Jamaat Ahmadiyya al Mouslemeen

FRIDAY SERMON

of Hazrat Amirul Momeneen Zafrullah Domun

28 January 2011

|List of sermons| Home| 

After reciting the Tashahhud, the Ta’uz and the first chapter of Al Fatiha Imam Zafrullah Domun read the opening verses of chapter 71 of the Holy Quran and gave their translation as follows:

“In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.

We sent Noah to his people, saying, ‘Warn thy people before there comes upon them a grievous punishment

He said, ‘O my people! Surely I am a plain Warner unto you,

That you serve Allah and fear Him and obey me.

‘He will forgive you your sins and grant you respite till an appointed time. Verily the time appointed by Allah cannot be put back when it comes, if only you knew!’

He said, “My Lord, I have called my people night and day,

But my calling them has only made them flee from me all the more

And every time I called them that Thou might forgive them, they put their fingers into their ears, and covered up their hearts, and persisted in their iniquity, and were disdainfully proud.

Then, I called them to righteousness openly.

Then I preached to them in public, and also spoke to them in private.

And I said, ‘Seek forgiveness of your Lord; for He is the Great Forgiver.

He will send down rain for you in abundance,

And He will strengthen you with wealth and with children, and He will give you gardens and He will give you rivers.

What is the matter with you that you expect not wisdom and staidness from Allah?”(71:1-14)

We Ahmadis believe that the Holy Quran is a book full of wisdom as Allah has repeatedly said so in many of its verses. No one in his lifetime will ever be able to fully comprehend all the wisdom that this book contains. In the light of new scientific discoveries some of its verses may take on new meanings. Consequently we may deduce additional meanings of its verses. In other words just like Nature it continues to reveal its secrets in all ages.  

Hazrat Masih Maood^as came to teach us to study and love this book more than anything else. He has said those who would honour the Holy Quran in this world will be honoured in heaven. Our honoring of the Holy Quran is that we should strive to delve into the meanings of its verses and try to practice its teachings to the best of our understanding. Personally I will never stop telling our members that they should read the Holy Quran everyday and that they should strive to imbibe its teachings. Some time back I asked our young ladies to create a group to circulate some verses of the Book every day. From the feedback that I have received I learn that this suggestion is being implemented. Unfortunately as elsewhere it appears that our young men also are not well aware of the contents of the Holy Quran. I will never stop telling them that there is a need for them to read it so that they might become a group apart who really understand what Islam is and not just followers of what their elders said.

These days almost all young women and men and some older ones also spend some time on Facebook and they chat amongst themselves. If someone took some time to copy and paste a few verses of the Holy Quran all their friends will have an opportunity to read them. If it is only five verses per day, it will add up to 150 verses per month and it will be 1800 verses per year, almost one quarter of the book. If you do not do so you will still live years but you will be deprived of knowing these verses. So take care and heed the advices that I give you. As time goes by you will come to understand that much of your time have been wasted except those times when you did something to please your Lord. So do not be deluded into thinking that it is just sufficient for you to be a member of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen. You have to understand well what the Jamaat stands for and strive to put into practice its teachings in your everyday life. Your best guide on this path will be your knowledge of the Holy Quran. It my prayer that every member of our Jamaat whether young or old should be reading some portion of the Holy Quran every day. And whatever you might not understand you may ask the meanings from your parents or send me an email. I will do my best to reply to the best of my knowledge incha Allah. 

As you might have understood in the verses that I have just recited Allah speaks about Hazrat Nuh and how he spread Allah’s message amongst his people. As is the case whenever Allah sends one of His messengers, those who are arrogant think they know better. They do not care to listen to what the Messenger has to say. They make as if they do not hear anything at all. The messenger calls the people so that they might have their sins forgiven by Allah. But the people out their ignorance and arrogance they flee from him and they do not care at all for what they are being told. Such people, whatever the age in which they live, always think that they know better. They live in bygone times and they vitiate the teachings that they have received, their conduct is of the worst kind and yet they will clamour that they are the best and they will lead mankind to salvation. But Allah chooses His leaders without caring for what the arrogant ones of the society think. Allah takes into consideration what lies in people’s hearts and not what society thinks. Allah always has the best interest of the majority of the people at heart. And the messenger’s message to the people is to seek forgiveness of the Lord. In return Allah “will send down rain for you in abundance, And He will strengthen you with wealth and with children, and He will give you gardens and He will give you rivers.”

From these verses we understand that if we ask forgiveness for our sins Allah will forgive us because He is the Great forgiver. Consequently He will send us plentiful rain plus other benefits as have been mentioned. So in these days of drought where almost all our reservoirs of water are only 35% full and where the authorities are sounding the alarm that the country has water only for about two months I suggest that we all together we seek forgiveness from our Lord. In fact a follower of the Holy Prophet Mohammad^saw should cultivate the habit of asking forgiveness from Allah everyday for more than 70 times. It is something that can  very easily be  done. It does not take even five minutes but it brings in plenty of benefits. However the aim is not just to repeat the words “astaghfiroullah” which means “I ask forgiveness of Allah”. This is the simplest form in which the Holy Prophet ^saw used to recite. But there are some other formulae that he used to recite at specific times. But for the busy modern man or woman we may do it at any convenient time for us. No particular time is prescribed. But we should repeat the words with full consciousness. As an Ahmadi Muslim , member of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen we should make it a habit to be seeking forgiveness from Allah as much as we can everyday and at the same time we should also strive not to indulge in sins. And when I say sins I do not mean the big ones like adultery, murder or robbery. But I mean the biggest one that is Shirk (associating partners with Allah) and disobedience to parents and smaller ones like using vulgar words, shouting, fighting with one another, behaving rudely with one another, breaking family ties etc.

An Ahmadi should try to become a personification of Virtue. In other words we should become such people who display all the best qualities that may be found in human beings. This is the grand aim of our life and we should do our best to achieve this.  

In the last verse of Sura Al Mulk(chapter 67) Allah says “Qoul; in asbaha maa’okoum ghawran faman yaatikoum be maa’im ma’een.”. Its translation is “Say, ‘Tell me, if all your water were to disappear in the earth, who then will bring you clear flowing water?’”. Sura Al Mulk contains many reminders and one of them is about the replenishment of water in our reservoirs or in underground depositories. The Holy Prophet Mohammad ^saw has said that if we read this chapter every day after Esha it will plead for us in front of Allah on the day of resurrection. I have quoted this hadith from memory. There might be some changes in the wordings. Anyhow what I want to say right now is that the last verse of this chapter tells us that Allah has the capacity to bring us water back when it dries up. That is why the Holy Prophet ^saw did also recommend that we should pray to Allah when everywhere is dry and there is no rain. Personally since some time I have been praying for rain. I knew by the Grace of Allah that our prayers would be answered. I know that many people have prayed for rain. All of us are His creatures and some of His mercy is for all of us. He is the One who answers our prayers. One day when I was engaged in praying Allah revealed to me that I should call upon Him thus “Ya Munazzeloul ghayth” meaning “O you who send rain”. Since then I have been praying in these words plus some others and by the Grace of Allah we are seeing rain. But this is still not enough for the country s needs. All our members should continue to pray and call upon Allah to fill our reservoirs with water so that we do not feel its dearth anymore. If we are sincere in our prayers Allah will send us His beneficial rain which will be of benefit to one and all incha Allah.

Mauritius is a blessed place. If Allah’s spiritual blessings are falling on this Island, His physical blessings also will come along. But sometimes He withholds some of His blessings so that people might reflect and become more aware that He is the prime mover behind what happens on earth. But how unfortunate are those who recognize His physical blessings but deny His spiritual ones! 

Before ending I would like to speak about some disturbing news that is coming from the mainstream Ahmadiyya Association in Mauritius. It appears that some unwelcome events have taken place within the Jamaat so much so that the amir and the naib amir/missionary in charge have had to co-sponsor an announcement appealing for calm and restraint in talking about matters which are beyond the common people’s ken. They have even said in their announcement that there are some hypocrites (munafeek) at work within the Jamaat and they are spreading all sorts of rumours. It would be interesting to know who are these hypocrites. How come that within such a good Jamaat under the guidance of the caliph such things happen? But we know that matters worst have been happening under the nose of the caliph in London. We will monitor how they are going to deal with what is going on in Mauritius and we will incha Allah give our opinion on the whole matter when we are aware of all the facts.

Just before the end of the year or immediately after I received the revelation “Allaho khayroul Maakereen” meaning “Allah is the Best of Planners”. I understood that the Jamaat in Mauritius was cooking something but Allah helped me to understand that whatever they try to do He is the best of planners. It means that those who are schemers will not succeed (whoever they are). Anyhow Allah knows best. Let us wait and see.  

In the past I spoke about a revelation that Allah gave me in which He said “Tahsabohoum Jam’aa wa qoloubhoum shatta” meaning “You think them to be united but their hearts are far apart”. This revelation was particularly about the leaders of the Jamaat in Mauritius. When I say leaders I mean the amir, the missionary in charge and to a lesser but important extent the members of the amila. Their unity is based only on their enmity for members of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen. It is not based on their love for Allah or their love for one another as it should have been had they been following the teachings  of Hazrat Masih Maood ^as. They are united on hate not on love and that is why what they have been scheming will fall on their own heads sooner or later if it has not already started. Jamaat Ahmadiyya worldwide is in trouble because it has abandoned its original teachings and does not want to accept Allah’s guidance. Today when I woke up I received the following revelations repeatedly “Fa bashshir houm beazabin aleem, fa basshir houm be maghferatin , fa bashshir houm be ayyamillah”. It can be translated as “Give them the news of a terrible punishment! Give them the news of forgiveness from Allah; give them the news of the days of Allah.” The first message is for the leadership of Jamaat Ahmadiyya here and elsewhere. The last two glad tidings are for members of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen. Last week I also received “Laanatoullah alal kaazebeen” which means “the curse of Allah on the liars.” Now these days it is not difficult to know who the liars are. Let us hope and pray that Allah helps them so that they might recognize their own mistakes and make amends on time. Any how the blind and unconditional and slavish obedience to the amir has already started to show how damaging it can be to the Jamaat as a whole. Soon we will know more incha Allah.