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> Sir Muhammad Iqbal and the Lahore Ahmadiyya
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Sir
Muhammad Iqbal and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement:
by Shahid
Aziz Sahib
Some people have expressed doubts
about the authenticity of the incidents which this jamaat
has related to show that Iqbal did not regard members of the
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as heretics. I give below what
Justice Javed Iqbal, his son, says in his biography of
Iqbal. This book is written in Urdu under the name Zinda
Rood and published by Sheikh Ghulam Ali and Sons in
Pakistan. Some of the quotations were originally in English
and were translated into Urdu for the book. I have
retranslated them back into English. This may mean that, for
some such quotations, there is a difference between the
actual English text and what I have quoted.
Javed Iqbal
does not Dispute the Following Incidents:
"1: In 1900 C.E., Iqbal wrote
a research article in English under the title ‘The
Concept of Absolute Divine Unity put Forward by Sheikh
Abdul Karim al-Jili’ which was published in the
Bombay journal Indian Antiquary in which, speaking
of the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, he said that,
from among the Indian Muslims of the present age,
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani was probably the
greatest religious thinker."
"2: In 1909 C.E., for solution of
some problems of Islamic law, Iqbal turned to Maulana
Hakim Nur-ud-Din and Iqbal’s questions, together
with Maulana Hakim Nur-ud-Din’s answers were
published in the paper Al-Hakm dated
21st December 1909 C.E."
"3: In 1910 C.E., he read a
research paper in English titled ‘Muslim
Community’, a large part of which was translated
into Urdu by Maulana Zafar Ali Khan under the heading
Millat bayza pay ik imrani nazar, in the M.A.O.
College Aligarh’s Strachey Hall. In that paper,
speaking of the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya, he had said that, in
Punjab, the pure example of Islamic characteristics has
appeared in form of the jamaat which is called the
Qadiani sect."
[Note
by the Webmaster: As
this incident occurred in 1910, 4 years before the split
of the Ahmadiyya Movement into the Qadiani and Lahori
groups, thus when Iqbal uses the term 'Qadiani sect' in
the above reference, he is referring to the Ahmadiyya
Movement which was located at Qadian at that time, and
not the Qadiani branch of the Ahmadiyya Movement
established in 1914.]
"4: In 1911 C.E., Iqbal sent his
son Aftab Ahmad, who was getting his education in a
missionary school in Sialkot, to Qadian and had
him admitted to the Talim-ul-Islam school,
there."
"5: In 1913 C.E., Iqbal needed a
decision from Islamic law in relation to some personal
matter ... He sent Mirza Jallal-ud-Din to Maulana
Hakim Nur-ud-Din in Qadian to ask ..."
"6: On 7th April
1932 C.E., he wrote to Chaudry Muhammad Ahsan: ‘As
for the Ahmadiyya Movement, so far as I am concerned,
there are many people in the Lahore jamaat whom I
regard as honourable Muslims and I sympathise with their
efforts to propagate Islam ..."
(Pages
920–923.)
Javed Iqbal accepts that these
incidents are true.
Evidence
that Iqbal did not Consider Lahori Ahmadis to be
Kafirs:
The First
Incident:
On 8th
November 1927 C.E., the British Government announced the
appointment of a constitutional commission under Sir John
Simon. The commission did not have any Indians as its
member. The question whether Muslims should co-operate with
such a body split the Muslim League in two. Iqbal held
meetings with many Muslim leaders to discuss and to try and
resolve the situation. Javed Iqbal refers to a joint
statement issued by Iqbal on 8th December
1927 C.E. on page 522 saying:
"But Iqbal, together with
some other Muslim leaders, issued on
8th December 1927 C.E., the following
statement ..."
Muhammad Hanif Shahid gives the names
of these "other leaders" in his book Allama Iqbal aur
Quaid-i Azam kay siyasi nazriyat. He says:
"Allama Iqbal was in favour
of co-operating with the commission. In support of
co-operation with the commission, he published a
statement with five Muslim leaders, Nawab Sir Zulfiqar
Ali — member of Majlis-i Hind, Allama Iqbal
— member of Punjab Majlis, Nawab Sir Abdul
Qayyum Khan — member of Majlis-i Hind, Mian
Abdul Hai — member of Majlis-i Hind, Syed
Rajan Shah — member of Majlis-i Hind,
Maulvi Muhammad Ali, Amir of Jamaat Ahmadiyya, on
8th December 1927 C.E. ..." (Page 113.)
The Second
Incident:
The fact that Iqbal did not
include members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in his
demand that Qadianis should be declared to be heretics is
proven by the fact that Lahori Ahmadis, such as Hazrat
Dr. Mirza Yaqub Baig, who was also the honorary
Secretary General of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam,
were not asked to resign from the management committee of
the Anjuman Himayat-i Islam. However, on
2nd February 1936 C.E., on a proposal by
Iqbal, the General Council of the Anjuman Himayat-i
Islam put forward a resolution that Finality of
Prophethood is a fundamental principle of Islam and that all
its members believe in it. Hazrat Dr. Mirza Yaqub Baig
supported this motion. Upon this some members then tried to
add further conditions to this motion. This led to angry
arguments and Hazrat Dr. sahib walked out in protest. This
led to his suffering a stroke and passing away a few days
later. On Dr. sahib’s death The Light wrote an
editorial in which Dr. Iqbal was accused of calling Dr.
Mirza Yaqub Baig a kafir. In reply, the weekly
Himayat-i Islam wrote: "Read the proceedings and be
reasonable … where and when did our respected President
demand that Dr. Mirza Yaqub Baig was a kafir and his
expulsion from the Anjuman is extremely necessary ..."
(Pages 895–898.) Thus until this time Iqbal did not
call Lahori Ahmadis kafirs. Indeed, when The
Light, the organ of Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam
accuses him of so doing, Himayat-i Islam, the organ
of the organisation of which Iqbal was the President, denied
this charge.
The Third
Incident:
This is further supported by
the following facts. Quaid-i Azam visited Lahore on
29th April 1936 C.E. to set up the Muslim
League’s Parliamentary Board in the Punjab. He met Dr.
Iqbal, leaders of the Ahrar movement and those of
Itihad-i Millat. Ahrar told Quaid-i Azam that
they would only agree to join the Muslim League’s
Parliamentary Board on condition that Qadianis were barred
from joining the Muslim League. Quaid-i Azam made no such
promise (Allama Iqbal aur Quaid-i Azam kay Siyasi
Nazriyat by Muhammad Hanif Shahid, pages 213–226.)
There is no evidence to show that Iqbal tried to persuade
him to do so.
An
Interesting Conclusion from Iqbal’s Writings:
On page 886 of Zinda Rood it
is said: "In Tuluh-i Islam dated October 1935 C.E.,
Nazir Niazi, putting light on this problem, gave extracts
from some of Iqbal’s writings where he had discussed
the two parts of prophethood. That is, prophethood as a
special status of spirituality and prophethood as an
institution which, by creating a new atmosphere, becomes the
cause of political and social change in mankind. According
to Iqbal, if both parts are present then it is prophethood
and if only the first part is present then it is
tasawwuf or sainthood. Iqbal wrote: ‘The
Finality of Prophethood means that if some person, after
Islam, claims that both parts of prophethood are found in
me, that is that I receive revelation and one not entering
my jamaat is a heretic, that person is a
liar.’"
On 15th May 1908
C.E., a few days before Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
passed away, he said: "We believe that the Divine Converse
with the people of this ummah shall continue till the
Last Day ..." (Malfuzat, vol. 10, page 373.) Then, in
answer to a direct question regarding those reciters of the
Kalima who had not joined his jamaat, he clearly said: "We
do not say that any reciter of the Kalima is excluded from
Islam." (Malfuzat, vol. 10, page 376.)
This shows that according to
Iqbal’s own definition Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a
saint.
A New
Objection and its Answer:
Our critics tell us that only
an Islamic religious court can take decisions in matters
related to the religion of Islam. The question then arises:
If this is correct, why did Iqbal appeal to the British
Government of India to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims? When
members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam point to
this contradiction, we are told that if Muslims living under
non-Muslim rule unanimously decide on a matter they can
approach the government and request it to give their
decision legal force.
The first statement Iqbal made against
the Ahmadiyya Movement was printed in the newspapers in 1935
C.E. The Statesman published it on
14th May 1935 C.E. In it, Iqbal concluded
that the best way forward for the rulers of India is to
declare Ahmadis a separate religious sect.
There was much criticism of Iqbal
throughout India for making such a statement. The
Statesman wrote a long article against this. In reply to
this article Iqbal wrote a letter to the newspaper and said
that it was "the duty of the British Government to take note
of fundamental differences between Muslims and Ahmadis
without waiting for a formal request from Muslims." (Pages
883–884.)
Here Iqbal is demanding that, contrary
to the claim by our critics, the British Government of India
should take the initiative and declare Ahmadis as a separate
religious sect without waiting for a formal request from the
Muslims. Iqbal is thus asking a non-Muslim government to
decide who is, and who is not, a Muslim!
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> Sir Muhammad Iqbal and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement by
Shahid Aziz Sahib
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