How the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement through the Woking Muslim Mission reformed Islamic thought in Trinidad
Islam came to Trinidad in three phases. Centuries before Columbus, Muslims from Africa crossed the Atlantic and spread throughout the Americas. Their tremendous influence in language religion and culture earned them the name Gaalibi (influential). However Columbus renamed them Carib – ka ‘arab (like Arab) due to their appearance: “tall whiter than any other Indians that he had seen. Their heads were bound with cotton scarves elaborately worked in colours and resembling the Moorish (Arab Muslim) headdress.” (Eric Williams, History of Trinidad & Tobago pg 4). While the first journeys to the Caribbean were made in the late ninth and tenth centuries by a few Muslim Admirals; it was only in 1312 that Mansa Abu Bakr II King of Mali sailed to explore the limits of the Atlantic Ocean with two thousand boats equipped for him and for his men, and one thousand more for water and victuals. He never returned but he left to continue his rule Mansa Musa who became the richest person in the history of the world.
The second phase of Muslim arrival in Trinidad was at the turn of the nineteenth century when Africans were dragged for forced labour and others migrated from America and other Caribbean Islands. The Muslim population that suffered under slave terrorism were those from the Mandingo and other tribes.
But it was 1845 when subsidized workers from India were encouraged to come to Trinidad that there was an influx of Muslims.
The first group of Muslim had their faith exterminated for two reasons. A tree not watered will eventually die, and in religion knowledge is water for the soul. Muslims had little means and opportunity to expand their faith and the knowledge it provided. Secondly, after the Spanish usurped Trinidad they neglected its development for over 200 years and allowed economic lawlessness to flourish. The population migrated to Brazil or were taken to work in Margarita. Those who remained were forced into Catholicism through special missions that were set up.
The second group of Muslims from among the immigrants from Africa and other Caribbean Islands fell under the Black Code of Governor Chacon which required them to be instructed in the principles of the Catholic Religion (Ibid pg 45).
It is the third group of Muslims then, who are largely responsible for the survival of Islam In Trinidad. Twenty three years after the arrival of the first Muslims to Trinidad the first Mosque was built at Iere Village. This Mosque is managed today by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-I-Islam Inc, Trinidad and Tobago that has appointed an Imaam there.
During the first fifty years of this period the Muslims held on to Islam by recapturing the traditions they brought from India as they applied them in the new environment. Simple structures that served as Mosques sprung up in several areas. These served as maktabs, community centres, places for holding festive events and courts for deciding disputes as they arose. Because they travelled by ship together with Hindus there were strong bonds and cordial relationship between the two communities despite differences in beliefs and worship.
However after the Christian missionaries began a determined campaign to educate and convert Muslims to Christianity by setting up missions, several Muslim families were lured to Christian doctrines by the aggressive efforts of the foreign missionaries. As Muslims became more schooled in the English language their ability to be more knowledgeable about Islam and other faith systems became increasing difficult without literature in English. Sayyid Abdul Aziz from Mansehra, India (now Pakistan) who was well versed in Persian, Urdu and Arabic and was acquainted with English customs, having served in Afghanistan under Lord Roberts was a master at bringing cohesiveness among Muslims by forming the Islamic Guardian Association and later on the Taqveeyatul Islamic Association (T.I.A.).
Some of the traditions brought from India which mirrored Hindu practices were proving a stumbling block to the further progress of the Muslim Community. Some Muslim leaders functioned as Medicine men utilizing tabeej (ta’aweez) or amulets and jhaaray (broomstick exorcism) for healing, fortune telling, solving problems crime detection and other illnesses.
In 1921, an event occurred which proved to be of immense importance to the Muslim community in Trinidad. Maulvi Fazal Karim Khan Durrani, a missionary attached to the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaa’ati Islam, Lahore, India (now Lahore, Pakistan) arrived in Trinidad as a result of a request for a missionary made to the Islamic Mission, Woking, England, by a group of local Muslims. Maulvi Durrani organized the “evening of Religious Class” in which he taught the principles of Islam to a small group of Muslims. In addition, he held many public lectures and heated public debates with priests and pundits. These lectures and debates stimulated an interest in Islam among Muslims and helped them to defend Islam against criticisms by non-Muslims especially the Christian missionaries.
Maulvi F.K. Durrani left in 1923 but he had influenced a young man Ameer Ali, who soon left for the Ahmaddiya Anjuman Ishaa’ati Islam Institute in Lahore. Ameer Ali’s limited knowledge of Islam was obtained mainly by reading the Islamic Review, a journal printed by the Islamic Mission, Woking, England, and widely distributed in Trinidad.
Ameer Ali returned to Trinidad in 1930 as a Maulvi and immediately became involved with the T.I.A. He introduced a spirit of inquiry into the Islamic faith and preached Islam in conformity with new thought and scientific discoveries. He advocated equal privileges for women so as to aid in the social development of the community. He also spoke about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmaddiya Movement in Islam. Other Muslims assumed that he was an Ahmadi but he made it quite clear that he had not yet taken the bai’at (pledge).
Maulvi Ameer Ali realized that the general weakness of the Muslims in propagating Islam was because the average Muslim did not understand the teachings of the Qur’an and was not well acquainted with the life of the Prophet Muhammad. While the younger Muslim could understand the Hindustani which their parents spoke, they were more literate in the English language. Gradually the ability to speak or understand Hindustani and Urdu was lost among the succeeding generations. At that time, the reading of the Qur’an by many Muslims was more ceremonial than educational, as they were concerned more with the blessings from God obtained from its recitation in Arabic. The understanding and interpretation of teachings of the Qur’an were the tasks of the few literate ones among them. At most religious occasions parts of the Qur’an were simultaneously recited in the Arabic or Urdu by men and boys. Seldom were these recitations followed by explanations of what was recited. This ceremony was known as Maulood Shareef and it included the rendering of Urdu songs. The common theme of these Qaseedas were the praise of Prophet Muhammad sung from certain Maulood books. Maulvi Ameer Ali reformed the Maulood Shareef by urging Muslims to read the Qur’an and to strive to understand it.
In January 1933 the Maulvi started a monthly journal in English called The Comforter which reprinted articles from literature he obtained from the Woking Muslim Mission. He later in November 1944, began publishing Al-Azan along similar lines as The Comforter, which had ceased a few years earlier. He also encouraged Muslims to read the Islamic Review, which preached Islam in the light of the most modern thought.
Maulvi Ameer Ali at his own expense set up The Bee Library for the purpose of providing literature in English for free distribution and for sale. This literature included the Translation of the Qur’an, the Religion of Islam, the Manual of Hadith and other books by Maulaana Muhammad Ali and subscriptions to the Islamic Review. The numerous books and tracks of Khwaaja Kamaluddin were so widely distributed that speeches by Imaams and other prominent speakers were influenced by the literature obtained from Working Muslim Mission. Such was the impact of this literature that the name Khwaaja Kamaluddin was given to babies even among Sunnis as well as to converts. Other families selected names for their children from persons mentioned in the Islamic Review.
The Maulvi felt that the method adopted to commemorate the Meelaad un-Nabee (birthday of Prophet Muhammad) and the holding of Maulood Shareef ceremonies, was spiritually unproductive in that both Muslims and non-Muslims were left in the dark as to the true nature of the Prophet. He suggested that “papers reflecting the character and personality of the Prophet should be prepared and read on the occasion. And these should be printed in pamphlet form to be circulated among Muslims and non-Muslims.”
Tazeem was a practice of the Muslims where at the end of Maulood Shareef everyone would be required to stand upright and render a song in the Urdu welcoming the physical appearance of the Prophet Muhammad. Refusal to do so was considered a dishonour to the Prophet and a great sin. The Maulvi taught that this practice was unnecessary. There were more meaningful ways to honour the Prophet, the best of them being obedience to him. He therefore omitted the rendering of the Tazeem at religious events conducted by him.
An area in which the Maulvi focused great attention was the position of Muslim women in society. Up to 1931 Muslim women were not allowed to participate in activities outside the home and could not even pray in Mosques nor attend religious functions held at pubic centres. Muslim girls were made to leave school at a young age due to demanding duties in the home and to the fear of Christian conversion efforts. The Maulvi insisted that Muslim women be given the opportunity to contribute towards the development of themselves, their religion and their community.
He therefore encouraged the members of the T.I.A. to allow their womenfolk to join that organization and to attend religious functions and public lectures. Later, he urged them to participate in the religious activities by singing Islamic songs and delivering speeches. The Maulvi set the example by allowing his wife to deliver a speech prepared by him on the topic “Muhammad, the Exalter of Women” on 6th July 1933. The occasion was the commemoration of the Prophet’s birthday, organized by the San Juan Men’s Muslim Association. Mrs. Nurun Ameer Ali was given a thunderous applause when, in her speech, she said: “The Arabs, in the days of ignorance, use to murder their daughter physically, but many a Muslim father here today murder their daughters spiritually.”
Maulvi Ameer Ali firmly stood up against the many protests made by the members of A.S.J.A. (Anjuman Sunnatul Jamaat Association) against these activities. He continued to publish in The Comforter instances in India and Muslim countries where Muslim and Hindu women were entering public life and struggling side by side with men for the upliftment of their societies. In addition, he upbraided Muslim and Hindu families who would not make the necessary sacrifices to give their daughters a sound academic education.
By opposing the seclusion of Muslim Women and advocating their participation in religious and social affairs Maulvi Ameer Ali transformed the Masjids from male only to all inclusive. To accommodate Muslim women at the Mosques built only for males, special screens were added to allow the womenfolk to join in prayer especially at Jumu’a. Gradually all Mosques even those belonging to the Sunnatul Jamaat allowed women to attend Mosques. His scholarly discourses on the Death of Jesus Christ and the Spiritual Ascension or Mi’raj of the Prophet Muhammad, lead to island-wide debates with leaders of the Sunnis which brought about a renaissance among the younger generation of Muslims in Trinidad.
His untiring persistence in1935 caused the Immigration Marriage Ordinance to be abolished and replaced by the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance. In 1936, as the first non-Christian member of the Education Board of Trinidad and Tobago, he moved a resolution advocating that the Hindu and Muslim religions should be eligible to receive government aid in running schools in the colony. The only religion considered for such a privilege was Christianity. Maulvi Ameer Ali’s campaigns in this matter led to the formation in 1938 of the Indian Educational Association and he was elected as its President. In 1944 Maulvi Ameer Ali was a member of the Indian Central Committee which fought against the controversial “language test” in the exercise of adult franchise in Trinidad and Tobago. The struggle of Maulvi Ameer Ali in the educational field bore fruit in 1949 when the Denominational Ordinance was expanded and El-Socorro Islamia School became the first non-Christian school to be given governmental aid. Muslim and Hindu denominational schools subsequently emerged throughout the Island.
After labouring for about fifteen years Maulvi Ameer Ali and his progressive thinkers relinquished their connections with the Tackveeyatul Islamic Association in 1944 due to internal dissensions and hostile opposition. On Pakistan Day August 15, 1947 he and his small band launched the Trinidad Muslim League (T.M.L.) taking its name from the Muslim League (Pakistan) which was founded the day before. The main emphasis of this organization was to ensure that the door of ijtihaad remained open to all Muslims in their study and understanding of the Qur’an. To foster this line of approach which was borrowed from the teachings and understanding he obtained from Woking literature and the teachings of the Ahmadiyya Movement at Lahore, he urged his members and followers to be Ghair Muqal-lid i.e. non-aligned to any particular group of the four schools of thought among Sunnis. In this way he maintained the close relationship between the Trinidad Muslim League and the Ahmadiyya Movement at Lahore and Woking. Many persons from Trinidad who visited, studied or worked in England frequented the Woking Mosque and even had their marriages performed there.
In the course of his Missionary activities Maulvi Ameer Ali visited Suriname where he founded the Surinaamse Islamitische Vereniging (SIV) as an Ahmadiyya Organization and in Guyana he influenced the formation of The Guyana Ahmadiyya Anjuman.
In 1964, on the first visit to Trinidad of the Imaam of the Woking Mosque, Maulana S.M. Tufail, Maulvi Ameer Ali pledged himself with the Ahmadiyya Movement. In 1972 when asked by Maulaana M.K. Hydal why he did not take the pledged before, his reply was “you have been to Lahore you know that unlike the Qadiyanis they don’t impose on you to take the pledge perhaps if I was asked to do so by Maulaana Muhammad Ali or anyone else I would have taken it.”
Maulvi Ameer Ali influenced many prominent and well-known personages such as Aziz Ahamad (prominent businessman), Siraaj Maqamudeen (Soft Drink Manufacturer), Dr M. A. Aziz (E.N.T. specialist), Clem Razack (High Court Judge), Mustapha Ibrahim, (Justice of Appeal Court) and Noor Hassanali (President of Trinidad and Tobago). Noor Hassanali as the President of Trinidad and Tobago was a very devout Muslim. As President he frequently attended to his Friday prayers at Mosques, always preferring to “take a back seat” as he shunned special attention and special favours. He insisted on no liquor in his home at President’s House or to his guests. He was the first to organize a Qur’anic Reading at President’s House conducted by Maulaana M.K. Hydal Religious head of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-I-Islam Inc. whom he consulted on many matters pertaining to the Qur’an.
Aziz Ahamad, the President of the T.M.L. had become an Ahmadi on one of his visits to Lahore. He successfully urged the Government to declare Eid ul Fitr a National Holiday while other Muslims were requesting Meelad un-Nabee or Eidul Adhaa. In 1964, Aziz Ahmad extended an invitation to Maulana S.M. Tufail, an Ahmadi missionary attached to the Islamic Mission, Woking, England, to visit Trinidad and to conduct a series of lectures on the teachings of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman (Lahore). Many members of the T.M.L. became Ahmadis. In August 1964, after the departure of Maulaana Tufail, Maulvi Ameer Ali and some of the Ahmadi members of the T.M.L. formed an “Ahmadiyya Committee” at the Gasparillo Mosque. Later in that month, as part of the programme of activities drawn up by this Committee, he delivered, at Preysal Village, a lecture entitled “Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Reformer of the 20th Century.”
In 1966 Maulaana Tufail was released from his role a Imaam of the Woking Mosque to work in Trinidad as a Missionary for three years. Maulaana Tufail brought his expertise in Jamaa’at organization and did tremendous work in Trinidad. He himself had said he did more work teaching Islam and Ahmadiyyat and producing literature in those years than in years of administration in Woking. Some of his numerous achievements included: classes at several Mosques and areas teaching the reading of the Qur’an in Arabic, an Imaamat Training Course to improve the knowledge and skills of the Imaams and youths, fostering Interfaith harmony through interfaith meeting with notable leaders among Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Sikh and training speakers and young interfaith presenters, bringing Ahmadis of Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname closer to each other through Ahmadiyya Conventions, teaching the method of calculation of the crescent moon for Ramadaan and Eid. Subsequently a booklet The Crescent was published by Maulaana M.K. Hydal and Iqbal Hydal explaining the Qur’anic and mathematical rationale for such calculation.
Maulaana Tufail spent much of his time in Trinidad in revising his translations of important works of Maulaana Muhammad Ali. He also worked on his magnum opus The Dictionary and Concordance of the Qur’an. He also produced for English the Qur’an Reader a masterpiece of Tajweed (rules for the proper recitation of the Qur’an). Observing that the youths love to sing he produced the Songs of Islam in which the Qaseedas were in praise of the Qur’an using the poems of Mirza Ghulaam Ahmad and that ghazals with exaggerated praises of the Prophet Muhammad were replaced by more truthful ones.
Maulaana Tufail arranged for Mustapha K. Hydal to go to Pakistan for further studies in Islamic Theology. While visiting the Woking Mosque the young Hydal recited the Iqaama for the Asr prayer to be led by Maulaana Tufail’s replacement as Imaam, Maulvi Misri. The Imaam requested Mr. Khalid Iqbal (Maulaana Tufail’s brother) to repeat the Iqaamah. At the end of the prayer Maulvi Misri explained that an elder person had told him that reciting the Iqaamah just like the Azan was the correct way. Continuing on his journey to Pakistan M.K. Hydal performed the Umra and wrote to Maulaana Tufail in Trinidad that the Iqaama was recited at Jeddah with the same words he had recited at Woking and as taught in the Manual of Hadith. A few months later Maulvi Misri surrendered the keys of the Woking Mosque to the Pakistan authorities.
After the loss of the Woking Mosque, Maulaana Tufail arranged in 1970 for the Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, Maulaana Sadrudeen to tour Trinidad, Suriname and Guyana. Many persons took the bai ‘at (pledge) and an appeal was made for funds for a new Mission in England. After returning to his home at Woking, Maulaana Tufail had to rebuild the Ahmadiyya Jamaa’at. With the assistance of Wahid Omardeen he located a real estate agent who facilitated him in the purchase of another building at Tooting. This building was refurbished and named Ahmadiyya House. Numerous books and literature which had been salvaged from the Woking Mosque were stored at Ahmadiyya House. Before he died in 1984 Maulaana Tufail instructed that these books and literature together with his personal library be sent to Trinidad. Many of these books were also part of Khawaja Kamaluddin’s library as well as first editions sent for reviews to be published in the Islamic Review. Thus the salvaged Woking library was moved to Trinidad and was joined with Maulvi Ameer Ali’s Bee Library to form the Islamic Research Library which was inaugurated by Mrs. Nasirah Tufail on 5th August 1985. This library is now housed at Ahmadiyya House at Arena Road Trinidad on property owned by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-I-Islam Inc., Trinidad & Tobago. As we speak the youths of the Anjuman are redecorating Ahmadiyya House and arranging the Library.
The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-I-Islam, Trinidad and Tobago was formed on 9th June 1975. This organization assisted Maulaana Tufail in many of his propagation work in England and he too continued to contribute greatly in guiding Ahmadis in Trinidad to fulfilling their responsibility of ensuring that the Sun of Islam would continue to rise in the West. This organization published a monthly journal The Call for over twenty six years. Many of the articles published were used by Sunni Imaams in their Khutbahs.
From Maulvi F.K. Durrani to Maulvi Ameer Ali and from Maulaana S.M. Tufail to Maulaana M.K. Hydal, the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement through the Working Muslim Mission reformed Islamic thought in Trinidad which has now been expanded to Toronto, Canada. Much of the knowledge and thinking from literature and personalities have been further expanded through The Call and numerous other publication, lectures, Khutbahs, Radio and Television Programmes, Internet Courses, Interfaith meetings and marriages.
Maulana Kemal Hydal in a 1990 publication, wrote: “Religion is not a philosophy or dogma always to be altered by changing trends in social outlook. It is rather a powerful social force that guides human attitudes along correct lines for the benefit of the communal welfare.” He declares further that “Muslims do not adapt Islam to suit the age and time, rather they demonstrate a way to adapt modern trends to Islam and to adapt modern research in proving Islam as a universal religion for all mankind.” This is most evident in both the cultural as well as the religious aspects of the Muslim experience.
In Trinidad, Muslims have so integrated themselves with peoples of other races and cultures and faiths, without losing their identity, that in spite of being a minority group they have not enjoyed minority status, rather they have enjoyed equality status. The Muslim religious experience in Trinidad has been a more favourable one than in many parts of the Muslim world itself.