Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiqra (1872-1957)
Thanks
We are thankful to all the friends who have helped us in securing subscribers to The Moslem Sunrise.
For example we mention names of some of such patrons: Mr JL Mott., Mrs ZF Eldeen, Mrs Mike Abraham, Mrs Alberto, Mr L Roman, Mr Andrew Jacob, Mr Elias Russell, Mirza Ahmad Anderson, Mme Rahathullah, Shaikh, Mr M Karroub (who purchased 25 copies), Mrs Afeefee Hessen, Mr Saeed Zehri (who purchased 25 copies). Kassar-Allah-o-Khaira-hum.
My thanks are also due to Messrs Venson and Muhammad Saleem and brethren in Toledo. Mr Raymond [of] Fort Wayne, Mr and Mrs Mike Abraham [of] Bremen, Mr and Mrs Roman and Mr G Ahmad [of] Chicago, for their generous hospitalities while I was in those places during my last lecturing tour.
I had the opportunity of meeting a very zealous soul for the welfare of the Moslem children and orphans in Syria in the person of Aboo Abdul Jalil. I wish the Moslems in this country would help him in carrying on his plan of establishing a Moslem Orphanage and School in the East.
I feel obliged to Mr Dounie of the Detroit Congregational Unitarian Church. Dr Horace Westwood of Toledo, and Head of the Spiritualist Church, K of P Hall, Fort Wayne, for their cordially inviting me to occupy their pulpits.
A gentle family
Out of the Detention House experiences, I would like to mention the Wright family, which was sent along with me to the same fate. As Mrs Wright had compassionately brought over her little niece with her – child who was left in England with no one to keep her, so she was detained till she could manage to give a bond of $1000. The members of this family sympathized with me very much and helped me in every way they could. Specially the little Nellie who used to mail letters and do shopping and said that she would go with me to India. They were permitted to land a few days before me and are very much interested in studying our literature. Their names are as follows:
Mrs Wright, Miss Beatrice Wright, Miss Nellie Wright and Miss Eoiza Cowburn. […]
There is a God
Professor Reuterdahl of St. Paul, Minn., has written a book named “Scientific Theism” (price $7) to prove by differential calculus that there is a God. It is a good work in these days of matter-worshipping to write a book on the subject of the existence of God to convince the materialists that there is a God. But Reuterdahl’s theory does not help anything better than those of other philosophers, the common base of all of whom is that, “Universe could not be as it is unless there were imminent in it an infinitely wise directing hand.” This all no doubt helps in causing us to believe that there must be a God but with this we cannot rise higher than the must.
Another scheme to prove the existence of God is that invented by some that there is a God because we see Him when he incarnates in man as He did in Krishna, Rama, Jesus and myriads of others. But this is worse than the former because when we carefully study the lives of those incarnates, they prove to be only human and nothing more. The miracles performed by Krishna and Rama are more in quantity and far superior in quality than those of Jesus Christ and described in the books more authentic than the Christian Traditions, still to investigator of truth they appear but human and nothing of Divine.
The best and the only way of proving the existence of God is through His Messengers, Prophets and Saints who never claim to be Gods themselves but they claim to have met Him, to have seen Him, to have spoken to Him and to have been spoken to by Him. And no witness is better than an eyewitness. Such were the Prophets mentioned in the Bible and the Quran – before and after.
Abraham, down to Jesus the Christ and Muhammad[sa] of Heavenly Kingdom, such were the Saints in Islam down to “Ahmad[as]” called Prophet, Promised Messiah and Mehdi, and such are the Saint Mahmud and other Saints in the Blessed Order, to whom God appears from time to time, as the living examples of those who bear witness from their own experience that there is a God.
However, we appreciate the efforts of the learned Professor because it is a real attempt by a great mathematician to prove by mathematics that there must be a God. We have drawn his attention to our system of Theological Arguments by sending him a copy of “Mighty Signs of the Living God” with some other literature.
Jewish massacres
One hundred and forty thousand Jews killed in the Ukraine in the last Feb-June pogroms. Why? Merely because they were not Christians. Who were the murderers? The meek lambs of Jesus! I wonder why the Universal sympathizers of Europe and America are not stirred up over this as they are on exaggerated stories of so-called Armenian Massacres.
They say Islam was spread with sword. Now pray what has Christianity been spread with among the Jews living right in the centre of Christian civilization. Look and consider 140,000 Jews – men, women and children – massacred by the Christians. And this is not the only occurrence but a chain of such massacres goes back through centuries and centuries ever since the Jews began to pour into European countries. Poor Jews – he is suffering all this for crucifying one Christ and denying the other (Muhammad, the Master-Messiah) and here has appeared another Messiah from Allah – “Ahmad” of India – Will they believe him to get blessed once more? I hope they do.
In the story of the Jews is a great lesson for the Moslems of the age. Do not reject your Messiah my Brethren but welcome him and save your future generations from everlasting havoc.
500 more slain, and Ukraine a scene of renewed death and destruction, was reported on 1 August 1921.
I am a Moslem
I am a Moslem. And do you know what a Moslem is? Is it the name of some particular exclusive nationality? No, a Moslem belongs to all. He knows no difference of nations as all the nations are his own. Does he belong to any one country? No. On his map of the globe there are no border lines. Is he white or is he colored? He knows no such distinctions which are only skin deep. The Moslem eye looks at the heart and not at the outer shape. He concerns the dwellers in the tent and not the tent.
Is Moslem male or female? He knows no gender in the uplift of the soul. Men and women all are children of God, all come from him and all return to Him.
A Moslem is one who has resigned his will to God. A Moslem is he or she who belongs to God and God alone. A Moslem is one who sympathizes with all and hurts none. The Moslem enjoys his love for God. He is always ready to sacrifice his desires for the sake of God and His people. In and out he is one and the same. He practices with he preaches. He is sincere in his promises. His one goal is his Creator, his Provider and his God – God of Infinity towards whom he continues soaring higher and higher in Infinity. His progress is ever onward and onward as his Beloved One is Infinite. He is in union with God and he is in communion with Him.
Abraham was a Moslem, Moses was a Moslem, David was a Moslem, Jesus was a Moslem, Ahmad[as] was a Moslem, but Muhammad[sa] was the greatest Moslem that the world has ever seen. A Moslem is an Abraham, and a Moslem is a Christ and a Moslem is a Muhammad[sa] as he loves, follows and imitates all the great Teachers from Allah. Be a Moslem and join the Universal Brotherhood.
The only solution of color prejudice
What sad news we come across every now and then about the conflict between the Blacks and the Whites in this country. It is a pity that no preaching of equality or Christian charity has so far been able to do away with this evil. In the East we never hear of such things occurring between the peoples. There are people fairer than North Europeans living friendlily and amicably with those of the darkest skin in India, Arabia and other Asiatic and African countries and in fact there is no question of color at all ever heard of.
In Islam no Church has ever had seats reserved for anybody and if a Negro enters first and takes the front seat, even the Sultan if he happens to come after him, never thinks of removing him from that seat. “I tread under the feet the racial prejudice,” said the Master-Prophet Muhammad[sa] once and thus obliterated those great tribal differences which so badly used to affect Arabia in pre-Islamic days.
Commenting on “Brown Christianity” in India in the columns of the Literary Digest it has been suggested by one writer that “Christianity” can destroy the color of hostilities. But I ask, has not Christianity failed in this respect too, even right here in America, the very land of freedom, equality and justice. If it has failed here with all the education, how will it be successful in the East?
I believe and it is a well-proven fact that Islam is the only religion that has ever destroyed color and race prejudices from the minds of the people. Go to the East and you will find the fairest people of Syria and Turkestan eating at the same table with darkest Africans and treating each other as brothers and friends.
Nothing is more successful than success itself. If you want to implant the ideals of Universal Brotherhood in the world, come and gather under the banner of the God-established Union founded by the Prophet of the day “Ahmad” and known as the Ahmadia Movement in Islam.
The Creator is the best sympathizer with the creation. He always raises a Guide to work under his own guidance whenever the world wants it. And He has raised one even now. I am here in this land to spread the glad tidings of his advent. The very word Islam means – Peace, safety and harmony.
The supreme need of hour
Many preachers in Europe and America are crying loudly that the only remedy for the world sickness is the appearance of a Prophet and Priest appointed by the Creator Himself. And they are right. The famous vicar of St. Martin’s has been lamenting through the press the lack of an adequate spiritual leader. Rev. Norwood of London City Temple says, “Oh that there were a voice, any voice that would make clear that the things of God and the things of man are one and the same.”
The Theosophists are fondly looking for the great Teacher. The Adventists are crying that the Master is very near to appear. But I say, “Lo! the Master is at the door. Open your eyes and recognize him.”
Who could be a Prophet better than him who prophesied thousands of times and all his prophecies proved true. Read Deut. 18-21: “And if thou say in thy heart, how shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken? When a Prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken.”
Ahmad prophesied of war and the dethronement of the Czar 10 years before it happened. He calls you to the perfect system of life, reformed and revived by him under the direction of God, called Islam. It means peace, happiness and prosperity. Come and join it and prove its truth for yourself.
(To be continued …)
(Transcribed by Al Hakam from the original in The Moslem Sunrise, October 1921)
