70 senior Ahmadis take
oath that Hazrat Mirza did not change his claim from muhaddas
to prophet
In around 1915, shortly after the Split, the assertion was first
made by the Qadianis that, in the pamphlet Ayk Ghalati Ka Izala
(‘Correction of an error’) published in November 1901,
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had announced that he claimed to be a
prophet and that his previous denials of such a claim were now abrogated.
To refute this assertion of a change in Hazrat Mirza's position
in November 1901, seventy of his prominent followers who had
taken the pledge into the Movement before that date, issued the
following sworn public statement:
“We, the undersigned, declare on oath that when Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement,
announced in 1891, that the prophet Jesus was dead according to
the Holy Quran, and that the ‘son of Mary’ whose advent
among the Muslims was spoken of in Hadith was he [Hazrat Mirza]
himself, he did not lay claim to prophethood. However, the Maulvis
misled the public, and issued a fatwa of kufr against
him by alleging that he claimed prophethood. After this, the Promised
Messiah declared time after time in plain words, as his writings
show, that to ascribe to him a claim of prophethood
was a fabrication against him, that he considered prophethood
to have come to a close with the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and that
he looked upon a claimant to prophethood, after
the Holy Prophet, as a liar and a kafir. And that
the words mursal, rasul, and nabi which had occurred
in some of his revelations, or the word nabi which had
been used about the coming Messiah in Hadith, do not denote a
prophet in actual fact, but rather a metaphorical, partial or
zilli prophet who is known as a muhaddas. After
the Khatam an-nabiyyin, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, no prophet
can come, neither new nor old.
We also declare on oath that we entered into the pledge of the
Promised Messiah before November 1901, and that the statements
of Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, the head of the Qadian section, that though
in the beginning Hazrat Mirza Sahib did not claim prophethood,
but that he changed his claim in November 1901, and laid claim
to prophethood on that date, and that his previous writings of
ten or eleven years denying prophethood are abrogated — all
this is entirely wrong and absolutely opposed to facts. We
do swear by Allah that the idea never even entered our
minds that the Promised Messiah made a change in his claim in
1901 or that his previous writings, which
are full of denials of a claim to prophethood, were ever
abrogated; nor, to our knowledge, did we ever hear such words
from the mouth of even a single person until Mirza Mahmud Ahmad
sahib made these statements. Allah is witness to what we have
stated.”
Urdu text of the sworn statement:
The Lahore Ahmadiyya Jama‘at then issued a challenge
to members of the Qadiani Jama‘at to make a counter
declaration by testifying on oath that in November 1901 while
being members of the Ahmadiyya Movement they came to know
that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, by publishing Ayk Ghalati
Ka Izala, was retracting his previous statements, of the ten-year
period 1891 to 1901, in which he had clearly denied claiming prophethood
and, as against this denial, claimed to be a muhaddas. No
one, not even one person who was an Ahmadi in November 1901,
was ever able to make this counter declaration.
List of signatories to the sworn statement:
1. (Maulvi) Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan Amrohi
2. (Maulvi) Muhammad Abdullah Khan Patialvi
3. (Maulvi) Muhammad Mubarak Ali (Sialkoti)
4. (Maulvi) Ghulam Hasan, sub-registrar, Peshawar
5. (Maulvi Hakim) Mirza Khuda Bakhsh, author of Asal Musaffa
6. (Maulvi) Muhammad Ali (Lahore)
7. (Maulvi) Muhammad Yahya (Debgaran)
8. (Maulvi) Muhammad Yaqub (Debgaran)
9. (Shaikh) Rahmatullah (Merchant, Lahore)
10. Dr. Mirza Yaqub Beg (Lahore)
11. Shaikh Ziaullah (former headmaster, Taleem-ul-Islam School,
Qadian)
12. (Maulvi) Muhammad Hasan Quraishi, Qiladar
13. (Baba) Hidayatullah (poet Punjabi, Lahore)
14. (Mian) Nabi Bakhsh (Government Pensioner, Lahore)
15. Dr. Sayyid Tufail Husain (Lahore)
16. Mirza Jamal-ud-din, copyist (Lahore)
17. Shaikh Din Muhammad (Lahore)
18. (Master) Faqirullah (Lahore)
19. Dr. Nabi Bakhsh (Bhati Gate, Lahore)
20. Hafiz Fazl Ahmad (presently Badomalhi)
21. Hafiz Ghulam Rasul (Trader, Wazirabad)
22. Chaudhry Ghulam Hasan (former Station Master, resident of Lowairiwala)
23. Shaikh Ghulam Husain Siddiqi Ahmadi (Sialkot)
24. Shaikh Muhammad Jan (Merchant, Wazirabad)
25. Shaikh Abdur Rahman (Wazirabad)
26. (Maulvi) Aziz Bakhsh, B.A. (Dera Ghazi Khan)
27. Wali Muhammad, court reader (Dera Ghazi Khan)
28. (Master) Ghulam Muhammad, B.A. (Headmaster, Rawalpindi)
29. Hakim Sardar Khan (brother of the late Hakim Shah Nawaz, Rawalpindi)
30. (Seth) Ahmad-ud-din (former Municipal Commissioner, Jhelum)
31. Shaikh Qamar-ud-din (optician, Jhelum)
32. Mistri Abdus Sattar (Jhelum)
33. Shaikh Ghulam Muhayy-ud-din (appeal recorder, Jhelum)
34. (Maulvi) Muhammad Ibrahim (Imam mosque, Jhelum)
35. Dr. Hayat Muhammad (Tooth-maker, Rawalpindi)
36. Babu Allah Bakhsh (Officers' Clerk, Jhelum)
37. Babu Abdul Haq (Clerk, Canal Department, Jhelum)
38. (Mistri) Abdul Sattar (Jhelum)
39. (Mistri) Yaqub Ali (Jammu)
40. Master Muhammad Ramzan (Jammu)
41. Malik Sher Muhammad Khan (B.A., Personal Assistant, Jammu)
42. Mufti Fazl Ahmad (Jammu)
43. (Mistri) Shahab-ud-din (Jammu)
44. Muhammad Shah (Jammu)
45. Nawab Khan (Jammu)
46. Sayyid Masud Shah (Teacher, Jammu)
47. (Mistri) Nizam-ud-din (Jammu)
48. Sayyid Amir Ali Shah (Pensioner sub-Inspector)
49. Shaikh Hidayatullah (Peshawar)
50. Ramzan Ali (Peshawar)
51. Mian Muhammad Makki (Peshawar)
52. Sayyid Lal Shah Barq (Peshawar)
53. Shaikh Fazl Karim (Peshawar)
54. (Munshi) Nawab Khan (sub-Inspector Police, Gujranwala)
55. Shaikh Maula Bakhsh (Sialkot)
56. Hakim Shams-ud-din (Sialkot)
57. Mian Boora (Sialkot)
58. Allah Din (Sialkot)
59. Shaikh Muhammad Jan (Trader, Sialkot Cantonment)
60. Babu Ata Muhammad (Engineer, Sialkot)
61. Mirza Hakim Beg (Sialkot)
62. Mistri Muhammad Akbar (Contractor, Sialkot)
63. Mistri Abdullah (Sialkot)
64. Muhammad-ud-din (Sialkot)
65. Haji Fazl-ud-din (Sialkot)
66. Sayyid Amjad Ali (Court Inspector)
67. (Dr.) Hasan Ali
68. Muhammad Sarfraz Khan (numberdar, Badomalhi)
69. Shaikh Muhammad Naseeb (former Head Clerk, Qadian)
70. Abdul Haq (Rawalpindi) |
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