This is a mini blog series on my blog i.e., a blog within a blog. I call it the Heretic Diaries. Basically, in these blog posts, I will be writing my personal reflections on Islam and providing my own unorthodox interpretations of various Islamic beliefs and concepts. They will be random ramblings and reflections on what Islam means to me.
Aamir Liaquat Hussain has done it again. Yet another member of the Ahmadiyya (Muslim) community was killed in a small village, after two so-called Muslim scholars publicly reviled Ahmadis on television.
In this video, the Muslim leader, Syed Arif Shah Owaisi, said that the fitna-e-qadiyaniat (dissension caused by Ahmadiyya) is the biggest enemy of people of Pakistan. Everybody started clapping at this comment. Aamir Liaquat lauded the comment and other scholars joined in to show their support.
It’s ridiculous how religious feelings are flared in Pakistan and how irresponsible the TV channels have become in publicly airing such views. This is not the first time Aamir Liaquat Hussain has been involved in inciting anti-Ahmadiyya sentiment in the masses via his TV program.
In September 2008, Aamir Liaquat Hussain dedicated a whole episode in discussing Ahmadiyya beliefs in which scholars declared that ‘anyone who associated with false prophets was “worthy of murder”.’
Within 48 hours after his show was aired, two prominent leaders from the Ahmadiyya community were killed in Pakistan. Although Aamir Liaquat Hussain clearly distanced himself from the killings, the fact remains that his TV show has been spewing hatred against the Ahamdiyya community.
I strongly condemn attacks on the Ahmadiyya community and fully support the Ahmadiyyas all over Pakistan. In fact, as I had argued in one of my blog-posts earlier, I do not see why the finality of Prophethood should be such a big issue for Muslims all over the world. I am a firm believer in freedom of expression with regards to one’s religious beliefs and see no problem if members of the Ahmadiyya community believe Mirza Ghulam of Qadian as a Prophet of Allah. Whether such a belief is true or not is another debate. However, no one should be killed for holding such views. Pakistan is indeed a hotbed of religious intolerance and religious minorities are severely persecuted. Where is Allah when He is needed?
One important aspect of being Muslim is to believe in the end of Prophethood. Prophet Muhammad is considered to be the final prophet sent to human kind by Allah the Great and no other human being can become a prophet until the end of time.
This does not mean that humans have not had any prophets after the demise of Muhammad. In fact, as can been seen in this article, numerous individuals claimed prophethood after Prophet Muhammad and Muslims, as seen in this article, consider all of those claims as false.
The idea of finality of Prophethood known as “Khatam an-Nabiyyin” is controversial. In the subcontinent, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian made a claim regarding prophethood and his followers are still being persecuted in Pakistan.
As a freethinking agnostic, I find it extremely hard to believe how the words of the Qu’ran can actually be the literal speech of a metaphysical entity that sustains the entire Universe but chose only Prophet Muhammad as a messenger and sealed the possibility of talking to humanity ever again.
I just can’t come to terms with the fact that Allah, who, if exists, and is by definition the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful, would choose to keep us humans of the 21st Century into such an abysmal darkness regarding His personal existence. Why would Allah abandon us after the demise of Prophet Muhammad?
Revelation (if it can ever be proved scientifically), in my opinion, has to be progressive. The doors to revelation cannot be sealed off for eternity after a specific period in human history (such as the death of Prophet Muhammad). In this regard, my own views echo with the followers of Bahá’í faith. I recently came across an article on the Wikipedia about the Bahá’í belief “that religious truth is revealed by God progressively and cyclically over time through a series of divine Messengers, and that the teachings are tailored to suit the needs of the time and place of their appearance.“
Whereas the veracity of all religious claims need be first established in some empirical form, the idea of progressive revelation is much more intuitively appealing than the concept of “Khatam an-Nabiyyin.”
Allah, if He is out there, needs to reveal Himself to us in ways that a rational mind of the 21st Century can understand and appreciate.
