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An allegation against Maulana Muhammad Ali put forward just over a year ago, in July 2003, on the Qadiani discussion forum on the former website www.ahmadiyya.com (which was subsequently closed by order of Qadiani khalifa 5, Mirza Masroor Ahmad), has just come to my attention. A Qadiani Jama‘at member, posting under the pseudonym ‘Rahgeer’, quoted a revelation of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and alleged that God was revealing “Divine hints” to the Promised Messiah that Maulana Muhammad Ali was not sincere and had underhand plans of his own, so much so that in this particular revelation God was asking that the Maulana should “repent and be the true follower of Promised Messiah and not to be greedy or seek worldly gains out of this Divine plant that Allah had himself sown”.

‘Rahgeer’ has quoted the revelation, dated 20 November 1898, from Tazkira, a book compiled by the Qadiani Jama‘at long after the Split in the Ahmadiyya Movement. As ‘Rahgeer’ tells us, there are two revelations at this point in Tazkira, each about a different person, as follows:

“Muhammad Ali Khan: fa-bi-ayyi ‘aziz-in ba‘da-hu ta‘lamun

Maulvi Muhammad Ali: Khuda mera bhi guna bakhshay ”

Again as ‘Rahgeer’ mentions, after these revelations there is a sentence quoted in Tazkira from a letter by the Promised Messiah to Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan of Malerkotla in which he mentions the first revelation above and writes: “this revelation was received about you … and God is addressing you saying: ‘After this tragedy, can there be a greater tragedy from which you will learn a lesson’ ”.

According to ‘Rahgeer’, these two revelations indicate God’s displeasure towards these two people, and the revelation about Maulana Muhammad Ali also asked him to repent and say: Khuda mera bhi guna bakhshay, meaning ‘May God forgive my sin too’.

Blunders and errors

‘Rahgeer’ has committed so many blunders that it is difficult to know where to begin. He writes that these revelations caught his eyes when he was reading Tazkira. What did not catch his eyes is the footnote there by the compiler of Tazkira in which it is written:

“These two revelations have these two names before them. Just as the first revelation is about Nawab Muhammad Ali sahib, the second revelation appears to be about Maulvi Muhammad Ali sahib, but Allah knows best.” (Bolding is mine)

So even the compiler of Tazkira is not sure that the second revelation is about Maulana Muhammad Ali. Moreover, unlike the first revelation which was published when the Promised Messiah’s letter to Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan appeared in print in Al-Hakam in September 1903, the second revelation was apparently never published until it appeared in Tazkira.

But let us suppose that the Promised Messiah did indeed receive Divine revelation that Maulana Muhammad Ali should say: May God forgive my sin too. In the Holy Quran, Allah tells the Holy Prophet Muhammad to do istighfar for himself and for his followers:

wastaghfir li-dhanbi-ka — “and ask forgiveness for thy sin” (40:55)

“and ask forgiveness for thy sin and for the believing men and the believing women” (47:19)

The Christian critics of Islam put forward these words as evidence that according to the Quran itself the Holy Prophet Muhammad was a sinner. Today the Qadianis are putting forward very similar words to accuse Maulana Muhammad Ali of being a sinner. The reply given to Christians by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was that to ask ghafar (forgiveness or protection) for sins does not mean necessarily that it is for any sins that were actually committed, but that holy persons always fear committing any act of disobedience to God, no matter how trivial or unintentional, and are constantly asking for Allah’s protection on account of this anxiety and apprehension.

Every Muslim, even including the Holy Prophet Muhammad, are required to do istighfar for their dhanb, that is, ask forgiveness for their ‘sin’. The question is: Did the Qadiani khalifas number 2, 3 and 4 ever do istighfar for their dhanb, and does Mirza Masroor Ahmad ever do istighfar for his dhanb? If not, then are they more sinless than the Holy Prophet Muhammad? And if they did do istighfar, then for which dhanb did they ask forgiveness?

According to the Quran, great prophets prayed for their own forgiveness. Moses prayed about himself and Aaron: “My Lord, forgive me and my brother” (7:151). The prayer of Abraham is repeated by Muslims near the end of the regular salat: “Our Lord, grant me forgiveness and my parents and the believers on the day when the reckoning comes to pass” (14:41).

At the recent Qadiani Jalsa in Germany there was a speech about Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, during which the venerable speaker recounted a well-known incident. The Hazrat Maulana was once asked what benefit did he gain by entering into the bai‘at of the Promised Messiah, and he replied: There was one sin that I could not free myself of, but after taking the bai‘at I managed to shake it off. Perhaps the revelation about Maulana Muhammad Ali refers to a similar effect, because this revelation is dated 1898, the year after he entered into the bai‘at of the Promised Messiah.

False allegation based on imaginary foundation

‘Rahgeer’ imagines that in the revelation about Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan God expressed His displeasure about him. From this imaginary basis, he then alleges that in the revelation about Maulana Muhammad Ali, because it uses the word bhi (meaning ‘also’ or ‘too’), God’s displeasure is being expressed about him as well. But this is simply baseless guesswork. In the letter of the Promised Messiah to the Nawab sahib, from which one sentence is quoted in Tazkira, he is actually expressing his condolences and sympathy on the death of the Nawab’s wife. This is the tragedy (hadasa) referred to in the revelation, writes the Promised Messiah. He ends his letter as follows:

“In this revelation God has given a reminder of this very point that at this time of shock you should take a step forward, be regular in prayer and become a true Muslim. If you do this, God will soon give you recompense for this loss and make you forget the grief, as He has power over all things. This was a revelation and a message. After this you must show a fresh example of turning to religion. … If you adopt taqwa God removes your sorrows.” (Al-Hakam, 30 September 1903, p. 5, column 3)

Nowhere in the letter does the Promised Messiah say to the Nawab that “God is displeased with you”.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s views about Maulana Muhammad Ali

The most bizarre aspect of these Qadiani allegations is that while, according to them, God was warning the Promised Messiah with “hints” about the insincerity and sinfulness of Maulana Muhammad Ali, yet the Promised Messiah kept on publishing how righteous, good and sincere he found the Maulana to be. In 1899, the year after the above revelation, the Promised Messiah announced publicly:

“Among the most sincere friends in our community is Maulvi Muhammad Ali, M.A., …During this period in which he has been with me, I have been observing him, both openly and discreetly, to assess his moral character, observance of religion and goodness of behaviour. So, thanks be to God, that I have found him to be a most excellent man as regards religion and good behaviour in all ways. He is unassuming, modest, of a righteous nature, and pious. He is to be envied for many of his qualities. … It is obvious that such promising young men possessing these qualities, who are able and honourable, cannot be found by searching.” (Announcement dated 9 August 1899; bolding is mine).

“I am sure that my foresight will not go wrong in this, that this young man will make progress in the path of God, and I am sure that by the grace of God he will prove to be so firm in righteousness and love of religion that he will set an example worthy to be followed by his peers.” (Announcement dated 4 October 1899; bolding is mine).

In 1901 the Promised Messiah appointed Maulana Muhammad Ali as Editor of the Review of Religions, thus making him the spokesman of the Ahmadiyya Movement to the international world, and in 1906 he appointed the Maulana as Secretary of the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya, the chief executive body of the Movement, two positions he was holding at the time of the Promised Messiah’s death. Yet according to the Qadiani ‘Rahgeer’, from the very beginning in 1898 God was all the time revealing “hints” to the Promised Messiah that Maulana Muhammad Ali was an internal danger to the Movement!

Full details of the views of the Promised Messiah about Maulana Muhammad Ali can be found on this webpage.

The baseless and false allegation against Maulana Muhammad Ali by ‘Rahgeer’ is an example of the kind of complete fabrications that the Qadianis have always been making against him.

Response?

The present Qadiani khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad, in his Friday khutba on 20 August 2004 in Germany, has instructed members of his Movement not to post responses to websites of their opponents, but instead to inform the Qadiani Jama‘at of any material that needs a response. Any response considered necessary will be published by the Qadiani Jama‘at on their website, www.alislam.org. In view of this instruction, we hope that Qadiani Jama‘at members reading this page will refer it to their Jama‘at for a response. In any response, the Qadiani Jama‘at should state whether they agree with the claim of ‘Rahgeer’ about the meaning of the two revelations that he put forward and they should also tell us whether Qadiani khalifas ever do istighfar for their dhanb (or plural dhunub) or if they are too sinless to be asking for the forgiveness of Allah.