The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi, like John the Baptist

In another brief item in Badr of 7th November 1907, Hazrat Mirza sahib is reported as saying:

“Just as before Jesus, the prophet John the Baptist was martyred while preaching the oneness of God, similarly before me in this very land of Punjab Sayyid Ahmad was martyred while preaching the message of the oneness of God. This was another similarity, which God fulfilled.”

Hazrat Mirza sahib bore likeness to Jesus. That was the basis of his claim to be Promised Messiah. Here he states that Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (d. 1831) in the same way bore likeness to John the Baptist, who is known in the Quran as the prophet Yahya. If Hazrat Mizra Ghulam Ahmad is the Messiah then Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi was his forerunner, his John the Baptist. This clearly shows that a religious leader among the Muslims can bear likeness to a prophet of the past without himself being a prophet, since no one considers Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi to be a prophet.