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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Founder of the Ahmadiyya movement and claimed Messiah and Mahdi.

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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

via Wikipedia: Syed Ahmad Barelvi · see source

He claimed to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi, as well as a reformer for his era.[1][2] The Ahmadiyya movement in Islam was started by the Indian religious leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who was born on 13 February 1835 and died on 26 May 1908.[1] Qadian, Punjab, which was under the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh at the time, is where Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born on 13 February 1835.[3]

Life and work

After 1868, he returned to Qadian to manage estate affairs and was known as a social recluse.[4] Ahmad proclaimed that Jesus survived crucifixion and died naturally in Kashmir, contradicting traditional Muslim and Christian views.[5][2] In 1897, a Christian missionary filed a lawsuit of attempted murder against Ahmad, but he was declared innocent.[6] Ahmad died from dysentery on 26 May 1908 in Lahore and was buried in Qadian.[7]

Mirza Hadi Beg, a Barlas tribe member who in 1530 relocated from Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) with two hundred family members, servants, and followers, eventually founding the town of Qadian in Punjab, India during Emperor Babur's reign, was an ancestor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.[8] Between 1864 and 1868, Ahmad's employment as a clerk in Sialkot, done at his father's request, brought him into frequent debates with Christian missionaries.[4] After Arya Samaj leaders challenged him regarding Islam's truthfulness in the 1880s, Ahmad went to Hoshiarpur to dedicate special prayers and seek divine guidance, where he spent forty days in seclusion (chilla-nashini).[9][10]

What the cited sources add

The Ahmadiyya Gazette account states that Ahmad began his written and spoken struggle early in life to establish Islam's superiority.[9] It reports that in the 1880s, leaders of the Arya Samaj debated Ahmad and asked for a sign, leading to his forty-day seclusion.[9] The Review of Religions describes the Khutba Ilhamia as the most eloquent miracle bearing testimony to his divine inspiration.[11] It notes that during the sermon, an unseen hand seemed to hold him, and a voice from the unknown made him its mouthpiece.[11]

Muhammad Afzal Upal authored a 2021 open-access BRILL eBooks publication titled "The Cultural Genetics of the Aḥmadiyya Muslim Jamāʿat".[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ahmad, "Haqiqatul Wahi", Islam International Publications, 1907, p. 655; "Al Hakam - The claims of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement", by Maulana Muhammad Ali, Chapter 4: Mahdi and Messiah.; Khan 2015, p. 21; "Chapter Two – Claims of Hadhrat Ahmad", Alislam.org, 24 June 1904; "The Fourteenth-Century's Reformer / Mujaddid", from the "Call of Islam", by Maulana Muhammad Ali.; "Qadianism – A Critical Study" , by Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi.; "Introducing the Books of the Promised Messiah (as)"; "An Introduction to the Hidden Treasures of Islam"; "Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements", Brill Publishers, 2021, p. 637–657; Korbel, "Rel en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ahmad, "The Great Reformer: Biography of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (Volume 1)", AAIIL Inc USA, 2008, p. 24; Dard, "Life of Ahmad", Islam International Publications Ltd, 2008, p. 33; Evans, "Far from the Caliph's Gaze: Being Ahmadi Muslim in the Holy City of Qadian", 2020, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements", Brill Publishers, 2021, p. 637–657; Korbel, "Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism", Brill Publishers, 2016, p. 426–442; http://www.alislam.org/library/books/Life-of-Ahmad-20080411MN.pdf (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schäfer, "Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco", Brill/Princeton UP, 1998, p. 306–7; "Tadhkirah"; "Fatah-Islam (1890)"; Ahmad, "Tawdhi-i-Marām (1891)", Islam International, 2004; Izāla-i-Auhām (1891). (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ian Adamson, "Ahmad the Guided One", Islam International Publications Ltd, 1999, p. 177–193; "Lawsuit by Dr.Clark", Al Islam (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Re-Institution of Khilafat", Alislam.org; "A Spiritual Challenge – Mubahala with Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsari"; "His Last Testament", Al Islam; Valentine, "Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jamaʻat: History, Belief, Practice", p. 41; Valentine, "Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jamaʻat: History, Belief, Practice", Columbia University Press, 2008, p. 53; "H.H. Risley and E.A. Gait, (1903), Report of the Census of India, 1901, Calcutta, Superintendent of Government Printing, p. 373.", Chinese Heritage of the Australian Federation Project (original not rea en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Khan 2015, p. 21; "Faith and Thought" Vol. 37. The Victoria Institute, Great Britain. Original from the University of Michigan, p. 242.; Hadhrat Ahmad by Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad.; "Complete Book: Chiefs of Punjab by Lepel Griffin", apnaorg.com; Khan 2015, p. 21; Khan 2015, p. 21 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Musleh Mau'ood, Khalifatul Masih II, in the Eyes of Non-Ahmadies, The Ahmadiyya Gazette, February 1997.. facts only, no text reused. alislam.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ahmad, the Guided One, p. 91.; Musleh Mau'ood, Khalifatul Masih II, in the Eyes of Non-Ahmadies, The Ahmadiyya Gazette, February 1997. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Miraculous Knowledge of Arabic, The Review of Religions, July 1993.. facts only, no text reused. alislam.org
  12. Muhammad Afzal Upal, "The Cultural Genetics of the Aḥmadiyya Muslim Jamāʿat", BRILL eBooks (2021), doi:10.1163/9789004435544_034. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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