Far from the Caliph's Gaze by Nicholas H. A. Evans

Author:Nicholas H. A. Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

4

PRAYER DUELS TO THE DEATH

The Mubahala

On June 3, 1988, the fourth caliph, Mirza Tahir Ahmad, announced a challenge that would dominate public discourse in the Jama‘at for months and years to come. Tahir Ahmad had been in exile in London for over four years, and the continued premiership of General Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan meant that antagonism against the Ahmadis remained high. Surveying this situation, Tahir Ahmad announced that argument and debate between the Ahmadis and their opponents had arrived at an impasse. The Promised Messiah’s demonstration of proofs—his ‘ilm-e-kalam—had been “so potent [qavi] and overpowering [ghalib]” that it had left the opponents of the Jama‘at no option but to resort to wickedness and intimidation.1 Having been utterly defeated in argument, the Jama‘at’s opponents had taken to spreading lies about the Promised Messiah. As such, Tahir Ahmad declared, “the time for understanding has passed.”2 Addressing his opponents directly, he announced that between the Ahmadis and their detractors “no matter of argument is left. When this condition is reached, there is nothing left to do but a mubahala.”3 In this manner, he challenged his opponents to a trial by ordeal: a spiritual duel that could result in death.

In the previous chapter, I showed how the proofs of Ahmadiyyat are thought to be imbued with such potent truth that they can only be denied by falsehood or hypocrisy. The Urdu term for this condition is itmam-e-hujjat (itmam al-hujjah in Arabic), literally meaning “the completion of truth” and describing a situation in which a prophetic message is so fully and logically realized that opponents cannot deny it. Ahmadis recognize this as being a feature of Muhammad’s revelation but also see Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as having revived this condition of itmam-e-hujjat through his demonstration of proofs (dala’il) and arguments (barahin). In the present chapter, I look at what happens when the denials of opponents are thought to have reached such a level of obstinacy that only one option remains: a highly ritualized form of divine judgment by ordeal known as the mubahala.

At the time of Tahir Ahmad’s mubahala challenge, Ahmadis in Pakistan were the object of all manner of scurrilous rumors, most of which persist in modified form to this day. Opponents would both criticize and insult Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and level a number of accusations at his contemporary followers. Among these accusations were the claims that Ahmadis were agents of the United States, that four hundred Ahmadis were fighting for the Israeli army, that four thousand Ahmadis were receiving guerrilla training in Germany, that the “Qadianis” have a God that is not that of the Qur’an, and that they believe in angels that are different from those in the Qur’an. It was furthermore rumored that the Jama‘at was involved in plots to destroy Pakistan, that it had caused riots in Karachi, that it had a plan to kill five hundred ulema, and that a Qadiani military officer stole the plans for nuclear weapons from Pakistan and passed them to Israel.4

Against the background of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.