Canada: Inauguration: Bait ur Rahman Mosque: Vancouver, B.C. - Building/Populating Mosques:Ahmadiyya

[DawudTalut]

Canada: Inauguration of Bait ur Rahman Mosque in Vancouver, British Columbia: Building and Populating Mosques – Ahmadiyya Preference.

Peace be on you.

‘Only he populates the Mosques of Allah, who believes in Allah, and the Last Day, and observes Salaat (Prayer), and pays the Zakat, and fears none but Allah (with understanding of His Grandeur, beneficence and magnificence); so these it is who are surely among those who reach the goal.’ [Holy Quran Surah Al-Taubah chapter 9: verse 18]


[Note: i= The words ‘yakhsha’ in the verse signifies fear of Allah with understanding of His Grandeur, beneficence and magnificence. ii = The word ‘asaa’ when used with respect to Allah for those who are solid in faith, participate in Zakaat and others financial sacrifices and fear none but Allah, it signifies surety.]


On May 17, 2013, in British Columbia, Canada, Hadhrat Khalifah tul Messiah V (may Allah help him) delivered the inaugural Friday sermon from the newly built Bait ur Rahman Mosque [House of ‘The Merciful’ Mosque] . The existing Families of Ahmadiyya Community, living since four or five decades, had been offering Salaat and engaging in other spiritual activities in a mission house center.



SIGNIFICANCE OF MOSQUE
Existence of a mosque has its significance. Its structure, dome and minarets develop feelings in believers and the neighborhood. It unites faithful and opens new doors to convey the message of Islam to others. That is why Hadhrat Promised Messiah (peace be on him) has stressed very much in building mosques. He said that it is essential to build mosque, no matter simple and little.



INTENTION SHOULD BE GOOD
One might think why making large mosques, considering there are increasing demands of raising mosques at other places too. ‘innamal aamalo binniyaat’ (hadith) i.e. surely deeds depend on intentions. Vancouver is the largest city of B.C. and there are many Ahmadiyya Muslims thus the size of mosque is not excessive. Allah is opening new doors of progress thus our places need to be large. Allah revealed to Hadhrat Promised Messiah ‘wassey makanaka’i.e. expand your places. Here ‘expansion’ is not only about houses which host guests who come for Jalsa (annual spiritual gathering) it is also about capacity of mosques.



OBJECTIVES OF IBRAHIM OF THIS AGE
Allah addressed to Hadhrat Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) as Ibrahim [metaphorically]. The original Hadhrat Ibrahim (upon whom be peace) re-raised the Kaaba upon its foundations, for the sake of establishment of Touheed (Unity of Allah). Allah has promised that renaissance of Islam and fulfillment of spiritual purpose of building Kaaba, in this era, is to be attained through His Promised Messiah (a.s.). Mosques are built so that people gather for worship and objectives of Unity are attained. The real thing is intention, as said by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him). Our intention is:
= To establish attention towards Allah.
= To convey Allah’s Message.
= To bring maximum people under the flag of Unity of Allah.
= To bring spiritual reforms in selves and our progenies.
= To prostate at the threshold of Allah (we and progenies).
= To strive to establish offering of Salaat [with righteousness] such that mosques are felt smaller in capacity.



BUILD MORE MOSQUES IN MORE CITIES
The locals should pay the right of new mosque by populating it; by worshiping Allah such that they live according to His commandments; take the message of IslamAhmadiyya to others; connect their selves and children to Allah-the One to be successful in this world and in Hereafter. Their intention should be to seek pleasure of Allah and His rain-like blessings which will help them to raise more mosques in more cities. Their progress should soon make feel those mosques smaller. Centers and Halls provide place but they are not like mosques. Now, all Canadian Chapters of the Ahmadiyya Community should make mosques at lands, they have already acquired. Mosques open doors for propagation of Divine Message.



MOSQUES OPEN DOORS FOR PROPAGATION OF MESSAGE; REPORT ABOUT RECENT NEW MOSQUE IN VALENCIA
Last month, a mosque was inaugurated in Valencia Spain by Holy Khalifah (a.t.). According to reports, due to the new mosque, non-Muslims are taking interest in Islam. Non-Ahmadiyya Muslims are also coming to offer Salaat and getting knowledge about Jamaat. Pure natured will accept the true Islam.



TO GATHER ALL MUSLIMS ON EARTH AT ONE DEEN
One of the duties, assigned by Allah to Hadhrat Promised Messiah (on whom be peace), was to teach the true teaching of Islam to all Muslims and to gather them at That Islam which was brought by Hadhrat Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him). A revelation to Promised Messiah said: ‘Gather all Muslims, who are on the face of earth, at deen e wahid’ . Promised Messiah (a.s.) explains [in the words of his Khalifah (a.t.)]:

That this command to gather together all the Muslims that are living on the face of the Earth is a special kind of directive. Then, citing the example of Hazrat Ibraheem (as), the Promised Messiah (as) stated that as Allah had commanded the fire to become cool and a means of security for him and that exactly had come about, so this command seems to me to be of this same type.


That Allah desires that the Muslims living on this Earth should be gathered together on the one true religion and this shall indeed come to pass and they shall indeed become gathered so together. But this does not mean that there would be absolutely no differences left among them. Indeed differences shall remain but they shall not be such as would be considered worthy of note or mention.

MOSQUE IN VANCOUVER - EFFECTS
= There are thousands of Muslims living in Vancouver; the mosque will attract their attentions.
= There will be positive and negative comments by non-Ahmadiyya Muslims and non-Muslims.
= It will open doors for more propagation of Truth.
= The local Ahmadiyya Muslims should be prepared for this and make progress in acquiring knowledge and moral excellence.
= Their words and deeds should be in harmony otherwise people will be distracted.
= Building mosque brings astonishing blessings of Allah on individual and on Jamaat.
= In the Quran, Allah has mentioned about mosques in various ways; respect of mosque, purpose, properties of those who populate mosques.




PROPERTIES OF THOSE WHO POPULATE MOSQUES
== ‘Only he populates the Mosques of Allah, who believe in Allah’ is the first property in this regard, as mentioned in the verse stated in the beginning. It is not enough to make claim of having belief. Standards have to be established. Holy Quran reports in (49:15) : ‘qaalatil aarabo aamanna’ i.e. the Arabs of the desert (people with lesser relation with Allah, uneducated ones of wilderness) say ‘we believe’…….. Allah told Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) ‘qul lam tomeno wa lakin quloo aslamnaa’ i.e. tell (them) ‘you have not believed (yet)’ but rather say ‘we have accepted apparent obedience’………...Apparent obedience can be due to any reason.


== After saying ‘kalima’ [La ilaaha illAllaho Muhammad ur rasulullah’ i.e. there is none worthy of worship but Allah (and) Muhammad is His Messenger], progress in ‘emaan’ (belief) is required. It means a momin (believer), an Ahmadi Muslim should strive to get nearness of Allah, focus on worship, prepare and offer all sacrifices for the pleasure of Allah, practice His commandments. Their spiritual progress should reach new heights every day.


== The Promised Messiah (a.s.) said:

…‘the momins, the believers are those people whose actions bear witness to their inner beliefs. Their faith is inscribed on their hearts. And they make the winning of the pleasure of God the most important thing and assign this the highest priority over all other things. And they adopt the fine and narrow paths of Taqwa, righteousness, for His sake. They become totally consumed in His love. And every idol that comes in their way as an obstacle whether it be a moral lapse or some other sort of weakness or failing they take themselves far away from any such thing.’

'the fine and narrow paths of Taqwa'.....These are the paths which require that we discharge the obligations towards Allah and His Creature and our every limb and body part should obey Allah’s commandments……Our thinking should be pure so that our attention should remain focused on Allah during Salaat. If focus of thoughts is worldly pleasure, then one cannot remain attentive in Salaat.



== The true believer remains engaged in the love of Allah, said the Promised Messiah (a.s.). [His master] The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) described this as one characteristic of a momin that his heart continues to remain stuck in the mosque, from one Salaat till the next Salaat.



== Doing with honesty, the worldly tasks, jobs, trades or agriculture etc which are according to pleasure of Allah are essential too. Promised Messiah said that one will be questioned about one’s responsibilities. Momin should remember Allah while doing worldly chores. Lofty examples of Sahaba [companions of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.)] is for believers to follow their footsteps in this regard.


== The Promised Messiah (s.a.w.) said that to attain high levels of belief, one must increase in the morals. Morals are related with rights of people. Mere offering of Salaat is not enough to earn nearness of Allah. Rights of society must be paid too.
CONTINUES……..

 

[DawudTalut]

CONTINUES……..
== The Promised Messiah also said that one should safeguard one against laziness and lethargy, as it take one away from Allah…..There are people who do not offer prayers because of laziness. Laziness takes one away faith and fear of going in front of Allah is lost.


== Faith in Hereafter is one of the characteristic of those who populate mosques. They purely seek pleasure of Allah. Allah will grant them paradise.


== Mosque-comers also offer financial sacrifices for the pleasure of Allah. In this regard, there are people in Ahmadiyya Community who offer extraordinarily. In building this very mosque (Vancouver), some faithful has presented hundreds of thousands of dollars. The uniqueness of Ahmadiyya Muslims’ financial offerings compared to others, is their regularity and contribution in other various Community schemes. In materialism of modern days’ tough economy, such offerings occupy very high importance. May Allah reward best to them.


== One act is not enough for belief. A believer has to pay dues of Allah and Creation of Allah.


== Holy Quran mentions the qualities of rightly guided person who also discharge the obligation due to a mosque.


== The believers love Allah the most. The Promised Messiah said:

‘…the height of love is worship and this is why the word ‘mohabbat’ or love is special to God alone………………


…worship consists of two parts. The one where he fears God as God should be feared. Thus the true fear of God takes a man towards the fountain of purity and his soul melts and flows towards God and the true color of servitude develops in it……………


…The other part of worship is that man should love God as God merits being loved. This is why it is said, “wal-lazeena aamanoo ashad-do hub-ban lil-lah” (2:166). So that recognizing all worldly loves to be temporary and transient, one declares God to be the only true object of one’s love. These are the two rights that Allah asks of man with respect to Himself. For the proper discharge of both these types of obligations that man owes to God for His worship, although every worship has its own color, yet Islam has set two different types of worship………..


…Fear and love are two things that it seems impossible to have together..how can a person who fears someone also love such a one. But the fear of God and His love have a totally different kind of color. The degree to which a man advances in his fear of God, to that same degree his love for God will also increase. And similarly the degree to which he advances in his love for God to that same degree he shall increase in his fear of God and this fear shall dominate him and prevent him from committing any evil deed by making him hate such things and take him towards a more and more pure state.’

So this is the state which a true momin / believer have to attain. Promised Messiah links fear with worship of Salaat and love with worship of Hajj pilgrimage. Fear of Allah should become a means of winning His love. At this stage, a believer becomes true worshipper, a true servant. Promised Messiah wants each one of his followers to see at this stage.



BUILDING MOSQUE, SELF ANYLYSIS, RESPONSIBILITIES
By building this mosque, we need to check ourselves in terms of worshipping Allah, love of Allah, obligations on others. Act on commandments of Allah; that is Taqwa which helps us to pay rights of worship.


By raising the mosque, avenues of conveying divine message to others shall open. We need to see if we action and deeds match. Allah says: ‘You are the best people raised for the good of humanity; you enjoin what is good and forbid evil and believe in Allah.’ (Holy Quran ch3:v11)


‘Wa qoolo lin nasay husna’ (from 2:84) i.e. And speak to the people with kindness……It should be exercised in mutual dealings. Particularly office-holders should exercise it, otherwise they shall be repelling people. It is vital in conveying the Message.


Before we make links to others, we should have worshippers who pay rights of worship of Allah.


Visitors shall come to see the mosque, develop and strength the effect that Ahmadiyya Muslims always do good for others, instead of thinking about their own benefit. It is teaching of Islam.


Allah is opening new ways to convey the Message in astonishing ways. Make contacts and our actions and deeds should make win over these contacts to the love of Islam and its teachings.


Our own dealing with each other should be of love for the sake of Allah, it should increase. It is important for winning pleasure of Allah, our internal strength and for success in conveying the Message.


May the mosque bring for Jamaat, the internal strength, they act on teachings of Allah, their hearts should stuck to mosque as Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) wished, Grace of Allah is shared by comers, message of Islam-Ahmadiyya spread.



DATA OF MOSQUE

The announcement of this mosque’s construction was made in 1997 by Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IV (ra) and he also named it at that time as Masjid Baitur Rahman. It is situated on roughly 3.75 acres of land and has a covered area of 33,419 sq ft. It has two floors and a dome that is 47 ft high and a minaret that is 76 ft high. At the moment both the men and women’s halls are combined and this combined area is 6,800 sq ft. and in this combined hall a total of 1,132 people can offer prayers. There is an ample parking lot that can accommodate 140 cars. There is also a multi-purpose hall in which 1,050 people can offer prayers - so altogether more than 2,000 people can offer prayers in the mosque. There is also a library, a tabligh/outreach center, a kitchen, a funeral home service area, four classrooms, number of offices, a boardroom, a missionary’s residence, and a guest house. They have done some very beautiful calligraphy on the mosque. The total cost of the project, including some extra costs that became necessary, stands at C$8.5 million.

The Promised Messiah said:

The true beauty of mosques is not in their building structures but in fact it is with those worshippers who offer their prayers in them with full sincerity. Without such people these mosques are lying abandoned. The mosque of the Holy Prophet (sa) was a small and its roof was made of date palm branches and water would leak onto its floor when it would rain. But the glow and atmosphere of a mosque is with its worshippers. In the time of the Holy Prophet (sa) some worldly minded people made a mosque which was brought down by the command of God. The name of that mosque was Majid Zarar. This mosque was brought down. The commandment with regard to mosques is that they should be built for the purpose of taqwa, righteousness.

………………


The Jama’at should have its own mosque in which there should be an Imam of our own Jama’at who should advise and guide the people and the members of the Jama’at should all get together to offer their prayers in this very mosque. There is great blessing in Jama’at and unity and much confusion arises of disunity. And this is the time when unity and togetherness needs to be promoted and minor small differences should be overlooked which cause disunity.

May Allah enable us to mold our lives in accordance with these instruction. Ameen.


REFERENCE
Based on Friday sermon (17 May 2013) by Hadhrat Khalifa tul Messiah V (May Allah help him), Vancouver Canada, mta.tv and alislam.org