choice.’61 Though the Court inZ a h e e r u d i n did not directly invoke the Article IV limitations toderogable rights, the majority justices used a public order argument akinto these limitations in their justification for upholding theconstitutionality of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy provisions. By witnessingtheir faiths, the Court argued, Ahmadis inherently blasphemed Islam; ifthe government allowed the public declaration of their faiths, eachAhmadi would become a ‘state-crafted Salman Rushdie.’62 Thus, theanti-blasphemy provisions were not only constitutional, but also fullyconsistent with the limitations to the rights enumerated in the ICCPR,insofar as they restricted Ahmadi activities for the sake of protectingpublic morals, maintaining public order, and preserving the integrity ofIslam as Pakistan’s official state religion.63

For the Supreme Court of Pakistan to analogise the Ahmadi populationto Salman Rushdie is to suggest that Ahmadis pose a threat to national



security (more specifically, the security of the Shari’a), which theGeneral Comment to the ICCPR specifically forecloses as a legitimateexception to a non-derogable right.64 The fact that Ahmadis consistentlyinvoke principles of non-retaliation even in the face of persecution isfurther indication of the absurdity of the national security argument.Moreover, Section 9 of the U.N. General Comment specifies: ‘The factthat a religion is recognised as a state religion or that it is established asofficial or traditional or that its following comprise the majority of thepopulation, shall not result in any impairment of the enjoyment of anyof the rights under the Covenant, including Articles 18 and 27, nor inany discrimination against adherents of other religion or non-believers.’65 Thus, the court’s law and order justification is not inaccordance with the express provisions of the ICCPR, the officialcomments, or Pakistan’s opinio juris regarding the Covenant.

C. The U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms ofReligious Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion orBeliefWith the passage of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms ofReligious Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Beliefon November 25, 1981, the U.N. further alerted Pakistan to emergingcustomary international human rights law concerning re l i g i o u sfreedom.66 The U.N. Declaration of 1981, unlike the ICCPR, addressedrestrictions on freedom of religion for religious minorities as they relateto conflicting interpretations of a single religion (i.e., intra-state andintra-religious discrimination). While affirming the basic principles offreedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, the Declaration of1981 also separates ‘intolerance based on religion or belief’ fro m‘discrimination based on religion or belief,’ so that religious minoritiesgain virtually exhaustive protection from systemic cruelty fro mmembers of another religion, from members of a particular sect ordivision of the same religion, and from a state (or state religion). Thus,the six Articles in the Declaration of 1981 offer arguably the mostexpansive annunciation of freedom of religion. The Declaration itselfwas adopted without a vote in the U.N.: it is a ‘soft law’ designed tofurther the international norms the ICCPR espoused.



By circumscribing the freedom of Ahmadis to manifest their faith inIslam through written and verbal means, including the use of theK a l i m a, the A d h a n (or call for prayer), and A s s a l a m o - o - A l a i k u m(standard greeting of a Muslim, Arabic for ‘peace be upon you’),Pakistan, in its promulgation of the anti-blasphemy provisions, violatedArticle 6 of the Declaration of 1981. Section (c) guarantees the freedom“to make, acquire and use to an adequate extent the necessary articlesand materials related to the rites or customs of a religion or belief,”67

which for an Ahmadi, as it would be for any Muslim, includes the publicdisplay of the Kalima, the use of a loudspeaker or microphone for theAdhan, and the use of stationary with the phrase Assalamo-e-Alaikumas a basic Islamic greeting. Yet these very ‘articles and materials’ havebeen the subject of formal criminal charges levelled against Ahmadis.

Even more compelling than Article 6 of the Declaration of 1981 is Article7, which sets forth a patent obligation that ‘the rights and freedoms setforth in the Declaration shall be accorded in national legislations in sucha manner that everyone shall be able to avail himself of such rights andfreedoms in practice.’68 Because the creation of parliament was to comeyears later, President Zia-ul-Haq was effectively Pakistan’s originator of‘national legislation’ at this time. It was highly unlikely that Pakistancould meet the obligation of Article 7 of the Declaration of 1981 whilestill maintaining the supremacy of the Shari’a. Thus, the passage ofOrdinance XX and the Criminal Law Act of 1986, only a few years afterthe Declaration of 1981, can be seen as Pakistan’s way of asserting, witha clenched fist, the place of the Shari’a in the international communityand its own adherence to the Shari’a in its national legislation.

D . Report of the U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention ofDiscrimination and Protection of Minorities on its Thirty-EighthSessionIn 1985, the U.N. Sub-Commission issued a formal statement againstPakistan’s promulgation of Ordinance XX, calling for its immediaterepeal and the creation of protections to prevent the mass exodus ofAhmadis.69 Resolution 1985/21 was a succinct and powerful affirmation



of the crucial principles of the UN Charter, the UDHR, and the U.N.Declaration of 1981. Its first paragraph expressly proclaims that the Sub-Commission’s reports are ‘guided’”7 0 by the principles of theseinternational instruments. The report condemns Ordinance XX as a‘prima facie violation . . . of the right of religious minorities to professand practice their own religion.’71 It ‘expresses grave concern’ at theO rdinance’s subjection of Ahmadis to ‘various punishments andconfiscation of personal property . . . discrimination in employment andeducation . . . and to the defacement of their religious property.’72

P e rhaps most importantly, Resolution 1985/21 rejects Pakistan’sjustification for Ordinance XX’s restrictions on Ahmadis as a publicsafety regulation.73

Resolution 1985/21 was a sweeping reminder to Pakistan to live up toits commitment to international human rights. This commitment wasnot an implied one, but rather was clearly manifested by Pakistan’smembership in the U.N. Sub-Commission for the Promotion andProtection of Human Rights, a privilege Pakistan will hold at least until2006.74 That Pakistan turned a blind eye to Resolution 1985/21 is yetanother powerful example of its failure to honour commitments underinternational human rights norms.

(to be continued)

References50 A primary verse of the Qur’an that proponents of Pakistan’s anti-

blasphemy provisions cite is Chapter 3, Verse 86: ‘And who so seeks areligion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in thelife to come he shall be among the losers.’ THE HOLY QUR’AN, Ch.3:V.86,translated by Maulawi Sher Ali. Even a strict and literal interpretationof the above verse places any sort of punishment for apostasy squarelyin the ‘life to come’ or hereafter, that is, it is a spiritual offence punishedby God alone and not an offence that requires physical punishment.For a detailed discussion of the significance of blasphemy underIslamic Law, see Donna E. Arzt, Heroes or Heretics: Religious DissidentsUnder Islamic Law, 14 WIS. INT’L L.J. 349 (1996).

51 Though doctrinally difficult to grasp, the concept of separation of



religion and state is not fundamentally antithetical to Islam. It sufficeshere to mention that the Qur’an stresses that an individual’s spiritualdestiny is strictly between God and that person, without interferencefrom an outside person or state. That is to say, true religious beliefrequires both intense personal commitment and individual consent. Inreference to the Muslims’ treatment of non-believing Arabs during theProphet Muhammad’s time, Chapter 6, Verse 108 of the Qur’an reads:“And if Allah had enforced His Will, they [the non-believing Arabs]would not have set up gods with Him. And We have not made thee akeeper over them, nor art thou over them a guardian.” THE HOLY

QUR’AN, Ch.6: V.108, translated by Maulawi Sher Ali. Chapter 10, Verse100 reads: “And if thy Lord had enforced His will, surely, all who areon the earth would have believed together. Wilt thou, then, force mento become believers?” THE HOLY QUR’AN, Ch.10: V.100, translated byMaulawi Sher Ali. From the verses, one can see how the case of thenon-believing Arabs was not with humankind, but with God. Theyw e re immune from punishment, compulsion, and other civildisabilities in relation to their religion and practices. In pure Islamicteaching, it is irrational for an outside person or state to determine thefate of non-Muslims because it is tantamount to associating partnerswith God, which for a Muslim is the most egregious sin man cancommit. See THE HOLY QUR’AN, Ch.4: V.49 translated by Maulawi SherAli. Pakistan’s legal persecution of Ahmadis, understood in this light,is contrary to these verses of the Qur’an.

52 See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 18, 27,G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), U.N. GAOR 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 52, U.N.Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (entered into force 1976), reprintedin DOCUMENT SUPPLEMENT, supra note 20, at 440, 441.

53 See Natan Lerner, The Nature and Minimum Standards of Freedom ofReligion or Belief, 2000 B.Y.U. L. REV. 905, 914 (2000).

54 See Arzt, supra note 50, at 358. Though considered one of the mostimportant human rights instruments in the world, the ICCPR has notyet reached the status of customary law. Makau Wa Mutua argues, forexample, that the ICCPR is “mainly a repetition and elaboration of therights and processes that liberal democracies have evolved” and an“attempt[] to universalise civil and political rights accepted or aspiredto in Western liberal democracies.” See Makau Wa Mutua, The Ideology



of Human Rights, 36 VA. J. INT’L L. 589, 604n.39, 606 (1996).

55 See the U.N. Human Rights Committee, General Comment adoptedunder art. 40, para. 4, of the ICCPR, U.N. DOC. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add. 4 (1993).

56 See The Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Dero g a t i o nProvisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,reprinted in 7 HUM. RTS. Q. 1, 1 (1985).

57 Id. at 4.

58 Id. at 5, 9 - 10. The Siracusa Principles define “public safety” asprotection “against danger to the safety of persons . . . or their physicalintegrity, or serious damage to their property” and define “publicorder” as the “sum of rules which ensure the functioning of society orthe set of fundamental principles on which society is founded.” Alimitation for the protection of “public morals” must be “essential tothe maintenance of respect for the fundamental values of thecommunity.” Id. at 5 - 6.

59 In 1988, the British Commonwealth Secretariat initiated a series ofjudicial colloquia to promote the domestic application of internationaland regional human rights norms. The first colloquium took placed inBangalore, India, from which emerged the Bangalore Principles, whichcalled for the creative and consistent development of human rightsj u r i s p rudence throughout the British Commonwealth. S e eh t t p : / / w w w. t h e c o m m o n w e a l t h . o rg / g e n d e r / w h a t w e d o / a c t i v i t i e s / humanrights/regjudcoll.htm (last visited Feb. 12, 2003).

60 Muhammad Haleem, Domestic Application Of Human Rights Norms, inIV DE V E L O P I N G HU M A N RI G H T S JU R I S P R U D E N C E: A FO U RT H JU D I C I A L

COLLOQUIUM ON THE DOMESTIC APPLICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS

101 (Judicial Colloquium in Abuja, 1991).

61 ICCPR, supra note 52, art. 18.

62 Zaheerudin v. State, supra note 42, at 1778.

63 The Pakistani government’s justification here is contrary tointernational norms. According to a 1993 resolution by the U.N.Commission on Human Rights, governments should be obligated toprovide effective remedies for redress for religious groups sufferingintolerance. See, e.g., U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Res.



1993/25, paras. 3,5,6, U.N. Doc. E/1993/23, (1993) at 111, 112 in KAREN

PARKER, RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN PAKISTAN: THE AHMADI CASE AT THE

SU P R E M E CO U RT fn. 20 (1993), available at:http://www.webcom.com/hrin/parker/ahmadi.html.

64 See Lerner, supra note 53, at 915.

65 See General Comment, supra note 55, P9 at 4.

66 See Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and ofDiscrimination Based on Religion or Belief, G.A. Res. 36/55, U.N.GAOR, 36th Sess., Supp. No. 51, at 171, U.N. Doc. A/36/684 (1981).

67 Id. art. 6(c).

68 Id. art. 7.

69 See The Situation in Pakistan, E.S.C. Res. 1985/21, reported in Report ofthe Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection ofMinorities on its Thirty-Eighth Session, U.N. ESCOR, 38th Sess., at 102,U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1986/5 (1986).

70 Id.

71 Id.

72 Id.

73 See Siddiq, supra note 4, at 326 - 27.

74 Mr. Abdul Sattar currently serves as Pakistan’s delegate to the U.N.Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of HumanRights. His alternate is Mr. Khalid Aziz Babar. S e ehttp://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/subcmem.htm.



January 2002

Natural Selection & Survival of the Fittest

February 2002

Achievements of thePromised Reformer

March 2002

The Future of Life onEarth

April 2002

Is the Shroud of Turin aMedieval Photograph?

May 2002

Religious Beliefs of NorthAmerican Indians

June 2002

Progress of Islam isDependant on Khilafat

July 2002

Teotihuacàn – ReligiousCapital of Central America

August 2002

Islam and the Global Questfor Sustainable Development

September 2002

The ‘Blind Watchmaker’who is also Deaf and Dumb

– The Honey bee

October 2002

Ramadhan – Part II

November 2002

100 Year History of theReview of Religions

December 2002

The Palestine Question

The Review of Religions – 2002 CD

The Review of Religions is pleased to announce theavailability of a CD containing all articles published in2002. The files are in PDF format and can be viewed usingAdobe Acrobat version 5 or above. CD’s cost only £5 pluspostage and packing. Please complete the detailsoverleaf.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this

edition of the magazine. The Review of

Religions will continue to provide discussion

on a wide range of subjects and welcomes any

comments or suggestions from its readers.

To ensure that you regularly receive this

monthly publication, please fill in your details

below and we will put you on our mailing list.

The cost of one year’s subscription is £15

Sterling or US $30 for overseas readers (Please

do not send cash). Payments should be made

payable to the London Mosque and sent to the

address below:

The Review of ReligionsThe London Mosque16 Gressenhall RoadLondon SW18 5QLUnited Kingdom

Please put me on the mailing list for the Review of Religions for 1 year. I enclosesubscription payment of £15.00 or US $30.00. OR if you wish to receive a CD of all thearticles published in 2002, please tick the white box above and enclose payment of£5.00, please also add an appropriate sum for postage.

Name: ___________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

SubscriptionThe Review of Religions

The Holy Ka’abaMECCA, ARABIA

The First House of Worship, and The Spiritual Heart of Islam

Please tick in box ifyou wish to receive

The Review ofReligions2002 CD

Documents

Contents July 2003, Vol.98, No