Ahmadiyya Muslim Community welcomed residents to learn about the history and teachings of Islam at the Bradford library last week
A local group is trying to bring peace and understanding through outreach and education.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hosted an exhibit on the teachings and history of Islam as part of Islamic Heritage Month at Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library on Oct. 25.
Missionary, Qasim Ghumman, was on hand with other members of the community to welcome residents and answer any questions they might have.
“A lot of times we might feel that religion is dividing us, or because we see that someone else is from a different religion or if we see things from a different religion, we might not be interested in finding out more about it,” he said, stressing the importance of learning about different communities as a way of discovering a broader connection.
The event featured six stations, with the first having the names of God written in calligraphy, a part of Islamic culture used to beautify places of worship.
The second station focused on Muslim women, the importance of the veil, the rights they have under Islam and dispelling misunderstandings about oppression.
“The profit of Islam was a liberator, so he would try to give women more rights, because at that time in the Arabian Peninsula women weren’t treated as humans unfortunately,” Ghumman said in reference to the time around AD 560.
The station also profiled some Muslim women who had excelled in their careers and Ghumman noted that the women of the Ahmadiyya community took the initiative to set up the exhibit including researching the topics on display.
The third station showed how various sciences, including algebra, had been developed by Muslim societies and discussed in the Quran, and how different Islamic leaders and scholars had an impact on science as we know it today.
The fourth station discussed how the Prophet Muhammad brought the teachings of Islam almost 1,500 years ago and how Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was considered the second coming of the prophet and founded the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab, India in 1889.
As a proponent of peace, Ghulam Ahmad wrote more than 90 books, with the title of his last book appropriately translating to ‘A Message of Peace,’ according to Ghumman.
“Islam is tied very closely with peace and even these days we see in parts of the world when people have an agenda of their own, certain groups, they use Islam as a way of obtaining what they want … we try to teach Muslims that Islam is an answer of peace and we should never go towards war, but rather we should try to bring people to peace,” he said.
The fifth station featured dozens of different versions of the Quran translated into different languages from the original Arabic.
Ghumman estimated the Quran has been translated into 70 different languages with work continuing on more.
“We believe that this is the complete teaching of religion,” he said, explaining that the Ahmadiyya community believes that every religion was correct for its time, but as something needed to be added, a new prophet would come.
“Over time, whenever mankind had become stable enough to learn something more, that newer thing was revealed to build on top of the education they had before,” he said, comparing the process to how children in kindergarten are taught the basics instead of how to be a doctor.
The sixth station used vertical banners to feature different prophecies from the Quran, and Ghumman explained how they alluded to concepts like genetic engineering and airplanes well before those had been invented.
He was reminded of a chapter of the Quran that talks about the relation of the sun and the moon and how celestial objects orbit around each other.
“This was something that in that time people were ignorant of or didn’t have the resources to find out — it’s basically a prophecy for what people are finding out today to be true,” he said.
A smaller display also explained the process of succession for the Khilafat or the spiritual governance of the Ahmadiyya community, which is voted upon by a committee.
“We believe the one who is rightful for that position is the one who believes and does good work,” Ghumman said.
The current Khalifa or leader, Hazrat Masroor Ahmad, was selected in 2003 and resides in the United Kingdom from where he gives a sermon every Friday discussing world events and providing spiritual guidance.
Ghumman emphasized the main takeaway for those attending the event was the Ahmadiyya community’s mission of peace.
“The foundation of our religion is on peace. If the foundation of a building is not strong then the whole building is weak … so if we cannot promote peace and bring the community together, then our foundation becomes weak,” he said adding that they are always available to help or support the Bradford community.