Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 181
181 Prophet s as appeared in the world today and saw what the Muslims were doing, he would think that they were followers of some pagan religion. It may be said that those idolatrous beliefs and practices are confined only to the ignorant masses and that knowledgeable Muslims are averse to them, but the fact is that groups and nations are judged by the conduct of their majority. When the majority of Muslims hold such beliefs, it has to be concluded that the Muslims have deteriorated in terms of their belief in the Oneness of God and have forgotten the essence of ‘There is no God but Allah’, which was the very life and substance of Islam. It is also not true to say that only the masses are prone to such beliefs because many of the elders and scholars are in agreement with them. If there are some among them who do not at heart approve of these beliefs and practices, they have themselves deteriorated to such an extent that they cannot publicly denounce the beliefs of the masses. This is further proof that true faith has disappeared from among the Muslims. True, there are sects among the Muslims that claim to be com - pletely free of Shirk and condemn other Muslims for defaming Islam by indulging in idolatrous practices, but the fact is that these sects too indulge in Shirk. The only difference being that whereas common Muslims set up many saints and sages as equal to God, these people consider Jesus alone to be His equal. This is because, like other Muslims, they believe that Jesus is alive in heaven. In their view, the Holy Prophet s as , the best of all Prophets and their Chief, is buried in the earth while Jesus has been sitting alive in heaven for the last two thousand years and God does not cause