History of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as)

HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD (AS)

Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) was born on 20 February 1835 in Qadian, an outlying small town about 70 miles to the north east of Lahore. His family was of Persian origin and had been settled at Samarqand in Central Asia. In the first half of the 16th century, his ancestor, Mirza Hadi Beg, moved from Samarqand into India together with a couple of hundred retainers and settled in the Eastern

Punjab, where he founded the township which eventually became known as Qadian. As Mirza Hadi Beg was, at third or fourth remove, a cousin of Emperor Babar, he was appointed Judge (Qadi) and administrator of a sizeable tract of land which comprised over 100 villages around Qadian. The town was named Islampur Qadi. In course of time, Islampur was dropped and Qadi, by easy transition, became Qadian. The descendants of Mirza Hadi Beg continued to flourish at Qadian, and maintained a semi-royal state under the Moghul emperors. The decline of the Moghul imperial authority, which started towards the middle of the 18^th century, began to affect the fortunes of the chieftains of Qadian also. Mirza Gul Muhammad, the greatgrandfather of Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was an enlightened personage, learned and pious, who made Qadian a centre of learning and resort for scholarly divines.

He had a very generous disposition and gave away several villages to smaller Muslim chieftains who had

lost their own estates to the Sikhs whose power was on the increase at the cost of the central Moghul authority. Mirza Gul Muhammad was succeeded by his son, Mirza ‘Ata Muhammad, during whose time Sikh depredations progressively reduced the area comprised within the Qadian estate. Finally, the Ram Garhia Sikhs obtained possession of Qadian itself through trickery and Mirza ‘Ata Muhammad and the members of his family had to move from Qadian and took refuge in the neighbouring state of Kapurthala. Mirza ‘Ata Muhammad died in exile in Kapurthala, but his body was carried by his son, Mirza

Ghulam Murtada, to Qadian, and was given decent burial in the ancestral graveyard. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh established his power over the Punjab, he permitted Mirza Ghulam Murtada, father of Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to return to Qadian and restored to him a few of the villages that had been originally comprised in the Qadian estate. With the birth of Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the fortunes of the family improved to some degree and the intervening period of poverty and privation came to an end. Mirza Ghulam Murtada took up military service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and won distinction in some campaigns. Later, he and his elder son, Mirza Ghulam Qadir, rendered meritorious service to the British, which was duly appreciated by the authorities. Throughout his remaining life, Mirza Ghulam Murtada continued to spend money, time and effort in the useless and profitless attempts to recover at least some of the villages that had originally been comprised within the Qadian estate. The futility of his attempts embittered his days and he died a disappointed man. His eldest son, Mirza Ghulam Qadir, who now became head of the family, had in the meantime been appointed

to a minor post in the civil administration of the district at Gurdaspur, at a distance of approximately eighteen miles from Qadian. From his childhood, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad exhibited a religious bent, which became increasingly marked with the passage of the years. As he grew up, he began to devote more and more time to religious exercises and the study of religion, more particularly of the Holy Qur’an. His father arranged for his tuition at home and he never went to school. When he grew up, his father became anxious to divert his attention to secular pursuits, which might prove of benefit to him in later life, but without much success. Out of a feeling of filial obedience and respect for his father, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad would undertake and carry out such particular missions, pertaining to his father's attempts to recover a portion of the patrimony, which his father assigned to him. However, he did

this with reluctance, as his heart was not engaged in worldly affairs, which had no appeal for him.

At one time, his father procured his appointment to a minor administrative post at Sialkot, which he also took up out of a spirit of obedience to his father, and which he readily resigned as soon as his father's attitude permitted him to do so. He described his situation at his father's death in the following words:

I was 34 or 35 years of age when my father died. In a dream, I had been warned that his death was approaching. I was then in Lahore and hastened to Qadian. He was suffering from dysentery but I had no apprehension whatsoever that he would die the following day. In fact, there had been some change for the better in his condition and he appeared quite steadfast. The following day, we were all with him at noon when he kindly suggested that I should go and have some rest, for it was the month of June and the heat was intense. I retired into an upper room and a servant began to massage my feet. Presently I fell into a light slumber and the revelation came to me:

We call to witness heaven where all decrees originate

and We call to witness that which will happen

after sunset.

I was given to understand that this revelation was by way of condolence on behalf of God Almighty, as my father would die that very day after sunset. Holy is Allah! How Glorious is He that He conveyed His condolence on the death of a person who had died sorrowing over his wasted life. Most people would be surprised at this interpretation of mine that God Almighty condoled with me. It should, however, be remembered that when God, glorified be His name, treats someone mercifully, He deals with him like friend. We read in the traditions that on certain occasions God Almighty laughed. This also is an expression of the

same type. When I received this revelation, which presaged the death of my father, the thought passed through my mind, due to my humanity, that some of the means of income, which were available to my father, would now be closed and we might be confronted with difficulties. Thereupon I received another revelation:

Is not Allah sufficient for His servant?

This revelation conveyed great comfort and satisfaction to me and it found its firm place in my heart. I swear by God Almighty in Whose hand is my life that He has fulfilled this comforting revelation in a manner that was beyond my imagination. He has provided for me as no father could have provided for anyone. I have been the recipient of His continuous bounties, which I find impossible to count. My father died the same day after sunset. This was the first day on which I experienced a sign of Divine mercy through revelation concerning which I cannot imagine that it would ever cease to have effect during my lifetime. I had the words of the revelation carved on a semiprecious stone and set in a ring, which I have with me securely. Nearly 40 years of my life passed under the care of my father, and with his departure from this life, I began to receive Divine revelation continuously.

[Kitab-ul-Bariyyah, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 13, pp. 192-195, footnote]

This was Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's first experience of Divine revelation. As he has himself observed, he was 34 or 35 years of age at that time. As time passed, this experience multiplied progressively and gained in volume and scope, comprising Divine assurances of security, progress, support and success, and became studded with grand prophecies and Divine signs. On his father's death, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad became entitled to half of his father's property, but he left the management of the whole of it in the hands of his elder brother and was content with the meagre and austere provision that his brother made for his maintenance. The world was not his major concern and all his interest and attention were concentrated on communion with the Divine and winning His pleasure. His father had arranged his marriage at an early age, but even the responsibilities of marriage failed to wean him away from the pursuit of that which he had made the purpose of his life. From his first wife, he had two sons, Mirza Sultan Ahmad and Mirza Fadal Ahmad. Under Divine direction, he married a second time, in 1884, into a noble Sayyed family of Delhi. His second wife bore him several children. He was survived by three sons and two daughters. The eldest of these was a son born on 12 January 1889, who was named Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad. In his birth was fulfilled a grand multi-faceted prophecy of his father which had been published on 20 February 1886.

Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's study of religion was not confined to Islam. At an early age, he entered upon a study of the principal faiths then current in India, which deepened his appreciation of the teachings of Islam, till he emerged as a champion of Islam. He was greatly depressed by the feeling that there was little understanding of true Islamic values even among the Muslim divines and that the common run of Muslims were a prey to ignorance and superstition and had little regard for Islamic

teachings.

The collateral branches of his own family were sunk in superstition and made a mockery of religion and religious practices. Some of them openly denounced Islam, gloried in their disbelief, even reviled the Holy Prophet [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] and held the Holy Qur’an in contempt. This occasioned great distress to Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and, though he made repeated efforts to win them back to sincere allegiance to Islam, God Almighty, the Holy Prophetsa and the Holy Qur’an, his efforts had little effect upon the attitude, conduct, and behaviour of his collaterals. He was further

depressed by the Divine revelation:

He (God) will cut asunder thy collaterals and will begin

(His favours) with thee.

By the time he had arrived at forty years of age, his mindwas possessed by a strong urge to undertake the championship of Islam vis-à-vis all other faiths, and he finally announced that he had resolved to set forth the truth of Islam and the utter beneficence of its teachings in an epoch- making book which he designated Brahin-e- Ahmadiyya. In the preface of the book he announced that if anyone, professing a faith other than Islam, would set forth a convincing refutation of the proofs and arguments expounded in the Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya and would furnish in support of his own faith even one-fifth of the proofs he had adduced in support of Islam, he would be rewarded with 10,000 rupees, at which figure Mirza

Ghulam Ahmad valued his entire property at the time. This challenge has not been seriously taken up for more than a century. While he was still occupied with the compilation of Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya, of which only four parts had yet been published, he received the revelation that God had commissioned him as the Reformer of the fourteenth century of the Hijra, and had entrusted the revival of Islam to him. In pursuance of this commission, he laid the foundation of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on 23 March 1889. Soon thereafter, it was revealed to him that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi (the Divinely Guided Leader) whose advent in the latter days had been prophesied by the Holy Prophet of Islam [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him]. The publication of the very first volume of Brahin-e-

Ahmadiyya was acclaimed by the Muslims as an outstanding and matchless performance, and leading Muslim divines, newspapers, and journals acclaimed the publication of the great work in laudatory terms. In consequence of the publication of the successive parts of Brahin-e- Ahmadiyya, its revered author had become the most renowned and honoured personage in the contemporary world of Islam.

With the announcement of his claim that he had been appointed the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, a storm of bitter and abusive opposition was let loose against him from all directions. He was condemned as an apostate from Islam, who had put himself outside the pale of Islam and all sorts of opprobrious epithets were applied to him. He was called Antichrist and it was declared that his

life was forfeit. In the estimation of the Muslim divines, he fell utterly from grace and no protestation or explanation on his part served to soften the bitterness of their hostility towards him. This continued all through the rest of his life, and though over ninety years have passed since his demise, he and his daily expanding Community continue to be the sharpest thorn in the sides of the Muslim

divines. Bitter persecution breaks out from time to time against the members of his Community, but this

only serves to furnish greater publicity to the Community, in consequence of which increasing numbers of reasonable and reflecting people continue to identify themselves with the Community.

One of the earliest revelations vouchsafed to Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was:

[Urdu]:I shall carry thy message to the ends of the

earth.

At the time of the revelation, he was not widely known even in his own hometown and he lacked altogether all normal means of publicity and propaganda. At that time, Qadian had not yet found a place on the maps and did not even possess a telegraph office, was not connected with the railway system of the province, and could not be reached by a metalled road. The nearest railway station and telegraph office were at a distance of 11 miles, a journey to which occupied the better part of three hours. Despite all this lack of normal facilities, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has, during the last hundred years, spread to the farthest corners of the earth and the prophecy just mentioned has been, and continues to be, fulfilled in an astonishing manner.