Darul Uloom asks Saudi Arabia to ban Ahmadiyas from Mecca visit

India

Darul Uloom asks Saudi Arabia to ban Ahmadiyas from Mecca visit

Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN | Jun 30, 2011, 04.20am IST

MUMBAI: Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has asked the Saudi Arabian government to ban Ahmadiyas (Qadiyanis) from visiting Mecca and Medina to perform Haj and Umrah (mini-Haj). Ahamdiyas have been declared non-Muslims in countries like Pakistan and face persecution.

The seminary’s vice-rector, Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, has alleged that many Qadiyanis from India “disguise themselves as Muslims” and visit Mecca to perform Haj and Umrah in a memorandum to Saudi ruler King Abdullah, the custodian of two mosques in Mecca and Medina. “Stop them as they are misguided and may mislead other Muslims,” said the memorandum.

Ahmadiyas are the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), who declared himself to be imam Mahdi or the awaited imam that is also the faith of Muslims, and are scattered across the world.

The Ahmadiya movement is headquartered at Qadiyan near Amritsar and has around five lakh followers in India. Their spiritual leader — Khalifatul Masih (successor of the Messiah) — Mirza Masror Ahmad is London based.

Mainstream Muslim scholars believe that Muhammad was the last prophet and, since Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be the Prophet’s shadow and the awaited Messiah, he deviated from a basic principle of Islam and, therefore, he and his followers cannot be considered Muslims. The Mahdi and Messiah, Muslims believe, will not be self-declared.

The Ahmadiya Jamaat’s Qadiyan-based spokesman Maqbool Ahmad said, “We are not aware of it. But Darul Uloom’s campaign against us is not new.”

The seminary reminded the Saudi monarch of an Organisation of Islamic Countries resolution that ex-communicated Ahmadiyas from Islam in 1979. The seminary’s letter to the Saudi king suggests a clause in the application forms for Haj and Umra where every applicant should be asked to declare that he/she believes that Mohammed is that last prophet.

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