Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 96
Khilafat Centenary US Contributions to the Divine Scheme of Tahrik-e-Jadid ----------- Anwar Mahmood Khan, National Secretary of Tahrik-ej adid, USA Secular leaders try hard to please their subjects and often go to great lengths to conform to their wishes. Spiritual leaders, on the other hand, such as prophets of God, usually have humble beginnings and present ideologies that are in direct contrast to the wishes of their people. As such, they usually attract great opposition. As these elects of God move forward with their assigned tasks, the intensity of opposition reaches a fever pitch to the point that their very lives are threatened. In such a dismal state of affairs, God Almighty assures them of His great support and reassures them with glad tidings of imminent success. Thus, in the Holy Qur'an we read: 'Allah has decreed that He and His Messengers would be triumphant and attain dominion. Verily Allah Is Almighty and prevails' 58:21 The Holy Qur 'an further guides us as to how this dominion will be realized by stating: 'They made plans (to destroy you), and Allah also make plans and the best of Planners is Allah. ' 3:54 According to these verses, the plans designed by Allah to protect and safeguard His chosen ones are amazingly simple, and seemingly insignificant means are deployed to undo the plots of the opposition. Thus, we find that a spider's web saved Prophet Muhammad saw from being discovered in a cave hideout by his enemies, a whale rescued Prophet J onah as in order to further his mission and the parting of the Red Sea protected Prophet Moses as and his people. These examples, along with numerous other ignominious deaths of enemies and victorious triumphs of prophets, are testimonies of how Allah's support was demonstrated for these noble men of God. In our recent past, the decade of the 1930s was an era where the opposition towards our Jama ' at knew no bounds and its very survival was in question. Leading those in this opposition was the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam ("Ahrar"), a Muslim separatist movement. Attaullah Shah Bokhari, the then leader of the Ahrar , asserted that his organization would annihilate the Jama ' at and its members. He even proclaimed that not a single person would be left who would ev en remember the name of thejama 'at's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as. While these venomous attacks were being laid against thejama 'at, the Khalifa of the time, Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad '\ was deeply engaged in seeking Allah's guidance and help. These pra yers were not only accepted by Allah, the Merciful, but He bestowed upon our Imam the glad tiding of success and inspired a great strategy to navigate the caravan of Islam out of these tumultuous waters. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih Il 'a delivered a sermon in which he comforted thejama'at by saying that he was seeing Allah's hand moving and that the Ahrar were losing ground. These were not mere words of comfort for the time; they soon came true. Hardl y a year had passed from the time of this prediction when the Ahrar committed a serious error in handling the case of Shahidganj Mosque and consequently forfeited the confidence of other Muslims around them. This brought their dreams of Muslim leadership to an ignominious end. The Ahrar were banned within their first year of operation, and once again, Allah's decree was fulfilled: 'The y wanted to steal the peace and tranquility of the helpless ones, their own peace, tranquility and even life were destroyed instead. ' Under these circumstances, a new divine scheme known as Tahrik-e:J adid was initiated by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih Il 'a. The scheme consisted of 19 demands in all. Its main features are: 1. Simple living and observance of thrift in every walk of life.