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In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Introducing the Books

of the Promised Messiah (as)

The Promised Messiah and Mahdi, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), wrote more than eighty books, mostly in Urdu, Arabic, and Persian. Only a small number of these have been translated into English. In order to hopefully bring English readers closer to the original writings of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), we are serialising Introducing the Books of the Promised Messiah by Mr. Naseem Saifi. In this work. Mr. Saifi has presented a brief account of every book written by the Promised Messiah (as).
Books List

Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya Purani Tahrirain (Old Writings)Surma Chashm Arya (Collrium for the eyes of the Aryas)Shahna-i-Haq (Battalion of Truth)Sabz Ishtihar (Green Poster)Fat-hi-Islam (Victory of Islam)Aasmani Faisla (The Divine Decision)Ludhiana Debate Delhi Debate Izalai Auham (Removal of Suspicions)Nishan-i-Aasmani Shahadatul Mulhimin (The Heavenly Signs)Aainai Kamalat-i-Islam (Mirror for the Excellence of Islam)Barakatud Dua (The Blessings of the Prayer)Hujjatul Islam (The Convincing Proof of Islam)Sach-Chai Ka Izhar (The Expression of Truth)Shahadatul Qur'an (Testimony of the Holy Qur'an)Tohfi-Baghdad (A Present to Baghdad)Hamamatul Bushra (Dove of Good News)Itmamul Hujja (Making the Proof Comprehensive and Convincing)Karamatus Sadiqeen (The Miracles of the Truthful)Jang-i-Muqaddas ((The Sacred Battle) The Crusade)Sirrul Khilafa (The Secret of Caliphate (Khilafat))Anwarul Islam (The Light of Islam)Nurul Haq (The Light of the Truth)Minanur Rahman (The Bounties of the Gracious God)Zia ul Haq (The Light of the Truth)Sut-Bachan (The True Word)Arya Dharm (The Arya Religion) Islami Usul Ki Philosophy (The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam)Noorul Qur'an (I and II) (The Light of the Holy Qur'an)Anjam-i-Atham (The End of Atham)Siraj-i-Munir (The Bright Lamp)Istifta (Asking for Opinion on a Religious Matter)Hujjatullah (The Convincing Proof From God)Tohfai Qaisariyya (A Present to the Queen)Sirajud Din Isai Ke Char Savalon Ka Jawab (Four Questions of Sirajud Din, a Christian, Answered)Najmul Huda (The Star of Guidance)Zararatul Imam (The Need for the Imam)Ayyamus Sulh (The Days of Peace)Masih Hindustan Main (Jesus in India)Raaz-i-Haqiqat (The Secret of the Truth)Tohfa-i-Ghaznaviyya (A Present for the Ghaznavis)Haqiqatul Mahdi The True Nature of the Mahdi Tiryaqul Qulub (Elixir for the Hearts)Khutba Ilhamiyya (The Revealed Sermon)Roidad-i-Jalsa-i-Dua (Minutes of the Meeting for the Prayer)Lujja-tun-Nur (The Sea of Light)Government Angrezi Aur Jihad (The British Government and Jihad)Tohfai Golarhyiyya (Present for Golarhvi)Arba’een 1,2,3,4 (Forty Brochures 1-4)Arba'een No.2 Arba'een No.3 Arba'een No 4 Ijaz-i-Ahmadi The Miracle of Ahmed (as)REVIEW Mawahibur Rahman (Gifts of God)Naseem- i-Dawat (The Cool Breeze of Invitation)Sanatum Dharam Tazkiratush-Shahadatain (A Narration of Two Martyrdoms)Seeratul Abdal (The Characteristics of the Godly People)Islam Aur Mulk Ke Dusrey Mazahab (Islam and Other Religions in this Country)ISLAM
Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya

The first and the second volumes of Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya were published in 1880 CE, the third volume in 1882 and the fourth volume in 1884. The fifth volume took, under the divine scheme, a long time to be published. It saw the light of the day after 1905.

When the book started to be written and published, the British Government was well established in the sub-continent of India and in its wake the Christian religion was getting itself entrenched with great force and speed. The statistics show that whereas there were 91,000 Christians in India in 1851 CE, there were no less than 470,000 in 1881 CE. The increase in number was simply unprecedented.

The onslaught of the Christian missionaries was mostly directed towards the Muslims. Followers of some other religions, like Hinduism, also did not lag behind in attacking Islam. Arya Samaj was particularly opposed to all that was connected with Islam and the Muslims.

It was in these circumstances that Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) who later on claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, took up his pen to prove the truth of Islam and the excellence of the Holy Qur'an. As for the reason why he wrote his book Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya, he says:
Let it be clear to all the seekers after truth that the reason why this book entitled Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya ala haqiqati kitabilla hil Qur 'an wannubuwwatil Mohammadiyya (the proofs of the truth of the Book of Allah - the Holy Qur'an, and the Prophethood of Muhammad (sa)) has been compiled is that the proofs of the truth of Islam and the proofs of the excellence of the Holy Qur'an and the proofs of the truth of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet (sa), the Khatamun-Nabiyyeen, may God's choicest blessings be upon him, are made known to the people with the greatest clarity and all those who do not believe in the sacred book and chosen prophet, are silenced with perfect intellectual proofs in a way that they cannot open their mouths any more.
Hadhrat Ahmad (as) offered a prize of 10,000 rupees to anyone who could refute these proofs and give even one-fifth of these proofs in favour of his own religion, scripture and Prophet. He was so anxious to make things clear to the people that he got this challenge (with prize) printed in such bold letters that a page of almost 10" length had only seven lines on it and it was spread over pages 24 to 52. When the Christians and the Hindus saw the first volume, they became furious and talked most irrelevantly but none of them succeeded in taking up the challenge sincerely. Hadhrat Ahmad (as) then explained to his readers that he never had any intention to injure the feelings of the people. What he actually wanted to do and what he was doing was to prove intellectually that Islam was a better religion than every other religion. He said the days had passed when stories were considered to be sufficient to prove that a religion was a living and practical religion.

Hadhrat Ahmad (as) has made mention of the following six points about this book:
It contains all the truths based on the principles of the knowledge of religion; all the truths that put together can be called Islam.
It contains 300 proofs -- strong, conclusive and convincing of the truth of Islam.
It contains answers to the allegations, accusations, objections and whimsical views of the opponents of Islam like Jews, Christians, Magians, Aryas, Brahmins, idol worshippers, atheists, naturalists and non-religious people.
It contains a discussion on the basic religious beliefs of the followers of other religions.
It contains the explanation of the secrets of the word of God. The wisdom of the Holy Qur'an becomes manifest throughout.
All the discussions have been penned with great coolness and fineness and in perfect accordance with the rules of discussion; everything has been said in a lucid manner and understanding has been made easy.
The third volume starts with a mention of the poor condition of the Muslims and Hadhrat Ahmad (as) has shown great concern for them. It contains the external and internal proofs of the truth and excellence of the Holy Qur'an. This topic has been discussed at length and quite a number of details have been mentioned in the marginal notes.

The fourth volume begins with the list of the topics discussed in the book. It makes mention of the proofs of the need of the Word of God (revelation) and asserts that the perfect faith and God realisation which is all important for salvation can be achieved through the revelation of God. It also mentions the excellent and unique interpretation of the Sura Fatiha and also some other verses of the Holy Qur'an; the teachings of Vedas are devoid of the idea of the Oneness of God; Pundit Dayanand silenced and the prophecy about his death of which many people were informed beforehand came to pass; the comparison of the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the New Testament; prophecies which many people were told beforehand; the miracles of Jesus Christ (as), and what is the real salvation and how it can be obtained.

At the close of the fourth volume, Hadhrat Ahmad (as) added a note which is entitled 'We and our Book'. In it he says that when he started writing this book things were different from what they are now. He remarked that a sudden manifestation of God the like of which was shown to Moses (as) had been received by him and he had heard the voice of God Who said:
'Verily I am your Lord', and thereafter such secrets of spiritual heights were made known to him as could never be gotten through the medium of wit and intelligence. He further said that he now had no control over this book and it was God alone Who knew how it would proceed.

The fifth volume of Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya was published no less than 23 years after the publication of the fourth volume.
This volume starts with a description of the true and living religion and stresses the point that a true and living religion must have the miraculous manifestation of the words and deeds of the Almighty God. Any religion that is not true and is not living will certainly be devoid of these manifestations.
Hadhrat Ahmad (as) then continues to explain what a miracle really is and why it is essential that the miracles must take place. He adds that the living miracle and not merely the stories of the old are the sure sign of a living religion.

In the second chapter of the volume, Hadhrat Ahmad (as) makes mention of the fulfilment of what had been outlined in the first four volumes, almost 25 years back. During this period a large number of prophecies had come to pass and hundreds of his revelations had been mentioned to the people with the result that all those people were witnesses to those revelations. He also shows to his readers the succour that he had received from God on all the occasions. All these things, he says, are a proof of the truth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace and blessings of Allah and also they, quite clearly, show that he (Hadhrat Ahmad (as)) was true in all the claims that he had made in respect of his having been commissioned by God.
There is a lengthy supplement attached to the book (Volume V). In this supplement, Hadhrat Ahmad has answered the objections raised by the people, especially by Mr. Muhammad Ikramullah of Shahjahanpur, Maulvi Abu Saeed Mohammad Hussain, Sayed Muhammad Abdul Wahid of Bengal and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi.
He has also dealt with the death of Jesus Christ (as), basing his arguments on a number of verses of the Holy Qur'an.

After the supplement, Hadhrat Ahmad (as) wanted to write an epilogue. The short notes for this epilogue have been added to the book. These notes show that he wanted to explain what Islam really is, how excellent and perfect is the teaching of the Holy Qur'an, the fulfilment of the promises God had made to him as mentioned in the first four volumes of the book and, also, he wanted to explain what those revelations meant in which he had been called Jesus.

As for his claim, he says (and with that ends the fifth volume of Brahin-i-Ahmadiyya):
I deem it necessary to say this much about my claim that I have been sent by God at the most appropriate time. This is the time when most of the people have become similar to the Jews. They have not only abandoned the fear of God (Taqwa) and purity of heart, they have become, like the Jews of the days of Jesus, the enemies of the truth. That is why, as a matter of contrast with them, God has given me the name of Messiah. It is not that just I call the people to myself, it is this Age that has called me (i.e. my advent is the need of the hour).
   
      
        
      
      
        
           
            
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            Full text of "Books - Answers to Qadyanis (English)"
          
          Qa«Wsto 




S. ABUL HASAN ALI NADWI 




rfeen Acade 



QADIANISM 

A CRITICAL STUDY 



By 
S. ABUL HASAN ALI NAOWI 



Translated from the Urdu by 
ZAFAR ISHAO ANSAR1 



Haji Arfeen Academy 

1-K-3 NAZIMABAD-1. KARACHI-18 

(PAKISTAN) 



CONTENTS 






Paga 


Preface 


iii 


PART I 




The Historical Background of the Rise of Qadianism 


Chapter I Muslim India in the Nineteenth 




Century 


l 


Chapter II Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani 


5 


Chapter III The Qadiani St. Paul 


15 


PART 11 




On the Road to Prophethood 




Chapter I Mirza as Champion ot' Islam 


25 


Chapter II The Mirza becomes Messiah 


39 


Chapter III From Messiah to Prophet 


57 


PART III 




Some Aspects of Life and Character 




Chapter I Mirza's Life after the spread of his 




Message 


75 


Chapter II Seedling of the British 


83 


Chapter III Prophet as Mud-Slinger 


95 


Chapter IV An Unfulfilled Prophecy. 


99 


PARI' IV 




The Qadiani Movement t A Critical Analysis 




Chapter 1 Independent Religion and a Parallel 




Community 


113 


Chapter 11 Revolt against Muhammad's 




Prophethood 


123 


Chapter III The Lahori Branch 


138 


Chapter IV Contribution of Qadianism to the 




Muslim World. 


151 


Bibliography 


159 


Index 


16* 



PREFACE 

In the name of Allah, the Benevolent, the Merciful 

Towards the end of December, 1957, and in the beginning 
of January, 195K, an International Islamic Colloquium was held 
in Lahore under the auspices of the Punjab University in which a 
large number of distinguished and noted scholars of the Muslim 
world and Western countries took part. Quite a few outstand- 
ing t-idama representing Middle Eastern countries were there. 
Despite having received an invitation to participate the writer 
was unable to reach Lahore until after the colloquium had 
ended. The points that had been raised during the colloquium 
continued to be debated by many people. 

The scholars who had come from Egypt, Syria and Iraq to 
participate in the conference showed considerable keenness to 
collect correct information about the fundamental beliefs and 
doctrines of QadiSnism, the well-known religious movement of 
India and Pakistan. This curiosity on their part was justified 
and natural. For, it was in this part of the world that Qadianism 
was- born and developed. Hence, from here atone authentic 
material and information could be procured. The Pakistani 
and Indian friends of these guests fell the existence of a serious 
lacuna ; the absence of any book on the subject in present-day 
Arabic which could be presented to them. It was owing to this 
feeling that when the writer reached Lahore he was ordered by 
his spiritual teacher and guide, Hazrat Maulana 'Abdul Qadir 
Raipuil, to write a book on this subject in Arabic. 

During his trips to the Middle East and his stay in Egypt 
and Syria the writer had himself felt the need of such a work, 
but the subject had failed to capture his imagination. The 
subject was on the whole, out of tune with his tempera* 
ment. Despite his repeated efforts the writer did not 
succeed in forcing himself to study any of Mirza Ghulam 



Ahmad's writings. Hence, when he undertook the task, he had 
little familiarity with the subject. But the demand had been 
made from a personage the compliance of whose wish was a 
matter of deepest spiritual satisfaction, to the writer and this en- 
abled him to devote himself to a thorough study of Qadianism. 
Within a few days the room where the writer was staying at 
Lahore changed into a full fledged library on Qadianism. The 
work then started in earnest and for one month the writer 
remained so deeply immersed in the subject that he lost almost 
all touch with the outside world and had his mind free for no 
other subject. 

The writer's mental framework being that of a student of 
history, he launched upon his intellectual journey from the very 
beginning of the movement surveying every stage in its progress 
and development. The writer's observations, therefore, moved 
along the lines through which Qadianism had passed during its 
course of development. This approach helped the writer to 
grasp the real nature of the Qadiani movement, its gradual 
evolution, and its motivating factors. This approach uncovered 
a number of aspects which might have remained hidden other- 
wise. The writer delved deep into the writings of the founder 
of this movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani and it is 
through this first hand source that he has tried to arrive at 
unprejudiced conclusions, trying to maintain the detachment of 
a historian in respect of the message, the movement, and the 
practical achievements of Qadianism. The result of this study 
has been published in the form of al~Qpdiyani wa al-Qadijaniyah 
in Arabic. 

After the book had been prepared Hazrat Maulana 'Abdul 
Qsdir ordered its translation into Urdu. Since actual excerpts 
in Urdu were required for the Urdu edition, an entire library 
of books available only in Lahore was required once again. 
Another trip was made, after which this book was rendered into 
Urdu. This Urdu edition could better be regarded as an 
independent wot k because a number of valuable additions and 
modifications have been made during the process of its 



V 
preparation. 

For some lime literature on controversial religious subjects 
has had a peculiar language and style, so much so that this 
language and style have come to be regarded as part and parcel 
of religious writings. This writer has not considered himself 
bound by this polemical tradition. This book has been written 
with historical objectivity rather than the bigoted zeat of a de- 
bater. This will perhaps disappoint those who have been used to 
polemical writings. For this the writer offers no apology- The 
class of people for whom it has been written and the purpose 
which actuated its writing did not warrant any other style of 
expression. 

The writer thanks all those friends and well-wishers who 
have been a source of guidance in the study of the subject, who 
provided him with the material needed for writing this book 
and for facilitating the completion of tht work. If this book 
serves Islam in any way, all such people share its reward. 

The writer wishes to impress on his readers one thing : 
wisdom requires that a person should refrain from risking even 
as trivial a thing as one's monetary savings, and one should be 
careful in choosing the people to whom these should be entrust- 
ed. ,If wisdom demands such precaution in worldly affairs, it 
should not be difficult to guess what a tremendous amount of 
precaution should be exercised in the matter of faith on which 
depends a person's salvation and his felicity in the eternal life 
of the Hereafter. It is evident that in such a matter one should 
exercise extreme precaution ; one should try to use one's discre- 
tion to the utmost, and to divest oneself of all emotional predi- 
lections, worldly attachments and material interests. This book, 
through its authentic and systematically arranged information 
obtained from the statements and writings of the founder of 
Qadianism himself and through authentic historical information 
about the movement, can prove of help to many a person to 
arrive at an intelligent appreciation of Qadianism. 

1 1, Rabi al-Awwal, 1378 S. ABUL HASAN ALl NADWI 



I>ART X 



The Historical Background of the 
Rise of Qadianism 



Muslim India in the Nineteenth Century 



The nineteenth century is a period of unique importance 
in modern history. It is the century in which intellectual 
unrest and various kinds of conflicts and tensions found in the 
Muslim world reached their climax. India was one of the main 
centres of this unrest and tension. Here the conflicts and 
tensions between the Western and the Eastern cultures, between 
the old and the new systems of education, in fact, between the 
old and the new world-views, and between Islam and Christianity 
were mounting. The forces concerned were locked in a fierce 
struggle for survival. 

The movement began at a time when the well-known 
struggle of 1857 for the country's independence had been 
suppressed. This had shocked the Muslims to the core; their 
hearts were bleeding, and their minds paralysed. They were 
confronted with the danger of double enslavement ; political as 
well as cultural. On the one hand, the victorious power, the 
British, had launched upon a vigorous campaign to spread a 
new culture and civilization in India. On the other hand, the 
Christian missionaries were scattered alt over India bent upon 
active proselytisation. To be able to shake the confidence of 
Muslims in their own beliefs and to make them skeptical as to 
the bases of the Islamic Shari l ah, even though they might not 
be converted to Christianity, was deemed by them an important 
enough achievement. The new generations of Muslims, which 
had not been thoroughly grounded in Islam, were their main 
target. The schools and colleges which were introduced along 
the foreign pattern were the main fields of their activity directed 



CMDIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



at spreading intellectual confusion. The efforts were hot alto- 
gether unsuccessful and even incidents of conversion to 
Christianity began to take place in India. But the main danger 
of that period was not apostasy (in the sense of ostensible con- 
version from Islam to Christianity), but skepticism and atheism. 
Religious debates between Muslim ^ulama and Christian 
missionaries took place frequently, leading in general to the 
victory of the l uiama of Islam. This established the intellectual 
superiority and greater vitality of Islam as against Christianity. 
Nevertheless, intellectual unrest, skepticism, and weakness of 
fatth grew apace. 

This was one aspect of the situation : the situation vis-d-vis 
the external menace. Looked at internally, the situation was 
even worse. Mutual disagreements between Muslim sects had 
assumed frightful proportions. Each sect was busy denouncing 
the other. Sectarian polemics were the order of the day, lead- 
ing often to violent clashes, even to bloodshed, tc litigation over 
controversial sectarian issues. The whole of India was in the 
grip of what might be termed a sectarian civil war. This too 
had given birth to mental confusion and created breaches in 
the Muslim society and disgust in the people and had consider- 
ably damaged the prestige of the Muslim ^ulama and of Islam. 

On the other hand, immature sujis and ignorant pretenders 
of spiritual excellence had reduced the Suji orders to a play- 
thing. They gave wide publicity to their trance-utterances and 
inspired pronouncements. One found people everywhere 
making overly extravagant claims and going about proclaiming 
their ability to perform astounding miracles and to receive 
messages from on High. The result of all this was that the 
Muslim masses had developed an uncommon relish for things 
esoteric, for miracles, for supernatural performances, for 
inspired dreams and prophesies. The more a person had to 
offer people by way of these things, the greater was his popu- 
larity. Such people used to become the centre of popular 
veneration. Hypocritical dcm'ishfs and cunning traders of 
religion took full advantage of the situation. People had 



MUSLIM INDIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



developed such a liking for esoterics that they were readily 
prepared to accept every new fantasy, to support every new 
movement and to believe in every esoteric claim however 
baseless and imaginary. Muslims were generally in the grip of 
frustration and had fallen prey to defeatism. The failure of 
the struggle of 1857 and of a number of other recent religious 
and militant movements was fresh in their memory. Many of 
them had despaired, therefore, of bringing about any change 
and reform through normal processes and a large number of 
people had begun to await the advent of some charismatic 
personality, some divinely appointed leader. At places one 
heard tbat at the turn of the century the Promised Messiah 
would make his appearance. In religious gatherings people 
commonly referred to the numerous forms of misguidance and 
evil which were to appear on the eve of the Doomsday. Pro- 
phesies .and esoteric statements such as those of Shah Ni'amat 
Ullih Kashmiri helped people to forget the bitterness of the 
current situation and strengthened their morale. Dreams, 
prophesies and other esoteric pronouncements had magnetic 
appeal and kept their spirits high. 

The province of Punjab, in particular, was the centre of 
mental confusion and unrest, superstitions and religious igno- 
rance. This province had suffered for eighty years under the 
yoke of the Sikh Raj, an overbearing military tyranny. During 
this period the religious belief and devotion of Muslims had 
weakened considerably. True Islamic education had been 
almost non-existent for long. The foundations of Islamic life 
and Islamic society had been shaken. Their minds were 
seriously in the grip of confusion and perplexity. In brief, to 
borrow the words of I'qbal : 

The Khalsa (Sikhs) took away both the Qur'an and the 

sword, 

In their realm, Islam was just dead. 

This situation had paved the ground in the Punjab for the 
rise of a new religious movement based on novel interpretations 
and esoteric doctrines. The temperament of a good number of 



QADJANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



people of the region where this movement arose has been 
portrayed by Iqbal in these words : 

In religion, he is fond of the latest, 

He stays not for long at a place ; he keeps on moving; 

In learning and research he does not participate, 

But to the game of Mentors and Disciples, he readily 

succumbs ; 

If the trap of explanation anyone lays, 

He walks into it quickly from the branch of his nest. 

It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that MirzS 
GhulSm Ahmad appeared on the scene with his unique message 
and movement. For the spread of his message and for the 
fulfilment of his ambitions Mirza GhulSm Ahmad found a 
fertile ground and a congenial period of time. He had nume- 
rous factors to his advantage— the general unrest in the minds 
of people, the exotic-loving temperament of the people, the 
general despair with regard to the efficacy of moderate and 
normal means of reform and revolution, the decline in the pres- 
tige of and confidence in the ^ulama, the popularity of religious 
debates which had vulgarised the religious curiosities and 
propensities of the people and made them, to a large extent, free- 
thinkers. Furthermore, the British rulers (who had had a bitter 
experience with Mujsliidln movement and felt, therefore, consi- 
derable consternation for the spirit of jihad and the religious 
enthusiasm of Muslims), warmly welcomed this new religious 
movement wh'ch ple.lged loyalty to the British government and 
even made this loyalty an article of faith, and whose founder 
had had a long and close association with the government. 
All these factors provided the congenial atmosphere in which 
Qsdianism came into existence, won converts and developed 
into an independent sect and religion. 



Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani 1 



Family Background 

Genealogically Mirza Ghulam Ahmad belonged to the 
Bar! as branch of the Moghuls. 2 But after some time he came 
to know by me - — > e.f 'inspiration' that he was, in fact, of Persian 
origin. To quote his own words: 

"The revelation (ithatn) about me is that : Were it that 
faith was hanging from the Pleiades it would still have 
been seized by the man from Persia.'* And then, there is 
also a third revelation about me : Verily, those who 
■ disbelieved the man from Persia disproved their religions. 
God is thankful for his endeavour. All these 'revelations* 
show that our forefathers were Pi rsian. And the truth is 
what Allah has made manifest-" 4 



1 Thii chapter purporting to lay down the biographical outlines of the 
founder's life u based chiefly oa the statements and writings of the 
Mirzf himstlf, supplemented by the work of his son Mirzi Bashir 
Ahmed, Sirat ol-Mahdi and other standard works of the QSdiitiis. 

2 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Kitik alBatiyah, p. 134 n. 

3. This tradition occurs in the Sikik with a little variation of words. In 
some reports there occurs the phrase 'At/a/ Min Pittas' (men from Persia) 
instead of Rajut (a man). The t uUma and the muhudditktn interpret 
ihu hadttk to refer to Salman al-FSriii and other c ulam« and holy men 
of Per<i» famous for their devotion and service to the cause of faith 
including the Imam AbO Hanlfa, who was also of Persian origin. 

4. KitSb d-Bat'tyah, p. 135 n. 



» U.ADIANISM — A CHITIGAI. STUDY 

In one of his works he writes: 

"Jt should be remembered lhat apparently the family 
of this humble one is that of the Moghuls. No record has 
been seen in the history of our family, showing that the 
family was Persian. What has been seen in certain records 
is that someof our grandmothers were of noble and noted 
Sayyid families. Now it has come to be known through 
the word of God that ours is a Persian family. We believe 
in this with all our conviction since the reality in respect 
of genealogies is known to none the way it is known to Allah, 
the Exalted. It is His knowledge alone which is true and 
sure and that of all others, doubtful and conjectural."* 
Mirza Gul Mohammad, the great grandfather of Mirza; 
Ghulam Ahmad owned considerable property. In Punjab 
he had a good-sized estate. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had 
mentioned in detail the aristocratic pomp and splendour of 
this ancestor of his, his habit to feed a large number of people 
at his table, and his religious influence.' 

After his death, his estate declined and the Sikhs confiscated 
the villages of that estate. This decline continued to such an 
extent that no other land remained in the ownership of his grand- 
father, Mirza c At3 Mohammad, except Qsdian. Later on, the 
Sikhs occupied even that and drove the Mir2a family out of 
Qsdian. During the last years of Ranjit Singh's rule Mirza 
Ghulam Murtaza, the father of the Mirza, returned to QadiSn 
and the MirzS later received five villages out of the landed pro- 
perty of his father. ' 

The Mirza's family maintained very loyal and cordial 
relations with the recently established British power in the 
Punjab. Several members of the family had shown great 
enthusiasm in consolidating the new government and had come 
to its rescue di* several critical occasions. To cite the words of 



5. Arah&*in t Vol- II, p. 17 n. 

6. JTilI* tt-Bgrivak, pp. 136-42 n. 

7. Ibid, pp. H2-44 n. 



MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD QADIANI 



the Mirz ft himself : 

"I come from a family which is out and out loyal to 
this government. My father, Murtaza, who was considered 
its well-wisher, used to be granted a chair in the Governor's 
Durbar and has been mentioned by Mr. Griffin in his 
History of the Princes of Punjab. In 1857 he helped the 
British Government beyond his power, that is, he procured 
cavaliers and horses right during the time of Mutiny. He 
was considered by the Government to be its loyal supporter 
and well-wisher. A number of testimonials of appreciation 
received by him from the officers have unfortunately been 
lost; Copies of three of them, however, which had been 
published a long time ago, are reproduced on the margin. 
Then, after the death of my grpndfathcr, my elder brother 
Mirz2 Ghulam Qadir continually occupied himself with 
service to the Government and when the evil-doers encoun- 
tered the forces of (he British Government on the highway 
of Tammun, he participated in the bat e on the side of the 
British Government."* 

Birth, Education} Upbringing 

The Mirza was born during the last phase of the Sikh rule 
in the year 1830 or 1840 at QSdiSn in Gurlaspur District. 9 
His own writings show that at the time of the < iruggle of Inde- 
pendence in 1857, he was sixteen or seventeen years old. 10 

The Mirza received his education up to the Middle Class 



8. tthtihuf Wajih al-Uhv, September 20, 1U97 pp. 3-6 appended with Kilob 

9. & 10. Kitab al-Barijah, p. 146, n. Mirza Basbiruild.n Mahmood in his 

Address to the British Crown Prince in 1922, has mentioned the 
year of his birth to be 1837 (p. 35). According to this, in 1057, 
Ids ago would be 21. This alteration seems to have been made 
in order to vindicate the Mirza 's. prophecy which has been 
mentioned by him as a Divine inspiration in the following words: 
"We shall cause you to live a good life Tor eigfiTy years or close 
to thai" (vide Araba<in, Vol. Ill, p. 39). 



8 



QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDV 



at home. He studied books on Grammar, Logic and Philosophy 
under the guidance of Maulavi Fazl-i-Ilahi, Maulavi Fazl-i- 
Ahmad and Maulavi Gul c All Shah. He studied Medicine 
from his father who was an experienced physician. During his 
student life, the Mirza was very studious. To quote his own 
words : 

"During those days I was so thoroughly engrossed in 

books as if I was not present in the world. My father used 

to instruct me repeatedly to curtail my reading, for, out of 

sympathy for me he feared that this might affect my health." 

This, however, did not continue for long. Under the 

insistent pressure of his father, the Mirza had to engage himself 

in the endeavour to get back his ancestral landed property which 

subsequently led to litigation in law courts. He writes : 

"I feel sorry that a lot of my valuable time was spent 
in these squabbles and at the same time my respected father 
made me supervise the affair of landlordship. I was not 
a man of this nature and temperament." 11 
The Mirza later took employment with the Deputy 
Commissioner of Sialkot for a small salary. He remained for 
four years in this service, that is, from 1864 to 1868. 12 During 
this period he also read one or two books of English. 13 More- 
over, he also took the examination of Mukhtar but flopped. 1 * 
In 1868 he resigned this job and came to Qadian and began 
to look after his landed property. But most of his time was 
spent on reflecting on the Holy Qur'an and studying works of 
Tcfsir and Traditions. 19 

Moral Disposition 

From his very childhood, the Mirza was very simple. He 



11. 


Kifcb al-Btriyah p. 151. 


12. 


Slnt al-Mahfi, Vol. 1., p. 44. 


IS. 


Ibid, p. 155. 


14. 


Ibid p. 156 


15. 


Kitab al-Bariyah, p. 155 n. 



MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD QAD1AN1 



was unaware of wordly matters and appeared to be a little 
absent-minded. He did not even know how to wind a watch. 1 * 
When he had to know time, he took out the watch from his 
pocket and began to count, starting from one. And even then, 
while he counted with his finger he also ketpt on counting the 
figures aloud lest he should forget. 17 He could not just look at 
the watch and find out what time it was. Due to absent-minded- 
ness, it was difficult for him to differentiate between the shoes 
of the left and the right feet. MirzS Bashlr Ahmad writes : 

"Once some one brought for him gurgabi (a kind of 
shoes used in Punjab). He put them on, but could not 
distinguish between the right and the left. Often he used 
to wear them, on the wrong feet, and then feel uncomfort- 
able. Sometime!; when he would be hurt by the use of the 
wrong shoe, he would get irritated and say that nothing of 
those people was good. Mother said that she had inscribed 
signs indicating right and left on the shoes for the sake of 
his convenience and yet' he used to put the shoes on the 
wrong feet. Hence she later removed the signs." 18 
Due to very frequent micturition the Mirza used to keep 
earthen-marbles 1 * in his pockets. He also carried lumps of gur %9 
for he was excessively fond of sweets. w 

Mlrza's Physical Health 

In his youth, the Mirza was so afflicted with hysteria that 
sometimes he used to fall down unconscious as a result of 
hysteric fits.* 1 The Mirza used to interpret these fits variously 



16. QazI Mohammad Zuhuruddin Qidiyanl's article, lW-i-Hjpim-Journal 
al'Hakam, 21 May, 1934. 

17. Sirmt al-Makdi, Vol. I, p. 180. 

18. Sint <iJ-JWflJWf, Vol. I. p. 67. 

19. Used after urination by Muslims for cleaning .purposes, usually, when 
water is not available. 

20. An unrefined kind of sugar used in India . 

21. Burikltfi-Ahmudiyah, Vol. I, p. 67. 

22. Sirat al-Mahdi, Vol, I, p. 17. 



10 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUHY 

as hysteric and melancholia. He also suffered from diabetes 
and copious urination. Mentioning at one place that 'I am a 
permanently sick person,' he adds: 

"Headache and giddiness and insomnia and palpitation 
of the heart come by fits and the lingering ailment in the 
lower part of my body is that of diabetes. Often I urinate 
up to a hundred times during the day or night. And all 
the other disorders of debility and exhaustion which are 
the natural results of such excessive urination have also 
fallen to my lot." 21 

In his youth, the Miiza engaged himself in vigorous spiri- 
tual exercises and courses of rigid self-discipline. He also fasted 
continuously for long periods of time. In one of his long spells 
of spiritual exertion, he fasted cxntinuously for six months.** 
In 1086, he passed another period of exclusive worship and 
prayer at Hoshiat pur, al Later on, due to ill health and debi- 
lity, he had to give these up. On March 31, 1091 he wrote to 
Nuruddln : "Now my health can no longer bear the rigours of 
supererogatory devotion and even a little bit of severe devotion 
and meditation or contemplation causes illness.' 1 ** 

Economic Condition 

The Miiza began his life in ordinary circumstances : a life 
of hardship and poverty. But as his mission spread and he became 
the spiritual head of a prosperous sect, he grew prosperous and 
began to lead a comfortable life. Ho, too, was conscious of 
this change in his slate : the ostensible difference between his 
earlier and later periods of life. In 1907 he wrote : 

"Our living and our well-being had depended solely 
on the meagre income of our father. Among outsiders, 
none knew me. I was an unknown person, living in the 



23. Appendix to Arba^in, pp. 3/4 and p. 4 (abbreviated). 

24. Siral al-AUhdi, Vol. I, p. 76. 

25. rtfrf., p. 71. 

2G. M<ikubuM-Ahm,iJuah, Vol. V, No. 2, p. lull. 



UIRZA GHULAM AHMAD QADIANI 1 t 

desolate village oT QSdian* lying in a corner of anonymity. 
Then, God, according to His prophecy, turned a 
whole world towards me and helped us by such continuous 
victories that I have no words to express my thanks. Con- 
sidering my own position, I did not hope to receive even 
ten rupees a month. But the Exalted Allah, who raises the 
poor from dust and brings the arrogant down to the earth, 
helped me to such an extent that up tilt now I have received 
about three hundred thousand rupees or, may be, even 
more,** 7 
In the footnote, he adds : 

"Although thousands of rupees have come by meant 
of money 'orders, yet more have been passed on to me 
directly by sincere friends as gifts, or in the shape of 
currency notes enclosed with letters. Some sincere people 
have sent currency notes or gold anonymously and I do not 
even know what their names are. "~* 

Marriage and Children 

The MirzaYiirst marriage look place in 1852 or 1853 with 
one of his own relatives. 1 ' This wife gave birth to two sons: 
Mirza, Sultan Ahmad and Mirz3 Fazal Ahmad. In 1891, he 
divorced the lady. In 1884 he took another wife, the daughter 
of Nawab Naslr of Delhi. a<J The rest of the oft'spi ings of the 
Mirza were all from this wife. Three sons were born from her : 
Minta Bashtruddin Mahrnood, Mirza Bashli Ahmad (author -of 
Sirat al-Mahdl) and Mirza Sharif Ahmad. 

Death 

When in 1891 the Mirza declared that he was the Promised 



27. Uaqigai d-Wahy, \>. 211. 

28. /Aid., p. 211,». 

29. Sim at-MehJi, Vol. II, p. 150. 

30. Sittt d-Mahdi, Vol. II, p. 151. 



1 2 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Messiah," and later on in 1910, that he wasaprophet of God, 3 * 
the Muslim t utama began to refute and oppose him. Among 
those prominent in opposing him was Maulana Sana'ullah 
Amritsari, the editor of Akl-i-Had\th, On April 5, 1907, Mirza 
Ghulam Ahmad issued an announcement in which, while 
addressing the said Maulana, he wrote : 

"If I am such a big liar and impostor as you portray 
me in each issue of your magazine, then I will die in your 
life-time, for I know that the life-period of a mischief- 
maker and liar is not very long and ultimately he 
dies an unsuccessful man, during, the life of his greatest 
enemies and in a state of humiliation and grief. And if 
I am no( a liar and impostor and have been honoured by 
God's communication and address to me, and if I am the 
Promised Messiah, then I hope that with the grace of God 
and in accordance with God's practice you will not escape 
the punishment of the rejectors (of Truth) . Thus, if that 
punishment which is not in man's but in God's hand, that 
is, fatal diseases like plague and cholera, do not afflict you 
during my life-time,* 3 then I am not from God." 3 * 
One year after the publication of this announcement, on 
May 25, 1908 the Mirza fell ill, being afflicted with diarrhoea at 
Lahore. Along with loose motions, he also had vomiting. He 
was put under treatment at once, but weakness increased and 
his condition became critical. The next day, on May 26, he 
breathed his last in the forenoon. About his death his father* 
in-law Mir Nasir Nawab has stated : 

"The night on which Hazrat Mirza Sahib fell ill, I 
was asleep at my place. When he felt very uncomfortable, 



31. fUftr Part II, Chapter 2. 

32. RtftT Part II, Chapter 3. 

33. It would be interesting to note that Maul&ni Amritsari died at the 
age of eighty on March 18, 1948 some forty years after the death of 
the MirzS. 

34. Tabli&k-i-Riselat, Vol. X, p. 120. 



UIRZA GHULAM AHMAD ftADIANl 13 

I was awakened. When I went to Hazrat Sahib he address- 
ed me and said, 'Mir Sshib I am ill with cholera'. After 
this, in my opinion, he did not speak a clear word till he 
died the next day after ten o'clock.*'** 
The dead body was carried to Qadian. On May 27, 1908 

the burial took place and Hakim NUruddln became his successor, 

the first KhaVifah of the QadianI movement. 



SS. Hajit-i-Xvir, ed. Shaykb Yaqflb 'All MrfSnt. 



The Qadiani Saint Paul 



Hakim 1 NOruddln Bhairawl occupies a position of unique 
importance in the history of Qadianum, second only to 
that of its founder. In fact, some observers arc of the view 
that the said Hakim was the real brain behind the movement, 
that the intellectual currents of this movement sprang from 
his mind. 

Birth and Early Education 

Hakim Nfiruddln was born in 1258 a. H. (1841 a. d.) in 
Bhaira, District Sargodha (Punjab).* Thus in 1857 he was 
16 years of age, and was younger than the Mirza by just one or 
two years. His father, Hariz Ghulam Rasul, was an im&m in a 
mosque in Bhaira, and was a Faruqt by lineage, 

The Hakim's early education took place in his home-village* 
He read the books on Fiqak in Punjabi language, under the 
guidance of his mother. Then he went to Lahore. He was 
taught Persian by Munshl Qasim Kashmiri and learnt calli- 
graphy from Mirza Imam Dayrawi. But neither of the two 
attracted him. Both his teachers were Shias. In 1272 a. h. 
(1855 a. d.) he returned home and remained for some time 
studying under Mian Haji Sharfuddln. It is around this time 
that he began to learn, the Arabic language systematically. 



1. Hakim meant a physician practising the traditional system of Greek- 
Arabian medicine (Translator). 

2. These arc based on Akbar Shah' Khan NajIbSbadi's Mirqat al-TaqXn ft 
Hajit Jiurvddin. Najibabfldl was a pupil of ihe Hakim. These biogra- 
phical details were related to him by the Hakim himself at the time 
when Najibibadi was hit student as well as a devout follower. 



16 QADIANISM-A CRITICAL STTDY 

Under the influence of a bookseller who belonged to the movement 
of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, there arose in him the urge to 
translate the Holy Qur'an, and he anxiously read Taqwiyalul 
Iman and Mashariq~al- Anwar. A little later, he returned to 
Lahore and acquired some knowledge of Medicine. While his 
education was at a very advanced stage, he took employment 
with the Normal School, Rawalpindi. There he taught Persian 
and at the same time learned Arithmetic and Geography from 
another teacher. After passing a tahsil examination, he became 
headmaster in Pindi Dandan Khan and once more resumed 
the study of Arabic. After four years, he ceased to remain r 
service and began to devote all his time to his own studies. For 
some time, he studied under Maulavl Ahmaduddln (who was 
known as Buggiwale Qazl Sahib). Then, his love for knowledge 
made him travel to several parts of India. In Rampur he 
resumed his studies : studied Mishkm-nl'Masab'th under Maulana 
Hasan Shah, Sharah-i-lViqayah under Maulavl 'Azlzullah Afghani, 
Usui of al-Shaski and AJaibazl under Maulana I r shad Husain; 
the Diw&n of al-Mutanabbi under Maulavl Sa'dullah ; Sadra, 
etc., under Maulavl 'Abd al-'All, and the higher books on Logic 
like Mir £ihid Riialah and Mir %ah\d Mutta Jalal, half-heartedly. 
At this time, he enthusiastically supported Isma'll Shahid and 
sometimes used to speak to his teachers with great boldness. 
From Rampur he went toLucknow and began to study medicine 
under a famous physician, Hakim 'All Husain. Whun *All 
Husain went to Rampur on invitation from Nawab Kalb-i-'Ah 
Khan of Rampur Nuruddin accompanied him. During his stay 
in Rampur he further studied literature under Mufti SaMullah. 
On the whole he remained with Hakim c Ah Husain for a perioc 
of two years and then went to Bhopal in order to complete his 
education in Arabic and to study Hadith. Bhopal, in those days, 
had become a great centre of learning. The Governmental 
patronage of knowledge and learning had attracted a good 
number of scholars. In Bhopal he stayed with and was patron- 
nised by MunshS Jamaluddln Khan, the Chief Minister. During 
his stay, Nuruddin took lessons in Bukh&ri and Hid&yah from 



TH£ QADIANI SAINT PAUL 



Maulana c Abdul Qayyum (the Mm of Maulana c Alulul Hal 
Burhamval, who was a Khal\fah of Hazrat Sayyid AUm;id 
Shahtd). From Bliopal he went on a visit to the Holy cities — 
Mecca and Medina — in order to complete his education and 
also in order to attain other-worldly felicity.- 1 

In Mecca, he studied Abu Da*iid under Shaykh Muhammad 
Khazrajl, Sahik Muslim under Sayyid Husain and began to 
study Musallam al-Thubut under Maulana Kahmatullah Kayra- 
nawl, the author of Izkar al-Haqg. Sometimes, he had heated 
discussion with his teachers and showed trends towards non- 
conformity and exaggerated confidence in the soundness of his 
own views and intelligence. 4 

At Mecca he finished his study of Abu Da*ud and Ibn Majak 
under Shaykh Muhammad Khazrajl. In the meantime Shah 
'Abdul Ghanl MujaddidT had arrived in Mecca. Later on 
when Shah Mujaddidl returned to Medina, the Hakim joined 
him and after taking an oath of allegiance to him remained as 
his student for six months. 

Occupation 

After pilgrimage and visit to the Holy places, Nuruddln 
returned to his native place, Bhaira and stayed there for some 
time. During his stay he debated with people as to whether 
the current customs and usages conformed to the teachings 
embodied in the collections of HadMh which tinned some people 
against him. This led him to realise the ignorance and stagna- 



3. An interesting amedote is related in ihis connection, which was nar- 
rated by NQruddln himself. While leaving for the Holy cities, he asked 
Maulana 'Abdul QayyGm to tender him some advice. He said, "Never 
become God or Prophet." *Abdul QayyOm explained that by 'not 
becoming God* what he had meant was that if any of his desires were 
frustrated, he should not feel greatly dejected, for to be able to do what 
one likes ii the attribute of God alone ; by 'not becoming the Prophet' 
he meant that if people rejected hisfatwat, he should not deem them to 
be condemned to hell, for it is the disobedience of the Prophet alone 
which condemns one to hell (Mitqat al-Yaqin, p. 79). 

I. Mirqal al-Yaqin p. 95-97. 



18 QADIANISM-A CRITICAL STUDY 

tion of the common people and his own superiority and intellec- 
tual excellence. He also went to Delhi during the Durbar of 
Lord Lytton and there met Mimshi Jamaluddln Khan, the 
Chief Minister of Bhopal, who brought him to Bhopal. After 
a short stay at Bhopal, Nuruddln once more went back to 
Bhaira and stalled practising medicine there. Soon his reputa- 
tion as a successful physician spread and he waj invited by the 
Maltarnja of Jammu to serve him as his personal physician. 
For a considerable period of time he served the ruler of Jammu, 
Poonch and Kashmir and gained considerable influence there 
by dint of Ids ability as a physician, and his eloquence, know- 
ledge and wit. He had become a very close confidant of the 
Maharaja and thus quite powerful. 

An Ardent Follower of Mirza 

There were many similarities of character and tempera- 
ment between Hakim Nuruddln and Mirza' Ghulam Ahmad. 
It is difficult to say how they came into contact with each other. 
Their first meeting, however, took place at Qadian in 1B85. 
When the Mirza wrote Batatiin-i-Ahmadiya, NuruddSn wrote a 
book supporting it. His admiration for the Mirza increased so 
much so that he took an oath of allegiance at his hands and 
accepted him as his spiritual guide, his leader, and pledged to 
follow him. The following letter of Nuruddln. shows the depth 
of his attachment to the Mit2a. 

"My master, my guide, my leader : Analam~<}-Alaykum 
wa Ruhmat utlah, 

w It is my prayer to be ever present before you and to 
learn from you all that for which the Imam of the age has 
been made the Mujaddid. If it is permitted, I would 
resign my job and spend day and night in your exalted 
service ; or if it is ordered, 1 would give up my present 
- engagements and go around the whole world, summoning 
people towards the true religion and would lay down my 
life in this cause. I am a martyr in your cause : whatever 
I have is not mine ; it is yours. Respected guide and 



THE 0_ADIAN1 SAINT HAUL 19 

mentor, with jitmost sincerity I say that -if all my wealth 
and belongings are sacrificed in the cause of religious 
preaching, I will have achieved my purpose. If the buyers 
of UnTahln in advance are uneasy at the delay in the publi- 
cation of the book, please permit rne to render ihe humble 
service of paying them all their dues from my pocket. 

''Respected pir and guide : this worthless one, ashamed 
of himself, says that if this ofTer is accepted it would be a 
pleasure for hint. What I mean is that I may be permitted 
to bear the entire cost of printing Barahin and that what- 
ever proceeds there might be from its sale, should be spent 
on your needs. My relationship with you is the same as 
that of Faruq (with the Prophet) and 1 am prepared to 
sacrifice all in this path. Please pray that the end of my 
life be like that of Sid.lVjs (the truthful ones)." 3 
Nuruddln's faith in the Miiza was very deep indeed. It 
so happened that when the MirzS wrote Fath-i-hlam and Tawrtih 
al-Kiaram someone asked Xuruddtn, before he had seen these 
books, if any other Prophet could come after the Holy Prophet. 
"No", he replied. "And if someone claims to be a Prophet?" he 
was asked. NGruddln replied that if someone did claim so, it 
would be seen whether he was truthful or not ; and that his 
claim would be accepted if he was truthful. After narrating 
this incident, Niiruddin himself adds : 

"This was just the case of prophcthood. My faith is 
that even if the Promised Messiah were to proclaim himself 
to be the bearer of a Sharf-uh and abrogate the Quranic 
Sfiarf-ah, I will not reject that claim. For, when we have 
accepted him (i.e. the Mini: a) to be truthful and to have 
been commissioned by God, then whatever he will say will 
of necessity be true and we will have to think that the 
(Quranic) verse in respect of Khaiim al-Xab\yln (the last of 
the Prophets) ha.s a different meaning."" 
During his association with the Court of Jammu, Kiiruddin 

J». MififSl al-Vtiqin/i fiajfil~i-j\'uiudd\n,\i\t. i7-it). 
fi. Sirai ul-Mutdt, pp. 08-1*9. 



2(J QADIAM1SM-A CRITICAL STUDY 

wrote Fasl-ul-Khitab in four volumes under the guidance of the 
Mirza in which he refuted Christianity. He kept on contribut- 
ing very magnanimously to the publication of the works of the 
MirzS and quite often the Mirza took large sums of money as 
loans from hinv and praised him for his religious enthusiasm, 
his readiness to help the religious cause and his large-hearted 
generosity. The famous couplet of the Mirza about Nuiuddln is : 
"How good would it be, were every one in the Ummat 

a NOruddin ; 

That would be so, if the light of faith burnt in the 

heart of everyone."' 

For several reasons, particularly tjhe intrigues of the 
courtiers, the Maharaja's attitude towards NGruddin subse- 
quently changed. In 1093 or 1894, his service with the Maha- 
raja was terminated and NOruddln returned to Bhaira. After 
a brief stay and practice of medicine there he moved to Qadian 
permanently and dedicated his life to supporting the Mirza and 
spreading his movement. 

Accession to Khilafat 

On the Mirza's death on May 26, 1908, he became his first 
Khatxfak. The followers of the MirzS paid their allegiance to 
him and he was proclaimed to be the "Kkatifoh of the Promised 
Messiah", and "NOruddln the Great." For quite some time 
NOruddln remained hesitant whether he should consider those 
who did not believe in the Mirza's prophethood to be unbelievers. 
Later, he was converted to the view that they were unbelievers. 1. 
There was some controversy about his nomination as the 
Khatlfah. Some people' strongly opposed it. On one such 
occasion he said : 

"I say by God that it is God Himself who had made 
me the Khali/ah, So, who now has the power to snatch 
from me the Tobe (literally the covering sheet) of this 

7 . MoKfahehi-Ahwediyoh, Vol. V, Srt Letters to NOruddln. 

8. Mirqet al-Taqtn. 

9 . S4t MirzS Bashlr Ahmad : Kaiitnat Sl-Fatl, Chapter VI. 



IHfc 0_ADIANI SAINT PAUL 'l\ 

Caliphate? It was the Will of God Himself, and w.ts in iIr 
lighl of His Own wise consideration, to make ine your Juiam 
and fCttal'tfali. You can attribute to me a thousand shnrt- 
comings. They, in fact, will be attributable not to nw, but 
to God Himself who appointed me the Khali/ah" 10 
On another occasion he said : 

"God has made me the Khatifah. Now, neither can P 
be dismissed {from Caliphate) by your biddance nor lias 
anyone the power to remove me. If you force me any 
further, bear in mind that I have at my disposal many 
Khalid ibn Walids who will punish you as (Khalid bin 
Walld had punished) the apostates." 11 

Nuruddln remained the Khali foil of the Qadianl movement 
for six years. In 1914 he fell From a horse and died on March 
13, 1914. A few days before his death, his tongue had ceased 
to function. 12 He nominated Mivza llashlruddin Mahmood, the 
eldest son of M'uza Ghulam Ahmad, to be Ins successor and 
Khatifah. 

Temperament 

A study of NfJruddln's life shows that he possessed a 
mercurial nature and remained a prey to menial conflicts during 
the greater period of his life. From the very beginning he had 
a bent towards "free-thinking". First of all, he freed himself 
from the bonds of the four Muslim schools of jurisprudence and 
carried his non-conformism to an extreme. Then he came under 
the influence of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's literature and assimi- 
lated his way of thinking. This was the time when some 
elementary knowledge of physical sciences was finding its way 
to India ,and the rationalists among Indian Muslims were 
becoming deeply impressed by it. Those who had a religious 



10. Review of Religions, Qfidian, Vol. 14 No 6, p. 23+ (cited from Ilyas 
Barni's Qadiyani Mazhab). 

1 1 . Tajhkhiz at-Athan, Vol- 9 No. 11 cited by Barni. 

12. Tliu Daily Ai-Fadhl, Qadian, 23 February, 1932, (cited from Qddiamt 

Mazhab) . 



Tl yAOIANlSM-A UKITtCAL S'lUUY 

inclination attempted to harmonise Quranic teachings with 
scientific knowledge. If this harmonisation presented any diffi- 
culty, they hied to overcome it by ottering fur- fetched interpreta- 
tions of Quranic verso;, and the Quranic leiminology. Nuruddin's 
teaching of Tofs'n w;is representative of this intellectual trend. 1 '' 
In Sirat al-Muhdi, Mirza Baslur Ahmad writes: 

''In the beginning Haziat Nuruddln, the first Khali/ah, 

was deeply under the influence of the way of thinking and 

the work of Sir Sayyid. But, subsequently, due to contact 

with Hazrat Sahib, this influence gradually wore olf." 11 

Ikit a study of his ideas as well as those of his disciples 

makes it evident thai either because of the influence of 

SirSayyid's ideas, or because of his own predilection he remained 

the same all his life. His mind had been moulded into a rigid 

frame and his mental attitudes had become too hardened to 

change. 

A mot'e careful study of his life reveals that along with his 
enlightenment and rationalism, there was a strong superstitious 
element in his personality. Despite all his non-con form ism and 
rationalism he attached great importance to 'dreams' and 'inspi- 
rations'. It has been observed that not infrequently people who 
Stand for intellectual freedom, in fact, for intellectual revolt, 
also have an inherent trait of superstitiousness. Their frame of 
mind is basically apologetic. Such people keep on raising the 
banner of revolt all their lives against certain institutions or 
personalities, but, at the same time, when they submit before 
someone, their power of free-thinking and independent judge- 
ment is totally paralysed. Man's life is a strange combination 
of action and reaction ; and his personality a complex of diver- 
gent, even mutually conflicting elements. Nothing is moredltlicult 
to understand and analyse than the driving urges of a man's 
personality. 

IH. A ;;ood example of his way of thinking is found in ihc fajur oi his 
pupil Maulavi Muhammad C A1» Lahori (His 7<i/ur is found m English 
as well as Urdu). 

14. Shut al-Mahdt, Vol. 1, p. 159 



PART XI 



On the Road to Prophethood 



Mirza as Champion of Islam 



We have covered so far a part of the life of Mirza Ghulam 
Ahmad, his life in his township in district Gurdaspur where we 
saw him immersed in the study of religious books. His works 
published after 1880 indicate that the main subjects of his study 
were different religions, particularly Christianity and Indian 
religions such as Sanatan Dharma and Arya Samaj. 

This period is known for the religious polemics. The 
educated people of the time had a relish for religious debates 
and controversies. We have already seen that Christian 
missionaries were busy propagating Christianity and refuting 
Islam. The British Government, which was officially the 
defender of the Christian Faith, patronised these activities, consi- 
dering India a gift of Jesus Christ. On the other hand were 
the preachers of the Arya Samaj movement who were enthusias- 
tically trying to undermine Islam. The British who were aware 
of the dangerous possibility of inter-communal concord in India, 
a manifestation of which was the struggle for Indian Indepen- 
dence of 1857, found it expedient to encourage religious con- 
troversies. The British political interest was served by these 
controversies in so far as they led to mutual hatred, intellectual 
bewilderment and moral chaos in the country so that the reli- 
gious communities of India might be disposed at least to tolerate 
a government which sought to protect all of them and under 
whose shadow all could carry on their holy debates. In such 
an atmosphere, anyone why rose to defend Islam and falsify 
other religions naturally attracted the attention of alt Muslims. 

The ambitious and far-sighted Mirza chose this field for his 



26 QADIANISM— A CRITICAL STUUY 

adventures- He undertook to produce a voluminous work lo 
demonstrate, on the one hand, the truth of Islam, the Divine 
origin of the Qui 'an, and the Prophethnod of the Messenger of 
Allah by rational arguments, and to refute Christianity, Sanatan 
Dharma, Arya Samaj and Brahnio SamSJetc, on l)ie other hand. 
He named this book Barahln-i-Ahmadvyah. 

The Baratun and the Mirza's Challenge 

The writing of Barahin started in 1879. * The author under- 
took to put forward one hundred arguments in support of Islam. 
In this undertaking the Mirza also had correspondence with 
oilier learned people whom he requested u> communicate to him 
their views in order to help him in this venture. Those who 
complied with his request included Maulavi Chiragh c All who 
was a noted colleague of StrSayyid Ahmad Khan. The Mirza 
included some of his articles and researches in his work. At 
long last this work, which was anxiously awaited by hundreds 
of people, did break into print in four volumes. Along with 
lhi« book, its author also published an announcement in Urdu 
and English and sent it to rulers and tniuisters of States, to 
Christian clergymen and to Hindu pandits. In this book the 
Mirza announced for the first time that he had been appointed 
by God to demonstrate the truth of Islam and that he was pre- 
pared to satisfy the followers of other religions about his religion. 
The announcement categorically stated : 

"This humble slave (the author of Barttliin*i-Attmadiyah) 
has been appointed by the Glorious Almighty to strive for 
the reform of God's creatures and to show to the ignorant 
the straight path (which leads to true salvation and by 
following which the light of heavenly existence and of 
Divine pleasure and graciousness can be experienced even 
in this world) in the manner of the Israelite Prophet of 
Nazareth (Messiah) with utmost humility and Self-denial, 
seif-abasement and gentleness. It is for this purpose that 



1 . Sirat al-AMdl, Vol. II, p. 157. 



UIRZA AS CHAMPION OH ISLAM 27 

Bar&hiu-i-Attmadiyah has been written, of which thirty-seven 
parts have been published. Its summary is to be found in 
the announcement enclosed with this letter. But since the 
publication of the whole book would require a long time, it 
has been decided that this letter along with the English 
announcement should be published and one copy of each 
sent to the honourable priests of Punjab, India and England 
and other -countries wherever possible." 2 
The Mirza challenged the world to come forward with any 
book parallel to this one, and in. ited the representatives of other 
religions to prove the truth of their religions by the same or even 
lesser number of arguments than he had put forward. He wrotf* : 
"I, the author of this book, Baraliin-i-Ahmadiyah, make 
this announcement with the promise to make a reward of 
10,000 rupees to the followers of all faiths and religions who 
deny the truth of the Glorious Qur^an and the Prophethood 
of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (God's benediction and 
salutation be on him) and in support of it I commit myself to a 
formal legal undertaking and a Shar^i pledge that if any of 
these deniers can show that their scriptures have as many and 
as sound arguments as found in the Holy Qur'an and which 
we have mentioned herein to demonstrate the truth of the 
Glorious Message and the veracity of the Apostleship of the 
Khatim-al- Ambiya (God's benediction and salutation be upon 
him) which have been derived from the Sacred Book 
(Qur'an) itself; or if they cannot corne forward with an 
equal number of arguments, then half, or a third, or a fourth, 
or fifth of the number of our arguments; or if they find that 
impossible, then at least to refute our arguments one by one — 
then, in either of these cases, provided three authors accept- 
ed by both the parties, unanimously express the view that 
the condition has been fulfilled in the manner it should have 
been fulfilled— the announcer (of this announcement) shall 
hand over to such a respondent without an excuse or hesti- 



2. Supplement lo Barihtn-i-Ahmadiyak, Vol. 1 by M'erftjuddin *Umar, p. 82 



28 <£ADIANISM-^A CRITICAL STUDY 

tation (lie occupancy and ownership of his property valued 

atRs. 10,000. " :< 

The Mirza. called upon the Muslims to make monetary con- 
tributions to this great service which he wanted to render to the 
cause of Islam and to participate in it generously.* It seems 
that the response of Muslims to this call was not as enthusiastic 
as the Mirza had expected. In the later volumes of Bar'dh'm 
he has mourned their lack of enthusiasm. 6 

The announcements which formed the preface of the book 
are significant. In them we find some indications of the driving 
forces of the Mirza's personality. In them we notice his habit 
of boastfulness and self-adulation and his confidence in 'heavenly 
signs* as means of establishing his claims and persuading people. 
Along with all that, the statements unmistakably smack of his 
commercial mentality. 

Preaching and Polities 

In lite third and Jbtnth volumes ol Bara/iirt-i~Ahmadryah t the 
Mirza openly praised the British government and enumerated ai 
length its acts of bunevok-nce towards Muslims in the sections 
entitled, 'An Important Appeal to Islamic Associations : The 
Precarious Condition of Muslims and the English Government.' 
In this appeal he urged all Islamic Associations to prepare a 
joint memorandum and send it to the government with signatures 
from all prominent Muslims. He also reiterated the services 
rendered by his family to the British and stressed the impermis- 
sibility of jihad. 

Thus we find that even the first work of the Mirza was not 
free from panegyrics to the British government, or from political 
admonitions to the Muslims to remain loyal to the British. 

The Magnum Opus 

The Mirza worked on this book from 1880 to 1884. After 

3. BariiuH-i-AlimadijMh, Vol. I, pp. 17-22. 

4. Set Iltiiuas-i-Zai'url in Drahin, Vol. I . 

5. 'Arz-i-ZurQri ba Halat-i-Majbari. lirdhin, Vol. I. 



M1KZA AS CHAMPION OF ISLAM '20 



I Ik* publication of the fourth volume there came a long period 
of gap and the fifth and the last volume appeared in 19uf>, that 
is, full twenty-five years after the commencement of the work. 
In the fifth volume the author mentioned that the publication of 
the last volume had remained in suspension fur twenty-three 
years. During this period a large number of people who had 
paid in advance for all the five volumes but had received only 
four volumes had passed away. Several other people who had 
paid in advance had expressed their disapproval and resentment 
at not receiving the promised volume for which the Mirza 
apologized in the fifth volume. In this volume he has also 
mentioned that previously he had in mind to bring forward 300 
arguments to prove the truth of Islam, but later he gave up the 
idea. In the same way, instead of fifty, he would bring out 
only live volumes. The reason for this change of mind was that 
the difference between the two figures was merely that of a zero. 
In his own words : 

"Earlier I had thought of writing 50 volumes, but now 
I have confined myself to writing five since the difference 
between the figures fifty and five is just th;il of one dot 
(that is zero). Thus the promise has been fulfilled by the 
publication of five volumes."* 
In Slrai at-Maft<fi t Mima llashir Ahmad writes : 

"Now that four volumes of liarQhvi-i-Alunadiyah have 
come out in print, its preface and notes all relate to the 
time of publication and it contains very little of the 01 iginal 
work, that is, not more than a few pages. This can be 
gauged from the fact that out of the 300 arguments which 
he had written the Baraliin-i-Ahmadiyah contains only one 
argument and that too not in a complete form."' 
Anyone who studies liaraliln-i-Aftmadiyah is bound to be 
impressed by the author's prolificity, perseverance and diligence. 
These virtues, at best, could stand him in good stead as a 



6. Preface of liaraittn-i-Ahmadiyaft, Vo). V, p. 7, 

7. Sttatai-Mahd'i, Vol. I. p.7. 



30 



qAniANISM — A CRITICAL STtlUV 



successful debater and and an able writer on religious polemics 
with Christians and Arya Saniajls. In this huge work, however, 
one does not find any worthwhile research. Nor does one find 
that familiarity with the sources of Christianity, its ancient 
literature, its doctrines and history, and that grasp of its funda- 
mental concepts as one finds, for example, in the works of 
Maulana Rahmatullah Kayranwl (d. 1309 a.h. /189I a.d.), 
the author of Izkar al-thiqq and IzUlat al-Awham. Nor -joes one 
find that sweetness and elegance of expression, and that origina- 
lity and brilliance of argument that one finds in works such as 
those of Maulana. Muhammad Qasim Nanawatwl's (d. 1207 
a. H./ 1370 A.D.) Taqrir Dilpizn and Hujjal ol-Islwn. 

Inspirations and Bragging 

The reader also frequently encounters in the Mima's booJc 
references to his Divinely inspired revelations, to miracles and 
to Divine communications and prophecies, and last hut not the 
least, his boastfulncss. All this leaves an unpleasant taste in the 
mouth and transforms thi_- book which claims to embody" a sober 
academic discussion and a dignified religious debate, into a 
work of personal bragging — a work in which, again and again, 
the author stoops to self-advurtisement and self-glorification. 

The central theme of the book is that Divine inspiration 
had not ceased and should riot cease. This inspiration itself is 
the most powerful proof of the validity of any claim and the 
truth of religion and faith. Whoever will follow the Holy 
Prophet perfectly will be endowed with the external and internal 
knowledge which had been granted originally to the Propheis, 
and the person will, therefore, become possessed of sure, catego- 
rical knowledge. The intuitive knowledge of such people would 
resemble the knowledge of the Prophets. It is these people who 
have been called Amthat in HadHh and Siddlq in the Qur°an. 
The time of their advent would resemble the time of the advent 
of the Prophets. It is such people who will establish the truth 
of Islam and their inspiration will be of a categorical nature. 8 
H. Barahln-i-Ahmediyah, Vol. Ill, p. 231 and 244. 



MIRZA AS CHAMPION OF 1SLAU 31 



In trying to prove the continuity of this inspiration, ho cites his 

own inspirations and writes: 

(: VVe have several examples of this inspiration before 
us. lint in the one which took place just now at the time 
of writing these notes in March 1882 it has been revealed 
as a prophecy that through this book and on becoming 
informed of its contents, the opponents will ultimately be 
defeated ; that seekers after Truth will find true guidance ; 
perversion of belief will be uprooted ; and people will help 
and turn their attention and come around (me) etc., since 
God will put this into their hearts and direct them to it.,. 

This has been followed by a more recent lengthy inspiration 
which is almost" an entirely incoherent collection of different 
Quranic verses. This inspiration embraces about forty tines of 
the fiirahlii and contains about fifty-three or fifty-four Quranic 
verses, interspersed with a few Traditions of the Prophet. 
Besides, there are a few sentences by the Mirza himself which 
are an example of what might be termed as poor Indianized 
Arabic. The last lines of the inspiration which contain a 
comparatively smaller proportion of Quranic verses, read as 
follows : 

"Live in the world like a stranger or traveller. Become 
one of the righteous and the truthful. Hid whatever is 
good and forbid whatever is bad and send your salutations 
to Muhammad and his progeny. Prayer alone brings man 
up. Verily I will raise thee towards Myself and I have put 
love from Me (in the hearts of people). There is no god 
but Allah. So, write and let it be published and sent to the 
world. Grasp Unity (of God), Unity (of God), O people 
of Iran and give glad tidings to those who believed that 
they have a standing with their Lord. And read out to 
them what has been revealed to thee from thy Lord. And 



9. DoTBhtn -i -Ahmadiyeh, Vol. III. p. 238. 



32 QADIAN1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

tin not swell thy face for die creatines of God and Ho not 

gel l ire d of people. The people of al-Suffah. And who are 

the people of al-SuJfah? Thou shah* see their eyes wet with 

tears and they will send their salutations to ihee. O Lord 

of ours! We heard a herald calling towards belief, a 

summon towards Allah, and a bright lamp. Be of hope I" 1 * 

In the same way, an inspiration has been reproduced in the 

fourth volume of the same book. This inspiration too is an 

incoherent conglomeration of Quranic verses and Quranic 

expressions. It also contains some very obvious errors of Arabic 

language and grammar (which have been indicated by us by 

question marks) : 

"And when it is said to them believe as men believed, 
they say : Should we believe as they believe who are 
stupid ? Jleware I it is they who are stupid, but they know 
not. and wish that you should compromise with them (?) 
Say: U n-bel levers 1 I worship not that which you worship. 
It was said to you : turn 10 God, but you turn not ; and it 
was said to you, subdue your souls, but you subdue them 
not. Docst thou seek of them any reward that feel 
burdened (in accepting your message). No, we brought 
Truth to them (gratuitously) and it is Truth to which they 
are averse. God is pure and free from whatever they 
attribute to Mini. Do people think that they would be left 
by merely saying : We believed, and they would not be 
put to any trial ? These people love (o be praised for deeds 
whirh they h:tve not performed, while nothing is hidden 
from God and nothing is good which God does not make 
good and no one can restore him to His favours wno has 
fallen from His grace."" 

Apart from these revelations in the Arabic language there 
are two revelations in English as well. 1 * 



10. DerMm-i-Ahmcdiyait, Vol. HI, p. 242. 

1 1 . liarltiin-i-Ahmadiyah, Vol. IV, p. 509. 

12. tbid t pp. 554 and 556. 



MIR2A AS CHAMPION OP ISLAM 33 



Mirza's beliefs in the Barithin 

In the four volumes of BarUhin (published 1880-1884), the 
Mirza expressed merely ihe view that ilham (Divine inspiration) 
had not ceased and would not cease, and that the legacy of the 
Prophets continues in respect of inspired comprehension of 
things, in respect of the illumination of faith and categorical 
knowledge. In this book he has also frequently mentioned that he 
had been commissioned by God to reform the world and spread 
the message of Islam ; that he was mujaJdid (renovator) for the 
present age, and that he bore resemblance to Jesus (peace be on 
on him)." In this book he also adheres to the notion of the 
ascension of Jesus to the heaven and that he would return' to 
the earth. In the appendix to his book, Nuzjil al-Muiih, pub- 
lished in 1902, and in volume V of Bar&kin, which came out 
in 1905, the Mirza has admitted that he used to subscribe to the 
above view and has even expressed his surprise at his having 
believed in the ascension and return of Jesus.'* ■ In Bar shin he 
had also strongly rejected the idea of any fresh revelation and 
oT the advent of any new Prophet. The reason for this belief 
was that the Qur^an and its teachings were in no danger of 
being distorted nor was there any danger of Muslims reverting 
to pre-Islamic ignorance and paganism. On the contrary, he 
admitted that 'the attitude of the polytheisls, owing to contact 
with the rnonothei>.Ls is gradually tending towards monotheism..' 
This being the case — that the main dangers which revelation 
and prophethood seek to avert were no longer real — there was 
no need for any new Shtiri l uh, or any fresh ilham (inspiration). 
This also established the termination of prophethood with the 
advent of the Holy Prophet : 

"Now, since it is rationally impossible and inconceiv- 
able that the true teachings of the Glorious Furqan will be 
distorded or changed, or the darkness of polytheism and 



13. Sirat ol-Mtxhdi, Vol. I, p. 39. 

14. Appmdk to jVuzTtl al-Marih, p. b. and Barahln Vol. V. p. 85. 



34 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

worship of God's creatures would predominate again it is 
also rationally inconceivable that there should be a new 
Sh(irl l ah t or the sending down of a new initiation (illt&m). 
For, that which leads to impossibility is itself also impossible. 
Thus, it is proved, that the Holy Prophet was in reality the 
last of the prophets (/Chatini-i-fiusNl)"'* 

Reception of the book 

It seems that the book was enthusiastically welcomed in the 
religious and academic circles of the country. Indeed the pub- 
lication of this work was very well-timed and the Mirza as 
well as his friends publicised it with great zest. The secret of 
the success of the book seems to lie in the fact that ii challenged 
other religions and instead of apologising on behalf of Islam it 
took the offensive against them. Noted among those who appre- 
ciated and enthusiastically supported this hook was Maulana 
Muhammad Husain BaialawT. In his magazine Ish&at al~ 
Suimah, he wrote a long review eulogising the hook in six issues 
of the magazine. 16 In this review the'bookwas lavishly praised 
and commended as a great academic achievement of the lime, 
a masterpiece of research and authorship- Not much later, the 
Maulana felt alarmed at the big claims and 'inspiration' of the 
Mirza and, subsequently, became one of his staunch opponents. 
On the other hand, there were many who were alarmed even 
by his first book and who began 10 feel that itb author had set 
himself on a path which would lead him, in the near future, 
to claim prophethood for himself. Among these far-sighted 
people were the two "sons of the late Maulana Abdul Qadir 
Ludhianawi, Maulana Muhammad and Maulana Abdul c AzIz. 
The Ahl'i-H'tdilh l uluma of Amritsar and some t ulanm of the 
Ghaznawi family opposed him from the very beginning and 
denounced his inspirations as fantasies. 11 



15. Barghln, Vol. IV, p. Ill n. 

16. Vol. VII, 1884 nos.j6-ll. 

1 7. Set Iska> at al-Sunmk, June, 1884. Vol. VII. No. 6. 



MIRZA AS CHAMPION OF ISLAM 35 

This book brought the Mirza out of obscurity and put him 
on the stage of public renown so that countless eyes were turned 
towards him. In S\rat at-Makd\, Mirza Bashjr Ahmad has aptly 
observed how this book brought the Mirza to the limelight : 

"Before writing Barahitt t the Promised Messiah spent a 
life of anonymity and in this isolation his was the life of a 
darwish. Before Barah'tn he had become known to some 
extent as a result of his having written a series of articles in 
some newspapers but all this was very meagre. In fact, it 
is the announcement of Barahin-i-Akmadiyah which, for the 
first time and for good, placed him before the country and 
introduced him te those interested in academic and religious 
matters. The eyes of the people began lo turn in amaze- 
ment, towards this anonymous villager who had promised 
to write a great book about the truth of Islam in such a 
challenging manner and with the pj-omise of a huge sum of 
money as reward (to any one who could refuse his argu- 
ments). Thus the sun of guidance which had already 
appeared on the horizon, now began to rise higher. Later 
the publication of ' Barzhin-i-Akmadiyah created an extraordi- 
nary stir in the religious circles of the country. In general, 
the Muslims welcomed him as a great 'Mujaddid'. As for 
the opponents of Islam, this book came to ihem as a bomb- 
shell and created great turbulence in their camp/"* 
The Mirza himself says the following about his life before 
the publication of Barihxn : 

"This was iho time when nobody knew me ; when 
nobody was either in favour of or opposed to me, for, at 
that- time, I was a non-entity; I was just one among the 
people, hidden 'it* the corner of anonymity." 1 ' 
He adds : 

"All the people of this town (i.e. Qadian) and thousands 



18. SifutalKUhttt, VoL I, pp. 103O04 

19. Tatimmuh llag'tqot 4-Wahy, pp. 27-28. 



36 O.ADIANI3M — A CRITICAL STUDY 

of other people are aware that at this period of time I was, 
in fact, like a dead body which had been buried in the grave 
for centuries and no one even knew whose grave it was*"* 

Debates with Arya SamajU 

In 1886, the Mirza had a debate with Murlf Dhar of Arya 
Samaj in Hoshiarpur. He has written a full-fledged book about 
this debate, Surmah~i~Chajhm~i-ATya (Kohl for the eye of the 
Arya). This is the second of his polemics on religions and reli- 
gious sects. 

The topic of the first day's debate was the rational and his- 
torical proof of the miracle of cleaving the moon. The Mirza 
not only strongly affirmed this miracle but the miracles of other 
prophets as well. He showed that the occurrence of miracles 
and ^super-natural incidents was rationally possible. He took 
the position that because of the inherent limitations of man's 
intellect, knowledge and experience, he had no right to deny 
miracles and thus make the claim to comprehend this vast 
universe in its entirety. He repeatedly stressed that the know- 
ledge of man was very limited and the range of possibilities very 
wide' 1 (so that the notion that man's knowledge could be com- 
prehensive was untenable). He also stressed that in religious 
matters faith in the unseen was essential and that this was not 
in conflict with reason, for the latter could not be all comprehen- 
sive in its range. In fact, whatever rational objections the 
Mirza pointed out to the belief regarding the 1 ascension of Jesus 
to the heavens and his descent in future and his stay in the 
heaven for several centuries and the so-called 'rationalist* trend 
in his later writings can best be refuted by the arguments that he 
himself advanced in this book. The personality of the author in 
this book is quite different from the one in his later writings. 

These two books made the Mirza excessively self-appre- 
ciative ; he became aware of his ability as a writer and debater 



20. /Jut, p. 28 



t\i. i*ui, p. in. 

21. Suma-i'Chashm-)-2ry<i pp. 557. 



iflRZA AS CHAMPION OF ISLAM 37 

and became confident that he was capable of initiating a new 
movement and influencing his environment. It seems that this 
discovet-y proved to be the turning-point in his life. Hence- 
forth, instead of debating with Christians and Arya Samajis 
lie turned towards Muslims and began to challenge them to 
debate with him. 



S2 



The Mirza Becomes Messiah 



influence of Nuruddin 

We have seen earlier lliat when Niiruddin was in Jannnu in 
connection with his employment the Mirza wasstaying in Sialkot, 
where he was employed in the District Commissioner's office. 
The two had a number of things in common : both relished reli- 
gions controversies and debates, and both were ambitions. It 
seems plausible that eath of them was inlhienced by the other's 
personality. Hence, correspondence between them began in 
1885. In the collection of the Mirza's letters, the earliest letter 
to Nuruddin that we find is dated March 8, 18B5. This corres- 
pondence continued without break and became so intimate as to 
include family and matrimonial problems. In January, 1080, 
the Mirza undertook a trip tu Kashmir in order to meet 
Nuruddin and stayed with Him for a month. The Mirza kept 
Nuruddin in touch with his inspirations, inspired predictions, 
and novel pieces of informal ion and research. He even com- 
plained to Niiruddin about the opposition of the l ufamu and the 
alleged view of some of (hem that he was not a Muslim. In a 
letter of July lf>, 1890 he wrote to Nuruddin : "And I have 
heard that these people have begun to call me in hushed tones 
a kafir. It was known from this that the Kxalled Allah wants 
to show something great." 1 

Up till then (i.e. 1890), the Mirza had only claimed, that 
he was a mujuddiJ and that he had been commissioned by God, 
and according to Mirza iiashlr Ahmad, he continued to say 
that he had been raised to reform the people in the manner ol 



l. MaJduHl-i-Ahmadiytth, Vol. V, p. 79. 



40 QAOIAN13M— A CRITICAL STUDY 

the Messiah of Nazareth and that he had a certain resemblance 

to him. 1 * In the Bar'ah'xn he expressed the opinion that the absolute 

predominance of Islam which has been promised in the Quranic 

verse : 'It is He who has sent His Apostle with Guidance and 

the Religion of Truth to proclaim it over all religions' would be 

fulfilled through the Promised Messiah, whose return to the 

world had been' mentioned in the Traditions of the Prophet. As 

for himself, he merely resembled the Messiah in respect of the 

first phase of his life, that is, his life on earth. In his own words : 

"This verse {'It is He who has sent His Apostle') is a 

prophecy which, in the physical and political senses refers 

to the Messiah ; and the promise of complete predominance 

of the religion of Islam which has been made will be fulfilled 

through the triumph of the Messiah. And when Hazrat 

Maslh (upon him be peace) will come into this world, Islam 

will spread all over the world, to all lands. But it has been 

revealed to this humble one that in view of his poverty and 

humility, his trust in God ;tnd his sacrifice, and in respect 

of signs and illuminations, he is an cxamplar of the first 

phase of the life of Messiah and that the natures of this 

humble one and of the Messiah aro extremely alike as if they 

were two pieces of the same substance, two fruits of the 

same tree ; and the similarity goo to such an extent that 

the distinction is very minor-"' 

Nuruddin's Advice 

In the life of the Mirza as welt as in the history uf 
Qadianism, the year 1891 is very crucial. It is in the beginning 
of this year that Nuruddln, in one of his letters, advised the 
Mirza to proclaim himself to be the Promised Messiah. 4 We 

2. Sirat aL-Mahdt, Vol. I, p. 39. 

3. Barahln-i-Ahmadiyah, Vol. IV, p. 495-98. 

4. Although in hi* letter NQruddin used the expression ltt*plica ol" die 
Messiah, the study of Fatifi-lslam and Iiaiat •il-Awham shows that Rrplira 
of the Messiah and Promised Messiah werr tnaled as synonymous 
terms and were used by the Mirza interchangeably. To em- an instaix'e : 

[Continued on ntxt fiii^e 



rut-: mirza m- comes mkssiau 41 

have not been able lo see litis letter of Nuruddin, but the reply 
sent by the Mirza refers to this advice of Nuruddin. This letter 
of the Mirza is included in the collection of his letters and is 
dated January 24, 1891. This letter reveals the intellectual 
sources, the behind-ihe-scene director of the play, the actual 
author of Qadi5nism. The following is an excerpt from this 
historic letter: 

"It has been said by you, Sir, that there is no harm in 
proclaiming myself to be the Promised Messiah even inde- 
pendent of the one referred to in the Damascene Haciilfi. 
This humble one has no need of becoming a replica of the 
Messiah. I merely want Allah to include me among His 
humble and obedient servants. But we cannot escape from 
being put lo test. The Exalted Allah has made trial the 
only way to advancement, as He says : "Do men think they 
will be left alone on saying 'We believe, that they will not 
be tested ?"■'• (xxjx, 2) 

What were the real motives of this advice ? Was it merely 
Niiruddln's far-sightedness and ambitious nature, or had it been 
made on some kind of encouragement from the powers-that- 
were ? It is difficult now to say what actually lay behind the 
advice. As for the latter possibility, it appears nor far-fetched 
at all if wc bear in mind the historical background of the rise 
of this new movement. The situation was that the Kritish had 
witnessed the religious movement of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid and 
had been put to considerable difficulty owing to that. In move 
or less the same period of time, there had risen another move- 
ment in the Sudan, led by the Sudanese Mahdl, and this too 
had given the British a very hard time. It is not unlikely that 
the British should have hit upon the desirability of the rise of a 



"This ucsrr-m df^es noi mean the real descent ol the Mws.iah, ihc sun 
of Mary ; ii is Only a ligui alive expression which, informs the coming 
of th^ one like the Median which, according to Divine pronounce- 
ments ami inspiration*- is this humble oue." 
5. Miikiubut-i-AimHulnafi. Vol. V, No. 2. p. 8;') 



42 QADIANtSM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

reliable religious leader of their choice. If such a leader was 
able to win the confidence of die Muslims through- his services 
to the cause of Islam, and capture the religious imagination of 
people by his religious zeal, he could serve as & good means 
to secure the British against the threat of anti-British religious 
movements. And since the Muslims already believed in the 
advent of the Messiah, their acceptance of such a person as the 
Messiah could not have been ruled out as impossible. Such a 
Messiah, if he preached loyalty to the powers-timt-were in the 
name of God and Islam, could be of great service to the cause 
of the British. Nothing, however, can be said with complete 
certainty. Nevertheless the above cited letter of the Mirza 
remains a significant document, and might have the clue to the 
origin of Qadianism. 

What is worth remembering at this point is thai so far as 
the prophets of God are concerned, their mission dees not 
depend on outside suggestions. They receive revelation from 
the heaven and are categorically informed of their position and 
mission. Their hearts are full of conviction and from the very 
first day they announce and keep on stressing what they believe 
to he the truth. Neither their own faith, nor their summons, 
depends upon someone else's drawing their attention towards it. 
From the very first day they keep on saying : 

This am I commanded and I am the first of those who 

bow to His Will. (vt : 163) 

Belief about Jesus 

The return of Jesus is an established article of creed in 
Islam." Muslims have known this and have believed in it. 

The asrension of Jesus to the heavens and his return 10 the world in 
the future is one of those beliefs of Muslims which have their basis in 
Qur'in and is also proved by Prophetic Traditions, and in which 
Muslims nave believed consistently, Ibn Kathlr says that ihe Pro- 
phetic Tiadiiiuns regarding the return or Jesus are numerous enough 
to be regarded as one supported by an unbroken chain of transmis- 

Contiwud on tuxi peg* 



THE MIRZA BECOMES MESSIAH 43 

Traditions from the Prophet mention it and, moreover, owing 
to the adversity of circumstances the Muirims had developed; 
a mood to expect that some great, divinely inspired personality 
would appear suddenly and set things right Tor them. As the 
thirteenth century of hijrah drew close to its termination, this 
state of expectancy became even more intense. Ntiruddln, 
therefore, had reasons to presume that in view of the popularity 
won by the Mirza by his religious services his claim to be the 
Messiah was tike ly to' be accepted by Muslim*. 

The Mirza accepts the suggestion 

The manner in which the Miry. a declined to accept the 
suggestion made by Nuruddln, and the spirit of humility and 
piety which he evinced in his letter on that subject are very 
valuable and add to his prestige. But for anyone who studies 
his works in a chronological order it is hard to retain this 

lion. Ibn Hajar also quotes ALmiI Husiiin Abari in Falah-al-Baii 
regarding ihfe ttu/utur of TraditiOJis on litis quel tion. Shawkiini has 
written a treatise just on this subject entitled Tatdiq ji ma ja Ji u/- 
mtuttazir u» el-Dqfjut wa ul-Alaiih. Nonu of the important religious 
personalities has been recorded as denying thitr belief, not even iIil 
M<-ulazila)>. Ibn Hazni, in his renowned work Al-Fisalft al'Milulwa 
ol-tfihal wrii'i that this belief is established by the unbroken conti- 
nuity of tvtiiisnti&iion. This question bus be«n discussed in detail in 
Anwar Shfife Karhmfrl's Aqidatol-ltlam. As for the rational aspect of 
the question . if one accepts the omnipotence of God and affirms the 
perfection of Hi* Attributes one can have no reason to doubt the 
possibility uf statements found in those traditions whose authenticity 
and continuity are established. In an age of such tremendous 
scientific progress as ours when a number of things which were consi- 
dered hitherto impossible arc taking place before our own eyes, when 
man-made satellites- revolve round the world after every few hours, 
when man has -begun to pace the ouur space, the idea that a man 
should ascend to the heavens and stay there alive fur a certain period 
of time can hardly be regarded as inconceivable. To put forward 
objections which are based <>n Creek concepts of astronomy or on 
other worn-out nuiions appear* palpably childish in this age of 
scientific advancement. 



44 QADiAMSM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

feeling of respect for long. Tor wo find him quite soon accept- 
ing the suggestion of Nuruddin — which he had turned down 
earlier — of proclaiming himself to be 'the Replica of the 
Messiah.* 

If we survey the works of the Mirza, they can be very 
easily divided into two phases. The first phase consists of those 
works in which he seeks merely to prove the validity of Islam 
and repudiate other religions. In these works there is no claim 
of being the Messiah. This is followed by the phase when he 
did make that claim, and went on making several other claims 
about himself, each more boastful and grandiose than the 
previous one. The first book that he wrote during this phase is 
Falli-i-hlam, published in 1891, the year which marks a major 
turning-point in the career of the Mirza. In tins work we find 
him claiming to be the Replica of the Messiah and the Promised 
Messiah.* 

"If you are honest, then be thankful and make prostra- 
tions of gratitude for this is the time for which your noble 
fore-fathers kept wailing until they passed away, the time 
which was awaited by innumerable souls who have journey- 
ed (to the next world) ; for, verily, you have found that 
time. Now it is for you to value it or not, to benefit from 
it or not. I shall say this again and shall not cease announc- 
ing that I am he who has been sent at the prcper time in 
order to reform people so as to revive religi jn afresh in 
their hearts. I have been sent in the same way as the one 

who was sent after Kallm Allah and whose soul, after 

great many pains during the rule of Herodius, was raised 



7. Set Ba rati i n -i- Ahmad i yah, Surmah'i'ChathniA-Arya and Shahna-i-Hitq. 

8. Mirzft Bashir Ahmad writes in Siral ai-Mahdi : "The Promised Messiah 
had written Fath-i'tititti towards tb« end of J890- 1 his is lite first 
treatise in which he mentioned himself to be the Replica of Messiah 
and that the Messiah of Nazareth had died. In other words, this was 
die first proclamation of the claim of being tbc l'rumised Messiah." 
(Vol. I, pp. 2G7-2G8). Thi s shows that die author too regards 
'iieplica of Messiah* and 'Promised Messiah' to be synonymous Unm, 



THE M1RZA BECOMES MESSIAH 45 



to the heavens. So, when the second Kalxm Allah, who, 
indeed, was the first, and the leader of the Prophets, came 
for the suppression of other Pharaohs, the one concerning 
whom it has been said: 'We have sent to you (0 mtn) an 
Apostle, to be a witness concerning you even as we sent an apostle 
to Pharaoh; (lxxiii : 15) then he too, who is similar to 
the first Kalxm in respect of his work, and yet nobler in rank 
than he was promised a Replica of the Messiah. And this 
Replica of the Messiah, having been given the power, 
nature and characteristics of the Messiah, the son of Mary, 
descended from the heaven in an age, similar to his age, 
and around almost the same time that elapsed between the 
first Kalxm and Messiah, son of Mary, i. e* in the fourteenth 
century. And this descent was spiritual in the same way as 
after having risen ; perfect people come down in order to 
reform people. And he too came down in a period similar 
in every respect to the period of the descent of the Messiah, 
the son of Maryj in order that it might remain a sign for 
those who understand." 

Even though this piece of the Mir/.a's writing is terribly 
puzzling and complicated (and perhaps deliberately so), it 
clearly shows his new claim that he is the 'R,eplica of the 
Messiah* ; Three of his works, namely Fath-i-IsBm, Tuwd\h'i~ 
Mar3m, and Izala-i-AwliUm, all deal with the same subject and 
frequently repeat this claim. In Falh-i-JsBm at another place 
the Miiza writes : 

So aside from the resemblance , with other venerable 
ancestors bestowed on this humble being, there is also a 
special resemblance with the nature of Hazrat Maslh (upon 
him be peace) and it is because of this resemblance that 
this humble one was sent after the name of the Messiah in 
order to shatter to pieces the crucifixional belief. Hence, 
I have been sent to shatter the cross and exterminate the 
pigs. I have come down from the heavens — accompanied 



9. Fatk-i-lildm, pp. 6 and 7. 



t<i QADIAN1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

by angels on my right and left. 10 

In his Tawdik-i- Mar am , which is his next book after Futk- 
i-lflain he makes (his explicit statement : 

With a certain degree of disagreement Muslims and 
Christians believe thai Messiah, the son of Mary was raised 
from this elemental existence to the heavens and that in 
some other age he will come down from the heavens. I 
have wriiten about the error of this notion in my treatise 
and iiave also stated that this descent does not mean the 
actual descent of Messiah, the son of Mary ; it is rather a 
metaphorical expression informing of the advent of a 
Replica of the Messiah and which on the basis of informa- 
tion and inspiration from God, applies to this "humble one." 

Fanciful interpretations 

Since Nuruddln had a wide knowledge of the Traditions 
from the Prophet he used to draw the attention of the Mirza 
towards the difficulties in justifying his claims and also used to 
help him in solving those difficulties. The problem as to how 
to relate the attributes which had been mentioned with regard 
to the Messiah required extraordinary intelligence. Here are a 
few examples of this intelligence — and of its having run riot. 

The Traditions on which the Mirza based his claim of 
Messtahship also mention a number of details relating to the 
descent of the Messiah. One of these is that the Messiah would 
descend in Damascus. Now, if the Mirza. was the promised 
Messiah, how could this he justified in the light of the above- 
mentioned Tradition ? It is obvious that Damascus and Qadian 
are far away from one another. Nevertheless, the paradox- did 
not occur to the Mirza. It is NQruddln who drew his attention 
to it. Let us refer once more to the Mirza himself on this 
question : 

"This humble one had so far not occupied himself with 



10. Ibid., p. 9 n. 

11. Tatodth-i'Maram, p. 2. 



THl. MIRZA BKCOMES MKSS1AM 47 



trying lo find out the signification of this (i. t\ Damascus), 
when a friend and trusted lover, Maulavl Hakim Numddln 
came here to Qadian and he made a request to (urn towards 
God to reveal the significance of Damascus and the two 
other ambiguous terms which occur in the Tradition con- 
corned in Muslim. Since in those days I was sick and my 
mind was incapable of strenuous exertion I was unable to 
attend to these matters. Only a little bit of effort led lo 
the explanation of a word, that is, the reality of Damascus 
was revealed to me."' 2 

Later, he explains his inspired discovery of the meaning of 
Damascus in these terms : 

Thus, it should be clear that in the interpretation of 
the word 'Damascus' it was revealed to me by God that 
that town has been called Damascus which is inhabited by 
a people who have the nature of Yazid, who follow the 
practices and ideas of the lilthy Yazid, in whose hearts there 
is no love for God and the Prophet, no veneration for the 
commandments of God, who have become wont to follow 
their desires, whose enslavement to the commands of the 
baser self is such that even the blood of the pure and the 
sacred appears to them as easy and trifling, who do not 
believe in the Hereafter and for whom the existence of God 
is a complicated problem which eludes their understanding. 
And since the physician should come iu the sick, it was 
essential that the Messiah .thou Id appear among such 
people. 15 

"Thus, 'the descent of the Massiah in Damascus' 
clearly indicates that there is someone who is a Replica of 
the Messiah, who also resembles Husain owing to the 
resemblance between these two venerable personalities (the 
Messiah and Husain), and who will descend in order to 



12. Izata-i-Awham, pp. 32-33. 

13. Ibid. pp. 33-34n.. 



48 QAD1ANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

warn the Yazlclts for they are akin to the Jews." 1 * 
Later, he writes "Damascus has been used merely in a 
metaphorical way."'* He also adds : 

"Then He told me that these people had the nature of 
Yazid and this town (Qarian) is simitar to Damascus. So, 
the Exalted Allah sent this humble one down to this 
Damascus for a great purpose (at the eastern side, next to 
the white minaret of the mosque wherein whosoever entered 
became safe. Blessed is the One who sent me down at this 
place).** 

Two yellow sheets 

In interpreting the Traditions which mention certain details 
of the descent of the Messiah and in applying them to himself, 
the MirzS indulges in great extravagance of imagination, puis 
forward the most far-fetched meanings, and comes forward 
with the most ridiculous notions — as if he were sure of the 
absolute gullibility of his readers. For instance, his opponents 
pointed out that the Traditions 011 the basis of which he had 
argued his case and upon which he had based his claim also 
stated that at the* time of his descent the Messiah would be clad 
in two yellow sheets. Replying to that, he says : 

"1 am a permanently sick man. And the two yellow 
sheets which have been mentioned in the Traditions as 
those which would be worn by the Messiah when he would 
come down, these two sheets are with me — and these are, 
according to the science of interpretation of dreams, two 
ailments. Hence, one of these sheets is on my upper part so 
that headache and giddiness and insomnia and palpitation 
of the heart come to me in the form of fits. The other 
sheet which is on the lower part of 1 my body is diabetes 
which has afflicted me for quite a long time so that often I 

14- /bid p. 34. 
15. Ibid , p. M. 
10. Ibid., p. 68. 



THE MIRZA HtCOMKS MESSIAH -49 

have urinated u hundred times during the night and day, 
and due to this frequency of urination I am atllicted with 
all those ailments of debility which generally result from 
such a disease. ''" 

Eastern minaret of Damascus. 

Traditions from the Prophet also mention the eastern 
minaret of Damascus as the place where the Messiah would 
descend. Instead of interpreting it in some other fanciful 
manner, as was his wont, what he did in this case was to have a 
minaret constructed in the eastern part of Qadian. He made 
this decision in 1900, according to Sirat at-Maluii, and invited 
people to donate generously. 1 * 1 In 1903, he even laid its founda- 
tion. 1 ' Its completion, however, could not take place during 
his life-lime, and was accomplished by his son Mirza Bashlrud- 
dm Mahmood. 

Satire and ridicule 

The three above-mentioned works also crudely reveal the 
Mirza's bad temper. They are full of satire and ridicule 
directed against opponents and contain such bitter vituperation 
that -these books can hardly be reckoned among the books 
befitting the dignity of any serious cause. The style and mode 
of expression adopted by the Mirza in these is not even becoming 
of sober and dignified writers, not to speak of prophets and 
religions reformers. The manner in which he scoffs at belief 
in the survival and the return of flu* Messiah to the earth and 
at those who subscribe to it reminds one of the type of wit 
associated with court-jesters rather than with serious intellec- 
tuals. Moreover, the kind of debating skill and quibbling 
which he employs had nothing to do with the prophetic mode 



17. Appendices of Arba'in, Nos. 3 and 4, p 4. 

IB. See ilic announcement regarding ihe 'Minaret of Messiah', in Khutha-u 

Hhuuiiyah, p. I. 
19. S'ual al-Mahd'%, Vol. II., p. 154. 



50 QADIANISM A CRITICAL STUDY 

of expression. While trying to point out the rational impossi- 
bility of the Messiah's survival in the heavens, he writes: 

"Among others, one objection is that even if we wen; 
1o assume that the Messiah did reach the heavens, along 
with his terrestrial body, then it would force us to admit 
i hat that body is bound to be afl'ected in the heavens by 
the elfects of time, tike all other human and animal bodies 
and that this passage of time will inescapably and inevitably 
lead some day to his death. Thus in such a case, it will 
have to be accepted in respect of the Messiah that after 
having completed his course of life, he must have expired 
in the heavens 20 and must have been buried in the grave- 
yard of the inhabitants of dome planet (the possibility of 
habitation on which is being accepted in the present times). 
And even if we were to assume his being alive, there can 
be no doubt that he would by now have become a decrepit 
old man and will hardly be capable of rendering any 
religious service. Under such circumstances, his coming 
down to the earth seems hardly of any consequence except 
an unavailing botheration/' 1 * 
At other place, he makes the following comment on that 



M In the Miiza's days neither the physical sciences hail developed to the 
pr*s«nt extent nor was man in possession of that extent of empirical 
knowledge abcut I lie outer spare and other planets so as to visualis* 
dial terrestrial concepts of time and space arr not absolute, and that 
measurements of time and space beyond the gravitational sphere of 
the earth might be quite different. He, therefore, could neither 
appreciate the possibility that a thousand years of this world could be 
equal to just a moment in some other world, or, that there might be a 
world which is quite different from our own in respect of change, 
death, feelings, requisites for survival, etc. Man seems to have the 
inalienable weakness of having blind faith in the knowledge and 
information of his own tim* and tends to deny all that has not been 
known or experienced till that time. In the words of the Qur^an 
'Nay, thuy charge with falsehood that whose knowledge they cannot 
compass, even before the elucidation thereof haih reached them.' 

fX : 39) 

21. retfa-i-Aivkam. pp. 25-26. 



HIE MIRZA BECOMES MESSIAH SI 

part of the Tradition which mentions thai 'the Messiah will 

■'kill the swine." 

"Will the excellent task that will be undertaken by the 
Messiah after he comes down to the earth merely be to go 
around, accompanied with a pack of hounds, hunting pigs ? 
If this is true, then Sikhs, Chamars and Sansis and Gandils 
who love pig-hunting have reason to be glad, for they will 
prosper. " 
At another place he makes the following observation about 

the future descent of the Messiah : 

" Watcb out lest you are deceived by someone who first 
boards some balloon and then alights from it in front of 
you. So, beware ! Don't mistake such a person for the son 
of Mary because of your established belief. "- J 
At still another place he refers to the same question in the 

following manner : 

Brethren, this question stood on two legs ; 
"(1) One, the descent of the son of Mary from the 
heavens with his terrestrial body, towards the end of time. 
This leg lias been broken by the Glorious Qiir'an and aKo 
some Traditions by informing of the death of the Messiah, 
son of Mary. 

"(2) The second leg was the appearance of the 
promised Dajjai towards the end of time. Now this tag has 
been broken into two pieces by the unanimomly agreed 
Traditions of Sahlli Muslim and Schth Bukhai'x which have 
been reported by important Companions and also by railing 
Tbn Saba to be the promised Dajjai and, at last, by killing 
him after making him join the body of Muslims. Now 
that both the legs of the question have been broken, how 
and with whose support can this corpse which lacks both 
the legs stand up after these thirteen countries"? 21 

22. Izuin-i'Aivham ; p. 21 ■ 

23. «/;/., p 143. 
2'K Ibid . pp. m-34 



52 ^ADIANtSM-A CRITICAL STUDY 

Here is another example of his writing : 

"Can it be proved that there has been a consensus 
regarding the Traditions that the Messiah will go around 
hunting pigs in woods and that Dajjal will circumambulate 
around Kabah and that the son of Mary will perform the 
obligatory riicumambulation of the Kabah like a sick man, 
supported on the shoulders of two men ? Is ii not known 
that the exegetists of these Traditions have been letting 
their conjectures loose limitlessly ?" IS 

At another place, he had the following to address to the 
Alil-i-Suntiah a>i Scholars ; 

"O respected maulavis ! While the death of the Messiah 
is generally proved by the Noble Qur'an, certain Compa- 
nions and Exegetists have, from the very beginning, been 
continuously killing him (that is, holding that Jesus in 
dead — Translator). Then, why do you adopt your attitude 
of unavailing stubbornness ? Let the Cod of Christian;; die. 
How long will you go on calling him the living one, the 
undying ? Is there any limit to this ?"»• 

Impact of Modern Knowledge 

The works of the Miraa written during this period also 
show that he was deeply imptessed with the advancement of 
natural sciences and- with the scientific knowledge which was 
evoking great interest and curiosity in India in his days. The 
level of scientific knowledge attained by the West by that time 
would appear to be rudimentary when judged by the present 
level of scientific advancement. However, the Mirza's acquain- 
tance of the then scientific knowledge was second-hand and very 
superficial. It seems that one of the main props of his rejection 



25. ftata-i-Authdm, p. 214. 

26. Lit. 'One of the path*. A term generally applied to the largesc sect of 

Muslims who belong to one of the Four juristic schools of orthodox 
Islam. 

27. italA-i'Awham, p. 235. 



THE MtRZA BECOMES MESStAH 53 



of the idea of the ret urn of the Messiah was that the idea ran 
counter to the accepted facts of modern science. He thought 
that such a belief would expose religion to the ridicule of the 
educated people. He wrote in Itata-i-Awham : 

"In tliis philosophically-minded age, which has speedily 
brought with it mental refinement and intellectual advance- 
ment, it is a big error to think that one would he able to 
achieve religious success while holding on lu this belief. 3 * 
If such baseless tilings were to spread in the deserts of 
Africa or among the desert-dwellers of Arabia or in some 
islands of the sea or among groups of wild people, they 
might spread easily. Uut we cannot propagate such teach- 
ings which are totally opposed to reason and experience 
and natural sciences and philosophy and which also cannot 
be proved (to have originated) from our Prophet (upon 
him be the salutation and peace of God) ; rather traditions 
which are quite opposed to thes* are being proved among 
the educated people. Nor can we present them to the 
schotastically inclined people of Kutope and America, who 
are gelling rid of the absurdities of their own religion 
How can they (whose minds and hearts have been illumi- 
nated by the light of new sciences) believe in suclt things 
which are uut and out an insult to God and constitute an 
abrogation oft he principles of His Book'?" 3 "' 
While reading passages such as these, one finds it hard to 



26. 1 1 is hard to say how und why the Mir/a believed in such metaphy- 
sical propositions as revelation, angles, paradise, hill, etc. and how 
he accepted the demand of religion. Indeed, the very heart of 
religion is guided by faith in the realities beyond the ken of human 
perception. The above excerpt only illustrates the extent to which 
he was mentally over-awed by "modernism", and how he, like 
other superlicial writers and ill-educated people of the nineteenth 
century, had deified modern science without appreciating its ;tetual 
don lain and its inherent limitations. 

2'J. liiiiti-i-Awhihu, p. 135. 



QAOIANISM — A C'.UITICAl. S'I'DDV 



believe thai they rould have been written by ibe author of Surma - 
i-C.hashm-l-A?y~a\ by the tame wriiei who had strongly argued in 
favour oi" the possibility and actual (Kcmrona 1 of miracles and 
had refuted the view that metaphysical notions could not be 
denied on the basis of reason of limited human experience. 

In rhis book (he Mirza has argued on the basis ofthe Jumuiaf-" 1 
numerals and here his mode of argument becomes very clo.se 
10 that ofthe missionaries of the Bhiiniyah sect who used to 
employ these numerals a* evidential arguments even in respect 
of fundamental religious beliefs. 

"My attention has been drawn through Kashf* 1 to- 
wards the powers of lite letters oi the following name where- 
in 1 have b+^en informed ofthe Messiah who was to appear 
at the end of the thiiteenth century. (God has told me) 
that lie had already kept in view the «±ra (of Messiah's 
appearance) in giving this name (to me) ; and that name is, 
'Mirza 'Ghulain Ahmad Qadiani'. The powers ofthe letters 
of this name add up exactly to 1300, and in this township 
of Qadian there is none except this humble one whose name 
is Ghulam Ahmad- In fact, it has been put in my heart 
that at this lime there is none except this humble one who 
• has the name 'Ghulam Ahmad QAdiani.' And this has been 
a favour bestowed by God to this humble one that He, the 
Pure One, reveals the mysteries to me through the powers 
of alphabetical letters."* 3 
At another place he wiUes : 

"Now it is proved by this research that the Qjur'an 
contains the ptedktionof thecomingof the Messiah, the son of 
Mary, towards iheendoftime. The time of the appearance of 
the Messiah, which has been fixed by the Qur'an as 1400 
(a.h.) has. also been accepted by many saints on the basis 



30. 7'hf reckoning of tin alphabets by a system in which the letteii 
have different powers. 

31. Revelation of any secret to a mystic or saint by the grace and 
power of God. 

32. ftdta-i-Awham, p. HO. 



THE MIRZ\ DECUMES MESSIAH 55 

of their kmhf. The Qur'anic verse 'And We certainly Are 
able to drain it oil' 3 * has letters which, according to the 
Jummal, iruike up the figure of 1274 ; and this points to the 
moonless nights of the Islamic lunar months containing a 
hidden pointer to the rise of a new moon. And this mystery 
is latent, according to Jummal system, in the letters of 
GhulSm Ahmad QSdiani."' 1 

In these books, while trying to explain the Traditions from 
the Holy Prophet and arguing that they referred to him, the 
Mirza has been extremely heedless of all rules of exposition of 
such texts, giving full rein to his fancy. In fact, it is hardly 
conceivable that anyone should take such liberty in explaining 
even the writings or compositions of ordinary writers and poets 
not to say of Traditions from prophets. To suit his purpose the 
Mirza has taken the position that the words of the Traditions arc 
of a figurative or metaphorical nature. Again, in this respect, 
he seems to be following in the footsteps of the Bitinis who used 
to explain religious terms — about whose text as well as meaning 
there is an unbroken continuity of agreement — in a far-fetched 
and ridiculous manner without any lexicological or rational basis 
to support them. And it is thus that they had opened the flood- 
gates of atheism and nihilism. 

In I&ta-i-Awhim the Mirza repeatedly asserts that knowledge 
about the son of Mary and Dajjal had not been completely clear 
to the Holy Prophet and that in this regard God had endowed 
htm only with some brief hints. 3 " 

The Messiah in Kashmir 

The Mirza kept on "reflecting" about the death of the 



34. It thou Id be noted that thU verse refers to rain, and the whole vers* 
reads thus : "And We send down water from the iky according to 
(due) measure and We cause it to soak in the soil ; and We certainly 
are able to drain it off (with ease). (XL : 16) 

35. ItiU-i-Awkan, Vol. II, p. 338. 

36. /»!</., Vol. II, p. 346. 



56 QA0IAN1SU — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Messiah till, in the end; he concluded that his death had taken 
place in Kashmir and thai it was there that he lay buried. In 
this connection, according to his wont, he did a lot of hair-split- 
ting which shows the fertility of his imagination even if the level 
is childish. He has tried to prove that the pronunciation of 
Kashmir in Kashmiri language is "Kashir", and it appears 
that this word, in Tact, is a compound Hebrew word, composed 
of 'K* which is used to denote similarity, resemblance, etc. and 
of 'Ashlr' which in Hebrew means Syria. Thus the word 
'Kashir' in Hebrew meant Mike Syria'. On this basis, the Mirza 
went on to add that when Jesus (peace be upon him) migrated 
from Palestine to that part of India which due to the excellence 
of weather, agreeableness of its seasons and its greenery and 
freshness had close resemblance to Syria, God named it "Kashir" 
in order to comfort and gratify him. The excessive use of the 
word led to the dropping of 'a' with the result, that it became 
'Kashir.' Then, he proved that the tomb of.'Budhasaf* (popu- 
larly known as the "prince") in the Khan Y3r locality of 
Srinagar was in fact the grave of Jesus. In trying to support 
this piece of research, he marshalled all possible far-fetched 
arguments, with the result that his writing on the point appears 
closer to poetry and Action rather than what is normally consi- 
dered to be academic writing. The unbridled speculations of 
the Orientalists, who are noted for making the mountain out of 
a mole-hill simply pale into insignificance when compared with 
the MirzS's writings. 37 

This brings us to a definite milestone in the spiritual experi- 
ences and claims of the MirzS. At this stage he categorically 
claims to be the "Promised Messiah," and tries to prove this by 
his so-called 'rational' as well as traditional arguments. 



From Messiah to Prophet 



An objective, but critical study of the Mirza's writings gives 
one the impression that his claims proceeded along a gradually 
ascending scale. All this seems to have been planned very 
carefully and the MirzS appears to have exercised great patience 
and precaution in moving from one stage to the other. In the 
beginning he expressed the opinion that inspiration, intuitive 
experience and categorical knowledge were an essential concomi- 
tant of completely following the Prophet~a natural stage at which 
one arrives as a result of losing oneself in obedience to the 
Prophet. He does not explicitly claim himself to be a prophet, 
but talks about prophetic attributes and characteristics and tries 
to prove that these attributes and characteristics are bestowed 
upon the followers of the Prophet, particularly upon the more 
perfect ones, by virtue of their following the Prophet. This 
logic and its premise! were bound to lead the Mirza, sooner or 
later, to proclaim himself to be a prophet. It appears that 
throuhgout these years, he remained busy paving the way and 
trying to create the proper atmosphere for such a proclamation. 
He seems to have been trying to assess whether the devotion of 
his followers had reached the stage where they would not mind 
. accepting even this claim, as they had accepted the rest of his 
claims. 

Proclamation of pVophethood 

At last that event did take place. In the year 1900, Maulavi 
'Abdul Karim, the preacher of the Friday sermon, gave a 
sermon in which he used the words Nabi (Prophet) and Rasul 



58 QAOIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

(Messenger) for the Mirza. This caused great irritation to 
Maulavf Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan Amrohawi. When Maulavi 
c Abdul Kailm came to know of this, he gave another Friday 
sermon in which he addressed the Mirza, requesting him to 
contradict his belief, if he was wrong in considering him to be 
a prophet and messenger of God. After the Friday prayers 
were over, Maulavi 'Abdul Karlm caught hold of the skirt of 
4he Mirza's apparel and requested him to correct him in his 
beliefs if they were erroneous. The Mirza turned around and 
said that he, too, held the same belief. Meanwhile, Maulavi 
Muhammad Ahsan had been greatly agitated by the sermon 
and in anger was pacing ih* floor of the mosque. On 
Maulavi c Abdul Karlm's return, he began to quariel with 
him. When their voices rose very high, the Mirza came out of 
his house and recited the Quranic verse: "O ye who believe! 
Don't raise your voice above the voipe of the Prophet." 1 

(xux.2) 

Thus the sermon of Maulavi 'Abdul Karim inaugurated a 
new phase in the career of the Mirza- This sermon provided 
him with the much needed assurance that his followers had such 
an unquestioning faith in him that they would accept whatever 
claims he might make. The MirzS's own son, Bashjruddin 
Mahmood has very ably described this development by pointing 
out that the Mirza used to claim his self to be invested with the 
attributes which could be found in none except a prophet and 
yet he used to deny his being a prophet. When he became cons- 
cious of this inconsistency and became aware that these attri- 
butes were untenable with his denial o( prophethood, he pro- 
claimed himself to be a prophet. He writes: 

"In short, since in the beginning the Promised Messiah 

thought that the definition of Nab\ is the one who brings a 



This event is based on tin- report ot a speech of Sayyid Sarwar Shah 
Qadiini at an annual conference held in Qatltan, and published in at- 
Fadhi, Vol. X, No. 51, dated January 4, 1923. Sit alii Haqiqatol. 
tfuiuwat.p 124. 



FROM MESSIAH TO PROPHET 59 

new ShmPak, or abrogates some injunctions, or is a prophol 
directly (appointed by God) : so, oven though all the attri- 
butes and qualities required of a prophet were found in him, lie 
used to decline from designating himself a prophet. When, 
later on, he became aware that the nature of his claims is that 
of a prophet and not of a Muhaddalh>\\e proclaimed himself to 
be a prophet." 1 

However, whether the Mirza refrained from proclaiming 
himself to be a prophet till his misunderstanding was removed 
and he was commissioned by God to proclaim his prophethood, 
or he had been waiting all this while for an opportune moment 
to make this declaration, there is no doubt that he was ultimately 
led to making the proclamation of his propheihood which was 
the logical result of his earlier claims. 

Elucidation and Challenge 

A* stated by Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood, the question was 
finally decided in 1001 and the Mirza began to write about it 
explicitly in his writings. The collection of articles called ArbaUti 1 
is full of declarations and explanations about this new mission. 
This frankness increased steadily. In 1902 he wrote a treatise 
entitled Tuh/ai nl-Nadwah, which was addressed to the l »Jnma 
who were taking part in the deliberations of the Nadwah Con- 
ference held at Amritsar in 1902. In this treatise he wrote: 

"Thus, as I have repeatedly said, what I recite unto 
you is categorically and certainly the word of Allah, in the 
same way as Qur'anand Torah are the words of Allah, and 
that 1 am a £t//J* and Buruzi* prophet of God, and every 

'I. Haqiqat ai-.Vuiuwat, Vol. I, p. 124, 

3, The Mirza had promised to write forty treatises on the subject but he 
concluded the series only after the fourth one. S*t Attain, Vol. IV, 
p. 14. 
4* Reception of the revelation through the grace of Muhammad (peace 
he on him) has been called "£i7/j nutuwah'* by the Mirza. See Haqiqat 
at-U'ahy, p. 28. 
0, This kind of prophet, according to the MirzS does not receive it (i. e. 

Continued on ntxt pagt 



60 QADIANISU — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Muslim is obliged to obey me in religious matters. And 
every one who has received information about me, even 
though he be a Muslim, but does not consider me arbiter in 
his affairs, nor recognizes me as the Promised Messiah, nor 
considers my revelations as coming from God, he is liable 
to punishment in the heavens for he has rejected what he 
had to accept at its proper time, I do not merely say that 
I would .have courted (the disaster of) death had I been a 
liar ; I also say that I am true even as Moses and Jesus and 
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on them) were 
true, and that God has shown more than ten thousand signs 
to uphold my claim. The Messenger of Allah (peace and 
blessings of Allah be on htm) has testified and the earlier 
prophets had indicated the time of my advent, which is the 
present time. The Qur'an has also indicated the time of 
my debut during the present times. Both the heavens . and 
the earth have borne testimony in my support ; nor is there 
a prophet who has not testified in my favour." 4 
In the same vein is what he wrote in Haqiqat at~ Wahy : 

"So, of all the people of this ummah, I am the only one 
who has received this large portion of Divine revelation 
and knowledge about the Unseen. None of the saints of 
this ummah, who have preceded me, was given such a big 
share of this bounty. 7 For this reason I alone was chosen to 



prophethood) for hit own self, but for the majesty of hii prophet. It 
it for this reason he claims, that hit name in the heaveni is Muhammad 
and Ahmad. Thii" means that the Prophet Muhammad's mihuwah 
was received ultimately by (another) Muhammad, although ina huntzi 
way, and not by any body else", Ek GkdH k* Izaiak, p. 5. 

6. Tukfat td-JfsJtoah, p. 4. 

7. This is merely a claim, and it is based on lack ot* religious knowledge 
and is- against historical facts. In the ttmrnmh of Mohammad (peace be 
on him) there have been so many saints who have been graced by 
divine inspiration, but npne ever claimed it to be a revelation, nor 
claimed prophethood on that basis. 



mOll MESSIAH TO PROPHET 61 

be appointed a prophet and none else deserved this title." 8 
All the later writings of the Mirza are full of similar catego- 
rical elucidations of his claim to prophethood. These are too 
many to be mentioned in this book. All those interested in a 
more detailed study of it should study his Haqlqai al-lVahy, and 
Bashlruddln Mahmood's Haqjqat al-jVubuwai. 

Independent Prophethood 

The works of the Mirza also prove that he believed himself 
to be an independent prophet and bearer of a Sharfah. In Atba^xn 
he denned the Shari* aA-bearing prophet as one whose revelation 
contains positive commandments and prohibitions and who 
makes some regulations even though these commandments and 
prohibitions might have been embodied in the scripture of some 
former prophet. According to him a A'Aari'aA-bearing prophet 
need not bring an altogether new set of laws. Then he goes on 
to declare himself to be such an independent i/wri l nA-bearing 
prophet. To cite his own words. 

"Apart from this, you should know what is Shun 1 ah. 
Whosoever laid down some commandments and prohibitions 
through his revelation and framed some regulations for 
ummah becomes the bearer of a Shatfah. So, even according 
to this definition, our opponents are blameworthy, for my 
revelations contain commandments as well as prohibitions. 
For instance, take the inspiration : 

'Say to the believers to lower down their eyes and 
guard their hidden places — This is purer for them.' (xxvi.30) 
"All this is found in Barahin-i-Ahmadiyafi, It contains 
commandments as well as prohibitions and the same is the 
case with my revelations till today : they contain both 
commandments and prohibitions. And if you say that by 
Skar\ c ah is meant that which contains new regulations then 
this is wrong. The Exalted Allah says : 'And this is in the 
Books of the earlier Revelations ; the Books of Abraham and 



8. Haqtqat at - Wahy, p . 391 . 



62 ftADIANISM— A CRITICAL STUDY 

Moses;' (lxxxvii, 18-19) which means that the Quranic 
teachings are also embodied in Torah.'* 9 
The fact that the Mirza abrogated a number of those 
important and categorical injunctions of the Shar&ah which have 
been continuously supported by Muslims also shows that he consi- 
dered himself to be the bearer of an independent Sharf-ah and 
regarded himself as one entitled to determine what was reli- 
giously obligatory or prohibited. One of the examples is the 
attitude he took in respect of the question of jihad. Even though 
jihad is a textual Quranic injunction supported by the unbroken 
belief and practice of the ummah throughout the fourteen 
centuries of our history and is supported by the Prophetic 
Tradition: 'jihad will continue till the Day of Resurrection,' 
but the MirzS prohibited it. In connection with the abroga- 
tion of jihhd, just one excerpt from his writings on the subject 
will suffice : 

"Jihad — that is the harshness of religious .wars — has 
gradually been lightened by Cod. During the time of 
Moses there was such harshness that even acceptance of 
belief could not save a man from being killed, and even 
suckling babies were put to death. Then during the time 
of our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be jpon him) 
the killing of the children, the old and wom^n-folk was 
prohibited. Then, for certain nations, instead of accepting 
the faith, payment of jizyah was accepted as the means of 
saving them from punishment. Then, in the time of the 
Promised Messiah, the injunction of jihad has been absolu- 
tely repealed." 10 

Excommunication of the Deniers of Mirza' s 
Prophethood : 

The natural and logical consequence of the claim to be a 



9, AthaUn, appendix 4, p. 7. 

10. ArbiMn, Vol. 4, p. I5n. For more detailed statements or the Mirza 
on the subject ut Section 2 of Chapter III of the book. 



FROM MESSIAH TO PROPHET 63 

prophet was that all those who declined to believe in the new 
prophethood should be declared unbelievers (kafirs). The Mirza 
himself recognized that only a SAari'aA-bearing prophet was 
entitled to declare all those who did not believe in him to be 
kafirs. He writes : 

'-This point is worth remembering that to call those 
who reject one's claim as kafirs is worthy only of those 
prophets who bring from God a Sharf-ah and new injunc- 
tions. But all others besides the Shut I'oA-beat ing (prophets) , 
that is, mulhtim (Divinely-inspired) and muhaddath (recipi- 
ents of Divine Communication), no matter how high their 
station is in the sight of God and no matter how highly 
honourcd.they-are by God, rejection of their claim does not 
render anyone an unbeliever.** 11 

Nevertheless, all the subsequent works of the Mirza are 
replete with denunciations of those who denied his Prophethood 
as kafirs. A few examples will suffice : 

"During these days the foundation of a new sect will 
be laid in the heavens and in order to support this sect, 
God will blow (His trumpet) "Be** and by the sound of this 
"Be", every fortunate one will be drawn towards it except 
those who are eternally doomed and have been created to 
fill up the Hell."« 

In his inspiration which the Mirza published on May 25, 
1900, he said : 

"I havt* received inspiration that whosoever will not 
follow thee and, will not enter into thy oath of frrdtv then 
such a disobeyer of God and the Prophet witl dwell in 
Hell." 1J 

Take another instance : "God had revealed to me that every 
one who has received my call and has not accepted it is not a 



11. Tiiyiq ai-Qutub, p. 1'tOn. 

12. Bmihini-AhmaJijah, Vol. V, pp. 82-83. 

13- Mfyit al-Alhar, p. 8 (cited from Qidifini Mazh*b) 



64 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Muslim. 14 

At another place, the matter has been dealt with in greater 
detail ; 

"Kufr denotes two categories (of disbelief); first, that 
a person denies Islam itself and does not recognize the Holy 
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) to be the 
messenger of God. The second (category of) disbelief is, 
for instance, that he does not believe in the Promised 
Messiah and considers him false in spite of the matter having 
been made clear and even though God and the Prophet had 
emphatically urged that he be recognized as*irue, and there 
had been similar emphatic instruction in the books of the 
earlier prophets. Thus, since he is the denier of the com- 
mand of God and His Prophet, he is a Kafir. And if one 
were to look at the matter closely, both these categories of 
kufr are basically the same ; for, the person who does not 
accept the command of God and His Prophet despite his 
having recognized it to be so, he does not believe in God 
and the Prophet according to the explicit texts of the 
Qur'an and the HadUh. ib 

This constitutes an article of the Qadia.nl creed. Its former 
head, Mirza Bashlruddin Mahmood writes : 

"All those Muslims who have not been integrated in 
the oath of fidelity to the Promised Messiah, regardless of 
whether they had heard his name or not, they art* kafirs and 
outside the fold of Islam." 16 

It is because of this belief that all non-Ahmadis are kafirs, 
the Islamic legal ordinances in respect of kafirs have been consi- 
dered by the Qadianl group to be applicable to those who are 
outside the fold of their religion. The Qadianfs have, there- 
fore, been prohibited from having matrimonial relations with 
Muslims. In one of his speeches, Mirza Bashlruddin Mahmood 

14. Zikr al- Hakim, No. 2, p. 24, compiled by Dr. Abdul Hakim, quoted 
from ai-Fadhl January IS, 1935. 

15. Heqiqat al-Wahy, pp. 179-80. 

16. 2ina>-i-Saddqat t p. 35 {cited from Qadiani Mathai). 



FROM MESSIAH TO PROPHET 65 

observed : "One of the ordinances of the Promised Messiah, and 
an important one too is that no Ahmadi may give his daughter 
in marriage to a non-Ahmadi. This ordinance is mandatory 
for every Ahmadi." 17 In Anwar-i-KAitafat he remarks: "A person 
asked him (i.e. Mirza* Ghulam Ahmad QadiSnl) again and 
again and put forward several pressing difficulties. Nevertheless, 
he instructed him to keep his daugther at home for all her life, 
but not to give her in marriage to a non-Ahmadi. When after 
the MirzS's death the said person married his daughter to a 
non-Ahmadi, the first Khalifah, Hakim Ntlruddln, not only for- 
bade him from acting as an Imam of the Ahmadls but also 
excommunicated him from the Ahmadi group, and did not 
accept his repentance during the six years of his Khilafat despite 
his repeated apologies and repentance." 1 * 

Elaborating on the same theme at another place, he goes on 
to say,: 

"The position of non-Ahmadi s in relation to us is the 
same as that fixed for the aht-al-kiiSb 19 in relation to a belie- 
ver by the Wise QurHn, which instructs that a believing 
man may marry an ahl-ai'kitnb woman, but may not give a 
believing woman in marriage to an ahl~al-kit5b. Likewise, 
an Ahmadi may bring a non-Ahmadi woman into the fold 
of his marriage; but an Ahmadi woman, according to the 
Islamic SharPat, may not be given in marriage to a non- 
Ahmadi male. Huzjur (the Mirza) says : There is no harm in 
accepting a non-Ahmadi woman in marriage, for marriage 
with ahl-al-kiiab women is permitted. Rather, such a mar- 
riage is useful, because thus one more person receives true 
guidance, (but) one should not marry one's daughter to any 
non-Ahmadi. If you can have (a non-Ahmadi woman), 
take her. But to give away (an Ahmadi woman in marriage 



17. Beridl't-KhiUfat, Collection of speeches of Mirza Bashiruddin 
Mahrnood, p. 15, (cited from Qidioni Mazhat) 
18. Ai,uait-K}.Hdf«l, pp. 93-94. 
19. A follower of one of the revealed religions that is, a Jew or a Christian. 



fill QAD1ANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

10 a non- Ahmadi) is sinful.'* 10 

In the same way, to pray behind a non-Ahmadi is not per- 
missible. The Mirza himself wrote : 

"This Divine Message shows that those who declare 
(the Mirza to be) kUfir and adopt the path of falsification 
(of the MirzS) are a doomed people. Hence, they do not 
deserve that any one of my jama 1 at (group) pray behind 
them. Gan anybody offer prayers behind someone who is 
dead ? So, keep in mind that, as God has informed me, it 
is prohibited for you, it is absolutely prohibited for you to 
pray behind anyone who declares (me to be) kafir or falsi- 
fies (me), or is hesitant (to follow me)."" 
Pursuing this logic, participation in the funeral prayers of 
the Muslims too has been prohibited for the Qadianis. Accor- 
ding to the Qadiani mouthpiece al-Fadhl 'the Mirza did not offer 
prayer at the funeral of his son (late Fadhl Ahmad) because he 
was a nou-Ahmadt." 41 Mian Bashiiuddln Ahmad in a letter 
published in al-Fadhl even goes so far as to say: "I believe that 
it is not permissible to offer prayers at the funeral of those who 
pray behind non-Ahmadis, for, such a person, in my view, is not 
an Ahmadi."* 3 He also expressed the view that it is not per- 
mitted to oiler prayers at the funeral of even a non-Ahmadi 
infant. The argument was that just as prayers could not be 
offered at the funeral of a Christian child, even though he was 
innocent, one could not offer prayers at the funeral of a non- 
Ahmadi child. 8 * 

It was in compliance with this injunction, that even though 
Chowdhry Sir Zafrullah Khan, then Pakistan's Minister for 
External Affairs, was present at the funeral ceremony of Mr. 
Jinnah, he did not participate in the funeral prayers. 



20. ol-Haktm, April 14, 1908 (cited in QadiSnl AUthai 

21 . Ar^in, Vol. Ill, p. 34n. 

22. Al-Fadhl, dated 15th December, 1921. 
2). Al-Fadhl, dated lSlh April, 1926. 

24- Al-Fadhl, Vol. 9, No. 72 and Vol. X, No. 82. 



FROM MESSIAH TO PROPHET 67 

i 

One of the corollaries of accepting this belief is that what- 
ever religious duties one lid performed prior to entering into 
the fold of Qadianism, would be deemed to be all null and 
void. In reply to a query raised by a Qadiani, he was 
informed : "Whosoever performed his obligatory pilgrimage 
at the time when his (i. e. the Mirza's) claim had become well- 
known and the proof of its validity had been made evident to 
the people of the country in general, and the Mirza had inter- 
dicted praying behind a non-Ahmadl Imam, then that person's 
Hajj will not be reckoned as having been performed by him.** 4 * 

Incarnation and transmigration of soul 

Some of the writings of the Mirza indicate that he also 
believed in the doctrines of incarnation and transmigration of 
souk and that the souls and essence of the prophets (upon all 
of them be the peace of Allah) were embodied in the person of 
the prophets one after another. In TirjrSgal-Qutub he writes : 

"Thus, as has been accepted by the Sufis, the levels of 
existence are cyclical. In this way, Abraham (upon him 
be peace) was re-born in respect of nature, temperament 
and familiarity of heart, two thousand and five hundred 
years after his death in the house of * Abdullah, the 
son of 'Abd al-Muttalib and was called by the name of 
Muhammad."** 
He also writes : 

"At this place this point needs to be remembered that 
during the periods of the internal degeneration of Islam, 
the spirituality of our Prophet (upon him be the peace and 
benediction of Allah) manifests itself and this incarnation 
of the essence of Muhammad shows itself in the form of 
some perfect follower. As for what has been reported in 
the Traditions that al-Afahdl would be born and that 'his 
name would be my name and his mode of conduct be (like) 



25. el-Hitam. (QadtSn) of May 7. 1934. 

26. Tirytq «i-Q«ft*. p. 155 n. 



68 QADIAN1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

1 ■ ■ "" i-j h i'i '■■ i ■■..— - — i t i — ■ ■ ■- ■ ■ — ■ i^- 

my mode of conduct' — if these Traditions are correct, then 
the reference is to the descent of his spirit as I have 
mentioned above." 17 
In another of his works he wrote : 

"It has been made known to me through kashf that 
when Jesus was informed about this saci iligiousness 
which has spread from the Christian people to the whole 
world, his soul moved for spiritual descent. Thereafter, 
God, according to His promise, granted him his replica, 
and in it was infused the Messiah's courage and character 
and spirituality, and the two — that is, the Messiah and his 
replica, were firmly integrated as if they were two parts of 
the same matter. Thus, in this sense, his being became 
the being of the Messiah, and the yearnings of the Messiah 
descended into him — and it is the descent of these which, 
in inspirational terminology, has been described as the 
descent of the Messiah."** 

* 

Two advents of the Prophet 

The MirzS also declared that the Holy Prophet (peace and 
blessings of Allah be on him) has had two advents. He said : 
"And know that our Prophet (peace and blessings of 
Allah be on him), in the same way as he was sent in the 
fifth millenium, was also sent towards the end of the sixth 
millenium, in the form of the Promised Messiah." 1 * 
He even felt that this second advent was stronger, more 
perfect, and brighter than the first one : 

"Rather the truth is that his spirituality (upon him be 
peace) at the end of the sixth millenium, that is, in these 
days, is more vigorous and stronger and more perfect than 
in those years ; rather, it is like the full moon." 5 * 



27. 3(W i-Kamilat*i-litim, p. 346. 

28. M4. t pp. 254-55. 

29. KImtba-i-lUiamiya, p. 1B0. 

30. /*irf.,p. 181- 



PROU MESSIAH TO PROPHET 69 

Mini's boastfulncss 

The boastfulness of the Mirza" in respect to his prophet- 
hood and his attainments is a noteworthy feature of his life. 
This reflects a particular kind of psychological complex, and 
we need not try to analyse it. However, his urge to express 
his greatness was so pressing that he proclaimed himself to be 
of the same status as all other prophets. To quote one of his 
couplets : 

He who gave the cup to every prophet, 
Gave it to me filled to the brim ! 
Later, he proclaimed himself to be possessed of the virtues 
of all prophets. To quote him again : 

Although prophets there have been many, 
In Divine inspiration I am not less thin any. 31 
He, further, went on to claim t 

Every prophet became alive when I was raised ; 
Every Apostle lies hidden beneath my garment. 1 * 
Not only this ; he proclaimed that a was he who had 
brought about the perfection of the human race ; that without 
him, this garden of humanity was incomplete : 

The garden of Adam which had been incomplete 
so far, 

Has now burst into bloom, complete with leaves and 
fruits. 3 * 

He also seems to believe that the attainments of prophet- 
hood and spirituality evolve with the passage of time so that 
these attainments had found their most perfect form in his own 
personality. He wrote : 

"In the same way, the spirituality of our Prophet (peace 
and blessings of .Allah be on him) appeared in the Gfth 
miUenium — and that time was not the apex of its advance- 
ment — but the first step towards the highest point of its 



31. KlmtU-i'-Wmmym, p, 99. 

32. Ibid., p. 100. 

33. BarSktn-i'AhmaJija, Vol. V, p. 113. 



70 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUOY 

perfection. Then that spirituality radiated itself towards 

the end of the sixth millenium, that is, during the present 

time, in the same way as Adam was created towards the 

end of the sixth day by the command of Allah, the Best 

Creator. And the spirituality of our Prophet, the best of 

the prophets, made its manifestation in a member of his 

utnmak so that this spirituality might reach the perfection of 

its manifestation and predominance of its light, as God had 

promised in his Radiant Book. So, I am that promised 

manifestation ; I am the promised Light." 3 * 

In Ajaz-i-Ahmadi he even tries to place his miracles and 

sign* above those of the Holy Prophet. He says : For him the 

moon was cleaved, but for me both the sun and the moon were 

eclipsed. So, will they stilt deny ? Ji 

These boastful claims of the Mirza provided sufficient 
-ground for his staunch followers and successors to build further 
on that foundation, .as has always happened in the history of 
sects and religions. It is no surprise, therefore, that many of 
his followers explicitly declare him to be superior to most of the 
prophets. Mirza Bashiruddln Mahmood, the son and second 
successor of the Mirza, wrote the following : 

"Many prophets have passed in the world, but their 
disciples did not fco beyond the stage of muhaddath > except 
for our Prophet (i.e. Muhammad), whose benediction 
became so effluent that besides many nwhaddalh, one 
achieved even the status of prophethood. And it is not 
only that he became a prophet but having attained perfec- 
tion by way of reflection of the one whom he followed, 
went even ahead of some of the great prophets."'* 
The enthusiastic followers of Mirza Bashiruddln, however, 
did not stop even at that. The mouthpiece of the movement, 



34. KhMi^i-ItUmy, pp. 177-78. 
36. H«^at^Mutunmt,p.ii7. 



FROM MESSIAH TO PROPHET 71 

aUFadhl t wrote : 

"The Promised Messiah was a prophet. His position 
by virtue of his status, was that of the disciple and the 
reflection of the Noble Messenger (upon him be peace and 
blessings of Allah). As for other prophets (upon them be 
peace), he excelled many of them ; may be, he excelled 
them all." 37 



37. at-Fedhl, Vol. XIV, No. 85, dated April 29, 1927 (cited in Qidiani 
Mathab). 



PART III 

Some Aspects of Life and 
Character 



Mirza's Life after the Spread of his 
Message 



Early Life 

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had started his Hie in poverty. In 
the early part of his life the situation was that a big part of his 
landed property had already gone and there was no other means 
of income. In his own words, he was concerned only with the 
dinning table and the bread." 1 Prior to the spread of his fame he 
had spent twenty five years of anonymity. To cite own words 
again : "In fact during this period I was like a dead body, 
buried for centuries in such a manner that it was not even known 
whose grave it was."* This state of affairs lasted until the 
appearance of the Mtrsta as an author and champion of Islam. 
Then, his fame spread as a preacher and spiritual leader. He 
claimed to be the "Promised Messiah", and, subsequently, an 
independent messenger of God. In this phase, things changed 
for him. We sec him from now on as the spiritual guide and 
leader of a nascent religious community and a prosperous group 
of people. Gifts poured in from all sides and he became the 
centre of adoration and love of thousands of people. It is ob- 
vious that the Mirza's prosperity in this period of his life owed 
itself to his religious movement. It is religious sentiment alone 
which led the people to make sacrifices in order to help the 
Mirza financially. The student is bound to feel curious as to 



I tfuzul-al-Miuih, l&t Edition, p. I IB. 
'I, Tattmmah Hagiqat al-Wahy, p. 28. 



76 QADIAN1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



the effect of this changed circumstance upon his life and charac- 
ter. The Mirza had risen in the name of a great religious cause, 
and had come forward with the highest possible religious claims 
about himself. How "far was his life in conformity with the 
ideals of this cause and the big claims he made about him- 
self? Making a comparison between him and the noble life 
of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) would be 
sheer insolence. What can possibly be done is to compare his 
life and character with those followers of the Holy Prophet who 
have championed the religious cause of Islam and have won 
popular admiration among Muslims as their true spiritual 
leaders. 

Character of Religious Reformers 

A study of the history of inspiring religious personalities 
and dynamic religious movements in Islam makes one thing 
quite evident. Kven while experiencing fame and the availability 
of material riches these noted religious personalities showed 
tremendous indifference towards wordly ambitions, an admira- 
ble sense of self-contenlmcnt and great sacrifice, and an ever- 
mounting keenness to strive for nothing except the felicity of the 
next life. The entire life of such people was subordinated to the 
conviction that the next life constitutes the real life. Their 
motto seems to have been the saying of the Prophet : "O God 
there is no life except the life of the Hereafter." They passed 
through worldly life the way a traveller passes through the 
various stages of his journey, always keeping the following saying 
of the Holy Prophet before their eyes : 

"What is my concern with the world ? My relation to 

world is similar to that of a rider who stays (for a while) 

under the shade of a tree, then gets up and leaves." 1 

Their life embodies, to an appreciable degree, the following 

description of the life of Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with 



3. Reported in Ahmad, Titmidhi aod /*n Majah 



MtRZA's LIFE AFTER THE SPREAD OF HIS MESSAGE 77 

him), by one of his friends: 

"He was wea'ry of the world and its bloom and loved 
night and its darkness. He was, by God, profuse in tears, 
immersed in reflection, wondering at the march of time, 
always critically watchful of himself (literally, always 
addressing his soul). The dress that pleased him was the 
rough one; and the food that pleased him was the coarse 
and simple one."* 

Not to mention the great personalities of the early period of 
Islam, nor even c Umar ibn c Abd al- c Aziz, who was a rightly- 
guided caliph, we refer here only to personalities of much lower 
stature when compared with men of the above-mentioned genre. 
Among the humble followers of the Holy Prophet one comes across, 
among others, great rulers whose self-denial, detachment, piety 
and scrupulousness, absolute indifference to worldly life, its vani- 
ties and its false glories constitute man's pride and have left an 
indelible impress on history. NOruddln Zangi, Salahuddln 
AyyObl, 5 Nasiruddln Mahmood, Mu2affarHalimand Aurangzeb 
Alamglr : the lives of all these are excellent examples of in- 
difference to the world and of self-denial. Even during the life- 
time of the Mirza, there were numerous God-loving persons 
who had no love for wordly riches, and who distributed every 
cent of what they received among the p'oor and the needy. The 
more people turned towards these men, and the more they 
received by way of gifts from people, the greater was their de- 
tachment from these riches. In the life-time of ihe Mirza we 



4. Sijal al-Safwah, Vol. I. p. 122. 

5. The biographer of the Sullan and his close confidant Qadt Ibn 
Shaddad writes : "The Sultan had left only 47 dirhams as Iris inheri- 
tance ! He left no estates, no house, no property, garden, village or 
cultivated area. In his burial, not even a cent was spent from his 
legacy, all was brought on loan, including even the grassloads for the 
grave. The arrangement for burial was made by his Minister Qazi 
Fadil by some permissible and legitimate means". And he was the 
sovereign of Syria, Egypt, the Sudan, Iraq, Hijaz and almost the 
whole area that is now known as the Middle East. (Al-ffawtldir-i- 
Suiiania t p. 6). 



7(1 QAD1AN1SM ■— A CKITIUAI. STUDY 

find such illustrious men of God as Maulana Fazhir Rahman 
Ganj Muradabadl, Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Maulana 
Syed l Abdullah Ghaznavl, Maulana Muhammad Na'im Franyi 
Mahli who were admirable examples of Muslim piety and aus- 
terity. 6 

A Sign of Prophethood 

Thus, a pure, self-denying life, whose character remains 

unruffled by vicissitudes of poverty and wealth was not unknown 

to the Mirza. In fact, he reckoned it to bo a proof of the 

truth of the Holy Prophet's prophethood. He wrote: 

"And when after a long time, Islam became supreme 

he (i.e. the Holy Prophet) did not accumulate any treasure 

for self-enrichment and self-glorification; nor did lie erect 

any building or monument; nor did he devise means for a 

life of royal ease or luxury ; nor did he seize any other 

opportunity for personal benefit. Whatever came was all 

spent on taking rare of the orphans and the poor, on the 

widows and on those in debt ; as for himself, he ate not even 

once to his full satisfaction."' 

' "** 

Religious Teacher or Political Lii-der T 

■ -' y 

Now, let us attempt to study the Mirzit's life according lo 
the above-mentioned standard which he himself recognizes as a 
criterion of piety. What we note in regard to the Miiza, how- 
ever, is the marked change in the two phases of his life, his 
earlier life of anonymity and poverty, ;ind the latter phase, when 
he was adored by his followers and received lavish presentations 
from them. Instead of finding in his conduct any resemblance 
to the saintly and angelic lives of the religious personalities of 
Islam, we find ins life resembling that of world-seeking political 
leaders or founders of non-religious movements. In the last 
phase of his life (when a man is conscious that the time of his 



6. See an account of their lives in Nuzhat ut-Khawrltir, Vol. VIII. 

7. Bttriihin-i-Ahmatiiyah, Vol. I, p. 117. 



MIHZa's LIFE AFTER THE SPREAD OF HIS UtSSAOE 79 



reckoning and meeting with God is close) we find him rutting in 
prosperity and luxury in a manner which reminds us of political 
careerists rather than of sincere servants of the cause of God. 
This question assumed such importance that it caused uneasiness 
among his sincere and close followers, some of whom were, in 
the end, forced to give vent to their feelings of uneasiness and 
disgust. 

Family Life of the Mirza 

Among the followers, KhwajS Kamaluddin was particularly 
suspicious and discontented with the luxurious way in which the 
Mirza's family lived. He mentioned to his friends that the 
ladies of his own family who had observed the luxurious life 
and the high standard of living of the Mirza's faimly were not 
prepared at all to make sacrifices and remain content with a 
simple, austere life in order to save money for the cause of the 
movement. Once he told Maulavl Muhammad t AIi (a former 
Amir of the jama'at-i-Ahmadiyah, Lahore), and Maulavt 
Sarwar Shah Qadiyant, a noted scholar of the QadianI move- 
ment : 

"I have a question for which I have no answer. Please 
provide me with one. Formerly we used to tell our ladies 
that we should live the lives of the Companions who ate 
meagre and coarse food, and wore rough dress and gave 
away whatever they could save to the cause of God. We 
urged them to do the same. By rm-Mns of the admoni- 
tions, we used to save some money and send it to Qadian. 
But when our ladies themselves went to Qadian and came to 
know of the actual situation by living there, they defiantly 
came to us and told us that we were liars. They said 
that they had seen the manner in which the lives of the 
Prophets and Companions were being lived in Qadian! 
Not even a fraction of the comfort and luxury enjoyed by 
the women there is available to those outside (Qadian) 
although their money is of their own earning while the 
money used by them (i.e. in Qadian) is that which is for 



CO QADJANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

national purposes, and is national money. Hence, ihcy said, 
we were liars who had been deceiving them and that they 
would never again be deceived by its. Hence, they refuse 
to give us any money to be sent to Qadian." 
Khwaja Kamaluddin also added : ''Thine is a favourite 

reply which you give to the people. This cannot hold in my 

case, for I know things personally." 8 

Objections relating to Financial Matters 

It seems that the public kitchen which was in the charge of 
the Mirza himself had caused grave doubts in the minds of 
many of his sincere followers. Tins controversy went quite far. 
Among those who protested the most important was Khwaja 
Kamaluddin. Maulavi Muhammad c A!i supported him. On 
one occasion the Khwaja told Maulavi Mohammad ( Ali: 

"What a shame. Yon are aware how arduously the 
money of the people is collected, and then this money is not 
spent for the national purposes for which people donate it 
after slashing off their expenditures even on their bare 
necessities. Instead, the money is spent to gratify personal 
desires. And, then, the amount of money too is quite large. 
It is so targe that only if the money specified for public 
kitchen was managed properly, it alone would be sufficient 
to meet the requirements of those projects which were start- 
ed and then have been tying in suspense fur want of 
funds."* 

These objections also reached the ears of the Mirza and he 
felt greatly incensed. Maulavi Sarwar Shah writes the follow- 
ing: 

"I have reliably come to know that the Promised Mes- 
siah (upon him be the salutations and peace of God) has 
expressed great sorrow that despite his declaration that it is 



8. Kashf el-Ikhlila/, p. 13 (cited in Qudiaiii Mazhab) 

9. lbtd. t p. 15. 



hirza's life after the spread of his messaob 81 

the desire of God that the management of the public kit- 
chen remained in his hands, and that if anything else were 
to happen the public kitchen would come to an end, yet 
persons like the Khwaja are such that they constantly ask 
him to entrust the management of the kitchen to them and 
have invidious doubts about him." 1 * 
Before his death, the Mirza referred with grief to the 

accusations of misappropriation of funds. In a letter to Maulavt 

Hakim NOruddln, Mirza Bashlruddin writes: 

"The Hazrat (i.e. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) said shortly 
before his (fatal) illness that the Khwaja (Kamatuddin) 
and Maualvi Muhammad 'All, etc., cast aspersions about 
him that he had misappropriated national fund. They 
should not do so, (he said) or else it would not have good 
consequences for them. He said that the Khwaja had 
brought a letter from Maulavi Muhammad *Ali the same 
day. He added that Maulavi Muhammad 'All wrote that 
the expenditure on the kitchen was quite meagre, and asked 
what happened to the rest of the thousands of rupees which 
had been received. When he came home, he expressed 
great anger and said : 'These people consider us to be 
misappropriators. What do these people have to do with 
this money? If I were to disassociate myself all income 
would cease.' Then (on another occasion) when a deputa- 
tion had gone to collect funds for construction works tht: 
Khwaja said to Maulavi Muhammad c All: 'The Hazrat 
(Mirza) himself lives a life of great comfort and luxury and 
teaches us to donate by reducing our expenses.' To this 
Maulavi Muhammad ''All replied that although this could 
not be denied, this was an element of human shortcoming 
in him; and, now, why should it be essential for us to 
follow this element of human shortcoming in the Prophet." 11 



10. Kuhfttitkuldj, p. 14 

U Letter of Mirza Ba&hlruddin Mahmood to Maulavi Hakim NQruddin, 

(CMtinutd m ntxt p*gt 



02 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

A. novel Sources of Income 

One of the biggest sources of income was the sale of title to 
burial in the "heavenly graveyard" at Qadian. This had been 
instituted by the Mir /.a himself wlio had ingenuously laid down 
the terms and conditions for buying the title to burial there. 
The high price of this title as well as the temptation-provoking 
manner of announcement 15 conjures tip in one's mind the memo- 
ries of the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church during 
the middle ages. This, however, gave the QadiSni head-quar- 
ters a permanent and large source of income. This, in fact, 
developed into one of the most important departments of the 
Qadiani movement. Al-Fadht, the official Qadiani mouthpiece 
has aptly observed: "The 'heavently graveyard' is such a 
central point of this movement and an institution or department 
of such dimensions that it excels in importance all other depart- 
ments. l 

What has all this led to? QJidiau before the partition, 
and now Rabwah, its successor in Pakistan, developed into a 
quasi-religious state. In litis, state, the "Prophetic family" of 
Qadian, and its head, Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood,'* enjoy 
all the appurtenances of governmental power, all the authority 
which is vested in a religious dictator and a despotic ruler and 
all those opportunities of self-indulgence which are available to 
the most wealthy and powerful men of today. The inner life of 
this "spiritual and religious centre" and the moral character of 
its head remind one of Hassan ibn Sabbah and his Fort of al- 
Mut, which was a mysterious centre of religious despotism and 
licentious self-indulgence in the fifth century of Hijrah.' 6 

the first Khali/ak of the MirzS, in Haqiqat-al- IkhlilaJ, by Maulavi 
Muhammad 'All, p. 50. On this subject we have confined ourselves 
to the statements of the closest confidants of the Mirza, otherwise 
there is a good deal of material worth studying in such books as 
at-Zikr ai-Hakim by Dr. 'Abdul Hakim. 

12. For details ue the Mirza's treatise al-Wasiyai t pp. 1 1-23. 

13. at-Fadhl, Vol. XXIV, No. 65, dated September 15, 1936. 

14. This was written when MirzS Bashlruddin Mahmood was alive and 
was head of the Qadiani movement. 

15. For details s« Rahat Malik, Dowr-\-Hdzir ka Mahabi Amir. 



Seedling of the British 



Great Britain and the Islamic World 

In the early part of the nineteenth century the onslaught of 
European powers on the world of Islam had already started 
and their authority and influence had spread to several Muslim 
countries. In this eastward expansion of European nations, 
Britain was in the forefront. She was in the vanguard of the 
military advance as well as economic and political predominance 
over Eastern countries. India and Egypt were already under 
her occupation. Ottoman Turkey was one of the main fields of 
British diplomatic operations and conspiracies. Her political 
ambitions also menaced the Arabian Peninsula. 

In India the British domination had virtually been estab- 
lished even before 1857. The successors of Shah Jahan and 
Aurangzeb had become idle pensioners of the British, and were 
paralysed politically. The reins of power in the sub-continent 
were in the hands of the British In 1799, the gallant career 
of TlpQ Sultan came to an end with his martyrdom and the 
way was paved for further British penetration. Being confident 
of the stability of the British power in India, the Christian 
missionaries had launched upon their proselytising endeavours. 
The first targets of these missions were, naturally, the Muslims 
from whom the British had snatched their political power. 
The principles of Islam began to be ridiculed. The country 
was led to social breakdown and moral anarchy. The Islamic 
bases of social life were shaken. Western civilization began to 
make inroads into the homes of Muslims and into their hearts 
and minds. Atheism began to catch the imagination of 



84 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



educated young men and developed almost as a fad. 

The reaction against all these led to the famous Indian 
struggle for independence of 1 ft57 which, as it is well known, 
was led by the Muslims. The British emerged as the triumphant 
power and India became part of the imperial domains of the 
British Crown. The infuriated victors took their revenge to 
the full upon the rebellious Muslims, who, were responsible for 
the "Mutiny". The British launched on a jwlicy to systemati- 
cally humiliate them. They hanged many members of the 
aristocracy and quite a few *-ulama. They confiscated their 
awqBf (religious endowments), closed on them the avenues of 
respectable employment and completely weeded them out of the 
country's administration. 1 Thus the Muslims had become 
members of a humiliated and vanquished nation. Their situa- 
tion reflected the eternal reality embodied in this Quranic verse : 
"Kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and 
make the noblest of it meanest." (27 : 34} 

In this country, the position of the British was not merely 
that of ungodly and tyrannical rulers. They also represented 
a culture which became the mainspring of atheism, moral 
cynicism and social anarchy in the country. In practice, they 
were opposed to all those values, religious and moral standards, 
on which the Islamic way of life rests. They were a criminal 
nation whose history was replete with wrongs perpetrated 
against the world of Islam. 

The attitude of F**pkcU 

Now, if we were to consult the records of the prophets and 
their true successors and sincere followers, they clearly indicate 
that they have always opposed and resisted tyrants and wrong- 
doers and have abstained from whatever might support or 
strengthen such despots. The following statement of Moses 
{upon him be the peace of God) found in the Holy Qur'an is 



I. Details are given in W. W. Hunter's Our India* Musdm&nt and Sir 
S*ryM Ahnuufs Askok-i-lUghiKmt'i-tKmi. 



SEEDLING OF THE BRITISH 85 

significant : 

"O my Lord ! .For that Thou hast bestowed Thy grace 

on me never shall I be a, help to those who Sin," (28 : 17) 

The resentment that he had against unbelief and tyranny, 

and their standard bearers, is also borne out by the following 

prayer which he made to God in respect of Pharaoh and his 

courtiers : 

"Our Lord ! Thou hast indeed bestowed on Pharaoh and 
his chiefs splendour and wealth in the life of the Present, 
and so, Our Lord, they mislead (men) from Thy path. 
Deface, Our Lord, the features of their wealth, and send 
hardness to their hearts, so that they will not Believe until 
they see the grievous penalty." ( 10 : 88) 

God Himself instructs the believers to adopt the following 
attitude with regard to tyrants and oppressors : 

"And incline not to those who do wrong, or the Fire 
will seize you ; and ye have no protectors other than God ; 
nor shall ye be helped." (I t : 113) 

Then there is a well known Tradition : 

"The best (kind of) jihad h (to proclaim) the word of 
Truth in the face of a tyrannical ruler." 
The Holy Prophet, his noble Companions and his true 
successors never cooperated with any power which stood for 
falsehood and injustice. Their tongues were never soiled with 
praises and eulogies of tyrants. The history of Islam is replete 
with courageous expressions of protest and revolt against 
oppressors. There is no period in Islamic history, and no area 
of the Muslim world, which has not witnessed this noble 
struggle. 

Protagonist mi tfae British. Imperialism 

But contrary to the illustrious teachings of the Holy 
Qur'Sn and the spirit of Islam and in violation of the 
noble example of the Brophets, their companions and their 
followers, MirzZ Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be a 
God-sent messenger, is full of praise for the greatest force of 



86 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

evil of his age — the British Government. He never tires of 
praising that very government which had been the usurper of 
Islamic dominions, the greatest rival 10 the temporal power of 
Islam, and a great standard-bearer of atheism and moral dege- 
neration. He praises the British with, a vehemence which casts 
doubt on the motives of any conscientious man, not to say of a 
prophet. From the very beginning he was so greatly concerned 
with praising the British that there is hardly any work of his 
which has remained immune from flattery. We have already 
noted that in his first book, Barahtn-i-Ahmadijah (vol. I), 
he had lavishly praised the British, had recounted their bene- 
volent achievements and services, had assured them of Muslim 
loyalty, and had expressed his views against the doctrine of 
ji/iSd. These trends persisted in his writings right up to the end 
of his life. He almost produced a whole library of books on the 
subject, in these books he returned again and again to assuring 
the British of his unswerving loyalty and recounted the services 
of his family to the British along with his own support. At a 
time when the feeling of Islamic self-respect was in need of 
being aroused and the nation needed the impulse to resist its 
oppressors, he again and again repeated that jtit&d had become 
out-of-date. Below are a few excerpts from the Mirza's own 
writings to illustrate his trend of thought : 

"The greater part of my life has been spent supporting 
and defending the British Government. And I have written 
so many books regarding the prohibition of jihad and 
obedience to the British that were they to be gathered 
together, they would fill fifty book-cases. Such books have 
been disseminated over all the countries : Arabia, Egypt, 
Syria, Kabul and ROm. I have always endeavoured that 
Muslims became true well-wishers of this Government and 
their hearts were purged of baseless traditions about the 
bloody Mahdi and the bloody Messiah and those fanatical 
teachings which corrupt the hearts of the stupid." 1 



2. Tiryaq al-Qjdub , p. 15. 



StfcllUNG OF THE UKITISH 87 

At another place, he propounds allegiance to the British as 
one of the two pillars of faith : 

"My religion, which I have been explaining again and 
again, is that there are two parts of Islam : one, to obey the 
exalted Allah, and, second, to obey the government which 
has established peace, and has provided its shadow of pro- 
tection as against oppression. Such a government is the 
British Government." 3 

In a request to the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab on 24th 
February, 1898, he wrote: — 

"The other tiling worth mentioning is that from my 
early age till now when I am about sixty years of age, I 
have been engaged, with my pen and tongue, in an 
important task to turn the hearts of Muslims towards the 
true love and good-will and sympathy for the British 
Government, and to obliterate the idea of jihid from the 
hearts of the less wise among them, since- it stands in the 
way of cordiality and a sincere mutual relationship. And I 
notice that my writings have had a tremendous influence 
on the hearts of Muslims and hundreds of thousands of 
people have changed."* 
At another place he observes : 

"I have, written scores of books in Arabic, Persian and 
Urdu with the view that jihad against the benevolent 
government was in no way justified ; rather, wholehearted 
obedience to it was a religious duty. I' had these books 
published at great cost and then had them distributed in 
Islamic countries. And I know that these books had a 
great influence even in this country. The people who owe 
allegiance to me are growing into a party whose hearts are 
filled to the brim with sincere fidelity to the Government 
whose moral condition is excellent ; I think they will be a 
boon to this country for they are wholeheartedly ready to 



3. "kklihor Gaotrtmunt Ki TawejjaJi kt Lai*q" in Shahadat of-Qfr'aii, p. 3, 

4. TaUigH-i-RUalat, Vol. VII, p. 10. 



88 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

sacrifice themselves for the government."* 
At yet another place he wrote : 

"The service which has been rendered for the sake of 
the British Government was that I published and distributed 
in this country and other Islamic countries about fifty 
thousand books, treatises and leaflets, stating that the British 
Government is the benefactor of Muslims and therefore it 
should be the duty of every Muslim to obey it sincerely and 
heartily feel grateful to it and to pray for it. And, I had 
these books published in different languages, that is, Urdu, 
Persian and Arabic, and then distributed them in all the 
countries of Islam, so much so that I had them distributed 
even in the two holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, 
and, as far as possible, also, in the capital of ROtn — 
Constantinople, and Syria, Egypt and Kabul and many 
other cities of Afghanistan. The result was that hundreds 
of thousands of people gave up their filthly ideas about jihad 
which had permeated their hearts due to the teachings of 
ignorant mullas. I am proud of this service which 1 have 
been able to render, and no Muslim of British India can 
boast of a parallel record."* 

Abrogation of Jihad 

The MirzS's main concern was jihad which, indeed, had 
caused the greatest worry to the British not only in India but in 
all Muslim countries (quite a number of which had already been 
occupied by the British). The MirzS proclaimed jihad to have 
been abrogated for ever, and put forward this as the sign of 
his being the Promised Messiah. He proclaimed : 

"Thirdly, the clock which will be installed in some 

part of the wall of this minaret, would signify that the 



5. *Ari(ak Bt&ali-i-KhiJmat Covtrnment < Aiiyak Angrtzi minjdnib Mirta Chulam 
Ahmad Qjid'xani Sahib, died in Mir QSsim *Ali Qldiiuii'i Tailigk-i- 
Risdtat, Vol. VI, p. 65. 

6. Sitird-i-Kaiitriah. p. 3. 



SEKDI-INO OP THE BRITISH 89 



people should realise that the time for the opening of the 
doors of the heavens has arrived. From now on there 
shall be no terrestrial jihad and wars shall cease. It has 
been mentioned earlier in the Traditions that when the 
Messiah would come, wars for the sake of religion would 
be prohibited. From now on whosoever shall raise the 
sword for the sake of religion and slay the infidels by pro- 
claiming himself to be a gh&zl, he will be a disobedient 
rebel of God and His Prophet. Open Snhlh Hi-Bukhan and 
read the hadlth about the promised Messiah, that is, the 
one in which there occurs the expression which means that 
when the Messiah will come jihad would cease. Now the 
Messiah has come and it is- he who is speaking to you/ 
He regards this abrogation of jihad as the greatest object of 
his advent : 

To cite his own words : 

"In short, I have not come ia order to stimulate war 
and strife. I have appeared in order to open, in the 
manner of the first Messiah, the doors of peace. If the 
foundation of peace is not amidst us, then our whole 
religious order is useless, and it is also meaningless to 
believe in it."* 
At another place, he becomes even more explicit : *' 

"I believe that as my followers increase, the believers 
in the doctrine of jihad will decrease. For, accepting me 
to be the Messiah and Mahdl itself means the rejection of 
the doctrine ofjiAarf."" 

Citadel of the British Government 

In his Arabic treatise ' JVurut-Haq he went as far as to say 
that he was the citadel and amulet for protecting the British 



7. Kliutba-i-Ilhamiyah, Appendix entitled lihtthni Chandah Minuratat 

Masih. 
a. TiTydqaUQuMb, p. 335. 
9. TabUgk-i~Ritatal, Vol. VII. p. 17. 



90 QADtANUll — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Government : 

"I am entitled to assert that I am unique in respect, of 
these services. And I am entitled to say that I am an 
amulet and a citadel to protect it from afflictions. My 
Lord has given me glad tidings and has said that He will 
not chastise them as long as I am among them. So, the 
Government has no parallel and equal to me in supporting 
and assisting it and the Government shall know this if it is 
capable of knowing people." 10 

Seedling of the British 

In an application submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor of 
Punjab on 24th February 1898, he wrote : 

"I have to submit that in regard to a family which has 
proven itself to be loyal ; had ever been prepared to make 
sacrifices for the Government during the last fifty years ; of 
which the respectable officials of the exalted Government 
have borne weighty testimonies in their official letters about 
its being all long a well-wisher and servant of the British 
Government ; which is the self-implanted seedling (of 
loyalty), the Government should exercise utmost caution 
and make all possible efforts to know about it and pay 
attention to it. The Government should also instruct its 
lower officials that they should look towards me and my 
group with the eyes of kindness and benevolence in view of 
the established loyalty and sincerity of this family." 11 
In another application he refers to himself and his group 
as 'those who had been brought up as tried and true friends of 
the British : those who had earned a good name with the 
Government and had enjoyed its merciful kindness.' 

Cause of opposition to Missionaries 

The Mirza was possessed of such a profound feeling of 



10. Nur al-H*q, p. 34. 

11. ■ TcUigh-i'Risalat, Vol. VII, p. 19. 



SEEDLING OF THK BRITISH 91 



loyalty for the British that he used to adopt numerous measures 
in order to assuage the deep hatred and resentment of Muslims 
against the British. His enthusiastic opposition to the Christian 
missionaries, according to his own view, was also motivated by 
the same desire. The efforts of these missionaries to repudiate 
Islam and to slander the Holy Prophet, according to the Mirza, 
had infuriated the Muslims and was likely to prove detrimental 
to the interests of the British Government. Hence, he showed 
great zeal, out of expediency and with deliberation, in order 
that the popular Muslim fury might abate and they might some- 
what calm down. He writes: 

"I also confess that when someof the writings of priests 
and Christian missionaries became extremely severe and 
exceeded moderation, and especially when very filthy wri- 
tings began to appear in JV«r Afihlkn, a Christian paper from 
Ludhiana, and when these writers used, God forbid, deri- 
sive language with regard to our Prophet (upon him be the 
peace and benediction of Allah), I feared that in the hearts 
of Muslims, who are a sentimental people, these words 
might have a highly provocative effect. In order to sub- 
due their indignation, I thought that the proper policy 
would be to write rejoinders to these writings in a some- 
what harsh manner so that the towering anger of these easily- 
inflammabie people could be suppressed and no breach of 
peace in the country might take place." 1 * 

Spies of the British 

The impact of these teachings, propagated with religious 
sanctions, was that loyalty to the British and zeal to serve it, 
became an integral part of the QadianI outlook and character. 
It is not surprising that the British Government found from 
among them quite a few who sincerely and loyally served the 
cause of the British and did not hesitate even to shed their blood 
for them. In Afghanistan, there was an enthusiastic QadianI 

\1. Tiryaq ei-Qutub. Appendix 3, p. 31 entitled "A Humble Kequest to 
the Exalted Government" 



92 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDV 

preacher by the name of 'Abdul Latlf. The main task that he 
had undertaken was to purge the Afghans of that spirit of jihad 
because of which the Afghans had never tolerated the rule of 
any non-Muslim power over their land, and which had always 
been a source of headache to the British. It was due to this 
kind of preaching that the Afghan Government executed him. 
Mirza Bashlruddln Mahmood has mentioned this on the autho- 
rity of an Italian author. He says : 

"The Italian author writes that Sahibzada 'Abdul Latlf 
was martyred because he preached against jihad and the 
Afghans had begun to fear that the spirit of freedom of the 
Afghans would weaken and the British would predomi- 
nate." 1 * 
He adds : 

Had our people in Afghanistan remained silent and 
refrained from explaining the Ahmadi view-point in respect 
o( jihad, they would not have been blameworthy from the 
view-point of the Sharlal. But they fell victims of the exces- 
sive zeal they had for the British Government, they courted 
punishment because of the sympathy for it which they had 
imbibed at Qadtan."* 4 

In the same way, certain papers and letters were /bund with 
Mulla 'Abdul Hakim and Mulla Nux'Ali QadianI which prov- 
ed that thoy were disloyal to the Afghan government and were 
agents and spies of the British. Al-Fadhl t the QadianI mouth- 
piece, published this piece of news from Atrian-i- Afghan : 

"The Minister for Home Affairs of the Afghan Govern- 
ment has published the following announcement : 

"Two persons of Kabul, Mulla *Abdul Hakim Chahar 
Asia 5 ! and Mulls Ntir 'All, a shopkeeper, had become 
enamoured of QadianI beliefs and used to mislead people 
from the right path by preaching that creed. The people 
who were angered at this hied a suit against them. The 



13. ai-FaM, August 6, 1325. 

14. Hid. 



SEEDMKC OF THE BRITISH 93 

result was that these persons having been proved guilty 
were transported at the hands of the people to the realm 
of non-existence on Thursday, Rajab 11. Against them 
there had also been pending a suit for long, and letters of 
foreigners of a conspiratorial nature and harmful to the 
interests of the Afghan kingdom had been captured which 
proved that they had sold themselves to the enemies of 
Afghanistan." 15 

In his address of welcome to the Prince of Wales on January 
19, 1922, Mirza Bashlruddin Mahmood proudly mentions all 
these incidents, making it clear lh.it all these sacrifices were 
because of their loyalty to the British. 1 ' 

Miscalculation 

Looking at the power, consolidation and extent of the 
British Empire, the Mirza believed that the British power in 
India would remain for ever. Hence, tying up their own fate 
witli thai of the British Empire, and identifying their own future 
with the future of the British seemed very wise and an act of 
great political far-sightedness. And, indeed, from someone who 
is shorn of deep religious and political insight such a conclusion 
was not strange. It was impossible for the Mirza to foresee 
that not even half a century would pass after his death when the 
seemingly unshakable power of the British would be shaken and 
the power which he considered to be "the shadow of God" and 
"refuge of religion" would leave India, lock, t>tock and barrel, 
and, not only that, it would collapse the world over. 

The servile manner in which the Mirza has given expres- 
sion of his loyalty to this un-Islamic, indeed, anti-Islamic power, 
and the zeal he has shown in preaching to the Muslims that they 
ought to relish their state of political enslavement as a boon, is 
unbecoming of the position which he claims for himself. Iqbal 



15, At-FtdH, March 3, 1925. 

16. A Present to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, pp. 7-8. 



^* QADIANISM— A OH.H-ICAL STUDY 



has stressed this contradiction in some of his verses which say ; 
The Sheikh is a murld of the Firangi Lord, 
Speaks he, though, from the heights of Baya-sld. 
He said : Religion's glory lies in slavery ; 
And life consists of the lack of ego (kkudt). 
He reckoned the state of others to be a blessing ; 
Danced around the cathedral, and fell down dead. 17 



17, Pat Che Bayed kartl ay Aqunm'i-Skarq. 



Prophet as Mud-S!inger 



Sort-spokenness of the Prophet* 

The Prophets of God and their pious followers have always 
been known for their graceful and decent mode of expression, 
patience and calm endurance, largeheartedness and magnani- 
mity. Benevolent even to their enemies, they returned good 
wishes for abuses ; benediction for curses ; humility for insolence; 
and temperance and gracefulness for niggardly meanness. Their 
tongues were never soiled with abusive and filthy language. To 
sting people by harsh satires and invidious sarcasms, to Scoff 
and jeer at the people, to pinch them by vulgar attacks — all 
these are far too low to be found in their noble lives. If they 
were ever forced to refute or denounce someone, they did so in 
clear, simple terms. They never stooped to adopt abject 
methods such as attacking the opponent's birth, denige rating his 
lineage, or ridiculing him in the manner of a court-jester. 
Their expression;!, whether ihey were in favour of someone or 
against him, bear the mark of the decency and elegance of their 
natures, and the nobility of their minds. The Companions 
have left the following account of the Holy-Prophet Mohammad's 
discourse : 

"The Messenger of Allah — upon him be the peace and 

blessings of Allah — was neither harsh-tongued by nature 

nor by will,, nor did he ever indulge in undignified talk in 

market-places." 1 

The Prophet himself laid down the norm of speech for the 

1. Tirmiii 



96 QADIANISII — A CRITICAL STUDY 

believers : 

"The believer is not wont to attacking or cursing 
people nor does he use harsh and filthy expressions."' 

On the contrary, according to the Prophet, the charac- 
teristic of a hypocrite (munafiq) is that "whenever he quarrels, 
he resort"; to abuses. *'* 

The Miiza himself admits that those who have been 
endowed with .religious and spiritual leadership ought to be 
possessed of forbearance and self-control, forgiveness and 
patience. He writes : 

"Since the Imams encounter all kinds of wicked, lowly 
and fillhy-tongucd people, they have to have a moral 
calibre of the highest order so that they might not be 
stirred by egotistic anger 01 fanaticism and thus people are 
not deprived of their blessings. It is a matter of great 
shame that someone is called "the friend of God" yet he 
remains afflicted with base morals, and is incapable of 
bearing obloquy with composure. As for a man who is 
called the spiritual leader of his age [lmam-i-gatiian), if he 
is so thin-skinned that even the least provocative remark 
sends him into a fit of rage, such a person can in no way 
be considered the 7m2jm of his age.'" 

Hut contrary to the expectations raised by these words, the 
manner in which the Miiza lias dealt with his critics — and 
these included some of the most respected religious scholars and 
spiritual leaders — brings him out as a person who lacked even 
the most elementary sense of decency and decorum. "Offsprings 
of harlots" seems to have been one of the favourite nicknames 
which he very often gave to his opponents. 1 

The 'best' specimens of his abuses are found in his Arabic 
writings — prose as well as poetry. Here are a few of them. 

2. Tirmizi 

3. Bukkari and Mutiim. 

4. Zwurat al-tmam, p. 8. 

5. Stt for txampl*. %i ) na-i-Kt.tniilat'\-hlnm l p. 547, Witt at-Hoq, Vol. I 

p 123, Anjam-i-2lkam. p. 282, etc 



PROPHET AS MUD-SLINOER 97 

"Now, since these people abuse me, I have already 
taken off all their clothes and have reduced them to irrecog- 
nisable carcases."* 

"These enemies have become the swines of our wilder- 
ness, and their women are even worse than bitches."' 
An Arabic poem indited by the Mirza to denounce bne of 
his opponents, Maulvi Sa c ad Ullah of Ludhiana, is much too 
unseemly to be reproduced here. 1 

For such illustrious religious personages of his time as 
Maul ana Muhammad Husain Batalawl, Maulana Sayyed 
Nazlr Husain Muhaddith Dehlawl, Maulana 'Abdul Haq 
Haqqanl, Mufti ''Abdullah Tonkwl, MaulanS Ahmad 'All 
SaharanpOrl, Maulana Ahmad Hasan Amorhj, and Hazrat 
Maulana Rashld Ahmad Gangohl, he used invectives, such as, 
'wolves and dogs', 'accursed satan', 'blind devil*, 'the gang of 
abducters', 'the doomed', and the 'accursed' etc. 8 In the same 
way. he composed a satirical poem about the well known 
scholar and spiritual leader of his time, Plr Mihr c All Shah 
of Golra. A few of its couplets reads : 

"So I said : O Land of Golra, upon thee be curse. 
Thou hast been accursed because of the accursed ones ; and 
thy abode shall be the place of torment. 

"This petty man, like lowly people has addressed me 
in abusive terms. Every man is tested in the time of 
hostility."" 

These abuses were often not enough to gratify him. On 
such occasions he would not merely curse his opponents but 
write the word 'curse' with regard to them a certain number of 
times. For instance, with regard to Maulana Thana' Ullah 
Amritsarf he wrote tlte word 'accurst' ten times consecutively. In 



6. Anj&m-i-Atham, p. 158. 

7. My m al-HuiS, p. IS. 

8. Ibid., pp. 281-82, 

9. St* ihc lung letter of the Mini in Arahic in Aniam-i-A)iham, pp. 251-52 

1 0. Itjaz-i-Ahmadt, pp . 75-76 . 



98 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

regard to Christians, he wrote this word one thousand times. 11 
This, indeed, makes a queer reflection on his nature. 

VVc would close this section l>y reproducing just a few more 
examples of the Mirza's vituperations against his opponents. 
Addressing the t ut/nna he wrote: 

"O debased class of Maulavis. How long will you 
conceal the truth? When will the time come for you to 
give up your Jewish habits? O tyrant Maulavis, pity be on 
you, that you made the cattle-like common folk drink from 
the same cup of falsehood of which you had drunk," 1 * 
He also wrote : 

"Of all animals, the filthiest and most repellent is pig. 
But filthier than pigs arc those who, owing to their base 
desires, conceal the testimony of truth. O corpse-eating 
Maulavis ! O filthy spirits ! Pily be on you for you have 
concealed the true evidence of Islam out of hostility. O 
worms of darkness ! How can you hide the radiant rays of 
truth ?"* 

"Will these people be prepared to swear? No, never. 
For they are liars and are eating the carcass of falsehood 
like dogs."'* 

This subject is neither pleasant for the author, nor palat- 
able for the readers. We, therefore, close the chapter leaving it 
for the readers to guess the bloom of the MirzS's spring on the 
basis of the few flowers of his garden we have presented here as 
specimens. 



11. Stt Xur ol-Hoq, pp. I? 1—25. 

12. Anjdm-i-Alhom, p. 21 n 

13. Ibid. 

14. bid., p. 25 n. 



An Unfulfilled Prophecy 



In 1888, when the Mirza was fifty years old, he asked one 
S his relatives, Mirza Ahmad Beg for the hand of his young 
daughter Muhammadl Begum. The Mirza made it clear that 
he had been commissioned by God for that task and God had 
promised him, in unequivocal terms, and that this marriage 
would, therefore, certainly take place. 

In a leaflet which was distributed on July 10, 1888 the 
Mirza wrote: 

"The Omnipotent and Omniscient God has asked me 
that I should seek the hand of the elder daughter of this 
man (Ahmad Beg); should tell him that good conduct and 
courtesy to be shown to him would depend on this (i.e. his 
acceptance of the marriage proposal) ; her marriage with 
me would be a source of blessing and a sign of mercy for 
her father ; and that he woidd have his share in all those 
blessings and mercies which have been laid down in the 
.. leaflet dated February 20, 1886 but if he declines to marry 
her, then the girl would meet an extremely tragjc end. 
The other person to whom she would be married would die 
within two and a half years after the day of wedding, and 
so would die the father of the girl within three years, and 
her household would be afflicted with discord and poverty 
and adversity, and during the intervening period the girl 
would encounter several events of unpleasant and grievous 
nature." 1 



I This announctnirnt has been reproduced in full by the Mirza in ^i 1 ni~ 
i-lCatrtrlit-i-hliiti-, p 21iti. It has a ho been reproduced by Qasim c Aii 
Ahmadi in TuMigh- i-Ruitai, Vol. I, pp. 1 1 1-IU. 



UKI (jADlANISM- A CRITICAL STUDY 

-■■■-" ■ — ■ ■ -- — — ^^^^— ^^^^^-.— — ■■ t — — — ^^^— ^ — ■! ■■■——■ — _ 

In his work, li&Ui-i-Awh^n 1 he mentions this prophecy in 
the following manner : 

"By way of proper y tin- Exalted God revealed ii to 
this humble one that ultimately the elder daughter of Mirza 
Ahmad Beg, son of Mirza Gaman Beg Hoshiarpuri, would 
be married to me. These people would resort to great 
hostility and would place obstacles in the way, but in the 
end, it would surely take place. The Exalted God would, 
by all possible means, bring her to me, whether as a virgin 
or a widow, and would remove all impediments, and would, 
of necessity, fulfil this task, and none would he able to pre- 
vent it." 2 

Significance of the Prophecy 

This problem related to the family life of the Mirza and 
normally such problems should be of little interest to a historian. 
There are millions of people who strive for the hand of the girl 
of their choice. Some of thern succeed, others do not- But the 
endeavour of the Mirza to marry this particular girl is a case of 
uncommon significance, in so far as the Mirza put it forth as the 
criterion of judging the veracity of his claim to prophethood. 
After mentioning his prophecy that he would ultimately marry 
the said girl, he said : "This should be clear to the people that 
there can be no belter criterion of testing our truth or falsehood 
than our prophecy." 1 

One might perhaps be inclined to think that misunderstand- 
ings in respect of the messages from the unseen world are possi- 
ble, for, sometimes people misinterpret these messages by mixing 
up the words of inspiration. In respect of this prophecy of the 
Mirza, however, there is no question of any such possibility. 
The challenging tone of the prophecy rules out all such possibi- 
lities. In his own \vords : 

"The prophecies which are presented before opponents 



2. fcSU-i-AwhSm, p. 196. 

i. iPni-i-KamaLal-i-lsiim, p. 288. 



AN UNFULFILLED PHOI'HECY 101 

for the purpose of vindicating some claim, contain a pecu- 
liar kind of light and guidance since the inspired ones, who, 
by concentrating their attention on God, generally succeed 
in having a clear concept of their meaning and nature/* 1 
It is also possible that some people might not attach much 
importance to this prophecy of the Mirza, because of his habit of 
making prophecies all too frequently. It is true that his writings 
are replete with prophecies. This particular prophecy, however, 
has a uniqueness of its own in so far as the Mirza put if forward 
as a heavenly sign and as a verdict in his favour. He not only 
made this prophecy the criterion of his own truth and falsehood, 
but also of the victory or defeat of Islam. On July 10,- 1888 he 
announced : 

"Then, when I repeatedly meditated in order to seek 
clarification and elaboration of the prophecy, it was made 
known to me that God has pre-determined that the'elder 
daughter of the addressee (i.e. Mirza Ahmad Beg) will 
ultimately be married to this humble one (after all impedi- 
ments had been removed) and this event will make the 
irreligious people (true) Muslims, and provide guidance to 
the misguided. "* 

The original inspiration in Arabic in this connection when 
translated into English reads : 

"They falsified our signs and they had been laughing 
at them for long. So, God will be your helper in dealing 
with those who are obstructing this task and in the end they 
will bring this girl to you. There is none who can put off 
the words of God. Your God is Omnipotent, so that 
whatever happens, takes place by His will. You are 
with Me, and I am with you ; and you shall shortly reach 
the stage whereat you shall be praised. This means that 
even though the stupid and ignorant people indulge in 
vilification and utter unbecoming words for you, out of their 



4. Uald-i-Awham, p. 202 

5. ^Pna-i-Kamatat-i-hlim, j>. 286, and Tabligh-URiiaUl, Vol. I, [> lib. 



• 02 ^AUlANliiM — A i;klTICAJ. S7UJJY 

inner corruption and invidious understanding, but they will 
ultimately feel ashamed after they have witnessed the suc- 
cour of God and, as a result of the manifestation of truili, 
there will be praise for you all round."* 
It was still possible for people to forget the matter. But the 
Mirza was so confident about the fulfilment of this prophecy that 
he kept on reiterating it in an increasingly forceful and confi- 
dent manner. He said : 

"Wait for (the fulfilment of) the prophecy mentioned 
in the announcement of July 10, 1888, along with which 
there is also appended the inspiration : And they ask thee if 
this is true. Say : Yes, by my Lord, it is true and you can- 
not prevent it from taking place. We have Ourselves wed 
thee to her. There is none to change My words. And on 
seeing the sign they will turn their faces aside and will say : 
This is a thorough deception, and a thoiough magic." 7 
In his letter addressed to the t ttlama and spiritual mentors 
of India in Arabic, the Mirza said : 

"Predestination is bound to prevail and God has finally 
decreed it, and so the time for it (i.e. marriage) will inevi- 
tably come. By the One who has sent to us Muhammad al- 
Mustafa, and made htm the best of messengers and the best 
of creatures, verily this is truth and you will see it, and I 
shall make this news the criterion of my truth and false- 
hood. And 1 did not say this until I was informed about it 
from God."" 

Emphasising the significance of this prophecy and stressing 
it to be the sign of God, he said : 

"In respect of this (prophecy), some of the fair-minded 
Arya authors have also borne witness that if this prophecy 
were fulfilled, it would indeed be an act of God. And this 
prophecy is against a harsh people who, it seems, have 
drawn the sword of enmity and spite, and whosoever knows 



6. J&am-i-Kamdltti-i-lsldm, p. 286; Tabttgh-l-iiijaUi, Vol. I, p. 116. 

7. 2itrutnt Feitia, p. 40. 

8. Anjdm-i~2tham, p. 223 



AN UNFULFILLED PROPHECY 103 



the stale they arc in, will be well aware of the great signi- 
ficance of this prophecy. Everyone who will read the 
. announcement, no matter how prejudiced he is, is bound to 
agree that the content of the prophecy is beyond the capa- 
city of man."' 

When he felt agitated about the realization of this prophecy 
owing to some serious illness which caused him the suspicion of 
being close to death he received fresh inspiration to reassure 
him. 

He writes : 

"Soon after this prophecy was revealed and had yet to 
be fulfilled (as it has not been fulfilled as yet, that is, by 
April 16, 1891), this humble one encountered a severe ail- 
ment bringing him so close to death that he got even his 
will drawn up. At that critical moment the prophecy almost 
came before his eyes and it appeared that the last moment 
had come and that the next day would be his day of funeral. 
At that time he thought of this prophecy ; that, may be, it 
had some other meaning which he had not understood. 
Then, in that critical condition, he received the inspiration: 
This thing is truth from thy Lord. Why dost thou doubt?"" 
Thus, the Mirza's marriage with Muhammad I Begum was 
a settled matter — a matter which had been decided upon in the 
heavens and, hence, there was no possibility of any alteration. 
He announced that this was not only the criterion of his veracity, 
but also of the veracity of the One who had communicated it to 
him. And since he considered himself to be the true repre- 
sentative and advocate of Islam, and his own prestige to be 
synonymous with the prestige of Islam, he regarded the matter 
as one involving the victory of Islam itself. 

Mirza Stoops to Conquer 

But as luck would have it, Mirza Ahmad Beg spurned the 



9. Izdla-t-Awhdm, p. 199. 
10. Hid. 



104 (£ADlANlSM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

proposal and decided to give his daughter in marriage to another 
relative of his, Mirza Sultan Muhammad. The Mirza came to 
know of it. Owing lo his exuberant enthusiasm and his intense 
confidence in regard to his ultimate success, the matter had 
already come lo public knowledge. It had been mentioned in 
newspapers and magazines and had become an interesting topic 
of conversation. Hindus,, Sikhs and Muslims all were keenly 
interested in the developments relating to this case. The Mirza.' s 
matrimonial affair had evoked even greater interest than that 
of the royal families. The numerous challenges which he had 
published from time to time had rendered the matter even more 
delicate and complex. The members of the girl's family {who 
had religious differences with the Mirza and whose family pride 
had been hutt by his public announcements), categorically 
rejected the MirzS's proposal. From the MirzS's point of view, 
however, the matter had become so serious that the establish- 
ment of matrimonial relationship had become inevitable. He 
had announced the prophecy in such categorical and definite 
terms thai it was hard for him to back out of that position or to 
re-interpret the prophecy to mean something else than what it 
apparently meant. 

Theoretically, however, the Mirza. believed that the ins- 
pired person should strive for the fulfilment of his own prophe- 
cies and that there was nothing incomptibie " between this 
effort and his position as the recipient of an inspired prophecy.' 1 
It was because of this view that he himself had the eastern 
minaret constructed at QSdian for, it had been mentioned in 
the Tradition concerning the return of Jesus. Following the 
same principle, he set out to persuade, by all possible means, the 
father and other relatives of Muhammadt Begum to accept his 
proposal. He resorted to all the means of inducement and 



1 1 . He writes : "If Divine revelation makes son ething known at prophecy, 
and if it is possible that a man should fulfil it without fanning up a 
fitnah (evil) and resorting to illegitimate means, then making efforts for 
the fulfilment of such a prophecy is not only permissible, but also 
commendable (masnOn)" Heq Iqat ol-fYahi, p. 191 



AN UNFULHLLKD PROPHECY 105 

terrorisation which he could possibly employ. In his request as 
well as the announcement of July 10, tliliiJ, both these aspects 
—inducement and terrorisation — are quite evident. In the event 
of the acceptance of the proposal of mariiage he had promised 
Divine reward ; whereas in the case of it;, rejection, lie had 
threatened them with ruin. 

The Mirza also wrote letters to the relatives of Muhammadi 
Begum, to hej father, Mirza Ahmad Beg, to her uncle, Mirza 
c All Sher Beg, to her aunt and to other relatives who could have 
exerted some influence on the decision about her marriage. He 
asked all these people, with great mrakness and humility, to use 
their good office^ in ids favour. To Mirza Ahmad Bt-'g (llie 
father of the girl), he wrote : 

"If you accept what I say, it will be a matter of bene- 
volence and gratification and kindness towards me, and I 
will pray to the Most Compassionate One lor your long life. 
I promise you to transfer one third of my property 
to your daughter and I say honestly that I will give you 
whatever you will ask of me." 1 * 
In another letter to Mirza Ahmad Beg Vic wrote : 

"I still make a request to your honour, with humility and 
respect I have for you, not to refrain from this (man iage) 
relationship. Ko», this will be a means of great blessing for 
your daughter and thi; Exalted Allah will open the doors of 
divine grace which you do not even Conceive of." 1 ' 
In a letter to Mirza. 1 All Sher Beg he wrote : 

"If the people of your household had joined together 
and tried to persuade your brother, why should lie not have 
given his consent? Do I belong to a low caste so that it would 
be a shame (o marry the girl to me? On the other hand, he 
kept on seconding my proposal, but, quite recently, I have 



12. Kalmah-i-Fotl'i'Rakmdni, by Qazi Fail Ahmad (cited in Qddtani Mazhab). 
This book is a collection of the Mirza's letters to the relatives of 
Muhammadi Begum. The letters are authentic and evln the Mirzi 
did not deny having written them. 

13. 1HJ. 



106 ^ADtANlSM-A CRITICAL STUOV 

been left at the mercy of his brother and now all have 
united on the question of the girl's marriage. What do I 
have to do with a girl? She might be married to an) one. 
This was merely a test : those whom I considered to be my 
own and from whose daughter I wanted to have offspring 
and my heirs are now thirsty of my blood. They are now 
after my honour and want me to be put to shame and to 
have a blackened face. It is up to God to dishonour whom- 
soever He wilts. But so far as these people are concerned, 
they indeed want to hurl me into the fire." 1 * . 
To Mirza Ahmad he also wrote : 

"You will perhaps be aware that ihe prophecy oC this 
humble one has become known to thousands of people and 
in my opinion, there would be perhaps more than one 

million people who have been informed of this prophecy 

In Lahore I found out that thousands of Muslims fervently 
pray in the mosques after (congregational) prayers tor the 
fulfilment of this prophecy." 1 ' 

The Mirza' also came to know that ( lzzat Bibi, his own 
daughter-in-law (wife of his son, Mirza .Fail Ahmad), and the 
mother of ^lzzat Blbl, the wife of Mirza c All Sher Beg (who was 
also the aunt of Muhammad I Begum), were opposed to the 
Mirza's proposal and favoured the marriage of the girl to Mtizi 
Sultan Muhammad. This infuriated the Mirza and he wrote 
the following to l Ali Sher Beg (the father-in-law of his son, 
Fuzl Ahmad) : 

"I have already written a letter to her (i. e. to the wife 

of Mirza c Ali Sher Beg) that if she did not give up 

(pursuing) her idea and did not prevail upon her brother 

* (i. e. Mirza Ahmad Beg) to prevent this marriage (with 

Mirza Sultan Mohammad), then, as your own intention 



14. Kalma-i'Fazl-i-Hahmant, by Qfizi Fazl Ahmad (cited in Qidtini 
Mattel). 

15. Hid. 



AN UNI-ULIlLLED 1'KOFHECY 101 



appears 10 be, my son Fazl Ahmad too will not lie able to 
keep your daughter ('Izzat Bibi) in his marriage. Rather, 
the very moment the wedding (of Muhammad! Begum) will 
take place, Fazl Ahmad will divorce your daughter. And 
if he does not divorce her r I will declare him to be no 
longer regarded as my son, and will disinherit him. But if 
for my sake you oppose Ahmad Beg and try to prevent 
him from carrying out his design, then I am at your dispo- 
sal on all counts with my heart and soul. Fazl Ahmad is 
still obedient to me. I will convince him in every way 
possible and will endeavour to rehabilitate your daughter 
Then whatever I have shall belong to her." 16 
The Mirza also prevailed upon c Izzat Bibi, his daughter- 
in-law, to write to her mother that if they did not change their 
mind the Mirza would have her husband divorce her "and thus 
ruin her family life. 1 ' 

After Muhammadi Begum's marriage, Fazl Ahmad did 
divorce 'Izzat Bibi. Another* son of the Mirza, Sultan Ahmad, 
and his mother, were also of the same view as the members of. 
Muhammadi Begum's family. Hence, consistent with what he 
had said earlier, the Mirza declared Sultan Ahmad to be no 
longer regarded as his son. Be* ides, he disinherited him and 
divorced his mother. 11 

However, even after the marriage of Muhammadi Begum 
to MirzS Sultan Muhammad (on April 7, 1892) the Mirza did 
not despair. He kept on saying that ultimately the girl would 
become his wife. In 1901, he made the following statement 
under oath : 

"It is true that that woman has not been married to 
me. But she will certainly be married to me as has been 
stated in the prophecy. She has been married to Sultan 
Muhammad, I say truly that in this court (i.e. the world) 



16. Keimi-i-Fail'i-Hahmdm. 

17. IM. 

18. Tabligh-i-Ruala,, Vol. II, p. 9- 



108 QAD1ANISM— A URITICAL STUDY 

where people have laughed at things which were not from 
me, but from Gotl, a time will come when the events will 
take a strange turn and the heads of all will be downcast 
with remorse. 

"The woman is still alive. She will inevitably come 
to my wedlock. I expect this to happen, rather, I have full 
faith in this. These are divinely-ordained matters and are 
bound tO'Occur." 111 

In his fust announcement the Mirza had prophesied that 
the person to whom Muhammadl Begum- would be married, 
would die within two and a half years after the marriage. 
This period elapsed and Mirza Sultan Muhammad remained 
alive, enjoying a happy married life. This forced the Mirza to 
extend the lease of his life. In His announcement of September 
6, 1896 he wrote : 

"The time for divine punishment is conditionally pre- 
destined, which can be put off by fear (of God) and turning 
(towards God), as the whole of the Qui^an testifies. But 
so far as it relates to the prophecy, that is, the marriage of 
that woman to this humble one, that is assuredly predestin- 
ed, and cannot be waived off, for, in the Divine revelation 
it is clearly stated that 'My words will never change'. 
For, if they were to change, the words of God would be 
false."" 

In the same announcement, he explains another reason for 
the postponement of his prediction : 

"The Qur'an tells us that the duration indicated in 
such piophecies belongs to (he category of conditional pre- 
destination. Hence, owing to the appearance of factors 
causing some change or alteration, postponement of the 
stipulated term and period does take place. This is Divine 
Law, and the Qur'an is replete with this. Hence, for every 



19. At-Hukm, August 10, 1901 (cited in Qadiani Mazhab and Tahqiq-i* 
Latham), 

20. TaUtgh-i'Hiialut, Vol. Ill, p. 1 15. 



AN UNFULFILLED PROPHECY 109 

prophecy which is made through inspiration or revelation, 
it is essential that its fulfilment should conform to the 
Divine Law as embodied in the Books of the Exalted God. 
And, at the present lime, another benefit aimed at from 
this is that those aspects of Divide knowledge which have 
been lost sight of by the people should once again be 
manifested and thus insight into the Qm'an should he 
renovated."'-' 1 

Thus, the Mirza insisted that his prophecy was true and ho 
had no doubt about its ultimate fulfilment. He again insisted 
that : 

"I say again and again that the prophecy about the 
son-in-law of Ahmad Beg (i.e. Sultan Muhammad), ij 
assuredly pie-destined. Wait for it. If I am a liar, this 
prophecy will not be fulfilled and my death will come."*' 
Mirza Sultan Muhammad had a long life. He look part 
in the first world war. He was wounded during the war but 
survived, and remained alive long after the Mirza had died. 

As for the Mirza, he died in 190B, and his wedding which 
according to him had tnken place in the heavens, could not take 
place on the earth. In the opinion of his more staunch followers, 
however, nothing can as yet be said unequivocally ; for, so long 
as human life is in existence, there is still possibility of the 
realisation of this prophecy, Haklrn Numddin, the successor 
of the Mirza, has given a queer explanation of the matter, but 
very much in tune with Qadiani casuistry. In the "Review of 
Religions', he wrute the following in connection with the death 
of the 'Promised Messiah' : 

"Now, I would like to remind all the Muslims who 
have had and still have faith in the Noble Qur'an that 
since those addressed in it include also their offsprings, 
successors and those like them, then, can this prophecy not 
include the daughter of Ahmad Beg, or the daughter of 



2h TuUftkri-RuaUt, Vol. Ill, p. 1 17. 
22. Amjdm-i-2tkuu, p. 31 n. 



110 QADIANtSM — A CWITICAI. STUDY 

that daughter ? Does your law of inheritance not apply the 
regulations regarding daughters to their daughters? And 
are the offsprings of the Mirza not his agnates ? I had 
often told dear Mian Mahmood-' 1 that even if the Mirza 
were to die and this girl did not enter into his wedlock, 
my adoration of him would remain unshaken. 1 ' 8 * 



23- Mian llashlruddin Mahmood, a son of the Mirza and the second head 

or ihe Qidiant movement after Hakim Nuruddin. 
24. Review of Religions, Vol. VII, no. 726, June and July. 1908, p. 279 

(cited from QSdiarii Atazhahi). 



I»ART IV 



A Critical Analysis of the Movement 



Independent Religion and a Parallel 
Community 



One of the illusions about Qadianism is that its emergence 
merely signifies the addition of one more sect to the large num- 
ber of already existing sects and schools in Islam, and that the 
followers of Qadianism are, at the most, a new sect. Thus, the 
popular impression is that Qadianism does not represent a 
unique phenomenon in the history of Muslim .sects and jurislice 
schools. 

A careful study of Qadianism is bound to shatter this illu- 
sion and to convince every unbiased student that Qadianism is a 
religion hy itself, and the Qsdianis a separate religious com- 
munity (umtttah), parallel to Islam and the ummah of Islam. The 
following statement of the Mirza, which has been cited by 
the former head of Qsdlani movement, Mima Bashlruddin 
Mahmood appears to contain no exaggeration. He said : 

"The words, which came out from the lips of the 
Promised Messiah, keep on reverberating in my ears. He 
said that it was wrong that our disagreement with others 
lay merely on the questions of the death of the Messiah or 
certain other similar issues. He mentioned in detail that 
we differed from them in respect of the Essence of Allah, in 
respect of the Holy Prophet (upon him be the peace and 
benediction of God), in respect of the Qur'an, of prayers, of 
fasting, of pilgrimage, and, in short, in respect of each and 
every part (of religion). "' 



1 . Khutha (Sermon) of -Friday, el-Fadht, July J, 193 1 . 



I 14 <£AI)IAhlSM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



Mirza Mahmood also affirmed that owing to these differ- 
ences the first caliph of the Mirza had declared that "their Islam 
(i.e., the Islam of Muslims) is different from our Islam."* 

In the entire history of Islam, there is one movement alone 
which appears to bear some resemblance to Qadianism in the 
sense tliat while it kept its activities confined to Muslims, it 
attempted to found a system of beliefs and practices parallel to 
that of Is^am, and thus endeavoured to build, as if it were, a 
state within the state. Tins was the Batinite or Ismailite move- 
ment with which Qadianism bears a striking resemblance. 3 

The QSdiSnl movement tries to build a new structure of 
religious beliefs and practices as distinguished from that of 
Islam. It tries to give an orientation of its own to all aspects of 
religious life. It provides its followers with a new prophet, a new 
focus of devotion and loyalty, a new religious mission, a new 
spiritual centre, ami a new set of holy places, new religious rituals, 
new leaders and new heroes. It is this feature of Qacliaiiism which 
marks it out from all other schools and sects which exist side by 
side within the bosom of Islam, and raises it to the level of a full- 
fledged independent religion. It definitely tends to lay fuonda- 
tions of a new ummah on the basis of new religious teach* 
ings, and a new mould of religious life. The result is that for those 
who enthusiastically choose to join the fold of this movement, 
the old institutions and personalities which claimed their devo- 
tion are replaced by new ones, and thus they develop into an 
ummah all by themselves, independent of all others and by virtue 
of their peculiar connaturality of emotional predilections, outlook, 
and the resultant veneration for the new religious institutions 
formed around Qadianism. This tendency towards isolation, 
this trend to distinguish themsleves from the Muslims has been 
a part of Qadianism from the very beginning and has since 
gone the whole length that the Qadianis have now become 
wont to compare Qadiani rituals and holy ^places with Islamic 



2. Kkutba (Sermon) of Friday, cl-Fadhl, December ?, 1914. 

3. Stt Dr. Zahiii Ali : Hamara IsmdVli Mazhah am us ka Nitim. 



INDEPENDENT RELIGION AND A PARALLEL COMMUNITY 1 15 

rituals and holy places, declaring the former to be parallel and 
equal to the latter. The companions of the Holy Prophet, for 
instance) occupy a central position in the religious system of 
Islam. The Qadianls place the companions of the Mirza on 
the same pedestal as the 'companion*' of the Holy Prophet. A 
responsible Qadia.nl reflects this trend of thinking in the follow- 
ing words : 

"To make distinction between the two groups, that is, 
the companions of the Holy Prophet and those of the 
Mirza, or to declare either of the two to be superior, on the 
whole, to the other, is not right. In fact both these groups 
are part of a single group: the difference is one of time 
alone. They had been trained under the earlier Prophet 
while these got instruction at the time of the later prophetic 
advent."* 

In the same manner, they consider the grave of the Mk?a 
to be similar and comparable to the resting-place of the Holy 
Prophet. Ai-Fatihl, published on behalf of the Training Depart- 
ment of Qadian, once deplored the religious insensitivity of those 
who came to Qadian to participate in the religious conference, 
etc. and yet did not pay a visit to the grave of the Mirza : 

"What is the state of the man who comes to Qadian, 
the Abode of Security (Danil-Aman), and does not bother to 
go a couple of steps further to pay a visit to the Heavenly 
Cemetery: in it is that purified grave {Ra'Mdha-i-mulakharJi) i ' 
wherein lies buried the body of that chosen one of God to 
whom the most superior of all prophets sent his salams, and 
with regard to whom the Khaiim nl-Nabjln said : "He will 
be buried beside me in my grave." Thus, the radiance of 
the Green Dome of Medina is reflecting itself on this White 
Dome where one can partake of the blessings which are 
peculiar to the radiant resting-place of the Holy Prophet 



4. Al-Fodhl, May 28, 1918. 

5. It it significant that the tame term is generally used by the Urdu 
'peaking Muslim* for the grave of the Ho|y Prophet. 



1)6 QADIAN ISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

(upon him he the peace and blessings of Allah). How un- 
fortunate is the man who, in the Great Pilgrimage (Hajj-i- 
Akbar) of Ahmadism, should remain deprived of this bles- 
sing"." 

Owing to the religious and spiritual importance of the town- 
ship of Qadian in Qadianism, bt'tng the nursery of a new 
prophethood and the new centre of 'Islam', the Qadianis reckon 
it among the holy places of Islam such as Mecca and Medina, 
and never fail to mention it along with them. Tn one of his 
speeches Mirza Bashlruddin Mahmood said : 

"By venerating Medina we do hot affront the Hou:,e of 
Kabah. In the same way, when we venerate Qadian,* we 

do not affront Mecca or Medina The Exalted God 

sanctified all these three places and chose them for the 
manifestation of His Light."' 

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had himself drawn a parallel be- 
tween Qadian and the Holy land of Mecca. In one of his coup- 
lets he said : 

The land of Qadian is now a place of veneration. 

Thanks to the rush of people, it is now a sacred area. 8 

The Mirza* even thought that Qadian has been referred to 

in the Qur'an itself, thai the Tar-away Mosque' .(Al-Masjid 

al-Aqsa) mentioned in the Qur'an (xVii. 1) refers to the 

'Mosque of the Promised Messiah' in Qiciian. He wrote : 

"In the same way as God had taken the Holy Prophet 
specialty from the sanctified Mosque (iu Mecca) to Jeru- 
salem, so He also shifted him temporally from the ; ime o' 
the Glory of Islam, the time of the Prophet himself, to the 
time of the blessings of Islam, the time of the Promised 
Messiah. Hence from this point of view, which is the spiri- 
tual transporation of the Holy Prophet to the extremity of 
the time of Islam, the far-away Mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqsa) 



6. Al-Fadhl, Vol. X No. 48. 

7. Al-Fadhl, September 3, 1935. 

8. Durt-i'Thamin, p. 52 



INDEPENDENT RELIGION AND A PARALLEL COMMUNITY I 17 

moans the mosque of the Promised Messiah which is located 
in Qadian and in respect of which, in Barahln-i-Abnadiyah, 
Cod lias said : "Blessed, blessed and every blessed thing 
We shall make therein." And this word 'mubarek' (blessed) 
which has been used nominatively, is in accord with the 
Quranic verse 'And We blessed that which is around it.' 
Therefore, there is not the least doubt that there is reference 
to Qadi5n in the Qur?an. ,,|! 

The logical consequence of these beliefs was that the 
followers of the Mirz5 developed the practice of making annual 
pilgrimage to Qadian and they began to regard this act as 
sac red 01 a I as [he liajj itself. It is no surprise that the Qadianl 
leaders proclaimed visits to Qadian to be a "shadow of the 
Hnjj*\ and, for those who are incapable of going to Mecca, 
they proclaimed it to be its substitute. Mirza Bashlruddln 
Mahmood said : 

"Those alone who have resources and are rich can go 
on pilgrimages. Although in the beginning divine move- 
ments spread and flourished among the poor, only those who 
have resources and are rich are. able to go on pilgrimage. 
The poor are exempted by the SltarPah. Therefore, God 
fixed a £i/(i liajj so that those whom He wants to employ 
in the progress of Islam, and the poor, that is, the Muslims 
of India, should be able to participate in it." 10 
In this regard the Qadianis went so far as to rate these 
visits to Qadl5n even higher than the pilgrimages to the Mecca. 
This, loo, was a natural corollary of their belief in Qadianism 
as a new religion which has its u n centre of gravity and has 
undertaken to provide religious sustenance to its followers. It 
is lor '-is reason that a Qad'ani leader observed : 

'in the same way as the former Tslain without 
Ahmadisn , that is, without Hazrat Miiza Srdiib, is a dry 
Islam, so is the Meccan Hojj a dry Hajj without this liajj t 

9. Tatkitah or )Aujmv > ah-i-Waky-i-Kiuqaddai, pp. 345-46. 
10- M Fadhi, I member I, 193'. 



1 18 QADIAM1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

because in these days the objectives of Hajj are not fulfilled 

there." 11 

This trend among the Qadianis to assert their distinct 
entity and their consciousness of being the followers of a new 
religion, and their feeling that Qadianism had opened a new 
phase in history reached such a point that they even introduced 
a new calendar of their own which has special names of the 
months. The twelve months of the QadianI calendar, accor- 
ding to its official organ, al^Fadhl, are as given here : Sulk, 
Tabligh, Aman t ShaKadat, Hijrat, lhsan ) Wafa, ^nAur, Tcbiik, JUta 7 , 
JVubuwat, Fath. 

Indian Islam 

Thanks to this isolationist trend and the belief in a new 
propheihood the spiritual, intellectual and political centre of 
the Qadianis soon ceased to be the Arabian peninsula with its 
holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Then loyalties began to turn 
instead towards Qadian, the birth-place of the new religion. It 
was natural that the Qadianis should became increasingly coot 
towards Arabia- Hence, those Indian nationalists who felt that 
the idea of the one nationhood of India was threatened, by the fact 
that a great part of the Indian population was deeply attached 
to a foreign country, and its religious centre, its spiritual perso- 
nalities, its holy places and its most cherished memories of 
history all lay outside the boundaries of India, felt greatly 
relieved insofar as Qadianism was a purely Indian movement 
and its spiritual centre lay not outside, but within India. 
This appeared to them as a very salutary development: a factor 
which could help the development of a common nationhood 
in the country. 

This orientation of Qadianism was for obvious reasons 
welcomed with great zest by those nationalists of India who 
have always complained that Hijaz has been the real centre of 
the loyalty of Muslims and that they are always wont to look 



1 1 . Pujgkdin-i-Sulh, Vol, XXI , No. TL 



INDEPENDENT RELIGION AND A PARALLEL COMMUNITY I 19 

towards Arabia. To such people this movement appeared as a 
new ray of hope. A Hindu writer, Dr. Shanker Das Mehra, 
has very ably represented this standpoint. He has clearly 
grapsed the change in outlook that results from embracing 
Qadianism. He has also realised the fact that instead of being 
an Islamic sect, the Qadianis believe in an independent religion 
and constitute a separate religious community, and that they are 
engaged in propagating a new religion and building a new 
community. Dr. Mehra writes : 

"The most important question that confronts the 
country is in what way can national feeling be inspired 
among the Indian Muslims. At times pacts and agreements 
are concluded with them, at times we bargain with them, 
and, at times, attempt is made to persuade them to unite. 
But nothing proves of any avail. The Indian Muslims 
have come to consider themselves a separate nation and 
they keep on singing praises of Arabia, day in and day out. 
Had they the power, they would christen India as Arabia. 
In this darkness, in thi* state of despair, the Indian national- 
ists and patriots see only one glimmer of hope. That 
glimmer of hope is the movement of Ahmad is. The more 
Muslims will be attracted towards Ahmad ism, the more 
they will begin to consider Qadian to be their Mecca 
and will become, in the end, lovers of India and true 
nationalists. 

"The progress of Ahmad ism among Muslims can alone 
deal a death-blow to the Arabic culture and Pan-Islamism, 
Let us study the Ahmadi movement from the national point 
of view. From the land of Punjab there arises a man, 
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, and summons the 
Muslims : 

"O Muslims ! I am the prophet whom God has pro- 
mised to send in the Qur'an. Come ! Gather under my 
banner. If you don't come, God will not forgive you on 
the day of judgement and you will abide in hell. 

"Without entering into any discussion about the truth 



120 



0_AD1AN1SM-- A l.klTlCAL STUt>V 



or falsehood of this claim of the Mirza,, I would like to 
point out the change that takes place when a Muslim 
becomes a Mi^al'. A MnzaV Muslim holds it as his 
creed that ■ 

(!) From lime 10 time God sends someone to guide 
people. Such a person is the prophet of his rime. 

(2) During the time when moral confusion prevailed 
in Arabia God sent Hazrat Muhammad (pL-ace 
and blessings of God be on him) as His Prophet 
to that country. 

(3) God fell the need of a prophet again and so He 
sent the Mirza" in order that he should guide the 
Muslims. 

"My nationalist brethren will ask : What have these 
beliefs to do with nationalism ? The reply is that when a 
Hindu becomes a Muslim, his loyally and devotion are 
transferred to the land of Arabia ; similarly, when a 
Muslim becomes an Ahmadi, his angle of vision changes. 
His devotion to Hazrat Muhammad (peace and blessings of 
Allah be on him) begins to decrease, besides, if his cali- 
phate had been Jn the past in Arabia and the land of die 
Turks, now it conies to Qadian. Mecca and Medina then 
remain holy places for him merely in a traditional sense. 

"An Ahmadi, whether he is in Arabia, Tuikistan, Iran 
or in any corner of the world, turns towards Qadian for 
spiritual salvation. The land of Qadian is the land of 
salvation for him and therein lies the secret of the superio- 
rity of India. 

"Every Ahmadi will have love for India for Qadian 
is in India. The Mirza too was an Indian and his Caliphs 
who are leading this sect till now are all Indians/' 
He adds : 

"This is the one reason why Muslims look ai the 
Atitwadi movement with suspicion. They know that 
Ahmad ism is hostile to Arabic culture and Islam. In the 
Khilafat movement too Ahmadis did not join hands with 



INDLI'ENDHNT RELIGION AND PARALLEL COMMUNITY 12 1 

Muslims. For, instead of Turkey or Arabia, they want to 
establish the Khilafat at Qadian. This fact, no matter 
how disappointing to the common Muslims who are always 
dreaming of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Arab solidarity, is a 
matter of great joy for a nationalist." 12 



12. Dr. Shankar Das Mehra's article in Bande Mitnun, April 22, 1912, 
{cited in Qddidni Mazhak, by Prof. Ilyii Barni) ■ 



Revolt against Muhammad's Prophethood 



The belief that religion has now been perfected, that 
Muhammad (peace be on him) i$ the last messenger of God, 
and that Islam is the last message of God to mankind and the 
most perfect way of life, is a Divine gift and an honour conferred 
exclusively on this ■ ummah. It is for this reason that a Jewish 
scholar had said to Hazrat 'Umar (may God he pleased with 
him) that there was a verse in the Qur 5 5rt which the Muslims 
recite. Had that verse been found in the Jewish Scripture, 
they would have regarded the day of its revelation as a day of 
national rejoicing and celebration. This Jewish scholar was 
referring to the Quranic verse which proclaims the termination 
of prophethood and the perfection of Divine benediction; 

"This day have I perfected your religion for you, com- 
pleted My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam 
as your religion." (v. 4) 

c Umar did not dispute the majestic glory of this Divine 
proclamation. He only said that the Muslims needed no new 
celebration for the verse had been revealed on a day which is a 
day of great devotion and congregation in Islam. The day on 
which this verse had been revealed was the day of two Ids: 
the Day of Arafah and Friday. 

Security Against Intellectual Chaos 

This creed has stood as a great barrier against the disinte- 
grating movements which arose from time to time in the wide 
expanse of the world of Islam. It is this creed which prevent- 
ed Islam from becoming a plaything of false pretenders to 



124 QAOIANISM — A- CRITICAL STUDY 

prophethood and hypocrites. This creed has been like a fortress 
wherein this ummak took refuge from the inroads of inposters and 
adventurers who tried to demolish the entire structure of islam 
and to replace it by a new structure. It is, again, this very creed 
which maintained the religious and ideological unity of this 
ummak to an extent no other prophet's ummah has been able to do 
in the past. Had thiscrecd not been there, Muslims would have 
disintegrated into numerous ummahs, each of which would be 
having a separate centre of spiritual inspiration, a distinct heri- 
tage of cultural traditions and history, and a different set of 
heroes. 

Implications of the Termination of Prophethood 

The belief that prophethood has been terminated is a matter 
of great honour and distinction for mankind. This, in effect, 
proclaims that mankind has reached the age of maturity and 
attained the capacity to respond to the last message of God. It 
means that human beings no longer require any fresh revelation, 
any lurihei heavenly communication. This belief inspires self- 
confidence. i ; or man knows that religion lias assumed its 
perfect and final form, and man need no longer look backwards; 
that humanity need no longer look towards the heavens for fresh 
revelation; rather, it should now direct its efforts to make good 
use of the resources created by God. And in trying to fashion 
its life according to the fundamentals of religion and morality, 
it has to look now only unvaids the earth, and towards its own 
self. This creed directs the vision of tnau to the future. It 
provides an incentive for the creative utilization of man's capa- 
bilities. It fixes for man the right goal, and points to the 
direction in which man should proceed for the achievement of 
that goal. Without this creed } man would be in a state of doubt, 
diffidence and hesitation. He would always be looking towards 
the heavens, instead of looking towards the earth. Me would 
always feel uneasy about his future. Kvery now and then 
some pretender would rise to tell him that "the garden 
of humanity had remained incomplete" and thai il was his 



RTVni.T ACA1NST MUHAMMAu's r'KOI'HETUOCUJ 12 ft 

advent which had s^iven il its full Mount ; leaving man In: cni.iin 
diffident thai if it had remained imperfect so far, what was ilie 
guarantee for llie future! Thus, instead of striving to water that 
garden, lie would always remain waiting for some gardener to 
come out from above and do lire needful. 

Qadiani Insolence 

Among the different anti-Islamic movements which have 
arisen in our history, Qadianism is unique. Km, if other move- 
ments had been directed against Islam as a whole, Qadianism 
is a conspiracy which is specifically directed against the prophet- 
hood of Muhammad (peace be on him), and challenges the 
finality of Islam and the unity of Muslim*. By repudiating the 
finality of prophet hood, Qadianism obliterated the very border- 
lines which distinguish this utnmah Irom all others. Dr. Sir 
Muhammad Iqbal has clearly brought out the innovation 
impudently set afloat by Qadianism. 

"Islam is essentially a religious order which has defined 
limits, that is, belief in the Unity and Omnipotence of God, 
faith in the prophets and termination of prophethood on the 
advent of His last Messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon 
him). Faith in the last mentioned creed is, in reality, the 
distinguishing feature between a Muslim and a non-Muslim 
and a determinant whether a ceilain individual or group 
Conns part of the Muslim community or not. Take, for 
example, lirahmo tSamaj which has faith in God and 
acknowledges Muhammad as a prophet of God, but its 
votaries cannot be treated as Muslims, for, like the Qadianis, 
they believe in the continuance of revelation and do not 
regard the Prophet of Islam as the Last Prophet. As far as 
I am aware, no sect of Islam has ever tried to go beyond 
this line of demarcation. In Iran, the Bahailes denied this 
essential creed but they also confessed that they constituted 
a distinct religious order and were not a sect of the Muslims. 
We believe that Islam, as a religion, has been revealed by 
God; but, Islam as a social order owes its existence to the 



126 QA1MANI3M— A CRITICAL STUDY 

person of the Blessed Prophet. The Qadianls have, in my 
opinion, only two ways open to them. They should either 
follow the Bahaites or accept the creed in regard to finality 
of Muhammad's prophethood in toto, with its full implica- 
tions, and give up those far-fetched interpretations which 
are designed to let them remain within the fold of Islam 
with a view to enjoying political benefits." 1 
In another article on the subject, Sir Muhammad Iqbal 
wrote : 

"Muslims are unusually sensitive in regard to those 
movements which pose a danger to their unity. Therefore, 
every religious group which deems itself historically associat- 
ed with Islam but has its bases in a new prophethood, and, 
treats every Muslim not having faith in its revelations as a 
non-believer, would be regarded by the Muslims as a danger 
to the unity of Islam. This is because the sense of Islamic 
unity springs from the belief in the finality of Muhammad's 
prophethood." 
He adds in the same article that : 

"It is obvious that Islam which claims to unite its diffe- 
rent sects on the basis of a uniform creed for all, cannot 
show any sympathy to a movement which presenrly endan- 
gers its own solidarity and is fraught with the danger of 
further dissension to humanity in future." 2 

Proliferation of Prophets 

The natural outcome of the Mirza's preaching against the 
idea of the finality of prophethood was that the halo of sanctity 
and veneration, honour and dignity around the office of prophet- 
hood was gone. The eloquence he waxed on stressing that the 
process of prophethood had not stopped, the importance he 
attached to "inspiration", enhancing it to be considered the 
basis of prophethood, was bound to reduce prophethood to a 



1, I<|I>31 : HafJ-i- Iqbal, pp. 136-*i7. 

2. Ibid., pp. 122-23. 



REVOLT AGAINST MUHAMMAD^ PROPHETHOOD 127 



child's play, even though his argument supporting the continuity 
of prophcthood was confined merely to his own case and he 
considered himself to be the last prophet. 'Co borrow the 
remarks of'Iqbal : 

"The founder's own argument, quite worthy df a medie- 
val theologian, is that the spirituality of the Holy Prophet 
of Islam must be regarded as imperfect, if it is not creative 
of another prophet. He claims his own prophethood to be 
an evidence of the prophet-rearing power of the spirituality 
of the Holy Prophet of Islam. But if you further ask him 
whether the spirituality of Muhammad is capableof rearing 
more prophets than one, his answer is "No". This virtually 
amounts to saying, "Muhammad is not the last Prophet, I 
am the last." Far from understanding the cultural value 
of the Islamic idea of finality in the history of mankind 
generally and of Asia especially, he thinks that finality, in 
the sense that no follower of Muhammad can ever reach 
the status of Prophet hood, is a mark of imperfect ion in 
Muhammad's Prophethood. As I read the psychology of 
his mind he sterns to bo interested only in his own claim 10 
Prophethood ; for he avails himself of what he describes as 
the creative spirituality of the Holy Prophet of Islam but, at 
the same time, limits this spiritual creative capacity lo (he 
rearing of only one prophet, i.e., the founder of the Ahma- 
diyya movement. Inthisway the new prophet quietly steals 
away the finality of one whom he claims to be his spiritual 
progenitor." 3 

What eludes the grasp of people of normal intelligence is the 
confinement of Muhammad's prophet-rearing .spirituality to one 
person alone, and that it should have produced no.results during 
the last thirteen hundred years before the advent of the Mirza 
nor is it capable of producing any other prophet in the future 
till the end of time. It is this logic of things which has made 



i Sprcrhcs ami Writings of I(|hal, pp, IF><)-M. 



128 QADIANISM — A OKITIOAL STUDY 

Mirza, Hashiruddin Mahmood to make the following obser 1 
vation. 

"The Exalted God says abo.it the unbelievers that they 
did not form a true estimate of Allah and have come to 
think that the treasures of God have become exhausted and 
hence He could not now give anything to anybody. In the 
same way, (such people) say that no matter how much a 
man advances in righteousness and piety, and even if he 
goes ahead of several prophets in divine gnosis and spiritua- 
lity, God will never, never make him a prophet. This con- 
cept is owing to a mis-estimation of God, otherwise I say 
that not one but thousands of prophets will lie born."* 
This trend of denying the finality of prophethood embol- 
dened several people to Jay claim to prophethood. So far as wi: 
know about the history of Muslim India, there had been none 
except Akbar wlio has Jiad the cheek to deny the tinality of 
prophethood and try to promote a new religion. However, even 
Akbar had not done all that with die outspokenness and vehe- 
mence of the Qadianis. The door of prophethood flung open 
by the Mirza attracted many an adventurer and pretender. In 
1355/1936 Professor Iiyas Barm mentioned seven such pretend- 
ers. However, were one to undertake a thorough qensus of the 
pretenders in the province of Punjab alone even their number 
would be much more than seven. This sudden proliferation of 
'prophets' earned concern even to tliK Qadianfs and Mir/.y 
Jiashiruddin Mahmood remarked : 

"Look at the number of claimants to prophethood who 
have arisen from the ranks of our own party. Of these, but 
for one, I believe that none of these is consciously lying. 
The fact is that in the beginning they received inspirations, 
and ii would be no surprise if they receive them even now. 
But the mishap was that they erred in the interpretation of 
their inspirations. I personally know some of these people 
and I can testify that they possessed sincerity and fear of 



4. An:var-i-Khil<~tfat. p. T>2. 



kl-VOLT AGAINST MUHAMMAD'S I'ROPIIETlIOOrj 129 

God. The Exalted God alone knows how far this opinion 
is correct, but in the beginning they were sincere. A part 
of their inspirations was from God, but the mistake was that 
they did not grasp the wisdom of the inspirations and 
foundered."* 

Dissension Among Muslims 

The very idea of the extent to which Muslims will become 
divided among themselves, and the tragic disintegration that 
will follow as a result of the rise of these new prophets makes a 
Muslim tremble with fear. Secular trends of thought have 
made people disinclined to make claims of divinity :md prophet- 
hood. What would happen, however, if the writings of Mirza 
Gluilani Ahmad and the preachings of his followers awaken this 
idea and there is a proliferation of 'prophets' all over the 
Muslim world; and each 'prophet' begins to denounce all those 
who do not come tinder his banner as Kafirs. What a colossal 
intellectual and religious chaos would follow ? The world of 
Islam would become divided into different hostile religious 
camps and who knows if Muslims loo will not experience the 
religious wars which devastated Europe a few centuries ago. 
Thus, the uirimah which had buetl raised in order to weld the 
whole of humanity into one fraternity would itself become a 
house divided against itself. This danger was realized by one 
of the followers of the Mirza, Maulavi Muhammad c Ali, 
Muhammad 'All did not realise, however, that the door to this 
danger had been opened by his leader, the Mirza himself. For, 
in the history of Islam the Mirza ib the oniy person who initiated 
a full-fledged movement to prove the unceasing continuity of pro- 
phethood. Anyhow, the views of Muhammad c Ali are noteworthy; 
"Reflect, for the sake of God, that if the belief of Mian 

Sahib" is accepted that the prophets will continue to come 



5. Al-Ftdki, January 1, 1935. 

li. That is, Mirza Hashiruddin Mahnioud. In fairness, howcvi-r, it should In- 
noted that Mahmnod was not ilic proponent of iliis idea; Ik- mrr«ly 
rciu-raied the vifwj of his leader and father. Mirza Gliulaui Altnuil. 



130 OAOIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



and that thousands of proplicts will come, as he has written 
explicitly in Anwar-i~fCh>ldfaf y will not these thousands of 
groups denounce one another as ICaJit ? And so, what will 
happen to Islamic unity? Let us assume that all those 
prophets will be confined to the Ahmadi group alone. 
Then, how many factions will there bejn the Ahmadi 
group? After all you are aware of what happened in the 
past, how one of these groups became favourable to and 
another opposed to the Prophet after his advent. Then, 
will that very God who has expressed the will to unify all 
the peoples of the world at the hands of Muhammad (peace 
and blessings of God be on him), will He now divide Mus- 
lims into numerous factions, each one of them calling the 
other fChfir, having no Islamic relationship and unity among 
themselves. Remember that if the promise to make Islam 
predominant over all religions in the future is true, then 
that tragic day when thousands of prophets will go about 
with their own separate factions, when there will be thou- 
sands of separate exclusive mosques, each with its own 
group of mentors of true belief and salvation, denouncing 
all other Muslims as infidels, will never dawn in the history 
of Islam." 1 

A Dangerous Hypothesis 

A hypothesis of the Mirza which causes unrest in a Muslim's 
mind and opens the door of chaos and anarchy in Muslim 
society is his view that "Divine revelations and communications" 
are essential for the validity of a religion and a natural outcome 
of obedience to God and earnest endeavour in His way. In his 
view the religion in which "Divine revelations and communi- 
cations" do not continue unceasingly is a dead and false religion ; 
rather it is a Satanic religion which leads towards the hell. If 
the followers of a religion who apply themselves to the practice 
of austerities and devotion remain deprived of the honour of 



7. R4jJi~T*kfiT-i-Ahl-i-Qtbtah t pp. 49-5(1. 



REVOLT AOAlNST MUHAMMAD'S PROPHETHOOD 131 

Divine illumination despite hard efforts and sacrifices in the 
wajl of God, they are misguided, unfortunate and blind. In 
BaTlhin-i-Ahmadtyflh (Vol. V), he wrote : 

"What honour, what position, what influence and what 
Divine strength does that prophet possess, whose followers 
are merely blind, sightless people, whose eyes have not been 
opened by Divine communication? How stupid and false 
is it to believe that after the Holy Prophet (peace and bles- 
sing of Allah be on him), the door of Divine revelation has 
been closed for ever,- and in the future, till the Day of 
Judgement, there is no hope of it being opened again. Keep 
on worshipping mere fables and stories ! Can such a reli- 
gion, in which there is no direct relationship with God, be 
a religion in the real sense of the term. What then remains 
. in such a religion axcept paying devotion to mere fables. 
Even if a person were to sacrifice his life in His way, even 
if he were to loss himself completely in striving to gratify 
Him and prefer Him to everything, even then He does not 
open the door of His knowledge and docs not honour him 
with communication t I swear in the name of Exalted God 
that there would be none in this age who would be more 
averse to such a religion than I. I call such a religion 
Satanic and not a Divine one, and believe that such a reli- 
gion leads to hell.*' 8 

Logical Consequences 

Assuming "Divine communication" as essential for know- 
ledge and salvation, and holding it up as the criterion fur the 
truth and veracity of a religion, the Mirza turned religion into 
a highly complicated and an immensely straitened affair even 
though God had made it simple and practicable. God says : 

"God intends every facility for you 1 He does not want 
to put you to difficulties." 

(u. 185} 



8. BrakWi-Ahmaiiyah, Vol V, p. 183. 



132 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STVOY 

"And has imposed no difficulties on you in religion. " 
(xxii. 78) 

"On no .soul doth God place a burden greater than it 
can bear." (n. 286). 

But if Divine communication is essential for knowledge and 
salvation there can be nothing more difficult than religion. For, 
by nature, an overwhelming majority of people aie not disposed 
to that kind of communication. No matter how hard they try, 
the door of Divine communication will always remain closed for 
them. Then, there are those who do have a natural predilection 
for this, and others there are who do not have the leisure or the 
Divine help to undertake the vigorous striving essential for such 
a spiritual achievement. The universal religion which has 
been designed for the salvation of the whole of mankind and 
summons all towards God cannot possibly impose such impossi- 
ble condition* for olHairung the knowledge of pod, His pro- 
pinquity and blessings and salvation. 

If one were to study the Holy Qur'an from one end to the 
other, one could never find direct communication from God 
mentioned as an attribute of the believers or of those who merit 
salvation. Instead, one finds verses which mention characte- 
ristics such as those given in the following verses*: 

"The Believers must (eventually) win through : those 
who humble themselves in their prayers)," (xxm : 1-2). 

"And the servants of the Merciful (God) are those 
who walk on the earth in humility." (xxv : 63). 
Or one might even turn the first page of the Qur'an to find 
these verses : 

"Alif, Lam, Mlra. This is the Book ; in it is guidance, 
sure, without doubt, to those who feai God ; who believe in 
the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, and spend out of what 
We have provided fotttlvgto :" (u, 1-3). 
Nowhere does one •fiwd Df-raw communication mentioned 
in the Qur*an as essential for being rightly guided or for achi- 
eving salvation? On the contrary, the stress is primarily on 
faith in the Unseen. And faith in the Unseen means a man's 



REVOLT AGAINST MUHAMMAo's PROI'HETIIOGD I 33 



acceptance of facts relating to supra-physical matters which can- 
not be grasped by reason or senses alone, an acceptance based on 
fait It in God's prophet (who had been chosen by God for His 
revelations). Now, if one were to accept the Mir-za's view that 
Divine communication is essentia! for true knowledge and salva- 
tion, the need for faith in the Unseen becomes superfluous and 
the persistent Quranic strces on it difficult to comprehend. 
Furthermore, we have before us the lives of the illustrious 
companions of the Holy Prophet. One might ask; how many 
of them were honoured by Divine communication ? How many 
can be proved by history or Hadith (Traditions) to have enjoyed 
that privilege ? Nobody who knows the history of those times 
and understands the temperaments and the circumstances of 
those people — in fact, no one who grasps human psychology 
and human nature can say that these companions of the Prophet 
of God — and their number exceeds the figure of one hundred 
thousand — had enjdyed Divine communication. Whim such is 
the case in respect of the companions, what can be said of those 
who came after them ? 

Repudiation of Prophethood 

Tlte concept of Divine communication as mentioned above 
was, in fact, a hidden conspiracy, a clandestine revolt against 
prophethood as such. If this process were to be considered a 
widespread one and one of unceasing continuity, prophets would 
no longer remain necessary at all. The Qur'an and other 
scriptures link true guidance, knowledge of God, of His Attri- 
butes, of His will and all matters relating to the Unseen world, 
with prophethood. The Qur'an mentions, in the words of the 
truly-guided believers : 

''Praise be to God who hath guided us to this (felicity) : 

Never could we have found guidance, had it not been for 

the guidance of God. Indeed, it was the truth that the 

Apostles of our Lord brougltt unto us." 

(vii : 43) 

At another place, while refuting polytheistic and paiMn 



134 QAUIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

notions, God says: 

"Glory to thy Lord, The Lord of Honour and Power ; 
(He is free) from what ihey ascribe (to Him). And peace 
be on the Apostles. And Praise be to God, the Lord and 
Cherisher of the Worlds I" (xxxvn : lilO : 82) 

The Qui 5 an also explains the purpose of the advent of 
prophets as follows : — 

"That mankind after (the coming of) the Apostles, 
should have no plea against God." (iv : 165) 

If one were to examine carefully the concepts preached by 
the Mirza regarding the continuity of Divine communication, 
and takes note of his view that it was essential for one's salva- 
tion, it would reveal not only a spirit of revolt against the 
finality of prophethood, but would reveal symptoms against the 
very idea of prophethood. In fact, if these concepts were to be 
taken seriously, religious faith would become something akin to 
the .spiritual feats such as occultism which are becoming popular 
in the present times. 

Source of Divine communication 

Then, what is the criterion of these communications i And 
what is the guarantee that these communications did not reflect 
either the inner being of the person himself, or his environment, 
or his peculiar upbringing, or his sub-conscious desires, or else 
the complex of factors related to his heredity ? Those who have 
studied the ancient collections of these communications know 
that the bulk of them consists of completely erroneous hypotheses 
and concepts which had their origin in ancient mythology. 
Look at the spiritual experiences and Divine communications of 
the neo-Platonisls of Egypt. Were they not merely geared to 
the support of the idolatrous mythology and philosophical hypo- 
theses of the time ? Even during the Islamic period some of the 
people who had a deep faith in things such as Divine communi- 
cation and craved for gnosis mention having met Aristotle and 
having talked to him, which reflects the peculiar mental outlook 
of ancient philosophy* or Greek mythology. And if one studies 



REVOLT AGAINST MUHAMMAD*S t'ROPHETHOOD 135 

the Divine communications which the Miiza claims to have 
received one finds in ihem incontrovertible reflections of the 
time and enviionment of his life, his upbringing, his subconscious 
urges ; on the whole; a reflection of the degenerate and decadent 
society in which he had been reared and wherein he preached 
his message. In fact, these communications contain far enough 
evidence to force anyone who knows the political history of 
modern India to the conclusion that the real source of the 
Mirza's inspiration was the political authority ruling over the 
country. Iqbal, who was a man of rare insight and had also 
studied the Qadiani movement thoroughly, has made the follow- 
ing observation : 

*'I dare say the founder of. the Ahmad iyya movement 
did hear a voice, but whether the voice came from the God 
of Life and Power or arose out of the spiritual impoverish- 
ment of the peuple must depend upon the nature of the 
movement which it has created and the kind of thought and 
emotion which it has given to those who have listened to it. 
The reader must not think that I am using metaphorical 
language. The life-history of nations shows that when the 
tide of a people begins to «bb, decadence itself becomes a 
source of inspiration; inspiring poets, philosophers, saints 
and statesmen and turning them into a class of apostles 
whose sole ministry is to glorify, by the force for a seductive 
art or logic, all that is ignoble and ugly in the life of their 
people. These apostles unconsciously clothe despair in the 
glaring garments of hope, undermine the traditional values 
of conduct and thus destroy the spiritual virility of those 
who happen to be their victims. One can only imagine the 
rotten state of a people's will who are, on the basis of 
Divine authority, made to accept their political environment 
as final, Thus the actors who participated in the drama of 
Ahmad ism were, I think, only innocent instruments in the 
hands of decadence."* 



9. Iqbil ; Speeches and Writing*, pp. 157-50. 



The Lahori Branch 



The branch of Qadianism which has had its headquarters 
Until recently at Qadian, and was later transferred to Rabwah 
under the second Khoixjuk and theMirza's own son, Ha^lilruddin 
Mahmood, has made the Miiza's prophet hood its fundamental 
article of faith. Willi great frankness and courage this group 
adheres to this belief. No matter how objectionable this creed 
might be from the Islamic view-point, this group deserves the 
credit for having adopted a clear and categorical standpoint and 
showing moral courage. It is also beyond doubt that this group 
faithfully represents the teachings of the Mirza, in so far as he 
had claimed prophethood for himself in clear and vigorous terms. 

But the standpoint of the Lahore branch, whose leader until 
a few years ago was Maulavi Mohammad c All (d.1952), is 
enigmatic to the core. Anyone who has studied the writings of 
the Mirza knows that he explicitly claims prophet v ~H and 
regards all those who disbelieve in his prophethood to be Kafirs. 
If the meanings of words are fixed, and they h?ve to be taken 
in the seroe in which the speakers of that language understand 
them, and if MirzS had written his books in order to convey his 
message to his compatriots, then there <. .1 be no doubt that he 
did say that he was a prophet, that he had received revelation, 
that he was entitled to prescribe H^ine ordinances and injunctions, 
that he was the bearer of short* ok (Divine Law), and that the 
one who rejected 'jim was a JT^/fr and doomed to hell-fire. But 
Maulavf Muhammad 'All seems to have had greater sympathy 
with the Mirza than he had for himself or his offsprings have 
for him. It appears that Maulavi Muhammad l Ali is keen to 



13JJ OAOIAN1SM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

protect the greatness of the Mil za and his religious services and 
perhaps is trytntj, both consciously as well as .sub-consciously, to 
keep his own deep attachment to, and veneration of, the Mirza 
intact and, at the same time, to spare his soul and his religious 
conscience the torment caused by the Mirza's shocking claim to 
be a prophet and the consequent ex-communication of the 
Muslims, who rejected him, as Kafirs, Muhammad *AH tries to 
show that the Mirza never claimed prophethood in the technical 
sense of the word. Wherever the Mirza used terms like prophet- 
hood (aabuwah) revelation (IVaftl) and disbelief (Ku/r), in 
Muhammad * All's opinion he used them in a mystical (Sufi) 
sense, that is, these words have an allegorical and metaphorical 
import, ft is obvious that if well-known and commonly used 
religious terms were to be taken as sufistic mysteries, or as alle- 
gories and metaphors, then the writings and statements of any 
person can be interpreted in all possible ways and no connotation 
can be iixed for any piece of writing. 

Maulavi Muhammad 'All considers the Mirza to be the 
greatest Mujaddtd and reformer of the fourteenth century (of 
Hijrah), and above all that, the Promuted Messiah. It is at this 
point that the two branches ofQadianism meet. Even in his 
commentary of the Holy Qur'an, there are indications that he 
considered the Mirza to be the Promised Messiah. For instance, 
at one place in his Urdu commentary of the Holy Qur'an he 
writes : 

"Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be on him) 
was sent to all mankind and his time extends to the Day of 
Judgement. And, hence to consider oneself to be in need 
of some other messenger or prophet is ingratitude to this 
great benefactor. Thus, the prophecy about the advent of 
the son of Mary in the Had'tih can only mean that someone 
of this utnmah will come bearing resemblance to the son of 
Mary. This corresponds to the prophecy of the second 
advent of Elijah (Ilyas) which was fulfilled by the coming 
of John (Yahya) in the manner of Elijah. Ttiis statement 
of the Noble Qur'Sn prevents Jesus from coming back 



THE LAHORI BRANCH 139 



personally to the Muhammadan uminah" 1 
In his works, too, he generally refers to Mirza as "the 
Promised Messiah. 3 However, here we would confine ourselves 
to a glance at his commentary of the Holy Qitr'an in order to 
find out his religious attitudes and tendencies. 

A study of his commentary of the Holy Qur*a'n shows that 
Muhammad 'All's mind had almost completely assimilated 
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's mode of thinking as well as his method 
of interpreting the Qiir'Bn. His close contact with Hakim 
Nuruddln and his lessons in exegesis (Titfs'v) of theQur'an from 
the latter further reinforced the tendencies he had imbibed from 
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. In fact, Mohammad 'Ah is a typical 
example- of the kind of people found among the Muslims today. 
He is keen to present Qur'an before the modern world and 
-before those educated in the modern tradition. At the same 
time, his own mental framework and his intellectual upbringing 
prevent him from accepting facts relating to the Unseen World 
and the facts not comprehended by limited human intellect. He 
represents, therefore, the altitudes of those Muslims who have 
accepted all the results of modem scientific researches, or to be 
more accurate, they have accepted the well-known concepts of 
science — as distinguished frdm scientific facts — as axiomatic and 
have set them up as the criterion for the acceptance or rejection 
of everything, including the teachings of religion and thecontcnts 
of heavenly scriptures. Such people have a frame of mind 
which is, on the whole averse to belief in the Unseen World and 
in miracles. At the same time, they also have a religious incli- 
nation which makes them disinclined to repudiate the clear texts 
of the Qur'an. Hence, they try to strike a middle path. They 
interpret the Quranic texts relating to the Unseen World and 
miracles in such a manner as would not go counter to the 
concepts and ideas in vogue in the present times. In short, it is 
an attempt to make Islam palatable to the modern mind. To 

1. Tu/si' Buy an al-QtaHn, Vol. I, p. 317. 

2, $tt for inuancu, hii ai-jVtiiiiwoh/i al'/itdm and also Raid'i- lakjir M~\- 
QjUah. 



140 QAOIANISM- - A CRITICAL STUDY 

achieve this end, Muhammad £ All interprets Quranic verses in 
a highly arbitrary and exotic manner. He goes to a ridiculous 
length of casuistry in order to support his interpretation on the 
basis of the feeblest of evidences. In these explanations he sets 
aside all that might .stand in the way of making Qur*an conform 
to the whims and inclinations of the modern man. The accepted 
principles of Tafsjr, the rules of language and literature, the 
known usages of terms, the understanding of these terms on the 
part of the companions of the Prophet and Arabic-speaking 
people, the exegesis of the earlier scholars, all these are rejected 
out of hand to show that Quranic verses have nothing which 
can be regarded as 'out of fashion' in the present age. In this 
his comments are very similar to those of Sir Sayyid Ahmad 
Khan. Below area few examples which will show Muhammad 
* Alt's adventures in the realm of Quranic exegesis: 

(1) In the Second Chapter of Qur'an it has been said that 

when Moses (peace of God be on him) prayed 10 God (for water 

for his people in a wilderness), he was asked to strike with his 

. staff. This made twelve springs gush forth and the twelve tribes 

of the Israelites drank to their full. The Quranic verses read : 

"And when Moses prayed for water for his people, We 

said : Strike the rock with thy staff.' So there flowed from 

it twelve springs. Each tribe knew its drinking place." 

(n : 60) 

If one were to interpret this verse in the light of the words 
in which this incident has been conveyed and in the way it has 
been understood by all since the day it was revealed to the 
Prophet, one would be forced to the conclusion that this was a 
supernatural event brought about in a manner contrary to the 
natural law of causation. However, such an occurrence is, 
obviously, contrary to normal human experience and runs 
counter to our understanding of physical and geological laws. 
This forced Muhammad 'All to interpret it in* quite a novel 
way. Let us reproduce what he has to say on the point : 

"The words idrik bi'asa ka~i-hajara may be translated in 

two ways, strike the rock with thy staff, or march on or go 



THE l.AHORI BRANCH 14 1 

forth or hasten, to the rock with thy staff. Darb means 
striking, smiling, marching on, going from place to place, 
setting forth a parable, and carries a number af other signi- 
ficances. In fact, darb is used to indicate all kinds of actions 
except a few {Tuj al- 1 Arus). When arda (land or earth) is 
its object, it carries the significance of going about or seek- 
ing a way. Thus daraba-t-nrd or darab Ji~t-ardhi, both 
signify he journeyed in the land or went forth or hastened 
in the land (Arabic-English Lexicon by Lane). The object 
of idrib here is al-hajar which means a rock or a mountain 
to which there is no access. L AsH ordinarily means staff or 
rod, but its primary significance is a state of combination 
{Taj al- c Aru$ and Lane's Lexicon), and the word is meta- 
phorically used to speak of a community. Thus, of the 
Kh'iwarij l a Muslim sect, it is said Shaqqa t /isa-l~Muslim'ina 
(lit. they broke the staff of the Muslims which means that 
they made a schism in the state of combination and union, 
or in the community of the Muslims — tJsun al~ l Arab). 
Hence, the words may mean strike the rock with thy staff, 
or march on to the mountain with thy staff or thy commu- 
nity. What the words, of the Qux^an signify is either that 
Moses was commanded by God to smite a particular rock 
with his staff from which water flowed forth miraculously, 
or to march on to a mountain from which springs flowed." 3 
What is significant about this interpretation of the verse put 
forth by Muhammad c All is that the latter alternative has been 
preferred by him because affirmation of miracles appears old- 
fashioned and "un*scientific". 

(2) Another instance is his explanation of the following 
verse : 

"And when you killed a man, then you disagreed 
about it. And Allah was to bring forth what you were 
hiding. So, We said : Smite him with a part of it. Thus 



3. Muhammad «Ali'i Engliih Commentary, p. 29. 



142 ^ADIANIXM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Allah brings tlte dead to life, and He shows you His signs 
that you may undei stand." (n : 72-73) 

Now, the general Muslim interpretation of the incident is 
that an Israelite had been killed and the Israelites were not 
succeeding in tracing out the murderer. The successors of the 
dead asked Moses to find out from Cod who the murderer was. 
Earlier, the Israelites had been asked to slaughter a cow which 
they had done after considerable hesitation and with a feeling 
of remorse. In order to show the wisdom and reward of their 
compliance with Divine commandment, God ordered them to 
smite the dead man with some part of slaughtered cow which 
would make the dead man tell the name of the murderer. 'This 
was a very effective means of teaching the Jews the blessings of 
honouring and obeying God's commandments. In fact, anyone 
who goes through these Quranic verses without any preconceived 
notion is bound to interpret it in no other manner. But since 
this involved a categoricat affirmation of miracle, Mohammad 
*All explains the verses quite differently : 

"The story generally narrated by the commentators to 
explain this passage is not based on any saying of the Holy 
Prophet, nor is it met with in the Bible. The very iudefi- 
niteness of the incident is an indication that it refers to 
some well-known event in history, and as almost all 
incidents of the stubbornness of the Jewish nation prior to 
the time of Jesus have been mentioned, it becomes almost 
certain that this incident refers to Jesus himself, as it was 
with respect to his death that disagreement took place and 
many doubled his death. This inference becomes stronger 
when we compare the. incidents narrated here with the 
same incidents as narrated in the fourth Chapter vv. 153-57, 
when after enumerating almost ail the incidents narrated 
here in the three previous sections, the Qur'an goes on to 
accuse the Jews in the following words "And they are 
saying: Surely we have kilfed the Messiah, Jesus, son of 
Mary, the messenger of Allah : and they killed him not 
nor did they crucify, him, but he was made to appear to 



THE LAHORI BRANCH 143 

them as such, and those who differ therein are surely in 
doubt about it ; they have no knowledge representing, it, 
but only follow a conjecture" (4: 157). The part quoted 
answers exactly vv. 72 and 73, only the name is omitted 
here. The comparison makes it clear that it is the apparent 
killing of* Jesus that is referred to here. The words that 
you killed (Arabic : qntattum) are used, because in the first 
place the Jews asserted that they had killed him, and, 
secondly, because metaphorically a man may be said to have 
been killed when he is made to appear as if he were dead." 4 
As for the part of the verse which mentions the order to 

smite the dead body, he explains the phrase ''a part of it", as 

follows : 

The construction of the phrase idritrbuku bi bn l t!i-k<i is 
rather difficult, but a comparison with 4 : 157 makes the 
meaning clear. Darb conveys a number of significa- 
tions. It means striking as well as likening, and as an 
instance of the latter significance we find in the Qur'an 
itself, where it is said Yadribu~IlahvL-l-Haqq wn-l-llftttla, 
'Allah compares truth and falsehood." (xiu : 17) 

'*In bcf-di-ha (lit, a part of it) the personal pronoun ha 
i.e. it refers to the act of murder. The act of murder was 
not completed in the case of Jesus, as the Gospels show, for 
after he was taken down from the cross his legs were not 
broken as in the case of the thieves. The meaning of the 
sentence is therefore according to the signification of darb 
that we adopt: strike him with partial death, or liken his 
condition to that of the partially dead man, and thus he 
was made to appear as a dead man, as stated in 4: 157. 
There is no other case of murder or an attempted murder 
in Jewish history of which the whole nation could be said to 
have been guilty, and which might answer to the description 
of these two verses."*' 



4. Muhsnun.-ul <A]i's F.uglWi Con mentary. p 34. 

5. Hid., p. 35 



144 £AD1ANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

This type of reasoning is fairly illustrative of the mentality 
we have spoken of above. In order to avoid affirming a miracle 
alt kinds of involved reasoning is employed, including the con- 
tention (see the above citation) that the feminine pronoun was 
used as masculine, and the incident of Jebus (peace be on him) 
was tagged on to these verses, without there being for it any 
contextual relevance whatsoever. 

(3) The Qur'an repeatedly mentions that to provide evidence 
of his prophet hood, Jesus made from clay the form of a bird, 
and then he breathed into the model which sprang into life and 
flew into the air like a real bird. 

"And I made for you from clay the form of a bird, 
then I breathe into it and it came a bird with Allah's per- 
mission." (m: 49) 
The verse obviously suggests a miracle. In order to avoid 
that, Muhammad C AU gives an out-and-out figurative interpreta- 
tion of the verse. His interpretation of the verse is novel since 
he assigns an altogether novel signification to the four terms 
used in the verse : hlwlq, tin, nafkh, and lair, khalq according to 
him, here means the determining of a thing. As for tin and 
na/M, he says "Man is spoken of as being created from tin or 
dust, which stands for his humble origin, but the nafkh or 
breathing into him makes him deserving of respect by the 
angels," Then comes the word tair which, says Muhammad 
*All, means a bird just as the word asad (lit, a lion) is figurativly 
used for a brave man. In a parable it is quite unobjectionable, 
says Muhammad ' All, to take (lie word ta\r as signifying one 
who soars intu the higher spiritual regions and is not bent low 
upon earth or earthy things. In the light of these novel signi- 
fications given to the words, Muhammad All considers the verse 
to mean : 

"So that is meant here is that Jesus, by breathing a 
spirit into mortals, will make them rise above those who are 
bent upon the earth, and the apostles of Jesus, who were all 
men of humble origin (which is referred to in the word dust 
in the parable), whose thoughts had never risen higher 



THE LAHORI BRANCH 145 

than their own humble cares, left everything for the master's 
sake and went into the world by the command of the master, 
preaching truth. Here was, no doubt, mere dust having 
the form of a bird, which the messenger of God converted 
into high-soaring birds by breathing the truth into them."* 
(4) The'Qur'an mentions Solomon enumerating the favours 
of God unto him,. He said : 

"On man, we have been taught the speech of birds, 

and we have been granted of all things.* 1 (xxvii : 16). 

Since knowledge of "speech of birds" is contrary to normal 

human experience, Muhammad c All considers the knowledge 

of speech of birds to mean Solomon's use of birds for conveying 

messages. In his own words : 

"Solomon's understanding of the speech of birds may 
imply that he made use of birds to convey messages from 
one place to another, the^e messages being metaphorically 
called the speech of birds." 7 
The following verse reads ; 

"Till when they came to the valley of the ants, the she- 
ant said : "O ants, enter your abodes." (xxvn: 18). 
Here again Muhammad *Ali gives a free rein to his imagi- 
nation. According to him, Wad al-Naml does not mean, as it 
apparently does and as it has been interpreted by exegetists, the 
'valley of ants', but the valley of an Arab tribe called Banu 
Namlah, and the word namlah (she-ant) mentioned in the verse 
has been explained by him as follows ; 

"It is the name of a tribe The name Namlah used 

also to be given to a child in whose hand an ant was placed 
at its birth, because it was said that such a child would be 
wise and intelligent" 8 

(5) In the Quranic chapter entitled Saba it has. been men- 
tioned about Solomon : 

"But when We decreed death for htm, naught showed 

6. Muhammad *Ali'» English Commentary, p. 144. 

7. ihid. 

8. Hid,, p. 731. 



146 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

them (the jinn) his death except a creature of the earth who 
ate away his staff." (xxxiv : 14) 

The Muslim exegetisls in explaining this verse point out 
that Solomon was having his temple constructed by jinn. When 
he came to know that the time of his death had arrived, he 
explained the plan of construction to the jinn, shut himself up in 
a house of glass, and devoted himself to the worship of God. 
In this statu, the angel took the breath of life out of him. His 
corpse kept standing by the support of a wooden staff. The 
jinn kept on working for long. None sensed that Solomon had 
died. When the construction was completed, the stalf which 
had supported his corpse full down because of its having been 
eaten up by a moth. It was then that his death became known. 
The jinn also realised the limitations of their knowledge of the 
Unseen. Their human followers too came to realise that had 
the jinn become aware of Solomon's death by virtue of their 
capacity to know the Unseen, they would have got rid of the 
humiliation they had been enduring so long. 

Now, since all this could be accepted only if supernormal 

things are ailiimed, Muhammad c All again comes forward with 

a strange explanation. This is what lie has to say on the question : 

"The reference in the creature of the earth that ate 

away his stall' is to his son's weak rule, under whom the 

kingdom of Solomon went to pieces. It appears that 

Solomon's successor, Rehoboatn, led a life of luxury and 

rase, and instead of acting on the advice of older men, he 

■ yielded to the p lea.su re-seeking wishes of his companions 

(Kings: 12: 13), and it is to his luxurious habits and easy 

mode of life that the Holy Qui- 'an refers when it calls him 

a creature of the earth. The eating away of his staff signifies 

the disruption of the Kingdom. The jinn, as already 

remarked, mean the rebellious tribes who had been reduced 

to subjection by Solomon, and who remained in subjection 

to the Israelites for a time uni il the Kingdom was shatter ed." 



9. Muhammad 'Alia English Commentary. |) U25 



THE LAHORI BRANCH 147 

(6) Another example of the same trend is his explanation 
of the following verse; 

"And he reviewed the birds, then said: How is it I 
see not hudhud, or is it that he is one of the absentees." (27 : 20) 
The word hudhud ha% been understood as signifying a parti- 
cular species of birds (hoopoe). The same view is corrobora- 
ted by the context because a little earlier there is a mention 
of Solomon's knowledge of the speech of birds and, again, since 
it is the birds that he is reviewing. But since it is not normal 
that a human being should converse with birds and call it to 
account, and the bird should explain its conduct before him, 
Muhammad *Ati let his imagination loose and interpreted 
hudhud as the chief officer of Solomon's Department of Intelli- 
gence. He wrote : 

"By Hudhud is not to be understood lapwing, but a 
person of that name. In many languages many of the pro- 
per names given to men will be found to be identical with 
the names of animals. The Arab writers speak of a king of 
Himyar as Hud 3d (Lisin at-*- Arab) , which u almost identical 

with Hudhud mentioned in the Qur'an The verses that 

follow show clearly that Solomon was speaking of one of 

his own officers " 

In his Urdu Tafsir he elaborates the situation, pointing out 
that Hudhud was an intelligence officer and that when 
Solomon reviewed the birds who were used to carry on 
intelligence work, he found the officer of the intelligence 
department, Hudhud, absent. (See his Tafslr al-Baydn, vol. hi, 

p. 1413) 

(7) The Qur'an mentions the existence of a distinct species 
called Jinn, inter alia, in the following verse : 

"Say : It has been revealed to me that a party of the 
jinn listened, so they said : Surely we have heard a wonder- 
ful QurW' (lxxii:!) 
The testimonies of Qur'an and HadHh, the continuity of 



10. Muhammad *Ai;*» English Commentary, pp. 751-32. 



148 Q.ADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Muslim belief, as well as human observations, are too overwhel- 
ming on the question to warrant the denial of existence of a 
separate species of ethereal brings. Muhammad e AU too could 
not explicitly reject this belief as erroneous. He merely seems 
to evade the question. He tries, therefore, to give other mean- 
ings of the term, depending upon the contexts in which the term 
occurs. At one place he considers the word jinn 10 signify 
"great potentates or powerful leaders who, through their impor- 
tance and detachment from the masses, do not mix freely with 
them, so they remain distant or "hidden" from their eyes." 1 * No 
less strange is his feat of imagination in trying to explain that 
the term in the Quranic verse mentioned above refers to Chris- 
tians." He regards the opening verses of this chapter as prophe- 
tical, "speaking of some future time when Christian nations form- 
ing the bulk of mankind — such being one of the significances of 
the word jinn (Lane's Ltxicon)— will accept the truth of the 
message brought by the Prophet." 13 

These are just a few examples. The huge Commetary of 
Muhammad 'All is replete with such distortions under the 
immature impression that modern science was opposed to belief 
in miracles or in the occurrence of an event which is of a super- 
natural order. 

At this point a sound thinking person is bound to ask himself 
the question:, did the Companions of the Holy Prophet, who were 
the first addressees of the Qur'an, and in whose mother-tongue 
the Qur'an was revealed and who had the honour of having 
been instructed by the Holy Prophet himself, also understood 
the same import of the verses as has been explained by this new- 
fangled exegetist? Did they also think that 'strike the staff on 
tho rock' meant 'march on to the mountain with thy community'? 
Did they also think that 'And strike him with part of*it' meant 
'kill him only partially'? Did they also think that the claim of 



1 1 . Muhammad Ali '« English Commentary, p. 306, 

12. Ibid., p. 1107. 

13. /•»/., p. 1107. 



THE LAHOBJ BRANCH 149 

Jesus of 'creating birds out of clay' meant 'infusing the spirit to 
rise above earthly concerns'? Did they also think that 'the 
speach of birds' meant 'message-carrying birds' t that the 'creature 
of the earth' referred to Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and that 
'jinn' meant the 'Christian nations of Europe? In the same way, 
did any of the followers of these companions, or any Arab 
linguists, or scholars and exegeti&ts understand something similar 
to what Muhammad 'All understood from them? It would be 
hard to say 'Yes* for we have before us the entire treasure of 
Tafiir literature and it testifies to the originality of Mohammad 
* All's brain. None of the profound scholars of Arabic and its 
literature can even imagine that these verses could, by any stretch 
of imagination, mean what this non-Arab scholar thinks they 
mean, almost for the first time after more than thirteen hundred 
years. 

This being the case, one is left wondering about the signifi- 
cance of the Quranic claim of being a 'clear book' which has 
been revealed in 'clear Arabic.' The Qur'an itself makes the 
claim in these words : 

"And surely this is a revelation from the Lord of the 
Worlds. The faithful spirit has brought it on thy heart so 
that thou mayst be a Warner in plain Arabic language." 

{xxvi: 192-95) 

"These are the verses of the Book that makes manifest. 

Surely we have revealed it — an Arabic Qur'an — that you 

may understand." (xii:I-2). 

Another verse says : 

"And certainly We have made the Qur'an easy to under- 
stand. Now, is there anyone who will ponder"? (liv : 17) 
If Muhammad c All's approach were to be considered sound, 
it would mean that for more than thirteen hundred years the 
Qur'an remained an incomprehensible mystery, an unsolved 
puzzle. To disregard the obvious meaning of Quranic verses, 
to set aside the well-known rules of Arabic language and 
grammar, to neglect the interpretations of Qur'an made by the 
companions of the Prophet, to overlook the context of relevant 



150 (£ADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

Prophetic Traditions — all this means subjecting the Qur'an to 
distortion and reducing it to a plaything. This is a great danger 
and portends ill for Muslims if people promoting this kind of 
approach find an encouraging response from them. Long ago 
MirzS GhulSra Ahmad made a very apt remark about the 
Tdftir of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Nothing could apply more 
adequately* to the Tafslr of Muhammad c Alt. He said : 

"These interpretations of the Holy Qur^an which were 
neither in the knowledge of God's Prophet, nor in the know- 
ledge of his companions, nor in the knowledge of saints 
and aqtsb and gh&wih and abdil, nor have any direct or 
indirect textual evidence, have caught the imagination of 
Sir Sayyid." 



Contribution of Qadtantsm to the 
Muslim World 



Now that wc have studied the life. of the founder uf Qadia- 
nism, traced the evolution of its doctrines, and noted its 
doctrinal emphasis, etc., we are in a position to attempt 
historical evaluation of Qadianism and *.ee what achievements 
go to its credit in the history of the reformist movements in 
Islam? What has it given to the present generation of 
Muslims ? What has been the practical outcome *>f this religious 
hullabaloo which has been going on for about three quarters 
of a century? The founder of the movement has bequeathed 
a whole library of his works on alt kinds of religious subjects, 
particularly controversial matters, and they have been under 
discussion for over seventy years. What is the essence of these 
works and what are they really driving at? What is the message 
of Qadianism for the piesent age? 

To answer these questions, we should cast a glance at the 
Muslim world itself wherein this movement arose. We should 
also have a look at the state of the Muslim world during the 
second half of the nineteenth century, and its problems and 
difficulties. 

The most important event which took place during this 
period of time which can be ignored neither by a historian nor 
a reformer is the aggression of Europe on the Muslim world, 
particularly India. The educational system that came in its 
train was devoid of the spirit of god-consciousness, and the cul- 
ture which sprang from this new world-view was permeated 



152 l^AIMANIiM A C'lUTlCAL STUDY 

with ungodliness and sensuality. The vvurld of Islam full an 
easy prey to litis n;r«/ent but militarily well-etpiippcd Luropeau 
power became it had become impoverished ia all respects : in 
respect of faith of kiimt ledge, and of material resources. This 
w*aj» the time when a conflict of colossal importance look place: 
I lie conflict between religion (ami Isla in alone was in llie field 
in represent irligiou)aiui the ungodly and materialistic culture 
of Europe. ThU couUicl gave hiith to a large uutiiber of poli- 
tical, cultural, intellectual and social problems — problems which 
could have been solved only through strong and unshakeahle 
faith, profound and extensive knowledge and extraordinary self- 
confidence and perseverance. To encounter the. situation, the 
Muslim world needed a great spiritual and intellectual perso- 
nality who could infuse the spit it uf^Y/ifr/ (snuggle) in the Muslim 
world, unite the Muslims, be able to withstand the least distor- 
tion of Islamic teachings, bring about a rapprochement between 
the eternal message of Islam and the restless spirit of the present 
age by dirt of his strength of faith and intellectual acumen, and 
.meet squarely the challenge of the zettful and buoyant West. 

This was one aspect. of the problems faced by the Muslim 
World of that time. The other aspect of the Muslim world was 
that it appeared to be infested with religious and moral ailments, 
the most gruesome of which was the rise of doctrines and 
practices which bore the imprint of polytheistic inlluences. 
TQZias and graves were worshipped. People swore in the names 
of others than God. Innovations in religion were popular every- 
where. Superstitions* and meaningless beliefs were rampant. 
This situation called for a reformer of tremendous dimensions: 
a reformer who could purge the Islamic society of anti-Islamic 
influences, remind the Muslims of the true doctrine of Tawhid, 
and stress the obligation of adhering to the Sunnah of the 
Prophet ; in short, one who could thoroughly purify the religious 
life of Muslims. 

Besides this, the contact with foreign nations and a material- 
istic culture had begun to corrode the Muslims socially and 
degenerate them morally. Moral degeneration had gone to the 



CONltUUUTlUN Oh y\UIAN!SM TO THE MIISLIU U'uKLtl lf»3 

extent of unabashed sinfulness; love of extravagant and luxurious 
living to the extent of licentious self-indulgence; docile obe- 
dience to liieir rulers to the eiOunt of intellectual subservience 
and las* of $eU-resptct ; and, the tendency to imitate the Western 
culture and ihe way of life of their British masters to the extern 
of the repudiation of the teachings of Islam. 'The situation 
obviously demanded the rise of a great crusader against the>e 
degenerating tendencies, a crusader who would put a stop to the 
tidal waves of moral and intellectual decline and counteract the 
harmful effects of political slavery and its oOshoot of mental 
bondage. 

Again, there was the problem of ignorance : the ignorance 
of even the rudiments of lxUm on the part of a great majority of 
MUslims. As for the people educated along modern liues, they 
were unaware of Islam, of the normative principles of the 
Muslim way of liic, of the history of Islam, and of the greatness 
of their own past, and were, on tl*e whole, pessimistic about its 
future. Islamic religious sciences were in a state of decay, and 
the old centres of learning appeared m be oji the verge of 
collapse. All this meant that a new, vigorous educational move- 
ment was needed, a movement to set up new schools and 
tnadrassAs t as well as to produce forceful books in order to 
improve the knowledge of Muslims about their religion, awaken 
their religious consciousness and create in them a deep faith in 
the teachings of Islam. 

Even more important than. all these was another crying 
need of the Muslim world: the need io summon the Muslims in 
the manner of the prophets, to live a truly Islamic life charac- 
terised by strong faith and righteous action. It is this alone 
which entitles die Muslims to the help of God, to their predo- 
minance oyer the enemies, and to their salvation in this world 
as well as in the next and every kind of felicity and honour. 
The fact is that the real need of the Muslim world has never 
been, nor will it ever be a fresh religion : all that it has needed 
is a fresh and deeper faith in Islam. Never lias the world of 
Islam needed a new religion, or a new prophet. It has merely 



154 QADIANISM — A CRITICAL STUUY 

been in need of a -fresh failh in, and fresh enthusiasm for, the 
eternal truths: the beliefs and the teachings revealed to the 
last of all the prophets, Muhammad (peace be on him). This 
faith is adequate enough to encounter the evil tendencies thai 
might arise in any age and resist the new temptations that the 
changing time brings along with it. 

In response to the crying needs of the Muslim world men- 
tioned by us there arose numerous personalities and movements 
in the Muslim world. They made no big claims, nor did they 
try to create a new ummah. All they did was to fulfil these 
important needs as best as they could, and in so doing they 
inspired a great number of Muslims. They neither tried to 
promote a new religion, nor invited people to rally around some 
new prophet, nor did they create anarchy in Muslim ranks. 
They wasted none of their capabilities in futile tasks. Such 
personalities and movements proved to be an unmixed blessing 
to the Muslim world : their mission was free from all possibili- 
ties of harm, and their work, commendable beyond any shadow 
of doubt. Without having tost anything, the Muslims benefited 
from them and to them they owe a heavy debt of gratitude. 

Al such a critical movement, in the most crucial area of 
the Muslim world, India, which was the main scene of intellec- 
tual and political conHicts, there also arose Mirza Ghulam 
Ahmad to initiate a new movement. What is noteworthy about 
him is that he totally disregarded some of the most important 
problems which were confronting the Muslim world in his days 
and focused all his aUttMion an one question ;dori*e. Now, 
what was it ? The question of the death of Messiah and the 
claim on his own part to be the Promised Messiah. Whatever 
time and energy was left after concentrating on this issue was 
spent on propagating tlmt jih&d had become prohibited and that 
loyalty to the British Government was a religious imperative. 
For about a quarter of a century these very questions continued 
to be debated by him at great length. If the writings of the 
Mirz£E on the question of Messiah were to be expunged from 
his works, hardly anything of significance will be left in them. 



-CUNTklllUTlON OF t^AOIANISM TO Tilt MUSLIM WORLD 15)5 

Moreover, it is also lo be noted that the Mirza raised the 
standard of his prophet hood and declared all those who did not 
accept his claim as kftjirs in a Muslim world which was already 
torn by dissensions. By so doing/however, the Mirza raised an 
iron wall between himself and the Muslims. On the one side of 
this wall (here are a few thousand followers of the Mirza, and 
on the other side is the rest of the" Muslim world which stretches 
from Morocco to China and has great personalities, virtuous 
movements of reform, and valuable institutions. They stand 
isolated from and opposed to the whole of this world. Thus he 
unnecessarily added to the difficulties of Muslims, further 
aggravated their disunity and added a new complication to the 
problems facing them. 

The Mirza has made no worthwhile contribution to the 
intellectual and religious heritage of Muslims which would call 
for his recognition and because of which he might deserve the 
gratitude of the present generation of Muslims. Nor did he 
initiate a broad-based movement for the revival of Islam which 
could profit the Muslims as a whole, nor help Muslims to solve 
any of the major problems facing them, nor did his movement 
contain any message for the contemporary civilization which is 
in the grips of a major crisis and is interlocked in a life and 
death struggle. Nor can he even be credited with any signifi- 
cant achievement vis-a-vis the expansion of Islam either in India 
or Europe. His message remained addressed to the Muslims 
and of necessity could only lead to mental confusion and 
unnecessary religious squabbles within the Muslim community. 
If the Mirza on be considered successful, it is only in so far as 
he bequeathed to his family the legacy of spiritual leadership 
and worldly prosperity, the legacy of a kind of theocracy in 
which respect he is comparable to the Agha Khan and his 
ancestors. 

The fact is that ft is merely a set of favourable circimntstanc.es 
and not any inner vitality whith accounts for the survival of 
Qadianism for several decades. It owes a good deal to the 
intellectual bewilderment found in India, and particularly in 



156 QA MAN ISM — A CKiHIJAI.-STtlliY 



Punjab in his time. Qadianisin is abo indebted to the domi- 
nance of the Briiish in India which had weakened the bases of 
Islamic life so that the rising generation of Muslims had become 
profoundly ignorant ol ihe teachings of Islam and the charac- 
teristic* aud attributes of prophethood and true spiritual leader- 
ship. It owes a debt of gratitude to the encouragement and 
pan uuage it received from the British rulers. Had it not been for 
these factors, Qadiaimni which bases itself mainly on inspita- 
tions, dreams, fantastic interpretations of religious texts and dry 
aud lifeless theological quibbling, which have nu morai and 
spiritual message . for the present age, nor any imaginative 
solution for the problems of our time, could never have teinaJned 
alive as long as it has managed to do in this degenerate and 
confused generation, ii seems to me that we have been punished 
by God for the ingratitude that Muslims have shown to Him in 
the past by deviating iioui the teachings of Islam, and the crimes 
we have committed by not fully recognizing the true servants of 
the cause of Islam who rose amidst us. For all these crimes \\c 
have received what we unfortunately deserved — this intellectual 
plague and the rising up of this man amidst us who has souii 
the seeds of perpetual discord and disunity. 

A few years ago while lecturing at the University of 
Damascus on the movements of reform and revival of true Islam 
in the past I made the following observation about Batinite 
movement which appears worth reproducing in the context of 
Qadianisin : 

"When 1 read the histories of batinite movement, of 
Ikhautdn (//-.SVv/d.of Bahaiiininlianand (Qadianisin in India, 
it seems to me that wlien the founders of these movements 
read the history of Islam and the life of the Prophet it 
Struck them that a map, all by himself stood up with a 
mission in Arabia, without any money to back him, or any 
army to support him ; he summoned people towards a creed, 
towards a religion and not, after very long there came into 
existence a new ummah, a, new state, and a new, culture. 
They also noticed that , single-handed he changed the 



ONTklllUTJON Ol Q APIAN ISM TO T1IF, Ml SI 1M U'OKJ.D 157 

dii eft ion of human history, and forced events to {low into 
a different channel. The ambitious natures of these men 
then whispered to them: "Why not try?" These people 
knew that they had intelligence, remarkable mental capabi- 
lities and organising ability. They thought, therefore, that 
history might repeat itself in their case, following the 
natural pattern of cause and effect. These people had 
exported the same kind of miraculous success to crown their 
efforts, as had crowned the efforts of the unlettered Prophet 
of AiitLmi in the sixth century, for, they thought that human 
nature icmnined always the same, and if il had responded 
to Muhammad in the past, there was no reason why it 
should not respond to them now. 

"These persons did have a glimpse of the greatness of 
Muhammad (pc;ice be on him), who carried Ids movement 
to a xuccfrvtbd end, but could no! see ihe Divine .support 
which wa.s his real strength, nor the Divine Will of which 
he was an instrument. 

"The result was that fur a very short period of lime, 
the efforts of these »r ^itions people did bear some fruit. 
There gathered behind them a following, sometimes of 
several hundred thousand people. Some of them (e. g, 
Hatinifes) even succeeded in establishing a slate of their own 
(the 1-almiidc Stair) which for Mime time covered a fairly 
wide ,ue. i from Sudan Lo Morocco. Bui all this remained 
only ;is lout* as i hey weie able to maintain (heir organisation- 
al efficiency, their wizardry and their secret administrative 
network. Hut when these 'hings were gone, all their power 
and glory also became a poignant memory of the past. 
With the loss of worldly power, the religious movement 
shrank and obscured and lost all significance for human life. 
Against this, is the true Islam preached by the last messenger 
of Allah (peace be on him). It constitutes today, as it 
constituted yesterday : a great spiritual force in the world, 
the guiding star and inspiration of a great ummah. It still 
possesses a distinctive culture which sprang from the spirit 



158 QAD1ANISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 

of its teachings. It is still the religion of a number of states 
and peoples. The sun of Muhammad's prophet hood is still 
shining brilliantly in the sky. Never in history has it 
suffered an eclipse and it never will.*' 



Bibliography 



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tion (1920) 

A<-jU'i~Ahmadl (1902) 

APna'i-Kivn^at'i-hia.n, Alirnadiyah Anjunian hlia'nt- 
i-Islam, tahore ( 189.3) 

Aik GhattiKa Ualah " 

Al-Wasiyal 

Anjam-i-Aiham (1897) 

Aimatii Fait tab, Zia-al-lslam Press, Oadian (1917) 

Ualtt-i-Awham, III Edition (1902) 

Barahitt-i-Ahmntytt, Vols. I-V. IV Edition ( lfliH and 

1907) " ' 

Fath-i- hlih (1 ttOl) 

ilaqlqat-al-Wahl 

Khutbat-i-llhamiyah 

Kitdb-ai-Bmyah, II Edilion (193'2) 

jfajm-al-ljutid 

ffazut~al-Mastfi 

Ntif-al'tlaqq 

Shahna-i-Hatf Vot. 1 

Siiarah Qaisariyah 

Surimi-i-Chtiihm-i-Arytt, I Kditton, Culzar-i-Hiiut 
Vtvit, Lahore (UU\C>) 

Shtthaddt-al-Qur 1 an i Slier Hind Press, Auuiiscw 

Tiry&q'al-(hiliib, Zia-al-Islam Press, Qadiau 

TazKirah or AlajmiS-a Wali'x Muqaddm 

Tawdift-al-Maram 

Tuhfal-al-Nadwdi Zia-al-Islam Press, Qiklian 
Mirza Baslilruddjn Malunood : Anwiir-i-tChilafat \ 

Apna-i-Stidaqat 



mo 



OAIUAN1SM" A CKITICAL STUIjV 



Btttkal'i'h'frilafnt 
Duri-i'Tttaniln 
Hftq'tqnt-an-Xain'nvak ; 

A IVcsenl to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales 
(daied January 19, l*>22> 
Mirza Hushii Ahmad : S\ral-at-Mnltd}, Vols. I and II, II Edi- 
tion (103-1) 
Kaltvnatul Fail 
Muhammad *AlS : Bayan-al-ihtr^iin, K.trim! Press t'1941) 

Commentary of ihe Holy Qttr'ait (English version of 

I he Tafs'u BajHu-at-lhu^ati) 
An /tomiiihjU Islam 
Hadrt-i- TakftT-i-Ahi-i'Qjblal, ; 
Hatfiqal-i-lkltta!df 
Mir Q;mm * All Qiidiani : Tabl~igU-i-Ris?ttat, Vol. VI, VII, X 
Shaikh Yakiib *All l Irlaiil (v<\.) : litiiat-i-Ydih ; 

toaktuhal-i-Ahmadiyah, Vol. V 
Alcbar Shah Khan Napbabgdt : Aiirqat-al~.Vaqlafi Hajat-i- 

/ffmuMin, Anjuman Isha*at*Ms.lam Ahmadiyah 
Buildings, Lahore 
S. Sm war Shah QadianI : k'ashfttl-ikhtelaf, Zia-al- Islam Press, 

Qadian, (1920) 
Qazi Fazal Ahmad : Kalama-i-Fazl'irfiahmani 
Anwar Shah : c Aq'tdat-al-Iilom 
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan : Athab Baghdivat-i-l lint! 
Dr. 'Abdul Hac): Chand Ifam*Asr 
Dr. < Abdul Hakim: Az-^ikr-il-Hnklm' 
Rabat Malik : Dour Hazir ka Mazhabj Aamir 
Dr. Zahid C AU : Hamara 'hmafih Mazhab out Uska Nizam 
Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal : Pas Che Ha) ad /Card; 
Zarb-i-tCati'n ; 
Harf-i-lqbal 

Writings and Speeches 
IVt.f, S.iialn.ddln Tlyas Barni : Qad&tii Mazhafi, 'Umdatul 

Mutab'e, Lurknow 
H ti l[;i24in : Al-Fatf [i Milal wan Nahl 



IIIBHOCRAPHY 161 



I tin Vlajar : h'alh'ttl-HTui 

Maulana 'Abdul Hai' : Nuzhatul Khawatir, Vol. VI, Da«irattil 

Ma'arif, Hyderabad 
Sir William Hunter : Our Indian Mussalntan.s 

Daily Papers and Journals 

The Daily Paigham-i-Sulk, Lahore, Vol. XXI, No. 22 

Journal TaJtkhlz-a'-Aikan, Qadian, Vol. VI, No. 14 ; Vol. IX, 
No. 11 

The Daily {il-Hukm, Qadian : Issues of August 10, 1901, April 
14, 1908, May 7 and 21, 1034 

Journal 'Review of Religions', Qadian, Vol. VII, No. 726 of 
June-July, 1908 Vol. XIV, No. 6 

Journal Mi'ar-ul-fihbar 

Journal lshfrat-i-Sunnah t Amritsar, Vol. VII, No. 6 of June, 1884 

The Daily M-Fail. Qadian. Issues of December 31, 1914, 
May 28, 1918, December 15, 1921, December 
18, 1922, January 4, 1923, March 3, 1925, 
August 6, 1925, April 13, 1926, April 29, 1927, 
July 3, 1931, February 23, 1932, December 1, 
1932, January 1 and 15, 1935, September 3, 1935 
and September 15, 1936. 



Index 



A 

'Abdal Muttalib, 67 
'Abdul (Aziz, Maulana, 84 
'Abdul Chant MujaddidF, 17 
'Abdul Hai> liurhanwi, 17 
'Abdul Hakim, Dr., 64n, 82n 
•Abdul Haq Hacr-iam, Maulana, 97 
'Abdul Kar.i.i, Maulavi, 57, 58 
'Abdul Latif, 92 
( Ahdul Qadir Ludhiinawi, 

MauIanS, 34 
'Abdul Qadir Rajpuri, Haxrat 

Maulana, iii, iv 
'Abdnl Qayyurn* Maulana, 17n 
'Abdul Hasan Abari, 43n 
'Abdullah, 67 

'Abdullah Tonltwi, Mufti, 97 
Alwaliam, 61, 67 
Abu Dd>uJ, 17 
Abu Hunifa, lmani, 5n 

Adam, ui* 

Afghanistan, 88, 92. 93 
Africa, 53 

A^ha Khan, 155 

Munad (Alusnad), 76n 
Ahmad 'Ah Saharanrjurl, Maulana, 

97 

Ahmad Hasan Anirulu, Maulnua, 

97 

Ahmaduddtn, Maulavi, 16 

Aina-i-Katnalat-i-ltlam, (i&n, 96it, 

99nf 

Atna-i-Sadaijai, 69n 

Akbar (On: tmperur), 128 

Akbar Shah Khan Najibabadl, I5n 

At-FaM, 2ln, 66n, 71. 82, 92,93, 

inn I". 



At Fatal jt af+MtUl wa til- Mahal, 4tn 
At-Hakam. 66, 67, lOBn 
f Ali, Hi*rat, 76 
<Ali Shall, >ir Mihr, 97 
At Mahdi, ; 67,, 
At Nubutonh fipl'falvut, \'ifyn 
Al J^owail^'i-Suiinusii, 77n 
Al~Zikr'd!:fhk~im, £J2u 
Aman-i- Afghan, 92 
America, 51 
Amrilsar, 34, 59 
^Bja;«-i-2i/wm v 96nC I02n, I09n 
AnuMr-i-Khilafati 65, I'iHn 
Anwar Shall Kashmiri, 43n 
t.hjiJul til- Islam, 43u 
Aroba'in, 6n, ■ 7n, I0n, 49n, 59, Gl, 
62, 66n 
Arabia, 53, U6, 1 181". 1451" 
Aiislolli', 134 
Aiuidni hatila. \&h\ 
Auraugzcb 'AUmgir, 77, i!8 
'Azizulhili Afghani, Maulavi, 16 

Xt 
liandt Mdtiam, 121 n 
ILinu Natulan, U5 
iiurdhin-i-Ahmadiyah.^n, |U, 19, 26f, 
40n, 56n, 61, 63n, 7l!n, 86. 
117,131 
Btrakii-i-Khitjfdl, 65r; 
Bhaira, 15, 17,20 
II. Main. 83 
IhidJiasaC, 56 
Itukhati. 16, %n 

C 
China, 155 

Chirah «Ali, Maulavi, 26 
Constantinople, 118 



Ib3 



QAD1AN1SM — A CRITICAL 1TUDY 



r> 

Dajjal, 65 

Damascus, 46f, 156 

Daut-i-Hdur Ka Matkahl 2ihit, 82n 

Dalhi, 18 

/Jbrr-t'TAaniiii, 116 

F-gVP'.iii, 77n, 83, 86, 88, 134 
EJL GW/T A<t /ca/«A, GOn 
Elijah (Ilyas), 138 
J'.ngbmd, 27 

1 adhl Ahmad, 66 
ladil Qazr, 7?n 
Fatl-ii-Kkilak, 20 
Fatah-al-Bari, 43n 
Faihi-ltlcm, 19, 40, 44 nf 
K:izl Ahmad, 107 
Kus.Ui-Ahn»a.d. Maulavi, 11 
Fazl-i-llfihi, Maulavi, 8 
Faxlur Uahmin Ganj MuradSbadt. 
Maulina, 78 
Farcin, 33 

O 
(J I m lam Kastil, Hafiz, 15 
Cuba, 97 
Gospels, 143 
(iiiflm, 7 

Gul 'Alt Shall, Maulavi, 8 
Curdaspur, 7, .25 

Honiara Ii>nn*ili Mathab our us ka 

llaqiqat al IKhtiiaf, U2n 
Ifaqigttot JfLbiiwal, 58f, f>l 
Ifaqiqat at U'qhy, I3n, 59n, 6 In, 
(Hn f I04n 
Hat/Iqbdl, 126 
1,'asan Ihn Sahhali, 82 
Hasan Sliali, Maulatia, )fi 
IfayM-i-NZ.tir, 13 
Ifuttiyak, 16 



Hijaz, 77n 
Himyar, 147 
Hushiarpur, 10, 36 
Hudad, 147 
Hudlmd, 147 
flajjat al-hldm, 30 ' 
Hunter, W. \V., 84n 
liusain, 47 

I 
Ihn Hajar, 43n 
Ibn Hazam, 43n 
tin Stiijak, 17, 76n 
Ihn Shailiiad, Qadi, 77» 
ttjdc-i-Altiiiadi, 97n 
Jkhwan ai-Safa. IK 
Htiwus-i'^arTtri, 28 
1 has Kami, 2 In, I2ln. 128 
li.dia, hi. I, 2.' 9n, !6, 21, 25, 27. 
52, 56, 83, 84. BR, 93, 1 18, 
135, 15G 
1(|hal (Tin" poet), 3, 4.93, 1251", 135 
lifarr. 77n, i20, 125, 156 
liaq, iii 

(ihd'-al at-Sittmah, 33, 34n 
I it that Wajibul izhiit, 7n 
Utlat al-Awhdm, 3(J, 40n. 47n, 50nf. 

lOOf 
Wiiif et-Haqq, 17, 30 
, ( l//.iiKibi, 106, 107 

or 

J.iinuluddiii Klian, Mn'tshi, 18 
Janinm, 18, 19, 39 
Ji-sus Christ, 25, 33, 42, 52. 56, m, 
C8, 104. '38 I42f. 149 
Jinnah, Mr., 68 
John (YahyS), 138 
Jummal, 55 

K 
Kabah, 1 16 , 
Kabul, OC, 88, 92 
Kulma-i-FazI '-Hohmdal , I05n 
ffalimat at-Fdi( t 20r4 



INDEX 



ltil« 



Katn&Iuddin, Khawaja, 79, DO, ttl 
Kosh al-Ikhitlaf, UOn, flln 
Kashmir, 18. 39, 55, 56 
Khalid bin Walid, 21 
Khiny Yar, 56 

Khutka-itlkimijah, 49n, 68n, 89n 
Kxiii id-Barr'yah, 5nf 

Lahore, iii, iv, (2, 15, 79 
Lanepfiole, III, 148 
Lita* al-*Ar*b, 141, 144 
Lord Lytton, 18 
Ludhiana, 91,97 

M 
Mahdi.86 

Mary, 45, 51, 52, 138, 142 
Afaihdriq-al-Antoir, 16 
Mtcca, 17,88, 116, 118f 
Mwlina, 17, 88, 1 15, 1 16, ! 18, 120 
M*erajuddin 'Ulnar, 27fl 
Mtuiab, 3. 12. 19f, 34, 3'Jf, 49f. 68, 
150,86, »9, 1W. 1)3, Hti, 117, 
138, 139, 142 
Atirqul ct-Viiqinfi tiyTit Jfirutiitin 

15n, 17n, I9n,20n 
Attjutr ai-Akhbiir, 63|i 
Mirza Ahmad Beg, WC 
Mirtft 'All Shrr ll^g, 105, 106 
Mirza 'At* Muhammad, C 
Mirza UashTr Aluriad, 5n, 9, II, 20«, 
2'J, 35, 39, 44n 
Mirza llailnruddtn Mahinuod, 7, 
II. 21, 49, 58,59, 61, 64f. 81, 
82,92,93.110, I13r, 128, 129. 
137 
Mirzi Fail Ahmad, 1 1, 106 
Mirza Camam Ahmad lleg Hmhiar- 
puri, 100 
Mir?a Chulam Ahmad Qadiyani, 
iii, iv, ir, 18f. 39f, 19f, 75f. 
150, 155 
Mirza Chulam Mutiaza, 6, 7 



Mirza (ihulain Qadir, 7 
Mirza Gul Mohammad, 6 
Mirza Imam Dayrawi, 1 5 
Mu *.£ Sharif Ahmad, 1 1 
Mirza Sulian Ahfuad, 11, 107 
Mirza Stthati Muhammad, <04, 

1061 
Aliittkat al'Sleiubih, 16 
Mohammad Zuhurddin Qadiyani, 
Qu/i, 9» 
Mosai, 60, 62, 110. 142 
Morocco, 155, 157 
Muhammad (the IVt.pliel), 2", 31, 
59n. 60, t>7, 70, 95, 120, 123, 
I25f. 138, 155. 157, 158 
Muhammad 'Ali Lahori, Maulvi, 
22, 79, 80f. 129, I37f 
Muhammad al-Mustafa, 102 
Muliamuiad Husam Ualalawi, 

Maulana, 34, 97 
Mithamii.adi Begum, 99, I03f 
Muhammad Kha/.rajt, Shaikh, 17 
Muhammad Na T im I'Yaiigi Mahli, 
Maulana, 78 
Muhammad Qaiim Natrawaiwi, 

Maulana, 30 
Mujaddidi, Shah 'Abdul Chani, 17 
Maktubdt-iAhtMdiyah, 10, 20, 

39n, 41it 
Mulla <ALdul Hakim, 9* 
Mulla Nur r Ali Qadiam. 92 
Murli Dhar, 36 
Altualtam al-Thubut, 17 
Muslim, 96n 
Muzaffar Halim, 77 

Jtftijm al-Huda, 97n 

Nasir, Nawab, llf 

Nasiruddin Mahmood, 77 

Nramaudlah Kashmiri, SiiSh. 3 

Jiur AJiiuin, 91 

Aw aUUt. 96n, 98n 



165 



gADlAN ISM — A CRITICAL STUDY 



Nuruddm Ithairwi Hakim, 10, 13, 
15, 17f,39f,65, 81, 109, 110 
Ntiruddfn Zangi, 77 
Nut ul-H«q, 69, 90n 
tfuzKtt ml Kkawdhr, 78a 
JW«ii/«i.A**ifA, 33, 75tt 



Ont Indian Mutimtmomj, 84n 

Patikum-i-Sulh, 118 
Pakistan, iii, 82 

Punjab, iii, 3, 6, 7, 9, 15, 27, 87. 
128, 15C 
I'eTkta, 5 

Pindi Daudan Khan, 16 
Pound. , IB 

Q 

Qadian, 7, II, 13, 18, 20, 21 n, 35, 
40, 47, 49, 58n, 79, 80, 82, 92, 
104, H5r, 137 
Q6d\ani Maihab, 21n, 63nf, 7 In, 

80n, 105o, lOtin, I08n. H0n, 
121.. 
Qaum <Ai; Qadiiini, Mir, 88n, 99n 
Qa«m Kashmiri, Manshl, 15 
Qa*i Fav.i Ahmad, lOSn, lObn 

Kabwal., 137 
Radd-i-TakJift-Ahl-Qibtah, 130n, 

I39n 
Kfthai Malik, 82n 
KahinatuUah Kayranawi, Montana, 

17,30 
Rampur, 16 
Ranjit Singh, 6 
Rashid Ahmad G&ngoht MautanS, 

78, 79 
Rawalpindi, 16 
Rehoboam, 146, 149 



Jitriiw of Rtligient, 21 
Rum, 86, 88 

s 

Saad Lilian. Maulavi, 97 
SJkih Bukhat, 5 , 89 
Sahih Muslim, 17, 51 
Satahuddln Ayyubl, 77n 
Salmin al-F&rsi, 5n 
Sana' ullah Amritsari, Maulana, 

12 
Sargodha, 15 

Sayyid Ahmad Kbin, Sir 2 1, 22, 
26, 84, 139, 140, 150 
Sayyed Nazir Husatn Muhaddith 
Dthluwi, MauUna, 97 
Sayyid Ahmad Shabid, 16, 17, 41 
Sayyid liusain, 17 
Sayyid Muharmnad Ahsan Auirohvi, 
Maulvi, 58 
Sayyid Sarwar Shah Qidiaui, 58n, 

79, 110 
Sloth a dot til Qu» i Hn, 87ii 
SiiJhjahan.a^ 

Shanker Das Meh.a, Dr., 1 19, t21n 
Sh'itah-t-Wiqayuh, I (in 
S liar fudd in, Mian Hajl, i 5 
ShawkSnt, 43n 
Sialkoi. 8, 39 
Hi jot nl-So/wuh, 77n 
-Wat al Mohdi, 5n, (Inf. I9n, Jilin, 
29n, 33n, 35n,40n, 44u, 49 
Sildra-i-Kotieiiah, 88n 
Solomon, 145f 

Spitcittt and Wntings oj I^bot, 127n, 

135n 
Srinagar, 56 
Sudan, 41, 47n, 157 
Sudanese Maliadi, 7 1 
Sitrmak-i-Chashm-i-jirya, 36n, 44n, 54 
Syed 'Abdullah Ghaznavi, 

Maulana, 78 
Syria, iii, 56, 77n, 8G, BB 



INDEX 



166 



Takligh-t-Rudat, 12n, Btinf, VM t 

mini 

Tafttr Bay an al-Qpt ><in , I 'J9i i 
Tihqiq-iLathant, I08n 
T$ ai.*Arus. 141 
Tunmun, 7 
Taqrir Dilpizir, 30 
Taqwiyat td-lmdn. 16 
T<uiUAi.t (J-Athan, 21 
Tatimmah Hoqiqat al-Wahy, 35, 79n 
Tawadih ai-Maram, 1 9,* 46 
Tatkitah or Mw/Bia'aA-i-WaAy-i- 

Muqaddas, 117 
ThanSultah Amrittarf, Maulana, 97 
TipQ Sultan, 83 
TimiUhi, 76n, 95a, 96n 



Tiryaq al-Qutuk, 63n, 67, ti6n, B7n, 
89n, 91n 
7«A/W al-Nadwah, 59, 60n 
Turkhun, 120 

U 
'Umar ibn 'Abdul <\z\z t 77, 123 

W 
Wales, 93 

Y 
Yui'\-Ayyam, 9a 

Yaqub 'All ( Ii -fanl, Shayakh, 1 3n 
Yaztd, 47, 48 

Z 
Zatrullah Khan, Sir, 06 
Zahid<Ali,r>r., H4n 
Zarural ul-It/tam, 96u 



The End 



QADIANISM poses today a great challenge to the 
world of Islam from within : claiming to represent the 
true faith, it even goes a step further to assume itself 
as the champion of Islam against the West and 
Christianity by unfolding the revealed truth, in a way 
mdre rational and convincing. But, what does really 
Qadianism stands for, who was its founder, what were 
his objectives, and how far were these in variance with 
the fundamental creed and practice of Islam are the 
few questions dealt with critically in this book. 

Written with historical sobriety rather than with 
a controversialist's enthusiasm, the book traces the 
historical perspective of the rise of Qadianism, the 
evolution of Qadiani doctrines, aspects of Mirza 
Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani's life and character and 
evaluates his contribution to the religious thought and 
fundamental beliefs of Islam. The book is a must for 
anyone who desires to understand Qadianism. 



Haji Arfeen Academy 

1-K-3 NAZiMABAD-1, KARACHI-18 
(PAKISTAN) 



        

ABDUL WAHID OSMAN BELAL
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