Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)

Woking Muslim Mission Heritage

(Registered Charity No. 1195956)

Darus Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, Greater London HA0 4JQ

Telephone: 020 8903 2689        E-mail: aaiil.uk@gmail.com    Web: https://www.aaiil.uk

 

10 September 2022

Message at the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

کُلُّ مَنۡ عَلَیۡہَا فَانٍ ﴿ۚ۲۶﴾         وَّ یَبۡقٰی وَجۡہُ رَبِّکَ ذُو الۡجَلٰلِ وَ الۡاِکۡرَامِ ﴿ۚ۲۷﴾

“Everyone on it (i.e., on earth) passes away — and there endures forever the person of your Lord, the Lord of glory and honour.” — The Holy Quran, 55:26–27

Here are a few words about the passing away of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom which took place on 8 September 2022.

There is a hadith مَنْ لاَ يَشْكُرِ النَّاسَ لاَ يَشْكُرِ اللَّهَ  — meaning: “He who does not thank people does not thank Allah” (Tirmidhi, hadith 1954). So it is our duty as Muslims to express gratitude, now to the relatives of the Queen as she has passed away, for her service to this country and to the Common­wealth, among whose populations is a large number of Muslims.

 

The Holy Quran frequently emphasises the importance of fulfilling any pledge or promise that a person makes. Queen Elizabeth ful­filled her pledge to serve this country to the best of her ability for seventy years. She had no political power to make laws or to rule the country like monarchs of old. But what she could do was to set an example of the best human behaviour to people and to encourage them to do good deeds. In this she achieved enormous success.

Like us Muslims, the Queen believed in God and believed that after death a human being returns to God Who holds him or her to account. The Queen did believe in the statement which we often quote from the Quran: اِنَّا لِلّٰہِ وَ اِنَّاۤ اِلَیۡہِ رٰجِعُوۡنَ   (2:156) — “Surely we belong to God, and to Him we shall return”. In the life after death, God judges a person by his or her inner beliefs and the intentions behind his or her deeds. No other human can know another’s inner beliefs or intentions. But the Quran does tell us:

فَاَمَّا مَنۡ ثَقُلَتۡ مَوَازِیۡنُہٗ فَہُوَ فِیۡ عِیۡشَۃٍ رَّاضِیَۃٍ  — “Then as for him whose good deeds are heavy, he will live a pleasant life (in the Hereafter)” (101:6–7).

What a person was doing in the closing part of his or her life is also highly significant. The very last photo of the late Queen, taken on Tuesday morning, shows her smiling, having performed what turned out to be her last duty to the people of this country. To meet death while doing your committed duty is the most honourable way in which to pass away from this world.

The Quran also tells us that the reward or punishment of the next life will not be “according to your vain desires nor the vain desires of the People of the Book” (4:123). Vain desires means your wishful thinking and imagining good things about yourself, whether it is the vain desires of people of the religions before Islam or of Muslims.

It then says that, regardless of religion, whoever does wrong will meet his just punishment. Then it adds: “And whoever does good deeds, whether male or female, and is a believer — these will enter the Garden, and they will not be dealt with unjustly in the least” (4:124). It doesn’t say here believer in what, it just says: “and is a believer”. It doesn’t only mean Muslim. It could mean a believer in God, or a believer in the doing of good deeds, who does good deeds not for any show or reward from anyone, but because he or she believes in doing them. It is on this basis that God passes His judgment on any human being.

Members of Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK) extend their deepest sympathies and condolences to the relatives of the late Queen and to all the bereaved citizens of the United Kingdom. May Allah bring them comfort and solace of mind, and enable them to make the right decisions about the future — ameen.