Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian
- The Promised Messiah and Imam-al-Mahdi.
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Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
A. Abdul Aziz. Press Secretary,
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamath, Sri Lanka.
Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) declared that after him would come the
Promised Messiah. Among his tasks was the revival of Islam and the unification
of all religions.
Indeed like the Muslims, the followers of all great religions too
Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others anxiously awaited the
advent of the Promised Reformer as predicted in their scriptures. The
conditions were ripe for the Promised Reformer to appear.
Friends, please take note that as foretold, this advent of the Promised
Messiah and Mahdi and indeed of the Promised Reformer of all religions
has already taken place in the person of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908
) of Qadian, a remote village in the north of India. Under Divine Command,
in fulfillment of the prophecy about the Promised Reformer, he laid
the foundation on 23rd of March, 1889 of what today is the worldwide
and dynamic Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in Islam.
In the year 1889 in a small, dusty Indian town in Punjab, some 90
miles from Lahore, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, accepted a covenant of allegiance
from his first followers. That first initiation ceremony took place
in Ludhiana (Punjab) on March 23rd, 1889, as commanded by God. By taking
the Bai’at or the oath of allegiance, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad laid the
foundation of this Jama’at. To mark this event, Ahmadi Muslims
throughout the world are celebrating the 23rd of March as the “Promised
Messiah Day” (Founder’s Day).
Before accepting any Bai’at, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad announced, on
January 12, 1889, the ten conditions of initiation into the Jama’at.
A newcomer to this Jama’at is asked and is being asked to abide
by the following conditions:
1. To abstain from shirk or setting up partners with God till the day
of his death.
2. To keep away from falsehood, adultery, cruelty, dishonesty, riot,
rebellion and every kind of evil.
3. To offer the five Daily Prayers and also the tahajjud Prayer (pre
- dawn supererogatory prayers) if able to do so.
4. Not to harm God’s creatures in general and Muslims in particular,
by one’s actions or by words.
5. To stay faithful to God in sorrow or pleasure, prosperity or adversity,
happiness or misfortune.
6. Not to follow vulgar customs, to abstain from evil inclinations,
to submit to the authority of the Holy Quran and to make the sayings
of God and His Messenger the guiding principles of one’s life.
7. To completely discard pride and haughtiness and to pass one’s
days with humility, lowliness, courtesy and meekness.
8. To consider the religion, the honour of religion and the well-being
of Islam dearer than one’s life, wealth, honour and children.
9. To show sympathy God’s creatures and to use one’s natural
talents for their welfare.
10. To establish a brotherhood with Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on condition
of obeying him in everything good, till the day of one’s death.
One hundred years later the Holy War of words to unite all religions
under his Messiahship and to preach the whole world peacefully to his
Islamic beliefs has suffered many martyrs. In the last century they
were tortured and then stoned to death. In this century they have been
hacked to death by enraged mobs. Governments, especially in Pakistan,
have passed law against them. They have been told - by both Christians
and Muslims - that they are heretics. But the missionary zeal of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at has never faltered.
The swearing of the first covenant did not mean a break with other
Muslims or confrontation with the Christian church. But a year later
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed that he was the Promised Messiah and so
the Apostle of God for all people and for all religions. Ahmad also
proclaimed that God had revealed to him that Jesus did not die on the
cross. He had died a natural death in India many years later. It was
a total repudiation of the beliefs of the Christian church and of nearly
all of Islam.
God had revealed to him, said Ahmad that Jesus had only fainted when
he was on the Cross. When he was taken down, he was rubbed with ointments
and salves and then laid quietly in a large, airy tomb dug out of the
hillside. There he had gradually recovered. Three days later he had
shown himself to his disciples as they had described and doubting Thomas
had put his hands into his wounds.
Then Jesus did disappear from Jerusalem. But he did not ascend into
heaven as the Son of God, as the Christians declared. Nor did he ascend
into Heaven as a prophet, who was to come back to Earth before the Day
of Judgment in his original physical form, as Muslims declared.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad declared that God had revealed to him that Jesus,
aware that he could no longer continue his ministrations in Galilee,
had journeyed to India in search of the lost tribes of Israel. There
he had lived a long and honorable life. He had died a natural death
and his grave in Kashmir was known and honored as that of the Prophet
Yuz Asaph which translates as Jesus The Gatherer.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born on February 13th, 1835, the second son
of Mirza Ghulam Murtaza. He was a twin, but his sister died a few days
after their birth. It was the time forecast by tradition for the coming
of the Promised Messiah. There was general agreement among Muslims that
‘The Mahdi’, which translates in English as “The Guided
One”, would appear at the beginning of the 14th century of the
Hijra, which corresponds roughly to the last decade of the 19th century
of the Christian calendar. Jesus had also indicated that the time of
second coming would be signaled by wars, epidemics and general tribulations.
The First World War, the Spanish flue epidemic which killed millions
fulfilled these conditions. And among many Christian denominations it
was believed that the late 19th or early 20th century was the period
when Jesus would come again to the world.
These beliefs were based upon a variety of indications contained in
prophecies mentioned in the sacred writings of Islam and Christianity.
Muhammad, The Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) had also said very clearly
how The Promised Messiah would be identified. This was contained in
an oral tradition written down many years after his death.
Regarding the Mahdi - The Guided One, the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH)
is recorded as saying:
“There are appointed two signs which have never been manifested
for any other claimant since the creations of the heavens and the earth.
They are that, at his advent (IMAAM MAHDI), there shall occur an eclipse
of the moon on the first of its appointed nights and an eclipse of the
sun on the middle of its appointed days and both will occur in the same
month of Ramadhan”. (Sunan Ad Darqutni - Reported by: Hazrat Imam
Baaqar Muhammad bin Ali [R.A] )
Normally the eclipse of the moon occurs on the 13th, 14th or 15th
of a lunar month, while the eclipse of the sun takes place on the 27th,
28th or 29th. The conditions mentioned by the Holy Prophet therefore
meant that the moon would be eclipsed on the 13th and the sun on the
28th of the same lunar month which would be Ramadhan.
The celestial signs were not to announce the physical birth of the
Mahdi but his spiritual arrival. On the 13th of Ramadhan, 1311 Hijra
( Thursday, March 21st,1894) the moon was eclipsed and on the 28th of
Ramadhan, thus the same lunar month (6th April, 1894) the sun was eclipsed.
The same phenomenon was repeated in the North American continent the
following year.
Thus the criteria laid down by the Holy Prophet were exactly fulfilled,
being some five years after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad announced he was the
Guided Teacher whose advent had been foretold. It was also revealed
to him that he was The Promised Messiah whose advent had been foretold
not only in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, but in all the principal
religions of the world such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
As his advent had been prophesied in the principal faiths of the world,
would there be a guided teacher for each faith and would their messages
and functions be identical?
If the messages were identical then only one teacher would be needed.
If the messages were different, then the arrival of so many religious
teachers would not promote unity, peace, accord and spiritual fulfillment,
but instead would foster hostility, discord, enmity and chaos.
If each of these teachers arrived within the dispensation of their
own faiths , would they uphold the values of that faith as originally
defined? If they departed from them what would be the scope of their
doctrines and teachings?
Either contingency would raise problems that would be difficult to
solve.
Mankind has been constantly pressing forward to a unity of aim and
purpose. All the developments that have taken place, say religious leaders,
indicate that God’s hand would therefore fall on one single person,
not a number of people in different faiths.
Hazrat Ahmad maintained that all the prophecies regarding the advent
of various reformers were no doubt true. They however, in fact implied
that only a single claimant would be raised, who would have in his person
the qualities, role and spiritual powers of all the great world reformers.
Further he said that the Promised Reformer was to appear not an independent
capacity but only as a subordinate to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
He added that he himself was nothing and claimed no merit. What Almighty
God had bestowed on him in his Grace was in consequence of his utter
devotion and obedience to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was thus
a perfect spiritual reflection of Muhammad (PBUH).
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet. But he was not a law-giving prophet,
he emphasized Muhammad had been the last law-giving prophet.
Ahmadi Muslims believe in the unqualified Finality of Prophethood
(i.e Khatme Nabuwwat) of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) but defer from orthodox
Muslim Clerics in its explanation. Ahmadi Muslims also believe him as
the Last Messenger of Allah as he was the Last Law-bearing Prophet and
has attained the last and final station of spiritual heights. But, according
to Ahmadies, nearness to Allah is possible to attain for a true Muslim
as Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) is the Spiritual Touch-Stone (Khataman Nabiyeen),
whose touch can turn a handful of dust into priceless gold or gems!
Accordingly, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community claimed to
have attained the spiritual height of Subservient Prophethood under
the spiritual spell of his Master Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Jesus had made it clear that a “second coming” meant the
coming of another prophet who was clothed in the first prophet’s
power and spirit. John the Baptist had been the second coming of Elijah,
said Jesus. God has also revealed to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad that a great
reformer would come to the world in the spirit of Jesus. God had told
him that he was that chosen person.
The exact revelation was:
“The Messiah, son of Mary, Prophet of God is dead. It is thou
who has appeared in his spirit, according to the promise. And the promise
of God is ever fulfilled”.
The Muslim divines were outraged and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was denounced
as a heretic, an impostor and an enemy of the Faith. The storm of controversy
did not shake him and he answered them with a reasoned exposition, calling
to his side the evidence contained in the Holy Quran. Not a single verse
upheld the view that Jesus was taken physically alive into Heaven, he
said, but there were many that said Jesus had died.
Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had died, so why should they believe
that Jesus was physically still alive? Mirza Ghulam Ahmad asked. He
suggested that Muslims had been misled by certain allegorical expressions
and that, unfortunately, over the centuries, the belief of Christians
in a Jesus living in Heaven had also slowly been added on to the true
beliefs of Islam.
The Revelation by God to Ahmad that he was to wage a holy war of words
to convert the world to Islam was all embracing. In that revelation
God had told him that his followers were the chosen people. They would
excel in every way every other person in the world.
This was the Revelation:
“God desires to found a community of the faithful to manifest
His Glory and Power. He will make the Community grow and prosper to
establish the love of God, righteousness, purity, piety, peace and goodwill
among men. This shall be a group of persons devoted to God. He shall
strengthen them with His own spirit and bless and purify them”.
The Revelation also revealed to Ahmad that his community would flourish.
God had promised, he said, that the Community would “multiply exceedingly”.
‘Thousands of truthful people shall join his ranks. He shall
himself look after them and make the community grow, so much so that
its members and progress shall amaze the world”.
God had promised him that his mission would be successful, he declared.
God had told him, “I will carry thy message to the ends of the
world”. It was an astonishing statement from a man whose followers
at that time did not even number fifty. Yet he was not unknown. His
writings had attracted attention throughout the world. “Very profound
and very true”, the Russian philosopher Count Leo Tolstoy wrote
of one of his books.
Today the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in Islam is considered the
most potent religious force in the world. People from all over the globe
are flocking to join the fold in ever increasing numbers. The first
forty followers have become more than 220 million. It is a mathematical
increase in 119 years unequaled since the rise of Islam.
Among his followers are, a Nobel prizewinner (Dr. Abdul Salam), a
former president of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Sir.
Zafarullah Khan), Kings, Government Ministers, Army and Air Force Generals,
Doctors, Scientists and millions and millions of ordinary people from
countries as diverse as Indonesia, the United States, Poland, China
and Spain.
An immense missionary organization has established the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Jama’at in 193 countries. The Holy Quran or major portion of it
has been translated and printed in 117 languages, including Chinese
and Russian.
In Third World countries, along with the missionaries, there are schools
and hospitals, doctors and agricultural engineers. Each Ahmadi Muslim
considers himself a missionary and ready to leave his home in Europe,
North America, Pakistan and India to answer the call of the successors
(Caliphs) of the Promised Messiah and serve where he need is considered
to be the greatest.
At the time of his death, a newspaper in Lahore said that, though
the writer did not believe Ahmad was the Promised Messiah, there was
no doubt that he “was an exceedingly holy and exalted leader who
had a force of piety that conquered even the hardest hearts. He was
a well-informed scholar, a reformer of great resolve who, set an example
of pious life.... his guidance and leadership had a true messianic quality
for the spiritually dead”. The Times of London, in a long obituary
covering his teachings, said that many men of high standing and good
education were numbered among his followers. The writer recalled the
words of one of his Christian opponents. He was, he said, “venerable
in appearance, magnetic in personality and active in intellect”.
After the demise of its founder in 1908, a system of Caliphate (Khilafat)
was instituted in this Jama’at which is similar to the Pious Caliphate
that followed the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In this system of Caliphate
(Khilafat), some select members of the community elect a Caliph by majority
vote. The Caliph (Khalifah) is the religious head of the community and
directs all affairs of the community in complete accordance with Islamic
principles. The Caliph usually asks for a Bai’at from the community
members to re-affirm their allegiance to him and to the cause of Islam.
The present Head Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad is the fifth successor (Khalifah)
of the Promised Messiah. Under his leadership, the message of Islam
is being conveyed throughout the world through MTA International (Muslim
TV Ahmadiyya International- Digital Frequency- [100.5° E] ) - the
first Islamic satellite channel broadcasting daily around the clock.
This year (2008) the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is celebrating
the Centenary of Ahmadiyya Khilafat.
MTA telecasts religious, educational, cultural and health programs
24 hours a day across the globe, from London via Asiasat 2 Satellite
100.5° East - Frequency:- 3.660; Symbol Rate: 27500; Polarity:-
Vertical. LIVE telecast of Friday Sermons delivered by the Supreme Head
of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Hazrat Mirza Thahir Ahmad
can be viewed on every Friday 12.00 hrs. GMT. Many of the programs are
transmitted in English, Arabic, Urdu, Bosnian, Bengali, German and Russian.
MTA can also be received on Internet: web address: http:// www: alisham.org.
Now, MTA has three channels that include a separate channel for Arabic
speaking people – MTA Al Arabiyya.
In matter of finance the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is self - supporting
and completely independent. Its main source of income is the voluntary
contributions and the spirit of sacrifice of its members. In addition
to occasional appeals to raise funds for special projects, the earning
members are expected to regularly donate to the Community a specific
portion of their income.
Above all, millions of its members routinely offer countless hours
of regular voluntary services to assist the Community to achieve its
objectives.
In Sri Lanka, this Jama’at was established in 1915. Today this
Jama’at has a considerable membership in various part of the Island.
It has the centers in Colombo, Negombo, Pasyala, Puttalam and Polonnaruwa.
Its National Headquarters is situated at: 619/4, Base Line Road, Colombo.9.
Mr. A.H. Nasir Ahmad is the National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Jama’at, Sri Lanka.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes in all the prophets and religious
teachers appointed by God, including Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, Jesus,
Krishna and Buddha. It regards them all as heavenly teachers sent to
reform humanity and to establish its communion with God - the Creator.
Therefore, it seeks to establish peace between all religions by testifying
to the truth of the original teachings of various faiths.
The Community established by Hazrat Ahmad is an embodiment of the
benevolent message of all world religions - peace, universal brotherhood
and submission to the Divine injunctions and commandments. It encourages
interfaith dialogue and diligently seeks to remove misunderstandings
between all faiths. It advocates peace, mutual respect, love and understanding
among the followers of various faiths.
It firmly believes that there must not be any compulsion in matters
of religion. It strongly rejects violence and terrorism in any form
and under any pretext.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is an embodiment of the true Islam.
It seeks to unite mankind with its Creator and to establish peace at
both individual and collective levels.
Love For All, Hatred For None.
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