The Life of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din
by Shahid Aziz


The khutba was delivered by Dr M A Hami. He continued his talk about the life of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, the first khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Movement. In this, the second part, he took the story from the time Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din left India to go to Makkah for a pilgrimage. At that time there was a large number of Muslims of Indian origin living in Makkah who had fled there after the defeat in the Indian War of Independence and collapse of the Moghul Empire.

The Holy Prophet had said that if, when a person first sees the Holy Kabah, he prays, Allah always accepts such prayers. When Hazrat Maulana first saw the holy Kabah for the first time, he asked Allah to help him and accept his prayers at time of need. Hazrat Maulana spent many years at Makkah. First listening to the discourses of the Holy Quran delivered by the scholars resident in Makkah and then giving the discourses himself. He also took the baiat on the hand of Hazrat Shah Abdul Ghani, a great-grandson of Hazrat Shah Wali-ullah. This baiat, explained Maulana, gave him the insight to recognise the imam of the age when Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad made his claim to being the mujaddid of the 14th century of Hijra.

Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din then went to Madina where he attended discourses of the hadith or the sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It was at this time that for three or four days he went hungry and saw the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a dream. The Holy Prophet told Hazrat Maulana that he, the Holy Prophet, took responsibility for ensuring that the Maulana had something to eat every evening. After that day, the Maulana always had a meal provided for him at evening time even when he was in the wilderness without any apparent means. Dr sahib ended with the second phase of Hazrat Maulana after he had established himself as a well-known hakim in India.


A dars was delivered by Mr Shahid Aziz after the prayers. He pointed out that when we talk about following the sunnah of the Holy Prophet it should mean more than just looking for the Ramadaan and ‘Id moon with our naked eye. We should look at how the Holy Prophet handled various situations as the head of state.

He took the Battle of Uhd as an example. When the news of the enemies march on Madina arrived the Holy Prophet gather together the whole community in the mosque to discuss the situation and what action to take. The established the principle that Muslims must decide all matters by mutual consultation. It does not matter whether the system is a British style parliamentary system or US style presidential system as long as a system involves the whole community in making decisions, the system is Islamic.

At this meeting all Muslims had the right to express their views freely. The Holy Prophet was of the opinion that Muslims should stay in the city and defend but the majority wanted to confront the enemy in open battle. The Holy Prophet accepted the view of the majority. This established the principle that every person has a right to voice his opinion without fear and that the head of state should accept the decision of the majority and act accordingly. After the decision the Holy Prophet went home to don his armour. In the mean time, some of those present scolded others for disagreeing with the Holy Prophet and when the Holy Prophet returned the assembly said that they apologised for disagreeing with him and that they had now changed their mind but the Holy Prophet said that the community had reached a decision by consensus and it will be acted upon. This teaches us a further principle which is that once a decision has been reached whether it is against your advice or not you should support that decision and stand firm on it and not keep changing your mind.