Saudis to go back to ‘moderate Islam’

Yesterday the BBC announced: ‘Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said the return of “moderate Islam” is key to his plans to modernise the Gulf kingdom’.

This is good news indeed, although the announcement would have read better if he had said “a return to the Islam that is actually found in the Holy Quran and was actually practised by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s).” This was what the Promised Messiah, and the Reformer of the Islamic 14^th Century, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had already preached over 125 years ago. Hazrat Mirza also prophesied that if Muslims did not heed his advice, a day would assuredly come when circumstances alone would force them to do so.

He drew Muslims’ attention to verses such as:

• “We made Muslims a moderate people…” (2:143)
• “There is no compulsion in religion…” (2:256)
• “Say: O people who disagree with me, you cannot convince me that your way of life is right. And I cannot convince you that my way of living is right. You will not be able to convince. So, you live the way you want to and I will live the way I want to” (109: 1–6)

Unfortunately, such verses are either ignored or misinterpreted in favour of the views propagated by extremists and literalists, including the religious scholars of Saudi Arabia. We hope that the Crown Prince’s statement will be followed by concrete measures to return the Kingdom to what the Holy Quran truly teaches and to what the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) actually practised. In this respect we wish to offer our services to the Crown Prince in order to help him achieve his ambition of taking Saudi Arabia back to ‘moderate Islam’.

The Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was established in Lahore in 1914 to promote the informed understanding of Islam in the West. In the UK it operated the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking until the early 1960s. Its new headquarters is at Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4JQ, UK. In 1924, in Berlin, it built the first mosque in Continental Europe of the modern era. The Berlin Mosque is now recognised by the German government as part of the German national heritage. From its European and other centres around the world this organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect between all communities and nationalities.

• Submissions in 2016 to UK Parliament Inquiries:
  • Countering Extremism:
    • Our submission: pdf • html
  • Sharia Councils:
    • Our submission: pdf • html

Our press release "Reconsidering Hadith: evaluating the sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad (s)": http://www.pressat.co.uk/releases/reconsidering-hadith-evaluating-the-sayings-attributed-to-the-prophet-muhammad-s-161fb92c9a0ccacefaf50d9ce601294c/