Message by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad – Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya community to delegates attending the ‘Seekers in Search of Truth’ at the 23rd World Religious Conference held in Ontario, Canada on the 18th of September 2003.

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah – Peace and blessings of God be upon you all

I am pleased that the World Religious Conference has once again put God at the centre of its search. The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, states:

A large part of the world declares that it believes in God, yet at the same time it is engulfed by the impurities of the world and steeped in the evils of sin. How then is it that there is so much opposition to God and such courage is shown in disobedience to His laws? When this professed belief is tested and examined, it has to be acknowledged that it is a mere claim that is not supported by any actions or deeds. It is in the nature of man that he wishes to avoid the harm and gain from the benefit in whatever he believes. For example, arsenic is a poison and a person does not even taste it because he knows that even a small amount can kill him. Why, then, having acquired a belief in a God will he not derive the conclusion incidental to that belief? If belief in God equates to the confidence one has in arsenic, then a person’s emotions and desires would turn cold and a death would come over them… The first duty of a human being, therefore, is that he should correct the belief he has in God, that is to say, he should prove through his deeds and actions that they are not against the glory of God or the commandments of God… The nature of true belief is such that it kills the selfish desires of a human being and it suppresses the inclinations towards sin. I can never accept that belief and sin can exist together. Belief is a light before which the darkness of sin cannot stand. Can it ever be that there is daylight as well as the darkness of night? In order to safeguard against sin, there should develop a true belief in God. (Malfoozat. Vol.4 pp.312- 314)

I pray that God enables all of you to understand Him.

A prerequisite to this understanding is that we must not withdraw any attribute that God had in the past. One such attribute is that He lives now as He did in the past. If God lives now, we must also believe that He speaks now as He spoke to the Prophets of the past. I hope, therefore, that this Conference would enable all who participate in it to acquire a true belief in a Truly Perfect God, a God Who is Most Gracious and repeatedly Merciful.

Mirza Masroor Ahmad
Supreme Head of the Worldwide AHMADIYYA COMMUNITY