Khwaja Kamal-ud-Dins
early days in England:
Collection of
shorter reports from 1913
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1. Maulana
Nur-ud-Dins 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 rakas 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:
- Presumably the lord referred to
in para 4 is Lord Headley.
- 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.
- The Zafrullah referred to here is Sir Muhammad
Zafrullah Khan, who was then a young man.
2.
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Dins 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. 12
(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, 1017 July 1913, p.
3 (See original report)
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Related
links:
See scanned images
of all the Urdu reports given on this page
History of 1913: Chronological index
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Dins
arrival in England, 1912 |