It was a pleasure to attend the peace lunch in Beverly Hills California on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Khalifa of Ahmadiyya Muslim community delivered a perfect message to an audience of about 300, included were Lt. Governor, Controller, Several Police Chiefs, City Council Members, Judges, congresspersons, and several interfaithers and dignitaries from around the country. His message was clear – Islam teaches building a peaceful world through justice, and that there must be a separation of state and Mosque. A percentage of Muslims do wrong things, but that they do it on their own and not authorized by Islam, Qur’an or Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
I believe in one God, one Ummah, and one World for doing collective good for one humanity, and I do my best to match my talk with my acts. Hence, I go to every mosque of every Muslim denomination and take turns to attend Juma prayers in different mosques. I exclude none; the world is one under one Rabbul Aalameen by the grace of Rahmatul Aalameen.
During the lunch, I was honored to have a small conversation with the Khalifa, he is a graceful man, and I also got to pray Maghrib and Isha on Friday Night under his Imamat in Chino Hills California Mosque.
I see Ahmadiyya as a reformed movement in Islam. Of course, there is a respectful disagreement over the role of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the movement as the Promised Messiah.
Other than this major singular difference, I have found no difference between the Sunni and Ahmadiyya practices in terms of Shahadah, Salat, Fasting, Zakat and Hajj – with the same words and same priorities. I clarified the silent part of the prayer – in the Tashahhud position; they recite word for word what the Sunnis recite; Attahiyat, the two Daroods and the Duwa. God advises us not to prejudge others, or let our bias make us unjust towards others.
If you also talk and dream of one Ummah, please do your own researches, visit their mosque, and listen to them. By the way no one has ever made an attempt to sell me their version of the religion and my faith in Qur’an, Prophet, Islam and Allah is perhaps stronger than even some of the Imams, I have nothing to gain and no one to please but do the right thing. If we can learn to respect the otherness of others and accept our uniqueness, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. Alhamdu Lillah, I free from bias towards any one of Allah’s creation, let alone fellow Muslims.
Insha Allah, I will write a few more details as an article in a few weeks.
Mike Ghouse is a
speaker, thinker and a
writer on
pluralism,
politics, peace,
Islam,
Israel,
India,
interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a
Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at
www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in
Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on
Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at
Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at
Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site
www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links.
