Lankaweb: Ahmadiyya Supreme Head inaugurated Bait ul Amaan, a new mosque in the city of Manchester, UK and gave a discourse on the ideal spirit of building and populating mosques. He began by citing the following Quranic verses:
‘And remember the time when Abraham and Ishmael raised the foundations of the House, praying, ‘Our Lord, accept this from us; for Thou art All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
‘Our Lord, make us submissive to Thee and make of our offspring a people submissive to Thee. And show us our ways of worship, and turn to us with mercy; for Thou art Oft-Returning with compassion and Merciful.
‘And, our Lord, raise up among them a Messenger from among themselves, who may recite to them Thy Signs and teach them the Book and Wisdom and may purify them; surely, Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.’ (Surah Al Baqarah, verses 128 – 130)
These verses mention a great model which illustrates high standards of humility, meekness, sacrifice, prayer for one’s progeny to remain connected to God and prayer to become servant of God. The first verse depicts the great sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim and Hazrat Ishmael (peace be on them). Each stone with which that they constructed the House of God bore witness that the father and the son and their generation to follow was going to settle around it. They both had conviction of belief that one day the House would become the centre of faith but they had no idea when that would be. At the time, all they were aware of was to make their sacrifice. In spite of their great sacrifice they expressed the greatest of humility when they prayed to God and acknowledged that it was all due to His grace. There was no sense of importance in their expressions, they did not expect any reward, prompt or otherwise. Rather, they prayed to the All-Hearing, All-Knowing God to accept their prayers that they had made sacrifice and pledged to do so in the future. They submitted to God that He was aware that what they said and what they did was to seek the pleasure of God. They prayed for the place to become House of God and for it to be populated by virtue of being House of God. They realised for it to be truly populated was dependant on God’s grace, so they prayed for the insight and vision which takes one to God.
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Europe