Some facts and some thoughts about the Ahmadiyya community and other Muslim groups.
(SALEM, Ore.) - I would have to confess that I had never heard of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, an Moderate Muslim organization that is currently experiencing problems in Malaysia. (see: Islamic Authority in Malaysia Bans Moderate Muslim Mosque - Salem-News.com
I did a little research on this subject matter and discovered that the founder of this offshoot of Islam, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas claimed to be the metaphorical second coming of Jesus of Nazareth who they refer to as "Jesusas", a divine guide whose advent was foretold by the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas was born into a upper-class Moslem family in India. The following I took from a website apparently prepared by his followers and listing his claims about being a Messiah in his own writings.
Now about my claim which is supported by a host of arguments and proofs....
• Is it not enough to establish the truth of my claim that the Holy Quran has discussed in graphic detail the signs of and circumstances relating to my coming.
• In a way, my name too has been foretold.
• Even the name of my village, namely, Kadaa is also there in the traditions.
• The traditions further prove that the Promised Messiah will be born in the thirteenth century and will appear in the fourteenth.
• In the Sahih Bokhari is found the full description of my facial features.....
• And this too is laid down in as many words that the Promised Messiah will appear to the East of Damascus. And is not Qadian in fact to the East of Damascus?
• Similarly the timely occurrence of lunar and solar eclipses in the month of Ramadhan just when I had announced my claim to be the Promised Messiah and the people at large had refused to accept this claim as authentic.
• Similarly, in keeping with the prophecies of the Quran and the traditions, the invention of the railways and the camel's consequent redundancy;
• obstacles to the performance of Pilgrimage to Kabaa;
• the age of the triumph of the cross;
• the appearance of hundreds of signs at my hands,
• the present time being exactly the time fixed by the earlier prophets;
• my being commissioned to the present office at the head of the century;
• visions and dreams experienced by thousands of virtuous people testifying to my authenticity;
• the statement of the Holy Quran and of the Holy Prophet, that the Promised Messiah will be one of the Ummat;
• my affairs being visited by divine succour;
• the pledge of Baiat (initiation) at my hands by about two hundred thousand people and consequently their following the path of truth and virtue;
• the crumbling of Christianity as a religion and the subsequent softening of the hold of trinity like the melting snows;
• the division of Muslims into a large number of denominational sects and their state of decadence and the numerous innovations and deviations from the norm,
• the current polytheism, alcoholism, sexual promiscuity, dishonesty and falsehood which have run rampant on a global scale and resulted in a great upheaval and crisis in the world
• and on every dimension tremendous revolutionary changes are taking place in the universe;
• and as will be borne out by all reasonable people the world needs a reformer;
• and finally the failure of all to compete with me in miraculously competitive writing
• and in showing heavenly signs and the fulfillment of hundreds of thousands of divine prophecies in my support.
I will have to admit this sounds a little bit 'kooky' to me, and I am leery of individuals who claim to be God, such as the Rev. Sun Y. Moon of the Unification Church.
But I believe in religious freedom, and I realize that as an Evangelical/Charismatic Christian, the overwhelming majority of the world would think that my beliefs are a bit 'kooky.'
All of the major religions have divisions. In Islam the most significant division is between the Sunnis and the Shia. The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation.
Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation.
The word "Sunni" in Arabic comes from a word meaning "one who follows the traditions of the Prophet."
On the other hand, some Muslims share the belief that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet's own family, among those specifically appointed by him, or among Imams appointed by God Himself.
The Shia Muslims believe that following the Prophet Muhammad's death, leadership should have passed directly to his cousin/son-in-law, Ali. Throughout history, Shia Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they believe have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad or God Himself.
The word "Shia" in Arabic means a group or supportive party of people. The commonly-known term is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali." They are also known as followers of "Ahl-al-Bayt" or "People of the Household" (of the Prophet).
Sunni Muslims make up the majority (85%) of Muslims all over the world. Significant populations of Shia Muslims can be found in Iran and Iraq, and large minority communities in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Lebanon.
But there are also several other offshoots of the Muslim faith. Other than the AMC, amongst those groups; you also have the Druze [who consider themselves Muslims, but do not follow the Koran] in the Middle East; the Isma'ilism, whose name of the group, Seveners, or the Arabic equivalent, Sab'iya, refers partially to the incidents of the schism over who should be the 7th imam; also the Baha'is whose faith was founded in Iran and whose beliefs are sometimes described as combinations of earlier religions' beliefs.
They assert that their religion is a distinct tradition with its own scriptures, Its key figure, Bahá'u'lláh, is believed to have fulfilled the Eschatology of these precursor faiths religious background in is seen as analogous to the Jewish context in which Christianity was established.
Bahá'ís describe their faith as an independent world religion, differing from the other traditions in its relative age and in the appropriateness of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings to the modern context.
The Baha'is have suffered tremendous persecution in Iran, including imprisonment and execution.
These divisions are mirrored in Christianity, where the 3 major groups are the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Protestants. There are in excess of 600 identifiable Protestant church groups, along with groups who are commonly referred to as Christian cults, such as the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesseses, Christian Science, and the Unification Church [the Moonies, whose leader Rev. Moon, who started out as a Presbyterian minister, and then decided that he was the Messiah. Luckily he and Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas of the AMC never met for a Messiah wrestling match to determine who was the true Messiah].
You must forgive me for sounding a little bit flip. I once was approached in a Wal-Mart store in Lubbock, Texas where an older gentleman handed me a tract and told me that I should read my Bible in the language it was written in, King James English.
I handed him his tract back and gently explained to him that the Bible was actually written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and that it was not translated into King James English until the 17th century.
There are people who believe that following the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes makes you a Christian. I believe that the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are very important, but that it takes accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior to make you a Christian.
I do sometimes picture God and Jesus looking down at us from heaven and alternatively laughing at our squabbles interspersed with being saddened by our decisions, but whatever our beliefs, we all need to be more tolerant of each other.
Who Are the Ahmadiyya Muslims?Salem-News.com