Ahmadi Muslims for peaceful Islam

Ahmadis gearing up for 100 years of Khilafat
By Dr. Hanif Koya
At a time when most of the Muslim world is gripped in the middle of turmoil, disorder and vehemently defending allegations of Islamist terrorism and radical Islam, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is gearing up to celebrate 100 years of Khilafat (caliphate) a system of Islamic leadership and succession spelled out in the Holy Quran
Speaking in a series of Friday sermons, the London-based spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth Ahmadi Khalifa, launched a Khilafat Day Fund to mark the first 100 years of the Ahmadiyya Khilafat in all major cities around the world slated in May of 2008.
The announcement has set in motion formation of celebration committees and stirred up Ahmadis all over the world to aggressively contribute towards the Khilafat Fund. The National Amir, of Ahmadiyya Muslim USA, Dr. Ahasanullah Khan, set $5 Million target, which I am told American Ahmadis have exceeded.
The Islamic Khilafat system commenced on the demise of the Prophet of Islam when one of his closest companions Hazrat Abu Bakr was elected as the first Khalifa. Abu Bakr was followed by Hazrat Umar, Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Usman, that order, all being exemplary leaders and came to be regarded as “khulafa-e-rashadeen” – the rightly guided caliphs.
With the assassination of Hazrat Usman and a period characterized by tumultuous and painful chaos, disunity and distrust among early dynasties, the Khilafat began losing its impact and eventually faded away during the Ottoman Empire, a pathetic situation the Prophet of Islam had variously eluded to in his admonitions to the Muslims.
Cognizant of the admonitions and predictions of the prophet, Muslims anticipated the resurgence of the Khilafat after the collapse lasted well over 1000 years.
The Khilafat in Islam cannot be artificially made up. It is a divine system and Quran stipulates that it is a promise of God and as such God institutes the system in the manner he did in the past with reference to biblical prophets who simply came one after another and followed the Mosaic Laws.
According to the Prophet of Islam the resurgence o his Khilafat would be “ min hajin nabuwah” (on the style –the tradition- of the prophets) meaning the Khilafat would succeed a prophet. He set the timeframe, in many symbolic messages, around 14th century of the Islamic calendar which is representative of the 19 century of the Christian era.
When Islam was its lowest ebb suffering onslaughts from all sides and the Muslim world was steeped in darkness of ignorance, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) rose
from a small village of Qadian, India to champion its cause, claiming that he had been commissioned by Almighty God to rejuvenate the faith and bring Muslims back to the path righteousness.
Out of eighty books he wrote, the “Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya” and “The philosophy of the teachings of Islam” became very popular which he claimed were based on the revelations he received from Allah. Maulvis took offense to it and objected that revelations ceased after Prophet Muhammad and declared Mirza Sahib a heretic.
Hazrat Mriza Ghulam Ahmad
Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Despite severe opposition the claimant’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community moved on which he said God had promised would “reach the corners of the earth”, and “Kings shall seek blessings from you.” He would have a large following blessed with “brilliant intelligence and high honor.”
Three years before his death Mirza Sahib wrote in his WILL that the world will see a second manifestation after his demise and that the blessing cannot come unless he departs. Upon his departure, he prophesied, caliphs will succeed him like what happened after Prophet Muhammad and the second manifestation will last till the Day of Judgment. It will establish his truth and prove to all that his community is the selected sect of Islam that will prosper, progress and supersede.
His words came true when his most trusted and devout follower and friend Hazrat Al-Hajj Maulana Hakim Nooruddin (1841-1914) was unanimously elected the first Ahmadi Khalifa.
A renown physician of the King of Jammu Kashmir and a Muslim divine, Khalifa Noorddin led the Ahmadiyya community navigating a near dissension headed by disciples like Maulvi Muhammad Ali and Khwaja Kamul ud Dean
First Khalifa
Hazrat Al Hajj Nooruddin
On his death 25 year old son of the founder of the community, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-dean Mahmood Ahmad was elected the second Khalifa to which dissident took an exception and broke away from the community and regrouped as Lahore Ahmadis denouncing the idea of caliphate as mentioned by the founder in his Will.
Hazrat Mirza Mahmood’s Khilafat itself last over half a century and saw great diversification and expansion in the foreign nations including Fiji and many African countries. He was the promised illustrious son mentioned in several books of the founder given to growing faster and gaining eminence. Like his father, Hazrat Mirza Mahmood Ahmad was also a prolific writer, orator and poet.
Second Khalifa
Hazrat Mirza Mahmood Ahmad
Surviving a life-threatening attack by an opponent, the second Ahmadi Khalifa led the community successfully for 51 years.
In 1965 on the death of the second Khalifa, community elected his elder son Hazrat Hafiz Mirza Nazir Ahmad as the third Ahmadi Khalifa. A graduate scholar of Oxford University, Hazrat Mirza Nazir Ahmad continued building upon the foreign missions created by his father and faced the bitterest opposition from the Pakistan’s Bhutto Government, which constitutionally declared Ahmadis as kefirs (disbelievers) after a
parliamentary hearing in which the third Khalifa appeared and responded to many questions. Ironically, Bhutto was overthrown by late Gen. General Zia-ul-Haq and later hanged for political crimes.
Third Khalifa
Hazrat Hafiz Mirza Nazir Ahmad
Hazrat Hafiz Mirza Nazir Ahmad passed away in 1982. His younger brother Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahamd, got elected as the fourth Ahmadi caliph. He was a visionary and a person with steel courage who took Gen. Zia by the horn in his powerful sermons for promulgating anti Ahmadiyya Laws in Pakistan which carried imprisonment and heavy fines if any Ahmadi attempted to utter and Islamic verses or greetings. Under Zia’s instructions Pakistani police obliterated verses of the Quran from Ahmadi mosques.
After taking political refuge in England, Mirza Tahir Ahmad led the community from the London Mosque and from where he launched the first only 24 Hour Muslim TV program called MTA (Muslim TV, Ahmadiyya) via satellite without a monthly fee and is now also available via the Internet. He traveled extensively, gave daily interviews to the press, address leaders against the Gulf War in his Friday Sermons and left behind valuable writings on Homeopathy and a collection of most amazingly powerful poems. He also acquired a 25-acre piece of land in Surry and renamed it Islamabad and built on of the largest mosques in Europe in another plot and refurbishing an old dairy factory.
Fourth Khalifa
Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad
The 100 years of Ahmadiyya Khilafat is being led by the new Khalifa, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad who was elected in 2003 on the demise of the fourth Khalifa Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad.
Like his predecessor, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad is also very widely traveled. He initially worked as a principal at the Ahmadiyya operated Schools in Ghana. With a Masters degree in Agricultural Science from Faisalabad University Pakistan, Hazrat Masroor Ahmad initiated a wheat farming experimentation in Ghana, which has contributed greatly to the country’s economic growth and self-sufficiency.
While the mainstream Muslims are is debating the idea of Khilafat, caught in the sectarian strife and bloodshed, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is forging ahead for the grand celebration of 100 years of Khilafat, which promises to be the continuing platform for a peaceful world community.
Fifth Khalifa
Hazrat Mirza Masoor Ahmad