Hazrat Seth Abdullah Alladin

HAZRAT SETH ABDULLAH ALLADIN (All Muhammad Alladin, M.A. Edin) My father Hazrat Seth Abdullah Alladin was one of those servants of Allah whose personality went through a complete transformation after he recognized the Divine Reformer of the Age and accepted Ahmadiyyat. Initially a worldly man, he became an exceedingly God-fearing and virtuous person after the truth of Ahmadiyyat illumined his heart. He was born on 12th October, 1877 and accepted Ahmadiyyat on 9th April 1915, during the early days of the Khilafat of Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, the Second Successor of the Ahmadiyya Movement (may choicest blessings of Allah be on him). The Almighty Allah blessed him with a long life and he died at the age of 84 on 2 6th February, 1962.1 now present an account of his early life and the circumstances that culminated in his acceptance of Ahmadiyyat in his own words: I was a member of the Khoja Community of Sir Agha Khan. My name is Abdullah. I was born in Bombay on 12th October, 1877. My late father Mr. Alladin was a resident of Calcutta; from there he came to Bombay and thence to Secunderabad in the year 18 82. As we were Agha Khan Khojas we were absolutely ignorant, about Islamic tenets, because in this Khoja Community there is no observance of namaz (prayers) or fasting etc. therefore we neither observed namaz nor kept fasts. We used to go to the mosque for prayers only twice a year on the occasions of Bid, But my father was a holy man. In all his activities he had complete faith in God. I am now going to deal on. a topic which is not only extremely surprising but is also of paramount importance to humanity and as such well worth knowing. The Merciful and Gracious God.had decreed that I should come out from the Khoja Community, and join the true Islam and that the true islam should be propagated through me not only to the Gujarati knowing public in theworld but also to the people belonging to various other communities. I am narrating these facts in obedience to the command of Almighty God. i.e.: Oh son these are the days of the illumination of thy destiny. There is thy-father’s photo on the royal throne. One day while I was ascending our two storeyed building, all of a sudden the above couplet came out from my mouth and I was astounded REVIEW OF RELIGIONS .. 9′ by this experience. We. were’worldly men, day and .night absorbed in business. If. we had gained a lakh or two of rupees by lottery or from any other source and had become rich I would have considered my destiny to have been illumined, but that did not happen. I, therefore, regarded this event as of no significance and forgot it altogether. As time went on, I was inundated with worldly as well as spiritual blessings one after the other from Almighty and Gracious Allah; I then remembered the above couplet. It then dawned upon me that this couplet was not meaningless but was a mighty prediction from Almighty Allah heralding the illumination of my future destiny. Almighty God out of His special Grace and Mercy had decreed to bless my humble self with ‘His mighty Grace and Beneficence. He started to inundate me with His religious bounties. I was absolutely ignorant • of religious “matters. He, therefore, in a wonderful manner, brought to my notice The Teachings of Islam. This book is the English translation of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s Urdu book entitled The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam. I had never heard the name of Hazrat Mirza Saheb or of Qadian where he lived. When I read this book I realized that it was not an ordinary book but was a mine of spiritual treasures. Various matters dealing with Islam have been beautifully explained in this book with Quranic verses. By studying this book two or three times, I, who was hitherto in utter religious darkness, came into the light by God’s Grace. I felt as if I was born anew. I ordered several copies of this book and’ presented them to Muslims and non-Muslims. They all praised this book immensely. The interest of my Khoja Community led me to publish it in Gujarati. I, therefore, translated it into Gujarati and distributed hundreds of copies free. I had a talk in this connection with my dear brother Khan Bahadur Nawab Ahmad Nawaz Jung. I expressed to him my desire that I wanted this book to be translated into various languages and to have it published and I desired that he should also take part in it. He gladly complied with my request. Before doing so he sent a copy of this book to Nawab Sir Amin Jung Bahadur, M.A. who was the Chief Secretary of His Exalted Highness the Nizam and requested him to give his opinion about the book. Sir Amin Jung replied to him as follows: Many thanks for a copy of your 3rd edition of the great Mirza’s Teachings of Islam. I have read it more than once. It gives a quintesseence of the Holy Book of Islam. It is so good and so free from any sectarian or denominational biasjhat I entirely agree with you 10 . REVIEW OF RELIGIONS in thinking that you would render a red service to Islam if you could publish it in several languages. The translation should be. as simple and pleasant as the English translation itself. Soon after, I got this book translated in Marathi, Canarese, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Gurmukhi, Sindhi, Burmese, Malaylam etc; and had them published. All praise be to Allah. One strange thing which I read in this book was that God listens to our supplications and even answers them. In order to satisfy myself about this, one night after namaz I prayed to the effect that: Oh Allah if it is true that Thou listenest and even answerest prayers, thenlbeseech Thee to grant one supplication of mine so that I may be convinced about the matter. Afterwards I prayed to Allah thus: Oh Allah reveal to me the condition of my father. Many years had elapsed since the death of my father and I had never seen him in any dream; but when I prayed thus, I saw him in my dream within a couple of days, he said to me that he was happy and showed me a ring of which one or two jewels were sparkling and the remaining one or two were black. At that time I could not interpret its meaning. But it was after some time that I realised that the four jewels represented his four sons. God alone knows its true significance. After seeing this dream I was convinced that verily God listens and even answers our prayers. I was totally ignorant of religion. In order, therefore, to enlighten me as to the true faith, Almighty God brought about such circumstances which led me to study the Teachings of Islam — an Islamic book replete with spiritual treasures. After reading this book two or three times, a profound interest for religious knowledge was aroused within me. When I was young I had studied’the Gujarati translation of the Holy Quran. But I was given to understand that the Holy Quran was meant for Arabs who used to worship idols; we believe in one God and so we do not stand in need of it. Moreover there are contradictions in the verses of the Holy Quran. Only those who are well versed in Arabic can understand its true meaning. If they who do .not ;know Arabic study the Holy Quran they will, not understand its real meaning and therefore instead of gaining reward they will commit sin. I, therefore, stopped reading the Quran altogether. When I had “studied The Teachings of Islam, it dawned upon me that all I had been told about the Holy Quran was completely wrong. I realised that when a small book like this, comprising selections from the Holy Quran, could contain so much spiritual treasure, it would be impossible to estimate the invaluable treasures packed within the entire Holy Quran. .In this way interest was aroused within me for reading and- REVIEW OF RELIGIONS 11 understanding the Holy Quran. I ordered a copy of the English translation of the Holy Quran and began its study. I found that there are no contradictions in the Quranic verses, nay, on the contrary they support each other. It then occurred to me that just like myself many others might be involved in similar erroneous views concerning the Holy Quran. I, therefore, began to collect as many Quranic verses as possible on different subjects with a view to publish and distribute them to people, so that they ‘might realize that there are no contradictions .in the Quranic verses. After compiling the verses dealing on several subjects I published them in the form of a book entitled Extracts from the Holy Quran and distributed it free. According to the. Holy Quran the true Islam is only one. But gradually Muslims divided themselves into different _ sects by incorporating erroneous beliefs, rites and ceremonies into Islam. I was also entangled in an erroneous sect, therefore the Almighty Allah planned, from the very outset, to guide me to the true Islam. It has been a Divine Law that, in order to show the truth and beauties of Islam Almighty God had been raising at the beginning of every Islamic century a Divine Reformer through whom’ the true Islamic sect is established. Accordingly in this 14th century a Divine Reformer was raised through. whom the Ahmadiyya Movement came into being. In order to make me understand the truth of Ahmadiyyat or the true Islam, Almighty God made such a wonderful arrangement for me that a distinguished member of the Ahmadiyya Community Hazrat Yaqoob ALL Saheb Irfani, great lover of the Holy Quran and commentator was sent to my place from Qadian which is at a distance of 15 00 miles. He began to explain to me the truth of Ahmadiyyat from; various points of view but at that time I was intimately connected with one gentleman belonging to Ahl-e-Hadith sect, who was a partner in one of our businesses. I had great friendship with him. He prejudiced me against Ahmadiyyat to a considerable extent. I therefore did not accept anything about Ahmadiyyat which Hazrat Irfani Saheb explained to me. Finally Hazrat Irfani Saheb said that as you have studied The teachings of Islam written by Hazrat Mirza Saheb and you have appreciated it very much, you should read his other books as well; I agreed to do so. However I read them in such a way that wherever there was mention of the superiority of Islam and that of the Holy Prophet (may peace adn blessings of Allah be on him) I read with great zeal, but I used to skip over those portions which dealt with the death of Jesus Christ or with Ahmadiyyat. In this way I read many of his books and I acquired the essential knowledge about Islam, but remained ignorant about Hazrat Mirza 12 ” REVIEW OP RELIGIONS / Saheb’s claims. As such Hazrat Irfani Saheb, who had come from Qadian, had to return without success. Almighty God sent Hazrat Irfani Saheb from Qadian to make me understand Ahmadiyyat i.e; the true Islam, but I did not accept it. By means of a dream Almighty God instructed the Head of the . Ahmadiyya’Community (2nd caliph) to convey the truth of Ahmadiyyat to His Exalted Highness, the Nizam, the then king of Hyderabad. To carry ••out this Divine Command he wrote a nice book entitled Tuhfatui Malook (present to the Kings) and sent two distinguished Ahmadies to preset him with the book. He accepted it with thanks. After this, hundreds of copies of this book were distributed to the public of Hyderabad. Because Almighty God had planned all this for my humble self; He inspired His Caliph to send again new Ahm’adiyya missionaries to Hyderabad. Accordingly two new learned personages Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq Saheb and Hazrat Hafiz Roshan Ali Saheb were sent. To help them, Janab Syed Basharat Ahmad Saheb -who is an Advocate of the Hyderabad High Court and the Amir of Hyderabad Jamaat were nominated. At first they delivered lectures in Hyderabad but no one was fortunate to accept Ahmadiyyat. Afterwards they began to deliver lectures in Secunderabad. I also used to attend their lectures. Later on we also invited them to deliver a lecture in our Alladin’Building.’ After this they used to come to our place every day for giving Darsul Quran (commentary on the Quran). Lest I should become an Ahmadi and the Ahmadiyya Jamaat be established in Secunderabad learned Maulvies of Sunni and Shia sects also used to come and preach me against Ahmadiyyat. In this way I was able to listen to the arguments of both the parties. This programme lasted for three months. In order to make me realize the truth of Ahmadiyyat through the Holy Quran, the Traditions, and Bible etc. Ahmadiyya missionaries used to bring those books to me when” necessary. Finally by God’s Grace and Mercy the truth of Ahmadiyyat became clear to me. Inspite of this I had not the courage to accept it and thus take the risk of incurring the displeasures of my relatives, and my AM-e-Hadith. partner. Nay after this I even stopped the Darsul Quran which the learned Ahmadi missionaries used to deliver daily. .-“I was-‘shown one might a dreadful dream in which my Ahl-e-Hadith partner, along with another person was talking ill of some one’. Just then the police .arrived and arrested three of us and presented us before the (continued on page 49) 13 RIGHTEOUSNESS DRAWS DIVINE .SUCCOUR (Extract from an address delivered by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, in Qadian on January 19, 1889.) I draw the attention of my followers to the indispensable necessity of righteous conduct which alone pleases God and ensures Divine help. God says in the Holy Quran: Unto Him ascend pure words, and righteous deeds does He . exalt. • (35:11) In this age the pen will achieve the ultimate ‘victory of Islam – not the sword. It should be borne in mind, however, that Divine aid and victory will be the lot of those who are righteous. God says: Allah wiZZ not grant the disbelievers a way to prevail against the believers. (4:142) Your victory, therefore, depends upon your taqwa or righteousness. The pre-Islamic Arabs were only speakers, lecturers and poets, but when they became righteous God sent His angels to their succour. If one studies the history of Islam one will find that the victories won by the Companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), were not the result of human efforts or power. Within a short period of twenty years after the death of the Holy Prophet, Islam became dominant over most of the known world. Was such success within human power? God says in the Holy Quran: . t x »’ * A » / x» *^i ^ ,*£’!,• x •» ,”7, x .x xJ i < t (§^_^_^.>J4 «!aJlj!>iJ! trtOJl Cr« Sil u], Verily, God is with those who are righteous and those who do good. (16:129) The word muttaqi means one who fears God. One kind of virtue is to” shun evil and the other is to do good. Muttaqi is one who refrains from evil and Muhsen refers to the doing of good. A truly righteous person, therefore, is one who after shunning evil reviews his conduct to find out what good he has done. It is recorded that once a slave of Hazrat Imam Hasan brought him a cup of tea and inadvertently spilt it over his head. Hazrat Imam Hasan gave him an angry look whereupon the servant recited the following