Ahmadiat, Baha’i and Mormonism

September 1, 2011

By Saeed Qureshi

Islam, Christianity and Judaism have promised a redeemer to the mankind at a time when the earth will be filled with sinners and when evil and wickedness of all hues and shades would become the order of the day. This redeemer, in fact, would be Jesus Christ who would reappear towards the end of time. Whilst the Abrahamic religions are unanimous on the second coming of the Jesus Christ, they differ as to how he would establish the kingdom of God on earth.

For Muslims Jesus is the Prophet while for Christians he is the son of God. Muslims also believe that there would be a forerunner of Jesus (Issa) called Mahdi who would trigger the war against the infidels. Both would fight against the forces of evil led by Dajjal.

Thus through relentless struggle against the enemies of God including the killing of Dajjal and his followers, Jesus and Mahdi would establish a veritable realm of God where peace and pleasure would prevail.

Jews used to believe that a Messiah would come at the time appointed by God. He would restore the promised land of Palestine to them. He will turn the world into a paradise. According to them Messiah will be a human being, not in any way divine. The dead will live again in the Messianic era, and the world will attain a new spiritual and physical level of perfection.

But waiting for several centuries when such a redeemer never came, they attained the state of Israel through a political struggle and therefore most of them have eschewed the coming of the Jesus. They do not believe in the first resurrection of the Jesus after his crucifixion as believed by the Christians.

For Jews it would be a different Messiah not of Nazareth. For Christians it would be Jesus’ second coming. For Muslims, he will return from heavens where he is staying with God.

Christians believe in the second coming of the Jesus at the end of the time to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This would be the final establishment of God’s rule over all creation, in which there will be complete peace and happiness.

While the adherents of Islam, Christianity and some segments of Judaism still wait for the advent of a Messiah, the three religions founded in 19th century namely Ahmadiat, Baha’i and Mormonism (also called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints) already have such three Messiahs. Their founders are called prophets and were contemporaries.

These three religions or denominations are in minority and brutally suppressed in their places of origin because they challenged the established religions particularly the faith about the reappearance of the promised messenger.

Not only that Ahmadiat (also known as Mirzaiyat or Qadianyat), Baha’i and Mormon faiths are contemporary religions of 19th century, they have many common features also. All these three religions preach peace and their believers are extremely devoted, selfless and unflinching in their adherence to their faith.

Notwithstanding their claim of messenger, Messiah or similarity in some outward common features, these latter day religions have nothing in common in regard to their worship and religious practices. However, their way of operation is almost identical. For instance they have countless volunteers who devote their lives for preaching and publicizing their religions.

All these three religions have an immaculate network for raising funds, dissemination of information and publication of literature. They love to invite the people to their worshiping places and religious congregations. Drinking of Alcohol is prohibited in all the three religions.

Every Ahmadi, Baha’i or Mormon contributes a percentage of his income to the welfare and promotion of his or her religion. They believe that their founder is the promised Messenger or Messiah as mentioned in their respective scriptures.

This messenger is Jesus Christ who was crucified (not in Muslim belief) but ascended to heavens instead. These new religions believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has already happened in the physical form of their prophets or apostles.

In the United States where freedom of religion is guaranteed, such denominations have a field day. Although some time they are bitterly opposed by the mainstream religions but they keep working without fear of persecution or execution. This is the reason while at the places or territories of their birth or initiation they are maltreated, they flourish and abound abroad.

Joseph Smith founded the Mormon or latter Day Saints’ Church in New York in 1830 but was killed by a mob in 1844.However a permanent church in Salt Lake city was established in 1847.Today people of Mormon faith number around 9.5 million.

Joseph Smith’s first indication of his being chosen as the prophet or Messiah came in 1923 when he claimed to have met Moroni the son of prophet Mormon. Moroni an angel or prophet conferred on him the exalted status of a Messiah with the task of restoration of Christ's true church in the latter days.

The Mormons believe in Joseph Smith as the resurrected Jesus Christ The Mormons believe that with the presentation of the new testament of Jesus Christ by Joseph Smith, the divine purpose of second coming of Jesus Christ was not only fulfilled but Church of God was also reestablished.

The Mormons or the “Latter Day Saints” are lucky because their religion was born in America and barring the early outrage of the Christian Orthodox Church against them, later they have been free to preach and practice their religion. The Mormon religion which branched off from the Christianity prays basically in the Christian tradition with certain additions. They believe in polygamy.

Same is the case with the Bahais in the birth place of their religion Iran. Any one professing Baha’i religion in Iran has to go through great ordeals. In the past they underwent exceptional trials and tribulations so much so that Bab the forerunner of Bahaullah, was sent to gallows. Bahaullah himself suffered untold hardships after proclaiming himself as a prophet.

The Bahais hold that it was Bahaullah from Iran sent by God as the prophet to lead the astrayed humanity. Mirza Ali Mohammad known as Al Bab founded Babism in 1844 a sect from which the Baha’i faith grew. Bab named himself the Mahdi or the Messiah. He was the forerunner of Bahaullah and foretold the coming of a promised messiah. Later Bahaullah claimed to be the promised Messiah.

The founder of Baha’i religion Bahaullah declared being a prophet in 1863 when he was 46 years old. He preached his faith for almost 29 years. Baha’i religion is basically an offshoot of Islam but Bahais believe in all the religions and maintain that Baha’i was the crystallization of all the previous religions.

They believe in oneness of God, of humanity and of religions. Baha’i faith postulates that in the present day times when mankind, thanks to technological and scientific miracles has become civilized, there was not need of so many religions to guide the humanity. Baha’i think that their religion presented the synthesis of all the past religions and faith and was therefore acceptable and in accord with the changing times.

The Baha’i faith ordains simple prayers to be uttered with or without music but mostly it is with instrumental music. There are no fixed days or hours for such prayers which had been mostly written by Bahaullah.

Bahais don’t follow the fundamental injunctions of Muslims faith that have been profusely quoted both by Bab and Bahaullah. This was due to the fact that prior to the declaration of their self-proclaimed divine status, they followed the Shia faith. Their religion is easy to practice.

Finally came Mirza Ghulam Ahmed from Qadian (India), the founder of Ahmadiat who at different times between 1882 and 1908, laid the same claim of being a messenger of God and the shadow of the final prophet of Islam Mohammad (PBUH).

In a way the founder of Ahmadiat religion made two claims: one that he was Prophet Mohammad reincarnate (shadow) and secondly that he was the resurrected Jesus Christ or the promised Messiah.

Ahmadis mostly retain the Islamic elements of faith in that they pray five times a day, go for pilgrimage, fast for full month etc. But again they have added many new elements such as the name of their prophet into Kalima (declaration of belief in God and Prophet Muhammad) and also in Azan (beckoning Muslims to come for prayers).The Ahmadis are officially declared as the infidels, apostates or heretic in Pakistan.

Incidentally, all these founders of new religions markedly succeeded in their missions albeit, understandably, after stiff opposition from the mainstream religions. But still the questions remains that how could three messengers or Messiahs appear at the same time and co exist?

For non-believers in these three faiths, it is utterly difficult to figure out why all the reincarnated messengers appeared at the same time and in the same century. It is also difficult to confidently say which messenger is the right one and which is phony or an imposter. But logically there should be one among them whose claim may sound convincing. Then the only question remains as to which other two are false or fake.

All the three messengers or redeemers have entirely different teachings of their faith, yet each one of them professes that his code is the one ordained by God. God almighty cannot send three promised messengers at the same time who impart three absolutely conflicting religious statutes or God’s messages.

There could be a possibility that the advent of one founder led the other two to follow suit. It was Joseph Smith of Mormon religion who saw Moroni prophet in 1823 and declared his prophet-hood in 1830.He was followed by Bahaullah from Teheran, the founder of Baha’i faith who proclaimed his divine status of a messenger cum Messiah in 1863. The third in the row was Mirza Ghulam Ahmed who declared himself as the promised messiah first in 1882.

As written in holy Quran and scriptures of Christian or Jewish religions, the reincarnation of a promised Messiah would presage a colossal global disorder, turmoil, strife, wars and prevalence of monstrosities of all kinds.

The messenger would be engaged with the evil forces at great peril to his life and would undergo unparalleled hardships till he would finally overcome all the hostile forces to establish the rule of God.

But in the case of all these messengers there were no such happenings before or during their lifetimes as mentioned in the holy scriptures of all the religions originating from Abraham. All the three founders instead preached peace and were utterly against violent methods or crusades for the religious pursuits.

The world has not seen that these messengers as prophesied in Jewish, Islamic or Christian scriptures had ever fought against the perceived opponents or evils or Satan physically or with an army.

Then the question is that if all these messengers do not qualify for the merits or fulfill the conditions of the promised messenger as clearly mentioned in the holy books, then why they are believed as such by millions of human beings.

As prophesied in the scriptures, if they could not transform the world into a paradise and a place free of sins and sufferings then how can one believe that one of them was the Mahdi, the redeemer, the Messiah or the messenger of God? There was neither an Armageddon prior to their arrival nor any Dajjal to fight with.

It is equally impossible to figure out who among them fits into the mold of a promised Messiah as only one of them can be right or genuine and none of them. This puts doubt over the truthfulness of the claims of all three founders of 19th century new religions for being the resurrected Jesus or a redeemer of humanity towards the end of time. And finally no one knows if that was the end of time when they lived.