Note: The Alislam Team assumes full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in this translation of the Friday Sermon.
Friday Sermon delivered by Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra) Khalifatul Masih II April 20, 1923
Topics: Power of Thoughts, Contentment of Heart, Divine Revelation, Ramadan, Holy Quran, Prophethood, Promised Messiah, Purification of Mind, Vienna University Testimony, Prayer
After reciting Tashahhud, Ta'awwuz, and Surah Al-Fatihah, Huzoor (ra) said:
When one observes the human condition, it becomes clear that the greatest thing that affects a person — and which exerts the deepest influence on his life — is his thoughts. Generally, people are neither willing to acknowledge nor do they realize that the most influential thing which they possess — or rather, which possesses them — is the thoughts that arise in the mind. Even a slight change in these thoughts can transform a person's entire condition. If the change is virtuous, his life becomes pure and refined. If the change is evil, life becomes foul and dreadful. Sometimes a person does not even perceive these changes; at other times he does, yet these thoughts overpower him, or external circumstances and obstacles prevent him from abandoning the change.
Consider what even a slight alteration in thoughts can do. Take, for example, the patient suffering from hysteria — known as ikhtinaq al-rahm. Since this illness is more common among women, it is attributed to the uterus, though men also suffer from it. When men are afflicted, it is called miraqi. Although that is technically a separate illness, the same effect manifests intensely through it. In these illnesses, the structure of the brain is altered and a particular trait becomes dominant. In hysteria, the qualities of weeping and sobbing predominate. Generally, such a patient finds no pleasure or enjoyment in anything — whether he is rich or poor, a king or a commoner. He derives no delight from any rank or wealth. Property brings him no happiness. Status and honor give him no contentment. He possesses every means of comfort, yet his condition remains one of perpetual restlessness. In short, he is a living dead man, a slave who appears free. Due to the disturbance of thoughts, all efforts become futile. The property and status that his forefathers acquired through ten or fifteen generations of continuous labor become useless for such a person because of this illness.
Thus it becomes clear that an abundance of outward means does not bring happiness. The disarray of the mind renders wealth worthless. The suffering caused by disturbed thoughts is greater than any physical suffering.
In my childhood, I read in a reader about a woman whose child was carried by an animal to the highest peak of a mountain. When this woman learned of it, she involuntarily pursued the animal and climbed up to that peak. She recovered her child, but then could not descend from the peak. With great difficulty, she was brought down. That peak — which people under normal circumstances could not climb — was scaled by this woman, driven by her maternal instinct. The love she held in her heart for her child generated such courage that it overcame her physical weakness, and she climbed it.
Thus it becomes evident that the truly supreme and finest thing among all things is the quality of one's thoughts. Far greater and more fearsome than outward slavery is the slavery of one's thoughts. The restlessness caused by thoughts has led kings to abandon their kingdoms and pay no heed to their rule. Buddha abandoned his kingdom because he could not find contentment of heart in it. Among Muslims too, there have been kings who abandoned their governments because of the restlessness of their thoughts.
The means for purifying one's feelings and correcting one's thoughts is the Word of God. A person's thoughts cannot become pure unless help comes from God. Those who attempted to become pure solely through their own efforts kept stumbling in the dark, and when the reality finally became clear, it was that they were themselves afflicted. Such people become obsessed with particular ideas. They believe they are becoming pure, but in the end they remain unsuccessful. Such people remain trapped in a delusion. The ideas they propagate bring comfort neither to themselves nor to others. Rather, instead of attaining freedom, they imprison both themselves and others. Through their means, neither true comfort nor contentment can be found.
Contentment has only been attained by those to whom the voice of God came and who were shown the way. Only those have found solace who established a connection with those to whom God's voice came. And the purification of thoughts achieved through them is far more exalted and lofty than what can be attained through ordinary circumstances.
The purification of thoughts and true comfort has come through the prophets, and will continue to come through them in the future. Those who close the door of prophethood deliver a message of death to the world. They do not attain true comfort. They do not bring glad tidings to the world. By saying that prophethood ended with the coming of the Holy Prophet (saw), they do not elevate the rank of the Holy Prophet (saw). Rather, they demonstrate — God forbid — as if the voice of the Holy Prophet (saw) was a death knell. Whereas in reality, his voice was a voice of glad tidings that filled the world with joy, delight, and contentment. He alone is the one person who can truly be called the Bearer of Good News — he who gave glad tidings to the entire world and lifted all the veils of doubts and suspicions. Whoever opposes him destroys himself and is a message of destruction for the world.
This month that is currently upon us is the month of Ramadan. In it, Muslims strive and exert themselves to attain the pleasure of God. It was in this very period that the foundation of the greatest glad tidings for the world was laid — the glad tidings that delivered the world from doubts — namely, the Holy Quran began to be revealed in this month. As long as the Holy Prophet (saw) lived, Gabriel (as) would come every year in this month and complete a recitation of the Quran with him.
This month is a sign of the world's liberation. Every Muslim rejoices at it. I observe that people carefully preserve even the smallest mementos — they say, "These are the hairs of our friend," or they remember a particular place because they received good news there. They are delighted by a building because they were born in it. They say, "This is the house my father had rented when he was employed here. I was born at that time." Thus, people make such trivial things into cherished keepsakes of joy. Then why would they not rejoice at this great sign of the divine connection — that in it the revelation of the Holy Quran began?
Ramadan also bears testimony to the truthfulness of the Promised Messiah (as). For if this Word was not a living Word, how could its blessings have been declared everlasting? The Holy Quran can only be eternally relevant if through it Muslims can continue to establish a relationship with God. Where the revelation of the Holy Quran is mentioned, prayer is also mentioned, and this is an indication that everlasting blessings descend upon those who believe in it and act upon it. The doors of mercy are not shut upon them. When a believer in the Quran turns his attention to God, he finds the window to attaining God open. And when he prays, he emerges from the darkness of confused thoughts and develops certainty.
Therefore, this is a month of joy, a month of blessings, and from it, one can obtain ever-increasing blessings.
Know with full conviction that there is no comfort greater than certainty, and there is no curse greater than restlessness. Just as madness is a curse, so too is restlessness of the heart — because a person can find treatment for every other illness; it is only this illness in which a person forgets himself entirely. Thus, the greatest suffering is the disarray of thoughts, and the greatest happiness is contentment of the heart. But this cannot be achieved unless the prophets and the divinely appointed ones reveal the way. Otherwise, the intellect strives but cannot comprehend.
When people abandoned the Holy Quran and turned away from it, their contentment was also snatched away. Despite the fact that no other religious scripture contains the provisions for comfort and peace that the Holy Quran contains, what we observe is that Muslims today are the least content of all. This is because the greater the hope, the more devastating the disappointment that accompanies its loss. The claim of Muslims is the greatest claim of all — that among them came the Seal of the Prophets (saw). Yet at this time, there is no change in their condition.
A Christian can console his heart by saying that the Gospel could have been a source of comfort if it had not been corrupted and altered. A Jew can similarly console himself. But for a Muslim, even this consolation is not available. The history of the world testifies that no defect has entered the Holy Quran. So when a Muslim sees that it was the Word of God — a true Word — yet it could not grant him contentment, what must his state be? At that point he can only say: "Can even the Word of God not provide solace?"
But we observe that those who read the Quran with the knowledge granted by God and with His help — for them the Quran did not remain an unsolvable riddle, and they attained contentment. The Word of God can deliver one from doubts. There are no doubts for those who have seen God and heard His speech. The philosophers of the world stood before them like children and were proven ignorant, because the Word of God thoroughly resolved the most complex problems through His beloved ones.
Just yesterday, I received a letter from Maulvi Mubarak Ali Sahib from Europe, in which he included a copy of a letter from a professor at the University of Vienna. (This university is considered the foremost institution in all of Europe for the discipline of mental sciences. There are other universities after it, but the University of Vienna holds the highest rank.) This letter is from the professor of religious studies at this university, written to another German professor. In it, he writes: "I write to you with boldness, and you know I am not given to exaggeration, nor do I write falsehoods. The reality is that the study of these books has produced a transformation within me." This is a reference to the books of the Promised Messiah (as) — such as The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam and others — which Maulvi Mubarak Ali Sahib had given to him.
He says: "Every word of these books has resolved problems that had remained unsolved until now. I have now decided to devote the rest of my time to the propagation of Islam. Those problems that were not resolved in my entire lifetime — in the light of these books, they appear to be trivial matters."
A Christian lecturer who has been delivering religious lectures for twenty-five years, and whose knowledge of philosophy is extensive, says that the simple and straightforward exposition of Mirza Sahib — the Promised Messiah (as) — resolved his most complex philosophical problems.
The Promised Messiah (as) was not educated in universities. He did not even receive formal schooling in institutions. But what is it about his exposition that the knots of knowledge began to be untied? It is simply that divine revelation opened the doors of knowledge upon him. This is the blessing of revelation. Human intellect has no part in it. What is found in the books of the Promised Messiah (as) cannot be found in the books of philosophers — namely, that they bring comfort and solace. The Holy Quran brings comfort, and the same is the case with the books of the Promised Messiah (as), for they too were written in the light of revelation. Philosophers are strangers to this path and are mere children in this matter.
This contentment and this victory are the support of Allah the Almighty. Allah the Almighty is the Knower of hearts. He upon whom He manifests His glory, He illuminates. In short, this is the blessing of Islam — that the chain of divine revelation continues. Its connection is with Ramadan.
It is the duty of our Jama'at to honor this blessed month and to gather its blessings. We must value this sign of God's blessing, and God will grant us even greater blessings. Therefore, we should pray for ourselves, for our spiritual advancement, and especially for success in the great battle in which our Jama'at is currently engaged — that Allah the Almighty may grant us the ability to propagate His Word and the ability to act upon it. If this is achieved, then all the remaining things of the world are secondary. Once this is obtained, everything else will follow.
(Al-Fazl, April 30, 1923)
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Sawm, Chapter: "The Prophet (saw) was the most generous in Ramadan."
Related Resources