Dutch East Indies
Maulvi Rahmat Ali HA, our missionary for the Dutch East Indies, writes from Tapatopan [sic; Tapa Tuan]:
“It has been four months since I came here. There is a storm of opposition against us. People call me ‘kafir’, ‘Antichrist’, ‘infidel’ and ‘magician’. But in spite of this, the movement is progressing.
“The headmaster of a school has recently joined our Movement, and in all, there are now about 40 persons in our Jamaat.
“Few people know English and you will be surprised to hear that out of a population of 10,000, only four people can understand something of the Holy Quran. I have now begun teaching the Holy Book.”
Gold Coast
A certain Reverend WT Balmer has written a book entitled “The History of the Akan Peoples”, in which, on page 32, he says the following:
“This religion (Islam), which Africans have respected so much, has always taught that it is right to make slaves and it is no doubt from them that the negroes learnt the fatal custom.”
Mr Fazlur Rahman Hakeem contradicts this mischievous statement in the Gold Coast Times of Cape Coast, dated 30 January 1926, by saying:
“We are sorry the Rev. gentleman has tried to throw stones upon others while sitting in a house made of glass.”
“It is a pity that Islam, which is the first and the only religion that wiped out this fatal custom from the face of the earth, is so shamelessly branded as a religion that not only permits slavery but also enjoins it on its followers. Would that the Rev. Mr Balmer had taken the trouble to refer to an authority on this point before writing such a far-from-the-fact statement.
“There is not a single verse in the Holy Quran that enjoins slavery and there is not a single instance in the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessings of God be on him, in which free men of any religion whatever were reduced to slavery in any of the ways which were prevalent before the advent of Islam in Arabia.
“On the other hand, the Holy Prophet[sa] says, ‘There are three sorts of men who will bring down the wrath of God on them on the Day of Judgment – the man who makes an agreement in God’s name and then breaks it, the man who enslaves a freeman or sells him and appropriates his price and the man who employs a labourer to do some work and when he has done it, withholds payment of his wages.’”
Talim-ul-Islam School, Saltpond
The ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone of the Talim-ul-Islam Ahmadiyya School, Saltpond, took place on 8 February 1926. Mr FR Hakeem, our Gold Coast missionary, said in his address:
“The Holy Quran plainly says, ‘Can the two men of whom one knoweth and the other knoweth not be equal?’ And the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, on whom be peace and the blessings of God, says, ‘The acquiring of knowledge is a duty laid upon every Muslim – male and female.’ No other religion lays so much stress upon this point as Islam does and yet no people are more ignorant today than the Muslims.
“It is with this view that the Ahmadiyya Movement, which is purely a religious movement and the only true manifestation of the holy faith of Islam, has taken up the educating of the Muslims in its hands and has opened missions and educational institutions all over the world.”
Mr GB Kirk, manager of the Bank of British West Africa, Ltd, while laying the stone, remarked:
“Our presence here this afternoon marks another step forward in the history of education in British West Africa. It is gratifying indeed to know that Saltpond is keeping ahead of the times in the matter of the progress of her younger generation.
“The fact that education is the root of progress is realised here just as it is realised by HE the Governor, whose forward policy is exemplified in the great Achimota College now being built and by the Honourable Mr Ormsby-Gore (Secretary of State for the Colonies), who is now visiting this country and part of whose itinerary is the study of educational conditions.
“Africa owes a debt of gratitude to the educationalists in all parts of the Empire, who are interested in her welfare. Mr FR Hakeem has travelled from far-distant India to minister to needs that are plainly realised by the Ahmadiyya Movement. The rapid progress of the educational side of this Movement in Saltpond is entirely due to the unsparing efforts of Mr Hakeem and the fine building which is now in the process of construction before us is a great tribute to his energy and enthusiasm and to the able assistance of his committee and all who are interested in the Ahmadiyya Movement.”
Nigeria
We are in receipt of a printed report on the first Annual Gathering of Division III, Lagos Branch, of the Ahmadiyya Movement, which was held on 7 February [1926] at the Ahmadiyya Mosque, Epetedo, under the chairmanship of Brother Lawal Makanju.
The report contains an account of the activities of the community since its inception and the officers are to be congratulated for the useful work which they have done.
The ground upon which the Mosque stands was gratuitously placed at the disposal of the Community by Mr Musa Aro at a critical time and in spite of the bitter opposition of the persecutors of the Ahmadis.
Similar reports have not been received from the other two Divisions, which have evidently held their annual gatherings. The Secretary of the Division I has, however, sent two photographs of the gatherings, which we hope to publish in due course if possible.
Holland
In the “Handelsblad” (Amsterdam) of 8 February 1926, there appeared the following note:
“We are informed from Padang Pandjang (according to the ‘Locomotief’) that among the Muhammedans at the moment rumours are afloat regarding the spread of a new faith.
“A certain Aboe Bakar bin Oejoep, originating from Paninjauan, Padang Pandjang, wrote to his parents from Lahore, to have themselves converted as quickly as possible to the faith of [the Promised Messiah] at Lahore. This new religious propaganda was started by the new prophet Goelam Achmad[as], who, as one pretends, is to be regarded as a descendant of Muhammad[sa].
“There is at Tapa Toean, Sjech Rahmat Ali, a missionary sent by the Ahmadiyyah Society at Lahore. The said missionary has already attained some success in Tapa Toean and intends to journey down along the west coast of Sumatra.
“In how far the contents of the letter are right, we could not judge, but it is certain that it has caused some commotion among the Muhammedans at Padang, Pandjang and elsewhere in the uplands.”
Seeing the above note, our energetic Sister Hidayat at once addressed the following letter to the Head Editor of the Algemeen Handelsblad, Amsterdam:
“Dear Sir,
“With reference to the article, ‘A New Prophet’, published in the evening edition of your paper of 8 February [1926], we hereby request you to publish the following few lines on the subject.
“‘Maulvi Rahmat Ali, our missionary in Tapa Toean, Sumatra, was not sent by a Society ‘Achmadijah’ at Lahore. He was sent by our Khalief at Qadian, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad[ra]; he is there with the full permission of the Indies Authorities.
“‘The Ahmadiyya Movement of Qadian, which has its missionaries in Europe and America and all parts of the world, was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (not a Syed), who died in 1908.
“‘The Movement is purely religious and keeps itself everywhere above politics. The secular authorities, under which an Ahmady finds himself, are recognised as such and obeyed. There is, therefore, no reason whatever for unquietness because of the presence of Mr R Ali in Sumatra.
“‘For further information regarding the Movement and its Founder, we refer to ‘The Temple’, published by the Free Religious Temple of this city, in which magazine articles appear on the subject.
“‘The writer of the letter from Lahore is unknown to us and does not belong to our Movement.
“‘Yours faithfully, etc.”
At the receipt of the above letter, the “Handelsblad” of 13 February 1926, published the following note:
“We received, with reference to what we published on the 8th inst. from the paper Locomotief, a letter on behalf of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, in which is communicated the following:
“‘That the missionary in Tapa Toean, Maulvi Rahmat Ali, was not sent by a Society Achmadiajh at Lahore, but by the Khalief at Qadian and is in Sumatra with the full permission of the Indies Authorities.
“‘That the Ahmadiyya Movement of Qadian is a purely religious one, not mixing itself with politics, recognising the secular authority under which it finds itself as such and obeying it – so that there exists in no way any reason for unquietness with regard to the presence in Sumatra of the said missionary.”
British West Indies
Shaikh Ibrahim Mondezi writes from Trinidad:
“We are not loved in the community, because we are adherents of the late Mirza Ghulam Ahmad[as] – the greatest Reformer of this Age. Anyway, our trust and hope are in Allah.
“I have been invited to this District by the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, so as to lecture to them at their weekly meetings, as they do not wish to hear their Christian Missionary any longer. Where there is truth, falsehood must go.
“Would you still continue to send me ‘The Review [of Religions]’ at my present address, for the information of our new converts who have embraced ‘Islam’ in the West Indies; and may your journal continue to have a long lease of life, so as to light the world to truth as revealed to us in the Holy Quran – Allah’s last testament to mankind.”
(Transcribed and edited by Al Hakam from the original English, published in the March 1926 issue of The Review of Religions)