Islam's voice of reason.

• Author: Karamat, Saad
• Position: WORLD WATCHER - Mirza Masroor Ahmad and Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

"IT IS MY ARDENT WISH and hope that the leaders of all major nations come to understand this dreadful reality--and so instead of adopting aggressive policies and utilizing/force to achieve their aims and objectives, they strive to adopt policies that promote and secure justice." These words were delivered by His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the worldwide spiritual head (Khalifa) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, at the ninth annual International Peace Symposium in the United Kingdom. The Khalifa's "ardent wish" refers to his deep desire for world leaders to recognize the devastation a modern world war could bring and his hope to avoid such a trajectory.

Unlike some religious leaders who tend to monopolize the solutions of world issues only through their faith, the Khalifa suggests that his solution to preventing a world war is based on the universal concept of justice. This is the message he wants to send to the world.

Founded in 1889, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a revival movement in Islam. Its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, claimed to be the long-awaited messiah foretold by the Prophet Muhammad. Ahmad thought himself to be the metaphorical second coming of Jesus of Nazareth and a divine guide. The Community believes that God sent Ahmad, like Jesus, to end religious wars by advocating for peace and uniting all of mankind. A renaissance of Islam has been brought about in the more than 120 years since Ahmad's advent. Ahmad divested many Muslims of fanatical beliefs and practices by championing vigorously Islam's true and essential teachings--the same ones practiced and taught by the Prophet Muhammad. These were issues championed not through violence and compulsion, but through rationality and discourse.

Ahmad demonstrated more than a true love for mankind. He exhibited a feeling of pain and anguish for the suffering of mankind--regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality, or creed. This ethos echoes through this community as well, particularly in the Khalifas who have succeeded Abroad as spiritual guides for mankind.

His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, meanwhile, has reached out to prominent world leaders to warn them of the devastating and imminent possibility of World War III. In his letters to Pope Benedict, Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Pres. Barack Obama, he has urged them to utilize their authority to save the planet from...