Concept of Apostasy and Blasphemy

Mubarak A. Nazir, Missionary In-Charge Canada

Mr. President and our honoured guests, we are so honoured that when most of you came here you said, “Assalāmu Alaikum.” May peace and blessings of God be upon all of us. Can you imagine that Ahmadī Muslims in one country, are not even allowed to utter these words, “Assalāmu Alaikum?” This is our plight. This is our difficulty.

Ladies and gentlemen, thousands and thousands of Prophets have come into this world to guide humanity. Their message was common: belief in God, belief in the Day of Resurrection, the Hereafter, the Day of Accountability and encouraging people to do good and forbidding evil. But all the Prophets who came into this world—thousands upon thousands upon thousands who came to every nation—they were rejected. They were persecuted. They were ridiculed. They were scorned. Their followers were torn into pieces. Sometimes their flesh was torn from their bones. Never has a Prophet ever been accepted. They have been blasphemed, ridiculed, jeered at, spat at and even flogged! A crown of thorns was put on his head—Jesus Christ^as. Which Prophet was accepted? And, this verse which I have just recited,

Look at the pathos, as if God Himself is in grief. “Alas! O’ My creation, have I ever sent a Prophet who was not ridiculed?” (36:31) Starting from Adam^as, all the Prophets were persecuted. Was the Prophet Abraham^as not thrown into the fire because of his belief in the Unity of God? What about Noah^as? God told him to build an ark. They mocked at him and they laughed at him. The founder of the Ahmadīyya Muslim Community Hadrat Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad^as also built an ark. In fact, he wrote a book called, The Ark of Noah—Kashtī Nūh. He built that spiritual ark; and you and I sitting over here, in this multitude, we are just a few. There are millions of Ahmadīs all over the world who have taken shelter in this ark of Noah^as, the spiritual ark of Noah^as. What about Moses^as? Pharaoh had ordered all male children to be killed. The people had predicted that a Prophet was about to be born, and even before he was born, Pharaoh ordered that all male children be killed. It’s a long story of how God saved him.

David^as, Solomon^as, name any Prophet.  Look at Jesus Christ^as, a noble Prophet of God who was not only ridiculed, he was flogged, he was tortured, spat at, bleeding all over. This is the plight. What about the Prophet Muhammad^sa? He was also persecuted and [abused]. People were hounding after him to kill him off.

They called these Prophets liars, they called them poets. Sometimes, they called them magicians. They called them frauds. They called them businessmen. They called them apostates. They give a verdict, an edict that they deserve to be killed. They called them liars. This blasphemy, it’s a pity, how unfortunate that the Ahmadīyya Muslim Jamā`at, the Ahmadīyya Muslim Community, whose prime objective is to show the pristine purity of Islām, to show the true face of the Holy Prophet Muhammad^sa, we are bogged down!

While we give lectures on the true meaning of the Seal of the Prophets—before we can finish this—the question of Jihād comes up; the wrong interpretation of Jihād which has made Islām a laughing stock before the entire world. Which religion allows violence? They have totally forgotten the meaning of Jihād. We have gone to countless symposiums and conferences where we try to show the real meaning of the word Jihād. And, there is no conference where we go that people do not ask about Jihād. These so-called scholars of Islām, they have done so much damage to Islām. Sometimes, people criticize the West or the media and this and that. It is the Muslims who give them ammunition. They bring forth wrong interpretations of Islām and this is how Islām is projected as a barbaric religion, as a religion of terrorists, as a religion of hijackers, suicide bombers. This is the picture painted on the canvas. We are engaged in the Jihād of presenting the true picture of Islām.

Having hardly answered the questions on Jihād, the question of blasphemy also comes up. Any person,  [according to] the penal code of Pakistan, the Constitution, who says any derogatory words against Islām or its Prophets, is bound to be hanged, bound to be killed. You tell me how many heads do we chop? The population of the world is about 7 billion now. Muslims all over the world are 1.5 billion, maybe even slightly less. So does it mean that the heads of the other 5 billion have to be chopped because they do not believe in the Prophet Muhammad^sa. Their civility prevents them from openly stating their view that the Holy Prophet^sa is a false Prophet but they are not Muslims that is why they don’t believe in him. How ridiculous! How wrong! Those who do not believe in the Prophet or who say something unkind against him due to their freedom of speech, are their heads going to be chopped? People speak against Islām, against the Holy Qur’ān as well.

Am I giving this speech because I am asking you to help us to preserve the Holy Qur’ān? You know there are people burning the Holy Qur’ān. There was a burning ceremony in the United States. People burned the Holy Book. Have we put this topic on the table because we are asking for some help from our honorable guests? No.

God says in the Holy Qur’ān that,

“We have revealed this Book. We will preserve it.” (15:10)

Are we doing that? Are we asking [for] your help to save the Holy Prophet^sa? No.  Allāh has said in the Holy Qur’ān, “I will preserve you.” We are only appealing to your conscience, to your inner conscience that this is a blot on humanity. This is wrong. It does not appeal to the common sense. It does appeal to conscience. The Holy Qur’ān says, “There is no compulsion in religion.” You must have heard about the Danish cartoons, people made cartoons against the Holy Prophet^sa. It injures our feelings. We love the Prophet^sa far more than our parents. It hurts. It pains. But read the Holy Qur’ān from the beginning to the end, there is no punishment prescribed in the Holy Qur’ān for blasphemy. God says, I will deal with it, I will respond to [this action].

So these people [are] being put to punishment. Asiya Bibi, who is a Christian lady with five children, [is] accused of blasphemy. She has been languishing in jail because she has been accused, and she has been sentenced to death. We are embarrassed. This is not Islām. But who cares, more than thirty people had already been murdered, who have been accused of blasphemy, but they had been freed by the courts. Who cares for the courts? You are declared innocent even by the court and the moment you come out, it’s a free for all. So many people have been killed. The governor of the most important province of Pakistan, Punjab, Salman Taseer, who only visited this lady in jail, said we should revisit this law because people are misusing it in order to gain people’s property or in order to do other things. Let us revisit this. His own bodyguard killed him. After killing him, the other bodyguards stood silent. And, this murderer was not only declared a hero but declared a saint. The Minorities’ Minister, who was a Roman Catholic, was murdered in Quetta in broad daylight. Which religion allows that?

What about the life of the Holy Prophet^sa? What did he do? Was he not blasphemed? He used to go to the mosque and there was a lady who used to throw rubbish upon his head every time, and he would clean his head and wash his hair and go back to the mosque. The Holy Prophet^sa found out that for 2 or 3 days she had not thrown rubbish on his head. He asked about her and was told that the lady is sick. He went to see her. He said, “Madam, you are not well. I just came to ask of your health.” This is the reply of the Holy Prophet^sa. Blasphemy? People threw the intestines of dead camels on the head of the Holy Prophet^sa.

During the life of Holy Prophet’s^sa there were hypocrites who were roaming in the streets of Medina, and one chief hypocrite once said that, “I am the chief, the best person in Medina and I will drive out the worst man.” This is documented in the Holy Qur’ān. What did the Holy Prophet^sa do, the Holy Prophet^sa [who was] full of compassion, full of love?

Look! It is this compassion of the Holy Prophet^sa which has brought us together and we are all enslaved. It is not vindictiveness. It is his compassion, it is his love. This man—who was the chief of the hypocrites—was roaming in Medina and nobody touched him. In fact, his own son who became a Muslim once came to the Holy Prophet^sa and said, “O’ Prophet of God, allow me to kill my father for having blasphemed you, he called you the worst person in Medina. Allow me to kill him.” The Holy Prophet said, “No, I do not allow you.”

When this man Abdullāh bin Ubayy bin Salul died, the Holy Prophet^sa gave his own shirt as a burial shroud for this man. This is compassion. This is love for all, hatred for none. “Bring your proof if you are truthful!” O’ you the mullah! O’ you the turban-clad or those wearing long gowns issuing edicts sometimes against Salman Rushdie, for The Satanic Verses, [sometimes] against members of our community! Ninety-nine people, members of the Ahmadīyya Muslim Community were butchered in cold blood while they were offering their prayers. You know of this, you have seen the video and you have seen the blood [that] was not only splashed on the floor but blood and the parts of those martyrs were stuck to the roof of those mosques. This is our plight. But, we do not take the law into our own hands. The religion does not allow us to take the law into our own hands. The Holy Prophet^sa did not do so and the Promised Messiah^as also did not do so. There was a man who used to abuse him. He came to Qādiān and he abused him. He constantly abused him for the whole night. In the morning the Promised Messiah^as said, “This man who has been abusing me, he has lost his voice because of constant shouts and abuses. Make a cup of tea and hand it over to him so that his voice improves.” This is compassion.

I am not, we are not condoning—God forbid—blasphemy. What I am saying is that the punishment for blasphemy is in the hands of God. He says, “I will take care of that. Do not worry about that. It’s not in your hands. I will take care of that. I have sent these Prophets and I will take care of them.”

Once the Prophet Messiah^as was in a court and the judge said, “Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad, there is a prophecy, I understand, that God says, ‘I will disgrace anyone who disgraces you.’ Is that your prophecy?” He said, “Yes.” The judge, who was a magistrate, and at that time the British were in India. The magistrate was the highest authority. The magistrate said, “If I disgrace you today in this court, will I be disgraced?” The Promised Messiah^as said, “Anyone, anyone.” He said, “If I do it?” He said, “Anyone.”

So those who open their mouths and talk against the Prophets of God, maybe they are Christian or Hindu or Buddhist. Let people worship their stone. Let them worship fire. Let them worship the cow. Let them worship the moon. Let them worship One God, let them worship Jehovah, Lord Krishna, Vahe Guru, it is their prerogative. On the Day of Judgment we will all be judged. Why do you become the master of the Day of Judgment? Allow people [to do] what they want to do, God will take care of that. So, it is extremely painful. It’s extremely embarrassing that we should stand over here and defend Islām, not from the West, not from the media, but from our own people who have given [the] wrong interpretations of Islām as a religion of terrorists, a terrible religion. Look, if this was Islām—luckily this is not Islām, God forbid—if this was Islām then I declare that I am not that type of Muslim. The Promised Messiah^as said, “I also hate their religion.“ They shouted at the top of their voices that I am an apostate, and I am a Kāfir, and I am an infidel, the fact is that I also hate. I am not part of that faith. Islām is a religion of peace. It’s a religion of love. It’s a religion of affection. It’s a religion of brotherhood. It is a religion that we will all try and find out from other religions what is good in their religion. We hold countless conferences, you must have heard. We provide a forum to the Hindus, to the Sikhs, to the Christians, to the Jews. Let us come forward. Let us find out. Truth is not the monopoly of any religion. Find out what is better. We will present the Islāmic view as well. Everybody believes that their view is the best. Let the people judge. And let us say that we have a short time to live in this world. We are guests on this planet. How long? If not today, tomorrow…We all have to go to our graves. Why show any vindictiveness? Why show any hatred? We are all human beings. Forget about the pigment of my skin or the accent that I have. We are all the children of God. What blasphemy? One should never abuse the Prophets of God. One should never abuse the elects of God. The Promised Messiah^as has said in one of his poems,

“O you, the perverted enemies of the Holy Prophet^sa, you should be afraid of the spiritual sword of the Holy Prophet^sa.”

The Prophets of God are the lions of Allāh. If you do not believe in them, then keep quiet. But do not talk ill of the Prophets of God. [Be they] the Buddhists or the Christians or the Hindus or the Sikhs or the Muslims. That is why the Promised Messiah^as has said, “O you, the heedless, do not harbor any rancour, any enmity against the Prophets of God. Keep away from them. If you do not understand, keep quiet because they are a den of lions. They will pounce upon you, the spiritual den of lions.” The Promised Messiah^as has said that, “I can compromise with the scorpions. I can compromise with the cannibals, with the snakes and the lions. But I can never compromise with people who abuse the Holy Prophet Muhammad^sa.” He said, “If my limbs are cut off, if my children are massacred before my eyes, if I am deprived of all my desires and all my emotions.” In fact, he said that, “If my eyes are gouged out, that will be not as painful as it is when I hear people abusing my master.” So while we speak against blasphemy, [it is] not only against your Holy Prophet^sa but also against all the Prophets of God the Almighty. At the same time we again say that the punishment for blasphemy is in the gracious hand of God.

May the Lord richly bless you and we are highly honored that you are all here and you have said such beautiful things and you stick your necks out. We are people who had been driven away from our own homes. You opened your arms and you have received us. You think we love this country because it is the best country in the world, only because it is the most secure country in the world. Not only that, we love this country because the Holy Prophet^sa said so. Our religion says so. Love of your homeland is part of your faith. So keep this in mind. I don’t need to emphasize this again and again. We are the most peaceful community. We are the most law-abiding community. We are a community who knows how to co-operate, how to obey. It is there in the Holy Qur’ān. It is there in the teaching of the Holy Prophet^sa. It is there in the teaching of the Promised Messiah^as.

May the Lord richly bless you. May Allāh reward you abundantly. And may Allāh grant you health, [and] long life. And may Allāh help you that you should consider, once in a while, that we should love all Prophets of God. We should love all the revealed Books of God. Look, I have studied the Bible along with the Holy Qur’ān, and many times—not once, not twice—many times I have shed tears at reading some chapters of the Bible. May God bless you. Assalāmu alaikum.

This article was published in Nov-Dec 2011 issue of Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada