Editorial

EDITORIAL The average person is confused by the number of different religions and also by their subdivisions and sects. Which one is the truth, or do none of them represent the truth? Through which one can a conscious realisation of God be attained? If the world is to be saved from its present day materialism some powerful message and sign of God must be heralded and manifested. There are many who do pray to God but when their prayers do not seem to be answered, they lose faith in the efficacy of prayer and begin to doubt whether there is a God. In all ages God has manifested Himself through verbal revelations, visions, dreams, prophecies and miracles. Not only has He conversed with His Prophets and Divine Messengers but even to ordinary individuals. People generally believe that such like Divine manifestations are things of the past or even myths. It has even been asserted that God is dead. Perhaps, to some extent, these are natural conclusions as religions, on a whole, do not today provide examples of anyone having an intimate relationship with God, which is manifestly apparent. After a lapse of several centuries, the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam conveys the message that even today God speaks to man as He used to in earlier times. An example of this spiritual truth is Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi and Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement who was a recipient of actual words from God. Answering a question as to how God speaks to him he replied: Just as you and I are holding a conversation. This experience is not necessarily confined only to God’s chosen prophets but may be experienced by any individual God Willing. The need is to propagate this great truth far and wide. The Promised Messiah has declared: I have been sent by God to remove the mist of doubt which exists in man’s relation with God, and to re-establish love and sincerity; to lay the foundation of peace by revealing the Truth, and thereby exterminate all religious antagonism. I shall reveal those divine truths which lie hidden from the eyes of the world, and shall give an example of the purity of soul which lies suppressed under the darkness of sin. I am. to explain, not merely by saying it, but from my own personal experience, the divine powers which manifest themselves in man by prayer and concentration of mind. Above all, I am to re-plant in the minds of my followers that bright and pure tree of the Unity of God, EDITORIAL 3 free from any polytheistic ideas, -which is now dead. All this will take place, not by my efforts, but by the power of God Who is the Creator of the earth and the heavens. (Lecture on Islam, p.34) • x- This is, indeed, a message of hope. The world had become blind to spiritual light and amid the darkness of disbelief God has iUi.im1na.ted the way of spiritual progress. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, has by his own experiences demonstrated the truth of religion and showed to what heights of spiritual eminence human beings are cap able of attaining. He heard the soul sustaining Word of God which put new life into the souls of men, and the faith of Islam which was waning has been revived and re-established in the hearts of men. There are many among his followers whose faith has been strengthened by similar divine experiences on a smaller scale. The Ahmadiyya Movement has among its followers people of high education and spiritual stature and who fervently pray to God for guidance, not as a manner of formality, but with all sincerity and seriousness. The love and spirit of Islam is alive in them and they are carrying the Holy message of Islam to the four comers of the earth solely out of love for Allah and His Prophet which has been rejuvenated in their souls through the advent and personality of the Promised Messiah and Mahdi whose appearance in the latter days was foretold in the scriptures of the world. OBITUARY It is with deep regret that we report the demise of Hazrat Dr. Mirza Munawwar Ahmad who died on the 19th of September in Rabwah, Pakistan fyj&fy. @&£%jQl (Ta AEah we belong and to him do we return). He was the grandson of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam; and elder brother of Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the present Head of the Movement. The members of the Editorial Board of the Review of Religions express their heart felt condolence to Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IV, and to the family members of the Promised Messiah and especially to Hazrat Syyeda Mahmooda Begum, the bereaved wife of Hazrat Dr. Mirza Munawwar Ahmad. May God elevate his position in paradise and protect his family. May his good deeds and sacrifices be accepted by God and may they leave an indelible imprint on the sands of time for the inspiration of the generations to come. A short biography of the deceased will appear in the November issue of the Review of Religions. God-willing.