SUMMARY OF FRIDAY SERMON

by the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
December 10^th, 2004

(NOTE: Alislam Team takes full responsibility for any errors or miscommunication in this Synopsis of the Friday Sermon)

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Love and Obedience of the Holy Prophet

Huzur^aba delivered his Friday Sermon on the inspirational subject of love and obedience of the Holy Prophet.

Citing verse 32 of Surah Al Imran (3:32) and verse 57 of Surah Al Ahzab (33:57) Huzur^aba expounded that today all the past and future exemplars are redundant and only the model of Muhammad remains through which one can achieve salvation. The mode for this is to invoke utmost blessings on him, which in turn opens up ways and means to follow in his footsteps and it is through this conformity that one attains Allah’s pleasure.

The Promised Messiah stated that acceptance of prayer is through three means: following the Prophet, invoking blessings on him and the love of God. Reading from the writings of the Promised Messiah Huzur^aba further explained that it is through the most excellent example of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Qur’an that was revealed to him that we determine the existence of earlier prophets, whose scriptures are all but lost, and the reality of channel of communication with God. It is our great good fortune that we have been granted adherence to one whose advent came when the world was steeped in spiritual darkness and who illuminated it with the light of Truth. In the current age it is the Messiah who upholds this light and his acceptance also lies in compliance with the teachings of the Holy Prophet.

Indeed the Holy Prophet had himself stated that one is not a true believer unless one holds the Prophet dearer than one’s close family. The strength of the love of Prophet that the Promised Messiah had was such that he declared that hurtful comments about the Prophet aggrieved him more than any other imaginable emotional or physical anguish ever could.

It is by virtue of this tremendous love that today the Ahmadiyya Community is enabled to fulfil the requisites of the sense of honour of this love and has the courage to challenge the world and take the message of Islam to the corners of the earth. It is a pity that those who are hailed as Muslims are creating obstacles in the way.

Huzur^aba related a few pure dreams and visions of the Promised Messiah that he experienced as a consequence of invoking blessings and salutations on the Prophet with sheer profusion and said that today we ought to try and emulate this practice. Huzur^aba recounted some traditions of the Promised Messiah illustrating his fervent love for the Prophet, most significantly the episode when he expressed his acute longing to have had the good fortune to have said a particular poetic verse which a poet wrote at the time of the passing away of the Holy Prophet which roughly translates in English as:

“O Muhammad, you were [like] the pupil of my eye that I am blinded of today. Whosoever may die now, I feared your death alone."

However, it is extremely poignant that in Pakistan the very Community that upholds the sense of honour of the Prophet is being persecuted for the past few decades. For many years now imprisonments are taking place under false accusation made by the clergy. The judiciary of the country is acting in a cowardly and most unfair manner; they should not forget that there is a Higher and Most Powerful Judge watching over them Who maintains the ultimate justice. Huzur^aba said that in Bangladesh, the people, the politician and the media have taken a stand in favour of our Community against the clergy; however, it seems in Pakistan the basic sense of decency has all but vanished.

Huzur^aba reiterated in cautioning those, who are acting inequitably towards the Community, of Allah’s wrath. He prayed that may Allah protect the Ahmadis from their evil in every country and enable Ahmadis to follow in the footsteps and to invoke blessings and salutations on the Holy Prophet with greater fervency.