The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Mirza Mahmud Ahmad’s speech in January 1913 saying only those are kafir who brand Ahmadis as kafir

During the period of Headship of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, when Mirza Mahmud Ahmad returned from performing the Hajj to Makkah, some welcome meetings were held for him in Qadian. One such meeting, attended by the Hazrat Maulana, was held on 14th January 1913, and was organized by the pupils of the Ahmadiyya religious school. At the request of the gathering Mirza Mahmud Ahmad made a speech about his journey. This event, along with the speech, is reported in Badr, 30 January 1913, pages 17-18.

In this speech he mentioned various questions and objections that he encountered from people during the journey and his answers to them. He relates one of these as follows:

"Then a man raised the objection that the Holy Prophet has said that in every century there will be a group in his Ummah who will receive salvation, but you (i.e., Ahmadis) say that after the Companions till today all Muslims have been kafir as they believed that Jesus is alive. I replied to him that we do not call non-Ahmadis as kafir because of their believing in Jesus to be alive. We call them kafir because they call the followers of Mirza sahib, who are Muslims, as kafir. Therefore, under the Holy Prophet's order, we call them kafir because they call Muslims as kafir." (p. 18, column 2)

This speech was, of course, made almost two years after his well-known article of April 1911, in which he declared all other Muslims to be kafir, all those who "decline to accept his claims", "even if they called him a righteous person with their tongues".

See the image of this part of the speech below.

The image of the complete report in Badr can be read in pdf format at this link. The report begins in the 3rd column of the first page (p. 17). I have marked appropriate points by red lines.