Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad مرزا غلام احمد
Personal
Born	(1835-02-13)13 February 1835 Qadian, Sikh Empire
Died	Lahore, Punjab, British India
Spouse	Hurmat Bibi Nusrat Jahan Begum
Children	Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad Mirza Bashir Ahmad Mirza Sharif Ahmad Mubarika Begum Amatul Hafeez Begum
Parents	Mirza Ghulam Murtaza (father) Chiragh Bibi (mother)
Senior posting
Title	Founder of The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam
Successor	Hakeem Noor-ud-Din

Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (Urdu: مرزا غلام احمد‎; 13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi, in the likeness of Jesus (mathīl-iʿIsā), in fulfilment of Islam's eschatological prophecies, as well as the Mujaddid (renewer) of Islam. In 1888, he announced that he had been divinely instructed to take a pledge of allegiance from his supporters and form a community and stipulated ten conditions of initiation, taking the pledge at Ludhiana from about forty of his supporters on 23 March 1889. An event that marks the formal establishment of the Ahmadiyya movement. The mission of the movement, according to him, was the revival of Islam through the moral reformation of society along Islamic ideals, and the global propagation of Islam in its pristine form.

As opposed to the Christian and mainstream Islamic view of Jesus (or Isa), being alive in heaven to return towards the end of time, Ghulam Ahmad asserted that he had in fact survived crucifixion and migrated to Kashmir, where he died a natural death and that the notion of his physical return was therefore erroneous. He traveled extensively across the Punjab preaching his religious ideas and rallied support by combining a reformist programme with his personal revelations which he claimed to receive from God, attracting thereby substantial following within his lifetime as well as considerable hostility particularly from the Muslim Ulema. He is known to have engaged in numerous public debates and dialogues with Christian missionaries, Muslim scholars and Hindu revivalists.

Ghulam Ahmad was a prolific writer and had authored more than ninety books on various religious, theological and moral aspects between the publication of his first major work, Barahin-i-Ahmadiyya (The Proofs of Islam) in the early 1880s up until his death in May 1908. Many of his works bear a polemical and apologetic tone in favour of Islam, seeking to establish its superiority as a religion through rational argumentation, often by articulating his own interpretations of Islamic teachings. He advocated a peaceful propagation of Islam and emphatically argued against the permissibility and necessity of military Jihad in the present age. By the time of his death, he had built an effective and dynamic religious organisation with an executive body and its own printing press at Qadian, his home town. After his death he was succeeded by his close companion Hakīm Noor-ud-Dīn who assumed the title of Khalīfatul Masīh (successor of the Messiah).

Although Ghulam Ahmad is revered by Ahmadi Muslims as the promised Messiah and Imām Mahdi, yet Muhammad remains the primary prophet in Ahmadiyya Islam. Ghulam Ahmad’s claim to be a subordinate (ummati) prophet within Islam has remained a central point of controversy between his followers and mainstream Muslims, who believe Muhammad to be the last prophet and await the physical return of Jesus.

Lineage and family

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s lineage through his forefathers can be traced back to Mirza Hadi Beg, a descendant of the Mughal Barlas tribe. The Barlas tribe was of Turco-Mongol ancestry. In 1530 Mirza Hadi Beg migrated from Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) along with an entourage of two hundred persons consisting of his family, servants and followers. Travelling through Samarkand, they finally settled in the Punjab, India, where Mirza Hadi founded the town known today as Qadian during the reign of the Mughal King Zaheer al-Din Babur. The family were all known as Mughals within the British governmental records of India probably due to the high positions it occupied within the Mughal empire and their courts. Mirza Hadi Beg was granted a Jagir of several hundred villages and was appointed the Qadhi (judge) of Qadian and the surrounding district. The descendants of Mirza Hadi are said to have held important positions within the Mughal empire and had consecutively been the chieftains of Qadian.

Life

Early life and education

Main article: Early life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born on 13 February 1835 in Qadian, Punjab, the surviving child of twins born to an affluent Mughal family. He was born in the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He learned to read the Arabic text of the Qur'an and studied basic Arabic grammar and the Persian language from a teacher named Fazil-e-Illahi. At the age of 10, he learned from a teacher named Fazl Ahmad. Again at the age of 17 or 18, he learnt from a teacher named Gul Ali Shah. In addition, he also studied some works on medicine from his father, Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, who was a physician.

From 1864 to 1868, upon his father's wishes, Ghulam Ahmad worked as a clerk in Sialkot, where he would come into contact with Christian missionaries with whom he frequently engaged in debate. After 1868, he returned to Qadian, as per his father's wishes, where he was entrusted to look after some estate affairs. During all this time, Ahmad was known as a social recluse because he would spend most of his time in seclusion studying religious books and praying in the local mosque. As time passed, he began to engage more with the Christian missionaries, particularly in defending Islam against their criticism. He would often confront them in public debates, especially the ones based in the town of Batala.

In 1886, certain leaders of the Arya Samaj held discussion and debate with Ghulam Ahmad about the truthfulness of Islam and asked for a sign to prove that Islam was a living religion. In order to dedicate special prayers for this purpose and so as to seek further divine guidance, Ghulam Ahmad travelled to Hoshiarpur upon what he claimed was divine instruction. Here, he spent forty days in seclusion, a practice known as chilla-nashini. He travelled accompanied by three companions to the small two-storied house of one of his followers and was left alone in a room where his companions would bring him food and leave without speaking to him as he prayed and contemplated. He only left the house on Fridays and used an abandoned mosque for Jumu'ah (Friday prayers). It is during this period that he declared God had given him the glad tidings of an illustrious son.

Taking of the Bay'ah

See also: Bay'ah (Ahmadiyya) and Ten Conditions of Bai'at

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (seated centre) with some of his companions at Qadian c.1899

Ghulam Ahmad claimed divine appointment as a reformer as early as 1882 but did not take any pledge of allegiance or initiation. In December 1888, Ahmad announced that God had ordained that his followers should enter into a bay'ah with him and pledge their allegiance to him. In January 1889, he published a pamphlet in which he laid out ten conditions or issues to which the initiate would abide by for the rest of his life. On 23 March 1889, he founded the Ahmadiyya community by taking a pledge from forty followers. The formal method of joining the Ahmadiyya movement included joining hands and reciting a pledge, although physical contact was not always necessary. This method of allegiance continued for the rest of his life and after his death by his successors.

His claim

Main article: Claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi. He claimed to be the fulfilment of various prophecies found in world religions regarding the second coming of their founders. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's followers say that he never claimed to be the same physical Jesus who lived nineteen centuries earlier. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed that Jesus died a natural death, in contradiction to the traditional Muslim view of Jesus' physical ascension to heaven and the traditional Christian belief of Jesus' crucifixion. He claimed in his books that there was a general decay of Islamic life and a dire need of a messiah. He argued that, just as Jesus had appeared in the 14th century after Moses, the promised messiah, i.e. the Mahdi, must also appear in the 14th century after Muhammad.

In Tazkiratush-Shahadatain, he wrote about the fulfillment of various prophecies. In it, he enumerated a variety of prophecies and descriptions from both the Qur'an and Hadith relating to the advent of the Mahdi and the descriptions of his age, which he ascribed to himself and his age. These include assertions that he was physically described in the Hadith and manifested various other signs; some of them being wider in scope, such as focusing on world events coming to certain points, certain conditions within the Muslim community, and varied social, political, economic, and physical conditions.

Post-claim

In time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claim of being the Mujaddid (reformer) of his era became more explicit. In one of his most well-known and praised works, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, a voluminous work, he claimed to be the Messiah of Islam. Muslims have maintained that Jesus will return in the flesh during the last age. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, by contrast, asserted that Jesus had in fact survived crucifixion and died of old age much later in Kashmir, where he had migrated. According to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the promised Mahdi was a symbolic reference to a spiritual leader and not a military leader in the person of Jesus Christ as is believed by many Muslims. With this proclamation, he also rejected the idea of armed Jihad and argued that the conditions for such Jihad are not present in this age, which requires defending Islam by the pen and tongue but not with the sword. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote two books named "Tuhfa e qaisariah" and "Sitara e Qaisaria" in which he invited Queen Victoria to embrace Islam and forsake Christianity.

Reaction of religious scholars

Some religious scholars turned against him, and he was often branded as a heretic, but many religious scholars praised him like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad among many others who praised him for his defense of Islam. After his death, opponents accused him of working for the British Government due to the termination of armed Jihad, since his claims of being the Mahdi were made around the same time as the Mahdi of Sudan (Muhammad Ahmad).

Following his claim to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, one of his adversaries prepared a Fatwa (decree) of disbelief against Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, declaring him a Kafir (disbeliever), a deceiver, and a liar. The decree permitted killing him and his followers. It was taken all around India and was signed by some two hundred religious scholars.

Some years later, a prominent Muslim leader and scholar, Ahmed Raza Khan, was to travel to the Hejaz to collect the opinions of the religious scholars of Mecca and Madina. He compiled these opinions in his work Hussam ul Harmain (The sword of two sanctuaries on the slaughter-point of blasphemy and falsehood); in it, Ghulam Ahmad was again labelled an apostate. The unanimous consensus of about thirty-four religious scholars was that Ghulam Ahmad's beliefs were blasphemous and tantamount to apostasy and that he must be punished by imprisonment and, if necessary, by execution.

Journey to Delhi

Jama Masjid, Delhi, 1852, William Carpenter

Ghulam Ahmad went to Delhi, which was at the time considered a centre of religious learning and home to many prominent religious leaders, in 1891, with the intention of distinguishing what he believed to be the truth from falsehood. He published an advertisement in which he invited the scholars to accept his claim and to engage in a public debate with him regarding the life and death of Isa (Jesus), particularly Maulana Syed Nazeer Husain (1805–1901), who was a leading religious scholar. He also proposed three conditions that were essential for such a debate: that there should be a police presence to maintain peace, the debate should be in written form (for the purpose of recording what was said), and that the debate should be on the subject of the death of Jesus.

Eventually, it was settled, and Ghulam Ahmad travelled to the Jama Masjid Delhi (main mosque) of Delhi accompanied by twelve of his followers, where some 5,000 people were gathered. Before the debate started, there was a discussion on the conditions, which led to the conclusion that the debate should not be upon the death of Jesus, but upon the claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He explained that his claim could only be discussed after the death of Jesus was proven, for Jesus was considered by many to be living and the one who will descend to Earth himself. Only when this belief was refuted could his claim to be the Messiah be discussed.

Upon this, there was a clamour among the crowds, and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was informed that the other party alleged that he was at odds with Islamic beliefs and was a disbeliever; therefore, it was not proper to debate with him unless he clarified his beliefs. Ghulam Ahmad wrote his beliefs on a piece of paper and had it read aloud, but due to the clamour among the people, it could not be heard. Seeing that the crowd was drifting out of control and that violence was imminent, the police superintendent gave orders to disperse the audience, and the debate did not take place. A few days later, however, a written debate did take place between Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Maulwi Muhammad Bashir of Bhopal, which was later published.

Ghulam Ahmad is known to have travelled extensively across Northern India during this period of his life and to have held various debates with influential religious leaders.

Challenge to opponents

Ghulam Ahmad published a book called The Heavenly Decree, in which he challenged his opponents to a "spiritual duel" in which the question of whether someone was a Muslim or not would be settled by God based on the four criteria laid out in the Qur'an, namely, that a perfect believer will frequently receive glad tidings from God, that he will be given awareness about hidden matters and events of the future from God, that most of his prayers will be fulfilled and that he will exceed others in understanding novel finer points, subtleties and deeper meanings of the Qur'an.

The sun and moon eclipse

After announcing his claim to be the Messiah and Mahdi, his opponents demanded that he should produce the "heavenly sign" detailed in the tradition attributed to the 7th-century Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, also known as Muhammad bin Ali, in which a certain sign is stated about the appearance of the Mahdi:

For our Mahdi, there are two signs which have never happened since the earth and the heavens were created, i.e., the moon will be eclipsed on the first of the possible nights in the month of Ramadhan and the sun will be eclipsed in the middle of the possible days of the month of Ramadhan.

— Dar Qutni Vol. 1, page 188

Ahmadis maintain that this prophecy was fulfilled in 1894/1895, about three years after Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed himself to be the Promised Mahdi and Messiah, with the lunar and solar eclipse during the month of Ramadhan, according to the Ahmadiyya interpretation of the prophecy. Ghulam Ahmad declared that this was a sign of his truth and was in fulfillment of the tradition or prophecy.

The eclipses being a sign of the Mahdi are also mentioned specifically in the Letters of Rabbani by Ahmad Sirhindi.

Lawsuit

In 1897, a Christian missionary, Henry Martyn Clark, filed a lawsuit of attempted murder against Ahmad at the court of District Magistrate Captain Montagu William Douglas in the city of Ludhiana. The charge laid against him was that he hired a man by the name of Abdul Hameed to assassinate Clark. However, he was not detained by the police and was declared innocent by the then-Magistrate Captain Douglas.

The Revealed Sermon

Main article: The Revealed Sermon

In 1900, on the occasion of the festival of Eid ul-Adha, he is said to have delivered an hour-long sermon extempore in Arabic expounding the meaning and philosophy of sacrifice. This episode is celebrated as one of the important events of the history of Ahmadiyya. The sermon was simultaneously written down by two of his companions and came to be known as the Khutba Ilhamiyya, the revealed or inspired sermon. Ahmadiyya literature states that during this sermon, there was a change in his voice, he appeared as if in a trance, in the grip of an unseen hand, and as if a voice from the unknown had made him its mouthpiece. After the sermon ended, Ahmad fell into prostration, followed by the rest of the congregation, as a sign of gratitude towards God.

Ahmad wrote later:

It was like a hidden fountain gushing forth and I did not know whether it was I who was speaking or an angel was speaking through my tongue. The sentences were just being uttered and every sentence was a sign of God for me.

— Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Haqeeqatul-Wahi

Challenge to John Alexander Dowie

Alexander Dowie in his robes as "Elijah the restorer"

In 1899, Scottish-born American clergyman John Alexander Dowie laid claim to be the forerunner of the second coming of Christ. Ghulam Ahmad exchanged a series of letters with him between 1903 and 1907. Ghulam Ahmad challenged him to a prayer duel, where both would call upon God to expose the other as a false prophet. Ghulam Ahmad stated:

The best way to determine whether Dowie's God is true or ours, is that Mr. Dowie should stop making prophecies about the destruction of all Muslims. Instead he should keep me alone in his mind and pray that if one of us is fabricating a lie, he should die before the other.

— Ghulam Ahmad,

Dowie declined the challenge, calling Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the "silly Mohammedan Messiah".Ghulam Ahmad prophesied:

Though he may try hard as he can to fly from death which awaits him, yet his flight from such a contest will be nothing less than death to him; and calamity will certainly overtake his Zion, for he must bear the consequences either of the acceptance of the challenge or its refusal. He will depart this life with great sorrow and torment during my lifetime.

The challenge of "prayer duel" was made by Mirza in September 1902. The Dictionary of American Biography states that after having been deposed during a revolt in which his own family was involved, Dowie endeavoured to recover his authority via the law courts without success and that he may have been a victim of some form of mania, as he suffered from hallucinations during his last illness. Dowie died before Mirza, in March 1907.

Encounter with the Agapemonites

In September 1902 the Rev. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott (1852-1927) proclaimed himself the Messiah and also claimed to be God while preaching in the Church known as "The Ark of the Covenant" in Clapton in London. This church was originally built by the Agapemonites, a religious movement founded by the Anglican priest Henry James Prince.

When the news of his claim reached India, Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, a disciple of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, learned of it and wrote to Pigott informing him of the claim of Ahmad and requesting more information about his own claim. Pigott did not reply directly, but a letter was received from his secretary along with two advertisements, one carrying the title "The Ark of Noah".

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote to Pigott informing him that such a blasphemous proposition did not behove man, and that in the future he should abstain from making such claims, or he would be destroyed. This message was sent in November 1902.

Newspapers in America and Europe published Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's notification. Dr. Schwieso, an expert in sociology and a lecturer at the University of the West of England, has made a study of Agapemone for which he received a doctorate from the University of Reading. In his dissertation "Deluded Inmates, Frantic Ravers and Communists: A sociological Study of the Agapemone, a sect of Victorian Apocalyptic Milleniars", he writes:

We can see traces of Agapemone activities in India in 1902…in this very year another claimer to messiahship in India, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, chief of Qadian, Punjab, published an announcement in which Pigott was given a warning that…….if he did not abstain from his claim to godship then he would immediately be destroyed/turned to dust and bones.

— Dr Joshua Schwieso, Deluded Inmates, Frantic Ravers and Communists: A sociological Study of the Agapemone, a sect of Victorian Apocalyptic Milleniars, pg. 171

Tadhkirah, a book comprising a collection of the verbal revelations, dreams and visions vouchsafed to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, contains a prophecy regarding Pigott:

"November, 20 (Thursday) Upon prayer with concentration concerning Pigottt, the Promised Messiah(as) saw in a dream some books on which it was written three times: Tasbeeh, Tasbeeh, Tasbeeh [Holiness belongs to Allah], and then received a revelation:

Allah is severe in retribution. They are not acting righteously.

— Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Tazkirah, pg. 531

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad then explained this revelation:

This revelation indicated that the present condition of Pigottt is not good or that he would not repent in future. It can also mean that he would not believe in God or that what he has done by telling such a lie against God and planning against him, is not good. The part "Allah is severe in retribution" shows that his end will be doomed and he will be afflicted with God’s chastisement. Indeed, it is a very daring thing to claim to be God.”

— Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Tazkirah, pg. 567

Those who heard Pigott’s claim initially immediately reacted with anger and violence, making it impossible for him to remain in London. Pigott then moved to Spaxton, in Somerset.

Researchers have commented that after the move to Spaxton;

the flamboyant Messiah of Clapton became the quiet, gentle pastor at Spaxton

— Donald McCormick, The Temple of Love p.97, 1962, The Citadel Press, New York

and that:

Smyth-Pigottt had learned his lesson at Clapton, that the opinion of the outside world still counted and he had no desire to face in Somersetshire the kind of demonstrations he had endured in London…..When (he) drove through the village he adopted the worldly role of a benign squire rather than that of the Messiah.

— Donald McCormick, The Temple of Love p.95, 1962, The Citadel Press, New York

A plaque inscribed in Latin which was found amongst his personal possessions read: Homo Sum. Humani Nihil A Me Alienum Puto. The translation of this text recorded at the back of the pendulum reads: "I am a Man. Nothing akin to Humanity do I consider alien to me."

Smyth-Piggot (who died in 1927) never again claimed Godship during the life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

The White Minaret

Main article: White Minaret (Qadian)

The White Minaret at Qadian

According to Islamic tradition, Jesus, upon his second advent, would descend with or near a White Minaret disputably to the east of Damascus or in the eastern side of Damascus. Ghulam Ahmad argued that this Hadith does not explain whether the minaret will be within the eastern side of Damascus or to the eastern side of the city. According to him, this prophecy was fulfilled with his advent in Qadian, a town situated to the east of Damascus, and the significance of the minaret symbolic. The minaret, according to him, symbolised the spread of the "light of Islam", its message reaching far and wide, and the "supremacy of Islam", which was to tower up as it were like a minaret in the time of the promised one. The prophecy is also believed to be pointing to an age of enlightenment and one where there are numerous facilities for communication and transport, thereby making conveyance and proselytising easier. This was reflective of the physical purpose that minarets were used in medieval Islamic societies, the efficient communication of the call to prayer to a wider audience in the locality. Critics, however, maintain that the White Minaret would exist on the eastern side of the city of Damascus and would be present within the city prior to the arrival of Jesus, whereas the White Minaret present in Qadian was fully constructed several years after the death of Mirza. Ghulam Ahmad claimed that God had revealed to him:

Step forth, that your time has Arrived and the feet of the people of Muhammad have been firmly planted on a high tower. Holy Muhammad, the chosen one, Chief of the Prophets.

— Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Tadhkirah, pg. 444

In 1903, Ahmad laid the foundation of a minaret to commemorate the prophecy. This, according to him, will represent the physical as well as spiritual aspects of Islam with a light and a clock fixed on its top symbolising the "light of Islam" spreading far and wide and "so man will recognize his time", and a Muezzin to give the call to prayer five times a day symbolising an invitation to Islam. The construction of this minaret was completed in 1916 and has since become a symbol and distinctive mark in Ahmadiyyat.

Heavenly Graveyard

See also: Bahishti Maqbara

Ahmad mentioned the establishment of a "Heavenly Graveyard" (Bahishti Maqbara) under divine commandment in his booklet Al-Wasiyyat (The Will). It is stated that in a spiritual vision, Ahmad was shown a plot of land called "Bahishti Maqbara", containing the graves of such members of his community who are destined to be in heaven. In order to fulfill this vision, Ahmad donated a parcel of his land in Qadian for those members of the community who fulfilled certain conditions:

• Whoever desires to be buried in this graveyard should contribute towards the expenses of its maintenance according to his capacity.
• Whoever desires to be buried therein should make a testamentary disposition that one tenth of his property shall, under direction of the Movement, be devoted to the propagation of Islam, and carrying out the teachings of the Quran. It will be open to every righteous person whose faith is perfect to provide for this purpose in his will more than one tenth, but it shall not be less.
• Whoever shall lead a righteous life and abstain from all that is prohibited and shall not do anything that amounts to association of something with God or to innovation in the faith. He should be a true and sincere Muslim. (Al-Wasiyyat, pp. 16–19)

Over time, the cemetery in Qadian has expanded, while another one was established in Rabwah, Pakistan, after the partition of India. Established under the direction Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, the second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the cemetery in Rabwah has over 10,000 graves.

Last journey

Towards the end of 1907 and early 1908, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to have received numerous revelations informing him of his imminent death. In April 1908, he travelled to Lahore with his family and companions. Here, he gave many lectures. A banquet was arranged for dignitaries where Ghulam Ahmad, upon request, spoke for some two hours explaining his claims, teachings and speaking in refutation of objections raised against his person; here, he preached reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims. He completed writing his last work, entitled Message of Peace, a day before his death.

Death

While he was in Lahore at the home of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain (who was also his physician) On 26 May 1908, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, died at 10:30, as a result of weaknesses of the body and complications arising from dysentery. His body was subsequently taken to Qadian and buried there.

Marriages and children

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad with his son, Mirza Sharif Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad married twice. His first wife was his paternal cousin Hurmat Bibi. Later, they separated and lived separately for a long time. At the time of his second marriage, Hurmat Bibi gave him the permission to live with the second wife and decided against a divorce.

Children

With his first wife, Hurmat Bibi, he had two sons:

1. Mirza Sultan Ahmad (1853–1931) ( Became Ahmadi)
2. Mirza Fazal Ahmad (1855–1904) (Died at the age of 49 years and did not become Ahmadi)

With his second wife, Nusrat Jahan Begum, he had ten children:

Five children died young:

1. Ismat (1886–1891)
2. Bashir (1887–1888)
3. Shaukat (1891–1892)
4. Mubarik (1899–1907)
5. Amtul Naseer (1903–1903)

Five children lived longer:

1. Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad (1889–1965)
2. Mirza Bashir Ahmad (1893–1963)
3. Mirza Sharif Ahmad (1895–1961)
4. (Nawab) Mubarika Begum (1897–1977)
5. (Nawab) Sahiba Amtul Hafeez Begum (1904–1987)

Legacy

One of the main sources of dispute during his lifetime and continuing since then is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's use of the terms Nabi ("prophet") when referring to himself. Most non-Ahmadi Muslims consider the prophet Muhammad to be the last of the prophets and believe that Ahmad's use of these terms is a violation of not only the rudimentary concept of the finality of prophethood, but the Qur'an itself. His followers fall into two camps in this regards. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believe in a literal interpretation of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophethood (with some qualifications) and is currently headed by Ahmad's fifth Caliph, or successor, carrying the title of Khalifatul Masih, an institution believed to have been established soon after Ahmad's death. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement believe in an allegorical interpretation of these two terms and is administered by a body of people called the Anjuman Ishat-e-Islam ("movement for the propagation of Islam"), headed by an Emir. This, among other reasons, caused a split in the movement soon after Ahmad's death.

Followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad are considered non-Muslims in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and have faced relentless persecution of various types over the years. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament amended the Pakistani constitution to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims for purposes of the constitution of the Islamic Republic. In 1984, a series of changes in the Pakistan Penal Code sections relating to blasphemy were made, which, in essence, made it illegal for Ahmadis to preach their creed, leading to arrests and prosecutions.

In 2007, the Ahmadiyya were banned from practising their faith openly in the state of Belarus and given a similar status to other banned religious groups in the country.

Relative to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, some mainstream Muslim opinion towards the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has been more accepting, with the Lahore Ahmadiyya literature finding easier compatibility with Orthodox Muslims and some Orthodox Muslim scholars considering the members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as Muslims.

A number of modern Muslim scholars and Muslim intellectuals seem to conform to the idea of peaceful Jihad as a struggle for reform through civil means, in accordance with Mirza Ghulam Ahmed's standpoint on the issue. Furthermore, some Islamic scholars have opined that Jesus has died (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's assertion) or expressed their own confusion on this matter, though the majority orthodox position of most Muslims with regard to this issue has not changed.

• Maulvi Muhammad Hussein of Batala who was a significant leader of Ahl-e-Hadith sect. He was one of his key opponents and his fellow from youth on the writing of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya that in his journal.

The writer of this book from the practical and theoretical observation of followers and enemies is religiously on the path of Sharia of Muhammad and is verily truthful.

• Maulvi Sirajuddin, who is father of Zafar Ali Khan in his newspaper Zamindar on the death of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wrote.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(1860–1861) had lived in Sialkot. He will be of age 22 and 23. We are an eye witness to say that he was pious and saint in his youth.

• Maulvi Noor Mohammad Naqshbandi had praised his contributions for Islam and against Christians.

See also

• Yuz Asaf
• Mohammadi Begum
• Khalifatul Masih
• Mirza Ghulam Ahmad bibliography
• List of founders of religious traditions
• List of people who have claimed to be Jesus
• People claiming to be the Mahdi
• Seal of the prophets
• The British Government and Jihad

Further reading

• Yohanan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous – Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background; Oxford University Press (2003) ISBN 965-264-014-X
• Jesus in India, Ahmadiyya Muslim Foreign Mission Department, 1978, ISBN 978-1-85372-723-8; Original Masih Hindustan Mein, Oriental & Religious Publications Ltd., Rabwah (Online)
• The Essence of Islam, Islam International Publications, Ltd.; 2nd edition (2004), ISBN 1-85372-765-2
• Iain Adamson: Ahmad, The Guided One, Islam International Publications, 1990, revised 1991.
• S. R. Valentine, 'Islam & the Ahmadiyya Jama'at', Hurst & Co, London/New York, 2008

External links

• Official Website of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
• Official Website of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
• Complete List of the Works of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
• Islam-Ahmadiyya specifically caters to an Arabic-speaking audience. Like Al Islam itself, Islam-Ahmadiyya is home to a wide variety of content including books, articles and multimedia content
• How To Distinguish Between A True Prophet And A False Prophet