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Jamaat Ahmadiyya al Mouslemeen Friday Sermon of Hazrat Amirul Momeneen Zafrullah Domun |
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Friday Sermon 23rd November 2007 After reading the Tashahhud, the Ta’uz and the first chapter, Al-Fatiha, of the Holy Quran, Hazrat Amirul Mo’menine Zafrullah Domun said: Today I will continue to read to you some extracts
from the writings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) and I will briefly
comment on them. As I have said previously the members of our jamaat
should make it a habit to read these extracts daily. Parents should
encourage their children to develop the habit of reading these sayings
of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) everyday. Each family should take a
copy of the sermon after the prayer and keep your copy for regular reading.
Then incha Allah you will see what kind of transformation these writings
would bring in your life. I am spending a lot of time to prepare these
materials for you and now it is up to you to make full use of them.
I hope and pray that you will take into consideration these words of
advice that are only given for your own benefit. “The real object of raising the prophets is that they should produce the sort of faith in God which enables a man to do appropriate deeds and which also turns the nature of the man to be such that it would burn the sin. It should be remembered that one can never do appropriate deeds unless one has sincere faith in God and a great sense of realization. Every deed becomes appropriate if it is done with the full understanding of the attributes of God. The appropriate deeds of the people, their giving of charity etc are an act of traditionalism and a matter of habit; they do not do so because they possess god-realization which is based on a strong faith in God. Since the generality of the people do good deeds just by way of habit and they are far away from the real understanding of God. The prophets are raised to make the people realize the significance of faith in god; all other things are a logical result of the faith. That is why it can be said that the real object of the advent of the prophets is that they should inform the people of the aim of their life –worship of God- and produce in them the kind of faith which would give them the understanding of God,” [Malfoozaat Vol 3 p 303] As usual, you will notice that this is a small extract. But it has
very deep meanings. The more you think about it the more you will realize
what Hazrat Masih Maood (as) wants to say. He is speaking here about the
main reason why Allah raises prophets from time to time. Mind you, he
is not speaking here about law-bearing prophets. He is speaking here
of those persons who in the sight of Allah have achieved a rank and
they are from the umma of our Holy Master Mohammad saw. Allah speaks
to them through revelation as we saw in the extracts which we read last
week. And Allah ordains them to start the work of reforming the people.
Their main task is to remind mankind that they have been created to
worship Allah as it has been said in the Holy Quran: In order to accomplish this noble task they will have to instill in their followers real faith in Allah, Therefore with the arrival of these prophets the nature of good deeds should change. The practice of good deeds is no longer a routine that is done without knowing its full meaning. Each good deed that you practice should lead you more and more towards Allah. You can no longer read your prayers with negligent heart. Now you should pray with the necessary concentration and understanding. Each one should know the meaning of each Arabic word that we use in our prayer. We should inculcate in ourselves the habit to pray for each one of our needs. Under no circumstance should we feel that there is no need to pray for such and such unimportant tasks or need. Remember that our Holy prophet saw has advised us to ask Allah for all our needs even for the laces of our shoes. One may wonder why we should have to ask Allah for the laces of our shoes. The fact is that a Muslim should have faith in Allah and he should live with the full consciousness that Allah is His Provider. Whatever he possesses has been given to him by Allah. And he should know that he is nothing and that Allah is everything. And the prophets’ task is to give the people this kind of faith. The Muslim should not allow himself to be deluded by the life of this world. That is why in Islam the most important thing that one should treasure is Faith. Many Muslims do not understand this. Allah sends them prophets as their teachers in order to give them this limitless treasure which is Faith. Members of our Jamaat should remember this well and they should aim at increasing their faith day in day out. If they do not do so they would appear to be ungrateful to the favours of Allah on them when He has sent them someone to help them to increase their faith. In addition, to practise good deeds knowingly one should for example read the Holy Quran with a view to understand its meanings and to put it into practice. We should read it regularly, every day and we should develop the habit of reflecting over what we read in order to develop deep understanding and to tap the wisdom underlying all these verses. To get solid faith in Allah we need to exert ourselves. Faith is not something that you get without putting in much effort and without seeking it with great diligence. Hazrat Masih Maood (as) wants us to understand that the prophet is here only to help us to understand the object of our life and how to attain it. When we see the wave of materialism unfurling itself everywhere one can wonder how difficult it is to have faith these days. But for Allah, nothing is difficult and out of His Love for mankind He continues to make provision for peoples’ guidance despite the difficult circumstances. That is why he has sent you someone who can help you to lighten your burden. Now it is up to you to benefit by that person or to ignore him. May Allah always guide you to the right decision. There is another point worth commenting upon in this extract. Hazrat Masih Maood (as) tells us that we should strive to know Allah; nobody can really know Allah unless Allah reveals Himself to him or her. And for this we need to beseech Allah for His Help. And the best prayer that we can do to get this help is the prayer that Allah has taught us in Surah Al Fateha. It says: “Guide us to the right path. The path of those on whom Thou has bestowed thy Blessings and not on the path of those who have incurred Thy displeasure nor those who have gone astray.” If we cultivate the habit of reading this prayer with full understanding and concentration in our prayers and whenever we can, definitely Allah will guide us to the delight of faith. Then we will know that the Allah we know now will be completely different from the one we have come to know. It is my prayer that Allah guides each member of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemine to this kind of faith. In another extract Hazrat Masih Maood (as) says: In order to become the recipient of the blessings and Grace of God the Almighty it is very essential that one must have a clean heart. Nothing can be gained without it. What is really required is that when God peeps into the heart of the man, there should be no iota of hypocrisy in any nook and corner. It is only this state of the heart which attracts the Manifestation of God-and that makes the relationship between God and man, very straight forward. For all this, one must be loyal and sincere as Hazrat Ibrahimas, peace be on him was; also, as the Holy Prophetsaw was. When a man walks on their footsteps he becomes a blessed man and is saved from every kind of humiliation; he is also provided amply and his circumstances are never straitened. Rather the doors of the Grace of God are opened for him and he joins the group of the people whose prayers are accepted by God. Such a person never dies the death of an accursed person; his end is always good. In short, whoever is sincere and loyal to God, he is granted all of his wishes- and he does not come across any disappointment. (Malfoozat Vol.6.p.376) HOW HAZRAT MASIH MAOOD WAS PURIFIED Hazrat Masih Maood (as) was someone who had a very deep knowledge of Allah. He was indeed a very rare jewel in the whole treasures of Islam. Knowing Allah is not something that you can receive as a gift. All those who have known Allah at that level have had to tread the path that the friends of Allah usually tread. Hazrat Masih Maood (as) was no exception. He tells us that in order to know Allah we need to have a clean heart. To get a clean heart one has to exert oneself to the utmost through prayers, devotion and personal sacrifices. And to make this task easy for us Allah has asked us to ask for forgiveness (istighfaar). Even prophets resort to asking for forgiveness in order to be protected from human frailties. We are told in the Hadiths that our beloved prophet Hazrat Mohammadsaw used to ask forgiveness more than seventy times per day. If we follow in his footsteps incha Allah we will become pure and we will inherit divine blessings. I will avail myself of this opportunity to tell you what Hazrat Masih Maood (as) has told us about personal purification. He says: About twenty-five years ago when I was at Gurdaspur I saw in a dream that I was sitting on a sofa and that on the left of me was sitting Maulvi Abdullah Sahib Ghaznavi. It passed through my mind that I should push Maulvi Sahib off the sofa. I began to move slowly towards him till he got off the sofa and sat down on the ground. Thereupon three angels appeared from heaven, one of whom bore the name: Khairati. They also sat down on the ground as Maulvi Abdullah was sitting and I continued on the sofa. Then I said to all of them: I will now pray and do you say Amen to my prayer. I then supplicated in Arabic: “ O my Lord remove all uncleanness from me and purify me completely.” On this the three angels and Maulvi Abdullah, all, said Amen. Thereafter the three angels and Maulvi Abdullah flew up to the sky and I woke up. As soon as I woke up I felt sure that Maulvi Abdullah would soon die and that special grace had been decreed for me in heavens. Thereafter I felt all the time that a heavenly power was working inside me till I began to receive revelation in a continuous succession. In that one night God, the Exalted, perfected a change in me of the kind which cannot be brought about by the hand of man or by man's volition.[Nozoul Masih p236] The reason why I have told you about this incident is that from this
we understand that Hazrat Masih Maood (as) also was exerting himself to
achieve self-purification. After doing plenty of spiritual exercises,
all of a sudden one day he experienced that Allah took him in His lap
and he felt a great change within himself. This is what happened with
him and this is what happens to those who Allah wishes to purify. In
addition this prayer is very beautiful. I have used it much and I recommend
all our members to do the same so that Allah may purify you of all your
sins if you are sincere in your intention. In the last extract that I will read today Hazrat Masih Maood (as) says: When a man is wholly and solely devoted to God and finds his comfort and pleasure in His Will, then without any doubt, the world turns up to him. But of course his comfort will change its hue; he will not take the worldly types of comforts to be his comforts nor the worldly pleasures, to be his pleasures. That is how the world is thrown onto the feet of the prophets and God’s friends; but it is a fact that they do not find any pleasure in the worldly comfort, for, they have changed their direction. The law of nature is that he who runs after the worldly pleasure he does not get. On the other hand when a man, as if, annihilates himself in the Being of God and abandons all the worldly desires, then he gets everything though he does not feel any pleasure in those things. It must never be forgotten that it is by getting God that one can have the worldly gains. God the Almighty has said it repeatedly that whoever would adopt fear of God (Taqwa) would get rid of all the hardships and would be provided for his needs in a way that would be beyond his imagination. How great a blessing it is that you should get rid of all the hardships and the straitened circumstances! God Himself becomes the Provider and Sustainer of this type of men. But as God the Almighty has said it Himself, it is all linked with one’s being a god-fearing person and there is no worldly planning that can help one to become thus. One of the signs of Godly men is that, by nature, they are averse
to the worldly gains. That being the case, he who wishes that he should
attain to the pleasures of God and be comforted in this world as well
as the next world should tread this path. If he leaves this path and
adopts another, he would not get anything whatsoever- he may try as
hard as he can. All these extracts from the writings of Hazrat Masih Maood (as) are real
pearls of wisdom. Members of the Jamaat should make it a duty to study
and practice these teachings if they want to succeed in their life.
For an Ahmadi , the measures of success are not the same as the one
that others use. An Ahmadi should judge his success or failure through
the teachings of the Holy Quran and nothing else. If the Holy Quran
says that he has succeeded, success is his lot. If it says that he has
failed, failure is his lot. May Allah help us and grant all of us a
life full of successes according to the criteria that He uses incha
Allah. I will comment on this last extract in my next sermon incha Allah. Ameen. |