AM's BJ Connection (Politics of Religious Claims-2)

Read other ARTICLES and BLOGS by the author. The reason he is frequently banned on Chowq is because he (1) posts rebuttals to anti-Islam atheists (2) counters their anti-Pakistan propaganda efficiently (3) shows them how the American ‘wet dream’ is drying up globally (4) opposes their sponsored 'favourite' writers’ debauched views, and satirizes them

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For the reading pleasure of my Q-admirers at Chowq, I reproduce Chapter 2, part-1 (Politics of Religious Claims) of an important book:

Ahmadiyya Movement: British-Jewish Connection By Bashir Ahmad

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'Tomb’ of Jesus

The Mirza not only announced the natural death of Jesus Christ but also discovered his tomb.28 At first in Gallilee (Palestine) then in Tripoli, afterwards in Syria and ultimately through prophetic revelation in Srinagar Kashmir.29 It was a startling discovery. Hundreds of people went to Khanyar Street of Srinagar to see that tomb. But whoever went there laughed at the Mirza’s trickery.30

Qadianis regard it as an unparalleled event in the history of their movement. The Mirza advised one of his trusted followers, Molvi Abdullah Vakil to collect evidences in support of tomb of Jesus at Srinagar in his book Raz-i-Haqiqat, the Mirza gives a letter from Molvi Vakil to prove that Jesus was burried there. Molvi Vakil afterwards became a Bahai preacher and renounced Qadiani creed it was one of the factors responsible of the change of his belief. He vividly exposed this fraud which also carried the authentication of the mirza’s revelation. He could not understand how the Mirza affixed his revelationary stamp this myth which was the creation of Molvi Noordin and Khalifa Nuruddin of Jammu.

How did Jesus come to India? Mirza argued that Jesus was nailed on the cross but did not die on it. (Muslims believe he was not nailed on the cross at all) He was said to have been taken down by his disciples in a swoon and was healed within 40 days by an ointment called Marham-i-Isa. He then travelled to the East via Persia and Afghania and reached India with disciple St. Thomas. Why did he undertake his journey? In order to preach those Jews who had been exlied by King Sargon of Assria in 721 BC when he attacked the city of Sumaria. He also referred to the Second Captivity of Jews when Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon stormed Jerusalem and is said to have carried off some of the inhabitants as prisoners to Babylon. It was claim that Kashmiris and Afghans were the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel31.

Jesus had to preach to those 'lost sheep'. He traveled to India under the name of Yuz Asaf or Jesus, the gatherer. Khawaja Nazir Ahmad. a member of Lahore group of Qadiani community claimed that Mary also traveled with Jesus to India.32 She died in Murree, a hill station some 40 kilometer from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. The word Murree is said to be the corruption of Mary and is famous for her tomb. After her death, Jesus migrated to Kashmir and died at the age of 120. His tomb is situated Khanyar Street Srinagar, Kashmir. St Thomas went to South India and there he founded a church.

The main thrust of the whole theory is on the assumption that in 721 BC Ten Tribes of Israel were lost and settled in Eastern countries, specially in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Had there been no ‘colonization’ of Jews in those countries, Jesus would not have taken such a long journey from Palestine to India. Here lies the crux of the matter. The stress placed on the dispersion of the Tribes of Israel and their conversion to Islamic and other faiths was meant to provide a feed-back to the Jewish nationalist movement, ‘Anglo-Israelism' which swept the world before the emergence of Zionism.

As stated earlier, Anglo-Israelism was a movement launched by Jews and their agents on the presumption that the Ten Tribes of Assyrian captivity (721 BC) on leaving the land of their sojourn wandered towards the West while those of the Babylon captivity (586 BC) passed easwards to Afghanistan and India. Under the oppressive rules of Gentiles, they were lost to the world of civilization. An appeal was made to the European nations (said to have belonged to lost Tribes of Israel) to help their brethren acquire a separate homeland in accordance with the prophecies of the Holy Book. P.K. Hitti has however proved that the Ten Tribes were never lost and it is a historical myth.33

The earliest suggestion of an Israelitish ancestry of the English is to found in John Sadler’s work, 'Rights of the Kingdom' (1649). He drew a series of parallel between English Law and customs and those of the Herbrews and Jews. Richard Brothers (1757-1832), a half pay officer of eccentric habits in the English Navy, prophecised imminent restoration to Israel of the Holy Land and elevation of himself as the Prince of Jew. In 1840, John Wilson adopted the theory and wrote widely on it. His work 'Our Israelitish Orgin' is the first coherent exposition of the theory.

Other advocates in the 19th century were W. Carpenter (Israelite Found), F. R. A. Glover (England, the Remnant of Juda) and C. Piazzi Symth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, who deduced from certain measurements of the Great Pyramid that the English were the descendants of the Lost Tribes.34

In 1871 Edward Hine published his Identification of the British Native with the Lost Israel, of which a quarter of a million copies were said to have been sold. In the United States, the movement was led by W. H. Pool and G.W. Greenwood.35 A vigorous Anglo-Israel propaganda campaign was started by Major H. W. J. Senior of 1st Bengal Infantry in India. In 1883 he wrote a book entitled, Are the English Israelites?36 It was meant to prove that the English were descendants of Israel and God has fulfilled his Covenant with Abraham and will fulfil all his promises to Israel. A bulk of Anglo-Israelite literature was published and distributed in India by Messers Newman and Co. Calcutta. In his book, Senior states:

"God has declared that until the sun, stars and sea depart, Israel shall not cease from being a Nation before him forever. They have not yet departed therefore, Israel must be now one of the Nations of the earth. The question therefore naturally arises, what nation is Israel? The champions of Anglo-Israelism have logically maintained that England alone, of all nations of earth, possesses, all the blessings and promises, so far as they have been fulfilled, which were made by God in favour of his people Israel and that as God is true, faithful and covenant keeping, these promises and blessings cannot be diverted to any Gentile nation, therefore, it follows that England must be Israel. And in accepting this truth, we also appropriate the unfulfilled promises of the future glory of Israel. We find that all the Prophecies to the first advent of Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem, Babylon, Nienevah, Egypt, Moab, Judah etc, have been fulfilled literally and that all the punishments inflicted on Israel were also literally fulfilled, therefore the promise of blessings to Israel must be taken as well in a literal sense, and we assent that this, in no way interferes with the spiritual interpretation as applicable to the Church."37

Under the heading, To be restored to their own land, Senior cites scriptural evidences (Isa xiii, Jer xxx3, Zech viii, 12,13 etc) to prove that scattered Israel will gather and sing in the height of Zion.38

The hostility of the English to Napoleon and Russia, and the sympathy aroused by the Dreyfus case are attributed to the Anglo-Israelite ideas, It is also argued that the English must be the representative of Israel, as otherwise many Divine Promises made to that race would be unfulfilled.39

Qadiani agents actively propagated Anglo-Israelite ideas after invoking interest in the discovery of the 'tomb' of Jesus. Qadiani methods of argumentation and discussion bear extreme similarly with that of Anglo-Israelites. If one happens to undertake a comparative study of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s Masih Hindustan Mein (Jesus in India)40, Sher Ali’s articles in the Review of Religions, Qadian (1902-1908), Khawaja Nazir Ahmad’s Jesus in Heaven on Earth, J. D. Shams Where did Jesus Die?,41 Mufti Muhammad Sadiq’s Qabre-Masih,42 and Qazi Muhammad Yusaf’s Isa Dar Kashmir,43 with that of Anglo-Israelite literature, he will find Jews and Qadianis sailing in the same boat.

Notovitch Account

The quasi-historical sources quoted by the Mirza and his disciples to prove that Jesus Christ fainted on the cross at the time of his crucifixion are based on Jewish fabricated accounts. An oft-quoted source is a travelling account of Nicholas Notovich, a Russian by birth and a contemporary of the Mirza. Notovich claimed to have found some ancient Buddhist scrolls at the monastery of Hims (Tibet) in which it was written that in his boyhood Isa (Jesus Christ) secretly fled from his father’s house from Jerusalem and with a train of merchants traveled towards Sindh, and settled among the Aryas. He frequented Jain Temples and studied their cult. He then went to Ceylon and from there to Jaggernaut. He learnt the use of herbs, medicines, and mathematics. He also studied the religious doctrines of Brahmins and acquired their secret arts.

The book appeared in French44 and in English45 and made considerable stir in Europe and India for sometimes. In an article in the Nineteenth Century, London, October 1894, Prof. Max Muller, a famous German scholar who lived in India, saw clearly that the tale was false and suggested that Notovitch had been so persistent in trying to get information that the Lamas, having nothing better to give him, and invented the story to satisfy him. Prof. J. Archibald Douglas of the Government College, Agra, took a journey to Ladakh in 1895, in the hope of finding the MS but no such MS was found even in Tibet anywhere. The whole story was described in Nineteenth Century April 1896 and M. Nicholas Notovitch was recognized to be an unscrupulous adventurer.46 Different versions of such false travelling accounts were prepared by secret Jewish agencies to defame Jesus Christ. It was a sinister attempt to convey on the basis of semi-historical records that Jesus was a false Messiah, who after his alleged travels in the East, acquired the knowledge of herbs and magic tricks which he subsequently exercised in Palestine to impose his false claim of Messiahship on the Jew but was ultimately 'crucified to death'.

Rosicrucian

The false account of life Jesus was also published by a Freemason Organization - the Rosicrucian AMORC (USA). There is an adhesion between the higher degrees of Freemasonry and the Rosicrucian Lodges, and also that the knowledge possessed by Rosicrucian in regard to the life of Jesus is shared by the Higher Degrees of Freemasonry. The Organization claims to retain ancient traditions, teachings, principles and practical helpfulness of the ESSENE Brotherhood, which existed in Palestine between 2nd Century B.C. and the 2nd Century A.D, Dr Lewis Spencer, Imperator of the Rosicrucian Order for North and South America, in his book, The Mystical life of Jesus, gave an account of Jesus’ life between the twelve years and his emergence as a preacher in Galilee. He says that Jesus did not die on the cross but fell unconscious and regained his senes in the tomb in which he was buried. He then secretly left for a sheltered place at Galilee.47 He ascended to the Heavens not physically or in His physical body but had a mystical and psychical experience. He was buried at Mount Carmel (Palestine). His body remained in a tomb for several centuries but was finally removed to a secret sepulchre, guarded and protected by his (Essene) Brothers.48

Crucifixion By 'An Witness'

Another Freemason source often quoted by Qadiani writers in their works is Crucifixion by An Eye Witness. In the introduction and preface of the book, it is stated:
It is an English translation of an ancient Latin copy of ‘a Letter written seven years after the crucifixion by a personal friend of Jesus in Jerusalem to an Essene49 Brother in Alexandria'.

This book was withdrawn from circulation the moment it was published. It was published in 1873 in America. All the Plates were destroyed, and it was supposed that all the published copies of the book were likewise disposed of. The official copies, which were deposited with the Librarian of the Congress, in compliance with the laws of copyright also disappeared. Fortunately one copy escaped this fate.50 TK, the author of The Great Work, in the introduction to the book says that the book found its way into the possession of a prominent Freemason in the State of Massachusetts, USA. There it remained securely until accidentally discovered by his daughter, sometime during the summer of the present year (1907). The lady, knowing my (TK) interest in things masonic, kindly sent me the copy for examination. I at once, recognized its remarkably nature and supreme value and importance.51 Then we are told that it was re-published in 1907, after having been compared with the Latin MS which still exists in the hands of the Masonic fraternity in Germany. No doubt, it will remain secretly guarded from Anti-Masonic vandalism.52 It is asserted that Jesus was a member of Essene Brotherhood. He was taken from the cross in a swoon and his Essene Brothers took his body to a safe place. Nicudemus, the physician, applied a special balm and his wounds healed in a few days. Later Jesus left the capital for the White Lodge atop the Mount of Olives in disguise. Finally, the letter says, he died in solitude after 6 months in Palestine.

The Mirza’s contribution to the Jewish-masonic theory is the addition of Marham-i-Isa (Jesus’ ointment) in place of Nicudemus balm, said to have been applied to the body of Jesus which had promptly healed up wounds inflicted during ‘crucifixion’. In Greek-Islamic system of medicine, different names53 are given to this ointment only because of its fast curing characteristics and no Hakim had ever called it ointment meant specifically for Jesus’ wounds.

Yuz Asaf

Mirza further claims that Jesus assumed the name of Yuz Asaf during his tour in India. It is still an interesting aspect of the theory and very cunning exploitation of the name of Yuz Asaf. Yuz Asaf, or Yod Asaf, whom he calls Jesus, is no one else except Gautama Buddha. When Buddha attained perfect knowledge and enlightenment, he then according to Buddist traditions of Lalitavastara, became a Bodhistava (enlightened one). Bod Asaf is a corruption of Bodhistava. The story of Budha’s miraculous birth and his attainment of the status of Bodhistava made its way from India to Central Asia in around 2nd Century A.D. Subsequently during the reign of Abassid Caliph AlMansur, Arab scholars of Al Mukafah school translated many Pali Sanskrit and Persian works into Arabic, The story of Buddha (Bod or Yod Asaf) made its way into numerous Arabic works. Ibnul-Nadim, in his Alfahrist refers to three books where this story had been narrated with slight variations.54 With the passage of time, the story Budhas’ attainment of perfect knowledge, which originated in India, came back to India in a different shape. The names being Arabacized and the events slightly changed.

Qadiani writers had also tried to explore the Sanskrit sources to support this myth. They quote an extract from the Bhavishya Maha Purana by Sutta. It may be stated here that the Puranas are eighteen in number. They are purely mythical in nature and are characterized as popular sectarian compilation of mythology, philosophy, history and law. The earliest Purana was probably compiled around 4th Century A.D. Bhavishya Purana was printed for the first time in Bombay in 1910 under the order of Maharaja Partap Singh of Kashmir.
In this Purana a mythical story of a meeting of Shalwahin Chief of Saka with a white complexion man in the land of the Huns somewhere in a height of the Himalaya has been narrated. When Shalwahin met him he asked him about his religious principles. He replied:

O King! The goddess of the savages (dasyu) manely Ihamasi ( the goddess Masi) manifested herself in terrifying disguise and I, having reached her in the infidel fashion, attained the status of Masya. O King! Listen to that religion (of hers) which I impressed upon the infidel. Having cleansed the mind and purified the impure body, and having recourse to the prayer of naigama, man must worship the pure eternal. By justice, truth, unity of mind and meditation man must worship in Sun’s heaven (Suryamandala, which could also mean Sun’ disk). That Lord, himself as immovable (from his course) as the Sun, always at last attracts the essence of all erring creatures. With this (message) O King! Masya vanished and the blissful image of Lord, the bliss giving being ever in my heart name has been established as Ihamasiya,55 Having hear these words the King removed that infidel priest and established him in pitiless land of infidels.56

Dr D.D. Kosamby, a learned Sanskrit scholar of Tata Research Institute, Bombay, says the goddess Masi is a fiction and the holy book Naigama has no existence in the Hindu Scriptures. The infidel priest attained the status of Ihamasiya by following the goddess Masi and preached the Sun worship.

Qadiani scholars call the infidel Ihamasiya, Isa Masih and the goddess Masi is stated to be the angel Gabriel.57 By neglecting all inconsistencies of the legendary story, it is claimed that Raja Shalwahin met Jesus Christ when the latter visited India. Khawaja Nazir Ahmad got the said Bhavishya Purana’s extract translated from Dr Shiv Nath Shashtri and calls the white complexion infidel priest Yousaphat.58

The story is purely mythical in nature and is about a Sun Worshipper who is a follower of the goddess Masi probably a Bodhisatva. The story seems to have been fabricated in around 5th century AD and had no connection whatsoever in any way with Jesus Christ who lived in early 1st Century AD in Jerusalem.

Mirza Qadiani and his disciples have also picked up the names of mythical Bodhistavas from the Buddhist record and call them Jesus. A Bodhistava Mettaya is called Messiah, ML-Shi Lo named in the Chinese Buddhist record is termed Messiah, and Buddha’s prophecy of a Bagwa Mitya or white-faced Bodhistava is said to have been meant for Jesus because he was white in complexion.59

There is no historical proof either to support the contention that St. Thomas came to India.60 Churches founded in Malabar are after his name but not founded by him. Archaeological evidences clearly belie all such claims. It also absurd to say, as Khawaja Nazir claims, that Mary the mother of Jesus came to India and died in Murree where her tomb still exists.61

It will be interesting to give the story of Buddha (Boddhasaf) as narrated in Arabic and Persian sources62 to prove that Yuz Asaf is Buddha:

"To the long childless King of Janaysar, a pagan ruler of Sulabat (i.e.Kapal Vastu) in India, a son is born by miraculous means. The King names him Yudasaf (better, Budhasaf-Budhistiva). As astrologer predicts that the prince’s greatness will not be of this world, the King therefore, confines the child in a city set apart to keep him from the knowledge of human misery. Growing up, Yudasaf frets at his confinement and insists on being allowed out. Riding forth he sees two infirm men and later a decrepit old man and learns of human frailty and death. The holy hermit Bilawhar63 of Sarnath (Ceylon) then appears in distress and preaches to Yudasaf in parables, convincing him of the vanity of human existence and the superiority of ascetic way. Bilawhar spurns renown and riches, indulgence in food and drink and sexual pleasure and all fleshy delights.

King Jaynasar is hostile to Bilawhar and opposes Yudasaf's conversion. In spite of the efforts of the astrologer, Radis and the pagan ascetic Al-Bahwan, Janaysar is overcome in a mock debate on the faith and is himself won over. Yudasaf renounces his royal estate and embarks on missionary journeys. After various adventures, he reaches Kashmir (Kusinara) where he entrusts the future of his religion to his diciple Anabud (Ananda) and dies".64

There is no reference whatsoever to Jesus Christ. It is a story of an Indian prince Buddha (Bodasaf) who died at Kusinara (Gorakhpur, India) and his disciple was Ababud (Ananda). In Ibne Babway’s Ikmal-ud-din (10th century AD) and Allama Majlisi’s Ainul-Hayat, similar version of the story appears with the addition that at the time of his death Bodhasaf erected a house (stupa) where he was laid.
In all authentic Arabic sources and works on history like AlMasudi’s Marooj-ul-Zahab (956-AD)2 Ibn Nadim's AlFahrist (988AD),3 Al Bullazoris' Friq Bain ul Fariq ( 1023AD)4 and Al Khawarzamis’ Mufatih -ul-Aloom5, the Buddha’s name is Arabicized as Bodasaf, Yud Asab etc. He had been called an Indian Prince/Prophet sent by God to preach them righteousness. His place of burial was Kushangar in Gorakhpur, India. The word Kushangar was Arzbacized as Qashmir or Kashmir. Some later historians ascribed it to the Valley of Kashmir. Perhaps Muslim historians of Kashmir6 picked up this story from these sources. However no one dared to call Bodhasaf, Jesus Christ.

In some quasi-historical sources of Indian history, mostly 16th century works, it has been said that Bod Asaf was ordained in the remote past towards the people of Kashmir. However no authentic source on India or Kashmir history even refers to the arrival of Jesus in Kashmir. Khawaja Ahmad has quoted a passage from Mullah Nadri’s History of Kashmir to prove his historical myth of Jesus' visit to India.7 Mullah was a religious scholar in the court of Zain-ul-Abdin (1420-1470), King of Kashmir, commonly called Badshah. It is mentioned in the history book of Kashmir that the Mullah did compile a book on Kashmir history but no one had ever confirmed is existence. It is an exitinct document. Khawaja claims to have seen in Srinagar in 1946 and got a photo copy of the page where the 'arrival of Jesus in Kashmir' was mentioned. He did not buy that book from G. M. Mohyuddin Wancho who possessed it and was willing to sell it at a high price. Despite repeated requests and challenges, Qadiani writers have not been able to produce the original manuscript to enable the scholars to determine its position. It is nothing but pure Ahmadiyya fraud. 1 ( Italics add)
Prior to the Mirza’s discovery, Hasan Shah, an eminent Kashmir historian, wrote that adjoining the tomb of Khawaja Nasiruddin in Khan Yar street, Srinagar was the tomb of Yus Asap who came to Kashmir as an envoy from Egypt during the reign of Zainul Abdin (15th century).2 He died and was buried in Kashmir. His tomb was built in 15th century. Historical and archaeological evidences, particularly the inscriptions on Takht-e-Suleman and the style of Persian writings (Khat-e-Thulth), belie all claims made by Qadiani theorists in connection with the said tomb located in Khanyar street, Srinagar.

It is also interesting to know that the story of Bilahwar and Yud Asaf migrated to Europe and furnished the protoype for the Christian legend of Barlam and Josaphat. They were called Christian saints and were held in high esteem.3 A church was founded in memory of Barlam in Pamerlov (Sicley). Mirza has admitted the establishment of this church in the name of Barlam.4 It is very strange that in the course of early Middle Ages of Europe, the legendary theme of Barlam and Josaphat appeared again the again. In Greek, in Latin, in Provencal, in French, Italian, Portugese, Catalan, in Spanish, English and German. The story was known in Christian North Africa and Middle East and in the Tunisian province of Georgia. There were also Ethiopian, Armenian, Church Slavonic and Rumanian versions as well as non-Christian ones in Arabic and Hebrew. The reason why this legend and its literary versions are so popular was that from the very start, it would seem, this novel or romance in verse-form was instructive and entertaining, it told of unknown exotic lands, it was a thoughtful adventure story and a conversion report - always welcome at that time, edifying, colourful, exciting and statisfying fairy tale, all at the same time. The framework of the expansive narrative allowed additions or contractions, philosophical discourses, theological reasoning and exhortations, and poetic fineness in the form of gnomic verse similes and parables. It appealed to all strata of medieval society both to the learned and the less-learned. The story of Barlam amd Josaphat had at that time become a genuine price of World Literature.5

D.M. Lang in his book the Wisdom of Balahvar, A Christian Legend of Buddha, says that the whole Ahmadiyya story of Yuz Asaf is simply based on an extract from the familiar Arabic version of the Barlam and Josaphat romance. 6

Coming up next: Politics of Religious Claims (part-3)