Souvenir on 50th Jalsa Salana USA — Page 25
29th JALSA SALANA -1976- MADISO N, NJ DREW UNIVERSITY Grandson Of the Promised One Terms Islam The Only Way By JOH MUELLER MADISON Some of the men were moved to tears praying with the solemn, grandfatherly figure. Most of the women delegate. . , never got to sec the man who looked sort of Like Burl Ives, though they could hear his voice through a partition in the college gymna. . ,ium. r ~ The man wa<. Hatrat Mijr. rNasir Ahmad, grand-. on and third successor of The Promised One, and ~ -,_ " - ) his message to 600 of his I 0 million Ahmadi followers was that there is no hope for humanity out- side Islam. Dressed in flowing robes. saris. or dashikis, with many of the women veiled, the listening believers were delegates to the 29th Annual Convention of the North American Communities in the Ahmadi) ya Movement over the weekend at Drew University. Rubbing elbows with weekend joggers, tennis players and Shakespeare festival stagehands, they gathered Friday and Saturday to pray and exchange idea'. about their blamic evangelical sect in what was described as "a true Islamic 1,ociety in the midst of an overwhelming materialistic environment. '' 'The reality is that Christianity has failed to solve the problems of the world," Ahmad said. His grandfather, the Promised Mahdi (Restorer of the Faith). promised he could solve all the problem-. of the world through blam. he said. In a short address Ahmad. . . aid Islam is the onl) remedy to America's problems, droned some melod- ic incantations for peace, and led the delegates in silent prayer which was punctuated by sobs from members of the audience. To the uninitiated Judeo-Christian it was unclear whether the men were crying with joy on -. eeing their spirital leader in the flesh or regretting his imminent departure. Ahmad's grandfather. Ha;rat Miyza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. the Punjab. founded the evangelical sect in 1889, apparently trying to combine the thrust of major world religions under a universal blam. Besides the Promised Mahdi, he claimed to be the second advent of Christ, an incarnation of the Hindu Krishna and a lmru~. or reincarnation, of Muhammad. Missionary for the Midwest. Mian Muhammad Ibrahim. explained: "What separates Ahmadinat from not only the Muslims but from all other religions is a belief in ongoing revelation. If God spoke yesterday, he certainly can speak today. There is also the belief in the universality of prophets. II brings us closer together, closer to world unity. " Another key belief. he said. is Ahmad's reinterpretation of the Islamic precept of jihad or holy war. to mean persuasion by the pen rather than the sword, and a submission to temporal authority in tem- poral matters approximating the Christian "rendering unto Caesar. " Ahmadiyyat is disowned by orthodox Muslims because Ahmad claimed to be an inspired prophet, while in Islam Muhammad is supposed to have been the final prophet. Ahmad\ liberali1ation of Islam, especially its principles of social justice and egalitarianism. appeal ed originally to the middleclass Muslims. and while decidedly nonracist, is fairly close to the American Black Muslim social and po litical outlook. Men and women entered the auditorium/gymnasium by separate doors and were blocked from each others' \ie\\. by a partition. although squalling children and an occa<;ional crash were audible from the other section. Speakers. including Ahmad, stood on the men's side of the floor, unseen to the women. A women's exclusive session was scheduled "to deliberate on problems peculiar to the female soci- ety. " "A basic tenet of Ahmadiyya Islam is that each person should develop his physical. moral. spriritu- al and mental facultie. , to their fullest. This of course necessitates equality of the sexes. said the prophet, who added that in the Qur'an men are commanded to up hold the rights of women," a press handout said. It pointed to a 100 per cent literacy rate in Rabwah, Pakistan, the sect's center, com- pared to 1 per cent in the rest of the country. Those sun eying the throng outside could hear a mixture of Pakistani. Indian. and a scauering of African and European languages. One black woman dressed in a co lorful, flowing outfit was asked if she could explain the separate but unequal facilities and how she felt about them. She turned out to be from Teaneck. 'Tm not a delegate. I"m not e\'en a Moslem. I'm the mother of one of the speak- er. ,, and my son\ friend made me thi'. -1 outfit because -. he said I had a Moslem body," she explained. "They almost al way-. separate the gentlemen from the ladies. Usually I don't notice it but it does take some getti ng used to," she said. The Daily Record Morris County. J 8 August 1976