Peace Requires Compassion

The Promised Messiah^as & Imam Mahdi (Guided One)
Founder of
THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONS
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as

My countrymen, a religion which does not inculcate universal compassion is no religion at all. Similarly, a human being without the faculty of compassion is no human at all. Our God has never discriminated between one people and another. This is illustrated by the fact that all the potentials and capabilities which have been granted to the Aryans have also been granted to the races inhabiting Arabia, Persia, Syria, China, Japan, Europe and America. The earth created by God provides a common floor for all people alike, and His sun and moon and many stars are a source of radiance and provide many other benefits to all alike. Likewise, all peoples benefit from the elements created by Him, such as air, water, fire and earth, and similarly from other products created by Him like grain, fruit, and healing agents, etc. These attributes of God teach us the lesson that we, too, should behave magnanimously and kindly towards our fellow human beings and should not be petty of heart and illiberal.

Friends! Take it as certain that if either of our two nations will not treat God’s attributes with respect and will not shape its conduct in accordance with the conduct of God, then, that nation will soon be wiped out from the face of the earth. Not only will it destroy itself but it will also jeopardise the future of its generations to come. The righteous of all ages have testified that following God’s ways works like an elixir for the people. Moreover the survival of human beings, both physical and spiritual, depends on the same eternal truth that man should follow the virtuous attributes of God Who is the Fountainhead of all that is essential for survival. God commences the Holy Qur’an with the following verse which is contained in Surah Al-Fatihah: “All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the Worlds.”¹ That is, all perfect and holy attributes belong exclusively to Allah, Who is the Lord of all the worlds. The word ‘alam [worlds] comprises all different peoples, all different ages and all the different countries. The commencement of the Holy Qur’an with this verse was designed to counter the views of such people who attempted to monopolise God’s unlimited providence for their own nation and imagined that the other nations did not belong to God or that having created these other people, God discarded them as being of no consequence, or else perhaps they were shelved to oblivion by Him, or (God forbid) they were not even created by Him…²

God also made it clear in several places in the Holy Qur’an that His messengers have been appearing in different lands all over the world. In fact He did not neglect any people or any country. The Holy Qur’an explains through various examples that just as God has been looking after the physical development of the people of every country, in accordance with their requirements, so has He blessed every country and every people with spiritual upbringing. Allah says in the Holy Qur’an: [“and there is no people to whom a warner has not been sent”], meaning that there is no people to whom a Warner has not been sent.³
Therefore, there is no question that the True and Perfect God, to believe in Whom is essential for every person, is the Lord of all the worlds. Furthermore, His providence is not confirmed to any particular people, age or country. In fact, He is the Lord of all peoples, the Lord of time and space, and He is the Sovereign of all the countries. He alone is the Fountainhead of all beneficence and the Source of every physical and spiritual strength. All that exists is sustained by Him. He is the Support for every creature. It is the universal beneficence of God which encompasses all peoples, all countries and all ages. It so happened lest anyone should have cause to complain that ‘God has bestowed His favour upon such and such people, but not upon us.’ Or that ‘So and so received the Book in order to be guided while we did not.’ Or that ‘In such and such an age, He revealed Himself through His revelations, communications and miracles but in our time He remained hidden.’ Thus, by demonstrating His universal beneficence, He left no justification for such possible accusations. He displayed His virtues boundlessly so that no people remain bereft of physical and spiritual bounties from Him. He also did not treat any age as doomed.

So, when such are the attributes of our Lord, it is but befitting for us to acquire them ourselves. So, O compatriots! This short epistle entitled A Message of Peace’ is being presented to you with all due respect and with a sincere heartfelt prayer that Almighty God may Himself inspire you and fill your hearts with trust in my sincerity, lest you misread this friendly gesture and consider it to be an attempt to gain some ulterior motive. Dear Countrymen! The matter of the Hereafter is very often obscured to ordinary people. Its secrets are known only to a few of the enlightened, who embrace a kind of death [for the sake of their Lord] before they actually die. The goodness of this world, on the other hand, is easily recognised by any man with vision and wisdom.⁴

Endnotes

1.Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Fatihah, Verse 2.
2.Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, A Message of Peace (Tilford, Surrey, UK: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2007), 6-7.
3. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Fatir, Verse 25.
4. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, A Message of Peace (Tilford, Surrey, UK: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2007), 9-10.