وَإِذَا أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى الْإِنسَانِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَاٰ بِجَانِبِهِ وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ فَذُوْ دُعَاءٍ عَرِيْضٍ( حم السجدۃ: 52)
In the above verse Allah Ta`la states:
“And when We bestow a favour on man, he goes away, turning aside; but when evil touches him, lo! he starts offering long prayers.” (Chapter 41, Verse 52)
In this verse Allah is telling us that unfortunately it is the nature of man, that when a favour is bestowed upon him, when he is rewarded with a blessing, instead of being grateful and thankful he turns away from the said blessing. And it is unfortunate for us that it is only when we have lost a blessing, a favour of Allah that we realize its importance. After realizing its importance, we start crying and weeping before Allah, we start offering long prayers: oh Allah! Please bestow this blessing on us again.
If all this is true, and more often than not it is certainly true, then this verse creates a very big problem and dilemma for us. In this verse, is Allah Ta`la telling us that we cannot fully comprehend the blessings of Khilafat until we lose this favour of Allah? Is Allah saying that only after having neglected Khilafat will we come to a true realization of its blessings and importance? Is Allah stating that once we have lost Khilafat then we will turn to Him, begging Him to restore Khilafat?
Fortunately for us when we try to find the answer to these questions Allah gives us glad tidings. He tells us that if we are ‘men of understanding’ we do not have to lose His favours in order to understand their blessings. Instead, He tells us again and again in the Holy Qur’an that if you truly want to know the blessings of a certain favour of Allah than look in the past. Look at the people who had that favour, study their state before and after they were bestowed that particular favour of Allah. In Chapter 3, Verse 191 Allah Ta`la states:
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ
“In the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of the night and the day there are indeed Signs for men of understanding” (Chapter 3, Verse 191). In this verse Allah tells us that if we truly want to understand the blessings of Khilafat without losing Khilafat than we must go back in time and study the creation of the heavens in the earth that took place in Khilafat-e-Rashida. We need to analyze the alternation of the night and the day from the time when Muslims had Khilafat and when they turned away from Khilafat.
The Promised Messiahعلیہ السلام states in ‘The Will’ regarding the establishment of Khilafat: “He (Allah) lets them (the prophets) sow the seed of it [the truth], but He does not let it come to full fruition at their hands. Rather He causes them to die at such time as apparently forebodes a kind of failure and thereby provides an opportunity for the opponents to laugh at, ridicule, taunt, and reproach the Prophets. And after they have had their fill of ridicule and reproach, He reveals yet another dimension of His Might and creates such means by which the objectives which had to some extent remained incomplete are fully realized. Thus, He manifests two kinds of Power.
(1) First He shows the Hand of His Power at the hands of His Prophets themselves.
(2) Second, when with the death of a Prophet, difficulties and problems arise and the enemy feels stronger and thinks that things are in disarray and is convinced that now this Jama‘at will become extinct and even members of the Jama‘at, too, are in a quandary and their backs are broken, and some of the unfortunate ones choose paths that lead to apostasy, then it is that God for the second time shows His Mighty Power and supports and takes care of the shaken Jama‘at.
Thus one who remains steadfast till the end witnesses this miracle of God. This is what happened at the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiqرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ, when the demise of the Holy Prophetﷺ was considered untimely and many an ignorant Bedouin turned apostate. The companions of the Holy Prophetﷺ, too, stricken with grief, became like those who lose their senses. Then Allah raised Abu Bakr Siddiqرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ and showed for the second time the manifestation of His Power and saved Islam, just when it was about to fall…” (The Will, Page 5-6).
This, is the first blessing of Khilafat. When the Jama`at is shaken, when there is chaos and disorder everywhere and when everything is about to fall to its destruction Allah steps in and saves the Jama`at through the appointment of a Khalifa.
Another blessing of Khilafat is that humble and poor men who attach themselves to Khilafat become stalwarts. Look at the Abyssinian slave who was dragged through the streets of Mecca and who was forced to lie with his naked back on the burning sands of Arabia, from Bilal he becomes Hazrat Syedna Bilalرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ. Through Syedna Bilal Fund he and his name will remain etched in our memories and till the Day of Judgment we will continue to pray for him.
Look at Abu Hurairaرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ, in the time of the Holy Prophetﷺ he would sometimes become unconscious due to hunger. When he would faint sometimes people would put their smelly shoes in front of his nose to revive him. Through the Blessings of Khilafat, this very Abu Hurairaرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ sneezes into a royal handkerchief and is forced to say: bakhe, bakhe Abu Huraira. So, look how beautifully and how quickly through the Blessings of Khilafat within 30 some years Islam spread to the known corners of the Earth. A new heaven and a new earth were created through Khilafat in which slaves became leaders, the poor become wealthy, and the ignorant were given abundance of knowledge.
However, as Allah mentions in the first verse I recited at the beginning, unfortunately some Muslims did not fully understand the Blessings of Khilafat. Instead of cherishing this precious jewel they wanted to get rid of it. When some foolish and so called Muslims demanded Hazrat Usmanرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ to step down from Khilafat he responded: “That robe which has been awarded to me by God, I cannot take it off. Nor can I leave Umat-e-Muslima unguarded, so that whoever desires may do wrong to others.” He further stated: “Today these people are creating disorder and are unhappy with my life. But when I am no longer, these people will wish that Alas if each day of Usman’s life had been converted to a year and Alas if he had not departed from us so soon. After me there will be severe bloodshed, people will lose all their rights and the system will change into something else.” (Islam Mein Ikhtilafat Ka Aghaz, Page 69)
The Holy Prophetﷺ once stated that a believer is a mirror for another believer. Similarly, he stated that one of the qualities of a true believer is that: لا یلدغ المؤمن من جحر واحد مرتین (Meaning a believer is not bitten from the same hole twice). When we put these two Ahadith together the combined meaning is that a true believer learns from his own mistakes and the mistakes of others so as to never repeat them again. When we look into this mirror it reveals to us how true the words of Hazrat Usmanرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ really were. Through the Blessings of Khilafat the Muslims were prospering by leaps and bounds. In a limited period of thirty some years such a wonderful empire was built that it took the enemies of Islam over a thousand years to destroy it, even than they could not completely destroy it.
Through Khilafat the rights of each individual are protected, is it not because of this that even non-Ahmadis write to Khalifatul-Masih if there is a dispute between them and an Ahmadi? Through, the Blessings of Khilafat a new heaven and a new earth is created under which each individual can live peacefully and happily. So, look even though the opponents of Jama`at have been trying to destroy the Jama`at for over a century and in the process, they have martyred hundreds of Ahmadis but are we not the most peaceful and loving community on the face of the earth.
How many Ahmadis took to the street when Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih IVرحمہ اللہ تعالیٰ was forced to migrate from Pakistan? How many protests were held after the massacre at Lahore? How many people ambushed the Police Station at Rabwah after Master Abdul Qadoos Sahib was martyred? These are the Blessings of Khilafat, that Khalifatul-Masih takes all of our problems and all of our sorrows away from us and gives us peace of mind. Hazrat Musleh Mau’oodرضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ states:
“The onlookers must find it strange that governance of hundreds of thousands of people has been awarded. But for God’s sake, look closely! Has this caused any difference in your freedom? Has anybody enslaved you or is forcing his authority over you? Is anybody treating you like subordinates, slaves or prisoners? Is there any difference between you and those who have turned away from Khilafat? There is no difference. But alas, there is a big difference and that difference is: there is somebody for you, who feels your pain. He has love for you, he treats your pain as his own and he understands your problem to be his own problem. He offers prayers for you before God. But they have nobody. This person is always worried for you, he feels your pain and he continuously beg his Lord for you. But they have no such a person for them. If a single dear one of a person becomes sick he cannot rest peacefully but can you imagine the state of that person whose not thousands but hundreds of thousands of dear ones are sick? So, no difference has taken place in your freedom but yes for you a free and liberal person like you has been given enormous responsibilities.” (Anwarul Aloom, V2, P158)
These are the Blessings of Khilafat; we have a person who is always worried about us, always praying for us, always guiding us. Every time we face a problem or a difficulty, we write to him and our problem becomes his problem. We sleep peacefully in our homes but he spends his nights awake crying and weeping before his Lord for our sake.
During the Khilafat Jubilee year our Beloved Huzoorایدہ اللہ تعالیٰ بنصرہ العزیز was interviewed by Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya UK, this interview was published in the Daily Al-Fazl on May 9th and 10th of this year. In this interview when Huzoorایدہ اللہ تعالیٰ بنصرہ العزیز was asked how his life changed after becoming Khalifa, Huzoorایدہ اللہ تعالیٰ بنصرہ العزیز responded:
“The routine of my daily life was totally different. I was a person for whom it was difficult to sit in the office continuously even for two hours. Almost after every two hours I use to leave my office and make rounds, I would visit different departments and then return to my office. Even after becoming Nazar-e-Aala this was my routine…hence it could be said that after taking over the responsibilities of Khilafat my routine took a U-Turn. I do not know how this happened. It is God who made all this happen. From the first night a complete change occurred in my being. From morning until evening and then late into the night I continuously sat in my office and kept working.”
So, look! These are the Blessings of Khilafat that a free and liberal man who could not sit still for more than two hours has been given the responsibility of sitting in his office for hours so that all of us may continue to enjoy our freedom. Another way of understanding the Blessings of Khilafat is to ponder over the relationship of a mother and her children. A woman without any children more or less lives and enjoys a life full of freedom and liberties. But look what happens when she has her first child. All her freedoms vanish into thin air. After becoming a mother her own welfare and her own interests take a back seat. She is continuously worried about the health and welfare of her child. If God forbid that child becomes sick look at what happens to her?
Now imagine if she has ten children, a hundred children, or millions of children? Do you think such a mother would be able to enjoy a single moment of freedom? So, these are the Blessings of Khilafat, we are the children and Khalifatul-Masih is our spiritual mother, our spiritual father. Every second of his day is spent thinking about our troubles and our problems. Every second of his night is occupied with our well-being. But just like those children who remain attach to their mothers and enjoy their freedom at the expense of their mothers we too must remain attach to Khilafat if we wish to enjoy the Blessings of Khilafat. Do you think a child who has no mother and no father, who is an orphan, can have the same benefits as a child who has a mother and a father to look after him?
So similarly, if we want to enjoy the Blessings of Khilafat than we too must remain attached to Khilafat. And amongst all the children living under one roof, who do you think enjoys the most benefits, that child who is disobedient of his parents or that child who listens to his parents? It is not sufficient to just accept Khilafat but rather if we wish to enjoy all the Blessings of Khilafat than we must become loyal and obedient servants of Khilafat.
In conclusion, let us learn from the mistakes of others. Let us ponder on the Blessings of Khilafat by looking at those who rejected it and neglected it. Let it not be that when we have a blessing of Allah we are ignorant of its importance and once we lose that blessing then we start crying and weeping before Allah Ta`la. Instead let us learn from the past of others to fully understand the importance of Khilafat and the blessings that are attached with it. And let us be amongst those people who will always hold tight to the rope of Allah Ta`la which has been lowered in this day and age in the form of Khilafat, Ameen.
