the review of religions (aug 2010)

MANAGEMENT BOARD: Munir-ud-din Shams (Chairman) • Mansoor Shah(Secretary) • Naseer Ahmad Qamar • Mubarak Ahmad Zafar • Mirza Fakhar Ahmad• Abdul Baqi Arshad

CHIEF EDITOR & MANAGER: Mansoor Ahmed Shah

EDITORIAL BOARD: Adam Walker • Amer Safir • Bockarie Tommy Kallon •Fareed Ahmad • Fauzia Bajwa • Fazal Ahmad • Khullat Munir • Mansoor Saqi •Sarah Waseem • Tanveer Khokhar

PROOFREADER: Abdul Ghany Jahangeer Khan

DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Tanveer Khokhar

DISTRIBUTION: Muhammad Hanif

PUBLISHER: Al ShirkatulIslamiyyah

All correspondence should be forwarded to the editor at:The Review of ReligionsTahir House22 Deer Park RoadLondon, SW19 3TLUnited KingdomTELEPHONE AND FAX: + 00 44 20 8544 7614

The Review of Religions: August 2010, Vol.105, No.8

2 A Message of Peace - Part 2Respect for all Prophets andreligious founders is the bedrock forestablishing peace in any society –Founders of any faith should neverbe insulted(Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), thePromised Messiah and Imam Mahdi)

11 Means of PeaceThe world is in search for the meansof peace – Islam teaches that toattain external peace, peace withinmust first be established (Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(aba),Khalifatul Masih V, Head of theWorldwide Ahmadiyya Muslimcommunity)

21 Truth about the CrucifixionKeynote address from theInternational Conference held inLondon in 1978 on ‘Deliverance ofJesus from the Cross’ proving thatJesus(as) survived the crucifixionand travelled to Kashmir where heeventually died a natural death (Hadhrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad(ru),Khalifatul Masih III, Third Head of theWorldwide Ahmadiyya Muslimcommunity)

39 The Shroud of TurinAn introduction and historicalbackground to the blessed cloth thathas incited intense debate amongstscholars, historians and millions ofreligious followers around theworld(Arif Khan, UK)

56 Historic Visit by HadhratKhalifatul Masih V to theShroud of Turin ExhibitionFirst ever visit by any Khalifa of theAhmadiyya Muslim community tothe Shroud of Turin featuring thediscussion between His Holiness,Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(aba),Khalifatul Masih V, Head of theWorldwide Ahmadiyya Muslimcommunity, the Director of theExhibition and resident Professor ofOriental Studies.

63 Calendar of Religious Eventsand Festivals – August 2010

© Islamic Publications, 2010ISSN No: 0034-6721

[email protected]

Views expressed in thispublication are notnecessarily the beliefsof the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community

Now we return to the originalsubject of discussion: the agewhen one religion was unaware ofthe existence of the other. In thatgeneral state of ignorance, it wasbut natural that every peopleshould have considered their ownreligion and their own book to bethe only one. Eventually whencountries came into contact witheach other through the spread ofknowledge, this trend ofmonopolising God resulted in thecreation of another obstacle in thepath of mutual understanding.People began to expect thereligions in every other country toagree with theirs, or else theystood rejected. It was no easy taskto rid such religions of the poetical

exaggerations built around themover the ages. So the followers ofevery religion braced themselvesto vehemently oppose the other.So, also, the religion of Zend-Avesta raised the flag with theclaim that, ‘No one else is like us’and they monopolised theinstitution of prophethood for theirown family. They related such along history of their religion, thatthose who used to pride thelongevity of Vedic history wereput to shame.

In their turn, the faith of theHebrews crossed every limit whenthey asserted that Israel wasdeclared to be the eternal seat ofGod’s sovereignty and that only

A Message of Peace: Part 2

Paigham-e-Sulh (A Message of Peace) is the last written work ofHadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), the Promised Messiah and ImamMahdi and Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, completeda day before his demise on May 25, 1908. The principles of harmonylaid down in the work are applicable to all countries where variousreligions co-exist.

2 The Review of Religions – August 2010

3The Review of Religions – August 2010


the pious among them would beconsidered worthy of being sentfor the reformation of the world.But in effect, the work ofreformation remained limited tothe House of Israel, and therevelation of God became theprerogative of only their Houseunder the seal of God. All otherswho rose with a claim wereconsidered liars and imposters.

Likewise, among the Aryas,similar views to those which werewidespread among the Israelitesgained favour. According to theirbelief, God is the King of theAryas alone; a king of the typewho is totally unaware of theexistence of others. And withoutrhyme or reason, it is believed thatGod had forever set His heart onthe Arya climate. Little does Hecare to visit other countries once ina while, to inquire about the stateof the miserable people livingthere whom He had once createdonly to forget them forever.

Dear friends! I appeal to you, inthe name of God, to considerwhether such views can really beentertained by human nature. Or ifany conscience could find room

for them within its bounds! I fail tounderstand what kind of logic it isthat on the one hand God isconceived to be the Lord of thewhole universe and, on the other, itis claimed that He has withdrawnHis hand of providence from alarge part of the world, and thatHis gaze remains fixed on aparticular people and one sectionof a particular country. O you whopossess wisdom! Please decidewith justice if, in the entire realmof physical laws created by God,there is a single piece of evidencein favour of this. Why then shouldHis spiritual laws be based on suchbiased attitudes?

If the faculty of reasoning isemployed, the good or evil ofanything becomes manifest fromthe fruit it bears. Needless for meto discuss the consequences ofabusing and reviling the holyProphets of God, who have beenseen and accepted by hundredsand millions of people; there arehardly a people who have notthemselves witnessed the outcomeof the bitter fruit of such practices.

O Dear Ones! Age-old experienceand repeated trials have estab-



lished, without question, that toinsult and abuse the Prophets andMessengers of different countriesand peoples is such a deadlypoison which not only destroys thebody but also kills the soul,thereby ruining the worldlyprospects as well as the spiritual.A country whose inhabitants arealways after finding faults in theleaders of others, and constantlyassassinate their characters, cannever rest in peace themselves.Such people can never achievetrue unity who, individually ormutually, refer to each other’sProphets or saints or divines withmalice or foul language. Whowould not be outraged at theinsults hurled at their Prophet orleader? In particular, Muslims aresuch people who, although they donot believe their Prophet to be Godor the son of God, do regardhim(saw) to be the most revered ofall the holy men born of a humanmother. To make peace with asincere Muslim is not possibleunless during discussion, theirHoly Prophet(saw) is mentionedwith respect and refined language.

As for us, we never use indecentlanguage with regard to the

Prophets of other peoples. In fact,we believe that for all the Prophetswho have come to differentpeoples of the world and havebeen accepted by millions ofpeople in all parts of the world,and love for them and theirgreatness has been firmlyestablished in any one part of theworld, and further that this state ofdevotion and love for them hasendured the test of time, isevidence enough of theirtruthfulness. Had they not beenfrom God, they could not havebeen accepted on such a widescale by millions upon millions ofhearts. God does not bestow suchhonour upon those whom Hefavours not. If an imposter aspiresto occupy their position, he is soonbrought to ruin.

By virtue of the same logic, webelieve the Vedas to be divine inorigin and we consider their saintsto be venerable and holy. We do sodespite our observation that Vedicteaching has not succeeded, norcould it ever succeed, in turningany section of its followers intotrue worshippers of God. Thepeople in this country whoworship idols, fire, the sun, the

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The Review of Religions – August 2010

Ganges, or thousands of deities, orwho are adherents of Jainism orthe Shakta faith, all claim theirreligion to originate from theVedas. The Vedas are so vague thatthey permit all sects to deducefrom them whatsoever they wish.However, in accordance with whatwe are taught by God, we believethat the original Vedas were notman’s fabrication. A humanfabrication lacks the power toestablish a lasting order. Althoughwe do not find any mention ofstone worship in the Vedas,without a doubt, Vedic teaching isfull of the mention of the worshipof fire, air, water, the moon, thesun, and so on. There is no versewhich prohibits the worship ofthese objects. Who is to say thatthe older sects of Hindus are falseand only the new sect of Aryas isthe true one? People who, byreferring to the Vedas, worshipthese objects, are armed with thepowerful argument that there isclear mention of such worship andnowhere is there any prohibition.To say that these are the names ofGod, is a claim which has not asyet been clearly settled. Had itbeen settled, what reason couldthere have been for the scholarly

pundits in Benares and other citiesto have rejected the beliefs of theAryas? Despite efforts over thepast thirty to thirty-five years, veryfew Hindus have accepted theArya faith and in comparison withthe Sanatan faith and other Hindusects, the followers of the Aryafaith number so few that they areinsignificant, nor do they have anyinfluence on the remaining Hindusects. Similarly, the teachings ofnyog, which is attributed to theVedas, is abhorrent to humandignity and the human sense ofhonour. As I have already stated,we cannot accept that it is agenuine Vedic teaching. In fact,our well-meaning intentions makeus strongly inclined to believe thatsuch teachings must have beenintroduced later from sensualmotives. Since thousands of yearshave passed since the originalcompilation of Vedas it is possiblethat in different times some scribesadded to or subtracted from it. Forus it is proof enough that the Aryafaith has had millions uponmillions of followers forthousands of years who have heldit to be the word of God. It is notpossible that the work of animposter could enjoy such honour.

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So when, despite all theseobstacles, purely out of fear ofGod, we accept the Vedas to bedivine revelation in its origin andassume all the false teachings to bethe work of scribes, whatjustification can there be for theHoly Qur’an to be made the targetof such brutal attacks? It is full ofinjunctions from cover to coverspeaking only of the worship ofone God. Nowhere does it requireman to worship the sun, the moonetc. In fact there are clearstatements to the contrary:

[And among His Signs are thenight and day and the sun andthe moon. Prostrate notyourselves before the sun, norbefore the moon, butprostrate yourselves beforeAllah, Who created, if it isHim Whom you reallyworship.Ch.41:V.38]

In other words, do not worship thesun, the moon, or any work ofcreation, but worship only Him,Who has created you. Apart fromthis, the Holy Qur’an is itself atestimony to God through its oldand new signs. It is a mirror which

shows God’s existence. Whyshould it be made the target ofsuch ferocious attacks? Why arewe not treated in the same spirit aswe treat the Aryas? And why is theseed of enmity and hatred sown inthe soil of this country? Do theyreally expect that the outcome ofsuch behaviour will be good? Is itdecent to hurl stones at one whooffers flowers or to splash urine onone who offers milk?

If Hindus and those belonging tothe Arya faith were prepared tomake a complete truce wherebythey accept our Prophet(saw) to be atrue Prophet of God and in futureagree to refrain from contempt andslander, then I am ready to be thefirst to sign the following treaty:

We, the members of theAhmadiyya Jama‘at, willtestify to the truth of the originof the Vedas, and will speak ofthe Vedas and their Rishis withrespect and love, and if we donot honour our part of thecontract, we will be liable topay a fine of not less than threehundred thousand rupees to theHindu community.

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If the Hindus genuinely desire toeffect a compromise with us, thenthey should also write it as adeclaration and sign it; its subjectmatter being as follows: Webelieve in the divine message andProphethood of HadhratMuhammad Mustafa Rasulullah(saw)

[the chosen one, the Messenger ofAllah] and deem him to be a trueProphet and Messenger. From nowon we will remember him withreverence and respect as befits abeliever. If this is not adhered to, alarge fine of not less than threehundred thousand rupees will bepaid to the leader of theAhmadiyya Jama‘at.

It should be remembered that atpresent, the Ahmadiyya Jama‘atnumbers not less than fourhundred thousand. Hence, thecollection of three hundredthousand rupees should not beconsidered too great a task forsuch an important cause. Themajority of people who are outsidethe fold of our Jama‘at aredisunited in their views and arediverse in their nature. They donot follow a leader, obedience towhom they would considerincumbent. This is why I cannot

undertake anything on theirbehalf; as yet they consider me tobe a kafir [imposter] and dajjal[dissembler or antichrist]. But Itrust that when the Hindus enterinto an agreement with me, they[the other Muslims] will also notbe so daring as to abuse the Bookand the Rishis of such a civilisedpeople and thereby invite theabuse of the Holy Prophet(saw) inretaliation. Such abuses will thenbe rightly blamed on those who actirresponsibly. As such action iscontrary to modest and virtuousbehaviour, I do not expect thatafter this treaty they would permittheir tongues to wag. It should bemandatory that to make thecontract binding, ten thousandadult representatives from bothparties should sign it.

My dear ones, there is nothing likepeace and compromise. Let usunite with the blessing of thistreaty and be one nation. Youknow full well that denial on bothsides has thrown us apart and thatour country is suffering greatly.Visualise how blessed it couldprove to testify to each other’struth. Come, give this a try now.This is the best course for

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achieving peace. Pursuing anyother course would be likeignoring a dangerous abscess:merely because it looks clear andshiny, while, in reality, it containsrotten and putrid matter.

I need not elaborate on the ever-increasing, mutually hypocriticalattitude and discord between theHindus and Muslims. This isrooted not in religious differencesalone, but has also secondarycauses which pertain to worldlyambitions. For instance, theHindus have always shown theirdesire to have more say in theaffairs of government and country.They have been demanding thatthey should, at the very least,always be consulted in such affairsand that the government shouldalways pay special attention totheir demands. They also desirethat they be posted at the higher-ranking offices as the British are.The Muslims made the blunder ofnot joining this campaign ofHindus out of fear that they weresmall in numbers. They wereafraid that whatever benefit was tobe had from such campaignswould be drawn by the majorityHindu community and not the

Muslims. So they not onlyabstained from joining this cause,but they also obstructed thepassage of Hindu efforts by openlyopposing it. Thus mutual enmityincreased.

I admit that such factorscontributed to furthering theenmity which had already existed.But I cannot accept them to be thereal reason. I beg to differ withthose who believe that religiousdisputes are not at the root ofHindu-Muslim enmity and dis-cord, and that the disputes are infact political in nature.

Everyone can easily understandwhy Muslims are reluctant to joinforces with Hindus in demandingtheir due rights and why they havebeen refusing to join Congress andwhy again, having perceived thesoundness of the Hindu strategy,they began to follow the same pathstep after step while maintaining adistinct and separate entity, takinggreat care not to be identified withthem. They did not join theHindus, but created a similar butseparate Muslim organisation.Dear Friends! I reassert that theunderlying factor responsible for

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this behaviour is religion, andnothing else. If today the sameHindus embrace the Muslimswhile pronouncing the KalimahTayyibah; [there is none worthy ofworship except Allah andMuhammad is His Messenger],then Muslims would cease tooppose them forthwith.Conversely, if Muslims renounceIslam and embrace Hinduism andstart worshipping fire, air, etc., inaccordance with the Vedicinjunctions, then those differenceswhich are labelled as political willsuddenly vanish as if they hadnever existed.

It is thus evident that theunderlying factors in all enmitiesand grudges are the religiousdifferences. It is such religiousdifferences which, since timesimmemorial, reach a climax andthen invariably give way toextensive bloodshed.

O Muslims, I say: If Hindus treatyou as a different nation merelybecause of religious differencesand you respond to them in thesame manner, the matter will notend here. How can you achieve asound, healthy relationship unless

you take appropriate remedialmeasures against this root cause?It is possible that you maytemporarily enjoy a friendship, butonly superficially. The ultimatesincerity of heart, worthy of beingcalled sincerity, can only beachieved if you genuinely changeyour attitude towards the Vedasand the Vedic Rishis by acceptingthem to be from God. Likewise,the Hindus should also changetheir niggardly attitude bytestifying to the truth of ourbeloved Holy Prophet(saw).Remember, and remember it well,that this is the only principlewhich can establish a genuinetruce between you and the Hindusand this is the only water whichcan wash away all maliceembittering your relationship. Ifthe hour has finally come whenthese two nations, who have for solong fallen apart, are destined to bereunited, then God will open uptheir hearts to this purpose as Hehas already opened up our heartsto the same.

It is essential, however, that youtreat Hindus with sincerity andkindness and let decent behaviourbe your second nature. Refrain

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from all such measures as wouldcause them pain, except those thatare essential or obligatoryaccording to our faith.Consequently if the Hindussincerely accept the proposition oftestifying to the truth of our HolyProphet(saw) and of having faith inhis truth, then what remainsregarding the split on the issue ofcows can be dispensed with.Remember if we are permitted toeat something, it does not followthat we have to eat it. Everythingpermissible is not obligatory.There are many things which weknow to be lawful yet we do notnecessarily practise them. To treatHindus with decency and kindnessis one of the important Islamicinjunctions. If for the sake ofachieving a higher goal oneforgoes a right, it will not beagainst the spirit of the Divine law.To consider something to belawful is one thing, to utilise it isanother. The spirit of pietyrequires that you abstain fromwhatever God has forbidden; toactually pursue the path of gainingHis favour and to have the welfareof His creation at heart; to treatothers with goodness andsympathy and to respect all the

holy Prophets and Messengersfrom God, and to accept them asreformers and to not discriminatebetween them; and to serve allmankind irrespective ofdenominations. This is theessential requirement of our faith.How can we ever be at peace withsuch people who – withoutjustification and without regard forthe fear of Allah – speak of ourHoly Prophet, HadhratMuhammad(saw) with disrespect,and abuse him and refrain notfrom the use of foul language? Intruth, I declare that it is possiblefor us to make peace with theserpents fed on brackish soil andthe wolves of the wilderness, butnot with those who make wantonattacks on our Holy Prophet(saw)

who is dearer to us than our lives,our mothers and our fathers. MayAllah cause us to die as Muslims.We are not willing to do anythingat the cost of our faith.

(The third and final part of AMessage of Peace will feature inthe next edition)


After reciting Tashahhud,T‘awwuz and Bismillah,Hudhur(aba) said:

“All our brothers; guests presenthere today – Assalamu ‘AlaikumWa Rahmatullahe Wa Barakatohu– peace and blessings of Allah beupon you all.

I have been asked by our NationalPresident, Abdullah WagishauserSahib, to say a few words beforeour German brothers, who are notof our community but have closerelations with the Jama’at or themembers of the Jama’at.

I will talk today about the wordpeace. Peace is one of those thingsthat the world has always searchedfor, and this is true in this age as

well. Both on an individual leveland national basis, people andgovernments of every country arealso in search of peace and aremaking every effort to attain it.

The poor think that the rich havepeace of mind and are content.Upon closer analysis, however, wesee that the rich are just as restlessand distressed; and whosoever isrestless and distressed cannot bedeemed to be in a peaceful state.On a national basis, the same istrue for the underdeveloped,developing and developed coun-tries.

Because of the modern modes oftransport and the media, the worldtoday has become a global village,and so this lack of peace can be

Means of Peace Address delivered by Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(aba),Khalifatul Masih V, Head of the Worldwide AhmadiyyaMuslim community to German guests on the second day ofJalsa Salana Germany (Annual Convention) on 26 June 2010in Mannheim, Germany

openly seen in every part of theworld.

In some places the economic crisishas caused distress; althoughperhaps not in a state of famine,but the absence of the latest meansfor the ease of life and capitalgoods for comfort in the worldtoday are causing restlessness. Inthe rich countries, although thereis no famine, no drought and nolack of food, the means of life, ofeasy life, are lacking for quite anumber of people do not havethese means. When variousequipments and facilities areadvertised in the media it furtherincites the desire of the people.This not only causes restlessnessamong the poor, but also causesrestlessness in the middle classesof the more affluent or well to docountries. This anxiety results inrestlessness, and this restlessnessaffects peace at home.

Here in Germany a survey hasshown that even though strictdivorce laws exist, divorces are onthe increase. One cause of this is –as the self-survey shows –unemployment and non-fulfilmentof material desires. I feel this is

quite right an observation.Moreover, rows betweenpoliticians and people running thegovernments also result inrestlessness in a country.

In the race to create different blocsin the world, various governmentstry to make aid agreements withother countries that affect theeconomy of their own countries,and this causes restlessnessamongst the common public andthen destroys peace. Examples canbe seen amongst the people of thedeveloped countries, and Germanyis by no means exempt from this.

In today’s world the market slumpand financial crisis has causedanxiety amongst the commonpeople and has destroyed thepeace of governments as well.

In short, from the domestic tonational and international level astate of restlessness prevails andeveryone wants to escape from it.

Their restlessness at heart is notonly due to the economic crisis,but even many well-off people arein reality victims of this anxiety.Even though they have all the

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worldly means for comfort, theycannot attain peace in their hearts.

In this short time I cannot saymuch but express a few words onthis state of affairs.

External tension and the desire forpeace, and anxiety within and thedesire for peace can be seen inevery place and at every level. So,neither internal peace is prevailingamong the people nor is externalpeace. Either the world should tryand strive for external peace sothat the people can come out ofthat state of anxiety and tensionand make their lives peaceful, orthe world should try and strive forinternal peace so that the peoplecan come out of that state andmake their lives peaceful.

But how can such peace beattained?

Despite the majority of the worldharbouring a desire for peace andwanting comfort, this is onequestion for which the world doesnot want to hear its solution. Or ifthe people want to attain thesolution and live in comfort, theyare not ready to follow the way

that can lead to its attainment –this way is just as easy as it isdifficult, and this principle and thesolution are mentioned in the HolyQur’an by the Creator of thisworld. The Qur’an says:

…it is in the remembranceof Allah that hearts can findcomfort.(Ch.13:V.29)

Mankind today is far-removed andnegligent of the remembrance ofGod in the true sense. Some denythe existence of God altogether.This is why they do not wish topay any attention to it.

Others think that religion is thecause of restlessness in the world.Although they believe in theexistence of the Creator of thisworld, but due to a lack ofunderstanding of true religiousteachings, or due to the incorrectinterpretation by those who havethe knowledge of religion and arethought to be scholars, they hold(these people who are againstreligion hold) religion responsiblefor the disorder and the problemsthat have arisen in the world, andalso for causing the gulf amongst

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the religions to widen. This hascaused a group to becomedisinterested with religion andfaith.

If we reflect, then it becomesmanifestly clear that if the worldand the Creator of the world areone, and He has created allmankind, and if all religions havecome from Him, then the apparentrestlessness and anxiety amongpeople should not exist.

In reality there is not a wideninggap. Prophets were sent to allnations; some of them told usabout the prophets that wouldfollow, and some told us about afinal prophet at whose hand theworld would unite so that nodifference amongst religionsshould remain.

According to our belief, this lastprophet was the Holy ProphetMuhammad, peace and blessingsof Allah be upon him; but he wasnot taught to use force to convertwhosoever did not believe in him.In fact, the full verse of the HolyQur’an is as follows:

There should be no compul-

sion in religion. Surely, righthas become distinct fromwrong; so whosoever refusesto be led by those whotransgress, and believes inAllah, has surely grasped astrong handle which knowsno breaking. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.(Ch.2:V.257)

Therefore, it is clear thataccording to the prophecies of thepast prophets, this prophet has alsocome from that same God Whosent prophets before in the world.He came so the world should uniteand become one people and so thatpeace in the world could beguaranteed.

However, this verse clearly statesthat if someone does not acceptthis, then remember that ‘thereshould be no compulsion inreligion’.

And this practice was followed bythe Holy Prophet, peace andblessings of Allah be upon him,his rightly guided Successors andthose Muslims who had religiousknowledge, or I should say rather,true religious knowledge and did

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good works. They only took up thesword when cruelties hadexceeded all limits and then onlywhen, as a last resort, war wasforced upon them.

If we examine this teaching to notuse force, we find that it does notstop here, but it further adds thatyou should explain to theoppressor, who in the name ofreligion is being cruel to you, thatyou and we are after all thecreation of God. The Prophet andBook which you believe in arealso from God. And the religion,Prophet and Book in which webelieve in are also from that sameGod. If you are mistaken inunderstanding the message of Godaccording to your book, then allright, do not accept this lastProphet, but by sticking to thispoint do not destroy the peace ofthe world. Come to create anatmosphere of love and affection.Let us gather on the values weshare. And the ultimate commonvalue is the Entity of GodAlmighty. God Almighty says inthe Holy Qur’an:

Say, ‘O People of the Book!Come to a word equal

between us and you – that weworship none but Allah, andthat we associate no partnerwith Him, and that some of ustake not others for Lordsbeside Allah.’ But if they turnaway, then say, ‘Bear witnessthat we have submitted toGod.’(Ch.3:V.65)

This teaching is such that itremoves malice and hatred in theheart. In fact, this feeling willemerge forcefully that despitedifferences of religion, we are thecreation of One Creator and Lord.So to win the pleasure of theCreator, live as one by removingall religious differences andputting human values foremost, sothat we can become united againstthat devil who wants to destroy thepeace of the world.

Today, another factor playing amajor role in destroying the peaceof the world is that some peoplethink that because they areintelligent, well-educated andliberated they are free to ridiculefounders of religions and theythink there is no harm in makingany kind of fun and mockery

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against them. This is not freedom,but, in the name of freedom, this isan ugly stain on the face ofhumanity. This is similar todestroying human values. This isan unsuccessful effort to removethe restlessness and anxiety inone’s heart and it is like playingwith someone’s dignity.

When even if the most shamelessperson reacts against these actions,it is obvious that he will react inthe wrong way to take revenge.This is an attempt to cause harmand loss, and then new avenues ofdisorder are opened.

I believe that the Muslims of todaywho do not have proper leadershipand who adopt a wrong attitude atcertain times do so as a directresult of this incitement. And thatgroup which wants to serve itsown vested interest is exploitingthis for its benefit.

One may well wonder that if peacecan be attained by belief in theHoly Prophet, peace and blessingsof Allah be upon him, then why isthere a lack of peace amongstMuslims or the Muslim groups?As I have said previously that

following the time of the HolyProphet, peace and blessings ofGod be upon him, peace prevailedas long as Muslims followed thetrue teachings of Islam andmaintained an earnest desire forpeace.

Secondly, after the demise of theHoly Prophet, peace and blessingsof Allah be upon him, evils beganto take root with the passage oftime. This is something that hasoccurred in every religion and thesame happened with Islam. Self-serving causes and scholars led theMuslims astray by exploitingthem, but Islam did not rest itscase there. The law and customs ofthe world follow the laws ofnature.

The Holy Prophet, peace andblessings of Allah be upon him,had foretold about this state of theMuslims. He had also prescribedthe remedy; that in suchcircumstances, at such time, aPromised Messiah and Reformerwill appear in my people who willgather Muslims and will work onremoving their evils. The Muslimswho gather at his hand, and eventhose non-Muslims who gather at

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his hand, will follow thoseteachings which are the realteachings of Islam and whichguarantee peace in the world. The120 years history of theAhmadiyya Muslim communitybears testimony to this; as acommunity we always try toestablish peace in the world.

Very recently a massacre occurredat the Ahmadiyya Mosques inLahore in which 86 Ahmadis weremartyred and many were injured.In keeping with the true teachingsof Islam, we have not come outonto the streets in protest, eventhough Ahmadis come from thesame people of Pakistan who takeup arms on petty matters and whomarch on roads in violent protestand destroy national assets.However, having understood thetrue teachings of our faith enabledus to react with patience andtolerance and to live within thelimits of the law.

So long as the guidance in theform of Khilafat remains in theAhmadiyya community, nodisorderly reaction will ever bedisplayed. We believe that the Godwho has fulfilled the promise of

Khilafat will also fulfil thepromise that peace in the worldwill only be established throughKhilafat. You may consider thisthe wishful thinking of a religiousleader, but I say with firmconviction that the world will seethis fulfilled one day, InshaAllah(God Willing).

Therefore, as I said before,external and internal peace are thetwo most important matters ofwhich the world is in search, butexternal peace cannot beestablished until there is peacewithin. So, if we want to make theworld an abode of peace, then youshould look for the ways toestablish peace within your heart.When man makes internal peacethe means of acquiring externalpeace, then irrespective ofreligion, creed or colour, everyperson will have feelings ofsympathy for all others, as withoutthis, peace cannot be established.

Man generally desires peace forhimself but not for his opponents.A man desires peace for himself,and that he should remain freefrom economic problems, and thathis wife and children should be

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able to live in peace and that hiscountry should not face any kindof disorder, crisis, restlessness orwar, but he will not have thesedesires for his opponents. In fact,he will not desire this for anyoneelse to the extent he desires it forhimself. As I have said before, thisis all because of the fact that manhas become far-removed from hisCreator.

When the belief is established thatthere is an Omnipotent HigherAuthority, Who is above us andWho is the Creator of whatever isin the heaven and the earth, andWho is watching every action, andthat Supreme Being desires thatpeace should not be established forany particular individual – Ishould make it clear again – thatSupreme Being desires that peaceshould not be established for anyparticular individual, but, in fact,desires that it will spreadthroughout the world. ThatSupreme Being does not wantpeace for any specific country, butdesires it for all countries of theworld.

So one should broaden one’s mindfor the sake of the Creator of the

entire Creation, just as for himself;until this way of thinking andbelief is established, peace cannotbe secured for the world.

It is clear that the battles anddisorder that prevail in the worldare all due to the bad intentions ofpeople. To establish peace in theworld, the League of Nations wascreated, but due to some ill-intentions, after only twenty yearsthe world was engulfed in anotherWorld War.

Then there is the United Nations(UNO), a body whose ill-intentions became obvious fromits outset when it allocated a vetopower to certain superpowers. Thesuperpowers adopted certainprinciples for themselves anddifferent ones for other weakercountries. Can peace beestablished in this way?

Furthermore, Islam teaches us thatif one country wrongly attacksanother, then other neighbouringcountries should try to make peacebetween them with equity. Do notexceed the limits to punish thecruel after ending the war.

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Means of Peace


Only a peace treaty andappropriate punishment shouldoccur but never to the extent thatmany are deprived of their rights;for example, by usurping theirland and taking over theirresources. Such acts willundoubtedly create a reaction thatwill destroy peace – the Germanpeople are well-aware of this fact.

Therefore, whenever worldlypeople who are far-removed fromGod prescribe rules andregulations, there will certainly besome flaws in them.

If, according to the commandment‘choosing for others what youchoose for yourself’ is notproperly practised, realbrotherhood and peace cannot bedone. It can only be made when,instead of moving away from theOne God, we try to attain thenearness of God Almighty.

We, Ahmadi Muslims, sincerelybelieve and spread this messagethat true peace cannot beestablished without believing inthe One God.

In our prayers, when we regularly

proclaim that all praise belongs toGod, Who is Lord of all the Worlds,it means that He is the Sustainer ofwhatever is in the Heavens and theEarth. He is such a PraiseworthyGod Who takes care of theChristians. He is the One Whotakes care of the Jews and He is theOne Who takes care of the Muslimsand He also takes care of otherreligions. In the same way He takescare of Asians; He takes care ofAfricans; He takes care of theEuropeans and also those whodwell on the Islands.

When it becomes our way ofthinking that our relations with allcountries is based on ourrelationship with God Almighty,then we will find the Glory of Godin every creature. And thencertainly one can bear no enmity orhostility against anyone else. Onewill not bear any malice in his heartfor any nation or person, because itis not possible that, on the onehand, a person worships the OneGod, and on the other, he bearshatred and grudges in his heart.This is the true internal, beautifulpeace that when established in ourhearts guarantees every kind ofexternal peace.

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Means of Peace


Therefore, to blame religion to bethe root of restlessness anddisorder, without rhyme or reason,is an allegation raised against Goddue to a misunderstanding ofGod’s message.

The subject of peace is so vast thatone cannot do justice to it in sucha short time. I have only indicateda few hints in the hope and prayerthat you will ponder over it. The

Ahmadiyya Muslim community istrying to spread human values andthe existence of God all over theworld.

I am most thankful to all of youwho have spared your precioustime and who came here to attendthis function.

Thank you very much.”

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Means of Peace


NOTE FOR THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONSVerse references to the Holy Qur’an item count ‘Bismillah...’ (In the Name of Allah...)as the first verse of each Chapter. In some non-standard texts, this is not counted.Should the reader refer to such texts, the verse quoted in The Review of Religions willbe found a verse earlier, i.e. at one verse less than the number quoted in this journal.

For the ease of non-Muslim readers, ‘(saw)’ or ‘saw’ after the words, ‘Holy Prophet’,or the name ‘Muhammad’, are used normally in small letters. They stand for ‘Sallallahu‘alaihi wa sallam’ meaning ‘peace and blessings of Allah be upon him’. Likewise, theletters ‘(as)’ or ‘as’ after the name of all other prophets is an abbreviation meaning‘peace be upon him’ derived from ‘Alaihis salatu wassalam’ which are words that aMuslim utters out of respect whenever he or she comes across that name. Theabbreviation ‘ra’ or (ra) stands for ‘Radhiallahu Ta’ala anhu and is used forCompanions of a Prophet, meaning Allah be pleased with him or her (when followedby the relevant Arabic pronoun). Finally, ‘ru’ or (ru) for Rahemahullahu Ta’ala meansthe Mercy of Allah the Exalted be upon him.

In keeping with current universal practice, local transliterations of names of places arepreferred to their anglicised versions, e.g. Makkah instead of Mecca, etc.

www.review of religions.org

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Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), the Promised Messiah and ImamMahdi and Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim communityannounced in his book Jesus in India that Jesus(as) had been deliveredof death upon the cross; departed from Judea in search of the LostTribes of Israel and eventually died a natural death in Kashmir. Inorder to draw the attention of the West to this unique research, theAhmadiyya Community United Kingdom, under the auspices ofHadhrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad(ru), Khalifatul Masih III, Third Head ofthe Worlwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, organised anInternational Conference on ‘Deliverance of Jesus from the Cross’held at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street,Kensington, London on 2nd, 3rd and 4th June 1978. Leading up toit, the conference aroused tremendous interest in religious circlesaround the world and received great publicity through variousmedia outlets. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih III(ru) was the chief speakerand arrived from Pakistan especially to attend the conference, whichbegan with an address of welcome by Mr B.A Rafiq, then Imam of

Truth About the Crucifixion

Hadhrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad(ru), Khalifatul Masih III, Third Head of theWorldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community

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the Fazl Mosque (first Mosque in London) and an opening addressby Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan(ru). A panel of experts and scholarsfrom around the world addressed the conference and presented theirresearch and delegates as far off as Mauritius, Indonesia and USAwere also present. We present below the transcript of the keynoteaddress by Hadhrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad(ru), Khalifatul Masih III.This address was originally split into two parts as HadhratKhalifatul Masih III(ru) spoke at the conference at two differenttimes. For the benefit of our readers we have merged the two partsof the address into one.

In the name of Allah, MostGracious, Ever Merciful

We praise Him and call downblessings on His noble Messengerand on His servant, the PromisedMessiah. All worthiness of perfectPraise belongs to Allah alone Whois One and Peerless.

The scope of this conference isvery wide and it has manyramifications. You have heardseveral expositions of the mainproblem from diverse angles. Ishall confine myself to drawingyour attention to some funda-mental considerations that shouldenable you to view the wholematter in its proper perspective,and to arrive at the rightconclusion.

The Unity of God is the basicreality of the universe. God isOne and has no associate.Nothing and no one is like untoHim. He is Unique in His beingand His attributes. No being islike unto His being, nor are thequalities of anything like untoHis attributes. In His being, aswell as in His attributes, He isEternal and Ever-Existing andUnchangeable. His knowledgeencompasses all that is manifestand all that is hidden. He knowsthe overt and the covert ofeverything. His knowledge isinherent in Him and is not be -stowed by, or derived from, anyteacher, and is without limit;while the knowledge of manrequires a teacher and is limited.

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God is One and without associate.He has no son and no consort. Hemanifests Himself to His righteousservants in visions, but He hasneither shape nor form.

God possesses all perfect attributesand manifests all praise worthyqualities. He is the Source of allgood and comprehends all Power.He is the Creator of everything andis the Master of all. All graceproceeds from Him and Hedetermines everything. He has apersonal relationship with every-thing. All life is derived from Himand is maintained by Him. Hepossesses every perfection and isfree from every defect, default andweakness. He alone is worthy ofworship by all who are on the earthand in heaven.

Man cannot determine the purposeof his life on his own, inas much ashe did not come into this world ofhis own will, nor will he departfrom it by his own choice. He Whohas created man can alone informhim of the purpose for which hehas been created. He has revealedin the Holy Qur’an:

I have created men, high andlow, that they may wor shipMe. (Ch.51:V.57)

Man has been called upon toworship God not by compulsionbut of his own volition. To enablehim to do so God has bestowedupon him two basic faculties. One,he has been bestowed the facultywhereby he can suppress his lowdesires and safeguard himselfagainst sin. Secondly, he has beenbestowed the faculty whereby hecan arrive at a stage in the love ofGod Almighty, in which he whollyforgets all that is beside God. Forthe direction of these two facultiesGod has provided man withheavenly guidance and law.

The Christians subscribe to thedoctrine that God so loved theworld that, to bestow salvationupon man, He placed the burden ofthe sins of the whole of mankindupon His son Jesus, and made himaccursed by bringing about hisdeath upon the cross. Accord ing tosome, Jesus(as) passed three daysand three nights in hell, asatonement for the sins of mankind,and was then restored to life, and

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thus provided the means ofsalvation for those who mightbelieve in him. In this way thesupposed conflict between theDivine attribute of Justice, whichdemanded punishment, and theDivine attribute of Mercy, whichdemanded forgiveness, wasresolved.

Islam considers that this designoffends against reason, and isunacceptable from every point ofview. Looked at from the point ofview of justice, it is clearly unjustthat an innocent one should bepunished for the sins of the guilty.From the point of view of spiritualphilosophy, sin means rebellionagainst God and His command-ments and thus becoming bereft of

His love. How can man winthrough to the obedience and loveof God, by depriving God, the son,of the obedience and love of God,the Father?

Islam teaches that in order to findGod, it is necessary for a person todiscard all vice, and this can beachieved only through suchrecognition of God Almighty asfills the heart with the realisa tion ofGod’s Majesty and Greatness, andinstils His fear in the human soul.To win the love of God it isnecessary to love Him to a degreethat entails losing oneselfaltogether in Him, and gaining anew and pure life from Him.

As the highest excellence of man is

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the winning of Divine love, whichis testified to by the witness ofmillions of the righteous, it followsthat the true purpose of human lifeis the winning of God’s love andnearness to Him. Islam teaches thatperfect recognition of God is theroot of fear, and love, andappreciation of Him. He who isbestowed perfect recognition, isalso bestowed perfect fear andperfect love.

Man’s true love of God attracts thelove of God and the true lover ofGod, who is wholly devoted toGod, in turn becomes the belovedof God. Such true and perfect lovecannot subsist along with thewrath of God and the fire of hell.One of the signs of such perfect

love is that such a lover deems thedisobedience of his Beloved, andHis displeasure, a poison, and isall the time appre hensive lest, inconsequence of any sin ordisobedience on his part, hisBeloved should cut asunder fromhim.

Thus he who is bestowed perfectfear and perfect love is safe -guarded against all sin, inasmuchas sin proceeds from fearlessnessor daring. This is true salvation,and for such salvation we do notstand in need of any blood or anycrucifixion, nor do we need anyatonement. All that we need is thesacrifice of the ego. This de mandsthat the nurture and developmentof our natural faculties, should be

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carried out under the guidance ofthe One True God, Who is also theCreator of our nature.

God is the source of all beauty andall light. His benevolence is sovast that His favours and bountiesare without number. Such beautyand benevolence impress uponevery heart the truth that all perfectdelight is to be found in God, andthat to be cast away from Him isruinous hell. Thus it is animpossibility that true recognitionand disobedience should findroom in a human heart at the sametime.

Salvation does not mean merelydeliverance from the punishmentof sin. Salvation means theachievement of that eternalprosperity after which humannature thirsts, and which can beacquired only through truerecognition of God, perfect fearand perfect love, and theestablishment of a true and strongrelationship with God.

Reflection upon the meaning ofjustice and mercy reveals thatthere is no conflict between them.Justice means that the rights of

people should be safeguarded andthat if one person trespassesagainst another, the one who iswronged should be restored hisright specifically, and if thatshould not be possible, he shouldbe justly compensated, and that thetrespasser should be duly chastisedso that order is maintained andwrongdoing is suppressed.

Justice comes into play as a resultof reason and regulation. Theconcept of Justice also involves theconcept of law. It is Divine law thatestablishes rights between people.He who con travenes Divine lawdeparts from justice and becomesguilty of sin in Divine estimation.

The punishment of an offender byGod Almighty in the here after isnot a right the enforcement ofwhich can be demanded by thewronged person. If God Almightyshould forgive one who hascommitted a wrong against hisbrother and should compensate thewronged one richly in contrastwith earthly values, it cannot bereasonably said that the demandsof justice cannot be met unless theoffender is cast into hell.

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The truth is that God Almighty, outof His limitless mercy, bestowedHis law and guidance upon nationswithout any right on their side, inorder to provide for their welfare.Out of such mercy, divine lawregulated their relationship witheach other on the basis of justice.Thus justice is in effect aconsequence of Divine mercy, andthis fountain of human welfareflows out of that source. Had therebeen no mercy, no guidance, norevealed law and no rights hadbeen established between men,there would have been no con ceptof trespass or of justice.

Thus the doctrine that Divinejustice cannot be fulfilled withoutatonement is meaningless, and it isa fallacy that justice and mercycannot be combined in the DivineBeing, inasmuch as justice de -mands punishment and mercydemands forgiveness and forbear -ance. As we have just indicated,Divine justice is also an aspect ofDivine mercy, for it has beeninstituted for the benefit of man.The Divine law which gives rise tothe concept of justice establishesreciprocal rights between people,and all these rights have been

instituted by God Almighty so thatorder may be maintained and onegroup should not create disorderby trespassing against anothergroup. All the rights and penaltiesthat relate to life, property andhonour are a manifestation ofmercy for mankind. The Gospelsdo not affirm that theft,embezzlement, robbery, murderand false witness become per-missible in consequence of theatonement of Jesus(as), and that thepenalties prescribed, therefore, areremitted. Every offence carries itsown penalty, which is stillenforced by the Christian courts.

The belief that God, of His infinitemercy, can bestow un limitedreward upon man in respect of hislimited righteous action, negatesaltogether the notion of anyonebecoming accursed for thepurpose of securing man’ssalvation.

The Unity of God has beenrepeatedly proclaimed in theBible. Prophet after prophet wasraised to establish the Unity of theDivine. Not a single prophet inIsrael announced that God had anyassociate.

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In the idiom of the Bible men haveoften been called gods or sons ofGod. If Jesus(as) has been called theson of God, he occupies no higherstatus than those who were alsocalled sons of God.

God is the Light of the heavens andthe earth. He is Self-Existing, andeverything else exists only withHis support. If His support were tobe withdrawn for a second, theuniverse would be totally upset.This Mighty Being, Who possessesevery good attri bute and is freefrom every defect, weakness andfault, can neither suffer death, norbe killed, nor be crucified.

The Holy Qur’an has affirmed thetruth by pronouncing that Jesus(as)

was delivered from death on thecross, and was safeguarded againstan accursed death. The Gospelsalso bear witness to this truth,inasmuch as Jesus(as) had describedhis resemblance to Jonah, andevery Christian knows that Jonahhad not died in the belly of thewhale. If Jesus(as) lay dead in thesepulchre, what resemblance wasthere between him and Jonah?

It is also well known that after his

deliverance from the cross, Jesus(as)

exhibited his wounds to thedisciples. If he had been bestoweda new life of glory, how is it thatthe wounds of his earthly life werevisible on his glorious body?

These are myths on which thedoctrine of the godhead of Jesus(as)

had been constructed. But the timeis coming, indeed it has arrived,when God Almighty will blowaway all these myths like minuteparticles.

Jesus(as) was a Divine Messengerand was a favoured and holy man.It is the height of injustice toconceive, even for a moment, thatsuch a chosen one was hangedupon the cross and, dying on it,became accursed. The favouredservants of God Almighty and Hisbeloved Messengers, who losethemselves in their love for Godand, out of that love, discard thismortal life, and are invested with anew and holy life, are bestowed theblessing that they are able to purifyothers from the stain ofaccursedness, and cannot becomeaccursed themselves. They may benailed to the cross, but if death bycrucifixion is truly an accursed

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death, it becomes necessary thatsuch chosen servants of Godshould be delivered from such adeath, and should be safeguardedagainst its stain.

In Arabic and Hebrew the conceptof curse is related to the heart, anda person can be called accursedonly if in truth his heart turns awayfrom God, and becomes black, andis bereft of God’s mercy, and isdeprived altogether of the love ofGod and is emptied of allrecognition of God and, becomingblind and bereft like Satan, is filledwith the poison of misguidance,and retains not a ray of the light ofthe love and recognition of God,and cuts asunder from allrelationship with God, and is filledwith rancour and hatred anddisgust and enmity towards God,so that God becomes his enemyand is disgusted with him, and heis disgusted with God. It is thusclear that the concept of curse is sovicious and unholy, that it cannotapply to any righteous one whoentertains the love of God in hisheart. The Christians could nothave reflected on the meaning ofbecoming accursed, at the time ofinventing this doctrine, for if they

had done so, it is not possible thatthey should have used thisexpression for a righteous one likeJesus(as). Can it be said that at anytime the heart of Jesus(as) had, intruth, turned away from God, andhad denied God, and was disgustedwith God, and had become theenemy of God? Can we imaginethat the heart of Jesus(as) ever feltthat it had turned away from God,and had become the enemy ofGod, and was plunged into thedarkness of disbelief and denial?Such a concept is not onlyinconsistent with the station ofprophethood and messengership ofJesus(as), but is also inconsistentwith his claim of excellence andholiness, and love, and recognitionof the Divine mentionedrepeatedly in the Gospels.

A study of the Gospels reveals thatJesus(as) affirmed that he was thelight of the world, was a guide, andhad an exalted relationship of lovewith God, and had been bestoweda holy birth by God, and was Hisbeloved ‘son’. Then how can theunholy concept of curse be appliedto the heart of Jesus(as), in view ofhis permanent and holy relation-ship with God? It is thus proved

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without a doubt that Jesus(as) didnot die on the cross, inasmuch ashe was safeguarded from theconsequences of death upon thecross. As he did not die on thecross, his heart was fully securedagainst the unholy condition ofbecoming accursed. That being so,there was no resurrection, and nobodily ascent to heaven, as theseare links of the same vicious chain.

The Gospels reveal several otherfactors which refute the notion thatJesus(as) ascended bodily toheaven. It is not necessary to setthem out in detail on this occasion.It is well-known that Pontius Pilateheld Jesus(as) guiltless, his wife waswarned in her dream that Jesus(as)

should not be put to trouble, he soarranged that Jesus(as) was not putupon the cross till the afternoon ofFriday, a few hours before sunset;the onset of a storm and the spreadof darkness necessitated theremoval of Jesus(as) from the crosseven ahead of sunset, his boneswere not broken. In these circum -stances, a healthy young man of 33years, of strong physique and goodhabits, could not have succumbedwithin so short a time. He didbecome unconscious, and was

taken down from the cross in thatcondition; his wounds were treatedwith an ointment that the discipleshad already prepared in view ofDivine prophecies, and which hassince been known as the Ointmentof Jesus(as). His body was wrappedin a linen cloth fourteen feet andthree inches long, and four feetand seven inches wide and waslaid in a spacious rock-hewnchamber. He was so ministeredunto that, despite having under-gone severe physical suffering,and his still fresh wounds, he wassoon able to go about his normallife.

It is worthy of note that theOintment of Jesus(as) is not men -tioned in any of the books ofmedicine that were compiledbefore the event of the crucifixion,but it is mentioned in more than athousand authoritative medicalbooks, compiled after the event ofthe crucifixion with theexplanation that it had beenprepared for Jesus(as). The authorsof these books belong to allreligious denominations. Millionsof people have had access to thesebooks and the world ofChristianity has known of this

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ointment over the centuries andhas made use of it, and is thus asilent witness that this ointmentwas prepared for use on the bodyof Jesus(as).

The disciples of Jesus(as) bearwitness that a few days after theevent of the crucifixion theybeheld, on the physical body ofJesus(as), the marks of the woundsand injuries that had been inflictedupon him in the course of theprocess of crucifixion. Theybeheld only the physical body ofJesus, and did not observe anyglorified manifestation.

There is the evidence of thedisciples that Jesus(as) travelled intheir company for a few miles onhis way to Galilee, and that, attheir request, he passed a nightwith them at Emmaus.

The disciples bear witness thatJesus(as) was at that time hungry,and asked them for food, and wasgiven broiled fish and ahoneycomb to eat. This alsoconfirms that he was then in hisphysical body, and had notdiscarded it for a spiritual, or aglorified, manifestation.

All this shows that Jesus(as)

comported himself, after theevent of the crucifixion, all thetime, according to the require-ments of a physical, materialbody, eating, drinking, sleepingand travelling, which activitiesare utterly inconsistent with hishaving discarded his physicalbody, and having assumed aglorified spiritual mani festation.It is worthy of reflection how,having been invested with aglorious and immortal body, freefrom the needs of a mortal body,with which he was to sit on theright hand of God Almighty, andwhich was free from every stain,pain or defect, and was illuminedwith eternal Divine glory, he stillbore the marks of his injuries andsuffered pain and was subject toall the needs and requirements towhich a physical body is subject.

It is thus obvious that Jesus(as) didnot die upon the cross, nor was heinvested with a new gloriousbody but had become un -conscious on the cross and hadthe appearance of one who haddied.

The reported affirmation of

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Jesus(as): “But after I am risenagain, I will go before you intoGalilee” (Matthew 26:32), does notcast any doubt on his deliverancefrom the cross. It is no wonder thata person who was nailed to thecross and had become un consciousso that he appeared to be dead,should, after regainingconsciousness, feel that he hadrisen again. In this context, theexpression “risen again” cannotmean coming back to life aftersuffering death. There is no doubt,however, that the deliverance ofJesus(as), in all the circumstances ofhis crucifixion, was a great miracleand was not a normal event.

The Holy Qur’an affirms thatneither the Jews, nor the Christians,had a firm belief that Jesus had diedon the cross. God Almighty hadcreated circum-stances at the timeof the cruci fixion, wherefrom theJews and the Christians assumedthat Jesus(as) had died on the cross,but they had no clear proofavailable to satisfy them thatJesus(as) had died on the cross forcertain. The evidence that has nowbecome available establishes thatGod Almighty had deliveredJesus(as) from death on the cross.

God Almighty has caused theproofs and the reasons which hadremained hidden, to be manifestedin the days of the PromisedMessiah, whereby it has beenestablished, as clearly as the brightday, that Jesus did not die on thecross and that the loved one of Godwas spiritually exalted. In thiscontext the following pronounce-ment of the Promised Messiah(as)

has great significance:

‘It was God’s design that theshining weapon, and the truth-disclosing reasoning, thatshould put an end to thedoctrine of the cross, should bemade manifest to the world bythe Promised Messiah,inasmuch as the HolyProphet(saw) had prophesied thatthe religion of the cross wouldnot enter upon its decline, norwould its progress berestrained, till the PromisedMessiah appears in the world.It is he who would achieve thebreaking of the cross. Thisprophecy indicated that underGod’s design, in the time of thePromised Messiah, meanswould become availablewhereby the reality of the event

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of the crucifixion wouldbecome manifest. That will bethe end of this doctrine. It willnot be brought about throughwar or fighting, but throughheavenly means which will bemade manifest in the shape ofknowledge and reason. It was,therefore, necessary thatheaven should hold back thisevidence and these decisiveproofs, till the PromisedMessiah should appear in theworld. So it has come about.Now that the Promised one hasappeared, all eyes will openand people will reflect; for,God’s Messiah having come,minds will now be illuminedand hearts will pay attention,and pens will gain strength, andloins will be girded up. Nowevery fortunate one will bebestowed intelligence, andevery right-thinking one will bebestowed wisdom, inasmuch asthat which shines in heavenalso illumines the earth.Blessed are those who partakeof this light and fortunate is theone who is bestowed a portionof it.’ (Jesus in India, pp.64-65).

It is necessary to point out that theHoly Shroud of Turin possesses noparticular significance in theestimation of the mem bers of theAhmadiyya Movement. It is truethat this linen cloth has beenpreserved in the Christian world,with great care and reverence,through centuries. It is eithergenuine, that is to say, it is the verylinen cloth in which the body ofJesus(as) was wrapped-up, after ithad been treated with the Ointmentof Jesus(as), or it is a fabrication. Itis for the Christian world todetermine, after careful investi-gation and research, whether it isgenuine or not. If it is not genuine,why has it been given so muchimportance and why has it beenheld in such great honour? If it isgenuine, the evidence that itfurnishes, in support of theremoval of the body of Jesus(as)

from the cross while he was stillalive, is not in itself fundamentaland indispensible. It is merelycorroborative. Even if this genuinepiece of linen cloth had been lost,its loss would not have detracted inthe very least from the very impor -tant and plentiful evidence whichestablishes that, after his deli -verance from the cross and his

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restoration to health, Jesus(as)

continued his ministry for a longtime among the lost tribes of Israel.The tribes believed in him and itwas the result of his teaching thatwhen they came to know of theadvent of the Holy Prophet ofIslam(saw), they were able torecognise his truth and becameMus lims.

Thus the Holy Shroud has not thecharacter of the missing link, in thechain of evidence in support of thedeliverance of Jesus(as) from thecross. If the shroud is a fabrication,the Christians are responsible foraccording undeserved reverence toit. If it is genuine, it is additionalevidence in support of our thesis,and adds to our knowledge on thesubject. But if it is not genuine, itdoes not in any way detract fromthe knowledge that we possess.

The Divine purpose of the raisingof a prophet is that the peopleamong whom the prophet is raisedmay be delivered from their viciouslife, and by acting upon theguidance furnished through theprophet, should advance towardsthe One True God and win Hislove. Jesus(as) was raised among the

children of Israel. It is a historicalfact that only a portion of twotribes of Israel dwelt in Palestine atthe time of the advent of Jesus(as).

Ten of the twelve tribes had,through various causes, beendispersed through Iraq, Iran,Afghanistan, India and Kashmir.Large Jewish settlements had beenestablished in Kashmir, and theywere “lost” not only because theyhad been cut off from their originalhome, but they were also “lost” inthe sense that they had beenweaned away from the law ofMoses(as), and many of them hadbecome Buddhists, or idol-worshipping Hindus.

One of the two principal purposesof the advent of Jesus(as) was, thathe should re-establish these lostsheep of the house of Israel on thetrue teachings of the law ofMoses(as), and should win backthose who had become Buddhistsinto the fold of Moses(as) and intothe obedience of the Mosaic law,and to re-establish those who hadbecome Hindus on the Unity ofGod, and obedience to Mosaic law.Jesus(as) achieved great success inthis mission and all these ten tribes

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achieved the good fortune ofbelieving in the prophethood ofJesus(as), and became firmlyestablished on the Unity of God.

Jesus(as) was the last prophet in theMosaic dispensation, and therewas to be no other prophet in Israelafter him. Prophethood was to becut off from Israel(as), and was to betransferred to the House ofIshmael(as). There was, therefore,the hazard that through their ill-fortune the children of Israel mightrefuse to accept the prophet whohad been mentioned in the Torah(Deuteronomy 18:18) under thetitle “That Prophet”. Jesus(as) was,therefore, charged with preparingthe minds of the children of Israelfor the acceptance of “ThatProphet” who was to bring the last,perfect, enduring universal law;the prophet whose coming was tobe the coming of God.

History shows that just as the losttribes believed in Jesus(as) andaccepted him, in the same way,almost all of them, who weresettled in those lands, believed inthe Holy Prophet of Islam(saw), andin the idiom of the Torah, theyreceived at his hands the baptism

of the Holy Ghost and fire. ThusJesus(as) succeeded in the achieve -ment of this purpose of his adventalso.

God Almighty has so ordained, thatthose prophets who are commis-sioned for a particular purpose, donot suffer death till they haveachieved that purpose, or havemade provision for its achievementin due course. For instance, Johnthe Baptist was the forerunner ofJesus(as). When Jesus(as) wasbaptised by John with water, thepurpose of John’s advent wasfulfilled, and he did not thereaftersurvive for long. In the case ofJesus(as), no great or significantevent was manifested before theevent of the cruci fixion. He had notyet even established contact withthe lost sheep towards whom hehad been sent, nor had he yetentered upon impressing, upon theminds of the children of Israel, theimpor tance of the advent and thestature of “That Prophet”, whoseadvent had been prophesied byMoses(as) and the other prophets ofIsrael. The event of the crucifixionoccurred in the third year of theministry of Jesus(as), and Jesus(as)

had passed this brief period in

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comparative obscurity, and in silentteaching and propagation. TheJews of Palestine paid littleattention to him and to what hesaid. If he was a true Messenger ofGod, which he undoubtedly was,he was not to die upon the cross. Hehad had no opportunity of carryinghis message to the lost sheep of thehouse of Israel, nor had he yetmade any provision forsafeguarding the future generationsof those tribes against themisfortune of rejecting “ThatProphet” on his advent, nor had heyet impressed upon the minds ofthe children of Israel the high statusof “That Pro phet”, which had beenset forth by Moses(as) and otherProphets under Divine direction.

In the Holy Qur’an the advent ofour Holy Prophet, on whom be thepeace and blessings of Allah, hasbeen described as the coming ofGod Himself (Ch.17:V.82),whereby Satan, with all his hosts,was put to flight and his teachingswere brought into contempt, and hesuffered a great defeat.

On account of the universal andcomprehensive guidance that wasto be committed to the Holy

Prophet(saw), God took a firmcovenant from the previousProphets, that they must instructtheir people to believe in him andto help him (Ch.3:V.82). That iswhy all the prophets from Adam(as)

to Jesus(as) affirmed the greatnessand glory of the Holy Prophet ofIslam(saw).

Moses(as) said in Deutronomy32:2: ‘The Lord came from Sinai,and rose up from Seir unto them;he shined forth from MountParan.’

Thus he indicated clearly, that themanifestation of God’s glorywould arrive at its perfection atMount Paran, and that the fullrefulgence of the sun of truthwould be achieved at MountParan. The Torah itself indicatesthat Paran is the moun tain nearMakkah, where Ishmael(as), theancestor of the Holy Pro phet(saw),was settled. This is confirmed bygeographical maps. It is well-known that no prophet has beenraised in Makkah except the HolyProphet of Islam(saw). Observe,therefore, how clearly hasMoses(as) testified that the rays ofthe sun of righteousness, which

37



shall appear on Mount Paran, shallbe the brightest of all and that theclimax of the light of truth will bereached in the blessed person ofthe Holy Prophet(saw).

Time does not permit of thecitation of even a few of thenumerous prophecies made by anumber of prophets includingDavid(as), Solomon(as), Isaiah(as),John(as) and Jesus(as), which referclearly to the Holy Prophet ofIslam(saw).

We recognise the tremendousachievements of science andtechnology, but it cannot bedenied that these achievementsalso constitute a threat of ruin anddestruction. The only way ofdeliverance from the ruinthreatened by our own handiworkis, that we should place our handsin the hand of God and discard ingtotally the worship of idols and ofmen, and of our own ego, andevery type of association ofpartners with God, we should allgather together under the shade ofthe mercy of the One True God.

I take this opportunity ofconveying to you with great humi -

lity and love the followingmessage:

Be happy and sing the praises ofGod that the Messiah(as) whoseadvent had been prophesied in theancient scriptures, and in the HolyQur’an, and had been foretold bythe Holy Prophet of Islam(saw), thatspiritual son of Muhammad(as), hasalready appeared. I, who amstanding before you, and have thehonour to address you, am thedeputy and Third Successor of thatMessiah(as). True and deepsympathy and love for you surgethrough my heart like an ocean. Iam made restless by yoursufferings, and am renderedsorrowful by your privations. Yourreal privation is the lack ofrecognition of your Gracious andMerciful Lord. I call you to thatTrue One, Who provided for allour needs before our coming intoexistence, and made available to usthe means of achieving trueprosperity. He bestowed upon usall that was demanded by ourfaculties and capacities, so that weshould not lack anything that maybe needed for establishing a livingrelationship with Him. But webehaved ungratefully. That which

38



had been bestowed upon us, for thepurpose of the establishment ofpeace and security, was employedby us in promoting disorder andcorruption. The misuse of thatwhich had been bestowed upon usfor the promotion of our health,and the development of ourintellect, and the up holding of ourmorals, and the exaltation of oursouls has plunged us into thedepths, and has alienated us fromGod. There is yet time that weshould call a halt, recognise ourLord, and turn towards Him inrepentance. He will forgive all oursins and de faults, He will raise usup with love and will lead us intothe gardens of His pleasure. Ourown tears, and the agonised yearn -ing of our hearts for meeting withGod, are our atonement. I urge youto turn to the One God withoutassociate, and to bend your necksto His obedience, for in that liesyour total good.

I call you to followMuhammad(saw). The paths,treading on which he found hisLord and was bestowed thebounties of both worlds, still bearthe marks of his footsteps. Followthose footsteps, for if you do that,

you shall win the love of God, andyou shall hear His dear voiceassuring you: “If you will be Mine,the universe will be yours.”

The false joys and artificialdelights of this mortal world,cannot be compared to the love ofGod. I invite you to make a trial ofwinning the love of God. That doorhas been opened, through the ages,for the millions who have knockedon it. Why should you despair thatit may not be opened for you?Come forward and, responding tothe call of the Successor of theMuslim Messiah, accept Islam, fortherein lies your own total goodand the good of your futuregenerations, failing which, aterrible catastrophe awaits you, ofwhich I warned you in detaileleven years ago in this city (i.e. AMessage of Peace and a Word ofWarning, speech delivered inWandsworth, London, UK in 1967,the full transcript of which can beread at:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/messageofpeace/messageofpeace.pdf).


The Shroud of Turin is the‘alleged’ burial cloth of JesusChrist(as). The cloth measures4.37m by 1.1m (approximately 14feet across) and exhibits a faintimage of what looks like a crucifiedman. Between 10 April and 23 Maythis year, approximately twomillion visitors flocked to thenorthern Italian city of Turin toobserve first hand this linen cloth,as the Shroud went on display forthe first time in a decade. In April2010, Hadhrat Mirza MasroorAhmad(aba), Khalifatul Masih V,Head of the Worldwide AhmadiyyaMuslim community was given aprivate viewing of the Shroud ofTurin (see ‘Historic Visit byHadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) tothe Shroud of Turin Exhibit’featured in this edition – Ed).

What is the Shroud, and whatrelevance does it have for the worldtoday?

What is the Shroud?The Christian world is rich inrelics. The most sacred of therelics claim to be the items fromthe lifetime of Jesus Christ(as). It isalways difficult to verify theauthenticity of these items. Themost famous relic available to ustoday is the Shroud of Turin, thealleged burial cloth of JesusChrist(as).

The Gospels in the New Testamentstate that after the Crucifixion,Jesus Christ(as) was wrapped in alinen cloth:

‘And he bought fine linen,and took him down, andwrapped him in the linen, andlaid him in a sepulchre whichwas hewn out of a rock, androlled a stone unto the door ofthe sepulchre.’1

‘And there came also

The Shroud of TurinBy Arif Khan – London, UK

(Arif Khan, Editor of the Tomb of Jesus website, has had an active interestin the Shroud of Turin and has written various articles on the subject)

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The Shroud of Turin


Nicodemus, which at the firstcame to Jesus by night, andbrought a mixture of myrrhand aloes, about an hundredpound [weight]. Then tookthey the body of Jesus, andwound it in linen clothes withthe spices, as the manner ofthe Jews is to bury.’2

Some claim that the Shroud ofTurin is this same burial cloth.There have been other claimsmade with respect to this heritagebut the Shroud of Turin is acceptedas the most impressive and mostplausible. This status of theShroud of Turin was confirmedwhen in 1898 the first photographwas taken of the Shroud bySecondo Pia.

The negative produced from thisphotograph revealed amazinglevels of detail in the Shroud.Instead of a faint image that hadbeen seen so far, the negativerevealed a detailed image.Secondo Pia reportedly almostdropped the plate due to the shockhe felt when he first viewed thephotographic plate.

The Turin Shroud resides in theChapel of the Holy Shroud at TurinCathedral

Secondo Pia, first photographerof the Shroud

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The Shroud of Turin


How old is the Turin Shroud?The recorded history of the Shroudonly dates back to the 13th / 14thcentury, yet recorded history of acloth bearing the image of JesusChrist(as) dates back almost twothousand years. There is evidenceto suggest that other famous cloths,such as the Cloth of Edessa, are infact the same cloth as the Shroud ofTurin.

Historian, and famous Shroudresearcher, Ian Wilson, details apossible timeline for the Shrouddating back to the 1st Century3.Wilson draws on research andrecorded traditions that talk about afamous cloth bearing the face orimprint of Jesus’ face. This cloth isknown as the cloth of Edessa4. 3rdand 4th Century sources recountthe tradition that a cloth ‘imprintedwith Jesus’ likeness’5 was takenfrom Jerusalem to Edessa, whichwas instrumental in convertingEdessa’s King Abgar V toChristianity. Wilson shows how thecloth appeared to have survivedthrough the centuries. However,Wilson suggests that theresurrection resulted in atremendous burst of energy that leftan imprint on the cloth but such

energy could have only come froma live body.

There is speculation in the timelineput together by Wilson, but theredoes appear to be a possibility thatthe cloth mentioned in the variousaccounts is indeed the same Shroudthat is still the subject of muchmystery today.

The ImageThe most fascinating aspect of thecloth is the image formed upon thecloth. To this day the exact processby which the image was formed isnot fully understood. Another

Burial shroud modeled after theshroud of Turin© Tektite | Dreamstime.com


remarkable aspect of the image, asmentioned earlier, is that it isactually itself a negative image.

What links the Shroud to Jesusand the Crucifixion?There are a number of significantdetails on the cloth that seem tocorrelate fully with what AhmadiMuslims believe happened toJesus(as) on the cross almost 2000years ago.

Flagrum & WhippingIt was a common Roman practiceto beat and flog the prisoner

before Crucifixion. The Shroudclearly shows such marks,particularly on the back of thebody. The Roman instrumentused at the time was a whip withthree prongs; the tips of theseprongs contained bone, shaped toinflict maximum damage and totear at the flesh. Based upon theShroud we see scores of thesemarks consistent with the Romantorture instrument, the Flagrum6.

Crown of ThornsOne distinctive feature of Jesus’Crucifixion is that he was mocked

Full length negatives of the Shroud of Turin

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The Shroud of Turin


for claiming to be the King of theJews. In the Gospel account byMatthew, Mark and John we findmention of a ‘crown of thorns’.

‘And when they had platted acrown of thorns, they put [it]upon his head, and a reed inhis right hand: and theybowed the knee before him,and mocked him, saying, Hail,King of the Jews!’ 7

‘And they clothed him withpurple, and platted a crown ofthorns, and put it about his[head]’8

‘And the soldiers platted acrown of thorns, and put [it]on his head, and they put onhim a purple robe’9

The Shroud of Turin showsunusual blood flows around thetop of the head and traces ofblood in the hair and especiallythe back of the head. All these areconsistent with what we wouldhave expected if a crown ofthorns was worn.10

Nail WoundsJesus(as) would have most likely

been nailed to the cross with nailsdriven through the wrists andfeet. Again, the Shroud depictsjust this, with large noticeableblood flows present in both theseareas of the cloth11. The nails inthe hands are even moreinteresting, as traditionaldepictions suggest the nails wentthrough the palms. Modernresearch has shown this wouldnot be possible, and to support theweight of the body the nailswould have to have been throughthe wrists12. This is consistentwith what the Shroud shows.

Blood FlowsAs mentioned already there isblood to be found on the cloth. In1978 scientists were quickly ableto prove this was real blood froma human, and not paint, pigmentor animal blood. Also, the bloodflows are anatomically correct.Each of the flows traces thecorrect lines based upon humananatomy and the arrangement ofvessels and arteries13.

What scientific tests have beenconducted on the Shroud?In 1978 the STURP teamconducted a series of non-


destructive tests on the Shroud.The tests included14:

• Conventional black and whiteand colour photography

• Various scientific photographicmethods

• X-rays• UV photography• High magnification photo-

graphy using a portablephotomicroscope

• Sampling the actual cloth usingspecial sticky tape

• Analysis of threads with bloodand extraction of DNA

The main focus of theirexperiments was to ascertain howthe image was formed. Despite anintensive period of testing thisquestion remains unansweredeven today.

There are certain features of theimage on the Shroud that make itdifficult to suggest a mechanismthat would account for all of thesefeatures. Any theory about howthe image formed must account forall the following characteristics:

1. The image is extremely faint,appearing only on the very

Full length image of Shroudbefore 2002 restoration

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The Shroud of Turin


upper fibres of the cloth.2. There is no pigment or dyes

contained in the image areas.3. The further the body is from

the cloth the more faint theimage – this leads to what isknown as the ‘3D’ quality ofthe Shroud.

4. The image is a negative.

Did Carbon 14 dating of thecloth not prove it a fake in 1988?The Shroud made internationalheadlines in 1988 when carbondating tests carried out by fourindependent laboratories dated theShroud to 1260 – 1360 CE. Thisseemed to settle the issue whetherthe cloth was a fake or not. It alsofitted the known history of theShroud, as no confirmed recordexisted of this Shroud before thisperiod.

The scientists were particularlydismissive of the Shroud andheralded this as some sort oftriumph of science over religion.The following account is takenfrom the obituary of ProfessorEdward Hall and summarises theviews of others on the Shroudwhen the carbon dating resultswere announced:

“There was a multi-million-pound business in makingforgeries during the 14thcentury,” he bluntly told aBritish Museum pressconference. “Someone justgot a bit of linen, faked it upand flogged it.” And again,“Some people may continueto fight for the authenticity ofthe shroud, like the Flat EarthSociety, but this settles it allas far as we areconcerned.”15

The Carbon Dating Result:More Questions than AnswersFor scholars and experts, however,the carbon dating result leads tomore questions than answers. Ifthis had been ‘faked’ how was theimage produced? How was a‘negative’ image createddeliberately before the science ofphotography was understood?How were the anatomicallycorrect blood flows marked whenthere was incomplete knowledgeof anatomy at the time the clothwas supposed to have beencreated?

Scholars looked for things thatcould point to an inaccuracy in the

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The Shroud of Turin


carbon dating results. Reputablescholars put out theories about theerror in carbon dating, talked of a‘bioplastic’ coating, and alsospeculation about how fire damagecould have affected the result.There were also conspiracytheories, talking of scientists andVatican officials conspiring toskew the dating results.

Ray Rogers – Turning theCarbon Dating Result on itsHeadIn 2005 this mystery appeared tohave been solved by RaymondRogers, an expert inthermodynamics and one of theoriginal members of the STURPteam.

The research by Rogers centredaround a theory proposed by ahusband and wife team, SueBenford and Joseph Marino. Itshould be understood that Benfordand Marino are not scientists, andtheir theory was based uponanalysis of existing images of theShroud from 1978. What thecouple observed was that thesection of the cloth from which theradio carbon sample was takenlooked to have been rewoven.

Barrie Schwortz talked about thisin a recent documentary on theShroud:

“They had taken photographsthat were available of thesamples used for the carbondating and they had submittedthese to several textiles expertswho did not know they werelooking at photos of theShroud. Each of these textilesexperts, independent of eachother said, ‘You know, thislooks rewoven.’”16

Benford and Marino believed thatthe section was repaired using16th century cotton. The originalcloth and the 16th century cottoncloth would be mixed andinterwoven. Benford and Marinoargued that this mixture of theoriginal 1st century cloth, alongwith 16th century cotton wouldlead to a carbon dating result inbetween the two dates.

They published this in a paperentitled “Evidence for theSkewing of the C-14 Dating of theShroud of Turin Due to Repairs”.It was this paper that got theattention of Ray Rogers. Rogers

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The Shroud of Turin


stated in an interview hismotivations for the work:

“I had given up on the Shroudand this is about the same timethat the lunatic fringe werecoming up with an infinitenumber of ways in which thedate could be wrong, and this[paper by Benford andMarino] was just the laststraw.”17

Barrie Schwortz explains how hegot a call from Ray Rogers aboutthe paper:

“I got a call from Ray and he’slike ‘what the hell is this? Thisis nonsense, I can prove thesepeople wrong in 5 minutes; Isaid ‘Well, Ray, go for it’.”18

Ray was in a unique position toinvestigate this theory as he had inhis possession samples from boththe radiocarbon section of theShroud as well as a sample froman adjacent section to theradiocarbon sample area. BarrieSchwortz explains how hours aftersetting out to prove this theorywrong Rogers called him again:

“He calls me a couple of hourslater and he says ‘Boy, youknow, they were right. There iscotton here! There is no cottonin the rest of the Shroud. Thereis cotton interwoven here; theymust be right.”19

He concluded that the theory wasright in stating that the section ofthe cloth used for the carbondating was actually a rewovensection.

Sadly, Raymond Rogers lost hisbattle with cancer shortly aftercompleting this work. His entiretestimony on this research wasdocumented by Shroud expert andcolleague, Barrie Schwortz, andthen published as a DVD. Justweeks before Ray passed away, adetailed article containing hisfindings was published in the peerreviewed Chemistry journal“Thermochimica Acta”.20

This was revolutionary for theresearch. Now the carbon datingresult was declared invalid and thebiggest objection to the Shroud’spossible authenticity removed.

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The Shroud of Turin


Does the Shroud prove Jesus(as)

survived the Crucifixion?For Ahmadi Muslims who believein Jesus Christ(as) having survivedthe Crucifixion, the Shroud ofTurin is a powerful piece ofevidence in support of this viewbecause the Shroud does point toJesus(as) having survived theCrucifixion.

There is absence of any sign ofdecomposition of the body, theeven nature of the image, the largeamounts of blood on the cloth andthe fact an image formed at all.21

Other researchers who haveargued that the cloth proves theopposite, that the man covered bythe Turin Shroud was mostcertainly dead, and they have citedsuggestions of rigor mortis and theseparation of blood and plasma asevidence for this.22

It is a highly controversial areaand it is not helped bysensationalised approaches todiscussions on the theory that theShroud shows Jesus(as) survived.Conspiracy theories, such as thatoutlined by Holger Kersten in hisbook, The Jesus Conspiracy, have

made it easier for researchers todismiss the thesis that the Shroudproves Jesus(as) survived theCrucifixion. On the other side, thebiggest proponent of the view thatit proves Jesus(as) died, is DrFrederick Zugibe who is acommitted Christian. Moreresearch is required and morequestions need answering.Currently it seems the evidenceavailable is inconclusive. Peoplehave argued for both outcomesusing the same empiricalevidence.

Below are some experts fromproponents of the view that theShroud covered a living body thatwas in a state of near-death:

Rodney Hoare – The TurinShroud is Genuine - 1994Hoare talks about taking imagesfrom the Shroud to a group offorensic scientists belonging to theFBI. He talks about thediscussions they had based uponthe cloth and their arriving at thefollowing conclusion:

“The forensic scientistsargued that the body in theShroud was absolutely dead

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The Shroud of Turin


by pre-seventeenth centurystandards but in a deep comaby present-day ones.”23

He explains the reasoning for this:

“Any chemical stainingreaction…would almostcertainly have depended ontemperature: the higher thetemperature the darker thestain…so the temperature ofthe cloth must also have beenapproximately uniform. Thiscould only happen if theblood were still circulating,the heart just beating....Thebody must have been in acoma, therefore, and notclinically dead by twentieth-century standards.”24

In the same book Hoare alsomakes the comment:

“...they (STURP team) didreport that they managed toobtain stains most nearlylike the body marks on thecloth by baking some linenwhich had a coating ofperspiration, myrrh andaloes!”25

Hoare presents his evidence fromthe Shroud along with detailsabout the Crucifixion from theNew Testament to argue that Jesussurvived the Crucifixion.

Kurt Berna – Jesus Nicht amKreuz Gestorben (Jesus Did NotPerish on the Cross) – 1975,ZurichKurt Berna was of the opinion thatthe evidence of the Shroud and theNew Testament pointed to Jesus(as)

having survived the Crucifixion.

In the text cited here Berna drawsmainly from the observations andresearch of Dr. Theodor Hirt, aprofessor of a German University.

“Once death has ensued,blood circulation in thehuman body follows the samelaw. At one moment aperson’s skin may still be areddish flesh-color becausethe blood penetrates to thecapillaries, the hair-thinvessels just below the surfaceof the skin. But when theheart stops pumping, by thesame law of nature thatapplies to the test with theglass tube, the veins draw the

50

The Shroud of Turin


blood back. As a result, thecapillaries are the firstvessels to be emptied of blood

because they are at the extremeend of the circulatory system.As the blood retracts, the skinof the deceased turns white.”

“This is what happens to acorpse some eight to ten hoursafter the heart has ceased tobeat not only does no bloodflow from open woundsbecause there is no pressure,but the blood retracts a little inthe veins.”

“But what happens [at theremoval of the crown ofthorns] if there is bloodpressure – that is, if the heart isstill beating? The little woundsfill with blood; the blood flowsfrom the head into the hair;and because it keeps flowing, ittrickles through the hair ontothe Shroud as we can see onthe Shroud of Jesus. That iswhy it cannot have been acorpse that was in the Shroudthe body was not dead. We canall see the evidence on theShroud, as revealed by a

camera nineteen hundredyears later and the cameradoes not lie. It is so obviousand easy to understand that Iam certain you have followedmy reasoning.”26

Holger Kersten & ElmarGruber – The Jesus Conspiracy– 1992The central premise of The JesusConspiracy, by Kersten andGruber, is that Jesus(as) survived theCrucifixion. One of the latersections of their text is entitled‘The Image of a Living Person’and starts as follows:

“After all that we havedescribed there can be nodoubt: the Turin cloth is thecloth in which Jesus wasplaced for healing after beingtaken down from the Cross. Ifthis is so and Jesus really wasstill alive when he was placedin the tomb, we should be ableto find evidence of the fact onthe Turin cloth.”27

The authors of the The JesusConspiracy draw our attention tothe blood marks in particular whenarguing their case.

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The Shroud of Turin


“We can be grateful thatJoseph of Arimathea and hishelpers did not wash the bodyof Jesus for medical reasons,because this allowed thetraces of coagulated blood tobe imprinted on the cloth.Two different types ofbleeding can be clearlydistinguished. Firstly there isthe dried blood which camefrom the whipping, thecrowning with thorns, the sidewound and from the nailsfixing the body on the Cross.Secondly there is fresh bloodwhich flowed when Jesus wasalready lying horizontally inthe cloth. The fabric quicklybecame saturated with theresinous aloe, and wasthoroughly impregnated withit. This meant that most of theblood was not absorbed intothe cloth, but just spread outover the surface. This wouldexplain the surprising fact,observed by modernresearchers, that most of theblood marks cannot be seenon the reverse side eventhough the material is quitethin. The careful treatmentwith the herbal solution also

had the effect of re-softeningthe coagulated areas of theblood, so that they too weretransferred on to the cloth.”28

The blood marks around the backarea also highlighted by Kerstenand Gruber:

“Blood has collected in thecavity between the back andthe buttocks. This showsclearly that the blood musthave flowed only after the bodywas laid horizontally”29

The Second Messiah –Christopher Knight & RobertLomas – London, 1997Although this text supports a verydifferent thesis about the nature ofthe Shroud of Turin the actualobservations of the Shroud andsome of the conclusions supportthe view that the man wrapped inthe Shroud was alive. Theirobservations of the Shroudsuggested that the man in theShroud was not lying out on a hardrock surface, but on a cushionedsoft surface:

“Dead bodies are not laid outon soft absorbent beds, so itseems extremely likely that

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The Shroud of Turin


the image is not that of acorpse but of a living subjectwho had been horriblytortured.”30

The conclusion of these authorsalso is that the Shroud wrapped aliving body.

ConclusionIt is very difficult to haveobjective research carried out onthe Shroud of Turin as almost allthose interested in the cloth andinvolved in the research have pre-existing biases and beliefs.

Current scholarly opinion is stilldivided on the Shroud. Many lostinterest after the initial carbondating result appeared to show itwas a fake and a middle ageforgery; many are still unaware ofRay Roger’s work and findings.Even as recently as October 2009there have been researchersclaiming to have reproduced theimage exposing it as a fake.31

Some Shroud researchers andenthusiasts want another Carbon-14 dating test to be performed onthe Shroud of Turin, but access tothe cloth is closely controlled and

obtaining permission for moretests has historically provenextremely difficult.

In the last decade it has beennoticed that the faint image hadstarted to fade and disappear. TheShroud was moved to aspecifically designed container tohelp preserve it and avoid theimage being lost. As part of thisprocess it was treated withThymol and experts have said thiscould badly affect any futureattempts to date the cloth using C-14.

During the Friday Sermon ofApril 30th 2010 Hadhrat MirzaMasroor Ahmad(aba) mentionedsome experiments carried outunder the supervision of MirMahmood Ahmad in Rabwah.Holger Kersten also performedsimilar tests using aloes, myrrhand a radiator to help achieve theperspiration. Kersten’s imageshared some of the characteristicswith the Shroud, but not all.

For the scientists and academicsthe Shroud poses a wonderfulpuzzle to which a solution is stillelusive. For believers in Jesus(as) it

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The Shroud of Turin


Approximate Year (CE)

Key Event

30 Crucifixion of Jesus(as) and his burial in a tomb wrapped in a sindon (burial shroud).According to the Bible, 36 hours later, the shroud is found and the tomb lays abandoned.

c.40-50 A cloth reportedly with Jesus’ imprint on it is taken to the first Christian King, Abgar V (13-50) in Edessa (modern Urfa in eastern Turkey) and is instrumental in his conversion.

216 Edessa falls under Roman control.

375 Doctrine of Addai – an account of the conversion of Edessa to Christianity refers to a‘portrait’ of Jesus(as).

525 Edessa is flooded, and during the repairs, a cloth imprinted with Jesus’ likeness isdiscovered above the city gates and described as ‘not the work of human hands’.

723 During a cull on man-made images of Jesus(as) across the Byzantine and Muslimempires, the cloth of Edessa survives.

943 A Byzantine army negotiates the transfer of the Shroud to Emperor Romanus inConstantinople (modern Istanbul) where it arrives amidst celebrations on 15 August 944.

1130 Reports in Western Europe of the ‘supernatural’ Shroud in Constantinople.

1192The ‘Pray Manuscript’ in Hungary created by an artist shows Jesus(as) in the sameposition as the Shroud with his hands crossed, and other features of the Shroud such asthe ‘poker holes’ are also reproduced.

1203-04French Crusader Robert de Clari reports seeing the Shroud in Constantinople’s Church ofSt. Mary at Blachernae. A year later, the French sack Constantinople and the Shroudgoes missing.

1355 The Shroud is now owned by Geoffrey I de Charney, and is displayed in a publicexposition at a tiny church in Lirey, near Troyes in France.

1418 Due to a conflict with England, the Shroud is moved from Lirey to the French castle ofMontfort near Switzerland.

1453 The Shroud is handed over to the Savoy family who will be the keepers for the next fivecenturies.

1502 Inauguration of the new home of the Shroud at the Sainte Chapelle in Chambery.

1506 Pope Julius II assigns May 4 as the feats day of the Shroud.

1509 The Shroud is installed in a specially made silver casket.

1532 A fire at the Sainte Chapelle damages the Shroud, with molten silver scarring the Shroud,but leaving the main image intact.

1535 Invasion by French troops results in transfer of the Shroud between Turin, Milan, Vercelliand Nice (southern Italy and France).

1578 The Shroud is moved to Turin Cathedral.

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The Shroud of Turin


provides a visual representationof the ordeal of the Crucifixionand the suffering he would havegone through. For those whosupport the idea that Jesus(as)

survived the Crucifixion, it couldyet prove to be one of thestrongest pieces of evidenceavailable to prove this thesis.

For now, however, there is muchdebate about all areas of theShroud. Time will tell if aconsensus can ever be reached onthe cloth.

One final thought; the STURPteam were able to extract DNAfrom the blood on the Shroudprompting the 1999 book byLeoncio Garza-Valdes The DNA ofGod? This leads to the question ofwhether or not there could beanother DNA sample from adifferent source relating to Jesusthat could be used to cross-reference the Shroud DNA, if sothat could solve the Shroudmystery once and for all.

Approximate Year (CE)

Key Event

1868 Public exposition of the Shroud in Turin Cathedral.

1898 After another public exposition, the Shroud is photographed by local councillor SecondoPia revealing the amazing negative image for the first time.

1902 Yves Delage, a French Anatomy Professor argues that the Shroud image is too medicallyconvincing and must have wrapped a genuine human crucified body.

1978-79 STURP team analyse samples from the Shroud cloth and conclude that it is not mad-made.

1988 Carbon dating of a sample from the top-left of the cloth suggests that the Shroud is muchnewer that historical records had suggested.

1997 A major fire breaks out in the Turin Chapel. Despite extensive damage inflicted to thechapel, the Shroud escapes unharmed.

2000 Shroud is displayed on public exhibition for Golden Jubilee.

2002 Holy See has Shroud restored, backing of cloth and thirty patches removed.

2010 Shroud on public exhibition for the first time in ten years.

2025 Next scheduled public exhibition of the Shroud.

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The Shroud of Turin


1. Mark 15:46 – King James Bible2. John 19:39-403. The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence, Ian Wilson & Barrie Schwortz, 2000 –

pp.151-1554. Ibid – pp. 151-1525. Ibid – pp.1526. Ibid - p.577. Matthew 27:298. Mark 15:179. John 19:210. The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence, Ian Wilson & Barrie Schwortz, 2000 -

pp 57-5811. Ibid - pp.58-5912. Ibid - p.6013. Ibid - p.5814. Ibid - pp.67-8115. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-edward-hall-729330.html16. Turin Shroud: The New Evidence – Discovery HD, April 200917. Ibid18. Ibid19. Ibid20. Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin, Thermochimica Acta,

Volume 425, Issues 1-2, pp.189-19421. The Turin Shroud is Genuine, Rodney Hoare, 1994 – pp 69-7322. The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence, Ian Wilson & Barrie Schwortz, 2000 -

pp. 67-8123. The Turin Shroud is Genuine, Rodney Hoare, 1994 - pp.68-6924. Ibid25. Ibid pp.7326. Jesus did not Perish on the Cross (Jesus Nicht am Kreuz gestorben) - Kurt Berna.

Zurich, Switzerland, 1975 – Extracts from account of Dr. Theodor Hirt – pp.46-6927. The Jesus Conspiracy, Holger Kersten & Elmar Gruber – 1992 – pp.28128. Ibid, pp.28629. Ibid, pp.29030. The Second Messiah, Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, pp.20031. Italian researcher Professsor Luigi Garlaschelli claimed to have reproduced the

Shroud image using medieval techniques on October 6th 2009. Experts quicklypointed out the theory put forward by the Professor had already been examinedpreviously and ruled out on several accounts. See ‘Science by Press Release? AnEditorial Response by Barrie Schwortz’:http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/schwortzedit01.pdf

References: The Shroud of Turin


Historic Visit by Hadhrat KhalifatulMasih V(aba) to the Shroud of TurinExhibition

On Monday, 20 April 2010, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, KhalifatulMasih V(aba), Fifth Successor to the Promised Messiah(as) and Head of theWorldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, visited the Shroud of TurinExhibit in Turin, Italy, becoming the first Khalifa to observe the Shroud inperson (Mr Fatir Malik, President Ahmadiyya Muslim community Italyhad suggested that Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) visit the Exhibitionduring his visit to Italy and Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) agreed. MrMalik spoke to Church officials who were happy to arrange for Hudhur(aba)

to visit). Upon reaching the Shroud Exhibit, Hudhur (aba) was greeted by theDirector of the Exhibition, Monsignor Ghiberti, and escorted through aspecial entrance. Although photography is not permitted, at Hudhur’srequest, special permission was granted to take photographs without theuse of flash. After displaying information about the Shroud on a largescreen, the Director took Hudhur (aba) to the Church where the relic isexhibited on an altar behind a glass panel, which is filled with gases topreserve the cloth. Public viewing was discontinued while Hudhur(aba)’sentourage viewed the glass case from the nearest aisle; photographs werealso taken. The Director then took Hudhur (aba) to the Seminary whereHadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) was introduced to the resident expert onIslam, Professor Don Tino Negri. Hudhur (aba) was greeted mostcourteously and discussion ensued in which Mr Fatir Malik acted asinterpreter. Below is the English translation of the conversation that tookplace between Hudhur(aba), Monsignor Ghiberti, and Professor Don TinoNegri.

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Historic Visit by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba) to the Shroud of Turin


Monsignor Ghiberti: what inparticular motivated you to comeand see the Shroud of Turin?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): We were previouslyunaware that the Shroud of Turinwas being exhibited. It was bychance that this programme cameabout and the communityinformed us that the Shroud ofTurin Exhibition would be takingplace during these days. We arefrom that section of Muslimswho believe that the Shroud ofTurin was actually used for theMessiah, peace be upon him,although our views differ.According to us, Jesus(as) was agreat, and appointed, Prophet ofGod. According to Jewishteachings, as crucifixion wassomething inappropriate for aProphet, when the Jews put himon the cross, God saved Jesus(as)

from crucifixion. And we believethe Founder of the AhmadiyyaMuslim community is thePromised Messiah of this age. Hestated that the Messiah (i.e.Jesus(as)), was treated and Allahgranted him life thereafter. This

is why I was interested in seeingthis Shroud.

In this regard it is a very blessedcloth. However, according to ourview, it does not prove his death;rather it proves he was alive. Inany case, we also consider this tobe a blessed Shroud despite ourdiffering views.

Professor Don Tino Negri:according to your belief, didJesus(as) then travel to Kashmir?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): yes, and for the first timeGod disclosed this matter to theHoly Founder of the AhmadiyyaMuslim community. It was afterthis that other research wascarried out. In 1899, he wrote thebook Jesus in India and revealedall this therein.

Professor Don Tino Negri: howare you related to the Founder ofthe Ahmadiyya Muslimcommunity?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): my relationship is that of

58



great grandson but thisrelationship has nothing to dowith the Khilafat. An electoralcollege is convened for theelections of Khilafat, as the Popeis elected, behind closed doors.Hence in 2003, at the demise ofthe Fourth Khalifa(rh), membersof the Electoral College, whowere from amongst notablepersons from all over the world,elected a person behind closeddoors; in fact, it was inside aMosque.It is Allah’s extraordinary Gracethat I have come for the first timeand the Shroud of TurinExhibition is on show. I haveheard that usually this exhibitiontakes place every 25 years, butthis time it occurred after 10years. Nevertheless, I held agreat desire to see this and Allahhas provided me with thisopportunity, and I said that Iought to see it.

Monsignor Ghiberti: there is nofixed time for the exhibition;sometimes it takes place after alengthy gap and at other timesafter a short time period.

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): when will the exhibition beheld again – or will it be ondisplay for the coming fewyears? Does it depend on thePope’s directives or doessomeone else decide?

Monsignor Ghiberti: it wasdisplayed in the years 1889,1931, 1933, 1978, 1998 and 2000and now it is being shown in2010.

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): at times after 2 years and atother times after 10 years.Anyhow, I believe Allah grantedme this opportunity and I alsohave now seen this Shroud – I donot believe any Khalifa prior tome has seen it.

Monsignor Ghiberti: what wereyour sentiments upon seeing theShroud of Turin?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): you see, first of all this is atwo-thousand-year-old image ofa Prophet, and you will not findan actual image of a Prophetanywhere. With this impression,

59



however, if one observescarefully, the expressions andfeatures can be seen. So, a personbecomes acutely aware that hehas seen the picture of Allah’sspecial person who was born2000 years ago. This is an actualpicture and not a man-madeimage.

Monsignor Ghiberti: althoughwe do not agree with your pointof view that he was a prophet, buthe did bear suffering.

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): he bore immense suffering.And this is what we say – that hefaced suffering. Allah grantedhim such a large reward for thisthat He sent him in search of thelost tribes of Israel to Kashmir.Wherever they had dispersed to,he brought them together.Christianity was preached and itspread throughout the world.Allah made the promise that Iwill multiply it; I will confer itrespect; and from a worldlyperspective, I will endow it withabundant wealth. Allah fulfilledthese promises and the result of

that suffering is that in the worldtoday, Christianity has reachedlofty heights in material terms.

Allah’s chosen people areinflicted with suffering; however,Allah does not finish them off asa result; rather, he blesses them.Therefore, Allah blessed Jesus(as)

according to the promises hemade to him. (Referring to thebuilding in which they were in,Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V(aba)

said:) The people who haveattained this rank, and all thesethings and the vast size ofChristianity in the world; thestatus currently that these peoplehave attained is a result of thatsuffering alone. This sufferingthat resulted in their attaining agreat deal requires that allChristians become the followersof the true teachings of Jesus(as),because Allah has granted themthis status where there is aresponsibility to propagate thetrue teachings. So, it is my prayerthat these people can spreadJesus(as)’s true teachings in theworld.

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(On the request of the inter-preter, Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba) repeated what he had juststated:) They attained this rank asa result of this suffering, in otherwords, they are the flag bearersof Jesus(as)’s teachings. MayAllah enable them to properlypropagate the true teachings ofJesus(as) all over the world.

As I have said, this is sufferingwhich God’s holy people have toendure. And Hadhrat MirzaGhulam Ahmad of Qadian(as),who we believe is the PromisedMessiah and Imam Mahdi, alsoendured suffering and after sodid his Community until today.And the progress of ourCommunity is a result of thissuffering.

Professor Don Tino Negri: doesyour community have goodrelations with other religions?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): we say, and God’s teachingregarding religious matters, isthat there is no compulsion infaith. God has set forth theGuidance before us. Whoever

desires can follow it and whoeverwills can reject it, because in ourview transforming people’shearts or persuading someone toa particular way is God’s work;no one can be compelled. The Qur’an’s teaching regardingreligious matters is that that thereis no compulsion in faith. AndGod states that He sends theGuidance. Whoever wants to canfollow it, and whoever wills canreject it. The responsibility ofthose who bring a message fromGod is only to convey thatmessage. Hence, to becomeangry at someone if he does notaccept the message is anerroneous approach. We believethat God created man. Mankindhas values as well – this is why ithas been created. Apart from religion, it isnecessary to recognise andidentify the values for which manwas created. If, on the basis ofreligion, fights continue amongstpeople and a lack of respect isdisplayed, then human valuesmay deteriorate. The world hasfallen prey to restlessness; wesay that all religions should jointogether and establish peace in

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the world, because the teachingthat God has given to everyreligious follower is to spreadHis message – God’s messagecan never be one of destroyingpeace. From amongst thousandsof Prophets such as Jesus(as),Moses(as) and Harun(as) (Aaron),the Qur’an has mentioned thenames of only a few. The Qur’analso states that a Prophetappeared in every nation. Godsent His holy people to everynation to establish worship, andprovided the teaching thateveryone should be respected,hence, we respect every prophet;and this is precisely what theHoly Qur’an teaches. On thebasis of this civility we meet andconverse with everyone, and wearrange such symposia in whichpeople of every religion informus about their faith, and in thisway, an environment of unity,peace and brotherhood can beformed.

Monsignor Ghiberti: are suchsymposia held in England?

Hadhrat Khalifatul MasihV(aba): in England as well and also

at various times wherever ourcommunity is based in 24 or 25of the larger countries. Suchsymposia are held in Australia,Germany, Canada, America andin several African countries. It isour view that every person of anyfaith is a descendant of Adam(as),and that the progeny of Adam(as)

should be greatly respectedbecause, being removed fromheaven once, one should not beremoved again and dwell in hell.

(Monsignor Ghiberti andProfessor Don Tino Negrithanked Hadhrat KhalifatulMasih V(aba) and escorted him tothe library of the religiousinstitute.)


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Orthodox Christians celebrate the eventthat occurred on the mountain whenJesus(as) suddenly emitted radiance.

Thu 12 Ramadan (Islam)

Muslim month of fasting, holiest monthfor Muslims during which the HolyQur’an was first revealed to the HolyProphet(saw) and oft repeated insubsequent years of his life.

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Hindu festival in celebration ofbrotherhood and love. Raksha meansprotection, and Bandhan means to tie.Sisters tie a band on their brothers’ wristsas a sign of their affection.

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