The Moslem Sunrise, July 1922
Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiqra (1872-1957)
A Prayer
Allah in the highest, listen to my prayer:
Let the Moslem Sunrise spread truth every where.
Into the darkest nature’s all yet unheard of Thee;
Let the Sunrise penetrate, swift, effectually.
Sunshine the purifier, health and life-giving beams;
With thy pure light exposing all that hateful seems.
Sunbeams on the waters dancing with each wave;
Giving unnumbered values, souls for beauty crave,
Allah in the highest listen to my prayer;
Send the Moslem Sunrise into everywhere.
(Ummesalam – E Mandling)
Jesus was crucified, but did not die on the cross – A survey of the literature on the subject
Among the older philosophers or sects which support the view that Jesus did not die on the cross may be mentioned the Essenes, the Basilidians, Corinthians and the Carpocratians (cf. Dictionary of Islam, by Thomas Hughes BD; Charles Scribner 1908). Interesting data may be obtained by consulting Encyclopedias on Essenism, Philonism and Agnosticism, also in some of the esoteric writings, Talmud and Mishnaic Rabbi.
With reference to later sects and philosophers leaning to such a belief, a brief reference to certain French writers in the 18th century must be made. Some explain Jesus and Christianity as a mythical religion of antiquity, and that Jesus’ person and death take on a shadowy form.
French writers – Volney (Les Ruines-Paris 1791) [and] Dupois (Origine de Tous les Cultes – Paris 1794). German writers – cf. Bahrdt works [and] also Bauer. In America – consult WB Smith. Also see Arianism, Socinianism, [and] Unitarianism.
For an extended bibliography on the historicity of Jesus consult “The Historicity of Jesus” by Shirley Jackson Case, University of Chicago Press, 1912.
In addition to the above references, the following suggest useful data:
What was He?, or Jesus in the light of the 19th Century by William Denton, published by W Denton in 1877, Wellesley, near Boston.
It is a study of the gospel accounts of Jesus, giving an outline of what psychometry reveals regarding the parentage, life and resurrection of Christ. It tends to prove that the occurrences of the gospel may be readily accounted for without impugning the motives of the Evangelists and without supposing Jesus to have been either a God or an imposter. Christ was crucified on Friday, remained three to six hours on the cross, and appearing to be dead, his bones were not broken. His body was taken down by Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin who was friendly to Jesus, and it was taken to a new sepulchre near the place of crucifixion. During the preparation of the body according to the burial customs of the Jews, Joseph discovers signs of life, and this fact he conceals from the others. He places the body in the sepulchre and rolls the stone in place but later returns with the gardener and takes Jesus to his house. By Sunday, Jesus sufficiently recovers from hand wounds, (others claim feet were not spiked), to journey to Galilee. Nothing more is heard of Joseph of Arimathea who was very friendly to Jesus before the crucifixion. His silence is suggestive. It is to be noted also that Christ appeared to believers only – very seldom and for short periods of time: all this suggesting weakness.
Naked Truth of Jesusism by Lyman F George. The George Book Pub. Co., Pittsburgh, Penna., 1914, History and Mss. A criticism of Jesusism altogether, claims Jesus did not die on the cross, even as Luke without suspecting says (in Luke 24:39-43): “Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself, handle me and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have […] and they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb.” Dead corpses do not eat. The author then quotes from The Life of Saint Issa, the Best of the Sons of Men, claiming it to be more authentic than one written three hundred years later.
Also quotes that the Masonic Fraternity in Germany possesses Mss [manuscript] written seven years after the crucifixion, by a friend of Jesus, this Mss gives a detailed account of rescue of Jesus from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. This was the report of those who actually saw the rescue and not an account of hearsay witnesses (Luke and Mark) who wrote about what they heard. The author makes comparisons from various crucifixions, the time for death extending anywhere from thirty-six hours to a week, claiming that Jesus was robust and healthy, living an outdoor life and being temperate in all things. It seems improbable that he should die in three to six hours. Furthermore, only John’s gospel gives an account of a spear wound, Jesus himself never referring to it after the resurrection as he does in the four gospels. The fact is that he merely swooned, etc.
Toledoth Jesus, Hebrew manuscript, R Carlile, Pub. London, 1823, states that Jesus was not crucified but stoned. Based on Talmudic references.
The Christ Myth by Elizabeth E Evans, Pub. Truth Seeker Co., 28 La Fayette Place, 1900, page 67, claims that on the cross is a lingering death, requiring several days to a week, and then death is due more to starvation than pain. Furthermore, no such place as Gethsemane or Calvary are found near Jerusalem.
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Chas. Scribner & Sons, 1908. Under Arianism, page 786 – As Unitarians maintain, a mere man eminent for goodness but subject to human limitations, etc. This being so, Christ could not have died inasmuch as he lived again after the crucifixion.
Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eye witness, Mass. Austin Pub. Co., Los Angeles, 1919, claims Jesus a brother of the Essenes. Jesus received assistance and protection from the Essenes (page 50). When crucified, he only had nails in hands. Joseph and Arimathea, with Pilate’s permission, spread salve on wounds, took him to the sepulchre and after thirty hours or so he was still alive and recovered. Made a journey to Emmanus.
Consult the Brook Kerith by George Moote, Pub. McMillan Co., 1916, Fiction.
We quote here to two of scientific possibilities suggested by a writer to support the above data:
A. The theory of suspended animation may readily account for an apparent complete loss of being and bodily activity.
Suspended animation is not a fictitious piece of imagery, but a scientifically proven fact, – experimental investigation having been made by the medical service of the RAMC in India. Apparent cessation of life resembling death can be maintained for periods of weeks without food or breathing.
B. After a period of three days, the internal chemical constitution of the body would have so changed, the blood so clotted and various stages of disintegration would have so far advanced as to render it unreasonable to suppose that such an altered body could be compatible with life. Life in science is dependent upon, if not the sum total of chemico-physical processes throughout the body. Any physico-chemical alteration of the slightest degree is immediately associated with deranged function. Many of the processes occurring after death are chemically irreversible, hence if one did live and function after three days, such a one could not have undergone postmortem changes, i.e. he could not have died, – hence he either underwent a condition of suspended animation or merely swooned.
Tomb of Jesus
Finally, the tomb of the Prince Prophet Jesus discovered in Srinagar, India, decisively settles the question altogether. The tradition and History of the Kashmere [Kashmiri] State which was in old days a Jewish Colony in India proves that Jesus Christ after he escaped death on the cross travelled to India and died there when he was about 120 years old. […]
Real enemies of the Bible
Mr William Jennings Bryan, the famous president-nominate, has written a pamphlet The Bible and Its Enemies in which he counts enemies of the Bible, as four in number, viz. the Agnostic, the Atheist, the Higher Critic and the Evolutionist. With all respect to Mr Bryan for his religious zeal and abilities, we beg to point out that the earned writer has missed the real enemies of the Bible.
Agnostics and so forth are indifferent to the Book because they cannot reconcile its story with the geological and other scientific facts. They are not to blame much for what they could not understand. But, the real enemies of the Bible are those who claim it to be a Divine Law from God to man and do not care to follow the commandments given therein.
The Bible is divided into two parts:
First, the law and the rules laid down by Moses and other Prophets. This whole big volume is discarded by the Christian saying that law is a curse.
The second part contains the ethical teachings given by Jesus for the members of His Esoteric Essenes Order. No Christian practices them as they are impracticable in everyday life. Suppose there is a Book of Laws and Regulations made by the Congress and Senate of the United States and finally passed by the President, but no one in the country acts according to those laws. Now, who is to blame for insulting the law-makers – the people who live in the country and call that law their Charter, or those who have left the country and belong to it no more. My dear Mr Bibler, either act on the first part of your book and make no second and third gods with one, eat nothing unclean, circumcise your male child, remember the Saturday Sabbath as holy, keep fasts and feasts, or if you cannot do this – then act on the second part of the book – love your enemies, resist no evil, keep no army and police, make yourself eunuchs, allow no divorces, keep no money and never prepare for the morrow.
But when you neither do this nor that, then your scriptures are merely a burden on your shoulders and excuse me to say, “Thou art thyself the greatest enemy of the Bible.”
Another gain to the Moslem principles
“There is no celibacy in Islam,” voiced the Master-Prophet Muhammad[sa], “to save the world from the injuries and the dangers of the ascetic life forced by the Catholic Church discipline on her priests.” Long experiences of practical life have last proved that it is not good for man and many intelligent and sincere workers of the Christian Church have been protesting against this and other false dogmas. Thus arose the various branches of the Protestant Churches. Now, according to the recent news from Europe, 600 French priests have been expelled from the Roman Catholic Church for marrying. “We consider marriage,” they proclaim, “a necessary safeguard for a great number, and it is an indispensable liberty for all.” Good, but did not Jesus say, “Some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” Yes, it is only Islam, which being a universal religion does not introduce or encourage celibacy, monkhood, priesthood and such like degenerating institutions. Why not a step further dear priests and adopt the whole of Islam. Better throw away the garment which has so many times proved faulty and defective and always requires to be mended with the patches borrowed from other religions.
Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmad
Of all the sacred books of various religions in the world, it has been the privilege of the Holy Quran alone to be so widely committed to memory by its votaries. The whole of the Quran is every year in the month of Ramadan (Fasting) recited from the beginning to the end, without looking at the book, to the congregation by one of the hafizes, and there are thousands of hafizes in each Moslem country all over the world.
Hafiz is an Arabic word and means a guardian, a preserver. One who preserves the whole of the Quran in memory and thus protects its text from being perverted. As there have been hafizes in Islam from its very beginning therefore the Moslem Bible has ever remained safe from alterations, additions and subtractions, unlike the Christian Bible, whose text is now far from being genuine and original.
Many Moslem boys learn to recite Quran before they are 12 years old. Nasir Ahmad (about 12 years old), the eldest son of our present Leader [Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IIra], is now a hafiz. He recited the whole Quran during the last fasting month to the congregation in the Mosque, reciting a part every evening.
The above photo of the promising lad was taken when he was saying his prayers in the Mosque.
May Allah bless Nasir and all his relatives, Amen.
False stories against Islam
Some prejudiced Christian priests have spread many false stories against Islam and the Orient, and those stories have unfortunately taken such a firm root in the Western literature that with all the spread of knowledge these days, many a person is still blindly believing in those stories as true.
Arthur Brisbane in his Sunday editorial (Chicago Examiner, 2 July 1922) writes: “Muhammad kept women out of Paradise.” It is a pity that a man of such a vast literary knowledge as Mr Brisbane is supposed to be, a man who always insists on others’ gaining their first-hand knowledge, makes such a blunder by stupidly accepting what some bigoted enemy of Islam might have fabricated in the old days of ignorance. To refute this false charge, we just quote a few lines from a European author, Sir Arthur N Wollaston’s “The Religion of the Koran” (Published by John Murray, 1917):
Page 16 – “The idea that women will not be admitted into Paradise is a libel upon Islam.”
Page 43 – “But he who doeth good works, be it male or female, and believes, they shall enter into Paradise, and they shall not be wronged a jot.” The Koran, Chapter IV, Verse 28.
Page 44 – “God has promised to believers, men and women, gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for aye; and goodly places in the garden of Eden but good-will from God is the greatest of all, that is the mighty happiness.” The Koran, Chapter IX, Verse 73.
Page 55 – “And whoso does right, by be it male or female and a believer, these shall enter into Paradise, they shall be provided therein without count.” The Koran, Chapter XL, Verse 44.
Now, let us see, if Arthur Brisbane has a sense of justice to correct his mistake. Blessed are those who see their faults and are not ashamed of making amends.
Long live the Amir of Afghanistan
The kingdom of Afghanistan is making great progress under the auspicious command of its present ruler His Majesty Amir Amanallah Khan, who has granted the religious freedom to his subjects. No one will now be persecuted there for being an Ahmadi Moslem, as used to be in the days of the late Amirs. Some of our dear brethren were butchered or stoned to death in Afghanistan under the orders of the priests – who have been antagonistic to the Prophets and the Holy Teachers of all ages. They [our brethren] glorified the name of Allah and gave their blood-witnesses to the proof of the truth of their faith. They are ever-living martyrs – Syed Abdul Latif and his companions.
[Note: This freedom of religion was short-lived as only two years later, another Ahmadi, Maulvi Nematullah, was martyred in Afghanistan, during the reign of King Amanullah Khan. For more details, please see Hazrat Musleh-e-Maud and freedom of faith: A unique campaign at a global scale, published in the 14 February 2020 issue of Al Hakam — Editor Al Hakam]
The Review of Religions
Our monthly magazine, The Review of Religions now edited by Maulvi Muhammad Din BA, contains in the combined number of January and February 1922, very instructive and useful material in various short and pithy articles printed under the following headings:
Ahmad; Note and Comments; A Buddhist Journal; The Pedigree of Christmas Day; True Love; Father and Son; Muhammad; What is Required of an Ahmadi; The Vedas; What Humanity Owes to Islam; The Pope is Dead; Islam and Christianity in Africa; Dowie and Ahmad and A Sermon.
Annual Subscription 2 dollars. Single copy 25c. Address: Quadian, Gurdaspur, Punjab, India.
Mr JL Mott (Shaikh Abdullah Din Muhammad)
[Mr JL Mott (Shaikh Abdullah Din Muhammad) is] an influential gentleman of a very respectable (Franco-Irish) American family, a zealous and sincere Ahmadi Moslem, a political leader in the city, educated as a lawyer and engaged in secret service work, and a member of the United Spanish War Veterans, the Masonic and several other fraternal organizations. [He is] the proprietor of the Ahmadia American Asiatic agency (export and import) at New Orleans, [and] an esteemed friend of the editor of this magazine. Sallamahullah. […]
Sheikh Ahmad Din
Mr P Nathaniel Jonson [Sheikh Ahmad Din], a zealous worker for Islam, appointed a sheik to work among his people in the district of St. Louis and vicinity. He has already secured many converts to Islam in Ahmadia Movement.
(Transcribed by Al Hakam from the original published in The Moslem Sunrise, July 1922)