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,
- 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 group, 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
made these statements. Allah is witness to what we have stated.