Woking Muslim Mission, England, 1913–1968
Home
History

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s early days in England, 1913: Shorter reports
Personalities
Work
Photographic archive
Film newsreel archive
Contact us
Search the website
 

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s early days in England:

Collection of shorter reports from 1913

1. Maulana Nur-ud-Din’s letter of advice

In January 1913, Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din wrote the following letter to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din as published in Badr:

My dear, perfect one of faith [ba kamal din], assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu

Continue to pray from the bottom of your heart: ‘O Allah, grant me a pure companion’. Whenever you return back to London after leaving it, as soon as you sight the city, say the following prayer:

O Allah, Lord of the seven heavens and what is under them, Lord of the seven earths and what comes out of them, Lord of the winds and what they scatter, Lord of the devils and what they mislead, I ask You for the good of this city and the good of its people and the good of what is in it. I seek refuge in You from the evil of this city and the evil of its people and the evil of what is in it. O Allah, make us loved by its people and make us love the righteous among them. O Allah, grant us the good provisions of its life and save us from its evil.

Have recourse to the prayer of Sura Al-Hamd very very much, so much that Allah is pleased with you. May your acquaintance with the lord [Headley] be a source of blessings, amen.

It is important to turn your attention to Minan-ur-Rahman. Let the weapon of prayers be with you there. Meet people, and Allah may grant you some invaluable jewel of a man who would be a servant of the faith. I will pray here, may the Lord be with you, amen. Meet also the Muslim and Hindu boys who are there. Present the Holy Quran. For any needs that arise, after two raka‘s of prayer and the recital of the names and praise of God, ask much for forgiveness. Say ‘There is no God but You, glory be to You! Surely I am from among the wrong-doers’ [the Quran, 21:87], and then pray that God may guide you to a fruitful, blessed end. Do not waste your time on those who are bad-natured, hypocritical, worldly, deniers of God, who either do not pray or have no faith in prayer, miserly and lazy. This is important. Plenty of good people are there also. Meet them. I could not write to dears Zafrullah or Ibadullah, but I prayed for them. The Holy Quran is the word of the Creator, the Most High, and is full of truth and wisdom. Invite people towards it. May Allah the Most High be with you, amen.

Nur-ud-Din,
5 January 1913

Badr, 30 January 1913 (See original report)

Notes by Website Editor:

  1. Presumably the ‘lord’ referred to in para 4 is Lord Headley.
  2. Minan-ur-Rahman is the name of an unfinished research work by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, trying to prove that Arabic is the origin of all other languages. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was interested in continuing this research further, and in 1915 his Urdu book Umm-ul-alsina was published with further material on this topic.
  3. The Zafrullah referred to here is Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, who was then a young man.

2. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s letter to Maulana Nur-ud-Din

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din wrote a letter to Maulana Nur-ud-Din, dated 30 January 1913, while visiting the University of Cambridge in England, as follows:

My master, my leader, my beloved, my mentor! May Allah keep you safe, may prayers and peace be upon you! May Allah grant you health, keep you over us for years and years, and give you much physical strength. The favours you have done me are so much that I am unable to recount them. I cannot find words in gratitude for that day when you guided me towards the late Hazrat [Mirza Ghulam Ahmad], whose care and teaching planted a small, spiritual tree in my heart and mind, which was then watered and nourished by your hand.

It was the absurd talk and claims of a famous Christian clergyman and doctor of divinity that brought me here [to Cambridge], and God the Most High made him humiliated at my hands. The scene of ‘so he who disbelieved was confounded’ [Holy Quran, 2:258] that I witnessed taking place today is unique in its own right. I have sent its full detail to Mufti [Muhammad Sadiq] sahib, and you can hear it.

My beloved, it is absolutely essential that work be done here with determination and preseverance. To preach by lectures here is useless, although I will do that as well. I am preparing a proposal which will reach you in two weeks.

Prayer [is required], prayer, prayer, prayer!

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Lawyer
Cambridge, 30 January 1913

P.S. Your honour, I received the letter you wrote in your own hand. God willing, I will remain engaged in prayer as you instructed.

Badr, 6 March 1913, p. 3 (See original report)

3. Another lady

Another report by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din in chronological sequence, addressed to Maulana Nur-ud-Din, is as follows. It was published under the title Another Lady.

My leader, my lord, my mentor! May Allah keep you safe. In the last post I did not receive any invigorating message from my master and beloved in his own hand. However, God has given another cause for happiness today. Here in London there is a solicitor who is a member of the Theology Society. A solicitor is a legal advisor and practitioner of law here. He had sent for a copy of the magazine to read the article about Jesus. Today at 4.00 p.m. his wife came here, accompanied by a Mrs Clarke, to meet me. After a formal exchange of words, she talked about the article on the divinity of Jesus. I found that she had read the entire article and understood it too. The conversation lasted a full hour. At the end she said that she already believed that Jesus was indeed not God, but since it now seems that he was not even a perfect guide for our lives then what work did he come to do? I replied that he came only for the reform of the Jews. She said that was right and as his teaching does not apply to us at all and also he was not God, then if we do not accept your interpretation then his mission becomes meaningless. Then she wrote down a few notes about the new points that had arisen during the conversation and said: I will not let my husband sleep tonight until he gives me satisfactory replies on the points that I have just heard from you. She added: It would be good if you and he were to hold a discussion in front of me but he is only free on Sundays. So I extended an invitation to them to join me for lunch next Sunday and she said she would let me know. May God the Most High bring about a desirable result.

I am feeling better for the last three days as I have reduced my workload. So far I have avoided meat for two days. I may not be able to send the magazine [The Islamic Review] this week. It will come next week. I have made many more changes in this issue, and it had to be produced in a rush. The difficulty is that I am alone. Regarding every article, every idea and every proposal I pray very humbly and say special prayers. During prostrations in prayer I make submissions most humbly and fervently, and then take any step. If I still make a mistake then it is forgiveable. I am saying special prayers about a very important article which is to appear in the April issue. Its object is to prevent the proposed law from being made which, under a pretext, tries to stop the propagation of Islam in Africa. I prayed constantly about how to begin the article. The night before last it was indicated to me in clear words, as a result of prayer, that I should write it as a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for India. It will receive early attention and be advantageous. They wish to stop the progress of Islam in Africa, and it is our duty to repel their plans.

Next week I am going to Folkestone for four days. This is a port town on the coast. After seeing the first issue of the magazine, some residents of this town wrote to say that the magazine had drawn their attention towards Islam and they wanted to show more interest in Islam. So they invited me to come for discussions and lectures. I will go on 21st March. The instruction you gave me about going to Cambridge, I will bear it in mind.

Badr, 17 April 1913, p. 1–2 (See original report)

4. Lectures around England

Under the above title a report by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din published in June 1913 reads as follows:

Those days are approaching, by the grace of God, when this Ahmadi servant of Islam will be seen preaching the faith in the various cities of Emgland as was the case in India after the death of the Promised Messiah. However, it is a dire necessity that more servants of the faith should come here. The magazine has proved useful thus far and it has led to the series of lectures mentioned in the title above. In May four lectures were proposed. One has taken place and three remain. The first lecture was at Cambridge, organised by Christian rationalists who wrote to me to come and speak on the basic differences between Islam and Christianity. That went well by the grace of Allah. The second lecture is in the famous area of London known as Piccadilly and will be presided over by a Countess. It has been advertised and leading persons in the field of law are particularly interested in it. The third and fourth lectures will be at Folkestone on 30th and 31st May. Correspondence is going on with the International Psychical Research Club of London about a lecture in June on the topic of reincarnation. The Northbrook Society London has also expressed a wish for a lecture on Islam.

If even one person comes over (from India) to free me from the work of the magazine, I can spend the whole year giving lectures. I have proposed that, until arrangements are completed for the Urdu version of the magazine in India, at least these lectures can be printed in Urdu. If our brethren buy them in a large quantity for distribution, we can use that income to have the lectures printed in English and distributed every month in Europe, England and America. Until Allah gives us the resources to distribute The Islamic Review free on a large scale, I favour the proposal for the free distribution of these lectures. So far I have translated and sent to Lahore the Cambridge lecture. I will continue to send more. Friends should contact Shaikh Rahmatullah about this. It must be remembered that all these activities must not be associated with me personally. It is the work of the community, and soon I wish to relinquish the personal aspects of it and become a servant of the community.

O Ahmadiyya community! I have done what I could with my weak power, and if Allah allows I shall do more. Now it is up to you to take care of this work. Any financial help should be sent to Shaikh Rahmatullah in Lahore. I should only be informed so that I can express thanks.

Your servant,
Kamal-ud-Din,
Bishopsgate, London

Badr, 5 June 1913, p. 5 (See original report)

5. Working single-handedly, needing much prayer

Under the title Letter from Khwaja Sahib, the following letter is printed:

Prayer, prayer, prayer. Brethren, pray. The time is approaching that the vision of the late Imam be fulfilled. The seed is being sown. It is necessary to water it. How? Prayer, prayer, prayer. A letter has just been received from a place 150 miles from London, containing the following comments. The original English letter, I have sent to our master, the Khalifat-ul-Masih. ‘The Islamic Review is a very good and useful magazine. Your religion appeals to my heart, but I do not as yet understand the concept of the Day of Judgment (this refers to my lecture to the students at Cambridge). My views are those of theosophy, but I am probably unable to understand this concept. Perhaps you could explain it to me in detail.…’

Tomorrow I am going to meet the writer of this letter. May Allah make this meeting bring good results. He belongs to a highly respected family.

My isolation is not only distressing but it also hampers the work. I wish someone else would take care of the magazine, leaving me free to travel and visit various places for propagation work. I have opened a way. Letters have started coming from America. There are Muslims in the Phillipines, about whom correspondence is continuing. But this is becoming an entire department. God have mercy! I am by myself the editor, manager, article writer, clerk, deliverer of the Friday sermon, lecturer, missionary, porter. May Allah have mercy on my helplessness, destitution, inability. ‘My Lord, leave me not alone, and You are the Best of inheritors!’ [the Quran, 21:89].

Far away and seeker of prayer — Kamal-ud-Din.

Badr, 19 June 1913, p. 3 (See original report)

6. Work expands, hopes to have Woking mosque opened

A letter consisting of two parts is printed, the first part addressed to Maulana Nur-ud-Din is as follows:

To the exalted Hazrat, may Allah keep you safe! I received your letter. The doors of the grace of God are opening and this present work is acquiring a central position. At this time, letters have started to come from North America, South America, China, Central Asia, Singapore, Penang, Ceylon, Australia, as if from Muslims all over the world, and from all directions they are offering assistance and encouragement. But the real grace and blessing should come from heaven. I have been invited to Belgium, and when this letter reaches you, I will be in Belgium if God wills. The editor of a well-known newspaper of London, who is a member of Parliament, has written a review of The Islamic Review in which he has expressed surprise that Islam possesses so many good qualities which people here have not even heard of.

The second part is addressed to the members in general and is headed Five times a day Azan in England:

Brethren! Allah willing, that time is very near when you will hear the good news from me that I am permanently settled in a place where five times a day the Azan is called out loudly and prayer is held. The supplication, ‘My Lord, leave me not alone, and You are the Best of inheritors’ [the Quran, 21:89], will certainly be granted. The first part of the prayers which I said in the locked-up Woking Mosque four months ago is shortly to attain fulfilment. Of course, this is a time for prayer. God is providing the resources so that this worthless person will sit in a place which the whole world can see as a recognisable centre for the propagation of Islam. Up to now my work has been done privately, and perhaps even a neighbour did not know of its true value. I cannot write in detail here. The devil is ever ready to ambush. But prayer and prayer again [is required]. I shall be going to preach Islam to a very great person in Belgium. Prayer and prayer.

Your servant,
Kamal-ud-Din,
c/o National Bank of India,
26 Bishopsgate, London

Badr, 10–17 July 1913, p. 3 (See original report)


Related links:

See scanned images of all the Urdu reports given on this page

History of 1913: Chronological index

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s arrival in England, 1912

 
This website is created and published by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (U.K.), Wembley, London,
the successor of the Woking Muslim Mission.