Ahmadiyya Islam and the Muslim Diaspora by Marzia Balzani

Author:Marzia Balzani [Balzani, Marzia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138715851
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

I conclude this examination of the place of dreams among Ahmadi Muslims by briefly considering dreams about the fifth khalifa. I then discuss how a dream of the fourth khalifa has served to tie together the enchantment of prophecy and faith to a new institution requiring additional bureaucratic organisation.

Since 1908 there have been five successors, khalifas, to Ghulam Ahmad, and four of these were related to him as son, grandsons and, most recently, a great-grandson.24 The khalifas themselves, although elected by a representative body of senior males in the Ahmadi organization, are all considered to have been preselected by God, and the election process is one that merely confirms a choice already divinely made. In the case of the present khalifa, this position is reinforced by the publication and internet availability of the dreams of members of the Ahmadi community and others who declare that they had dreams of the fifth and current khalifa prior to his election in 2003. One such document is entitled Dreams Foretelling the Fifth Khilafat (Seen before the Elections). It is available in Urdu and English in hard copy in an Ahmadi journal and also electronically.25 This particular selection includes 40 dreams by men and women and includes at least one dream as recounted by a non-Ahmadi who saw the fifth khalifa in his dream in 2002 – a fact which he only realized after the khalifa had been elected when he saw the new khalifa’s photograph. In this respect, this dream by a non-Ahmadi of the future khalifa is reminiscent of many accounts told by Sufis who describe seeing their future spiritual guides in dreams long before they ever meet them in the flesh or visit their shrines.26 The Ahmadi dreams foretelling the future khalifa are listed by author, date of the letter in which the dream was transmitted, and dream content. A typical example runs:

In 1997 I saw a dream that you are visiting my home in Rabwah wearing ‘Hazoor’s’ [the khalifa’s] turban and are also dressed like ‘Hazoor’. I address you as ‘Hazoor’. I ask, where is the bodyguard? Then I ask how did this come to pass? You respond that it is a blessing of Allah upon yourself. For a moment I feel as if you are lost in the feeling of gratitude to your Lord. I touch your arm and that brings you around and you start walking again. In the dream I am told that your name is Masroor Ahmad. I had never met you before. I swear upon God that when after a gap of 10 years I was visiting Rabwah I saw you and found you as I had seen you in the dream. In the dream your countenance had a light to it that I have not seen before.27

Sometimes the same dreams appear in a variety of published and electronic sources so that, for example, the dream of the non-Ahmadi person who saw the fifth khalifa in his dream before he became khalifa appears not only

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