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Archive for the ‘100th anniversary of death’ Category

In Al-Hakam, 17 July 1907, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is reported as saying:

” It is very hard to give precedence to religion [i.e. one’s religious duties] over the world [i.e. worldly calls and interests]. A man can say this in words and even pledge to do it. But not everyone can fulfil it. Holding religion above the world can be recognised by comparing the pain a man feels at worldly loss with the pain he feels when suffering some religious loss. A man should make his own heart as the judge to determine this: how restless he becomes and how much he wails and woes over worldly loss, and in contrast how he feels at some religious loss?

Bad is the man who deceives another, but worse is the man who deceives himself. He does not give precedence to religion over the world but believes that he does so. He does not truly obey God but considers that he is a Muslim. He who is unjust to another can escape after his misdeed and save himself thus. But he who is unjust to himself has nowhere to run and cannot escape this injustice.

Blessed is the one who gives precedence to religion and God over everything else because God will give him precedence.“

According to an item in Al-Hakam (17 July 1907) under the heading Kufr, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad made the following comments:

How can anyone escape after disobeying God the Most High? Those who don’t accept the man sent by God in this age are disobeying God. In the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, the Jews and Christians followed the religious law, said their prayers, fasted, and believed in all the prophets. But due to not accepting the Holy Prophet Muhammad they were deemed to be unbelievers (kafir). In this age, those people who are not only our opponents but declare us as kafir themselves become kafir on the basis of the hadith of the Holy Prophet because they declared a believer as kafir. They cannot escape the grip of Allah.

It is to be noted here that Hazrat Mirza sahib has not declared those as kafir who don’t accept him, on the grounds that they don’t believe in his claims. He clearly says that by calling him, who is a Muslim, as kafir they are condemned by the hadith reports of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which say that he who calls another Muslim as kafir gets that same epithet reflected back on him.

In Al-Hakam of 30th June 1907 a circular letter is published under the title An Important Letter. It is written by Maulana Muhammad Ali as Secretary of the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya. The Editor of Al-Hakam introduces it as follows:

The Secretary of the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya has sent the following circular letter to Ahmadis. Due to its importance it deserves much attention, and is published so that people can attend to it immediately.

The letter, dated 23rd June 1907, begins as follows. (I have put in bold some word for emphasis.)

“From the Office of the Secretary, Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya Qadian.

Assalamu alaikum

In the beginning of 1906, by order of the Promised Messiah, an Anjuman of his followers was established whose name the Holy Hazrat himself suggested as Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya. The purpose of creating this Anjuman was that, except for the langar (food hospitality), all the work done by the Ahmadiyya Movement should come under an organisation. Accordingly, the first three clauses of the rules of the Anjuman, which have been published several times before, are as follows:

1. The objectives of the Anjuman shall be as follows: Propagation of Islam, education both religious and secular, arrangements of the cemetery, distribution of Zakat, and other matters in connection with the Ahmadiyya Movement.

2. Every person belonging to the Ahmadiyya Movement who in any way supports the Movement shall be a member of this Anjuman.

3. Every Ahmadiyya Anjuman that members of the Ahmadiyya Movement establish anywhere shall be a branch of this Anjuman.

Thus in that very year 1906 this Anjuman was legally registered and at present it has under its charge: Taleem-ul-Islam High School and religious school, the magazine Review of Religions and Talim-ul-Islam, the Maqbara-i Bahishti, a library, and support for many poor and orphans.

To carry out these functions is not the work of a few men, but is the duty of the whole of the Ahmadiyya Movement and the responsibility equally of everyone. A person who enters into the bai’at, until he is our helper in these objectives, does not benefit the Movement in any way. Secondly, those who enter into the bai’at and are then not informed of the work and activities of the Movement, and the fresh signs sent by God, do not benefit by being within the Movement. Thirdly, difficulties are always being encountered in carrying out those works which are the important aims of this Movement because not everyone is participating. …

Realising these needs, the central council (majlis-i mu’timideen) of the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya has proposed that wherever there is a reasonable number of Ahmadis a local Anjuman should be established there which would be a branch of this Anjuman. To organise this work better, it has been considered necessary that in every district, in whichever place within it there is a Jamaat of a sufficient size, a major branch of the Anjuman should be set up which should organise all the Anjumans in its district.”

The letter then goes on to ask some questions from the existing Anjuman branches to assess their working, and requires them to provide answers as soon as possible. Some of these are: How many members do you have? What are the names of your officers? What are the conditions of membership? What are the rules and regulations of the Anjuman? At the end, having mentioned various functions of these Anjumans, the letter says:

“To sum up, by creating district Anjumans and establishing mutual relations between them, all members will from time to time be informed of the important works and instructions of the Movement.”

This letter clearly shows that the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya was created by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the supreme executive to govern the affairs of the Ahmadiyya Movement and it was carrying out this function during the life of Hazrat Mirza sahib.

I quote below from Badr, 27 June 1907.

Service of the faith

14th May 1907. A man advised Hazrat (Mirza sahib):

“As you, sir, have laboured very hard in writing the book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy and proof-reading it again and again, this is why you are falling ill again and again. You should have complete rest now for a few days and avoid any reading or writing work altogether.”

Hazrat Mirza sahib said in reply:

“My labour is nothing. I feel ashamed when I look at the labours of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, as to how they cheerfully gave even their lives in the cause of God.”

So highly did Hazrat Mirza regard the work of the Companions for the cause of Islam, that he considered his exertions as nothing in comparison.

Below is an image of this item from Badr.

Badr, 6th June 1907, reports Hazrat Mirza sahib as referring to the following verse within his poem about the impermissibility of war-like jihad:

“Now all your life is entirely sinful. Believer you are not, as you walk in unbelief.”

Commenting on this, Hazrat Mirza sahib said:

Look how all kinds of sinful and evil behaviour is rampant today and Muslims are not like they were in the early days. This is why rule in the land was snatched away from them, because they forsook God the Most High. God is not like someone’s relative that He should continue helping the relation even if the latter goes astray.

As Muslims have a resemblance to the Jews, it was necessary that they too, like the Israelites, be punished severely twice. Once the punishment came when Halaku Khan invaded and destroyed Baghdad, killing 600,000 Muslims in Baghdad alone. The condition of the Muslims of the time is shown by this incident. People went to see a holy man and asked him to pray to God to save them. He said: “You wretches, because of you all of us are caught up in this punishment. I have seen angels saying: O unbelievers, kill the wicked people.”

The same condition has again arisen now. The rule of the British, who are unbelievers in terms of our religion, has been established in India just because Muslims themselves have become evil-doers and are not worthy of the mercy of God. This verse of my poem means just this, that as your own condition has not remained such as to deserve the help of God, how can you wage a jihad (of war)?

Note: The incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, referred to in Badr, 6th June 1907, and in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy, published May 1907, actually took place some five years earlier in 1902. As Hazrat Mirza shaib says in his announcement in this issue, this prophecy had been fulfilled during the previous years.

In Badr of 6th June 1907 there is an announcement by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, printed in a large font size, addressing those Muslim religious leaders who accused him of fabricating revelation. He says that he has written the book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (just then published) to prove his case to them. In this announcement he cites as an example of Divine revelation to him the following: inni uhaafizu kulla man fi-d-dar wa uhaafizu-ka khassa, the interpretation of which is that God will protect everyone within his house from plague which was raging then all around in Punjab, and in particular the Promised Messiah himself would be protected.

He goes on to say that this prophecy has been fulfilled over the previous eleven years. He then challenges those who call this revelation a human fabrication to swear on oath that “may the curse of Allah be upon him who denies true revelation from God”, while Hazrat Mirza sahib would swear: “may the curse of Allah be upon him who fabricates revelation from God”. That is, each party invokes the curse of Allah upon itself, in case of being false. Also he challenges them to make a similar prophecy about themselves, as he made about himself.

He adds that the prophecy does not mean that each and every one of his followers will be safe-guarded from this disease, but that it relates to those of perfect faith, whose faith is not mixed with some weakness. It is interesting to note that in the same issue of Badr there is an excerpt about an incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali, taken from the magazine Tashhiz-ul-Azhan, which had just then been started by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, son of the Promised Messiah. In this particular talk, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad relates that once Maulana Muhammad Ali, who then lived in a part of the Promised Messiah’s house, fell ill with high fever and believed that he had contracted plague. The Promised Messiah writes that when he heard this he went to see Maulana Muhammad Ali and said to him without the least hesitation: If you have got plague then our Movement is based on falsehood. “Saying that, I felt his pulse and there was no sign or trace of a fever”, says he.

Not only as a reported talk as here, but the same incident has also been recorded in written form by the Promised Messiah in his book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy (see Sign number 103 on page 253).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was absolutely sure that Maulana Muhammad Ali could not have contracted plague because (1) he had full belief that his revelation was from God, and (2) he knew that Maulana Muhammad Ali was a follower of perfect faith. He did not for one moment entertain the thought that the Maulana could really have caught plague as his faith may be less than full and perfect.

It is also interesting to note that in Haqiqat-ul-Wahy he mentions two incidents when his own relations actually contracted plague, one being his wife’s brother Mir Muhammad Ishaq (see Sign number 143, pages 327-329) and the other his son Mirza Sharif Ahmad, grandfather of the present Qadiani Khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad (see pages 87-88, footnote). In both cases, the Promised Messiah mentions his great anxiety and extreme worry that if the boy died then his opponents would have the opportunity to falsify his revelation mentioned above. Indeed, he says he cannot describe the shock he felt at this thought. He then had recourse to special prayer to Allah to avert such a calamity, and the prayers were accepted.

The contrast is quite clear between the incident involving Maulana Muhammad Ali on the one hand, and the incidents involving the two family members of the Promised Messiah.

1. A book by Maulana Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan of Amroha is reported as having been published in which he has related the martyrdom of Sahibzada Abdul Latif in terms of a story in Surah Yasin (Ch. 36) of the Quran. The name of the book is Sirr-ush-Shahadatain. [One wonders if this is available somewhere.]
2. There is an announcement by a printer that Maulana Nur-ud-Din has given him his translation of the Quran to print and publish, and he has now published the first Part. [Such a translation never appears to have been heard of again.]
3. Hazrat Mirza sahib’s book Haqiqat-ul-Wahy had just been published on 15th May.

The front page of this issue of Badr carried as usual the full conditions of the bai`at and, at the foot of the page, again as usual, the manner in which the Promised Messiah administers the bai`at.

Again, as usual, the front page has printed on it verses from the poem in Persian by Hazrat Mirza sahib written while addressing the saint Khwaja Ghulam Farid of Chachran (near Bahawalpur). It begins: “Ma musalmaneem az fazl-i Khuda…” (We are Muslims by the grace of God. The Mustafa is our Leader and Guide). The 6th verse in the extract given here is:

“He is the best of messengers, the best of mankind. Every prophethood came to an end with him”.

This poem was published by Hazrat Mirza sahib in his book Siraj Munir, March 1897. See Mujaddid-i Azam, p. 458-459.

So we have here a writing, a section of a poem, published well before 1901, containing a verse affirming that prophethood of every kind ended with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Then we find that regularly in Badr, for long after 1901, a part of this poem, including that verse, was always printed on the front page as giving a basic statement of his beliefs by Hazrat Mirza sahib.

This shows just how baseless the theory is that in November 1901 Hazrat Mirza sahib changed his claim from that of saint to that of prophet and began to teach from then on that the Holy Prophet Muhammad was not the last and final prophet. Pre-1901 statements on this subject were being published after 1901 as well.

As the 100th anniversary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is in almost one year’s time, in this category we intend to follow the events and statements of the last year of his life (June 1907 to May 1908), week by week. The category name is “100 years ago” and you will be able to select just this category for display.

That is the intention and plan. To what extent I can maintain the momentum and continuity I don’t know. I may have to adopt a “rough and ready” approach to translating the items from Urdu in order to save time.