Yunus Omotayo
The mid-December 2020 has seen social media buzzing with viral videos and texts by some propagandist Islamists notifying Muslim netizens of the result of an initial Google search on “Who is the current Caliph of Islam?” that displayed through Wikipedia the Khalifah and Supreme Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba).
Disgruntled by this result, these fanatical elements resorted to a callous tactic to brainwash the Muslim populace through the outburst that this search result is a misrepresentation of reality, and therefore, should hit the Google feedback button to report it as “misleading and inaccurate.”
This writer would like to respond categorically that the true Caliphate and Caliph that have been divinely instituted and installed are neither dependent on the certification by nor vulnerable to the rejection of any and all of the world religious, political, economic, academic, and media powers. Not even that of the contemporary 1.8 billion demographic power of the mainstream Muslims world about which hollowness the Holy Prophet of Islam (saw) had sadly prophesied that:
يوشك الأمم أن تداعى عليكم، كما تداعى الأكلة إلى قصعتها. فقال قائل: ومِن قلَّةٍ نحن يومئذ؟ قال: بل أنتم يومئذٍ كثير، ولكنكم غثاء كغثاء السَّيل
“Soon shall nations invite one another against you as food-consumers invite to their dishes. A person enquired: would that be due to our numerical fewness on those days? He replied: No, you would be great in numbers, but as useless as the rubbish that float with flood.” (Sunan Abi Dawud, No. 4,297)
Indeed, how can a people groping in such a whirlpool of global power and identity crisis – as the contemporary mainstream Muslim world is – exert any formidable influence capable of marring the global progress, presence, and influence of the current Caliphate of Islam which the divinely installed Khalifatul-Masih, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) actually represents?
Indisputably, if this aberrant trend has evidenced anything at all, it is that it has revealed the envy-laced dispositions and subjective emotions and undertones currently beclouding the collective mind of these unscrupulous Islamist elements. It has merely substantiated the deep-rooted desperation and frustration that have naturally followed their almost century-long successive abortive efforts to establish a world Caliphate, sequel to Mustapha Kamal Ata Turk’s 1924 abolition of the Turkish Caliphate – the hitherto mainstream Muslim world’s relatively world Caliphate.
Notably, from the subsequent Caliphate conferences held in Makkah (1924), to that of Cairo (1925), then again in Makkah (1926), in Jerusalem (1931), and Geneva (1935), all ended without tangible results. Ditto to their foundations in 1949 of the Islamic World Congress in Karachi, in 1962 of the World Muslim League in Mecca, in 1970 of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah (Hans Hung, Islam – Past, Present and Future, 2007, One World Publications, England, p. 456-457) and particularly, the 1973 conference in Pakistan, etc, the mainstream Muslim world have woefully failed to install a world Caliph whose presence and influence would hold politico-religious sway (of their whims and caprices) over the world. So far, the best that has emerged from among them has been that most horrible and notorious Abubakar Al-Baghdadi’s pseudo terrorist Caliphate established by the ISIS! Arguably, however, the sudden birth and death of such a horrible caliphate must be understood as only reflecting the wider abysmal state of the collective people that produced it, particularly the deplorable state of their politico-religious psychology, ideology, and idiosyncrasy.
Conspicuously, amidst the lingering incapacity and failure of the mainstream Muslims described above, and to their surprise, too, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which they had declared heterodox, unorthoprax and, therefore, non-Muslim, has however been aided by the God of Islam to successfully re-institute, since 112 years ago, the exact Caliphate on the precept of Prophethood, which the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) had prophesied would be established in the Muslim world, with continued presence through the eschatological times. (Reported by Ahmad bn Hambal from An-Nu’man bn Bashīr, No. 18123 )
Indeed, it is highly gratifying to note that not only has the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community been blessed with five Caliphs in successive eras since 1908, but its apolitical Caliphate has continued to be hallmarked by the unity, solidarity, brotherhood, cohesion, harmony, peace, love and moral and spiritual tenacity that have characterized the tens of millions of its global membership now spread across over 212 countries and territories.
In fact, instead of appealing to the emotions of the Muslim public in the manner, they have done, the questions which those who felt negatively toward the aforementioned search results from Google should have asked themselves or tried to find answers to should have been what impacts and influence has Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) made upon the world that has had his name and office recorded in the world database as the current Caliph of Islam? They should have sought to find out the global presence he has displayed and the roles he has played and still playing in our contemporary time and which have positioned him in the capacity of a current global Caliph of Islam. The fact is, his title is Khalifatul-Masih, but the world has come to recognize him as the Caliph of Islam due to the great impacts which his global actions, presence and influence have had, and continue to have, on the world.
In this context, let us take a brief look at just a few of the prominent world-constructive roles His Holiness (aba) has played since the beginning of his Caliphate through which he has exerted positive impact and influence upon the world in general.
Going in descending order of time, an obvious global impact exerted by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) can be seen in the fact that, at the height of the destructive effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on all ramifications of human life, straining global health system and rendering world leaders powerless, there was no any current Caliph of Islam other than His Holiness that rose to the global level to proffer Islamic leadership direction to world leaders. This is evident in a series of historic letters written and dispatched during the month of June 2020 to leaders of 14 countries, namely, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Others were Pope Francis and the UN Secretary-General, His Excellency António Guterres.
In these historic letters, he (aba) directed their attention to the exigencies of the time and the pragmatic ways to address them. For instance, here is a specimen of the messages embodied by these letters. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) said:
“As a religious leader and a person of faith, I believe that the tribulations of the past few weeks have occurred according to the Decree of God Almighty and as a grave warning to mankind to reform and to forgo all forms of injustice and cruelty. This pandemic is a glaring message to mankind directing the people of the world to turn towards God Almighty and to fulfil His rights and those of our fellow human beings.” (https://www.pressahmadiyya.com/press-releases/2020/12/letters-sent-to-world-leaders-by-head-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-community-during-covid-19-pandemic-to-be-published-for-first-time/)
Similarly, from the instance of the Arab Spring in 2010 which spread horizontally across the Arab world, overrunning their leadership configurations (Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt’s Husni Mubarak etc.), to that of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012, the then and still escalating diplomatic hostility between Iran on the one side, and Israel and American and other Western powers on the other, the increasing global tensions over the proliferation of nuclear armaments, the growing threats of nuclear warfare and the concerns over climate change and global warming, etc., Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) was and still the current Caliph of Islam who has risen to the global stage to address the world leaders. This ranges from his speeches at the European Parliament on 4 December 2012(https://www.alislam.org/articles/key-to-peace-global-unity/), to that of the American leaders at the Capitol Hill, Washington on June 27, 2012, the British Parliament on 22 October 2008, etc., as well as his letters written to the then Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, UK’s David Cameron, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullāh bn Abdul-Azeez, USA’s Barack Obama, and China’s Wen Jiabao, and a host of others, which were later published in a book entitled World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace (https://www.alislam.org/book/world-crisis-pathway-peace/)
More so, the world cannot forget in a hurry how, during the period of the invasion of Iraq by US and the NATO powers that commenced in 2003 at the heels of the September 11 terrorist attack on USA’s Pentagon and World Trade towers, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) was that current Caliph of Islam, then, who launched the annual National Peace Symposium in the UK in 2004 and followed it with the launching of the annual Ahmadiyya Muslim Prize for the Advancement of Peace in 2009, all with a view to walking the talk towards actualizing sustainable just and peaceful relations within a united global human family. (https://www.alislam.org/profile/hazrat-mirza-masroor-ahmad/)
Furthermore, when in 2006 the blasphemous caricature against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) published by a Danish newspaper erupted uproars and violent reactions by the mainstream Muslim world, he guided the Ahmadi Muslims in particular, and the Muslim world in general, on the peaceful but effective ways of reacting to the blasphemies of the blasphemers through a series of his Friday Sermons that were later published under the title: The Blessed Model of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the Caricatures. (https://www.alislam.org/book/blessed-model-holy-prophet-muhammad-caricatures/)
Furthermore, in 2016, He was the Caliph of Islam that went to Denmark to demystify the issues of freedom of speech, among other salient issues before the Danish leaders, reminding them that, “Even here in Denmark, some years ago, there were cartoons printed that sought to ridicule the Founder of Islam (peace be upon him) and to portray him, God forbid, as an imperialistic leader and belligerent warmonger. This unjust portrayal of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) defies history and defies the truth. The reality was that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was forever enslaved by his determination to establish peace and the rights of humanity.” And further declared that:
“If one reads the Holy Quran and assesses the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through a lens of justice, rather than through a lens of prejudice, they will soon realize that Islam is a religion of peace. They will realize that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) desired peace.” (https://www.alislam.org/press-release/denmark-copenhagen-reception-2016/)
Conclusively, if the foregoing lines have established any fact, it is that the propagandist, fanatical Muslim elements who are negatively disposed to the global presence of Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) as the current Caliph of Islam should learn to accept and appreciate that His Holiness has been divinely established as the current Caliph of Islam; that he has continued to justify this divine appointment practically through his exclusive, impactful and positive global actions, presence and influence; and ultimately, that, since his elevation to the office of the current Caliph of Islam was done neither by the 1.8 billion Muslim populace nor by Google or Wikipedia etc., but rather by the Transcendent Power, their callous tactics to ensure that Google searches should not display Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) as the current Caliph of Islam is not only ineffectual, with no impact whatsoever on the integrity, authority, presence and influence of his Caliphate, but it is extremely childish, unwitty and, therefore, aberrant.
