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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  INDIA 

EDITED    BY 

J.  N.  FARQUHAR,  M.A.,  D.Litt. 

LITERARY   SECRETARY,    NATIONAL   COUNCIL,    YOUNG   MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN    ASSOCIATIONS,    INDIA   AND   CEYLON  ; 

AND 

NICOL  MACNICOL,  M.A.,  D.Litt. 


ALREADY  PUBLISHED 

THE   VILLAGE   GODS   OF    SOUTH    INDIA.      By   the    Bishop 
OF  Madras. 


VOLUMES    UNDER   PREPARATION 

THE  VAISHNAVISM  OF  PANDHARPUR.   By  NicoL  Macnicol, 
M.A.,  D.Litt.,  Poona. 

THE  CHAITANYAS.     By  M.  T.  Kennedy,  M.A.,  Calcutta. 

THE  SRI-VAISHNAVAS.     By  E.  C.  Worman,  M.A.,  Madras. 

THE  SAIVA  SIDDHANTA.      By  G.   E.   Phillips,   M.A.,   and 
Francis  Kingsbury,  Bangalore. 

THE   VIRA  SAIVAS.     By  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Tomlinson,  Gubbi, 
Mysore. 

THE  BRAHMA  MOVEMENT.     By  Manilal  C.  Parekh,  B.A., 
Rajkot,  Kathiawar. 

THE  RAMAKRISHNA  MOVEMENT.     By  I.  N.  C.  Ganguly, 
B.A.,   Calcutta. 

THE   StJFlS.     By  R.  Siraj-ud-Din,   B.A.,   and   H.   A.  Walter, 
M.A.,    Lahore. 

THE  KHOJAS.     By  W.  M.   Hume,   B.A.,   Lahore. 

THE  MALAS  and  MADIGAS.       By  the  Bishop  of  Dornakal 
and  P.  B.  Emmett,   B.A.,   Kurnool. 

THE  CHAMARS.     By  G.  W.  Briggs,  B.A.,  Allahabad. 

THE    DHEDS.      By   Mrs.    Sinclair   Stevenson,    M.A.,    D.Sc, 
Rajkot,  Kathiawar. 

THE  MAHARS.     By  A.  Robertson,  M.A.,   Poona. 

THE  BHILS.     By  D.   Lewis,  Jhalod,   Panch  Mahals. 

THE    CRIMINAL    TRIBES.      By    O.     H.    B.    Starte,     I.C.S., 
Bijapur. 


EDITORIAL   PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  series  of  small  volumes  on  the 
leading  forms  which  religious  life  has  taken  in  India  is  to 
produce  really  reliable  information  for  the  use  of  all  who 
are  seeking  the  welfare  of  India,  Editor  and  writers  alike 
desire  to  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  best  modern  science, 
looking  only  for  the  truth.  But,  while  doing  so  and  seek- 
ing to  bring  to  the  interpretation  of  the  systems  under 
review  such  imagination  and  sympathy  as  characterise  the 
best  study  in  the  domain  of  religion  to-day,  they  believe 
they  are  able  to  shed  on  their  work  fresh  light  drawn  from 
the  close  religious  intercourse  which  they  have  each  had 
with  the  people  who  live  by  the  faith  herein  described  ; 
and  their  study  of  the  relevant  literature  has  in  every 
instance  been  largely  supplemented  by  persistent  question- 
ing of  those  likely  to  be  able  to  give  information.  In  each 
case  the  religion  described  is  brought  into  relation  with 
Christianity.  It  is  believed  that  all  readers  in  India  at 
least  will  recognize  the  value  of  this  practical  method  of 
bringing  out  the  salient  features  of  Indian  religious  life. 


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HAZRAT 


MIRZA    i;.\.-niK-in)-Dix\   mahmud 

KIIALIFA-UL-MASIH. 


AHMAD 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF   INDIA 
THE 

AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT 

BY 
H.  A.  WALTER.  M.A. 

MEMBER   OF   THE  ROYAL  ASIATIC  SOCIETY  ;   LITERARY   SECRETARY, 

NATIONAL   COUNCIL,   YOUNG   MEN'S    CHRISTIAN 

ASSOCIATIONS  OF   INDIA  AND   CEYLON 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

5    RUSSELL   STREET,    CALCUTTA 

HUMPHREY   MILFORD 
OXFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 

LONDON,    NEW    YORK,    TORONTO,    MELBOURNE 

BOMBAY    AND    MADRAS 

1918 


TO 
MY    MOTHER    AND    FATHER 

Whose   Loving   Sacrifice    has    Entered 
INTO  THE  Making  of  this  Book. 


PREFACE 

My  primary  purpose  in  undertaking  this  study  of  one 
of  the  most  significant  and  (outside  of  India)  little-known 
of  modern  movements  among  Muslims  was  not  that  of 
answering  from  the  Christian  viewpoint  the  claim  of  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  to  be  the  "  promised  Messiah  "  who  has 
come  "  in  the  spirit  and  power  "  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  has 
been  done  already  in  the  pamphlets  of  Dr.  H.  D.  Griswold 
and  Rev.  Thakur  Dass,  mentioned  in  the  bibliography  at 
the  close.  My  first  aim  has  been  rather  to  sketch  the 
history  and  tenets  of  the  Ahmadiya  movement,  for  the  most 
part  as  its  founder  and  his  disciples  have  themselves  con- 
ceived it,  and  to  do  it  as  far  as  I  could  in  their  own  language. 
I  have  found  this  to  be  largely  possible,  since  a  survey  of  the 
literature  of  the  movement  in  Arabic  and  Urdu,  made  with 
the  help  of  my  friend,  Maulvi  S.  T.  Ghaus,  has  convinced 
me  that  nearly  everything  of  essential  importance  in  the 
development  of  the  cult,  from  the  Ahmadiya  viewpoint, 
is  to  be  found  in  its  English  publications,  chiefly  in  The 
Review  of  Religions,  of  which  I  have  read  nearly  every 
issue  from  the  beginning.  In  the  footnotes  I  have 
explained,  for  the  benefit  of  the  reader  not  familiar  with 
the  orthodox  Muslim  faith,  such  words  and  ideas  as  are 
peculiar  to  Islam,  and  also  allusions  to  events  and  per- 
sonalities pertaining  to  India  or  the  Muhammadan  world 
in  general.  The  connection  of  the  Ahmadiya  movement 
with  the  English  mission  of  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din,  a 
connection  not   now  emphasized   by  the  latter,  has  been 


8  PREFACE 

indicated  in  the  sixth  chapter  because  of  the  special 
interest  which  this  may  have  for  students  of  Islam  in  the 
West.  In  the  last  chapter  I  have  endeavoured  briefly  to 
set  forth  the  permanent  place  and  significance  of  the  move- 
ment in  its  relation  to  the  general  development  in  India  of 
Muslim  thought  and  life.  I  have  made  no  attempt  to  deal 
at  length  vv^ith  the  puzzling  subject  of  Muslim  eschato- 
logy,  in  whose  mazes  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  like  so  many 
other  self-designated  Mahdis,  wandered  undismayed.  I 
have  here,  as  elsewhere,  endeavoured  to  introduce  only  so 
much  of  the  background  of  the  orthodox  faith  as  seemed 
necessary  to  an  adequate  understanding  of  the  subject  of 
this  study. 

With  regard  to  the  transliteration  into  English  of 
Urdu  and  Arabic  words,  I  have,  to  avoid  confusion,  taken 
the  liberty  in  most  instances  of  introducing  the  uniform 
system,  which  I  have  sought  to  follow,  into  the  many 
English  quotations  from  Ahmadiya  writings,  when  there 
was  originally  little  attempt  at  accurate  transliteration. 

I  desire  to  mention  the  generous  assistance  of  several 
friends  who  contributed  variously  and  essentially  to  the 
writing  and  publishing  of  this  book.  I  refer  to  Dr.  H.  D. 
Griswold,  Secretary  of  the  Council  of  American  Presbyterian 
Missions  in  India,  at  whose  original  suggestion  it  was 
undertaken  and  without  the  loan  of  whose  extensive 
library  of  Ahmadiya  literature  it  could  scarcely  have  been 
carried  out  ;  to  Mr,  Abdul  Rahim,  of  the  editorial 
department  of  the  Ahmadiya  community,  who  was  my 
friendly  host  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  Qadian  and  has 
been  my  most  constant  and  reliable  informant  in  matters 
relating  to  present  conditions  within  the  movement ;  to 
Professor  D.  B.  Macdonald,  of  the  Hartford  Theological 
Seminary,  who  has  rendered  invaluable  assistance,  especially 


PREFACE  9 

in  connection  with  the  references  to  Mush'm  eschatology; 
to  Professor  Siraj-ud-DIn,  of  Lahore,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted  for  many  useful  suggestions  ;  and  to  my  brother- 
in-law,  Rev.  Wilh'am  Brower  Johnson,  and  my  colleagues 
in  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  India,  Messrs. 
Frank  Speer  Coan,  W.  M.  Hume,  and  F.  de  L.  Hyde, 
for  helping  forward  in  various  ways  the  preparation  of  the 
manuscript  for  the  press. 

Lahore,  HAW 

Oct.  10th,  1918.  '     '       ' 


^ 


CONTENTS 


CHAP .  PAGE 

I.    MiRZA  Ghulam  Ahmad  ..  ..  ,.  ..13 

II.     The  Distinctive  Claims  of  Ahmad        ..            ..  35 

III.  The  Ahmadiya  Movement  and  Orthodox  Islam..  53 

IV.  The  Ahmadiya  Movement  and  Christianity      . .  75 

V.     The  Ahmadiya  Movement  and  the  Indigenous 

Religions  of  India      . .            . .            . .            . .  101 

VI.     The  Ahmadiya  Community        ..            ..            ..  Ill 

VII.     The  Significance  of  the  Ahmadiya  Movement..  131 

Ahmadiya  Bibliography               . .            . .            . .  141 

Appendix    I        . .            . .            . .            . .            . .  142 

II 145 

III 146 

IV 151 

•   V 153 

VI 155 

VII 160 

Index     . .           . .           . .           , .           . .            . .  163 


ERRATA 


While  this  book  was  passing  through  the  press  the 
author  died  suddenly  of  influenza.  As  a  consequence  the 
book  has  not  received  the  final  revision  in  proof  that  it 
would  have  had  from  the  author  himself,  and  it  is  feared 
that  a  number  of  misprints,  especially  in  transliterated 
words,  have  escaped  detection. 

For  example,  the  word  Mahdl  appears  wrongly  on  pages  8,  16,  21, 
25,  37,  38,  39,  48,  51,  71,  72,  73,  111,  119,  132,  138  and  147  as  Mahdi. 

Also  on  page    13  for  p.  171  (end  of  Note  1),  read  p.  222. 

24  for  VII,  p.  7  (end  of  Note  2),  read  VII,  p.  241. 

41  for  "  Qderaculous  Ode,"  read  "  Miraculous  Ode." 

41  for  Review  of  Religions  I,  p.  79,  read  I,  p.  80. 

41  for  Sharik  (Note  7),  read  Sharik. 

48  iox  Rcviezv  of  Religions  V,  p.  363,  read  V,  p.  365. 

55  for  Mulham,  read  Mulham. 

93  for  Yesu  (Note  2),  read  Yisu. 

97    for   Review   of    Religions    IV,   pp.   34-435,    read 
pp.  434-435. 
104  for  p.  69,  Note  2  (Note  1),  read  p.  82,  Note  3. 
120  for  Review  of  Religions  IV, p.  224,  read  XV,  p.  224. 
128  for  p.  104,  Note  1  (Note  2),  read  p.  107,  Note  2. 
134  for  TahzIh-'uI-Akhliq,  read  Tahzib-'ul-Akhiaq. 
136  for  p.  103  (Note  3),  read  p.  133. 
153  for  Sheikh  Rahmahillah,  read  Sheikh  Rahmatullah. 
Table  of  Contents,  Chapter  IV,  for  p.  75,  read  77. 


The  Editors. 


CHAPTER    I 

MIRZA    GHULAM    AHMAD' 

MiRZA  Ghulam  Ahmad  Khan  was  born  in  the  village 
of  Qadian,  Gurdaspur  District,  Panjab,  on  the  eighteenth 
of  June,  1839,^  the  year  marked  by  the  death  of  Ranjit 
Singh,  the  great  Sikh  ruler  and  warrior.  He  boasted 
of  a  good  Mughal  ancestry,  and  hence  bore  the  title, 
"  Mirza,"  which  is  used  to  designate  one  who  belongs  to 
the  Mughal  race.  His  family  emigrated  from  Central 
Asia  to  India  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the  reign  of 
Babar,  and  settled  in  the  Panjab,  where  they  were  granted 
a  large  tract  of  land,  about  seventy  miles  from  Lahore. 
The  capital  of  this  little  State  was  known  as  Islampur,  an-d 
is  the  modern  Qadian.  The  family  suffered  persecution 
and  expulsion  in  the  early  days  of  Sikh  rule,  but  under 
Ranjit  Singh  the  father  of  Ghulam  Ahmad,  Mirza  Ghulam 
Murtaba,  received  back  a  portion  of  the  property  which 
had  belonged  to  the  family  and  returned  to  Qadian. 
Under  the  British  Government,  which  succeeded  to  that  of 
the  Sikhs,  Mirza  Ghulam  Murtaba  set  an  example  of 
loyalty  to  British  rule,  in  the  days  of  the  great  mutiny  of 
1857,  to  which  his  son  has  often    referred  with   justifiable 

*  The  sources  from  which  the  facts  regarding  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad's  life  have  been  culled  are  conversations  with  his  followers  and 
with  Christian  missionaries  and  others  who  were  personally  acquainted 
with  him,  a  brief  biography  in  Urdu  by  Mi'raj-ud-Din,  prefixed  to  the 
first  edition  of  the  Bardhin-i-Ahmadlya,  a  recent  biography  in  Urdu,  of 
which  all  the  parts  have  not  yet  appeared,  by  Mirza  Yakub  Beg  (Qadian, 
1916),  and  a  memorial  article  in  The  Reviciv  of  Religions  for  June, 
1908  (p.  171). 

*  Recent  references  to  the  date  of  Ahmad's  birth  place  it  vaguely 
"  some  time  in  1836  or  1837  "  (Review  'of  Religions,  XV,  p.  26),  but 
the  date  given  here  is  the  one  generally  accepted  by  his  biographers. 


14  THE   AHMADIYA   MOVEMENT 

pride.  The  father  was  by  profession  a  native  physician  of 
some  learning,  and  desired  that  his  son,  who  early  showed 
an  aptitude  for  study,  should  be  well  educated  in  accord- 
ance with  the  ideas  and  standards  of  the  time.  From  his 
sixth  to  his  tenth  year  he  studied  with  a  Persian  tutor. 
From  that  time  until  he  was  seventeen  an  Arabic  scholar 
and  holy  man  was  his  instructor,  and  under  his  tuition  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  that  exceptional  facility  of  expres- 
sion in  the  Arabic  language  which  was  to  serve  him  so 
well  in  later  years.  Some  time  after  his  seventeenth  year 
his  father  secured  for  the  studious,  visionary  lad  employment 
in  Government  service,  in  a  subordinate  capacity,  in  the 
office  of  the  Deputy  Commissioner  at  Sialkot  ;  but  a  few 
years  of  this  service  sufficed  to  convince  Mirza  Ghulam 
Murtaba  that  his  son  possessed  no  aptitude  for  business. 
He  then  endeavoured  to  induce  him  to  study  law,  with  a 
view  to  his  becoming  a  pleader,  but  this  the  lad  resolutely 
refused  to  do. 

One  fruit  of  his  residence  in  Sialkot  was  an  acquaintance 
which  it  yielded  with  some  missionaries  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  residing  there,  with  whom  he  spent  many  hours 
in  religious  discussion.  The  importance  for  future 
Ahmadiya  doctrine  of  this  contact  with  Christian  mis- 
sionaries, during  the  formative  years  of  Ahmad's  life,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate. 

After  four  years  of  this  service  he  resigned  and  returned 
to  Qadian,  where  he  was  desired  by  his  father  to  assist 
the  family  in  connection  with  the  law-suits  arising 
out  of  the  estate.  There  also  his  entire  lack  of  business 
acumen  soon  became  evident.  Some  time  before  his 
father's  death,  in  1876,  the  efforts  of  the  latter  to  assure 
to  the  young  man  some  measure  of  worldly  advancement 
had  ceased,  and  he  was  left  to  his  own  devices.  After  his 
father  died  the  slight  constraint  which  the  parental  ambi- 
tion may  have  exerted  was  removed,  and  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad  lived  quietly  at  Qadian,  studying  the  Qur'an,  the 
traditions  and  the  commentators,  and  making  himself 
somewhat  familiar  with  the  tenets  of  the  different  religions 
of  the  world.  His  hatred  of  the  world  grew  upon  him, 
and    various    eccentricities    developed.     His    friendly    bio- 


MIRZA    GHULAM    AHMAD  15 

grapher,  Mi'raj-ud-Din,  writing  after  his  death,  in  1908, 
tells  of  some  of  his  personal  peculiarities,  developed  in  those 
early  years  of  obscurity,  such  as  his  habit  of  eating  bits  of 
earth  and  his  abnormal  fondness  for  sweets.  As  he 
walked  the  streets,  with  his  thoughts  in  the  heavens  and 
his  pockets  filled  with  sweets,  the  urchins  of  the  street, 
aware  of  his  weakness,  would  abstract  the  sweets  and  make 
off  with  them,  while  the  erstwhile  owner  proceeded 
innocently  on  his  way.  In  one  instance  mischievous 
youths  stuffed  a  brick  into  the  pocket  where  the 
sweets  had  been,  and  its  presence  was  not  discovered  until 
the  Mirza  Sahib  lay  down  to  sleep  at  night.  At  another 
time,  writes  a  more  recent  biographer,  Mirza  Yakiib  Beg,  he 
neglected  to  remove  one  of  his  shoes  at  night  and  slept 
unconscious  of  the  fact  until  the  morning,  when,  after  a 
long  search,  he  accidentally  discovered  it.  On  another 
occasion  his  clothes  caught  fire,  and  the  fire  was  ex- 
tinguished by  a  friend,  while  he  himself  remained  oblivious 
of  the  danger.  A  story,  which  is  told  to  illustrate  both  his 
detachment  from  worldly  affairs  and  his  recognition  of  the 
working  of  Divine  Providence  in  all  things,  relates  how  on 
one  occasion  his  little  son,  aged  four  (the  present  "iv/^a/I/a," 
Bashir-ud-Din  Mahmud  Ahmad),  came  into  his  room  and 
burned  all  of  his  father's  writings  which  he  could  discover. 
The  Mirza  Sahib  paid  no  attention  to  what  was  happen- 
ing, and  when  informed  of  it  merely  remarked,  "There  is 
some  benefit  from  God  in  this."  When  told  that  a  poor 
woman  had  stolen  some  rice  from  his  kitchen,  he  is  said  to 
have  replied,  "  Let  us  say  nothing  about  it,  but  give  her 
some  more  if  she  is  in  need  of  it."  AA\  his  life  he  suffered 
from  diabetes  (polyuria)  and  vertigo.  From  his  youth  he 
had  strange  visions  and  dreams,  which  he  interpreted  him- 
self, and  in  which  he  always  figured  in  some  pre-eminent 
capacity. 

Meantime  he  was  exercising  and  developing  his  ability 
as  a  writtMof  excellent  Persian,  Arabic  and  Urdu.  In  1880 
appeared  the  first  two  parts  of  his  most  celebrated  work, 
the  Bardhin-i-Ahmad'iya  (Ahmadiya  Proofs),  and  although 
in  the  exposition  of  Muslim  doctrines  contained  therein 
there  was  already  present  the  germ  of  the  unique  Ahmadiya 


16  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

teachings,  which  formed  the  basis  of  his  later  quarrels 
with  orthodox  Muslims,  this  book  was  quite  universally 
acclaimed  (in  so  far  as  it  was  read),  throughout  the 
Muhammadan  world,  as  a  work  of  power  and  originality. 

The  turning  point  in  the  career  of  the  Mirza  Sahib  and 
the  real  beginning  of  the  independent  existence  of  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  occurred  on  the  4th  of  March,  1889, 
when  he  announced  a  divine  revelation  giving  him  the 
right  to  accept  hai'dt  {i.e.,  homage  paid  to  a  king  or  to  a 
religious  leader)  from  a  disciple.  There  then  came  into 
existence  a  little  group  of  individuals  who  accepted  his 
guidance  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  spiritual  life.  It 
was  not  until  1891,  however,  that  Ahmad  made  the  declara- 
tion which  caused  a  sharp  line  of  demarcation  to  be  drawn 
between  himself  and  the  larger  world  of  Islam.  He  then 
announced  that  he  was  both  the  promised  Messiah  and  the 
Mahdi  expected  by  Muslims,  and  sought  to  make  clear  his 
position  in  three  books  : — Fateh  Islam,  Tanzih-i-Mardm 
and  Izdla-i-Auhdm.  From  that  time  forward  his  life  was 
involved  in  bitter  controversy  with  orthodox  Muham- 
madans,  Arya  Samaj  leaders  and  Christians.  Through 
the  activity  of  one  of  his  most  persistent  enemies,  Maulvi 
Muhammad  Husain,  formerly  his  friend  and  co-worker, 
a  fatwd  (legal  pronouncement  by  a  Muslim  authority  on 
canon  law)^  was  secured,  bearing  the  confirmatory  seals  of 
many  important  mullahs  throughout  India, excommunicating 
Ahmad  and  his  followers  from  Islam  on  account  of  heresy, 
and  declaring  that  their  destruction  was  thenceforth 
sanctioned  in  accordance  with  orthodox  law.^  On  his  part, 
the  Mirza  Sahib  now  became  very  active  and  vocal  in  his 
denunciation  of  his  enemies.  Again  and  again  he  was 
haled  into  court — particularly  in  connection  with  his 
various  prophecies  of  death  or  disgrace  to  be  visited  upon 
particular  foes.  In  some  cases,  as  will  appear  hereafter,^ 
these  were  so  literally  fulfilled  as  to  cause  strong  suspicion 
that  steps  had  been  taken  by  Ahmad's  followers,  with  or 
without  his  cognizance,  to  see  that  the  prophecy  should 
not  fail  of  fulfilment. 

*  Cf.  p.  69,  Note  1.         ^  Cf.  p.  74,  Note  1.  '  Cf.  p.  43. 


MiRZA  GHULAM  AHMAD  17 

A  memorable  hour  in  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad's  life 
occurred  in  December,  1896,  when  he  read  a  paper  at  the 
Conference  of  Religions  in  Lahore,  entitled  "  The  Sources 
of  Divine  Knowledge,"^  which  gives  an  extensive  summary 
of  the  Ahmadiya  interpretation  of  the  Qur'an  and  the 
Islamic  theory  of  salvation. 

From  the  year  1892,  in  addition  to  several  vernacular 
periodicals,  an  English  monthly  magazine.  The  Review  of 
Religions,  was  published  by  the  sect  in  Qadian,  whence 
it  still  issues.  One  of  the  cleverest  of  Ahmad's  followers, 
Maulvl  Muhammad  'All,  M.A.,  LL.B.,  was  called  to  the 
editorship  of  this  periodical,  and  at  one  time  he  was 
assisted  by  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din,  of  whom  we  shall  have 
more  to  say  further  on.^  This  paper  was  well  named,  for 
it  has  given  its  attention  to  a  remarkably  wide  range  of 
religions  and  to  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  Orthodox 
Hinduism,  the  Arya  Samaj,  the  Brahma  Samaj  and  Theo- 
sophy  ;  Silchism,  Buddhism,  Jainism  and  Zoroastrianism  ; 
Baha'ism,  Christian  Science  and  Christianity  have  all 
received  attention,  as  well  as  Islam  in  all  its  ramifications, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  such  as  the  Shi'ites,  Ahl-i- 
Hadis,^  Kharijites,*  Sufis  and  such  representative  expon- 
ents of  modern  tendencies  as  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan^ 
and  Syed  Amir  'Ali.*^  In  another  chapter  we  shall  deal 
with  the  Ahmadiya  attitude  toward  Christianity.  We 
would  only  pause  here  to  comment  on  the  alertness  and 
diligence  of  the  group  of  Ahmadiya  leaders  who  have  kept 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  movement  informed  of  the  currents 
of  thought  and  life  in  present-day  Christianity.  The 
Review  of  Religions  refers,  for  example,  to  Mormonism  and 
Zionism,  and  to  Professor  George  B.  Foster's  book,  The 
Finality  of  the  Christian  Religion  (Chicago,  1906),  which 

*  Later  published,  with  the  title,  The  Teachings  of  Islam,  by 
Luzac  &  Co.,  London,  1910. 

^  Cf.  p.   113ff. 

'  Literally,  "  People  of  Tradition,"  a  name  used  in  India  by  the 
puritanical  sect  of  Wahhabites,  and  in  particular  referring  to  a  group  of 
about  forty  thousand  of  these  Muslim  purists  in  the  Panjab. 

*  The  adherents  of  this  sect  of  Muslims,  neither  Sunnis  nor 
Shi'ites,  respect  the  first  three  Khalifas  but  reject  and  abuse    'Ali. 

*  Cf.  p.  66,  Note  1.  •  Cf.  p.  65,  Note  3. 

2 


18  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

involved  him  in  a  heresy  trial  in  America  ;  to  R.  J. 
Campbell's  New  Theology,  and  the  Keswick  movement 
in  England  ;  to  the  Johannine  sect  in  Russia,  the  great 
revival  in  Wales  and  the  World's  Missionary  Con- 
ference in  Edinburgh  in  1910 ;  to  the  modern  critical 
school  of  theologians  in  Germany,  to  Modernism  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Italy,  and  to  Christian 
missionary  activity  in  Palestine,  Japan,  Iceland,  South 
Africa,  Egypt  and  other  lands.  Books  by  Western 
students  of  Islam  such  as  Pfander,  Hughes,  Margoliouth, 
Zwemer,  Gairdner,  Snouck  Hurgronje,  Noldeke,  E.  G. 
Brown  and  Canon  Sell  receive  due  attention.  The  new 
Leyden  Encyclopedia  of  Islam  is  heartily  commended. 
There  are  frequent  quotations  from  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica,  the  Encyclopedia  Biblica  and  the  Jewish 
Encyclopedia,  and  from  such  periodicals  as  The  London 
Quarterly  Review,  The  Contemporary  Review,  The  Review 
of  Reviews,  The  Westiinnister  Review,  The  Hibbert  Journal, 
The  Biblical  World,  The  East  and  the  West,  The  Moslem 
World,  and  others  too  numerous  to  mention,  including, 
of  course,  all  of  the  important  Christian  missionary 
periodicals  in  India.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the 
comments  on  the  scattered  quotations  show  a  woful  lack 
of  balanced  judgment  and  of  any  broad  and  fixed  principles 
of  scholarly  criticism. 

That  Ahmad  himself,  like  his  most  intelligent  followers, 
kept  abreast  of  the  times  to  a  considerable  extent,  and 
possessed  at  least  a  superficial  knowledge  of  conditions 
in  the  religious  world,  his  own  articles  and  addresses  give 
ample  evidence.  The  pity  was,  and  is,  that  with  his 
learning  and  his  cleverness  in  controversy  there  was  not 
associated  an  honest  and  discriminating  judgment,  a 
passion  for  truth  stretching  beyond  the  sole  confines  of 
the  Islam  of  his  conception,  and  an  irenic  spirit  which 
could  disagree  and  dispute  with  others  without  becoming 
angrily  uncharitable  and  unfair.  Because  of  these  weak- 
nesses he  cannot  be  considered  seriously  as  a  scholar  in 
any  field. 

It  is  difficult  for  one  who  knows  Ahmad  only  through 
his  writings   to    appraise    his    character.       That    he    was 


MIRZA  GHULAM  AHMAD  19 

a  man  of  simple  habits  and  generous  impulses  all  the 
evidence  at  our  disposal  would  indicate.  His  courage 
in  the  face  of  bitter  persecution,  amounting  to  attempts 
at  physical  violence,  is  certainly  commendable.  Only 
a  man  of  magnetic  and  pleasing  personality  could  have 
attracted  and  held  the  friendship  and  loyalty  of  such 
numbers  of  men,  of  whom  two,  at  least,  died  for  their 
faith,  in  Afghanistan,  in  accordance  with  orthodox 
Musalman  law.^  Those  older  Ahmadis  whom  I  have 
questioned  as  to  their  reasons  for  joining  the  movement, 
have  most  of  them  laid  greater  stress  on  the  personal 
impression  made  upon  them  by  the  Mirza  Sahib's  forceful 
and  winning  personality  than  on  the  nature  of  his  peculiar 
teachings.  The  real  puzzle  emerges  in  the  case  of 
Ahmad,  as  also  of  his  great  master,  Muhammad, 
when  we  come  to  judge  of  his  alleged  revelations, 
particularly  those  relating  to  himself  and  his  claims.  We 
shall  deal  with  these  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter.  Here 
we  are  only  interested  in  them  as  far  as  they  relate  to  his 
character.  Some  have  believed  that  one  who  could 
sincerely  make  such  stupendous  claims  must  have  been 
mentally  affected.  On  one  occasion  an  Indian  Christian 
teacher,  named  Daniel,  visited  Ahmad  at  Qadian,  and  left 
with  him  seven  questions  of  which  the  first  three,  relating 
to  the  mental  state  of  Ahmad,  were  as  follows  : 

"  1.  Have  you  ever  been  affected  with  a  brain 
disease  ?  If  so,  what  and  when  ?  Does  its  attack  recur 
now  ? 

"2.  Did  you  begin  to  have  revelations  before  you 
suffered  from  an  attack  of  such  disease  or  after  that  ? 
Have  any  of  your  relations  ever  made  strange  pretentions  ? 
If  so,  what  and  when  ? 

"3.  Has  the  idea  ever  had  access  to  your  mind  that 
your  claims  may  be  wrong  ?  If  so,  how  was  the  doubt 
removed  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  doubt  may  be 
valid  ?  " 

The  editor  of  Review  of  Religions  (V,  p.  150),  it  may 
be  assumed  with  Ahmad's  acquiescence,  wrote  in  reply  : — 

*  Review  of  Religiuns,  II,  p.  405.     See  pp.  70,  71. 


30  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

"  The  drift  of  the  first  two  questions  is  that  the 
revelations  of  the  promised  Messiah  are  due  to  dementia  ; 
in  other  words,  they  are  [not  ?]  revelations  from  God.  .  .  . 
The  diseases  to  which  Mr.  Daniel  alludes  were  foretold 
by  our  Holy  Prophet  as  being  the  signs  of  the  promised 
Messiah."  He  then  goes  on  to  argue,  by  a  somewhat 
forced  interpretation,  that  a  tradition  had  declared 
that  the  promised  Messiah  would  make  his  appearance 
clad  in  garments  dyed  yellow,^  and  that,  since  "  there 
is  a  consensus  of  opinion  among  all  interpreters  of  dreams 
that  yellow  garments  signify  disease,"  the  reference  is,  of 
course,  to  Ahmad's  two  diseases,  "syncope  and  polyuria." 
As  far  as  there  is  any  direct  answer  given  here  to  Mr. 
Daniel's  questions  about  the  presence  of  mental  irregulari- 
ties in  Ahmad,  it  would  seem  to  be  in  the  affirmative, 
although,  of  course,  there  was  no  intention  on  the  part  of 
the  writer  to  imply  that  any  physical  and  mental  irregulari- 
ties of  the  human  medium  could  be  held  to  have  interfered 
with  the  validity  of  the  divine  revelation.  On  the  con- 
trary, in  Muslim  eyes  it  might  even  strengthen  his  claims  to 
pre-eminence  in  spiritual  rank."  There  seems  to  be  a 
confusion  here,  however,  between  Mr.  Daniel's  allusion 
to  brain  disease  and  the  Ahmadiya  reference  to  syncope 
and  polyuria,  as  being  Ahmad's  troubles,  since  actually 
those  diseases  do  not  affect  the  mind. 

That  he  was  neither  insane  nor  a  conscious  imposter, 
but  self-deluded,  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  H.  D.  Griswold,  of 
Lahore,  who  was  personally  acquainted  with  Ahmad,  and 
of  whose  paper,  on  "  The  Messiah  of  Qadian,"  read  before 
the  Victoria  Institute  of  Great  Britain,  the  editor  of  the 
Review  of  Religions  wrote,  "  Excepting  occasional  remarks, 
which  were  necessary  to  make  the  paper  fit  for  reading  in 

^  In  the  resume  of  Muslim  traditions  regarding  the  second  coming 
of  Christ  contained  in  the  Miikaddima  of  Ibn  Khaldun,  there  is  an 
obscure  reference  to  the  expected  one  descending  at  Damascus,  "between 
two  yellow  robes,"  which  may  be  what  Ahmad  had  in  mind.  See 
De  Slane.     Ed.,  Quatremhre,  Vol.  11,  p.  170. 

^  For  the  connection  between  idiocy  and  sainthood  in  Islam,  see 
Macdonald,  The  Religious  Attitude  arid  Life  in  Islam,  Chicago, 
1909,  pp.  103,  104. 


MIRZA  GHULAM  AHMAD  21 

a  Christian  meeting,  the  author  has  very  clearly  stated  the 
necessary  facts  for  forming  a  true  idea  of  the  Ahmadiya 
movement,  and  has  taken  immense  pains  to  collect  from 
different  places  all  the  arguments  bearing  on  the  subject 
and  to  collate  them  in  order."  Dr.  Griswold,  in  his 
pamphlet,  Mtrzd  Ghuldm  Ahmad,  the  Mchdi  Messiah  of 
Qddidn,^  wrote : — 

"  The  opinions  on  this  point  concerning  him  may  be 
summed  up  under  three  judgments  :  (1)  that  he  is  a  con- 
scious deceiver,  (2)  that  he  is  insane,  (3)  that  he  is  self- 
deluded."  After  quoting  judgments  of  others  in  favour  of 
each  of  the  first  two  alternatives,  Dr.  Grisv/old  gives  his 
own  opinion  as  follows  : — 

"  On  the  whole,  however,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  third 
judgment  is  the  safest  one,  namely,  that  the  Mirza  Sahib 
is  honest  but  self-deceived.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge, 
his  writings  everywhere  have  the  ring  of  sincerity.  His 
persistency  in  affirming  his  claims  in  the  face  of  the 
most  intense  and  bitter  opposition  is  magnificent. 
He  is  willing  to  suffer  on  behalf  of  his  claims.  And 
besides  this,  if,  in  the  sober  and  matter-of-fact  West, 
Dr.  Dowie,  of  Chicago,^  can  claim  to  be  the  promised 
Elijah,  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised  if,  in  the  warmer 
and  more  imaginative  East,  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  of 
Qadian,  has  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah.  To  both  alike 
may  be  granted  a  measure  of  pity  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  probable  victims  of  unconscious  self-deception." 

I  am  indebted  to  Professor  D.  B.  Macdonald,  of  Hart- 
ford, U.S.A.,  for  the  suggestion  here  advanced  as  perhaps 
best  accounting  for  Ahmad's  claims  and  so-called  revela- 
tions, viewed  in  the  light  of  our  modern  knowledge  of 
psychology.  May  not  he,  like  his  great  leader,  be  best 
described  as  "  a  pathological  case"  ?  Let  me  quote  here 
a  few  passages  from  Professor  Macdonald's  chapter  on 
"The  Person  and  Life  of  Muhammad,"  in  his  Aspects 
of    Isldnty^    setting    forth    this    theory   of    the    nature    of 

»   Published  at  Ludhiana,  Panjab,  in  1902. 

»  Cf.  p.  45,  Note  1. 

^  Macmillan,  New  York,  p.  63ff. 


33  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Muhammad's  inspiration: — "As  I  have  said  before,  the 
fundamental  thing  in  him  was  that  he  was  a  pathological 
case.  It  is  evident  that  from  comparatively  early  days  he 
had  trances  ;  fell  into  fits  in  which  he  saw  and  heard 
strange  things.  There  came  to  him  voices,  either 
apparently  in  a  trance  condition  or  when  he  was  awake. 
Driven  by  fear  for  his  soul,  he  had  got  into  the  habit  of 
retiring  into  desert  recesses,  and  there  spending  days  in 
solitary  prayer.  So  there  the  voices  came  to  him  ;  there 
he  even  saw  figures — vague,  dim — and  the  fear  fell  upon 
him.  What  are  they  ?  What  is  the  matter  with  me  ?  Is 
this  of  God  ?  Or  am  I  possessed  by  some  spirit  ?  .  .  . 
Again  he  was  not,  as  so  many  have  thought,  a  schemer, 
a  politician,  a  man  who  set  out  to  unite  Arabia  and 
to  become  its  head,  and  who  at  every  move  knew  exactly 
what  he  was  doing  and  why  he  did  it.  He  was  not 
a  schemer ;  he  was  very  often  the  most  impolitic 
of  men.  .  .  .  So,  then,  I  take  it  that  the  essential  and 
characteristic  elements  in  the  prophetship,  in  the  creed, 
in  the  personality,  in  the  philosophy  of  Muhammad  all 
lead  us  back  to  something  unhealthy,  ununified;  but  to 
something  also  in  its  earlier  phases,  and  through  the 
greater  part  of  its  life  and  growth,  absolutely  sincere — 
absolutely,  entirely  real." 

That  Ahmad  also  was  to  some  extent  sincere  in  his  belief 
that  his  revelations  (particularly  the  earlier  ones  which 
defined  his  unique  office)  came  from  some  source  that  was 
external  to  his  own  mind  all  the  evidence  at  our  disposal 
would  lead  us  to  believe.  His  revelations  for  the  most  part 
came  in  brief,  ejaculatory  Arabic  sentences.^  A  few  of  the 
early  ones,  however,  came  in  English,  a  language  which 
Ahmad  professed  not  to  speak.  Two  instances  of  these 
English  revelations,  given  by  Mirza.  Yakub  Beg,  are  the 
following  : — "  I  shall  help  you  :  You  have  to  go  Amritsar  "; 
"  He  halts  in  the  Zilla  (township)  Peshawar."  It  will  be 
noticed  that  the  English  is  imperfect. 

That  he  later,  like  Muhammad  (according  to  Professor 
Macdonald's  theory)  and  many  modern  mediums,  produced 

'  See  the  translations  of  several  of  these  revelations  on  p.  33. 


MIRZA  GHULAM  AHMAD  23. 

alleged  revelations  that  had  been  deliberately  forged,  in 
the  interests  (in  his  case)  of  a  growing  ambition  and  an 
ill-disguised  cupidity,  a  mass  of  reliable  evidence  compels 
us  to  believe. 

All  that  we  know  of  Ahmad's  early  years  reveals  in  him 
the  nervous,  abstracted  manner  of  the  typical  medium. 
As  the  revelations  began  to  come — whether  through 
automatic  writing,  or  in  a  trance,  or  through  some  other 
means,  we  can  only  surmise — he  was,  let  us  say,  profound- 
ly moved  by  their  mysterious  nature  and  easily  convinced 
of  their  having  proceeded  from  a  supernatural  source. 
Thereupon  he  became,  in  his  own  eyes  and  in  those  of  his 
followers,  the  "next  step"  in  the  divine  scheme  of 
progressive  revelation,  and  possibly  the  inevitable  centre  of 
a  proselytizing  cult. 

We  can  find  many  suggestive  parallels  of  this  mental  and 
spiritual  progression  in  the  history  of  such  modern  mediums 
as  D.  D.  Home  and  Rev.  Stainton  Moses,  of  a  generation 
ago,  and  the  late  W.  T.  Stead  and  Elsa  Barker  in  the 
past  few  years.  In  such  cases  it  seems  to  be  an  easy,  and 
indeed  almost  inevitable,  thing  for  the  controlling  intelli- 
gence, whether  it  be  "/i6ra?r'  (Gabriel)  or  "  Imperator,"^ 
"Julia""  or  "X,"'  to  convince  the  medium  that  the  source 
of  the  communications  is  wholly  external  to  the  personality 
of  the  "sensitive,"  and  that  the  medium  has  been  chosen 
to  be  the  vehicle  of  a  divinely  inspired  revelation.'* 

The  last  ten  years  of  Ahmad's  life  were  increasingly 
shadowed  by  physical  weakness  and  characterised  by  wan- 
ing aggressiveness,  as  he  realised  that  he  was  drawing  near 

1  Cf.  M.  A.  Oxon  (Rev.  W.  Stainton  Moses):  Spirit  Teachings, 
London  Spiritualist  Alliance,  1894. 

=*  Cf.  W.  T.  Stead:  "After  Death— A  Personal  Narrative," 
Review  of  Reviews,  London,  1912. 

'  Cf.  Elsa  Barker:  Letters  from  a  Living  Dead  Man.  Wm. 
Rider  &  Sons,  London,  1914. 

*  A  later  example  of  this  tendency  is  seen  in  the  case  of  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge's  Raymond,  which  Sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle  has  called  "A 
new  revelation  of  (Jod's  dealing  with  man."  See  Appendix  I  for 
quotations  from  a  recent  article  in  Review  of  Religions,  in  which 
further  unconscious  evidences  are  given  of  the  mediumistic  character 
of  Ahmad's  revelation, 


24  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

to  the  end.  In  December,  1905,  he  pubh'shed  his  "  Will,"^ 
in  which  he  wrote,  "As  Almighty  God  has  informed  me, 
in  various  revelations  following  one  another,  that  the  time 
of  my  death  is  near,  and  the  revelations  in  that  respect  have 
been  so  many  and  so  consecutive  that  they  have  shaken  my 
existence  from  the  foundations  and  made  this  life  quite 
indifferent  to  me,  I  have,  therefore,  thought  it  proper  that 
I  should  write  down  for  my  friends,  and  for  such  other 
persons  as  can  benefit  from  my  teachings,  some  words  of 
advice."  As  will  appear  in  Chapter  VI,  the  content  of  this 
"  Will  "  was  destined  to  prove  a  source  of  controversy  and 
division  in  the  Ahmadiya  community  in  years  to  come. 

A  few  days  before  his  death  he  wrote  a  paper  called 
"The  Message  of  Peace,""  which  he  intended  should  be 
read  in  his  presence  at  a  religious  conference  in  University 
Hall,  Lahore,  in  May,  1908.  While,  even  here,  he  could 
not  refrain  from  repeating  some  of  his  customary  carping 
criticism  of  Christianity  and  Hinduism,  he  nevertheless 
comes  nearer  than  he  had  probably  ever  done  before  to 
exemplifying  the  principle  which  in  this  paper  he  lays  down : 
"That  religion  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  religion 
which  does  not  inculcate  broad  sympathy  with  humanity 
in  general,  nor  does  that  person  deserve  to  be  called  a 
human  being  who  has  not  a  sympathetic  soul  within  him." 

His  death,  caused  by  intestinal  trouble,  occurred  very 
suddenly,  on  May  26th,  1908,  in  Lahore,  whither  he  had 
come  to  attend  the  conference  above  mentioned,  and  to 
secure  some  medical  assistance  for  his  wife.  His  enemies 
made  much  of  the  fact  that,  with  all  his  boasted  prophetic 
knowledge,  he  should  not  have  foreseen  the  date  of  his 
own  death,  which,  had  it  accorded  with  his  wishes  and 
plans,  would  certainly  have  occurred  in  Qadian,  and  at  a 
later  period.  "The  Message  of  Peace"  was  read  at  the 
conference  by  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-DIn,  just  after  the 
author's  death.  Ahmad  was  buried  in  an  unpretentious 
tomb  in  Qadian,  which  had  been  previously  prepared. 

*  Obtainable  in  pamphlet  form  from  the  Qadian  headquarters. 

*  This  can  be  obtained  from  Ahmadiya  headquarters  at  Qadian. 
It  appeared  in  the  Review  of  Religions  for  July,  1908  (VII,  p.  7). 
Cf.  pp.50,  51. 


CHAPTER    II 
THE    DISTINCTIVE   CLAIMS    OF   AHMAD 

I.     THE    PROMISED    MESSIAH 

The  Sunnite  Muslim  believes  that  among  the  signs  of 
the  approach  of  the  last  day  will  be  the  simultaneous 
appearance  of  the  promised  Messiah  and  the  expected 
Mahdi,  generally  taken  to  be  two  quite  distinct  person- 
alities with  different  offices  to  perform/  Mirza,  Ghulam 
Ahmad  claimed  to  fulfil  in  himself  various  Muslim 
prophecies  pertaining  both  to  the  Messiah  and  the  Mahdi, 
and,  in  addition,  to  be  the  fulfilment  of  Christian  and 
Jewish  eschatological  hopes.  First,  with  regard  to  Jewish 
prophecy,  in  a  paper  published  in  1904  (cf.  Review  of 
Religions,  III,  p.  331),  called  "  My  Claim  to  Promised 
Messiahship,"  Ahmad  wrote  : 

"  Since  God  created  man,  it  has  been  his  unchangeable  law  that 
he  sheds  his  light  upon  mankind  through  one  of  their  own  number, 
so  that  there  maybe  a  unity  and  oneness  ainong  them.  ...  In  accor- 
dance with  this  time-honoured  law,  Almighty  God  prophesied  by 
the  mouth  of  his  prophets  that  after  nearly  six  thousand  years  from  the 
time  of  Adam,  when  great  darkness  would  pursue  upon  earth  and  an 
irresistible  flood  of  passions  would  make  tlie  love  of  God  wane  and 
iniquity  predominate,  he  would  breathe  into  a  man  the  soul  of  truth 
and  love  and  knowledge  spiritually  after  the  likeness  of  Adam,  and  he 
would  be  called  the  Messiah,  because  God  would  himself  anoint  his 
soul  with  the  ointment  of  his  love.  .  .  .  After  a  heavy  fight  the 
Messiah  of  God  would  drive  back  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  the 
glory,  majesty,  unity  and  holiness  of  God  would  be  proclaimed  upon 
earth  and  would  continue   to  be  so  declared   for  a   thousand  years,   the 

^  Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  summary  in  English  of  the  gener- 
ally recognized  signs  of  the  Muslim  millennial  period  preceding  the 
day  of  resurrection  is  that  contained  in  Sale  :  Preliminary  Discourse 
to  the  Koran,  Ed.  1877,  Sect.  IV,  pp.  56-59,  to  which  the  reader  is 
referred.  I  mention  here  only  those  prophecies  of  which  Ahmad  makes 
use. 


26  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

seventh  day  of  the  Holy  Books  of  God.      Then  wili  be  the  end.     I  am 
that  Messiah  :  let  him  who  will  accept  me." 

We  thus  see  that  the  promised  Messiah  is,  for  Jews, 
Christians  and  Muhammadans  the  second  Adam  as  well 
as  the  promised  Messiah.  The  reference  to  Adam  is  of 
importance,  on  account  of  the  Muslim  designation  of  Jesus 
as  "  the  second  Adam,"  because  he  was  declared  b3' 
Muhammad  to  have  been  an  immediate  creation  like  the 
first  Adam.^  In  the  first  number  of  the  Review  of  Reli- 
gions (I,  p.  15)  this  parallelism  is  further  developed  : 

"  The  thousand  years  of  Satan's  supremacy  (following  the  thousand 
years  of  his  imprisonment  after  the  coming  of  Jesus)  have  come  to  an 
end,  and  we  are  now  living  in  the  millenium  of  God's  reign,  and  the 
dawn  of  it  has  already  appeared.  The  sixth  thousand  from  the 
appearance  of  Adam  has  come  to  a  close,  and  the  seventh,  in  which 
the  second  Adam  should  have  appeared,  has  begun.  God  made  Adam 
on  the  sixth  day,  and  the  sacred  Scriptures  further  bear  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  a  day  is  equal  to  a  thousand  years  with  the  Lord. 

"  The  promises  of  God,  therefore,  make  it  absolutely  necessary  that 
the  second  Adam  must  have  been  born  already,  though  not  recognized 
as  yet  by  the  world.  We  cannot  further  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the 
place  fixed  by  God  for  the  appearance  of  the  second  Adam  must  be  in 
the  East  and  not  in  the  West,  for  from  Genesis  2  :  8,  we  learn  that 
God  had  put  the  first  Adam  in  a  garden  east'ward.  It  is,  therefore, 
necessary  that  the  second  Adam  should  appear  in  the  East,  in  order  to 
have  a  resemblance  with  the  first  in  respect  of  his  locality.  This  con- 
clusion is  equally  binding  upon  the  Christians  and  the  Muhammadans 
if  they  admit  the  authority  of  their  Scriptures  and  are  not  of  an 
atheistic  turn  of  mind." 

The  thousand-year  imprisonment  of  Satan  after  Jesus' 
second  coming  is  taken  from  Revelation  20:  1-10.  There 
is  nothing  corresponding  to  it  in  Muslim  eschatology.  In 
another  passage  Ahmad  writes  : 

"  Moreover  Adam  was  born  on  Friday,  and  along  with  him  was 
born  a  woman.  So  it  happened  in  my  case,  viz.,  I,  too,  was  born  on 
Friday  and  was  born  a  twin,  a  girl  being  born  with  me."  ^ 

'  Cf.  Qur'an,  HI,  52. 

^  According  to  Muslim  writers  Adam  was  born  in  the  third  hour 
of  the  sixth  day,  and  Eve  in  the  sixth  hour.  See  article,  "  Adam  " 
in  The  Jeivish  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  I,  p.  178.  This  may  possibly  be 
a  distant  echo  of  the  legend  of  "  Lilith,"  who  figures  in  Jewish  rab- 
binical writings  as  the  first  wife  of  Adam.  See  article  "Lilith," 
Jeii'ish  Encyclopedia,  VHI,  p.  87. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  27 

Moses  as  well  as  Adam  is  included  in  the  method  of 
parallelism  by  which  Ahmad  claimed  to  fulfil  the  Jewish 
Messianic  prophecies.  The  argument  in  this  connection 
is  well  summarized  by  Dr.  Griswold,  who  heard  it  from 
Ahmad's  own  lips  at  Qadian  : 

"  There  are  two  tribes  of  fundamental  importance  in  Divine  reve- 
lation, the  Children  of  Israel  and  the  Children  of  Ishmael.  The  great 
prophets  of  the  former  were  Moses  and  Christ.  Christ  was  the  final 
prophet  of  the  Jews,  the  last  brick  in  their  national  and  religious 
structure.  Their  rejection  of  Christ  involved  their  own  rejection  and 
the  loss  of  their  nationality.  Then  came  the  turn  of  the  children  of 
Ishmael,  '  According  to  Deuteronomy  18  :  18,^  a  prophet  was  raised 
"like  unto"  Moses,  from  among  the  "brethren"  of  the  Israelites, 
in  the  person  of  the  great  lawgiver  Muhammad'  {Revieiu  of  Religions, 
May,  1903,  p.  206).  Muhammad,  therefore,  was  the  first  Ishmaelitish 
prophet,  as  it  were,  the  Moses  of  Islam.  But  Moses  and  Christ  were 
separated  by  an  interval  of  twelve  or  fourteen  centuries.  Hence,  in 
order  to  preserve  the  parallelism,  another  prophet  must  arise  twelve  or 
fourteen  centuries  after  Muhammad,  who  will  be,  as  it  were,  the 
Christ  of  Isldtn.  Who  can  this  be  but  Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian? 
The  relation  between  these  great  prophets  may  be  set  forth  in  the  form 
of  a  proportion.  Thus,  as  Moses  is  to  Christ,  so  Muhammad  is  to 
Ghulam  Ahmad  ;  or  again,  as  Muhammad  is  to  Moses,  so  the  Mirza 
Sahib  is  to  Jesus  Christ.  In  a  word,  as  Moses  is  a  type  of  Muham- 
mad, so  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  a  type  of  Ahmad  of  Qadian."^ 

The  words  of  Isaiah  41:  2,^  "Who  has  raised  the 
righteous  one  in  the  East,"  are  likewise  quoted  in  the 
Review  of  Religions  as  an  instance  of  Old  Testament  pro- 
phecy which  was  fulfilled  in  Ahmad. 

Coming  now  to  the  Christian  prophecies,  contained  in 
the  New  Testament,  Ahmad  held  that  the  second  coming 

'  This  prophecy  is  universally  held  by  Muslims  to  be  a  reference 
to  Muhammad,  who  claimed  descent  from  Ishmael.  Most  Christian 
commentators  on  Deuteronomy  agree  with  Driver,  in  The  International 
Critical  Commentary,  "  Deuteronomy,"  p.  227:  "  The  reference  here 
is  to  a  permanent  institution  (of  prophetship) ,  not  to  a  particular 
individual  prophet."  Other  Scriptural  passages  which  Muslims 
apply  to  Muhammad  are  :  Deuteronomy  33  :  2  ;  Isaiah  21  :  6;  the 
parable  in  Matthew  20  ;  John  4  :  21;  John  16  :  7  ;  1  John  4  :  1-3,  and 
many  more.  For  the  best  study  of  this  subject,  see  article  by  Goldziher 
in  the  Zeit shrift  of  the  J.O.S.,  Vol.  XLII,  pp.  591ff. 

^  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  the  Mchdi  Messiah  of  Qadian,  p.  21. 

'  The  reference  is  to  Cyrus,  according  to  G.  A.  Smith,  O.  C. 
Whitehouse,  and  other  Old  Testament  commentators.  See  "  Isaiah," 
in  The  Century  Bible,  Vol.  II,  p.  65. 


28  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

of  the  Messiah  was  not  to  be  in  Christ's  own  person,  but  in 
his  "spirit  and  power."  Even  so,  Jesus  declared  that 
John  had  come  in  the  "  spirit  and  power  "  of  Eh'jah  {Review 
of  Religions,  II,  p.  192),  when  the  Jews  urged  that  Jesus 
could  not  be  the  Messiah  because  the  prophecy  of  Malachi 
4  :  5,  was  still  unfulfilled,  that  Elijah  must  come  again 
previous  to  the  Messiah's  appearance  (Matt.  17:  12;  cf. 
Luke  2:  17).  Elijah  and  Jesus,  he  held,  were  the  two 
characters  of  whom  it  was  said  in  the  Bible  that  they 
were  taken  up  alive  into  heaven.  Hence  their  return  to 
earth  would  presumptively  be  the  same  in  its  nature.  In 
spite  of  the  contradictions  involved,  it  was  necessary  for 
Ahmad's  purpose  that  he  also  teach  that  Muslims  are  in 
error  in  believing  that  Jesus  was  taken  alive  into  one  of 
the  heavens  from  whence  he  will  return  before  the  last 
day,  just  as  Christians  err,  no  less,  in  their  belief  that  Jesus 
died  on  the  cross  and  after  his  resurrection  in  three  days 
ascended  to  heaven,  there  to  remain  until  his  second 
appearance.  Ahmad  held  it  to  be  of  supreme  importance 
to  his  claims  that  Jesus  should  have  died  like  an  ordinary 
man,^  so  as  to  make  his  appearance  in  his  actual  physical 
body  previous  to  the  general  resurrection  impossible,  thus 
making  possible  his  own  (Ahmad's)  coming  in  Jesus' 
spirit  and  power.  We  read  that  the  signs  which  ought 
to  accompany  the  return  of  the  Messiah  have  all  been 
fulfilled  : 

"Earthquakes,  plague,  famine,  wars,  and  terrestrial  as  well  as 
heavenly  phenomena,  bear  witness  to  the  one  fact  that  there  is  to  be  no 
more  waiting  for  the  Messiah's  advent"  (Review  of  Religions,  III, 
p.  397). 

Christians  themselves,  he  declared,  recognize  that  the 
time  is  at  hand,  but,  like  the  Jews  of  the  time  of  Jesus,  they 
are  looking  in  the  wrong  direction  for  his  appearance. 
The  Millennial  Dawn  books  of  the  late  "  Pastor  "  Russell, 
in  America,  are  quoted  to  prove  that  the  six  thousandth 
year  after  Adam,  at  the  end  of  which  the  Messiah  must 
come,  ended  in  1873,  and  that  by  1914  the  saints  were  to 

Ahmad's  theory  regarding  Jesus'  death  and    burial  is  set  forth 
in  Chapter  IV,  p.  89ff. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  29 

be  gathered  and  the  Kingdom  was  to  be  firmly  estabh'shed 
and  recognized  by  all/ 

Other  Christian  writers,  he  asserts,  have  placed  the  time 
of  the  advent  in  1898,  1899  and  1900  ;  but  all  have  been 
disappointed  because  they  failed  to  realize  that  in  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian  the  Messiah  has  actually 
appeared  (Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  366). 

We  come  now  to  the  Muslim  prophecies  of  Jesus' 
return  to  earth.  The  only  reference  to  this  in  the  Qur'an 
is  the  dubious  one  in  XLIII,  61,^  which  some  commenta- 
tors take  to  refer  rather  to  the  Qur'an  itself.  Nevertheless, 
we  are  told  in  the  Review  of  Religions  (II,  p.  369): 

"  The  Qur'an  has  wisely  fixed  certain  signs  for  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah,  so  that  all  men  might  know  from  their  fulfilment  that  the  time 
is  come.  Of  these  the  most  important  sign  is  the  predominance  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  activity  of  the  Christian  nations  in  every 
department  of  life.  Of  this  predominance  and  activity  there  is  not  the 
least  doubt." 

Ahmad,  unfortunately,  does  not  inform  us  where  in  the 
Qur'an  this  prophecy  is  to  be  found,  but  he  (or  his  editor) 
asks  pertinently  in  the  same  paragraph  : 

'  If  the  Messiah  is  not  needed  now,  will  he  be  needed  when  the 
whole  world  is  led  to  believe  in  the  false  doctrine  of  which  the  Holy 
Qur'an  has  said  :  'The  heavens  might  almost  be  rent  thereat  and  the 
earth  cleave  asunder,  and  the  mountains  fall  in  pieces'?'"' 

A  favourite  argument  from  the  Qur'an  is  based  upon  the 
well-known  verse  (LXI,  6),  which  reads  : 

"  And  (remember)  when  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Mary,  said,  O  Children 
of  Israel;  of  a  truth  I  am  God's  Apostle  to  you  to  confirm  the  law 
which  was  given  before  me,  and  to  announce  an  Apostle  that  sliall 
come  after  me,  whose  name  shall  be  Ahmad." 

^  See  Studies  in  the  Scriptures  (in  earlier  editions,  The  Millennial 
Dawn),  Series  2,  "  The  Time  is  at  Hand,"  Studies  2  and  4,  pp.  33ff. 
Published  by  the  International  Bible  Students'  Association,  Brooklyn, 
N.y.,  1916. 

"  "And  he  (it)  shall  be  a  sign  of  the  last  hour;  doubt  not  then  of  it, 
and  follow  ye  me:  this  is  the  right  way"(  Rodwell's  translation,  p.  139) . 

"  Qur'an  XIX,  92.  The  preceding  verse  gives  the  "false 
doctrine  "  as  follows:  —  "  They  say  :  '  The  (iod  of  Mercy  hath  begotten 
offspring.'  Now  have  ye  done  a  monstrous  thing"  (Rodwell's 
translation,  p.  123).  Muhammad  interpreted  in  a  carnal  seme  the 
Christian  doctrine  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  Ciod. 


30  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

As  there  is  no  such  saying  of  Jesus  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, orthodox  Islam  has  followed  the  suggestion  of 
Maracci,  adopted  by  Sale  {Preliminary  Discourse.  Ed.  1877, 
Sect.  IV,  p.  53),  that  the  references  to  the  "  Paraclete," 
in  John  14  :  26  and  16  :  7,  were  believed  by  Muhammad 
to  point  to  himself,  the  original  Greek  word  having  been, 
in  this  case,  not  Parakletos  but  Periklutos,  which  is 
equivalent  to  the  Arabic  word,  Ahmad  ("praised"). 
The  word,  "  Muhammad,"  comes  of  course  from  the  same 
root.  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  takes  the  prediction,  in  both 
the  Gospel  and  the  Qur'an,  to  refer  not  to  Muhammad  but 
to  himself,  because  he  bears  the  name  "Ahmad" 
(Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  266),  although,  as  Dr.  Griswold 
has  pointed  out,  his  entire  name  really  signifies  "  Servant 
of  Ahmad  "  (Ghulam  Ahmad). 

A  further  sign  of  the  last  days,  which  we  are  frequently 
told  is  referred  to  in  the  Qur'an  and  given  in  detail  in  a 
tradition,  is  that  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  moon  will  then 
occur,  respectively,  on  the  13th  and  28th  of  the  month  of 
Ramadan.^  This  occurred  in  1894.  Although  the  earli- 
est collections  of  traditions  contain  few  references  to  the 
last  day,  later  Muhammadan  literature  abounds  in  tradi- 
tions that  give  the  signs  supposed  to  precede  and  accom- 
pany the  end."  Among  the  many  to  which  Ahmad  refers 
at  different  times  are  the  corruption  of  the  Muhammadan 
priests,  the  neglect  of  the  Qur'an,  and  the  splitting  of 
Islam  into  sects.  Ahmad  quotes  frequently  the  well-known 
tradition  of  Abu  Hurairah,  that  the  Son  of  Mary  when 
he  descends  shall  break  in  pieces  the  cross  and  shall  slay 
the  swine. ^  Ahmad  declared  that  it  was  evident  that  he 
had  fulfilled  this  prophecy  by  exposing  finally  the  falsity 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  salvation  through  the  cross 
of  Christ,  and  by  the  destructive  curses  he  pronounced 
upon  his  various  enemies,  who,  he  declared,  represent  the 

'  The  tradition  is  included  in  the  Masdhih  as  sunna  of  Al 
Baghawi,  Cairo,  Vol.  II,  p.  147.     It  is  not  in  the  Qur'an. 

^  Sale  {Preliminary  Discourse,  Sect.  IV,  p.  56ff)  gives  many 
of  the  signs  found  in  the  various  traditions,  together  with  their  sources. 

*  For  reference  to  this  tradition,  see  De  Slane's  edition  of  the 
Mukaddima  of  Ibn  Khaldun,  Ed.  Quatremere,  Vol.  II,  p.  163. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  31 

swine  referred  to  in  the  prophecy.  Among  other  prophetic 
signs  pointing  to  the  present  as  the  time  for  the  Messiah's 
descent,  it  is  said  that  the  promised  Messiah  is  to  fight 
with  the  anti-Christ  (Da jjdl),  who  will  come  riding  on  an 
ass  which  moves  like  a  cloud  driven  by  the  wind.  He 
will  have  but  one  eye,  and  with  him  will  be  all  the 
treasures  of  the  world.  This,  we  learn,  refers  to  the 
coming  of  the  English  to  India,  particularly  the  mission- 
aries— the  ass  being  the  railways  and  the  cloud  the  steam 
from  the  engines.  Since  the  English  have  an  eye  for  the 
things  of  this  world  only,  and  are  blind  in  the  eye  of 
religion,  they  may  be  considered  as  one-eyed  ;  and  certainly 
they  are  exceedingly  rich  !  The  rising  of  the  sun  in 
the  west,  another  prophecy,  likewise  refers  to  the  coming 
of  the  English,  resplendent  in  worldly  glory.  And  the 
strife  of  Gog  and  Magog  (Yajuj  and  Majuj),  referred 
to  in  the  Qur'an  (XVIII,  93,  97  and  XXI,  96)  and 
in  the  Bible  (Ezek.  39:  1,  6,  and  Rev.  20:  8),  whose 
"  appearance  in  history  in  terrific  combat  is  to  be  a  sign 
of  the  last  days,"  refers  to  the  war  between  England  and 
Russia.     In  one  place  we  read  : 

"  Among  other  signs  related  in  the  Holy  Qur'an  and  authentic 
traditions  are  the  appearance  of  the  plague  which  is  at  present  (1903) 
devastating  India  and  several  other  countries,  the  introduction  of  a 
new  mode  of  conveyance  in  place  of  camels,  etc.,  which  has  been 
fulfilled  by  the  construction  of  railways  throughout  the  world,  the 
increase  of  knowledge,  the  mixing  together  of  people  living  in  distant 
lands,  the  multiplicity  of  canals,  the  spreading  of  papers,  and  a  host 
of  other  signs  which  we  cannot  detail  here"  {Review  of  Religions, 
II,  p.  369). 

The  above  are  but  a  few  of  the  prophecies  which 
Ahmad  declared  were  fulfilled  in  himself.  Whenever  he 
discoursed  on  this  subject  some  orthodox  maulvi  was 
ready  with  a  new  prophecy,  buried  in  some  obscure  tra- 
dition :  and,  in  due  time,  Ahmad  was  prepared  to  reveal 
how  this  prophecy,  rightly  understood,  could  refer  only  to 
nimself. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  the  prophecies  of 
the  promised  Messiah's  coming.  Another  alleged  proof  of 
Ahmad's  Messiahship  was  the  fact  that  revelation  early 
identified    him    with    Jesus — the    Jesus    of    the    Christian 


33  THE  AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT 

Gospels,  mentioned  as  'Isd  so  often  in  the  Qur'an.     Re- 
ferring to  Surat-al-Tahrim,  Ahmad  wrote: 

"  It  is  plainly  indicated  that  some  one  from  among  the  Muslims 
will  first  acquire  the  characteristics  of  Mary  on  account  of  his  perfect 
righteousness,  and  be  called  by  that  name,  and  then  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
being  breathed  into  him,  he  will  be  called  by  the  latter  name.  In 
accordance  with  those  words  of  the  Holy  Qur'an,  Almighty  God  first 
named  me  Mary,  and  then  spoke  of  the  breathing  into  me  of  a  soul, 
and  lastly  he  named  me  Jesus  "  {Review  oj  Religions,  II,  p.  421).' 

In  the  course  of  the  revelations  recorded  in  the  pages 
of  the  Bardhin-i-Ahmadtya ,  one  occurred  in  which  Ahmad 
was  thus  addressed  : 

"  O  Mary,  enter  with  thy  companions  into  paradise,  I  have  breath- 
ed into  thee  from  myself  the  spirit  of  truth  "  (Review  of  Religions, 
III,  p.  340). 

The  resemblance  to  the  verse  of  the  Qur'an,  just 
referred  to,  is  obvious.  This  spirit,  Ahmad  declared,  was 
the  spirit  of  Jesus,  as  indicated  to  him  by  a  revelation, 
occurring  two  years  later,  applying  to  himself  the  verse  of 
the  Qur'an  : 

"  O  Jesus,  verily  I  will  cause  thee  to  die  a  natural  death,  and  will 
take  thee  up  to  myself,  and  I  will  place  those  who  follow  thee  above 
those  who  believe  not  in  thee,  until  the  day  of  Resurrection"  {Review 
of  Religions,  III,  p.  341).^ 

At  the  time  Ahmad  supposed  that  these  revelations 
referred  to  the  ordinary  Muslim  belief  regarding  the  second 
advent  of  Jesus,  and  it  was  not  until  some  years  after  that 
it  was  further  revealed  to  him,  as  above  narrated. 

"  My  name  is  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  for  my  capacity  of  Jesus  is  an 
offspring  of  my  capacity  as  Mary." 

In  Ahmad's  challenge  to  a  prayer-duel  to  the  death, 
issued  to  Dr.  John  Alexander  Dowie,  the  American 
"  Messiah,"^  in  1892,  the  revelations  seem   to   have    gone 

'  We  find  no  such  reference  in  Surat-al-Tahrim,  but  we  suppose 
Ahmad  must  have  had  in  mind  the  last  verse  (LXVI,  13):  "And 
Mary,  the  daughter  of  Imran,  who  kept  her  maidenhood,  and  into 
whose  womb  we  breathed  of  our  spirit,  and  who  believed  in  the  words 
of  her  Lord  and  his  scriptures,  and  was  one  of  the  devout  "  (  Rodwell's 
translation,  p.  465) . 

*  Qur'an  III,  48.  »  Cf.  p.  45,  Note  1. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  33 

the  length  of  convincing  Ahmad  not  only  of  his  likeness, 
but  further  of  his  superiority,  to  Jesus.  After  describing 
how  on  various  occasions  he  has  seen  Jesus  and  eaten 
with  him  from  the  same  dish,  he  proceeds  : 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  Divine  wisdom  has  entrusted  a  far 
greater  and  more  important  work  to  my  charge,  and  has  given  me 
promises  of  a  far  greater  kindness  and  grace,  yet  spiritually  Jesus  and 
I  are  one  in  essence.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  my  advent  is  his  advent. 
He  who  denies  me  denies  Jesus  also.  He  saw  me  and  was  pleased, 
and,  therefore,  he  who  sees  me  and  is  not  pleased  with  me  is  not  of  us, 
neither  of  me  nor  of  Jesus.  Jesus  is  from  me  and  I  am  from  God  ; 
blessed  is  he  who  recognizes  me,  and  undone  is  the  person  from  whose 
eyes  I  am  hidden." 

And  again  he  writes  distinctly  : 

"The  Son  of  Mary  has  not  the  slightest  superiority  over  other 
men;  nay,  we  can  point  to  men  who  have  been  far  superior  to  him. 
And  in  this  age,  the  writer  of  these  pages  has  been  sent  to  convince 
people  that  he  enjoys  a  greater  grace  and  favour  in  the  sight  of  God 
than  Jesus  Christ  "  (ReTieiv  of  Religions,  I,  p.  340). 

And  yet  again : 

"  Ye  Christian  missionaries  :  say  no  more  that  Christ  is  your  God, 
for  there  is  one  among  you  who  is  greater  than  Christ"  (Review 
of  Religions,  I,  p.  351). 

Detailed  evidences  of  his  superiority  are  given  in 
an  article  in  the  Review  of  Religions  for  May,  1902 
(I,  p.  206): 

"  I  wonder  what  peculiarities  there  are  in  the  Son  of  Mary  which 
make  him  a  God.  Do  these  consist  in  his  miracles?  But  mine  are 
greater  than  his.  Were  his  prophecies  very  clear  and  true?  But  I 
shall  be  guilty  of  concealing  a  truth  if  I  do  not  assert  that  the  pro- 
phecies which  Almighty  God  has  granted  me  are  of  a  far  better  quality 
in  clearness,  force  and  truth,  than  the  ambiguous  predictions  of  Jesus. 
Can  we  conclude  his  divinity  from  the  words  used  of  him  in  the 
Gospels?  But  I  swear  by  the  Lord  .  .  .  that  the  words  expressing 
my  dignity  revealed  from  God  ...  are  far  more  weighty  and 
glorious  than  the  words  of  the  Gospels  relating  to  Jesus.  But, 
notwithstanding  all  this  superiority,  I  cannot  assert  Divinity  or 
Sonship  of  God.  .  .  .  My  superiority  lies  in  being  the  Messiah 
of  Muhammad,  as  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  of  Moses,  the  Israelite 
Law-giver." 

Later  than  this  a  revelation  came  to  Ahmad,  in  Arabic 
as  on  most  occasions,  of  which  a  literal   translation   would 


34  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

be:  *'  Thou  art  to  me  as  a  Son/  Thou  art  from  me  and 
I  from  thee  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  349).  A  further 
evidence  of  Ahmad's  superiority  to  Jesus  lay,  he  declared, 
in  the  fact  that  he  was  saved  by  the  grace  of  Muhammad 
from  the  possibility  of  such  an  ignominious  death  as  Jesus 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

In  addition  to  pointing  to  the  agreement  of  past  pro- 
phecy and  present  revelation  in  declaring  his  indentity 
with  or  superiority  to  Jesus,  Ahmad  boasted  a  similarity  to 
Christ  in  his  external  situation  and  in  his  personal 
character.  Like  Jesus,  Ahmad  was  destined  first  to  suffer 
persecution  at  the  hands  of  unbelievers. 

"  The  world  shall  not  recognize  him  before  his  glorious  advent; 
for  he  is  not  of  the  world.  Nor  shall  the  world  love  him;  for  he  comes 
from  the  God  whom  the  world  does  not  love.  It  is,  therefore,  neces- 
sary that  he  should  be  abused,  persecuted  and  charged  with  all  manner 
of  crime  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  17). 

As  the  enemies  of  Jesus  were  the  supposedly  religious 
and  orthodox  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  so  to-day  the  pro- 
fessedly religious  people  and  their  leaders  are,  because  of 
their  sins,  most  sharply  antagonistic  to  the  spirit  and 
claims  of  the  Messiah.  In  Christendom,  he  declared, 
drunkenness,  prostitution  and  gambling  were  rampant, 
and  the  clergy  and  missionaries  set  the  example.  Refer- 
ence is  made,  in  the  Review  of  Religions  for  May,  1906 
(V,  p.  215),  to  a  book  to  which  I  have  no  access,  called 
Crimes  of  Preachers,  which,  says  the  editor,  has  a  brief 
record  of  some  of  the  crimes  with  which  clergy  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  have  been  charged  in  courts. 
There  is  no  unnameable  crime  from  which  the  "  love  of 
Christ"  has  saved  the  holy  men,  adultery  and  seduction 
heading  the  list.  Intelligent  and  unbiassed  Muslims,  as 
well  as  Christians,  must  exclaim  at  the  studied  unfairness 
of  such  a  representation  of  Christianity  and  its  leaders  in 
the  East  and  West. 

*  This  revelation  is  of  special  interest  in  view  of  Muhammad's 
inability  to  conceive  of  such  a  spiritual  sonship  as  that  of  Jesus  to  the 
Father  from  the  Christian  viewpoint.  Ahmad  here  seems  to  declare 
himself  boldly  a  son  of  God,  although  he  elsewhere  echoes  the  com- 
mon Muslim  deprecation  of  the  term  as  applied  to  Jesus. 


THE  DISTINXTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  35 

But  neither  does  Islam  come  through  unscathed.  It 
is  condemned  by  Ahmad  for  its  sectarianism,  ceremonialism, 
hard-heartedness  and  superstitious  saint-worship.  We  are 
told  that  "  Muhammadan  degeneration  has  passed  all 
bounds.  Luxurious  habits,  transgressions,  drunkenness, 
gambling  and  laziness  have  gained  the  upper  hand  " 
{Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  318). 

And  this  decadence  is  due  to,  and  most  extensively 
found  among,  the  maulvis  themselves.  "The  blame  of 
depriving  a  whole  world  of  the  recognition  of  Islamic 
truths  lies  at  the  door  of  the  maulvis,"  because 
they  have  "fabricated  poisonous  traditions"  and  their 
own  lives  are  corrupt.  Even  so,  "at  the  time  of  Jesus' 
advent,  the  Jewish  priests  and  religious  leaders  were 
morally  in  a  very  degraded  condition,  and  though  the 
word  of  virtue  was  on  their  lips  yet  their  hearts  were 
quite  devoid  of  it." 

If  the  moral  conditions  of  the  Christian  and  Muham- 
madan world  to-day  are  similar  to  those  in  Jewish  society 
when  Jesus  came,  so  also  are  political  conditions  among 
Muslims  to-day  similar  to  those  of  the  Jews  of  the  first 
century.  The  Jews  were  a  subject  people,  under  the  yoke 
of  Rome,  and  to-day  "  Muhammadanism  has  ceased  to  be 
the  ruling  power  in  the  country  where  the  Promised 
Messiah  has  been  raised,  and  English  rule  has  been  estab- 
lished in  its  stead."  And  as  Jesus  did  not  seek  to  foster 
a  spirit  of  revolution  among  the  Jews,  but  remained  loyal 
to  Rome,  so  was  the  Mirza  Sahib,  like  his  forbears,  a 
a  loyal  subject  of  the  British  Raj.  Moreover,  as  Jesus  was 
dragged  before  a  Roman  tribunal,  so  has  Ahmad  been 
hailed  before  the  English  courts  on  several  occasions,  and 
as  Jesus  was  declared  innocent  by  Pilate,  so,  Ahmad  de- 
clares, he  also  was  discharged  as  innocent  by  the  British 
official  who  presided  when  one  of  his  famous  cases  was 
tried. 

Most  important  of  all,  Ahmad  seems  to  have  held,  was 
the  resemblance  between  himself  and  Jesus  in  character 
and  office.  In  sketching  this  analogy  he  considers  Jesus 
only  in  the  favourable  light  and  with  the  mature  moral 
personality    in    which    the    Gospels    present     him.      In    a 


36  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

later  chapter^  we  shall  find  him  portraying  a  different  and 
strangely  inconsistent  picture  of  Jesus,  giving  to  him  a 
character  with  which  Ahmad  would  hardly  desire  to 
associate  himself  in  the  popular  mind.  He  declares  that  in 
his  single  personality  the  spirituality  of  both  Muhammad  and 
Jesus  "pervades  his  whole  being,  and,  as  it  were,  supplies 
the  fuel  which  keeps  up  the  heat  of  his  spiritual  life." 

He  has  inherited  the  "untold  perfections  of  the  Holy  Prophet  " 
and  likewise  "  the  perfection  of  Jesus  Christ. =  And  as  the  personality 
of  the  Promised  Messiah  was  quite  blended  with  these  two  per- 
sonalities, and  was  wholly  lost  in  them,  therefore  the  names  of  these 
two  chosen  ones  of  God  predominated  over  his  own  name,  and  in 
heaven  the  names  of  these  two  great  ones  were  appropriated  for  him." 
(Review  of  Religions,  H,  p.  67) . 

As  with  Jesus,  so  with  Ahmad,  between  his  first  com- 
ing to  persecution  and  his  second  advent  in  glory,  his 
innocence  will  be  established  upon  earth  : — 

"  When  the  perfect  man  has  passed  through  all  these  stages  and 
undergone  all  these  trials,  when  his  magnanimity,  constancy,  patience 
and  determination  shine  forth  in  their  full  glory  and  his  innocence  is 
established  with  conclusive  arguments,  then  is  the  time  of  his  advent 
in  glory,  and  the  time  of  his  first  advent,  which  was  a  time  of  trials 
and  persecutions,  conies  to  an  end  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  16). 

Like  Jesus  he  was  an  intercessor^  between  God  and 
man,  and,  as  such,  necessarily,  a  manifestation  at  once  of 
the  Divine  Being  and  of  a  perfected  humanity.  He 
declared  himself  to  be 

'  Cf.  p.  81ff. 

^  On  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  and  Muhammad  see  p.  81,  Note  1. 

^  Obviously  Ahmad's  conception  of  intercession  is  not  that  of 
orthodox  Islam,  which  for  the  most  part  holds  that  only  Muhammad 
will  be  the  intercessor  at  the  last  day.  According  to  a  well-known 
tradition  from  Anas,  the  Prophet  said  that  Jesus  will  be  unable  to 
intercede  on  the  day  of  resurrection,  not  (as  in  the  case  of  other 
prophets)  because  he  has  sinned,  but  because  his  followers 
worshipped  him  as  a  God.  The  Qur'an  admits  of  no  intercession, 
strictly  speaking,  although  some  commentators  have  held  that  Qur'an 
XCVII,  40,  admits  the  intercession  of  Jesus.  Many  traditions  affirm 
the  intercession  of  Muhammad.  For  a  discussion  of  this  subject  see 
The  Faith  of  Islam',  by  E.  Sell  (S.P.C.K.,  Madras,  1907,  third 
edition),  p.  263ff.     See  also  p.  121,  Note  1. 

Ahmad  probably  lias  in  mind  here  the  references  to  the  intercession 
of  Jesus  given  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  7  :  25. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  37 

"  The  real  intercessor  of  mankind,  because  I  am  the  perfect  image 
of  the  great  intercessor  who  was  born  thirteen  centuries  ago  and 
rejected  by  the  blind  men  of  his  time  "  {Rcvico.'  of  Religions,  I,  p.  251) . 

In  various  passages  he  refers  to  himself,  or  is  referred 
to,  as  "  Son  of  God,"^  "  Sun  of  Righteousness,"  "  an 
angel  inspired  by  God,"  an  image  of  God  whom  imperfect 
human  beings  must  imitate  in  order  to  be  regenerated 
{Review  of  Religions,!,  p,  393),  "the  living  model  whose 
example  all  must  imitate,"  "an  infallible  guide,"  "no 
mere  mortal,"  "  Saviour  from  the  bondage  of  sin," 
"  Mediator  between  God  and  man,"  the  spiritual  leader 
of  this  age  (Imdm-nz-Zamdii),  the  Hakam,  or  divinely 
appointed  arbitrator  in  religious  affairs  within  and 
without  Islam,  a  "looking-glass  for  the  divine  image" 
(appropriating  the  familiar  figure  of  the  Sufis)  and  "  His 
holiness." 

It  has  already  become  evident  from  quotations  given 
that  Ahmad  considered  that  he  had  come  in  "  the  spirit 
and  power"  not  only  of  Jesus,  but  in  some  sense  of 
Muhammad  also.  He  called  himself  the  buruz,  or  mani- 
festation, "  the  living  representation  upon  earth  of  the 
Arabian  Prophet." 

"  The  wise  and  knowing  God  has  raised  Mlrzfi  Ghulam  Ahmad 
of  Qadiiin  with  the  same  spirit  and  power,  the  same  blessings  and 
favours,  and  the  same  miracles,  with  which  he  raised  the  Holy  Prophet  " 
(Revie'd!  of  Religions,  I,  p.  333). 

There  is  here  an  indication,  which  his  extravagant 
claims  enforce,  that  he  was  greater  even  than  Muhammad, 
for  after  asserting  that  his  powers  and  resources  are  like 
Muhammad's  in  kind,  he  declares  that  in  Ahmad's  time 
"  even  greater  evils  and  corruption  had  appeared  in  the 
world,"  which  would  seem  to  imply  that  Ahinad's  necessary 
manifestation  of  power  must  have  exceeded  Muhammad's. 

II.     THE    EXPECTED    MAHDI 

The  confusing  multiplicity  and  diversity  of  Muslim 
traditions  relating  to  the  signs  of  the  approach  of  "  The 
Day  "     characterise    particularly    the    references    to    the 

'  a.  p.  34,  Note  1. 


38  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Mahdi  (literally,  "guided  one").  It  is  clear  that  he  is  a 
descendant  of  the  Prophet,  and  the  last  of  the  Imams  (the 
successors  of  the  Prophet) — who,  according  to  Sunnite 
Muslims,  is  to  come  upon  earth  at  the  last  day,  and  in 
victorious  warfare  make  Islam  to  prevail  throughout  the 
world.  Thus  far  the  traditions  are  agreed,  but  from  that 
point  onward  they  diverge.  Some  would  have  the  rule  of 
the  Mahdi  overthrown  by  Dajjdl  (anti-Christ),  in  order 
that  Dajjdl  in  turn  may  be  destroyed  by  ^Isd,  whose  expected 
return  to  earth  has  crept  into  Islam  from  Christian  escha- 
tology.  There  has,  however,  been  a  persistent  tradition  in 
Muslim  eschatological  literature  that  "  there  is  no  Mahdi 
except  Jesus. "^  This  tradition  Ahmad  accepted  as  against 
all  others  contradicting  it.  Moreover,  the  usual  Muslim 
idea  of  the  Mahdi  is  that  he  will  be  a  "  man  of  blood," 
leading  Islam  forth  on  its  last  great  jihad  (holy  war),  a 
character  which  has  been  sustained  by  most  other  modern 
claimants  to  Mahdiship.  This  conception  would  have 
been  a  most  inconvenient  (though  not  an  impossible) 
one  for  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  to  have  held,  with  his 
boasted  peaceableness  and  friendliness  to  British  rule  in 
India,  and  we  find  him  repudiating  it  vigorously,  and, 
along  with  it,  the  customary  view  of  jihad,  which, 
he  held,  had  reference  to  spiritual  rather  than  to 
physical  warfare."  Ahmad  summed  up  his  position  as 
follows : 

"The  spiritual  personality  of  the  Messiah  and  the  Mahdi  is  a 
combination  of  the  spiritual  personalities  of  the  Holy  Prophet 
Muhammad  and  Jesus." 

*  To  be  found  in  De  Slane,  Ed.  Quatremere,  Muknddima  of  Ibn 
Khaldun,  Vol.  II,  p.  163,  and  also  quoted  by  De  Massignon  in  his 
edition  of  Kitdb  al  Tawds'm,  by  Al-Hallcij,  Paris,  1913,  p.  161,  Note 
2.  Snouck  Hurgronje,  in  Mohaiunicdanisiii,  New  York,  1916,  p.  108, 
speaks  of  the  use  of  this  tradition  in  Turkish  official  classes  to-day,  to 
prove  that  the  true  Mahdi  must  descend  from  the  clouds,  thus  tending 
to  discredit  all  pseudo-Mahdis  arising  from  human  society. 

^  This  question  of  jihad  will  be  considered  further  in  Chapter  III 
(p.  71ff),  as  it  is  a  fundamental  point  in  the  differentiation  of  the 
Ahmadiya  sect  from  orthodox  Islam.  It  is  discussed  at  length  by 
Maulvl  Sher  'All,  B.A.,  one  of  Ahmad's  followers,  in  Review  of 
Religions,  VII,  pp.  174-185,  193,  22l',  291-320,  337-371,  377-404. 


.THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  39 

And  again  : 

"To  believe  in  me  as  the  Promised  Messiah  and  Mahdi  is  to 
disbelieve  in  the  popular  doctrine  of  jihad." 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  quoting  at  length  the  various 
arguments  by  which  Ahmad  sought  to  prove  from  the 
traditions  that  he  was  the  expected  Mahdi  as  well  as  the 
promised  Messiah.  His  main  point  was  that  the  traditions 
are  hopelessly  contradictory,  and  that  the  only  possible 
criterion  by  which  the  true  traditions  can  be  distinguished 
from  the  false  would  be  the  actual  appearance  of  the 
Mahdi,  fulfilling  certain  of  the  prophecies  and  thus 
stamping  them  as  true.  In  one  line  of  argument,  to 
establish  the  identity  of  Messiah  and  Mahdi,  he  asserted 
that  since  in  many  traditions  the  word  "Mahdi  "  may  be 
taken  not  as  a  proper  name  but  as  a  descriptive  title,  and 
since  the  offices  of  the  Messiah  and  Mahdi  are  constantly 
confused  or  blended,  and  since  the  signs  attending  the 
advent  of  each  are  not  distinguishable,  it  follows  that 
Mahdi  is  only  a  title  of  the  promised  Messiah,  and  that 
therefore  any  traditions  regarding  the  Mahdi  which  cannot 
be  adjusted  to  apply  to  the  now  apparent  promised 
Messiah,  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  must,  ipso  facto,  be  false. 

We  have  now  seen  that  Ahmad  believed  that  he  ful- 
filled the  prophecies  relating  to  the  promised  Messiah  and 
the  expected  Mahdi,  and  that  his  personal  character 
validated  his  claim.  There  remained  a  further  test  from 
which  he  did  not  shrink,  and  he  confessed  that  it  was  the 
final  criterion  of  prophethood  and  Messiahship.  This 
was  the  presence  of  those  outward  signs  for  which  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  asked  Jesus,  and  for  which  the 
Qureish^  asked  Muhammad.  Muhammad,  according  to 
the  later  traditions  accepted  by  Ahmad,  and  in  contradic- 
tion of  the  obvious  teaching  of  the  Qur'an,^  responded  by 
showing  the  requisite  signs. 

'  The  ruling  family  of  Mecca,  to  which  Muhammad  belonged. 

^  Cf.  Qur'an,  VI,  109.  For  miracles  later  ascribed  to  Muhammad 
see  Tivo  Hundred  and  Fifty-ttco  Authentic  Miracles  of  Muhammad, 
by  Maulvi  Muhammad  Inayat  Ahmad,  Mohammedan  Tract  and 
Book  Depot,  Lahore,  1894,  mentioned  inZwemer,  The  Moslem  Christ, 
Oliphant,  Anderson  &  Ferrier,  Edinburgh,  1913,  p.  164,  Note  1. 


40  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

"What  was  it  happened  in  tlie  sandy  deserts  of  Arabia? 
The  dead  were  raised  to  life  in  thousands,  the  blind  were  made  to  see, 
the  dumb  were  made  to  utter  words  of  heavenly  wisdom,  and  the 
depraved  of  long  generations  were  clothed  in  divine  morals" 
(Review  of  Religions,  III,  p.  46). 

And  again  : 

"  As  regards  our  Holy  Prophet,  there  are  about  a  million  of  his 
words  in  which  we  witness  clear  manifestations  of  his  light  and  divine 
glory." 

The  promised  Messiah,  likewise,  never  disappointed  the 
honest  seeker  after  a  sign,  but,  as  he  monotonously 
reiterated,  "  has  shown  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
supernatural  signs,  to  which  evidence  is  borne  by  millions 
of  men,  and  anyone  who  demands  a  sign  even  now  in 
earnest  is  not  disappointed"  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  368). 

A  favourite  method  of  attracting  attention  was  to  offer 
a  sum  of  money  to  any  seeker  who  should  come  to  Qadian 
and  go  away  not  satisfied  with  having  seen  a  sign.  We 
have  never  heard  of  any  money  having  been  paid  over, 
although  we  have  reason  to  believe,  from  the  nature  and 
continuance  of  the  opposition  to  Ahmad,  much  of  it  in  the 
immediate  environs  of  Qadian,  that  some  who  came  were 
not,  or  would  not  be,  satisfied.  On  the  other  hand, 
sums  of  money  were  on  several  occasions  offered  publicly 
by  his  enemies  if  Ahmad  would  prove  himself  to  be  the 
Messiah,  and  this,  of  course,  he  could  not  do  to  their 
satisfaction.  On  one  occasion  a  prominent  member 
(Shaikh  Muhammad  Chittu)  of  the  Ahl-i-Qur'an  sect  of 
Muslims  in  the  Panjab,'  offered  Rs.  25,000  if  the  Mirza 
Sahib  would  prove  in  debate  that  he  was  the  promised 
Messiah.     As  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  offer  was  not  accepted. 

The  nature  of  Ahmad's  signs  varied.  As  the  miracle 
par  excellence  of  Islam  is  the  Qur'an,"  and  the  Arabic  poetry 

^  A  sect  founded  in  1902  by  one,  Abdulla  Chakralvi,  who  was  at 
one  time  a  pupil  of  Hakim  Nur-ud-Din  of  Qadian.  He  taught  that 
the  inspired  Qur'an,  not  Muhammad,  is  the  true  i?a.f!(/  (Messenger) 
and  rejected  the  hadis  with  all  the  traditions  relating  to  the  life  of 
Muhammad.  The  sect  differs  in  many  other  important  matters  from 
orthodox  Islam.  In  the  1911  Census  Report  371  persons  were  entered 
as  followers  of  this  sect. 

^  Cf.  Qur'an  X,  38,  39  ;   IV,  84,  etc. 


■THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  41 

contained  therein,  so  Ahmad  boasted  of  his  own  Arabic 
and  his  ventures  in  Arabic  poetry  as  miraculous  signs 
given  him  from  above.  He  once  offered  to  give  Rs.  10,000 
to  any  Muslim  v\^ho  should  produce  in  twelve  days 
an  Arabic  ode  of  equal  excellence  with  the  one  he  himself 
would  indite.  The  main  burden  of  his  ode,  written  at  the 
time,  Qdsida  //asic?  ("  Qderaculous  Ode")  was  the  falseness 
of  ShI'ite  Muslims,  whom  he  called  mushriks^  like  the 
Christians.  The  same  challenge  accompanied  his  Ijdz-ul- 
Masih,  "  a  miraculous  Arabic  comm.entary  on  the  Sfirat- 
al-Fdtiha'''  (Review  of  Religious,  I,  p.  495). 

Ahmad  likewise  claimed  some  remarkable  discoveries 
relating  to  the  origin  of  words.  For  instance,  he  declared 
that  Khiuzir,  the  Arabic  word  for  pig,  was  derived  from 
Khinz,  meaning  "very  foul,"  and  ar,  meaning  "  I  see  "; 
and  that  similarly  5h'oi- (pig)  in  Urdu  is  composed  of  two 
compounds  also  meaning  "  I  see  foul  ";  so  he  concludes, 
''  Su'ar  is  therefore  an  Arabic  word,  and  the  reason  of  its 
prohibition  is  now  evident"  {Reviero  of  Religions,  I,  p.  99). 
By  other  such  examples,  which  the  philologist  will  find 
equally  amusing,  Ahmad  sought  to  prove  what  he  calls 
"one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  of  the  age,"  that  Arabic 
is  the  mother  of  all  languages." 

In  this  connection  he  announced  that  "  the  descriptive 
words  of  ignorant  Bedouins  disclose  treasures  of  scientific 
facts,  which,  we  know  not  how  many  thousands  of  years 
afterwards,  were  discovered  by  the  world  (Revietv  of  Reli- 
gions, I,  p.  79). 

One  of  his  typical  "  great  discoveries  "  was  announced 
in  a  pamphlet  published  in  1898,  entitled  A  Revealed  Cure 
for  the  Bubonic  Plague.     The  Marhdm-i-'Isd  (Ointment 

•  To  the  AhmadI  the  Sunnite  Muslim  is  a  kafir  (unbeliever) 
simply,  whereas  the  Shi'ite,  whose  doctrine  of  the  death  and  intercession 
of  Imi'im  Husain  is  held  to  be  analogous  to  the  Christian  worship  of 
Jesus,  is  called  a  mushrik:  i.e.,  one  who  attributes  to  God  a  slidrik 
or  partner.     This  is  the  sin  of  shirk. 

2  "The  Chapter  of  the  Opener,"  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Qur'fm.  This  is  recited  several  times  during  the  five  daily  prayers, 
and  has  been  called  the  Muslim  Lord's  Prayer. 

•■  Cf.  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  :  The  Teachings  of  Islam,  Luzac 
8:  Co.,  London,  1910,  p.  13l'. 


43  FHE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

of  Jesus),  which  was  declared  to  be  "spoken  of  by  the 
Jewish,  Christian,  Parsi  and  Muhammadan  physicians" 
and  of  which  "  over  a  thousand  books  on  medicine  contain 
a  description,"  the  very  medicine  which  miraculously 
healed  Jesus'  wounds  after  he  had  been  removed  from  the 
cross  in  a  swoon,  was  now  offered  for  sale  by  Ahmad  as  a 
miraculous  remedy  for  the  plague,  "prepared  solely  under 
the  influence  of  divine  inspiration."  This  remedy  dis- 
appeared from  the  market  as  the  result  of  an  order  issued 
by  the  Deputy  Commissioner  of  I^ahore,  dated  19th 
October,  1899,  followed  by  the  decision  of  the  Chief 
Court  of  the  Panjab  in  the  appealed  case,  dated  8th  June, 
1900. 

An  Ahmadiya  heresy,  sometimes  put  forward  as  an 
unique  discovery  and  a  sign  of  Ahmad's  prophetship,  was 
the  denial  of  the  presence  in  the  Qur'an  of  any  so-called 
abrogated  verses.  In  asserting  this  belief  Ahmad  was 
running  counter  to  the  universal  agreement  ijmd^  of  the 
Muslim  people.^ 

In  the  latest  life  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  by  Mirza 
Yakub  Beg,  a  number  of  specific  miracles  are  ascribed  to 
Ahmad,  such  as  the  finding  of  a  dead  scorpion  in  his  bed,  and, 
most  important,  his  restoration  to  life  of  a  boy  who  had 
been  drowned.  It  is  further  recorded  that  after  the  mira- 
culous resuscitation  of  the  youth,  he  almost  immediately 
passed  away.  It  may  be  to  that  incident  that  Ahmad 
referred  in  the  following  sentence  :  "I  also  swear  by  the 
sacred  name  of  God  that  I  have  restored  the  dead  to  life 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  divine  law  has  allowed  it" 
{Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  205). 

The  chief  miraculous  signs  to  which  Ahmad  laid  claim, 
however,  were  his  alleged  prophecies  of  future  events.  In 
this  connection  he  writes  : 

"  Prophecy  in  fact  is  the  only  supernatural  evidence  that  can 
carry  a  conviction  to  all  reasonable  minds  at  a  time  of  great  scientific 
advancement  when  everything  must  needs  be  put  to  the  scientific  test, 
and  this  is    the   reason  wliy  the  wise  and  foreseeing   God   has,  in   his 

*  For  an  exhaustive  summary  of  the  orthodox  view  of  abrogation 
(mansukh)  see  article  by  D.  B.  Macdonald,  in  Moslem  World,  VII, 
p.420ff. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  43 

last  and  living  book,  broLight  propliecy  to  the  front  and  laid  stress  upon 
it  while  he  has  thrown  other  miracles  into  the  background  as  not  being 
evidence  of  the  highest  type,  inasmuch  as  performances  by  sleight  of 
hand  or  showman's  tricks,  or  other  mechanical  or  optical  deceptions, 
on  account  of-their  strong  resemblance  with  the  miraculous,  take  away 
the  whole  force  of  the  evidence  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  315) . 

The  prophecies  of  which  Ahmad  boasted  most  con- 
stantly had  to  do  with  the  death  or  humih'ation  of  his 
enemies,  and  were  as  much  curses  as  prophecies.  Although 
he  frequently  v/rites  of  "  hundreds  "  of  such  instances,  we 
find  him  referring  in  detail  to  comparatively  few.  These 
select  cases  were  his  prophecies  of  the  death  of  his  two 
arch-enemies,  Pandit  Lekh  Ram,  of  the  Arya  Samaj,  and 
Mr.  Abdulla  Atham,  E.A.C.,  a  prominent  Indian  Chris- 
tian, and  (less  often)  Chiragh  Din,  the  apostate  from 
the  Ahmadiya  ranks,  and  Dr.  John  Alexander  Dowie,^ 
in  America.  The  most  definite  prophecy  of  them  all 
was  that  which  declared  that  Pandit  Lekh  Ram  would 
die  within  six  years  of  the  time  of  the  promulgation  of  the 
prophecy,  ''  and  the  'Id  (Muhammadan  festival)  will  be 
very  near  to  it."  Four  years  after  the  prophecy  appeared, 
on  the  6th  of  March,  the  day  following  the  most  important 
'Id  (the  Ud-nz-Zuhd  or  Bakr  'Id,  called  simply  "  the  'Id'' 
in  India),  Pandit  Lekh  Ram  w^as  the  victim  of  an  assassin's 
dagger.  The  members  of  the  Arya  Samaj,  and  many  others, 
not  unnaturally  believed  that  the  prophecy  and  the  murder 
had  a  sinister  connection  of  cause  and  effect  quite  different 
from  that  which  was  urged  by  Ahmad.  Through  the 
instrumentality,  chiefly,  of  his  first  and  most  powerful 
Muslim  opponent,  Maalvi  Muhammad  Husain,  Ahmad 
was  constrained  by  an  order  of  the  Government,  dated 
February  24th,  1899,  to  promise  hereafter  : — 

"To  refrain  from  publishing  any  prediction  involving  the  dis- 
grace of  any  person,  or  in  which  any  one  should  be  represented  as  an 
object  of  God's  displeasure. 

"  To  refrain  from  publishing  any  challenge  to  appeal  to  God  to 
indicate  by  the  signs  of  his  displeasure,  such  as  disgrace,  etc.,  the 
party  in  a  religious  controversy  which  is  in  the  wrong. 

"  To  refrain  from  publishing  any  writing  purporting  to  be  an 
inspiration  the  object  of  which  can  be  reasonably  taken  to  be  the   dis- 

»   Cf.  p.  45,  Note  1. 


44  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

grace  of  any  person,  or  tlie  representing  of  him  as  the    object  of  the 
Divine  wrath." 

The  case  of  Mr.  AbduUa  Atham  was  interesting 
because,  although  his  prophesied  death  and  descent  to  hell 
was  widely  heralded,  he  was  still  living  after  the  allotted 
time  (fifteen  months)  had  expired.  Ahmad  then  issued 
a  whole  series  of  explanations.  He  declared  that  the 
purport  of  the  prophecy  was  that  whichever  of  the  two 
(Atham  or  himself)  was  a  liar  would  die  within  the  life- 
time of  the  other.  This  would  be  fulfilled.  The  condi- 
tion of  the  prophecy  was,  "unless  he  turn  to  the  truth." 
He  was  alleged  to  have  shown  signs  of  relenting,  so  that, 
in  accordance  with  "  the  well-known  laws  of  prophecy,"  a 
respite  had  been  granted.  The  details  of  the  prophecy 
were  indefinite,  and  "such  details  are  only  manifested 
after  their  fulfilment."  Finally,  he  admitted  that  he 
might  have  been  wrong.  "  It  also  happens  that  an  error 
occurs  sometimes  in  the  interpretation  of  a  prophecy,  for, 
after  all,  prophets  are  mortals."  For  instance,  "Jesus  had 
prophesied  that  his  twelve  apostles  would  sit  on  twelve 
thrones,  whereas  one  of  them  became  the  devil's  in  his 
own  life-time  "  {Review  of  Religions,  III,  p.  350).  When, 
however,  Mr.  Abdulla  Atham,  then  an  old  man,  died 
eighteen  months  later,  Ahmad  declared  that  the  original 
prophecy  had  been  triumphantly  fulfilled  {Review  of 
Religions,  II,  p.  148). 

He  was  always  eager  to  engage  his  enemies  in  "  prayer- 
duels,"  believing  that  by  such  means  God  would  bring 
destruction  upon  the  hypocrite.  We  read,  "  Christian 
missionaries  are  reported  to  be  very  courageous.  They  do 
not,  it  is  said,  hesitate  to  lay  down  even  their  lives  for  the 
sake  of  their  religion.  But  they  have  proved  very  chicken- 
hearted  before  Ahmad.  None  ventures  to  engage  with 
Ahmad  in  a  prayer  contest  "  {Review  of  Religions,  V, 
p.  461).  Probably  no  one  sentence  could  better  illustrate 
his  fundamental  inability  to  conceive  of  the  true  nature 
and  spirit  of  Christianity  than  the  above,  giving  expression 
to  his  amazement  that  Christians  should  be  unwilling  to 
pray  for  his  destruction,  and  attributing  their  unwillingness 
to  do  so  to  fear  of  the  consequences  likely  to  fall  on  their 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  45 

own  heads.  His  one-sided  duel  with  John  Alexander 
Dowie^  was  widely  quoted  in  the  West,  and  although 
Dowie  scorned  to  enter  the  lists  with  him,  nevertheless, 
after  Dowie's  death,  Ahmad  wondered  why  Christendom 
failed  to  acknowledge  his  own  power,  which  had  effected 
such  a  miracle,  and,  thenceforth,  to  accept  him  as  its 
spiritual  head.  The  following  quotation  from  the  Review 
of  Religions  (V,  p.  459)  gives  a  summary  of  Ahmad's  philo- 
sophy of  prayer  and  its  outcome: — "He  (Ahmad)  has 
announced  that  whoever  would  pray  for  his  death  would 
himself  fall  a  prey  to  a  speedy  and  painful  death,  and  that 
such  a  person  would  die  before  he  dies.  He  has  very  often 
invited  the  world  to  test  his  truth  by  this  criterion.  Even 
if  a  host  of  men  pray  against  him,  they  are  sure,  he  says, 
to  be  consumed  with  the  wrath  of  God  in  his  life-time,  for 
the  mighty  Hand  of  God  is  in  his  support,  and  every  one 
who  rises  against  him  is  sure  to  be  knocked  down.  And 
there  have  been  actually  men  who  made  a  response  to  his 
call  and  prayed  to  God  against  him,  but  they  all  died 
as  he  prophesied,  and  thus  furnished  a  proof  of  his  truth. 
The  names  of  those  who  wielded  the  sword  of  prayer 
against  him,  but  cut  their  own  throats  with  it,  are  as 
follows:  Maulvi  Ghulam  Dastagir,  of  Qasur,  District 
Lahore  ;  Maulvi  Muhammad  Ismail,  of  Aligarh  ;  Pandit 
Lekh  Ram,  the  well-known  Arya  leader ;  Maulvi 
Muhammad  Hasan,  of  Bhin,  District  Jhelum  ;  Faqir 
Mirza,  of  Dulunijal,  District  Jhelum  ;  Chiragh  Din,  of 
Jammu." 

Ahmad  likewise  made  frequent  prophecies  of  the  rapid 
spread  and  ultimate  triumph  of  his  cause.  He  also  pro- 
phesied the  birth  of  sons  for  his  friends,  some  of  whom,  it 
is  reported,  paid  him  liberally  for  his  trouble.  These 
prophesies,  if   we   are  to  believe    his  enemies,  very   often 

»  Dowie  (1847-1907),  self-styled  "  First  Apostle  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
the  Christ,  and  CJenera]  Overseer  of  the  Christian  Apostolic  Church  in 
Zion,"  also  "  Elijah  II  "  and  "  The  Promised  Messiah,"  established 
a  religious  commonwealth  called  "  Zion  City,"  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan,  U.S.A.,  in  1901.  In  1906  the  city  revolted  against  him, 
and  he  was  finally  suspended  from  the  Church,  charged  with  misuse  of 
funds,  tyranny  and  immorality. 


46  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

failed  of  fulfilment.  At  times,  for  example,  we  find  him 
seeking  to  explain  in  devious  ways  the  non-appearance  of 
the  predicted  boy  or  the  appearance  of  "  merely  a  girl," 
failures  with  which  his  enemies  delighted  to  taunt  him. 
One  of  Ahmad's  converts,  Abdulla  of  Timapur,  who 
afterward  claimed  to  be  himself  the  Messiah,^  in  a  pub- 
lished reply  to  a  pamphlet  of  Ahmad's  mentions  the  case 
of  a  certain  Risaldar-Major,  who  gave  the  Mirza  Sahib 
Rs.  500  in  return  for  the  prophecy  of  a  son  who  failed  to 
materialize.  He  likewise  writes  of  one,  Fateh  'Ali  Shah, 
who  asked  for  prayer  for  the  recovery  of  his  wife,  who  soon 
after  passed  away.  He  further  states  that  Maulvi  Muham- 
mad Husain,  Ahmad's  inveterate  opponent,  received  a 
grant  of  land  from  the  Government  soon  after  his 
immediately  forthcoming  discomfiture  had  been  prophesied 
by  Ahmad. 

Professor  Siraj-ud-Din,  in  an  illuminating  article  on  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  published  in  1907,"  shows  how  a 
clever  Muslim  opponent  of  Ahmad's  answered  in  kind  one 
species  of  characteristic  Ahmadiya  challenge  : 

"  One  of  the  clever  tricks  used  by  the  Mirza  in  connec- 
tion with  his  prophetic  business  is  to  announce  that  '  if  a 
certain  prediction  made  by  him  against  an  opponent  is  not 
true,  let  his  opponent  come  to  Qadian  within  so  many  days 
and  swear  the  prediction  has  not  been  fulfilled,  and  if  he 
does  not  come  within  the  stated  period  it  is  proved  that  he 
is  in  the  wrong  and  the  prediction  has  come  true!  *  Such 
challenges   are   often  in   their  very   nature  unanswerable. 

*  Maulvi  Abdulla  of  Timapur  (a  suburb  of  Shorapur,  in  the 
Deccan)  had  been  successively  Sunnite  Muslim,  Wahhabi,  and  Ahmadi, 
before  he  created  his  own  sect,  declaring,  "  I  am  the  man  from  God  : 
You  must  all  follow  me.  1  am  the  real  Khalifa  of  Qadian."  He  has 
about  three  hundred  disciples  at  present,  and  is  much  more  friendly 
to  Christians  than  to  Muslims.  I  am  indebted  for  this  information  to 
Rev.  N.  Desai,  the  pastor  of  a  self-supporting  Indian  Christian  congre- 
gation at  Shorapur. 

^  R.  Siraj-ud-Din,  now  professor  of  philosophy  in  Forman  Chris- 
tian College,  Lahore,  and  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  spent 
several  months  with  Ahmad  at  Qadian  during  the  period  when 
he  was  weighing  the  claims  of  Christianity.  He  has  kept  in  close 
touch  with  the  Ahmadiya  movement  ever  since,  and  the  article  from 
which  we  quote  may  be  counted  a  primary  source, 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  47 

But  sometimes  he  is  paid  by  others  in  the  same  coin.  A 
Muhammadan  maulvi,  of  Lahore,  pubh'shed  a  notice  some 
time  ago  that  he  had  prophesied  a  number  of  things  about 
the  Mirza' which  had  all  come  true,  viz.,  that  he  shall 
not  succeed  in  marrying  a  certain  woman ;  that  in  a 
certain  case  a  girl  and  not  a  boy  shall  be  born,  contrary  to 
the  MIrza's  prophecy,  etc.,  etc.  Then  he  went  on  to  say 
that  his  last  prophecy  about  the  Mirza  was  that  he  would 
become  a  leper,  and  that  from  people  who  had  seen  the 
Mirza  he  had  learned  that  signs  of  leprosy  had  appeared 
on  his  body.  He  therefore  challenged  the  Mirza  to  come 
to  Lahore  within  a  stated  period,  and  show  his  body  in 
public  if  it  was  free  from  leprosy,  and  if  the  Mirza  did  not 
come  within  that  time,  it  would  prove  that  he  had  cer- 
tainly become  a  leper  according  to  the  Maulvi's  prophecy. 
The  Mirza,  though  ordinarily  ready  for  an  answer  to 
everything,  had  no  answer  whatever  to  give."^ 

The  above  are  a  few  of  the  false  prophecies  that  have 
been  cited  by  Ahmad's  enemies. 

At  the  time  of  the  acute  unrest  in  Bengal,  due  to  the 
partition  of  the  province,"  Ahmad  prophesied,  in  February, 
1906,  "  relating  to  the  order  that  had  been  given  concern- 
ing Bengal  at  first,  they  will  be  conciliated  now" 
(Review  of  Religions,  V,  p.  82).  After  the  excitement  had 
somewhat  subsided  and  the  temporarily  unpopular  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of  the  new  province  had  resigned  (long 
before  the  rearrangement  of  the  partition),  Ahmad  claimed 
that  his  prophecy  had  been  fulfilled,  and  jubilantly  queried  : 

"  Could  any  one  guess  six  niontlis  before  the  resignation  of  Sir  B. 
Fuller  that  the  Bengali  agitators  would    be  thus  conciliated  ?     There 

^  "  Mirzii  Cjhulam  Ahmad,  a  False  Messiah  of  India,"  in  The 
Missionary  Rcvicij  of  the  World,  New  Series,  XX,  pp.  754,  755. 

-  In  1905  a  new  province,  of  Eastern  Bengal  and  Assam,  was  in 
part  created  out  of  a  section  of  old  Bengal,  and  there  was  a  general 
realignment  of  boundaries  in  that  [)art  of  India.  The  move  was  believed 
by  the  Hindu  populace  to  he  an  attempt  to  weaken  national,  political 
and  religious  feeling,  and  proved  so  unpopular  that  in  December, 
1911,  at  the  time  of  the  King-Emperor's  durbar  in  Delhi,  announce- 
ment was  made  of  a  forthcoming  rearrangement  of  the  boundaries, 
whereby  Eastern  Bengal  was  to  be  re-united  to  Bengal  proper  in  the 
present  Bengal  Presidency. 


48  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

were,  no  doubt,  men  wlio  hoped  that  a  Liberal  Ciovernment  in  England 
may  set  aside  the  order  of  partition,  but  no  one  ever  thought  of  the 
conciliatory     policy  that    has    been    adopted    by    the    Government" 

{Revieiu  oj  Religions,  V,  p.  363). 

Ahmad  did  not  live  to  learn  that  the  agitation, 
which  he  then  believed  ended,  was  to  continue,  and  that 
those  who  believed  that  the  Liberal  Government  would 
rearrange  the  partition  were  finally  proved  to  have  been 
in  the  right.  Had  he  done  so,  he  would  unquestion- 
ably have  explained  that  it  was  only  a  more  complete 
fulfilment  of  his  original  prophecy.^ 

Ahmad  laid  much  stress  on  his  ability  to  foresee  the 
coming  of  earthquake  and  plague.  On  April  4th,  1905,  a 
great  earthquake  occurred  in  North  India.  Out  of  the 
mass  of  his  forgotten  past  prophecies  he  then  produced 
one,  of  the  date  of  December,  1903,  which  said,  "A  shock 
of  earthquake";  and  another,  of  May,  1904,  which  declared, 
"  No  trace  shall  be  left  of  the  abodes;  both  permanent 
and  temporary  abodes  being  laid  waste."  As  no  time  or 
place  was  specified,  and  as  it  was  even  possible,  if  neces- 
sary or  desirable,  to  allegorize  the  expected  earthquake  in 
some  manner,  it  had  no  doubt  seemed  certain  that  the  pro- 
phecies would  prove  convenient  for  reference  at  some  later 
date.  And  so  it  happened,  with  the  occurrence  of  the 
earthquake  of  1905,  when,  referring  to  those  prophecies, 
we  find  it  written  in  the  Review  of  Religions: 

"  No  power  in  heaven  or  earth  besides  that  of  the  Omniscient  God 
could  reveal  such  deep  knowledge  of  the  future." 

This  is  a  good  illustration  of  what  Dr.  Griswold,  four 
years  previous,  wrote  of  as  "  the  Delphic  ambiguity  of  his 
oracles,  and  also  the  way  in  which  the  indefinite  is  made 
definite  post  eventiini."" 

*  Since  writing  the  above  words  I  have  come  upon  an  article  in 
Review  of  Religions  for  May,  1916  (XV,  p.  168),  which  deals  with 
Ahmad's  various  prophecies,  and  in  which,  in  connection  with 
"  Ahmad's  Prophecy  about  Bengal,"  the  announcement  of  the 
rearrangement  of  the  partition,  on  12th  December,  1911,  is  given  as 
marking  the  fulfilment  of  Ahmad's  prediction  "to  the  very  letter." 
"  Conciliation,"  the  author  writes,  "  is  predicted  in  the  prophetic 
utterances,  and  the  same  is  brought  about." 

'  Mirza  Ghuldm  Ahmad,  The  Mehdi  Messiah  of  Qadian,  p.  21. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS   OF  AHMAD  49 

Ahmad  himself  was  constrained  to  admit  that  his  pro- 
phecies were  open  to  criticism  on  the  score  of  vagueness 
but  he  felt  that  the  criticism  was  unjust,  and  complained: 
"  Now  that  the  thing  has  happened  all  these  wonderful 
prophecies  are  ignored  because  it  was  not  stated  that  on 
the  4th  of  April,  in  1905,  a  severe  shock  of  earthquake  would 
be  felt  at  6.15  a.m.,  which  would  level  the  buildings  with 
the  ground  in  such  and  such  cities  situated  in  the  Kangra 
district,  that  its  crushing  effect  would  also  be  felt  in  such 
and  such  other  cities  of  the  Panjab,  and  that  the 
number  of  persons  killed  or  buildings  destroyed  would  be  so 
much.  What  is  the  particular  which  was  not  foretold 
with  the  exception  only  of  the  names  and  figures?  "  {Review 
of  Religions,  IV,  p.  230).     The  italics  are  ours. 

The  Review  of  Religions  for  December,  1915,  gives 
a  typical  summary  of  some  of  the  fulfilled  prophecies  of 
Ahmad,  conveying  the  impression  that  these  events  were 
predicted  definitely  and  in  detail,  whereas  in  not  a  single 
instance,  probably  (if  we  except  the  case  of  Dr.  Dowie, 
whose  coming  downfall  was  evident  to  thousands),  was 
this  the  case  : 

"  He  (Ahmad)  published  hundreds  of  prophecies,  many 
of  which  have  already  come  true  (such  as  his  prophecy 
regarding  the  Partition  of  Bengal,  the  defeat  of  Russia  and 
the  annexation  of  Korea  by  Japan,  the  Persian  Revolution, 
the  outbreak  of  plague  in  India,  the  occurrence  of  earth- 
quakes of  unparalleled  severity  in  diverse  parts  of  the 
earth,  the  defeat  of  Turks  in  Thrace  and  their  subsequent 
victory  over  the  Bulgarians,  the  downfall  and  death  of  Dr. 
Dowie,  the  false  prophet  of  America,  etc.,  etc.)  and  many 
still  await  fulfilment." 

The  great  plague,  which  raged  continuously  in  the 
Panjab  for  many  years  before  the  death  of  the  prophet,  was 
a  further  example  of  the  same  principle.  This  was 
held  to  be  not  only  a  general  fulfilment  of  prophecies 
of  Jesus,  Muhammad  and  Ahmad,  referring  to  the  Last 
Day,  and  a  warning  to  men  everywhere  to  recognize 
the  promised  Messiah's  claims  (Review  of  Religions, 
VI,  p.  251),  but  it  evoked  a  more  detailed  prophecy  of 
Ahmad's,  to  the  effect  that  God  would  protect  from  the 

4 


50  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

scourge  the  followers  of  Ahmad,  the  village  of  Qadian, 
and  especially  the  house  of  Ahmad.  Regarding  inocu- 
lation for  the  plague,  he  wrote  in  1902  {Review  of 
Religions,  I,  p.  417)  : 

"  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  I  do  not  declare  it  to  be  gene- 
rally illegal  to  have  recourse  to  medicines  or  preventive  measures  in  the 
case  of  plague  or  other  diseases,  for  the  Holy  Prophet  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  there  is  no  malady  for  which  God  has  not  created  a 
remedy.  But  I  consider  it  sinful  to  obscure  by  inoculation  the  heavenly 
sign  which  God  has  been  gracious  enough  to  display  for  me  and  my 
followers,  and  by  which  he  intends  to  show  his  distinctive  favour  to 
those  who  accept  me  in  sincerity  and  faithfulness.  I  cannot,  therefore, 
insult  and  discredit  this  sign  of  mercy  by  submitting  to  inoculation, 
and  be  guilty  of  unbelief  in  the  promise  of  God." 

When  the  plague  eventually  reached  Qadian,  and 
struck  down,  indiscriminately,  both  enemies  and  followers 
of  Ahmad,  explanations  were  in  order  and  were  forth- 
coming : 

"  The  occasional  occurrence  of  plague  among  my  people  without 
causing  any  considerable  loss  cannot  lessen  the  value  of  the  heavenly 
signs,  for  we  witness  in  the  history  of  early  prophets  that  it  was  only 
their  ultimate  success  that  served  as  a  heavenly  sign,  although  in  the 
meantime  they  occasionally  suffered  loss,  which,  being  insignificant, 
could  not  mar  their  progress  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  418). 

It  was  also  pointed  out  that  prophecy  had  not  said  that 
Qadian  would  escape  the  plague,  but  that  it  would  receive 
protection,  which  meant  that  it  would  not  be  utterly 
desolated  as  soine  other  towns  had  been. 

HI.     THE    INCARNATION    OF    KRISNA 

On  November  1st,  1904,  in  an  address  at  Siallcot, 
Ahmad  made  the  first  public  announcement  of  his  being 
the  biiruz  (spiritual  manifestation),  or,  in  the  Hindu 
language,  the  avatar  (incarnation),  of  Krisna,  as  well 
as,  in  some  sense,  of  Muhammad  and  Christ,  although  he 
then  claimed  that  he  had  been  addressed  as  Krisna  in  one 
of  his  earlier  revelations  : 

"  He  has  told  me,  not  on  one  occasion  but  repeatedly,  that  so  I  am 
Krisna  for  the  Hindus  and  the  Promised  Messiah  for  the  Muhamma- 
dans  and  the  Christians.  I  know  that  ignorant  Muhammadans  will 
at  once   exclaim,  upon   hearing  this,  that  I  have  become  a  plain  un- 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  CLAIMS  OF  AHMAD  51 

believer  and  lieretic  on  account  of  my  having  ado[)ted  the  name  of  an 
vmbeliever,  as  they  tliink  the  Holy  Kriiyna  to  be,  but  this  is  a  revela- 
tion from  God  which  I  cannot  but  announce,  and  this  is  the  first  day 
that  I  announce  this  claim  in  such  a  large  gathering,  for  those  who 
come  from  God  do  not  fear  being  blamed  or  reviled.  Now  Raja 
Kri§nawas  revealed  to  me  as  so  great  and  perfect  a  man  that  his  equal 
is  not  to  be  found  among  the  Hindu  Risliis^  and  avatars.  .  .  . 
I  love  Kii^na,  for  I  appear  as  his  image.  .  .  .  Spiritually,  Kii§na 
and  the  Promised  Messiah  are  one  and  the  same  person,  there  being 
no  difference  except  that  which  exists  in  the  terminology  of  the  two 
people,  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  "  (Review  of  Religions,  III, 
p.  411). 

In  the  revelation  Ahmad  was  thus  addressed:  "It  is 
not  good  to  oppose  the  'Brahman  Avatar'"  {Review  of 
Religions,  III,  p.  411). 

Hitherto  Ahmad,  as  the  Promised  Messiah,  standing 
outside  of  the  Hindu  fold,  had  had  much  to  say  about  Hindu 
weaknesses  and  faults.  Now  he  occupied  a  new  platform 
and  spoke  with  a  new  voice.  In  the  address  from  which 
I  have  quoted  he  reiterated  many  of  his  old  objections  to 
the  Arya  Samaj,  but  he  now  prefixed  to  them  the  words: 
"  As  Krisna  I  now  warn  the  Aryas  of  some  of  their 
errors."  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Hindus  and 
Aryas  looked  with  any  more  favour  upon  Ahmad  after  his 
unique  pronouncement  than  before,  but  certainly  his 
anticipations  were  realized  in  a  further  deepening  of  the 
animosity  with  which  orthodox  Islam  regarded  this  sol 
disant  champion  of  their  faith. 

Since  Ahmad's  death  one  of  his  followers  at  Qadian 
has  had  printed  on  the  letterhead  of  his  correspondence 
paper  the  following  legend,  which  adds  further  claims  not 
hitherto  enunciated,  and  makes  it  clear  that  present-day 
followers  of  Ahmad  believe  that  every  prophecy  of  any 
religion  that  anticipates  the  coming  upon  earth  of  a  great 
spiritual  leader  has  been  fulfilled  in  the  person  of  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qadian.     This  reads  as  follows  : 

"Praised  be  Allah,  the  Almighty,  the  Gracious,  the  Merciful, 
one  worshipable  God,  Sustainer  of  all;  who  through  his  kindness 
raised  a  prophet  in  these  days  like  unto  the  prophets  of  old  days,  viz., 
'  AHMAD,'  the  Promised  Messiah,  the  Muhammadan  Mehdi,  the 
Kri?na,   the    latter   day    Reformer  of    Parsees,  the    Hope   of   all   the 

'  Cf.  p.  105,  Notel. 


53  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

nations  of  the  day— Champion  of  Islam,  Reformer  of  Christianity, 
Avatar  of  Hinduism,  Buddha  of  East — blessed  are  they  who  believe  in 
him,  and  take  shelter  under  his  peaceful  banner,  now  held  by  his  second 
successor,  the  promised  son.  His  Hazrat  'Mahmud,'  to  whom  all 
correspondence  should  be  addressed  on  the  subjects  of  :  Existence  and 
Unity  of  God,  the  divine  message  of  the  greatest  of  the  Prophets, 
'Muhammad'  (on  whom  be  peace  and  blessings),  truth  of  Islam, 
Jesus'  Tomb  in  Kashmir,  Second  Advent  of  the  Messiah  at  Qadian, 
Ahmadlya  Movement,  etc." 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT  AND 
ORTHODOX  ISLAM 

Ahmad  was  ever  boasting  of  his  uncompromising  ortho- 
doxy. If  he  departed  from  the  beliefs  of  a  majority  of  his 
co-reh'gionists  on  some  points,  it  was  only  because  they  had 
themselves  failed  rightly  to  understand  the  original  purport 
of  Islam.  He  was  sent  to  correct  their  errors  and  once 
more  give  them  the  true  guidance.  Ahmad  and  his 
followers  may  be  held  to  represent  the  analogue  in  Islam 
of  that  school  of  Christians  who  will  brook  no  study  of 
comparative  religions,  because  they  hold  that  there  is  but 
one  religion,  incomparably  sublime.  In  the  year  1903 
Ahmad  received  a  letter  from  a  religious  liberal  in  America, 
who  wrote  that  every  religion  contains  some  truth  and 
some  falsehood — being  but  the  radius  of  a  circle  whose 
centre  is  God,  This  creed,  which  Baha'Ullah^  would 
doubtless  have  applauded,  Ahmad  spurned.  He  was  glad 
that  his  correspondent  had  been  led  to  see  the  folly  and 
falsehood  of  Christianity,  but  regretted  that  he  had  not 
studied  Islam  and  so  discovered  that  it  "  is  the  only 
religion  which  not  only  claims  to  be  free  from  every  error 
and  falsehood,  but  also  offers  proof  of  this  freedom  from 
error, nootherreligion  onthefaceof  theearthsatisfying  either 
of  these  requisites  "  {Review  of  Religions,  III,  p.  29).  Two 
years  later  a  writer  in  the  Review  of  Religions  commented 
on  some  remarks  by  Rev.  E.  W.  Thompson,  M.A.,  in  the 
London  Quarterly  Review,  to  the   effect   that   "  in   India 

>  Baha'Ullah  (1817-1892)  was  the  founder  of  the  Persian  sect 
known  as  the  Baha'is,  an  outgrowth  of  Bahism.  It  claims  to  be  the 
universal  religion  of  brotherhood  and  peace. 


54  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

there  are  elements  of  positive  worth,  not  merely  of  curious 
interest,  which  the  Christian  missionary  can  accept  thank- 
fully, and  use  in  the  building  up  of  the  fabric  of  the 
Christian  Church  and  nation"  {Review  of  Religions  IV, 
p.  317).  Ahmad's  editor  asserts:  "  This  statement  involves 
an  admission  that  Christianity  is  not  a  perfect  religion  in 
itself.  The  superiority  of  Islam  lies  in  this,  that  while  it 
has  from  the  beginning  preached  that  every  religion  was 
founded  on  truth  and  that  errors  found  their  way  into  it 
later  on,  it  has  at  the  same  time  taught  that  it  is  a  perfect 
religion,  and  that  there  is  no  religious  truth  which  is  not 
to  be  met  with  in  it.  Such  a  perfection  can  not  be 
claimed  by  any  religion  besides  Islam  "  (Revieiv  of  Religions, 
IV,  p.  318). 

The  unique  inspiration  of  the  Qur'an  is,  of  course,  an 
integral  element  in  this  perfection. 

"  The  Holy  Qur'an  is,  in  fact,  the  only  book  which  asserts  that  every 
word  of  it  came  from  an  eternal  higher  source,  and  that  the  Prophet 
only  dictated  what  he  heard.  Other  inspired  books  claim  to  be 
inspired  only  in  the  sense  that  they  were  infused  into  the  mind  of  the 
writer,  while  the  Qur'an  was  not  infused  into  the  mind,  but  rehearsed 
before  the  Prophet  by  the  Angel  Gabriel,  and  then  repeated  by  the 
Prophet  exactly  as  he  heard  it  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  277). 

Nevertheless  the  Qur'an  while  inspired  must  not  be 
considered  devoid  of  reason,  enforcing  its  precepts  simply 
on  the  basis  of  their  origin  : 

"In  connection  with  these  remarks  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  truth  of  the  Holy  Qur'an  does  not  depend  merely  on  its 
uninterrupted  transmission  and  authenticity,  for  it  proceeds  on  the 
argumentative  line.  It  does  not  compel  us  to  accept  its  doctrines, 
principles,  and  commandments  simply  on  the  authority  of  revelation, 
but  appeals  to  reason  in  man  and  gives  arguments  for  what  it  incul- 
cates "  (Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  171,  172). 

And  in  another  place  Ahmad  writes,  contrasting  the 
Bible  and  the  Qur'an:  "The  Bible  is  a  collection  of 
myths  and  stories  and  fables  and  idle  tales,  fit  for  women 
only,  whereas  the  Qur'an  is  pure  philosophy,  free  from 
myths  and  fables." 

On  the  subject  of  divine  inspiration,  as  distinguished 
from  the  human  inspiration  of  genius,  Ahmad  stated  his 
position  as  follows : 


AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    55 

"  Before  proceeding  further  it  is  necessary  to  remove  a  misconcep- 
tion regarding ///zajH  ^  (inspiration).  lUidni  does  not  mean  that  an 
idea  is  infused  into  the  mind  of  a  person  who  sets  himself  to  think 
about  a  thing.  A  mere  poet  is  not  inspired,  in  the  theological  sense, 
when  brilliant  ideas  flash  upon  him  as  he  sits  down  to  make  verses. 
In  this  case  there  is  no  distinction  between  good  and  bad.  When  the 
mental  powers  are  applied  to  a  subject,  new  ideas  will  flash  upon  the 
mind  according  to  the  genius  of  the  thinker  and  without  any  regard  to 
the  good  or  bad  nature  of  the  subject.  If  the  word,  Ilham,  is  taken  to 
mean  the  occurring  on  a  particular  occasion  of  new  ideas,  a  thief  or  a 
dacoit  or  a  murderer  may  as  well  be  called  MiiUidm  (the  inspired  one 
of  God)  on  account  of  the  ingenious  plans  which  suggest  themselves 
to  his  mischief-making  mind  for  the  perpetration  of  evil  deeds.  Such 
a  view  of  Ilhdm  (inspiration)  is  held  by  men  who  are  quite  ignorant 
of  the  true  God,  who  with  his  word  gives  peace  and  consolation  to 
hearts  and  knowledge  of  spiritual  truths  to  those  who  are  not  aware  of 
them.  What  is  Ilhdm  (inspiration)  then  ?  It  is  the  living  and 
powerful  Word  of  God  in  which  he  speaks  to  or  addresses  one  of  hia 
servants  whom  he  has  chosen,  or  intends  to  choose,  from  among  all 
people.  When  such  conversation  or  utterances  run  on  continually  in 
a  regular  method,  not  being  insufficient  or  fragmentary  or  enveloped  in 
the  darkness  of  evil  ideas,  and  have  a  heavenly  bliss,  wisdom  and  power 
in  them,  they  are  the  Word  of  God  with  which  he  comforts  his 
servant  and  reveals  himself  to  him"  {Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  177, 
178). 

He  then  proceeds  in  the  passage  following  to  read 
himself  into  the  select  class  of  recipients  of  minor 
inspiration.  Although  he  claimed  to  be  a  prophet,  with 
evidentiary  miracles,  he  made  no  claim  to  wahy,  so  far  as  I 
can  discover.  He  avoided  running  counter  to  the  universal 
Muslim  belief  that  Muhammad  was  "the  last  of  the 
prophets  and  the  seal  of  the  prophets  "  by  asserting  that 
his  prophetship  was  not  in  its  own  right,  but  in  and 
through  Muhammad,  in  whose  spirit  and  power  he  had 
come.' 


*  Islam  knows  of  two  forms  of  divine  inspiration — wahy,  major 
inspiration,  granted  to  the  prophets;  and  ilhdm,  minor  inspiration, 
granted  to  the  saints  generally — by  means  of  which  knowledge  comes 
into  their  minds  through  direct  illumination,  as  opposed  to  that  which 
comes  through  study  and  deduction. 

Cf.  Macdonald:  The  Religious  Altitude  and  Life  in  Islam, 
Chicago,  1909,  p.  252ff.  For  an  excellent  summary  of  the  orthodox 
position,  see  article  by  Macdonald  on  "The  Doctrine  of  Revelation 
in  Islam,"  in  Moslem  World,  VII,  p.  112. 

'  Cf.  p.  37. 


56  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Of  Muhammad  we  are  told,  as  we  should  expect,  that 
he  "spoke  not  a  word  of  himself,  but  only  that  which  he 
heard  from  God"  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  277).  Not 
only  was  Muhammad's  utterance  inspired,  but  his  life  was 
sinless^  as  well.  All  sins  imputed  to  him  by  Christian  writers 
Ahmad  attempted  to  refute,  including  his  marriage  to 
Zainab,  the  divorced  wife  of  Zaid,  which  Ahmad  defended, 
and  the  so-called  "  lapse  of  Muhammad  ""  or  "  com- 
promise with  idolatry,"  found  in  a  number  of  traditions, 
which  Ahmad  denied  in  toto.  Muhammad  is  variously 
referred  to  as  a  true  Saviour,  an  Intercessor,  a  miracle- 
worker,  and  a  perfect  manifestation  of  the   Divine  Being. 

Ahmad  held  that  the  siinna^  was  given  with  the 
Qur'an  for  the  guidance  of  mankind.  The  traditions,  he 
wrote,  can  be  believed  because  of  the  unequalled  "pains 
taken  by  Muhammadan  writers  in  ascertaining  the  true 
facts  of  the  Holy  Prophet's  life,  and  in  sifting  the  traditional 
lore"  (Revieiv  of  Religions,  III,  p.  4:4^).  Some  variations 
are  admitted,  but 

"  Traditions  cannot  be  divested  of  their  authority,  and  the  historical 
value  they  possess,  l)y  the  mere  consideration  that  even  the  minute 
scrutiny  of  early  collectors  may  not  have  freed  them  from  every  error, 
while  their  authenticity  can  be  further  tested  by  the  consideration  that 
no  authentic  tradition  can  contradict  the  Holy  Qur'an  "  {Review  of 
Religions,  III,  pp.449,  450). 

It  must  be  added  that  a  further  test  of  the  authenticity 
of  any  tradition  in  Ahmad's  eyes  was  that  it  should  not 
contradict  the  particular  interpretation  of  Islam  for  which 
the  "promised  Messiah"  claimed  divine  sanction  in  our 
day. 

1  Cf.  p.  81,  Note  1. 

^  After  Qur'an  LHI,  20,  where  several  Arabian  idols  are  men- 
tioned, tradition  says  that  at  the  first  recital  of  the  Qur'an  Muhammad 
added,  hoping  to  win  the  Meccans  by  this  compromise,  "  These  are 
the  exalted  females,  and  verily  their  intercessions  may  be  expected." 
This  is  one  of  the  verses  that  were  later  abrogated  and  do  not  now 
appear.  For  the  original  traditions  in  which  the  story  appears,  see 
Goldsack,  Muhammad  in  Islam,  Madras,  1916,  pp.  48-53. 

^  That  is,  the  custom  or  usage  of  the  Prophet  which  has  been 
handed  down  for  the  guidance  of  the  Muslim  people  in  the  traditions. 
Each  tradition  (hadis)  contains  a  sunna,  a  narrative  of  what  the 
Prophet  said  or  did  or  did  not  do  on  a  certain  occasion. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    57 

Ahmad  and  his  followers  have  subscribed  to  the  five 
pillars  (arkdn)  of  Islam,  as  is  indicated  in  a  lecture  on 
"  Fundamental  Doctrines  of  the  Muslim  Faith, "^  delivered 
in  December,  1906,  at  the  annual  gathering  of  the  Sadr 
Anjuman-i-Ah mnd'iya ,'  and  we  are  pleased  to  note  that  he 
taught  a  spiritual  and  ethical  rather  than  a  mechanical  and 
literal  obedience  to  the  law.  He  was  unsparing  in  his 
condemnation  of  those  orthodox  Muslims  of  whose 
performance  of  their  religious  duties  he  writes  : 

"  In  short,  though  there  are  some  people  who  still  carry  out  some 
of  the  precepts  of  SharVat  (religious  law),  they  do  it  in  a  way  that 
their  actions  fail  to  produce  the  effect  which  ought  to  have  been 
produced.  Their  iVa)»as,  their  i^osa,  their  Zakdt  and  their  Hajj  are 
just  the  kind  of  actions  performed  by  players,  one  of  whom  sometimes 
assumes  the  role  of  king  and  takes  his  seat  and  holds  his  court,  though 
actually  he  is  a  beggar.  .  .  .  This  worship  of  theirs  has  no  value  in 
the  sight  of  God"  (Review  of  Religions,  XIV,  p.  449). 

Regarding  ShaJiddat,  the  verbal  witness  of  the  Muslim 
to  the  unity  of  God  and  the  prophetship  of  Muhammad, 
Ahmad  denied  that 

"  The  utterance  of  the  above-mentioned  words  with  the  tongue  is 
sufficient  for  the  attainment  of  salvation  "; 

and  he  continued  : 

"  Almighty  God  sees  the  hearts  and  mere  words  have  no  impor- 
tance in  his  sight.  .  .  .  The  realization  of  the  signification  of  these 
words  involves  that  a  man  should  have  no  object  of  love  besides  God, 
nor  any  object  of  worship  or  desire  besides  him"  (Review  of  Reli- 
gions, VI,  p.  25) . 

Similarly  of  Saldt  or  Namdz,  the  Muslim  worship  pres- 
cribed five  times  daily,  he  wrote  : 

"  The  utterance  of  certain  words  with  the  lips  is  not  prayer.  It 
is  a  necessary  condition  for  the  acceptance  of  prayer  that  the  heart 
should  completely  melt  before  (Jod,  and  the  grace  of  God  should  be 
taught  with  patience  and  perseverance.  .  .  .  All  the  movements 
in  prayers  are  expressive  of  the  deepest  humbleness  before  God  " 
{Review  of  Religious,  VI,  28). 

'  This  lecture  first  appeared  in  sections  in  Review  of  Religions 
in  1907,  and  afterward  was  published  by  Luzac  &  Company,  London, 
in  1910,  under  the  caption.  The  Teachings  of  Islam,  from  which 
quotations  have  already  been  made. 

^  "  Chief  Ahmadiya  Society,"  founded  before  Ahmad's  death  in 
accordance  with  instructions  contained  in  his  will,  the  contents  of 
which  were  made  known  in  1905.     See  p.  113 


58  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Of  the  third  pillar,  saum,  or  fasting  during  the  month 
of  Ramadan,  he  said  : 

"  Fasting  is  necessary  for  the  perfect  purity  of  the  soul.  .  .  .  The 
fact  is  that  the  suffering  of  hunger  and  reducing  the  quantity  of  food 
which  one  generally  takes  is  an  essential  step  in  the  spiritual  progress 
of  man.  .  .  .  Man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone. ^  .  .  .  The  man 
who  fasts  should  bear  in  mind  that  fasting  does  not  mean  only  abstain- 
ing from  food  for  a  stated  time.  Its  true  significance  is  that  man 
should  abstain  from  every  kind  of  evil"  {Review  of  Religions,  VI, 
p.  30). 

Regarding  Zakdt,  or  almsgiving,  he  held  that 

"  What  Islam  aims  at  teaching  by  this  institution  is  that  a  man 
should  not  so  love  the  wealth  of  this  world  as  to  feel  it  difficult  to  part 
with  it  in  the  way  of  God  "  (Review  of  Religions,  VI,  p.  31). 

The  fifth  pillar,  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  (Hajj), 

"  Represents  the  last  stage  for  the  spiritual  wayfarer,"  when  he 
"has  all  his  lower  connections  entirely  cut  off  and  he  is  completely 
engrossed  with  Divine  love.  The  true  lover  finds  his  highest  satis- 
faction in  sacrificing  his  very  heart  and  soul  for  the  beloved  one's 
sake,  and  the  circuit  round  the  house  of  God  is  an  emblem  of  external 
manifestation  of  it  "  (Review  of  Religions,  VI,  pp.  31-32). 

It  might  be  noted  here  that  Ahmad  himself  never  made 
the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  perhaps  because  of  his  poor 
health. 

At  this  point  a  few  further  quotations  from  The 
Teachings  of  Islam  may  be  in  order,  showing,  like  those 
just  given,  a  spiritualized  treatment  of  Qur'anic  verses 
that  is  more  akin  to  the  interpretations  of  the  Sufis 
(the  Muslim  mystics)  than  to  those  of  the  orthodox 
commentators. 

With  regard  to  the  sources  of  man's  threefold  nature 
(physical,  moral  and  spiritual)  he  declared  : 

"  To  return  to  the  subject  in  hand,  as  I  have  already  stated,  there 
are  three  sources  which  give  rise  to  the  threefold  nature  of  man,  viz., 
the   disobedient  soul,  the  self-accusing    soul,   and    the    soul    at    rest.* 

'  This  quotation  from  Jesus'  words  in  the  temptation  in  the 
wilderness  (Matt.  4  :  4)  is  interesting  here. 

^  For  a  statement  of  the  Sufi  teaching  regarding  the  three  states 
of  the  soul  referred  to  in  Qur'an,  XII,  53;  LXXV,  2;  and  LXXXIX, 
27,  respectively,  see  Macdonald,  The  Religious  Attitude  aiid  Life 
in  Isld,n    pp.  229,  230. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    59 

Accordingly  there  are  three  stages  of  reformation,  answering  respectively 
to  the  three  sources.  In  the  first  stage  we  are  concerned  with  mere 
ignorant  savages,  whom  it  is  our  duty  to  raise  to  the  status  of  civilised 
men  by  teaching  them  the  social  laws  relating  to  their  daily  mutual 
relations.  The  first  step  toward  civilization,  therefore,  consists  in 
teaching  the  savage  not  to  walk  about  naked,  or  devour  carcases,  or 
indulge  in  other  barbarous  habits.  This  is  the  lowest  grade  in  the 
reformation  of  man.  In  humanizing  people  upon  whom  no  ray  of  the 
light  of  civilization  has  yet  fallen,  it  is  necessary,  first  of  all,  to  take 
them  through  this  stage  and  make  them  accustomed  to  morals  of  the 
lowest  type.  When  the  savage  has  learned  the  crude  manners  of 
society,  he  is  prepared  for  the  second  stage  of  reformation.  He  is 
then  taught  the  high  and  excellent  moral  qualities  pertaining  to 
humanity,  as  well  as  the  proper  use  of  his  own  faculties  and  of  whatever 
lies  hidden  beneath  them.  Those  who  have  acquired  excellent  morals 
are  now  prepared  for  the  third  stage,  and,  after  they  have  attained  to 
outward  perfection,  are  made  to  taste  of  union  with,  and  the  love  of, 
God.  These  are  the  three  stages  which  the  Holy  Qur'an  has  des- 
cribed as  necessary  for  any  wayfarer  who  travels  in  the  path  of  God  " 
{Thr  Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  19,  20). 

Of  the  third  stage,  "  the  soul  at  rest,"  regarding 
which  so  many  Sufi  treatises  have  been  written,  he  had 
this  to  say,  in  part : 

"  We  have  already  stated  in  the  beginning  of  this  discourse  that 
the  source  of  the  spiritual  conditions  is  the  soul  at  rest  which  takes  a 
man  onward  in  his  moral  progress  and  makes  him  godly  ;  in  other 
words,  transports  him  from  the  moral  to  the  spiritual  regions.  Upon 
this  topic  the  following  verse  has  a  plain  bearing  :  '  O  thou  soul  !  that 
art  at  rest  and  restest  fully  contented  with  thy  Lord,  return  unto  him, 
he  being  pleased  with  thee  and  thou  with  him  ;  so  enter  among  my 
servants  and  enter  into  my  Paradise!'  (LXXXIX,  28,  30).  In  dis- 
cussing the  spiritual  conditions,  it  is  necessary  to  comment  upon  this 
verse  in  some  detail.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  highest 
spiritual  condition  to  which  man  can  aspire  in  this  world  is  that  he 
should  rest  contented  with  God  and  find  his  quietude,  his  happiness 
and  his  delight  in  him  alone.  This  is  the  stage  of  life  which  we 
term  the  heavenly  life.  The  pure  and  perfect  sincerity,  truth  and 
righteousness  of  a  person  are  rewarded  by  Almighty  God  by  granting 
him  a  heaven  upon  this  earth.  All  others  look  to  a  prospective 
paradise  but  he  enters  paradise  in  this  very  life.  It  is  at  this  stage, 
too,  that  a  person  realizes  that  the  prayers  and  worship,  which  at  first 
appeared  to  him  as  a  burden,  are  really  a  nourishment  on  which  the 
growth  of  his  soul  depends,  and  that  this  is  the  basis  of  his  spiritual 
development.  He  then  sees  that  the  fruit  of  his  efforts  is  not  to  be 
reaped  in  a  future  life  only.  The  spirit,  which,  in  the  second  stage, 
although  blaming  a  man  for  the  impurities  of  life,  was  yet  powerless 
to  resist  the  evil  tendencies  or  to  blot  them  out  wholly  and  too  infirm 
to  Citablish    a  man  upon  the    principle  of    virtue  with  firmness,  now 


60  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

reaches  a  stage  of  development  in  which  its  efforts  are  crowned  with 
success.  The  sensual  passions  die  out  of  themselves  and  the  soul  no 
more  stumbles  but,  strengthened  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  it  is  ashamed 
of  its  past  failings.  The  state  of  struggle  with  evil  propensities  passes 
away;  an  entire  change  passes  over  the  nature  of  man  and  the  former 
habits  undergo  a  complete  transformation.  He  is  perfectly  estranged 
from  his  former  courses  of  life.  He  is  washed  of  all  impurities  and 
perfectly  cleansed.  God  himself  plants  the  love  of  virtue  in  his  heart 
and  purifies  it  of  the  defilement  of  evil  with  his  own  hand.  The 
hosts  of  truth  encamp  in  his  heart  and  righteousness  controls  all  the 
towers  of  his  heart.  Truth  is  victorious  and  falsehood  lays  down  its 
arms  and  is  reduced  to  subjection.  The  hand  of  God  sways  over  his 
heart  and  he  walks  every  step  under  his  shelter"  {The  Teachings  of 
Islam,  pp.  96-98) . 

In  order  to  the  realisation  of  perfect  union  with  God 
two  means  are  given: 

"  Returning  to  the  main  point  of  the  subject  under  discussion,  the 
Holy  Qur'an  has  taught  us  two  means  for  a  perfect  spiritual  union  with 
God,  viz.,  complete  resignation  to  the  will  of  God,  which  is  known  by 
the  name  of  Islam,  and  constant  prayers  and  supplications,  as  taught 
in  the  opening  siira  of  Al-Qur'an,  known  by  the  name  of  jatiha.^ 
The  essence  of  the  religious  code  of  Muhammadism  is  contained  in 
Islam  and  the  fatiha.  These  are  two  channels  which  lead  to  the 
fountain  of  salvation  and  the  only  safe  guides  which  lead  us  to  God" 
{The  Teachings  of  Islam,  p.  118). 

Ahmad's  conception  of  the  life  after  death  accepts 
and  improves  on  the  most  advanced  spiritual  interpretations 
that  we  have  seen  elsewhere  of  the  passages  of  the  Qur'an 
referring  to  the  hereafter.  Numerous  echoes  of  New 
Testament  verses  and  teachings  can  be  noted.  Somewhat 
fuller  quotations  are  needed  here  : 

"  From  the  manner  in  which  internal  conditions  are  repre- 
sented in  physical  forms  in  dreams  we  can  form  an  idea  of  the 
embodiment  of  the  spiritual  conditions  of  this  world  in  the  life  to 
come.  After  our  earthly  course  is  ended,  we  are  translated  to 
regions  where  our  deeds  and  their  consequences  assume  a  shape, 
and  what  is  hidden  in  us  in  this  world  is  there  unrolled  and 
laid  open  before  us.  These  embodiments  of  spiritual  facts 
are  substantial  realities,  as,  even  in  dreams,  though  the  sight  soon 
vanishes  away,  yet  so  long  as  it  is  before  our  eyes,  it  is  taken  to  be  a 
reality.  As  this  representation  by  images  is  a  new  and  a  perfect 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  God,  we  may  as  well  call  it,  not  a 
representation  of  certain   facts,  but   actually   a    new   creation    brought 

1  Cf.  p.  41,  Note  2. 


AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    61 

about  by  the  powerful  hand  of  God.  With  reference  to  this  point, 
Almighty  God  says  in  the  Holy  Qiir'an  :  '  No  soul  that  worketh  good 
knoweth  the  blessings  and  joys  which  have  been  kept  secret  for  it ' 
(XXXn,  17),  to  be  disclosed  after  death.  Thus  Almighty  God 
describes  the  heavenly  blessings  that  the  righteous  shall  enjoy  in  the 
next  life  as  having  been  kept  secret  because,  not  being  like  anything 
contained  in  this  world,  no  one  knows  aught  about  them.  It  is 
evident  that  the  things  of  this  world  are  not  a  secret  to  us;  we  not  only 
know  pomegranates,  dates,  milk,  etc.,  but  frequently  taste  of  them. 
These  things,  therefore,  could  not  be  called  secrets.  The  fruits  of 
paradise  have,  therefore,  nothing  in  common  with  these  except  the 
name.  He  is  perfectly  ignorant  of  the  Holy  Qur'an  who  takes  paradise 
for  a  place  where  only  the  things  of  this  world  are  provided  in  abund- 
ance. In  explanation  of  the  verse  quoted  above,  the  Holy  Prophet  said 
that  heaven  and  its  blessings  are  things  which  '  the  eye  hath  not  seen, 
nor  hath  ear  heard,  nor  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
ceive of  them.'^  But  of  the  things  of  this  world  we  cannot  say  that  our 
eyes  have  not  seen  them,  or  that  our  ears  have  not  heard  them,  or  that 
our  minds  have  not  conceived  them.  When  God  and  his  Prophet  tell 
us  of  things  in  heaven  which  our  senses  are  not  cognizant  of  in  this  world, 
we  should  be  guilty  of  cherishing  doctrines  against  the  teachings  of 
the  Holy  Qur'an  if  we  supposed  rivers  flowing  with  the  milk  which 
we  ordinarily  drink  here.  Can  we,  moreover,  consistently  with  the 
idea  of  heaven,  suppose  flocks  of  cows  and  buffaloes  reared  in  the 
paradisiac  grounds  and  numerous  honeycombs  hanging  on  trees  with 
countless  bees  busily  engaged  in  collecting  honey  and  hosts  of  angels 
engaged  day  and  night  in  milking  cows  and  getting  honey  and  pour- 
ing them  continuously  into  streams  to  keep  them  running  on  ?  Are 
these  ideas  in  keeping  with  the  teachings  of  the  verses  which  tell  us 
that  this  world  is  a  stranger  to  the  blessings  of  the  next  world  ?  Will 
these  things  illumine  the  soul  or  increase  the  knowledge  of  God  or 
afford  spiritual  food  as  the  heavenly  blessings  are  described  to  do  ?  It 
is,  no  doubt,  that  these  blessings  are  represented  as  material  things,  but 
we  are  also  told  that  their  source  is  spirituality  and  righteousness" 
(The  Teachings  of  Islam,  p.  122ff). 

"  Whatever  the  good  men  enjoy  spiritually  in  this  life  are  really 
blessings  not  of  this  but  of  the  next  life,  and  are  granted  to  them  as  a 
specimen  of  the  bliss  that  is  in  store  for  them  in  the  next  life  in  order  to 
increase  their  yearning  for  it.  It  should,  moreover,  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  truly  righteous  man  is  not  of  this  world,  and  hence  he  is  also 
hated  by  the  world.  He  is  of  heaven  and  is  granted  heavenly  blessings, 
just  as  the  worldly  ones  are  granted  the  dainties  of  this  world.  The 
blessings  which  are  granted  him  are  really  hidden  from  the  eyes,  the 
ears  and  the  hearts  of  men  of  the  world,  and  they  are  quite  strangers  to 
them.  But  the  person  whose  physical  life  is  annihilated  in  the  heavenly 
enjoyments  is  made  spiritually  to  taste  of  the  cup  which  he  shall 
actually  quaff  in  the  next  world,  and   hence  the  truth  of   the   words: 

*  Corinthians  3:  9, 


62  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

'  These  were  the  fruits  which  were  given  us  formerly.'  But  he  shall 
at  the  same  time  be  perfectly  aware  that  those  blessings  were  quite 
unknown  to  the  world,  and  as  he  too  was  in  this  world,  though  not  of 
this  world,  so  he  also  shall  bear  witness  that  his  physical  eye  never  saw 
such  blessings,  nor  his  ear  ever  heard  of  them,  nor  his  mind  ever  con- 
ceived of  them  in  the  world"  (TJie  Teachings  oj  Islam,  p.  127). 

"  It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Holy  Qur'an  describes 
three  worlds  or  three  different  states  of  man's  life.  The  first  world  is 
the  present  one,  which  is  called  the  world  of  earning  and  of  the  first 
creation.  It  is  here  that  man  earns  a  reward  for  the  good  or  bad  deeds 
he  does.  Although  there  are  stages  of  advancement  for  the  good  after 
resurrection,  yet  that  advancement  is  granted  simply  by  the  grace  of 
God,  and  does  not  depend  upon  human  efforts. 

"  The  second  world  is  called  barzakh^  The  word  originally  means 
any  intermediate  state.  As  this  world  falls  between  the  present  life  and 
resurrection,  it  has  been  called  barzakh.  But  this  word  has  from 
time  immemorial  been  applied  to  an  intermediate  state,  and  thus  the 
word  itself  is  a  standing  witness  to  the  intermediate  state  between 
death  and  after  life.  .  .  .  The  state  of  barzakh  is  that  in  which 
the  soul  leaves  the  mortal  body  and  the  perishable  remains  are 
decomposed.  The  body  is  thrown  into  a  pit,  and  the  soul  also  is,  as 
it  were,  thrown  down  into  some  pit,  because  it  loses  the  power  to  do 
good  or  bad  deeds  along  with  its  loss  of  control  over  the  body.  It  is 
evident  that  a  good  state  of  the  soul  is  dependent  upon  the  soundness 
of  the  body.  A  shock  communicated  to  a  particular  point  of  the  brain 
causes  a  loss  of  memory,  while  an  injury  to  another  part  is  certain  to 
deal  a  death-blow  to  the  reasoning  faculty  and  may  destroy  even 
consciousness.  Similarly  a  convulsion  of  the  brain  muscles  or  a 
hemorrhage  or  morbidity  of  the  brain  may,  by  causing  obstruction,  lead 
to  insensibility,  epilepsy  or  cerebral  apoplexy.  Experience,  therefore, 
establishes  the  fact  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that  with  all  its  con- 
nections severed  from  the  body  the  soul  can  serve  no  purpose.  It  is 
simply  idle  to  assert  that  the  human  soul  can,  at  any  time,  enjoy  a 
bliss  without  having  any  connection  with  a  body.  .  .  .  Now  if  the 
soul  is  unable  to  make  any  advancement  in  this  brief  life  without  the 
assistance  of  the  body,  how  could  it,  without  a  body,  attain  to  the 
higher  stages  of  advancement  in  the  next  life  ? 

"In  short,  various  arguments  prove  conclusively  that,  according 
to  the  Islamic  principles,  the  perfection  of  the  soul  depends  upon  its 
permanent  connection  with  a  body.  There  is  no  doubt  that  after 
death  this  body  of  clay  is  severed  from  the  soul,  but  then  in  the  barzakh 
every  soul  receives  temporarily  a  new  body  to  be  in  a  position  to  taste 
of  the  reward  or  punishment  of  its  deeds.  This  new  body  is  not  a 
body  of  clay,  but  a  bright  or  a  dark  body  prepared  from  the  actions  of 
this  life.  Such  is  the  Qur'anic  description  of  the  body  in  the  barzakh, 
viz.,  that  the  soul  has  a  new  body,  which  is  bright  or  dark  according 
to  the  good  or  bad  actions  which  a  man  performs.     It  may  appear  as  a 

*  The  verse  of  the  Qur'an  (XXIII,  102)  in  which  this  word  appears 
is  the  source  of  the  Muslim  conception  of  an  intermediate  state. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM     63 

mystery  to  some,  but  this  much  at  least  must  be  admitted,  that  it  is  not 
unreasonable.  The  perfect  man  realises  the  preparation  of  such  a 
bright  body  even  in  this  life.  Ordinary  human  understanding  may 
call  it  a  mv'stery  which  is  beyond  human  comprehension,  but  those  who 
have  a  keen  and  bright  spiritual  sight  will  have  no  difficulty  in  realiz- 
ing the  truth  of  a  bright  or  a  dark  body  after  death  prepared  from 
actions  in  this  life.  In  short,  the  new  body  granted  in  the  barzakh 
becomes  the  means  of  the  reward  of  good  or  evil.  I  have  personal 
experience  in  this  matter.  Many  a  time,  when  fully  awake,  I  have  seen 
visions  in  which  I  saw  those  who  were  dead.  I  have  seen  many  an 
evil-doer  and  a  wicked  person  with  a  body  quite  dark  and  smoky.  I 
have  personal  acquaintance  with  these  matters,  and  I  assert  it  forcibly 
that,  as  Almighty  God  has  said,  every  one  is  granted  a  body,  either 
transparent  or  dark.    ... 

"The  third  world  is  the  world  of  resurrection.  In  this  world 
every  soul,  good  or  bad,  virtuous  or  wicked,  shall  be  given  a  visible  body. 
The  day  of  resurrection  is  the  day  of  the  complete  manifestation  of 
God's  glory,  when  every  one  shall  become  perfectly  aware  of  the  existence 
of  God.  On  that  day  every  person  shall  have  a  complete  and  open 
reward  of  his  actions.  How  this  can  be  brought  about  is  not  a  matter 
to  wonder  at,  for  God  is  all-powerful  and  nothing  is  impossible  with 
him  "    (The  Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  131-136). 

"  The  third  point  of  importance  that  the  Holy  Qur'an  has  des- 
cribed in  connection  with  the  life  after  death,  is  that  the  progress  that 
can  be  made  in  that  world  is  infinite.  The  word  of  God  says  :  '  Those 
who  have  the  light  of  faith  in  this  world  shall  have  their  light  on  the 
day  of  judgment  running  before  them  and  on  their  right  hands,  and 
they  shall  be  continually  saying:  "  O  Lord,  perfect  our  light  and  take 
us  in  thy  protection,  for  thou  hast  power  over  all  things"'  (LXVI, 
8).  This  unceasing  desire  for  perfection  shows  clearly  that  progress  in 
paradise  shall  be  endless.  For  when  they  shall  have  attained  one 
excellence  they  shall  not  stop  there,  and  seeing  a  higher  stage  of  excel- 
lence shall  consider  that  to  which  they  shall  have  attained  as  imper- 
fect and  shall,  therefore,  desire  the  attainment  of  the  higher  excellence. 
When  they  shall  have  attained  to  this  they  shall  yet  see  another  higher 
excellence,  and  thus  they  shall  continue  to  pray  for  the  attainment  of 
higher  and  higher  excellences."  This  ceaseless  desire  for  perfection 
shows  that  they  shall  be  endlessly  attaining  to  excellences  (Tlie 
Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  142,  143). 

"In  short,  heaven  and  hell,  according  to  the  Holy  Qur'an,  are  images 
and  representations  of  a  man's  own  spiritual  life  in  this  world.  They 
are  not  new  material  worlds  which  come  from  outside.  It  is  true  that 
they  shall  be  visible  and  palpable,  call  them  material  if  you  please,  but 
they  are  only  embodiments  of  the  spiritual  facts  of  this  world.  We  call 
them  material  not  in  the  sense  that  there  shall  be  trees  planted  in  the 
paradisiacal  fields  just  like  those  that  are  planted  here  below,  and  that 
there  shall  be  brimstones  and  sulphur  in  hell,  but  in  the  sense  that  we 
shall  then  find  the  embodiments  of  the  spiritual  facts  of  this  life.  Heaven 
and  hell,  according  to  Muslim  belief,  are  the  images  of  the  actions  which 
we  perform  here  below  "  (The  Teachings  of  Islam,  pp.  144,  145), 


64  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

One  is  irrcsistably  reminded  in  reading  the  last  passage 
of  Fitzgerald's  translation  of  the  familiar  quatrains,  LXVI 
and  LXVIl,  of  the  Riibd'iydt  of  Omar  Khayyam:^ 

"  I  sent  my  Soul  through  the  Invisible, 
Some  letter  of  that  After-life  to  spell  : 

And  by  and  by  my  soul  returned  to  me. 
And  answer'd,  *  I  myself  am  Heav'n  and  Hell  ': 

"  Heav'n  but  the  Vision  of  fulfiil'd  Desire, 
And  Hell  the  Shadow  from  a  Soul  on  fire. 

Cast  on  the  Darkness  into  which  Ourselves, 
So  late  emerged  from,  shall  so  soon  expire." 

As  was  to  be  expected,  Ahmad  had  no  patience  with 
the  newer  school  of  thinkers  and  writers  in  Islam  who 
have  abated  somewhat  the  earlier  claim  of  Islam  to  mira- 
culous perfection  and  originality.  The  Right  Hon.  Syed 
Amir  'Ali,  the  distinguished  jurist  and  apologist  of  Islam, 
now  living  in  London,  and  S.  Khuda  Baksh,  M.A.,  an 
Oxford  graduate  and  former  professor  in  Presidency  College, 
Calcutta,  are  scholarly  enough  to  admit  that  the  sources 
of  Islam  can  largely  be  traced  in  the  older  religions  of  the 
world,  so  many  of  which  were  represented  in  pre-Islamic 
Arabia :"  and  especially  in  Judaism  and  Christianity. 
Ahmad,  by  a  priori  reasoning,  declared  this  to  have  been 
impossible,  whatever  certain  scholars  may  say  : 

"  The  Christians  have  spent  too  much  time  and  labour,  and  they 
have  spent  it  in  vain,  in  showing  that  such  and  such  a  story  in  the 
Holy  Qur'an  corresponds  with  another  found  in  an  earlier  Jewish  or 
Christian  writing.  The  sources  of  Islam  are  not  determined  by  any 
alleged  correspondence,  but  by  the  effect  which  its  teachings  had.  If 
the  Jewish  and  Christian  writings  were  the  source  from  which  Islamic 
teachings  and  principles  had  been  taken,  their  effect  should  have  been 
at  any  rate  inferior  to  that  of  the  originals  from  which  they  were  taken. 
But  the  inability  of  Jewish  and  Christian  teachings  to  bring  about  a 
pure  transformation  in  the  lives  of  a  people  whom  Islam,  only  within  a 
few  years,  changed  so  entirely  is  a  conclusive  proof  that  the  source  of 

^  Edition  of  Edward  Heron-Allen,  London,  1899,  pp.  98,100. 

'  Cf.  Syed  Amir  'Ali,  The  Spirit  of  Islam,  Lahiri  &  Co., 
Calcutta,  1902,  Introduction,  p.  lix  ;  and  S.  Khuda  Baksh,  M.A., 
Essays  Indian  and  Islamic,  Probsthain  &  Co.,  London,  1912,  p.  10. 
The  chief  religions  from  which  Muhammad  borrowed  were  Chris- 
tianity, Judaism,  Zoroastrianism,  Sabseanism  and  the  pagan  religion  of 
Arabia.  This  subject  is  treated  at  length  in  W.  St.  Clair  Tisdall, 
The  Original  Sources  of  the  Qur'an,  London,  1905. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    6S 

Islam    was    far    purer   and    higher   than    the    Jewish     and    Christian 
writings"  {Review  of  Religions,  IV,  pp.  272,  273). 

The  alleged  benighted  condition  of  pre-Islamic  Arabia 
and  the  marvellous  transformation  wrought  by  Islam  in 
every  department  of  life  is  a  frequent  subject  of  Ahmad's 
enthusiastic  comment. 

"  The  Arabs  were  then  in  such  a  degraded  state  that  they  could 
hardly  be  called  men.  There  was  no  evil  but  was  to  be  found  in  them, 
and  there  was  no  form  of  shirk^  but  prevailed  among  them.  Thieving 
and  dacoity  formed  their  business,  and  the  murder  of  a  human  being 
was  with  them  like  the  trampling  under  foot  of  an  ant.  They 
killed  orphans  to  appropriate  their  property,  and  buried  their  daughters 
alive  under  the  ground.  They  took  pride  in  adultery  and  openly 
spoke  of  indecent  things  in  their  poems,  which  were  immoral  in  the 
highest  degree.  Drinking  prevailed  to  such  an  extent  that  no  house 
was  free  from  it,  and  in  gambling  they  beat  every  other  people.  In 
short,  they  were  a  disgrace  even  to  the  beasts  and  snakes  of  the  desert. 

"  But  when  the  Holy  Prophet  rose  to  regenerate  these  people, 
and  when  he  devoted  his  whole  attention  to  the  purifying  of  their 
hearts  and  cast  his  holy  influence  on  them,  he  worked  such  a  trans- 
formation among  them  in  a  few  days  that  from  their  savage  stage  they 
rose  to  be  men,  and  from  the  stage  of  men  they  advanced  to  the  stage 
of  civilization,  and  thus  progressing  step  by  step  they  became  godly 
men  and  finally  they  were  so  annihilated  in  the  love  of  God  that  they 
bore  every  pain  with  the  utmost  resignation  "-  {Review  of  Religions, 
VII,  pp.  264,  265). 

He  takes  sharp  issue  with  the  rationalistic  school  of 
Muhammadans  who  seek  to  account  for  Muhammad  and 
his  revelation  on  other  than  supernatural  grounds.  After 
saying  that  unprejudiced  European  scholars  are  bound  to 
recognize  in  Muhammad  "  a  great  and  wise  Reformer  and 
the  noble  benefactor  of  mankind  "  {Review  of  Religions, 
I,  p.  311),  he  proceeds, 

"  But  even  the  Mu'tazilite,  author  of   the  Spirit   of  Islam''    and 

»  Cf.  p.  41,  Note  1. 

^  Reference  to  any  authentic  history  of  the  period  will  show  how 
Ahmad  has  distorted  facts  in  this  extreme  statement. 

"  Syed  Amir  'All  admits  his  sympathy  with  the  position  of  the 
Mu'tazilite  (free-thinking)  wing  of  Islam,  which  gives  reason  a  place 
beside  tradition  and  revelation,  and  makes  man  the  author  of  his  own 
actions  (See  his  The  Spirit  of  Islam,  p.  321,  and  Macdonald,  The 
Development  of  Muslim  Theoioqy,  Jurisprudence  and  Constitutional 
Theory,  New  York,  1903,  Part  III,  Chap.  1,  p.  119ff. 

5 


66  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

the  founder  of  the  Aligarh  College/  could  go  no  further,  nor  sec 
deeper  into  the  facts,  for  they  had  no  assurance  of  the  open  voice  of 
God  and  his  clear  word,  of  a  superhuman  power  and  of  an  external 
revelation  that  did  not  proceed  from  the  human  heart"  {Review 
of  Religions,  I,  p.  311). 

And  since  it  was  a  part  of  his  creed  that  early  Muslim 
society  was  far  more  perfect  than  that  of  to-day,  he  held 
in  abhorrence  the  teaching  of  modern  Muhammadan 
exponents  of  Islam,  who  recognize  that  polygamy  was  and 
is  an  evil,  but  hold  that  since  it  was  an  improvement  on 
former  practices  in  Arabia,  and  therefore  a  step  upward  for 
the  early  Muslims,  Muhammad  was  justified  in  making  it  a 
part  of  Islam  at  that  time,  whereas  Muslims  to-day  may 
not  at  all  be  justified  in  adhering  to  a  custom  that  is 
inferior  to  the  higher  ideal  of  monogamy.^  Ahmad,  while 
he  was  bound  to  admit  that  polygamy  was  more  nearly 
universal  among  early  Muslims  than  to-day,  argued  that 
the  fact  was  due  to  the  early  wars  against  the  enemies  of 
Islam,  by  reason  of  which  "  the  Muslim  society  was  cut 
off  from  their  kith  and  kin  and  there  could  not  be  inter- 
marriage between  the  Muslims  and  the  unbelievers" 
(Review  of  Religions,  IV,  p.  145).  Hence  polygamy  pre- 
vailed to  a  greater  extent  than  to-day,  as  a  matter  of 
justice  to  the  women  of  Islam.     And  we  read  further  : 

"  In  the  matter  of  ignoring  these  circumstances,  not  only  are  those 
Muslims  to  blame  who,  like  Mr.  Amir  'All  and  Mr.  Dilawar  Husain, 
both  of  whom  belong  to  the  Shia  sect,  look  upon  polygamy  as  an  evil, 
but  even  those  cannot  be  acquitted  of  the  charge  who,  while  defending 
polygamy  as  an  institution  needful  for  human  society,  like  the  late  Sir 
Syed  Ahmad  Khan,  have  still  expressed  pleasure  because  it  is  less 
frequently  practiced  now,  as  if  the  early  Muslims  practiced  it  without 
any  lawful  necessity"  (Rcjierc  of  Religions,  IV,  p.  145). 

Ahmad's  contention  is  that  polygamy  should  be  con- 
trasted not  with   monogamy  but  with  ceh'bacy.     Replying 

'  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan  (1817-1898) — the  progressive  Indian 
Muslim  who  founded  in  1875  the  Muhammadan  Anglo-Oriental 
College  at  Aligarh,  U.P.,  and,  in  1886,  the  Muhammadan  Educa- 
tional Conference.  He  was  a  thorough-going  rationalist,  and  sought 
to  accommodate  Islam  to  modern  ideas  and  Western  education.  See 
also  pp.  133,  134. 

*  See  The  Spirit  of  Islam,  p.  192,  and  Essays  Indian  and 
Islamic    p.  331. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    67 

to  Mr.  Dilawar  Husain,  a  vigorous  champion  of  monogamy 
in  Islam,  the  Revieiv  of  Religions  says  : 

"  He  should  bear  in  mind  that  according  to  Islam  monogamy  is 
the  rule,  while  polygamy  and  celibacy  are  two  necessary  exceptions, 
which,  if  prohibited,  must  bring  about  great  mischief.  If  he  has  got 
any  reason  to  attack  this  position,  he  is  welcome  to  the  discussion,  but 
if  he  has  got  nothing  but  to  repeat  the  old  stories  of  Mr.  Amir  'Ali  and 
others,  he  should  better  assume  silence"  {Reviciv  of  Religions,  IV, 
p.  174). 

One  cannot  help  feeling  that  Ahmad's  interest  in  this 
question  of  the  existence  of  the  supernatural  over  against 
a  rigid  rationalism  had  a  somewhat  personal  bearing.  If 
Muhammad's  revelation  in  the  seventh  century  M^as  not 
to  be  considered  supernatural  to-day,  there  was  little  likeli- 
hood of  any  widespread  recognition  of  the  validity  of 
Ahmad's  claim  in  the  twentieth  century.  To  the  Mu- 
hammadan  Educational  Conference,  the  Muhammadan 
College  at  Aligarh,  the  All-India  Moslem  League,^  the 
Nadwat-ul-Ulama,"  and  all  such  "  Muhammadan  Re- 
vival Associations,"  as  he  termed  them,  Ahmad  was 
unceasingly  hostile.     One  of  his  followers  asks  pertinently  : 

"  Where  is  the  living  model  whose  example  we  must  imitate  ?  " 
(Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  221) .  .  .  .  "  I  ask  the  Nadwa  which  view 
of  Islam  is  it  going  to  offer  to  Europe  ?  Is  it  Islam  in  the  light  in 
which  the  late  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  took  it,  which  represents  God  as 
worthless  and  idle,  denies  revelation,  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  angels, 
prophecy  and  supernatural  signs,  and  describes  the  Holy  Qur'an  as  a 
dry  book  devoid  of  the  miraculous  ?  "    (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p. 329). 

Other  views  of  these  "  Advanced  Muhammadans," 
which  Ahmad  repudiates,  were  the  abolition  of  pardah,^ 
the  modification  of  rules  regarding  prayers,  fasting,  alms, 

Cf.  p.  136. 

'  "  Council  of  the  Learned,"  an  association  of  educated  mauIvTs 
in  North  India,  whose  chief  undertaking  has  been  the  carrying  on  of  a 
theological  seminary  for  the  training  of  a  new  school  of  enlightened 
Muhammadan  priests.     Its  headquarters  are  in  Lucknow. 

'  The  Urdu  word  for  "curtain,"  useu  in  India  of  the  institution 
of  "  the  veil  "  imposed  upon  Muslim  women  by  the  "Agreement" 
(iimd')  of  the  Muhammadan  community,  and  arising  out  of  Muham- 
mad's injunction,  originally  affecting  his  own  wives,  in  Qur'an, 
XXIV,  32.  It  enjoins  that  a  woman  may  appear  unveiled  only  in  the 
pretence  of  other  women  and  of  her  husband  and  nearest  male  relations. 


68  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

and  pilgrimage,  and  the  rejection  of  the  later  "  Medina 
Suras  "  of  the  Qur'an.  He  strongly  supported  the  Muslim 
prohibition  of  the  drinking  of  intoxicants,  and  required  of 
his  followers  abstention  from  tobacco  smoking  as  well. 

We  shall  see,  when  we  come  to  consider  Ahmad's 
attitude  towards  Christianity,  how  staunchly  he  stood  his 
ground  on  such  moot  points  as  divorce,  the  veil, 
and  the  ceremonial  law  of  Islam,  spurning  any  attempt 
within  Islam  to  adapt  Muhammad's  teaching  and  practice 
to  present-day  customs  in  Christian  lands.  Meantime,  we 
must  turn  from  his  picture  of  an  ideal  Islam,  believed  to 
have  been  brought  into  the  world  by  Muhammad,  to  view 
the  actual  Islam  which  he  saw  around  him,  and  which  he 
unsparingly  denounced.^ 

Like  the  Jewish  religion  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  he 
declared  that  Islam  had  become  a  religion  of  spiritless 
ceremonialism. 

"  I  have  come  at  a  time  when  the  Muhammadan  society  has,  like 
the  Jewish,  been  rotten  to  the  core,  and  spirituality,  which  is  the  lite 
and  essence,  having  departed,  nothing  has  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  Muslims  but  the  husk  of  lifeless  ceremonies.  .  .  ."  (Review  of 
Religions,  III,  p.  399). 

In  a  letter  written  by  Maulvi  Abdul  Karim  to  the 
Nadwat-ul-Ulama,  in  reply  to  an  invitation  requesting  the 
attendance  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  at  its  annual  gather- 
ing at  Calcutta,  it  was  said  : 

"  Forms  and  ceremonials  have  again  got  the  upper  hand,  while 
the  inner  life,  the  essence  of  the  law,  the  spirit  that  gave  life  to  the 
form  itself,  is  quite  gone.  Mosques  and  monasteries  are  full  of  bodies, 
but  the  soul  is  not  there.  .  .  .  Divine  commandments  are  set  at 
naught,  and  the  corruption  of  licentiousness,  atheism  and  transgres- 
sion is  widespread"  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  322). 

As  in  the  time  of  the  pre-Islamic  Arabs,  social  and  moral 
conditions  are  beyond  description: 

"  It  needs  no  demonstration  to  prove  that  Muhammadan  degene- 
ration has  passed  all  bounds,  and  that  they  are  now  standing  on  the 
verge  of  the  pit  of   fire  from  which  a  blessed  and    mighty   hand   had 

*  For  a  frank  and  searching  treatment  of  this  subject  by  a  recent 
writer  of  a  different  school,  see  Essays  Indian  and  Islamic,  Chapter 
VII,  "Thoughts  on  the  Present  Situation,"  p.  213ff. 


AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    69 

drawn  them  back  at  first.  The  same  dissentions  and  disputes,  the 
same  division  in  the  camp,  which  marked  the  pre-lslamic  Arabs,  is  wit- 
nessed among  those  who  claim  to  be  following  the  banner  of  Isl3,m. 
.  .  .  Luxurious  habits,  transgressions,  drunkenness,  gambling  and 
laziness,  evils  from  which  the  mighty  magnetizer  had  granted  them  a 
deliverance,  have  again  the  upper  hand"  {Review  of  Religions,  I, 
p.  318). 

There  is  now  no  real  enthusiasm  for  Islam,  only 
ignorant  superstition,  which  shows  itself  in  slavish  imitation 
of  the  Christian  civilization  of  the  West,  on  the  part  of 
some,  and  a  blind  worship  of  tombs  and  saints,  on  the 
part  of  others. 

"  There  can  be  no  denying  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of 
Muhammadans  who  claim  to  believe  in  the  true  God  have  really  no 
faith  at  all  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  62). 

"  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  great  change  in  the  object  of  superstition, 
but  that  is  of  little  use.  If  the  'ignorant'  Muhammadans  are  to  be 
blamed  for  an  excessive  reverence  for  tombs  and  miracles  of  saints, 
the  '  advanced  '  Muhammadans  have  a  blind  admiration  for  everything 
Western"  {Review  of  Religions,  III,  p.  441). 

The  condition  of  Muslims  is  such  that  followers  of 
other  creeds  are  alienated  rather  than  attracted. 

"Thus  if  there  is  any  obstacle  to  the  path  of  Islam  it  is  the 
practical  life  of  the  Muslims  themselves,  and  the  sight  of  the  same  not 
only  causes  a  repugnance  in  the  followers  of  other  creeds,  but  also 
alienates  from  Islam  the  feelings  of  the  future  generations  of  Muslims. 
The  fact  cannot  be  denied  that  in  most  Muslim  families,  it  is  to  be 
found  that  the  concern  with  religion  is  diminishing  from  father  to  son. 
Only  a  very  small  percentage  of  Musalmans  can  be  found  who  are 
sincerely  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Islam.  In  most  cases  religion  has 
been  left  merely  a  matter  of  custom  and  habit"  (Review  of  Reli- 
gions, XIV,  p.  453). 

One  cause  of  the  decline  of  Islam  and  the  deplor- 
able social  conditions  among  Muslim  peoples  is  to  be 
found  in  the  forged  traditions  and  fatwds^  circulated 
by  the  maulvis,  for  whom  Ahmad  entertained  no 
admiration.^ 

*  See  p.  16.  A  compilation  of  these  fatwds,  pronounced  against 
Ahmad,  exists  in  Urdu. 

^  Maulvi  Iliihi  Baksh,  of  Lahore,  in  his  polemic  against  Ahmad, 
Asa'-i-MUsa  ("Rod  of  Moses"),  has  given  (pp.  143-146)  an 
appalling  alphabetical  list  of  the  abusive  epithets  applied  to  Muslim 
maulvis  by  Ahmad, 


70  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

"  We  are  coininanded  not  to  kill  man,  not  to  commit  an  outrage 
upon  his  honour,  and  not  to  seize  his  property  dishonestly.  But  some 
Muhammadans  have  broken  all  these  commandments.  They  take 
away  the  life  of  an  innocent  person  and  never  shudder  at  the  inhumane 
deed.  Empty-headed  maulvies  have  circulated  jatwas  to  the  effect 
that  it  is  lawful  to  seduce  or  seize  the  women  of  unbelievers  or 
heretics,  and  to  steal  and  misappropriate  their  properties.  .  .  .  The 
social  relations  of  the  Muslims  are  deplorable.  Traditions  have  been 
fabricated  that  act  like  poison  upon  their  moral  conditions  and  break 
the  Divine  laws  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  23). 

The  present  hard-heartedness  of  Muslims  in  their 
decline  has  led  to  a  blood-thirstiness  whose  issue  in 
Afghanistan  was  the  murder  of  two  followers  of  the 
Ahmadlya  faith. 

"  I  think  the  chief  reason  of  the  decline  of  Muhammadans  is  that 
the  feelings  of  love  and  sympathy  are  on  the  wane  in  their  hearts.  I 
do  not  judge  all  Muhammadans  to  be  guilty  of  this  hard-heartedness, 
but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  millions  among  them  who  are 
thirsty  of  the  blood  of  their  own  kind  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I, 
p.  340). 

We  cannot  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  the  following 
description  of  the  martyrdom  of  one  of  Ahmad 's  followers 
in  a  purely  Muhammadan  country.  The  parties  referred  to 
are  Maulvi  Abdul  Latif  and  the  Amir  of  Afghanistan  : — 

"  When  he  refused  to  listen  to  all  expostulations,  the  Amir  drew 
up  the  judgment  with  his  own  hands  and  caused  it  to  be  hung  about 
his  neck.  He  then  ordered  his  nose  to  be  bored,  and  a  cord  to  be 
passed  through  the  hole,  by  which  he  was  drawn  to  the  place  of 
execution.  While  he  was  carried  in  this  state  of  torture,  he  was 
mocked,  abused  and  cursed.  The  Amir  with  his  Muftis  and 
Maulvis  watched  and  enjoyed  this  painful  sight.  When  he  was 
buried  to  his  waist  in  earth  the  Amir  once  more  approached  him  and 
gave  him  promise  of  pardon  on  condition  of  his  renunciation  of  his 
faith,  but  no  words  could  tempt  him  to  such  a  heinous  deed  as  the 
renunciation  of  truth  for  the  sake  of  a  few  days'  comfort.  Upon  this 
there  was  again  a  tumult  among  the  barbarous  Qazis  and  Muftis  that 
he  was  a  Kafir  (Unbeliever)  and  should  be  stoned  to  death  without 
further  delay.  The  Amir  then  ordered  the  chief  Qazi  to  throw  the 
first  stone.  The  Qazi  requested  the  Amir  that,  as  he  was  the  ruler,  he 
should  take  the  initiative.  But  the  Amir  excused  himself,  saying  that 
it  was  a  matter  of  religion,  in  which  supreme  authority  lay  with  the 
chief  Qazi.  At  last  the  first  stone  was  thrown  by  the  Qazi,  which  gave 
Maulvi  Abdul  Latif  a  fatal  wound.  The  next  stone  was  thrown  by 
the  unfortunate  Amir,  and  after  this  there  was  a  volley  of  stones  from 
all  sides,  and  within  a  few  minutes  the  martyr  disappeared  in  a  heap  of 
stones.     Orders  were  then  given  by  the  Amir  for  watch  to  be  kept  on 


AHM'ADIVA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    71 

his  (lead  body,  because  lie  hart  said  that  lie  would  ri^e  after  the  sixth 
day.  This  occurred  on  the  lith  July,  1903"  (Rcvicu:  of  Religions, 
II,  p.  446). 

We  now  come  to  one  of  Ahmad's  cardinal  principles, 
and  the  point  of  sharpest  divergence  between  his  faith 
and  that  of  the  majority  of  Muslims  :  to  wit,  his 
conception  of  jihad,  or  holy  war. 

When  Muhammad  proclaimed  the  revelation  :  "Kill 
them  (the  infidels)  wherever  ye  shall  find  them,"  and 
similar  injunctions  relating  to  "  holy  warfare,"^  he  laid 
upon  his  followers  a  sanction  only  slightly  less  binding 
than  the  five  "pillars'"  already  mentioned."  In  particular, 
a  saying  of  the  Prophet  :  "  War  is  permanently  established 
until  the  Day  of  Judgment,"  has  come  down,  with  the 
Qur'anic  passages,  establishing  the  fact  that  the  Ddr  al- 
Isldvt  ("Abode  of  Islam")  and  the  Ddr  al-harb 
("  Abode  of  War  ")  remain  in  a  state  of  fixed  antagonism 
until,  by  reason  of  conquest,  there  shall  be  only  the  one 
Dar  al-Isldm.  The  observance,  however,  is  said  to  be  in 
force  when  any  single  tribe  or  party  of  Muslims  is  engaged 
in  the  jihad,  and  it  is  only  in  times  of  special  need  that  the 
entire  body  of  Muslims  is  expected  to  take  part  actively  in 
the  war.  When  a  country  of  the  unbelievers  is  overcome, 
the  citizens  are  given  their  choice  of  accepting  Islam, 
and  paying  the  jizya  (poll  tax),  or  being  put  to  death  by 
the  sword.  Many  Siifis  hold  that  there  is  a  greater  jihad 
against  a  man's  own  rebellious  nature,  and  a  lesser  jihad 
against  unbelievers. 

Along  with  this  doctrine  there  has  become  fixed  in  the 
average  Muslim's  mind  by  many  traditions  the  belief  that 
the  Mahdi  who  is  to  come  will  be  a  man  of  blood,  who 
will  lead  forth  the  entire  host  of  Islam  in  a  world-wide 
and  altogether  victorious  jihad.  Ahmad  fought  early  and 
late  against  this  conception — a  campaign  which  was 
related  to  his  frequent  declarations  of  loyalty  to  the 
British  Government  which  might  conceivably  become  the 

>  Cf.  Qur'an  IX,  5,  6  ;  IV,  76,  79  ;  II,  214,  215;  VIII,  39, 
42  ;  and  many  traditions  in  the  MishkdtuU  Masdbth.  A  convenient 
resume  may  be  found  undtr  jihad,  in  Hughes  :  Dictionary  of  Isldm, 
pp.  243-248.  ^  Cf.  p.  57. 


73  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

active  object  of  jihad  as  popularly  conceived.  Whether 
Ahmad 's  attitude,  in  a  strictly  Muhammadan  country, 
would  have  been  similar  to  that  of  the  many  "  bloody 
Mahdis  "^  it  is  idle  to  surmise.  Dr.  Griswold  has  drawn 
attention  to  one  potentially  significant  sentence  in  Ahmad's 
"five  principle  doctrines,"  published  in  a  memorial  to  Sir 
William  Mackworth-Young,  under  date  of  March  5th, 
1898,  as  follows : 

"  To  preach  Islamic  truths  with  reasoning  and  heavenly  signs, 
and  to  regard^  ghazd  or  jihad  as  prohibited  under  present  circum- 
stances "  (Mirzd  Ghuldm  Ahmad,^  p.  11).      (Dr.  Griswold's  italics.) 

Dr.  Griswold  compares  this  to  the  bull  of  Pope 
Gregory  XIII,  issued  in  1580,  which  released  the  English 
Catholics  from  the  obligation  to  resist  Queen  Elizabeth 
(imposed  by  the  bull  of  Pope  Pius  V),  and  allowed  them 
to  continue  their  allegiance  to  her  until  they  should  be 
powerful  enough  to  rebel  openly.  If  Ahmad's  phrase 
means  anything.  Dr.  Griswold  says,  it  must  mean  the 
same,  but  he  generously  adds, 

"It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  phrase  is  meaningless,  being 
used  for  the  sake  of  literary  padding,  with  an  inadequate  sense  of  its 
implication.  We  will  give  Mirza  Sahib  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
especially  since  the  phrase  occurs  nowhere  else,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  his 
writings  "  (Mirzd  Ghuldm  Ahmad,  p.  12). 

Ahmad  was  much  perturbed  by  Dr.  Griswold's 
emphasis  on  that  ambiguous  sentence  in  his  pamhiet,  and 
issued  a  reply  declaring  that  "present  circumstances  "  are 
here  contrasted  with  conditions  at  the  time  when  jihad 
was  sanctioned.  This  may  indeed  have  been  in  Ahmad's 
mind,  although  it  only  emphasizes  his  divergence  from 
orthodox  Islam,  which  allows  no  possibility  of  jihad  being 
prohibited  until  the  end,  although  it  may  be  suspended  in 
different  parts  of  the  world  at  different  times.  If,  then, 
jihad  is  no  longer  in  force,  according  to  Ahmadiya 
teaching,  the  question  might  be  asked  why  it  existed   in 

^  Such,  for  example,  as  Syed  Ahmad,  of  Mysore  and  Hyderabad 
(1444-1504),  Muhammed  Ahmad,  of  Dongola  (proclaimed  Mahdi 
of  the  Sudan  in  1878),  Syed  Ahmad,  of  Oudh  and  the  Panjab  (Con- 
queror of  Peshawar  in  1830),  and  Syed  Muhammad  Husain,  of  Persia, 
the  founder  of  the  secret  order  of  the  Senusites. 


ahmAdiya  movement  and  orthodox  islam  73 

the  early  history  of  Islam  as  the  Qur'an  and  authentic 
histories  of  the  spread  of  Muhammadanism  give  abundant 
evidence  that  it  did.  Ahmad's  answer  to  this  was  that 
Muhammad  and  the  early  Khalifas  had  recourse  to  the 
sword,  first  to  protect  themselves  from  barbarian  enemies 
and,  afterward,  to  punish  the  latter  for  their  barbarities. 
Ahmadlya  reasoning  here  is  naive  and  interesting.  It  is 
hard  to  see  how  those  who  assert  that  the  early  enemies 
of  Islam  were  given  the  option  of  conversion  or  death  can 
in  the  same  breath  argue  that  Islam  was  not  propagated 
by  force.     We  quote  : 

"  It  must  also  be  stated  here  that  permission  for  self-defence  and 
murdering  the  enemies  of  Islam  was  not  given  to  the  Muslims  until 
the  Arabs  had,  on  account  of  their  excessive  oppressions  and  outrages 
and  innocent  bloodshed,  rendered  themselves  culpable  and  liable  to  be 
punished  with  death.  But  a  clemency  was  even  then  shown  to  such  of 
them  as  embraced  Islam.  The  unity  of  religion  established  a  relation 
of  brotherhood,  and  all  past  wrongs  were  forgotten.  It  is  here  that 
some  opponents  of  Islam  have  stumbled,  and  from  this  they  draw  the 
conclusion  that  the  new  religion  was  forced  upon  the  unbelievers.  In 
fact,  the  case  is  just  the  reverse  of  what  the  objectors  have  thought. 
There  is  no  compulsion  here  ;  it  was  a  favour  to  those  who  had 
rendered  themselves  liable  to  death.  It  is  apparently  absurd  to  take 
this  conditional  mitigation  of  just  punishment  for  compulsion.  They 
deserved  to  be  murdered,  not  because  they  did  not  believe  in  the 
mission  of  the  Prophet,  but  because  they  had  murdered  many  an 
innocent  soul.  The  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  was  upon  them,  but 
the  mercy  of  the  Gracious  God  gave  them  another  chance  of  averting 
this  merited  capital  punishment"  (^Review  of  Religions,  I,  pp.  20-21). 

This  flies  directly  in  the  face  of  history,  for  every  true 
account  of  the  early  history  of  Islam  shows  that  Muham- 
mad and  the  early  Khalifas  acted  continuously  on  the 
offensive. 

At  the  present  time,  Ahmad  frequently  remarked, 
Indian  Muslims  are  happily  situated  under  Christian  rule 
just  as,  in  the  days  of  Muhammad,  the  pioneers,  driven 
from  Mecca  by  the  authorities,  found  a  safe  and  happy 
refuge  for  a  time  under  the  Christian  king  of  Abyssinia. 

If  among  present-day  Muslims  the  followers  of  Ahmad, 
with  their  avowed  abhorrence  and  rej^udiation  of  the  idea 
of  a  "bloody  Mahdi,"  are  to  be  considered,  ipso  facto, 
loyal  to  the  Government,  the  implication  is  suggested  that 
the    generality    of    Muslims    must,   on    the    contrary,  be 


74  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

disloyal.  This  imputation  they  naturally  resented.  It 
may  be  worth  while  to  quote  in  full,  as  giving  the  other 
side  of  the  case,  a  communication  to  the  Lahore  Civil  and 
Military  Gazette  (May  22nd,  1907),  written  by  a  Muslim 
of  the  orthodox  party,  in  reply  to  one  of  Ahmad's  familiar 
"exhortations  to  loyalty,"  issued  at  a  time  when  a  number 
of  disloyal  outbreaks  were  occurring  in  North  India  : 

"  The  'exhortation'  to  his  followers,  of  Mirza  Ghulani  Ahmad 
of  Qadian,  the  founder  of  a  new  sect,  to  refrain  from  participating  in 
all  disloyal  movements,  which  has  appeared  in  your  paper  as  an 
appendix  to  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din's  communication,  is  all  very  well 
inasmuch  as  it  aims  at  promoting  the  loyalty  of  a  certain  section  of 
the  Indian  population  ;  but  this  noble  object  should  on  no  account  be 
made  the  pretext  by  anyone  to  bring  false  accusations  against  those 
whom  one  does  not  like  on  other  grounds. 

"  Referring  to  the  execution  of  Abdul  Latif,  a  follower  of  his,  in 
Afghanistan,  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  states  in  his 'exhortation'  that  the 
deceased  was  stoned  to  death  by  Amir  Habibullah  for  the  only  fault 
that,  having  become  one  of  Mirza 's  followers,  '  he  opposed  the 
doctrine  of  jihad,'  in  accordance  with  the  Mirza's  teachings.  To 
say  the  least  of  it,  this  is  a  very  vague  way  of  putting  things.  If, 
however,  by  saying  so  the  Mirza  means — and  by  the  general  drift  of  his 
'  exhortation  '  it  appears  that  he  means  it — that  the  view  held  by  Amir 
Habibullah  Khan  as  well  as  by  the  general  mass  of  Muhammadans  in 
India  and  elsewhere,  about  the  doctrine  of  jihad,  is  calculated  to 
shake  the  loyalty  of  the  Muhammadans  in  India,  it  should  be  empha- 
tically declared  that  such  an  assertion  is  entirely  unfounded,  and  is 
either  based  upon  ignorance,  or  something  else  which  is  unworthy  of  a 
noble  cause. 

"  It  may  also  be  stated  here,  for  the  information  of  the  public,  that 
Abdul  Latif's  real  fault,  which  cost  him  his  life,  was  that  he  had  become 
a   heretic  (»nofflJf/)  ,*  an  offence  which  under  Islamic   law  is  punish- 

'  For  the  laws  relating  to  the  death  penalty  for  the  mtirtadd  (an 
apostate,  not  a  heretic)  see  Hughes  :  Dictionary  of  Islam,  p.  16.  In 
a  translation  of  the  "  Multaka  ul  Abhar  "  {Meeting  of  the  Seas),  a 
Turkish  text-book  of  canon  law  by  Ibrahim  of  Alleppo,  Constantinople, 
1290,  A.H.,  pp.  396-397,  the  following  summary  is  given  : — "  A  man 
guilty  of  apostatizing  is  allowed  a  three  days'  respite  if  he  desires  it, 
after  which,  refusing  to  recant,  he  is  to  be  killed.  If  he  recants  and 
again  apostatizes  he  is  again  given  the  opportunity  to  reconsider.  So 
in  the  third  offence,  but  the  fourth  time  he  must  be  killed  at  once. 
His  recantation  must  include  renunciation  of  his  espoused  religion,  as 
well  as  acceptance  of  Islam.  He  may  lawfully  be  killed  on  sight, 
however,  only  the  murderer  in  this  case  receives  a  reproof." 

I  am  indebted  for  the  references  and  the  translation  to  Prof.  M. 
H.  Ananikian,  of  Hartford,  U.S.A. 


AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT  AND  ORTHODOX  ISLAM    75 

able  with  death.  He  became  a  heretic  by  following  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad,  a  pronounced  heretic  among  Muhammadans.  .  .  .  (Signed) 
Sy'ed  Muhammad"  (Review  of  Religions,  VI,  p.  230). 

Ahmad  may  well  have  congratulated  himself  that  he 
lived  under  British  rule,  and  as  a  branded  heretic  vi^as 
saved  the  harsh  fate  meted  out  to  his  follovi^ers  in 
Muhammadan  Afghanistan. 

if  Ahmad  depicted  in  dark  colours  the  decadence  of 
Muslims,  and,  in  bright  colours,  the  joy  and  security  of 
living  under  a  modern  Christian  government,  the  question 
naturally  follows  whether  he  inferred  from  those  facts  the 
superiority  of  the  Christian  civilization  and  ethics.  This 
he  by  no  means  did,  arguing  as  follows  : 

"The  Christians,  who  from  the  present  material  backwardness 
of  the  Muhammadan  nations,  hastily  draw  the  conclusion  of  the 
failure  of  Islam  to  raise  its  adherents  to  a  high  standard  of  progress, 
should  cast  a  glance  at  the  history  of  Christianity  and  the  Christian 
people  in  the  thirteenth  century  after  Christ,  and  they  will,  we  hope, 
be  convinced  that  their  conclusions  are  illogical.  Whatever  the 
present  material  backwardness  of  the  Muhammadans  as  compared 
with  the  nations  which  are  generally  known  as  Christians,  it  is  a  fact 
that  never  at  any  stage  of  their  history  they  were  steeped  in  such 
ignorance  as  the  Christians  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  Christianity 
was  as  old  as  Islam  is  at  present.  In  fact,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
while  with  the  progress  of  Christianity  civilization  has  decayed  and 
with  its  deterioration  civilization  has  made  progress  among  the 
Christian  nations,  the  relations  of  Islam  to  civilization  have  been 
different  "  {Review  of  Religions,  VI,  p.  424). 

In  other  words,  the  pure  principles  of  Islam  brought  to 
Muslims  a  high  civilization  early  in  its  history,  and  the 
decadence  of  Islam  is  due  to  its  departure  from  pristine 
ideals.  Christian  nations  have  attained  to  their  present 
civilization  not  because,  but  in  spite,  of  the  ideals  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  whose  spirit  and  power  Ahmad  came.^  In 
January,  1908,  the  Review  of  Religions  quoted,  with 
seeming  approval,  some  remarks  in  a  book  called,  The 
Awakening  of  Islam,  by  William  Heaford,  from  the  French 
of  Yahya  Siddyk,  in  which  the  same  logic  is  carried  further, 
associating  Islam,  in  its  former  and  future  perfection,  with 
modern  science,  and  Christianity  with  ignorance  and 
obscurantism.     We  read  that  this  author 

'   For  a  contradictory  Ahmadiya  position,  see  p.  99. 


76  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

"  Claims  that  the  ideas  of  modern  science,  which  have  everywhere 
proved  so  fatal  to  Christianity  and  which  in  every  European  country 
are  producing  their  natural  fruit  in  European  unbelief  and  triumphant 
rationalism,  will  serve  to  rehabilitate  and  vindicate  Islam"  {Review 
of  Religions,  VII,  p.  43). 

In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  deal  in  detail  with  Ahmad's 
view  of  Christianity  and  its  founder,  and  in  this  connection 
we  shall  see  that  another  charge  made  by  Ahmad  against 
modern  Islam  is  its  false  belief  in  the  taking  up  of  Jesus 
into  heaven,  while  another  person,  substituted  for  him, 
suffered  death  on  the  cross. 

It  would  seem  that  Ahmad  painted  the  picture  of 
present-day  Islam  as  black  as  possible  largely  in  his  own 
interest.  If  the  decadence  of  Islam  has  been  due  to  its 
falling  away  from  the  teaching  and  example  of  the  living 
Muhammad  of  the  seventh  century,  its  rejuvenation  in  the 
twentieth  century  can  only  come  through  the  teaching  and 
example  of  a  living  "  magnetizer,"  to  use  a  favourite  Ahma- 
diya  expression.  This  person  is  the  promised  Messiah. 
His  sound  and  conclusive  arguments,  his  manifestation  of 
heavenly  wisdom  and  power,  his  mediation  and  inter- 
cession, can  alone  avail  to  counteract  the  present  evil 
tendencies  in  the  world,  by  bringing  anew  to  faithless 
Muslims  that  certainty  regarding  divine  truth,  that  perfect 
knowledge  of  God,  in  which,  he  held,  salvation  from  sin 
consists. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND 
CHRISTIANITY 

We  have  already  seen^  that  Ahmad  proclaimed 
that  as  the  promised  Messiah  he  had  come  in  the 
spirit  and  power  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  his  similiarity  to 
Christ,  in  character  and  office,  was  such  that  he  was  called 
"Jesus"  in  several  revelations  in  order  to  confirm  the 
resemblance — not  to  say,  the  identity.  In  this  chapter  we 
have  to  look  on  the  other  side  of  the  picture  to  determine 
his  conception  of  the  Jesus  of  history  who,  as  ^Isd,  is 
referred  to  in  many  passages  of  theQur'an.  The  question 
with  which  we  are  first  confronted  is  the  extent  to  which 
he  drew  on  Muslim  and  Christian  sources,  respectively,  for 
the  materials  of  the  finished  portrait  of  Jesus  that  was  in 
his  mind.  In  the  Qur'an  we  fjnd  many  ambiguous  titles 
and  characteristics  ascribed  to  'Isa,"such  as  "  a  word  from 
Allah  "  (III,  40),  "  a  spirit  from  Allah  "  (IV,  169),  "  One 
brought  near,"  i.e.,  to  Allah  (III,  40),  "  worthy  of  regard  " 
(III,  40),  a  prophet  (tiabV),  a  messenger  (rast'il).  He  was 
said  to  have  come  with  a  Book,  the  Injll  (Gospel),  to 
have  been  born  of  the  virgin,  Mariam,  by  a  direct  creative 
act  of  Allah  (III,  42),  and  to  have  performed  many 
miracles,  including  certain  legendary  miracles  in  the  cradle 
and    in   youth,  and,  as   a   climax,  the   raising   of   the   dead 

>  P.  31ff. 

*  The  word  'Isd  is  believed  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  Hebrew 
"Esau,"  the  name  by  which  Jesus  had  been  satirically  designated 
in  Jewish  writings,  and  which  Muhammad  probably  accepted  as 
genuine.  There  are  many  Muslim  explanations  of  the  name.  For  a 
discussion  of  this  subject  see  The  Moslem  Christ,  by  S.  M.  Zwemer  ; 
Oliphant,  Anderson  &  Ferrier,  Edinburgh,  1913,  p.  33ff. 


78  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

(III,  43).  Although  there  is  at  least  one  passage  in  the 
Qur'an  which  clearly  refers  to  the  death  of  Jesus  (III,  47), 
Muhammad  unquestionably  rejected  the  crucifixion, 
holding  that  Jesus  was  taken  up  alive  into  one  of  the 
heavens,  apparently  in  his  earthly  body  (IV,  156).  There 
the  Qur'an  seems  to  leave  him,  and  tradition  takes  up  the 
tale  with  its  prophecies  of  the  second  coming.  From  the 
above  it  appears  that  Muhammad  had  learned  enough 
about  the  historic  personage,  Jesus  Christ,  probably  from 
some  heretical  Christian  teacher  or  monk,  to  lead  him  to 
give  to  'Isd  a  unique  place  among  those  to  whom  he 
accorded  prophetic  rank.  The  picture  he  draws,  however, 
is  the  barest  sketch  of  a  person,  resembling  rather  a  wax 
figure  on  which  a  number  of  descriptive  titles  have  been 
hung  than  the  vigorous  and  compelling  personality,  of 
flesh  and  blood,  who  dominates  the  New  Testament.  It 
is,  therefore,  small  wonder  that  Muslims  have  not  been 
attracted  to  the  figure  of  'Isd  in  the  Qur'an,  and  have 
proceeded  to  construct  still  a  third  character  (unhistorical, 
like  Muhammad's  'Isd)  out  of  Muslim  and  Christian 
traditions  and  legends — a  character  which  differs  as 
widely  from  the  'Isd  of  the  Qur'an  as  the  traditional 
Muhammad  differs  from  the  historic  character  who  stands 
revealed  in  the  pages  of  the  Qur'an.^ 

As  will  appear  more  at  length  hereafter,  Ahmad  not 
only  rejected  the  orthodox  conception  that  Jesus  was  never 
crucified,  but  the  taking  up  alive  into  heaven  as  well, 
seeking  to  prove  that  he  eventually  died  like  all  ordinary 
mortals,  and  was  buried  in  Srinagar,  Kashmir.  Otherwise 
he  seems  to_  have  felt  bound  to  accept  the  Qur'anic 
portrait  of  'Isd  as  historical,  but  he  was  obviously  not 
familiar  with  the  legendary  Jesus,  described  at  length,  for 
example,  in  the  well-known  QisasuH  Anbiyd  {"  Stories 
of  the  Prophets").  However,  it  was,  as  we  have  shown 
(pp.  31,  32),  the  Jesus  of  history  with  whom  he  really 
believed  himself  to  be  in  some  mysterious  way  identical.  A 
flesh  and  blood  personality  it  was  who  figured  continually  in 

*  Regarding  this  traditional  Jesus,  cf.  Zwemer,  The  Moslem 
Christ,  and  Sell  and  Margoliouth,  "Christ  in  Muhammadan  Litera- 
ture," in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels,  II,  p.  882ff. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  79 

his  thinking  and  writing  and  who,  if  he  had  been  able  to 
analyze  the  content  of  his  thinking  on  the  subject,  he 
would  probably  have  discovered  was  for  him  actually  the 
true,  historic  Jesus,  whose  life  is  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament  narrative. 

His  confusion  of  thought  arose,  of  course,  from  a  prior 
confusion  regarding  the  Christian  Scriptures  and  the  hijll, 
referred  to  in  the  Qur'an  as  Allah's  revelation,  or  the 
Book,  given  to  'Isa.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Muhammad 
did  not  regard  this  revelation  as  identical  with  the 
Scriptures  possessed  by  the  Christians  of  his  day.  His 
charging  the  Christians  with  error  in  doctrine  came  in 
time,  however,  to  be  taken  by  Muslims  as  referring  to  a 
wilful  corruption  by  the  Christians  of  the  lufd,  so  that  its 
statements  could  no  longer  be  accepted  as  trustworthy  on 
the  ground  that  Muhammad  had  regarded  them  as  inspired. 

Among  later  Muslim  theologians  and  commentators 
the  attitude  toward  the  Christian  Scriptures  runs  all  the 
way  from  that  of  Ibn  Hazm  (d.  1063  A. D.),  who  held 
that  the  only  authentic  knowledge  of  ^Isd  is  that  con- 
tained in  the  Qur'an,  to  Fakhr-ud-din  ar-Razi  (d.  1209 
A.D.),  who  frequently  used  Gospel  passages  to  illustrate  the 
Qur'an.^  Ahmad  would  perhaps  have  us  believe  that  he 
held  to  the  former  of  these  extremes,  but,  after  analyzing 
all  of  his  references  to  the  Scriptures  and  to  Jesus,  confus- 
ed as  they  are,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  in  his  sub- 
conscious mind  at  least,  belief  in  the  historicity  (although 
not,  of  course,  in  the  divine  inspiration)  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment narrative  prevailed.  For  practical  purposes  it  would 
hardly  be  unfair  to  say  that  he  admitted  as  true,  tempor- 
arily, such  parts  of  the  New  Testament  as  were  needed  to 
reinforce  the  argument  in  which  at  any  moment  he 
happened  to  be  engaged.  That  none  of  it  could  be  the 
inspired  Word  of  God  he  was  convinced,  for  the  reason 
that  it  had  been  translated  out  of  the  original  tongues,  and 
on  the  orthodox  ground  that  the  texts  were  known  to  be 

'  See  footnote  to  article,  "  Christ  in  Muhammadan  Literature,"  by 
E.  Sell  and  D.  S.  Margroliouth,  in  Dirtinnarv  of  Christ  and  the 
Gospels,  II,  p.  «85. 


80  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

full  of  errors  due  to  deliberate  corruption  by  the  Chris- 
tians.    Thus  he  writes : 

"Jesus  Christ  had  imparted  pure  and  simple  teachings  to  his 
disciples  in  the  shape  of  Injil,  which  was  deliberately  corrupted  by  his 
subsequent  so-called  followers  to  such  an  extent  that  the  present  God  of 
Christians  can  in  no  way  be  identified  with  the  God  of  the  Son  of 
Mary." 

In  order  to  cast  doubt  on  the  historicity  of  the  Christian 
Scripture  in  the  minds  of  his  readers,  he  liked  to  quote 
from  the  Encyclopedia  Biblica,  of  which  he  possessed  a 
copy,  seeking  to  convey  the  impression  (possibly  his  own 
opinion)  that  the  views  of  a  certain  extreme  school  of 
German  critics  of  the  last  century,  therein  contained,  are 
those  of  established  Christian  scholarship  to-day.  It  is 
clear  that  he  did  not  possess  an  historic  sense  sufficient  to 
make  him  in  any  degree  a  true  "  higher  critic"  on  his  own 
account,  nor  was  he  willing  to  be  bound  by  any  one  canon 
of  criticism,  even  had  he  been  able  to  recognize  it.  He 
felt  that  he  was  free  to  pick  and  choose,  as  suited  his 
purposes,  among  the  writings  of  those  orthodox  and 
liberal  Christian  scholars  to  which  he  had  access.  In  the 
Review  of  Religions  for  May,  1903,  for  example,  we  read  : 

"The  most  trustworthy  book  containing  the  views  of  higher 
critics,  and  written  by  professed  Christians,  is  the  Encyclopedia  Biblica, 
in  which  it  is  stated  in  column  1881  (Vol.  II)  that  in  all  the  Gospels 
there  are  only  five  absolutely  credible  passages  about  Jesus  "  (Review 
of  Religions,  II,  p.  194). 

These  are  then  given  as  Mark  10:  17;  Matt.  12:  31; 
Mark  3:  21;  Mark  13:  32;  Mark  15  :  34;  and  Matt. 
27:  46.  The  last  two  are  parallel  passages,  and  only  the 
latter  is  mentioned  in  the  original  article  in  the  Encyclo- 
pedia Biblica.  These  five  were  considered  historical  by  the 
author^  because  they  were  opposed  to  any  theory  of  Jesus' 
sinlessness  and  divinity,  and,  therefore,  would  not  have 
been  forged  by  his  disciples.  As  we  shall  see,  however, 
Ahmad  did  not  limit  himself  to  these  texts  in  his  effort  to 
prove  that  both  Christians  and  Muslims  have  wrongly 
conceived  of  Jesus. 

^  Prof.  P.  W.  Schmiedel,  author  of  the  article,  "Gospels,"  in 
Encyclopedia  Biblica,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  New  York  and  London. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  81 

One  further  introductory  remark  should  be  made  at 
this  point.  Ahmad  claimed  that  his  reason  for  attacking 
Jesus  was  to  be  found  in  the  alleged  Christian  attack  upon 
Muhammad.  If  Christians  did  not  like  his  words  about 
Christ  they  were  to  blame,  because  they  themselves  had 
maligned  Muhammad.  Moreover,  there  was  an  inherent 
connection  between  the  two  attacks,  for  the  sinlessness  of 
all  the  prophets  stands  or  falls  on  the  same  ground.^  If 
Muhammad  was  not  (as  Ahmad  believed  he  was)  sinless, 
then  neither  was  Jesus,  and  if  (since)  Jesus  was  not  sinless, 
Ahmad  was  prepared  to  make  out  as  bad  a  case  for  him 
as  possible.  Finally,  Ahmad  frequently  said  that  he  was 
not  making  the  charges  on  his  own  account,  but  was  only 
repeating  attacks  made  by  Jews  and  some  professed 
Christians.  What,  he  asked,  could  the  Christians  say  in 
reply  ?  Many  times  he  declared  that  they  could  say 
nothing,  that  the  attacks  were  unanswerable  ;  and  in 
making  that  assertion  he  certainly  so  far  associated  him- 
self with  the  attacks  and  aspersions  as  to  justify  us  in 
giving,  as  approved  Ahmadiya  doctrine,  whatever  he  and 
his  editors  have  written  about  Jesus  Christ.  Furthermore, 
the  animus  lurking  in  the  statements  is  scarcely  disguised 
at  all,  and  in  more  than  one  place  he  gives  as  his  own 
some  of  the  criticisms  which  we  quote  below.  It  is  not  a 
pleasant  task  to  write  this  chapter  of  Ahmadiya  doctrine, 
but  it  is  necessary  since  it  is  fundamental  to  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  movement  ;  and  it  may  even  be  desirable, 
on  wider  grounds,  since  Ahmad  and  his  editors  seem  to 
have  canvassed  the  literature  of  all  ages  and  nations,  in  so 
far  as  it  was  accessible  to  them,  in  order  to  ascertain,  and 
to  unite  in  one  mighty  and  virulent  attack,  all  the  efforts 

'  Orthodox  Muslim  doctrine,  in  general,  declares  that  all  the 
prophets  have  been  miraculously  "preserved  from  sin,"  but  in  the 
Qur'an,  where  shortcomings  of  different  prophets  are  cited,  Jesus  is 
alone  described  as  uni'juely  "  aided  with  the  Holy  Spirit  "  (II,  81), 
while  Muhammad  asserts  his  own  likeness  to  all  sinful  human  beings 
in  need  of  (Jod's  pardon  (Qur'iin  XIV,  42;  XLI,  57).  One 
Muslim  tradition  (Miskkdt,  Bk.  I,  Ch.  3)  declares  that  of  all  created 
beings  only  Jesus  and  his  mother  were  without  sin.  In  another 
(Mishkdt,  Bk.  XXIII,  Ch.  12)  we  have  Muhammad  admitting  his 
own  sinfulness,  but  unable  to  charge  Jesus  with  sin. 

6 


83  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

that  have  been  made  to  besmirch  and  belittle  the  character 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Of  the  stories  of  the  unique  birth  of  Jesus,  as  given  in 
the  Qur'an  (XIX,  22-34;  XXIII,  52),  Ahmad  makes  no 
categorical  denial.  He  seeks,  however,  in  various  ways, 
to  belittle  their  importance.  Adam,  too,  "  had  neither 
father  nor  mother  ";^  "  thousands  of  worms  (are)  brought 
into  existence  without  any  father";  "learned  physicians 
of  the  Greek  and  Indian  schools  have  .  .  .  shown  the 
possibility  of  a  child  being  formed  in  the  mother's  womb 
without  the  seed  of  man  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  72). 
John's  birth,  like  that  of  Jesus,  had  a  supernatural  element, 
but,  far  from  proving  John  and  Jesus  divine,  "  these  births 
were  in  fact  a  sign  that  the  gift  of  divine  revelation  was 
departing  from  the  house  of  Israel.  For  Jesus  had  no 
Israelite  father,  and  the  parents  of  John  were  not  in  a 
condition  to  beget  children  "  (Review  of  Religions,  II, 
p.  100").  In  numerous  passages  (for  example,  Review  of 
Religions,  I,  p.  144ff),  usually  under  cover  of  quoting 
from  Jewish  or  other  writings,  aspersions  are  cast  on 
the  character  of  the  mother  of  Jesus,  which  we  cannot 
give  here,  but  which,  together  with  much  of  the  harsh 
criticism  of  Jesus,  have  evoked  bitter  and  crushing  replies 
from  orthodox  Muslims.^  We  pause  only  to  mention  one 
curious  argument  in  this  connection,  to  the  effect  that 
"The  qur'anic  statement  that  Jesus  had  no  father  cannot 
serve  as  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  a  Christian  controver- 
sialist. The  revelation  of  the  Qur'an  is  not  with  him  a 
Divine  Revelation,  but  the  fabrication  of  a  man"  {Review 

The  Qur'an  declares  that  Adam,  like  Jesus,  was  born  by  a 
direct  creative  act.  Allah  breathed  into  him  his  spirit.  See  Qur'an, 
111,52. 

^  The  supernatural  birth  of  John  (Yahya)  is  described  in  the 
Qur'an,  XIX,  llff  ;  XXI,  89. 

^  Cf.  p.  104  for  the  British  Government's  action  taken  against  an 
Ahmadlya  periodical  because  of  a  scurrilous  article  which  it  pub- 
lished treating  of  the  virgin  birth  of  Jesus.  It  is  worth  noting  that 
Professor  Siraj-ud-DIn  states,  in  the  article  by  him  to  which  allusion  is 
made  on  p.  46,  that  Nur-ud-Din,  the  successor  of  Ahmad,  told  him 
during  Ahmad's  lifetime  that  he  himself  believed  that  Jesus'  birth  was 
a  natural  one,  but  that  he  would  not  admit  this  in  Ahmad's  presence 
for  fear  of  Incurring  the  displeasure  of  his  chief. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  83 

oj  Religions,  I,  p.  144).  One  wonders,  then,  on  what  ground 
Ahmadiya  writers  constantly  quote  the  Bible,  in  confirma- 
tion of  some  of  Ahmad's  claims  and  teaching,  when  in 
its  present  form  it  is  for  them  no  more  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion than  is  the  Qur'an  for  the  Christians. 

Regarding  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  related  in  the  New 
Testament  and,  in  general,  attested  by  the  Qur'an,  with 
numerous  differences  and  additions,  there  exists  the  same 
apparent  ambiguity  in  the  mind  of  Ahmad's  followers. 
Nowhere  is  it  actually  asserted  that  Jesus  performed  no 
miracles,  but  we  are  told,  "  Miracles  are  the  only  evidence 
on  which  the  Deity  of  Jesus  is  supported,  but  to  speak  of 
his  miracles  as  proof  of  his  divinity  is  to  produce  one 
assertion  in  support  of  another.  They  lack  the  requisite 
evidence  with  which  their  own  truth  can  be  established. 
They  have  themselves  no  legs  to  stand  upon,  and  it  is, 
therefore,  absurd  to  expect  them  to  support  something 
else.  There  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  be  regarded 
as  marvels  and  prodigies,  carrying  no  more  weight  than  the 
fictions  recorded  in  the  Puranas  "  {Review  oj  Religions,  \, 
p.  453).  And  again  it  is  said  that  Jesus  himself  denied  having 
performed  any  miracles  when  he  declared,  "A  wicked  and 
adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,  and  there  shall 
no  sign  be  given  unto  it  "  (Matthew  12  :  39).  At  times, 
however,  the  miracles  of  Jesus  are  admitted  for  the  sake 
of  proving  the  sinfulness  of  the  acts  involved,  as  in  the  first 
miracle  at  Cana,  the  cursing  of  the  fig-tree,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  herd  of  swine  into  which  the  evil  spirits  had 
been  sent. 

In  one  place  the  "  neurotic  theory  "  of  Jesus'  miracles 
is  quoted  from  the  Encyclopedia  Biblica,^  in  accordance 
with  which  those  miracles  only  are  accepted  which  might 
be  attributed  to  psychical  influence  on  nervous  maladies. 
In  other  passages  the  miracles  arc  said  to  have  been 
spiritual  in  their  character,  healing  those  afflicted  with  the 
leprosy  of  sin,  et  cetera.  In  various  places  we  read  that, 
after  all,  the  miracles  of  Jesus  were  no  greater  than  those 
of  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  who  must  be  considered 

*  Article  on  "  Gospels,"    Vol.  II,  Column  1885. 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

me  as  much  as  Jesus,  on  the  basis  of  miracles  wroi 
/fact  Jesus'  miracles  are  in  one  place  called 

"  Only  imitations,  much  inferior  to  the  original  works  of  v 
done  by  the  Israelite  prophets  in  abundance"  (Review  of  Religi^ 
p.  196). 

An  instance  of  Jesus'  inferiority  to  Elijah  is  satirically 
gested  in  that 

"  Elijah  was   honourably  taken   up   to  the  heavens  in  a 
but  Jesus   Christ  had  not  even  a  donkey  to  ride  upon  in  his  /* 

ascent,  which  by   no  means  could  have   been  an   easy  task"  » 

of  Religions,  I,  p.  454). 

Again,  it  is  said  that  the  miracles  wrought  by  Muhamrr. 
means  of  his  divine  power  far  exceeded  the  miracl 
Jesus,  the   only  miracle   of   the  latter  referred   to   in 
passage   being  the   one  (suggested    to    Muhammad,  i 
thought,  by  a  similar  story  in  the  apocryphal   Gospe 
Thomas  the  Israelite)  found  in  the  Qur'an  (III,  43),^     "O 
relates    that    Jesus  created    a    bird    out    of    clay.     Ir 
immediately  following  sentences  of  the  Qur'an  the  mil 
of  the  healing  of  the  blind  and  lepers  and  the  raising  o 
dead  are  narrated,  but  the  Ahmadiya  writer  does  not 
refer  to  them. 

We  come  now  to  consider  the  character  of  Jesu.' 
whom  Ahmad   wrote  plainly,  "In   the  same  manner 
Promised   one  (Ahmad)  has    inherited    the    perfection 
Jesus  Christ  "  {Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  67).     Here  th 
is  the  same  apparent   distinction,  about  which   he   him. 
seemed  never  clear,  between  a  vague,   ideal   Muslim   Jer 
(not  exactly  the  ^Isd  of  the  Qur'an)  and  a  human,  si 
Jesus  appearing    in   the   Christian    Gospels,  of    whom 
writes  : 

"  If  the  sinlessness  of  a  person  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  faul 
ness  of  his  conduct  as  admitted  by  his  hostile  critics,  we  would 
them  to  the  Jewish  writings,  which  seriously  attack  Jesus  and 
mother's  conduct  ;^  and  if  it  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  assertion  of 
person  himself,  we  would  refer  them  to  the  Gospel  text  where  J 
confesses  that  he  is  not  good  or  sinless"  {Review  of  Religi 
I,  p.  207). 

»  Cf.  p.  86,  Note  1. 


HE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  85 

i.^'    baptism    by  John   is   held   to  be  one    proof    of    his 
ision  of  sinfulness.     We  will  here  briefly  recapitulate 
..^jleged  "  sins  of  Jesus  ": 
'.'runkenness.     This  is  inferred  from  the  institution  of 
acrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  from   his  being  called 
.gluttonous    man    and    a    winebibber,"  and    from    his 
ng   the  water    into    wine    at    the    wedding    in  Cana 
ew  of  Religions,  I,  p.  114). 
"'i^gar  abuse  of  the  Jews,  who,  in    return,  "  showed   a 
'  y    toward    him   far  surpassing   that  of    any  of    the 
n  priestly  and   missionary  classes,  however  civilized 
tter  may  be  in  appearance"    {Review  of   Religions, 
■    671). 

_  ''There  is  not  the  least  indication  in  the  Gospels  that  the  priests 
■■■sed  a  single  abusive  word  for  Jesus  in  opposition  to  all  this 
■,r\  deluge  of  calumny  and  abuse.  This  contrast  throws  much 
'dit    upon     the    morality    of    Jesus"    {Rcz'ie'c  of  Religions,   I, 

^er  times  Ahmad  deals  less  gently  with  the  Jews  who 

vUted  Jesus,  and  "  on   account  of   the  wickedness  of 

♦  hearts,  failed  to  recognize  the  Reformer,  and  declared 

t  to  be    a   false  prophet    and   pretender"    {Review   of 

^ions,  II,  p.  55). 

*' They  persecuted  and  tortured  him,  and  at  last  brought  him 
' >A\y  for  alleged  malcontentedness.  .  .  .  The  priests  in  both 
.3  (Jesus'  and  Ahmad's)  fail  to  effect  their  evil  designs,  and  the 
.idence  ot  God  saves  his  chosen  servants"  {Review  of  Religions, 
:.).55). 

■  mzd  also  frequently  excuses   his   own  denunciation   of 
'  ''nemies   on   the  analogy  of  Jesus'  arraignment   of  the 
es  and  Pharisees. 

'owardice.     The  evidences  alleged  to  prove  this  trait 

,i) — (a)  his    prayer    in    the    Garden     of    Gethsemane, 

'ibined  with  the  statement  in   Hebrews  5:   7,  which   is 

j'erpreted   to   mean   that   because  of   his   prayer   he    was 

.v^d   from   death  (though    another    passage    asks,  "  Can 

■/-.pn  admit  of  the  All-knowing  God   to   have  prayed   the 

'e  night  long  without   being  listened  to?");    {b)  his 

'ng  himself  in   the  garden"  (Review  of  Religions,  II, 

')  in  the  attempt  to  escape  arrest  and  crucifixion;  and 


86  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

(c)  his  cry  on  the  cross  (Matt.  27:   46)  "Eh",   Eli,  lama 
sabachthani  "  (Review  of  Religions,  IV,  p.  355). 

Disrespect  to  his  mother.  Referring  to  the  nnarriage 
at  Cana,  we  read  : 

"  Jesus  also  insulted  his  mother  on  this  occasion,  and  the  apology, 
that  he  was  under  the  influence  of  wine,  cannot  excuse  him,  for  on 
another  occasion  (Matt.  12:  48),  when  to  all  appearances  in  a  sober 
state,  he  behaved  even  more  rudely  towards  her"  {Review  of  Reli- 
gions, I,  p.  463) . 

Friendliness  with  women  of  ill-repute.  In  this  con- 
nection reference  is  made  to  the  incident  narrated  in  Luke 
7:  37,  38,  to  the  "  too  familiar  connections  of  Jesus  with 
Mary  Magdalene,  who,  they  say,  was  of  a  dubious  char- 
acter" {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  141)  and  to  an  incident  said 
to  be  quoted  from  The  Jewish  Life  of  Christ^  that  Jesus 
"once  praised  the  beauty  of  a  woman,  and  upon 
this  one  of  the  elders,  who  had  taken  Jesus  in  tutorship, 
enraged  at  this  impropriety  of  his  pupil's  conduct,  cut  off 
all  ties  of  love  with  him  "  {Review  of  Religions  I,  p.  141). 
It  is  said  that  accusations  like  those  above  are  "  freely 
published  and  circulated,  not  only  in  the  streets  of  London 
but  in  distant  corners  of  the  world,  India  itself  being  no 
exception"  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.   120). 

Blasphemy.  He  is  said  to  have  "  slighted  Almighty  God 
by  making  himself  his  equal,  and  holding  his  sacred  name 
in  disrespect  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  141).  And  again, 
"The  most  disgusting  and  blasphemous  words  attributed 
to  Jesus  are  those  which  contain  his  assertion  of  Godhead. 
This  he  did  in  spite  of  the  knowledge  that  he  was  born 
from  Mary's  womb"  {Review  of  Religions,!, ^.^S2).  Here, 
however,  we  are  faced  with  another  inexplicable  con- 
tradiction. When  there  is  need  of  proving  that  Jesus 
when   he  said,   "Why  callest   thou  me  good?     There  is 

^  I  have  not  seen  this  book.  For  the  Jewish  attitude  toward  Jesus 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  article  by  R.  Travers  Herford,  on  "  Christ 
in  Jewish  Literature,"  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels, 
p.  879;  and  to  the  article,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  by  Dr.  S.  Krauss,  in 
The  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  Funk  &  Wagnalls,  New  York,  Vol. 
Vn,  p.  160.  These  articles  show  by  contrast  how  one-sided  and  unfair 
was  Ahmad 's  reference  to  Jewish  writers  as  authority  for  his  own 
arraignment  of  the  character  of  Jesus. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  87 

none  good  but  One,  that  is  God  "  (Mark  10:  18)  did  not 
mean  that  he  himself  was  God,  we  are  told  : 

"If  Jesus  had  distinctly  put  forth  his  claim  to  Godhead  before 
the  Jews,  he  would  have  been  regarded  by  them  as  an  heretic  and  the 
most  sinful  of  men,  who,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  deserved  to  be  put  to 
death"  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  110). 

And  again,  more  positively  : 

'  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  attribution  of  the  claim  of 
divinity  to  Jesus  Christ  is  a  false  accusation  against  him,  for  he  never 
made  the  extravagant  assertion  that  he  was  actually  God.  The  only 
reasonable  inference  that  can  be  drawn  from  his  words  is  that  he  claimed 
to  be  an  Intercessor  with  God,  and  no  one  has  ever  denied  the  interces- 
sion of  the  prophets  with  God  "  {Review  of  Religions,  III,  p.  416). 

As  'Isd  in  the  Qur'an  does  not  claim  intercession  for 
himself,  this  must  be  a  reference  to  the  words  found  in 
Hebrews  7:  25,  here  accepted  by  Ahmad  as  authentic/ 

Finally,  Ahmad,  who  claimed  to  have  had  personal 
communications  from  Jesus,  said  : 

"  In  short,  I  hold  him  in  abomination,  who,  being  born  of  a 
woman,  says  that  he  is  God,  although  I  declare  Jesus  Christ  to  be  free 
from  thecharge  that  heeverclaimed  divinity  for  himself.  With  mesuch 
a  claim  is  the  most  horrible  sin  and  an  arch-heresy,  but  I,  at  the  same 
time,  know  that  Jesus  was  a  good  and  righteous  servant  of  God,  who 
never  presumed  to  assert  Godhead  "  {Review  oj  Religions,  I,  p.  348). 

We  leave  our  readers  to  solve  the  riddle. 

False  claim  to  prophetic  office.  It  is  said  {a)  that 
since  Elias  had  not  come  previous  to  Jesus,  according  to 
Jewish  prophecy,  Jesus  could  not  have  been  the  Messiah  ; 
(£>)  that  the  Kingdom  which  the  true  Messiah  would  set 
up  was  to  be  a  temporal  Kingdom  upon  earth,  and  Jesus, 
realizing  that  he  could  not  fulfil  this  prophecy,  tried  to 
satisfy  the  Jews  with  "  a  few  assertions  which  practically 
meant  nothing"  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  152);  {c)  that 
his  own  prophecies  proved  false,  to  wit  (1)  "  Greater  works 
than  these  shall  ye  do"  (John  14:  12);  (2)  "  To-day  thou 
shalt  be  with  me  in  Paradise"  (Luke  23:  43);  whereas 
he  was  to  spend  the  next  three  days  in  hell;  (3)  "This 
generation  shall  not  pass  away  till  all  these  things  be 
fulfilled"  (Matthew  24:  34). 

»  See  p.  36,  Note  3, 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Over  against  this  we  have  to  place  the  fact,  already 
alluded  to/  that  Ahmad  grounded  his  claim  to  have  come 
in  "  the  spirit  and  power"  of  Jesus  (Review  of  Religions, 
II,  p.  192)  on  the  fact  that  John  had  come  in  "  the  spirit 
and  power  of  Elias  "  (Luke  1:  17);  and  he  explains  the 
prophecy  analogous  to  (3)  "  There  be  some  standing  here 
who  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they  see  the  Son  of  Man 
coming  in  his  Kingdom"  (Matt.  16:  28)  as  a  vindication 
of  Ahmadiya  teaching  that  Jesus  did  not  die  on  the  cross, 
but  was  still  living  at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  Other  prophecies  referring  to  the  second 
coming  point  to  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  and,  we  are  told, 

"  Blessed  are  they  who  out  of  respect  for  the  word  of  Jesus  free 
themselves  from  all  prejudice  in  considering  this  point  and  do  not 
stumble"  (Rcvieii<  of  Religions,  II,   p.  193). 

Plagiarized  teachings. 

"  The  Gospel  teachings  have  no  superiority  over  the  teachings  of 
the  earlier  prophets.  The  teachings  contained  in  the  Gospels  have,  on 
the  other  hand,  been  taken  from  earlier  sources,  including  the  Talmud. 
The  Jews  have  always  forcibly  asserted  that  there  is  no  originality  in 
the  Ciospel  teachings,  but  that  they  are  only  plagiarisms  from  Jewish 
sacred  books"  (Rez-ieiv  of  Religions,  II,  p.   167). 

"  It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  whatsoever  we  learn 
from  the  Old  Testament  to  be  characteristic  of  the  prophets  is  proved 
by  a  study  of  the  Gospels  to  be  characteristic  of  Jesus"  (Review  of 
Religions,  V,  p.  477). 

"Jesus  was  no  more  than  a  humble  preacher  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
notwithstanding  the  extravagances  of  those  who  deify  him  "  (Revieiv 
of  Religions,  I,  p.  239). 

"  He  called  the  prophets  and  saints  that  went  before  him  thieves 
and  robbers  (John  10:  8),  notwithstanding  that  his  teachings  were 
all  borrowed  from  them  "  (Rcviezv  of  Religions,  I,  p.  451). 

On  the  other  hand,  continuing  to  allow  Ahmad  to 
answer  Ahmad,  we  are  told  : 

"  Every  new  age  stands  in  need  of  a  new  reformer  and  a  new 
magnetizer.  .  .  .  To  take  one  instance  only,  the  Mosaic  law  laid 
stress  upon  vengeance  only  in  all  cases,  while  Jesus  taught  uncondi- 
tional forbearance  and  non-resistance.  Both  these  teachings  were 
required  by  the  special  circumstances  of  the  time  when  they  were 
taught.  As  the  law  of  Moses  goes  to  one  extreme  by  laying  too  much 
emphasis  on  retaliation,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  goes  to  the  other 
extreme  by  enjoining  forgiveness  and  pardon  of  the  offender  in  all 
cases  "  (Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  167). 

'  P.  28. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  89 

Impracticability  of  central  teaching  of  non-resistance. 
Ahmad  frequently  contrasts  this  teaching  with  Muham- 
mad's more  aggressive  and  warhke  poh'cy,  declaring  that 
"  It  tends  to  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  oppressor  by 
emboldening  him  in  the  commission  of  evil,  and  endangers 
the  life  of  the  oppressed  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I, 
p.  159),  Nevertheless,  the  wars  of  Christendom  are 
charged  up  to  the  example  and  precept  of  Christ : 

"  But  in  spite  of  his  apparent  helplessness,  Jesus  did  not  despise 
the  sword  altogether.  '  He  that  hath  no  sword,  let  him  sell  his 
garment  and  buy  one,"  he  remarked  on  one  occasion,  and  the  later 
history  of  Christianity  shows  clearly  that  however  wide  may  have  been 
the  departure  of  the  Christian  nations  from  the  other  teachings  of 
Jesus,  they  have  been  quite  faithful  to  their  Master  in  acting  up  to  the 
above  injunction  "  {Reviciv  of  Religions,  V,  p.  390). 

Helplessness  and  failure.  This  is  constantly  insisted 
upon,  in  contrast  to  the  ultimate  worldly  success  of 
Muhammad,  the  argument  being  that  God  visits  with 
worldly  success  his  true  leaders  among  men.  The  taunt 
of  the  Jews  (Matt.  27:  42)  is  repeated,  that  if  Jesus  had 
been  God  he  would  have  saved  himself  from  his  enemies. 

"  Can  we  reasonably  imagine  the  All-powerful  God  arrested  by 
weak  human  beings,  put  into  custody,  cJialaoed^  from  one  district  to 
another,  beaten  and  smitten  on  the  face  by  constables,  and  in  the 
clutches  and  at  the  mercy  of  a  few  individuals"  (Rcvien.'  of 
Religions,  I,  p.  112). 

Again  we  behold  the  strange  contradiction.  When 
Ahmad  is  arguing  in  favour  of  his  theory  that  Jesus 
escaped  from  the  cross,  and  knew  beforehand  that  he 
would  escape,  one  reason  given  is  that  "Jesus  knew  it 
full  well  that  God  would  never  destroy  him  and  his 
mission,  but  that  ultimately  success  would  crown  his 
efforts"  (Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  192). 

Passing  over  some  minor  matters  relating  to  Jesus' 
character,  such  as  loss  of  temper,  inconsistency  and 
provincialism,  we  come  to  the  fundamental  question  of 
his  death.  Ahmad  declared,  unqualifiedly  and  repeatedly 
that  if  Christians  were  right  in  their  assertion  that  Jesus 
died  and  rose  again,  Christianity  was  true  and  he  was  an 

'  Luke  22  ;  36.       ^  A  common  Urdu  word,  meaning  "  made  to  go." 


90  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

impostor.  It  is  therefore  important  to  examine  in  detail 
his  alleged  proof  of  Christianity's  error  in  this  respect. 
His  position  may  be  summarized  as  follows  : 

Jesus  did  not  die  on  the  cross,  but  was  taken  down  by 
his  disciples  in  a  swoon,  and  healed  within  forty  days  by 
a  miraculous  ointment  called,  in  Persian,  Marhdm-i-'Isd.^ 
He  then  travelled  to  the  East  on  a  mission  to  the  ten  lost 
tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel,  believed  by  Ahmad 
to  be  the  peoples  of  Afghanistan  and  Kashmir,  and  finally 
died  at  the  age  of  120,  and  was  buried  in  Khan  Yar 
Street,  in  Srinagar,  the  capital  of  Kashmir. 

The  alleged  proofs  of  this  unique  theory  are  con- 
tradictory and  utterly  unsound.  As  proof  that  Jesus 
did  not  die  on  the  cross,  the  fanciful  "  swoon  theory," 
ridiculed  by  Strauss  and  now  discarded,  was  adduced  to 
the  effect  that  Jesus,  whose  legs  were  not  broken,  was 
taken  down  from  the  cross  in  an  unconscious  condition 
by  his  disciples,  and  later  revived,  a  fact  held  to  have  been 
confirmed  by  the  post-resurrection  appearances  of  Jesus, 
which  were  those  of  a  living  man,  not  a  disembodied 
spirit.  In  other  passages  Ahmad  seems  to  be  advocating 
in  part  the  so-called  "fraud  theory,"  which  held  that 
Jesus'  dead  body  was  removed  from  the  tom.b  by  his 
disciples  to  make  possible  their  assertion  that  he  had  risen 
from  the  dead.  Ahmad  would  modify  the  theory  to  make 
the  body  still  alive  when  removed  from  the  tomb,  so  that 
Jesus  could  then  be  spirited  out  of  the  country  within 
forty  days.  In  support  of  this  theory  Jesus'  prediction  in 
Matt.  12:  40  is  quoted,  declaring  that,  "As  Jonah  was 
three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  belly  of  the  fish,  so 
shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the 
heart  of  the  earth."  By  interpreting  the  analogy  literally 
Ahmad  asserted  that  Jesus  must  have  been  alive  continu- 
ously in  the  tomb,  as  was  Jonah  in  the  belly  of  the  fish. 

The  passage  in  Matt.  16:  28,  "There  be  some 
standing  here  who  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they  see 
the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  his  kingdom,"  was  inter- 
preted by  Ahmad,   as  we    have    seen    (p.  88),    to    mean 

»  Cf.  p.  41. 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  91 

that  Jesus  must  still  have  been  alive  at  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  by  Titus  in  70  A.D. 

Ahmad  also  argued  that  if  Jesus  had  actually  risen 
from  the  dead  and  ascended  into  heaven,  as  Christians 
believe,  Christianity  to-day  would  not  be  spiritually  dead, 
as  he  declared  that  it  is. 

So  much  for  the  escape  from  death  on  the  cross. 
Even  more  fantastic  are  the  "proofs"  of  Jesus'  sub- 
sequent activities  in  the  East  and  death  and  burial  in 
Kashmir.  First  of  all  there  is  the  a  priori  reason,  based 
on  Jesus'  declaration  :  "  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  "  (Matt.  15:  24).  Who  and 
where,  Ahmad  asked,  were  these  lost  sheep  ?  He 
replied  that  Jesus  referred  to  the  "ten  lost  tribes"  of  the 
original  children  of  Israel.^  These  tribes,  he  asserted, 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  inhabitants  of  Afghanistan  and 
Kashmir,  to  whom  Jesus  must  therefore  have  gone  with 
his  Gospel.  The  Hebrew  characteristics  and  antecedents 
of  the  Afghans  and  Kashmiris  were  brought  forward  to 
substantiate  the  declaration,  which  did  not  originate  with 
Ahmad,  that  they  represent  the  remnants  of  the  original 
Kingdom   of   Israel."      It   was   insisted    upon    by    Ahmad 

^  It  is  now  conceded  by  most  scholars  that  the  search  for  the  ten 
lost  tribes  is  a  fanciful  quest  based  on  the  false  assumption  that  the 
entire  population  of  the  Kingdom  of  Israel  was  carried  away  captive 
by  Sargon  II,  King  of  Assyria,  and  that  it  then  maintained  its  distinct 
ethnic  peculiarities.  Only  a  small  part  of  the  population  is  now 
thought  to  have  been  exiled  to  Mesopotamia  and  Media  (I  Chronicles 
5  :  26),  and  it  was  doubtless  soon  absorbed  in  the  native  population. 

See  Cornhill  :  History  of  the  People  of  Israel,  Chicago,  1898, 
p.  126  ;  or  any  other  authoritative  Old  Testament  history. 

^  The  following  paragraph  from  the  article  on  Afghanistan  in  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  Ed.  1910,  Vol.  I,  p.  315,  will  serve  to 
show  what  basis  there  was  for  Ahmad's  contention  :  — "  But  the 
Hebrew  ancestry  of  the  Afghans  is  more  worthy  at  least  of  considera- 
tion, for  a  respectable  number  of  intelligent  officers,  well  acquainted 
with  the  Afghans,  have  been  strong  in  their  belief  of  it  ;  and  though 
the  customs  alleged  in  proof  will  not  bear  the  stress  laid  on  them, 
undoubtedly  a  prevailing  type  of  the  Afghan  physiognomy  has 
a  character  strongly  Jewish.  This  characteristic  is  certainly  a 
remarkable  one  ;  but  it  is  shared,  to  a  considerable  extent,  by  the 
Kashmiris  (a  circumstance  which  led  Bernier  to  speculate  on  the 
Kashmiris'  representing  the  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel),  and,  we  believe, 
by  the  Tajik  people  of  the  Badakshan." 


93  THE  AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT 

that,  since  there  is  no  record  of  Jesus'  having  visited  those 
regions  before  his  crucifixion,  he  must  have  done  so 
aftervv^ard,  a  fact  borne  out  by  his  words  in  John  10  :  16, 
"  And  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold  .  .  . 
they  shall  hear  my  voice." 

So  much  for  the  a  priori  argument.  As  far  as  the  his- 
toric evidence  that  Jesus  came  out  to  the  East  is  concerned, 
Ahmad  cited  as  his  primary  authority  Nicolas  Notovitch's 
Unknown  Life  of  Christ,  in  which  the  author  claimed  to 
have  seen  an  ancient  manuscript  in  Tibet,  describing 
a  journey  of  Jesus  to  India  for  purposes  of  study  during 
the  interval  between  his  visit  to  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem 
and  his  baptism  by  John.  Even  had  this  story  of 
Notovitch  not  been  exploded  by  Prof.  J.  A.  Douglas,  of 
Agra,  in  1895,^  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Ahmad  could 
think  that  a  visit  of  Jesus  to  India  in  his  youth,  before  his 
active  ministry  began,  lends  any  support  to  the  theory 
that  he  passed  his  later  life,  and  died,  in  Kashmir. 

Two  other  stories,  introduced  by  Ahmad  as  evidence 
for  his  theory,  were  the  well-known  tale  of  Barlaam  and 
Josaphat,-  in  which  various  traditions  are  related  with 
respect  to  an  Indian  prince  (supposed  to  have  been 
Buddha),  variously  styled  Josaphat  and  Yus  Afat ;  and 
an  ancient  tale  translated  into  Urdu,  Ikmdl-ud-Din 
("  Perfection  of  Faith  "),  now  out  of  print,  written  by 
a  Persian  historian,  Muhammad  Ibn-i-Bahwaih,  in  the 
fourth  century  of  Islam,  which  narrates  the  _history  of 
an  Indian  prince  and  saint  named  Yus  Asaf,  who 
wandered  to  Kashmir,  where  hje  died.  In  neither  case 
did  the  hero,  Yus  Afat  or  Yus  Asaf,  an  Indian,   have  any 

^  Cf.  J.  N.  Farquhar  :  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India, 
Macmillan,  New  York,  1915,  pp.  140,  141.  Also  Prof.  Douglas' 
article  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  for  April,  1896. 

2  Cf.  article  "  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,"  in  The  New  Schaff- 
Herzog  Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knou'ledge,  Funk  &  Wagnalls, 
New  York,  I,  p.  485,  where  the  origin  of  the  story,  falsely  ascribed  by 
some  to  John  of  Damascus,  is  traced  to  an  Indian  story,  the 
Lalitavistara,  composed  some  time  between  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  and  600  A.D.  The  version  of  the  story  in  the  Qadian 
library,  which  I  have  seen,  is  that  contained  in  Volume  X  of  the 
BibJiothcque  dc  Carabas. 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  93 

connection  whatever  with  Palestine  or  that  section  of  the 
world,  so  that  there  is  no  shadow  of  a  reason  for  identify- 
ing him  with  Jesus,  even  if  we  admit  the  bare  possibility 
that  there  actually  was  such  a  man,  who  lived  in  India 
proper,  or  in  Kashmir,  many  centuries  ago,  and  at  his  death 
was  buried  in  Srinagar,  Kashmir. 

This  brings  us  to  Ahmad's  culminating  "  proof  "  of  his 
theory,  the  alleged  "great  discovery"  that  the  tomb  of 
Jesus  is  on  Khan  Yar  Street,  in  Srinagar,  Kashmir.  In  the 
summer  of  1913,  after  considerable  difficulty  in  learning 
its  exact  location,  I  visited  this  tomb,  resembling  hundreds 
of  other  tombs  of  Muhammadan  saints,  with  rags  tied  to 
the  inner  gate  by  those  (both  Muslims  and  Hindus)  who 
had  left  money  with  the  keeper  to  pay  for  che  intercession 
of  the  occupant  of  the  tomb.  The  Muslims  of  the  city, 
for  the  most  part,  hold  that  this  tomb  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  Hindus  until  the  time  of  Bulbul  Shah,^ 
who  decided  that  it  was  the  tomb  of  a  Muhammadan 
prophet  and  honoured  it  as  such.  Since  that  time 
Muslims  have  been  in  possession,  calling  it  the  tomb  of 
an  unknown  prophet,  named  Yus  Asaf.  This  tomb, 
Ahmad  declared  it  had  been  miraculously  revealed  to  him, 
is  the  tomb  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  first  proof  he  brought 
forward  was  that  the  Kashmiris  believed  it  was  the  tomb 
of  a  prophet,  and  since  Muhammad  was  the  last  of  the 
prophets,  and  is  known  to  be  buried  in  Medina,  this  must 
have  been  the  tomb  of  his  predecessor,  the  prophet  Jesus. 
But  the  more  important  proof  had  reference  to  the  name 
Yus  Asaf.  Ahmad  said  that  the  word  Yus,  or  Joseph, 
the  Josaphat  to  whom  reference  has  been  made,  was 
a  corruption  of  Yasu,"  called  the  original  name  of  Jesus. 
The  word  Asaf  he  declared  to  be  the  Hebrew  word  asaf, 
to  gather,  which  he  said  had  reference  to  Jesus'  mission 
as  the  gatherer  of  the  ten  lost  tribes. 

'  The  popular  name  of  Syed  Abdiir  Rahman,  who,  arriving  in 
Kashmir  from  Turkestan  with  1,000  fugitives  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  is  given  the  credit  of  establishing  the  Muhammadan  religion 
in  Kashmir. 

Cf.  "Islam  in  Kashmir,"  by  H.  A.  Walter,  in  The  Moslem 
World,  IV,  p.  340. 

"  Yesu  is  the  name  for  Jesus  in  Urdu. 


94  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

Finally,  there  is  the  direct  testimony  of  the  Kashmiris 
themselves.  In  the  pamphlet,  Aii  Important  Discovery 
Regarding  Jesus  Christ,  published  by  the  Anjuman-i- 
Ishd  'at-i-Isldm,  we  read  that  the  testimony  of  "ancient 
documents  of  unquestionable  authenticity  and  veracity 
receives  considerable  support  from  the  statements  of  those 
who  have  read  with  their  own  eyes  an  old,  now  effaced, 
inscription  upon  the  tomb,  and  who  assert  that  it  is  the 
tomb  of  Jesus  Christ." 

And,  later  on,  "  The  incontrovertible  testimony 
afforded  by  the  tomb  itself,  backed  as  it  is  by  the 
unanimous  oral  testimony  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men,  and  by  the  written  evidence  of  ancient  documents, 
becomes,  in  our  opinion,  too  strong  to  be  resisted  by  the 
most  determined  of  sceptics."  No  such  testimony  and 
no  such  documents  exist. 

The  above  paragraphs  contain  all  the  evidence  on 
which  Ahmad  and  his  followers  soberly  undertake  to 
re-write  for  us  the  history  of  the  Christian  era. 

Coming  to  Ahmadlya  conceptions  of  Christian 
doctrines,  we  find  them  vague  and  distorted.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity^  Ahmad  attacked  with  a  virulent 
animosity,  which,  considered  in  connection  with  his  access 
to  Christian  writings,  makes  his  mis-statement  of  the 
true  Christian  position  seem  deliberate  rather  than 
unintentional.  In  different  passages  the  Trinity  is  said 
to  be  denied  by  nature,  human  nature,  the  Jewish 
prophets,  the  Qur'an,  and  by  Christ  himself.  A  familiar 
argument  is  the  following:  "Everything,  in  its  simplest 
form,  has  been  created  by  God  in  a  spherical  or  round 
shape,  a  fact  which  attests  to  and  is  consistent  with  the 
the  Unity  of  God.  .  .  .  Had  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
been  true,  all  these  things  should  have  been  created  in  a 
triangular  shape  "  (Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  65). 

*  Regarding  the  Trinity,  Muhammad  in  the  Qur'an  represents 
Jesus  as  answering  in  the  negative  the  question  asked  him  by  Allah: — 
"  Oh,  Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  hast  thou  said  unto  mankind,  '  Take  me  and 
my  mother  as  two  gods  beside  God'?"  (Qur'an  V,  116).  He 
apparently  here  conceived  of  the  Christian  Trinity  as  consisting  of 
the  Father,  Jesus  and  Mary. 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  95 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  thus  summed  up  by 
a  recent  Ahmadiya  writer : 

"  Christianity  requires  one    to   accept  the  enigma  that   there   are 
three  Godheads,  who  are  separate,  at  the  same  time    one  ;  that  each 
of    them    is    absolutely    perfect    in    himself,    though    it    is     a    menta 
impossibility  to    think    of    more    than    one    being    who    is    absolutely 
perfect"  {Review  of  Religions,  XV,  p.  440). 

There  are  many  ironical  references  to  the  Persons  of 
the  Trinity,  such  as  the  following,  in  exculpation  of  the 
Jews  who  (for  purposes  of  Ahmad's  immediate  argument) 
crucified  Jesus : 

"  If  the  three  persons  of  Godhead  ever  agreed  on  a  matter,  they 
agreed  upon  this  that  the  Son  should  suffer  upon  the  Cross.  The  Father 
wished  it,  the  Son  wished  it,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  wished  it,  and  none 
of  the  three  was  a  sinner  on  that  account.  Why  are  the  poor  Jews  then 
condemned  for  wishing  the  same  thing  ?  .  .  .  Moreover,  the  Jews  are 
not  alone  involved  in  the  matter,  the  Gods  themselves,  including  the 
one  that  suffered,  had  first  of  all  come  to  the  decision  "  {Review  of 
Religions,  I,  p.  457). 

One  more  reference  will  suffice  : 

"  The  manner  is  very  amusing  in  which  the  three  Persons  of 
Trinity  shifted  the  responsibility  of  the  reformation  of  mankind  from 
one  to  the  other.  There  was  the  Father,  who,  having  a  certain 
superiority,  in  name  if  not  in  reality,  thought  of  restoring  man  to  his 
original  state — one  should  think  it  means  the  savage  state,  for  the 
human  progress  has  been  gradual  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  stage  ^ — but 
he  found  his  hands  tied  by  the  strong  manacles  of  justice.  Out  of 
filial  reverence  the  Son  offered  himself,  but  when  he  came  into  the 
world,  he  went  away  with  the  empty  consolation  that  the  third  partner 
shall  come  and  teach  them  all  trutlis  and  guide  them  into  all  truth. 
The  third  Person,  being  only  a  pigeon,  found  himself  unable  to  under- 
take the  teaching  of  truths,  but  thought  he  had  done  his  duty  by 
teaching  the  apostles  a  few  dialects,  which  they  were  thus  able  to  speak 
stammeringly  "  {Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  280). 

Could  deliberate  blasphemy  go  to  greater  lengths? 

Neither  is  any  attempt  made  to  set  forth  fairly  the 
Christian  position  regarding  the  Atonement,  rejected  by 
Muhammad,  or  to  attack  it  consistently  and  logically.  It 
is  repeatedly  referred  to  as  the  "  blood-bath  "  (Review  of 
Religions  II,  p.  135),  which  gives  Christians  a  fancied 
immunity  from  sin,   and   hence  "  has  emboldened   in  vice 

*  This  evolutionary  conception  is  foreign  to  orthodox  Islam. 


96  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

most  of  those  who  trust  in  it  "  (Review  of  Religions,  II, 
p.  136).  It  is  declared  to  have  "struck  at  the  very  root  of  the 
purity  of  heart  among  the  general  body  of  its  indorsers" 
(Review  of  Religions  II,  p.  136).  A  contrary  theory,  which 
makes  every  Christian  pay  eternally  for  every  sin,  is  attri- 
buted to  Christians  by  Ahmad,  in  a  lecture  delivered  at 
Lahore  in  1904 : 

"The  Christians  also  entertain  the  belief  that  a  man  shall  be 
condemned  to  eternal  hell  for  every  sin,  and  that  his  tortures  will  know 
no  end.  But  the  wonder  is  that,  while  proposing  endless  torture  for 
other  men,  the  Son  of  God  is  made  to  bear  punishment  for  three  days 
only.  This  unrelenting  cruelty  to  others  and  improper  leniency  to  his 
own  Son  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  mercy  and  justice  of  God  "^ 
(Review  of  Religions,  III,  pp.  327,  328). 

The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  is  thus  summarily 
dealt  with  : 

'  Christianity  requires  one  to  believe  God  begat  a  Son  to  whom  he 
made  over  the  godhood  of  the  universe  "  {Review  of  Religions, 
XV,  p.  440). 

In  spite  of  Ahmad's  dislike  of  Christian  missionaries, 
of  a  piece  with  his  inherent  hatred  of  all  professional  men 
of  religion,  including  Muslim  mullahs  and  maulvis,^  he 
felt  some  respect,  if  not  admiration,  for  the  Christian 
missionary  organization. 

"  The  huge  sums  of  money  that  are  spent,  the  bulky  volumes  and 
the  numberless  leaflets  that  are  written,  the  restless  activity  of  the 
Christian  evangelistic  societies,  and  the  plenty  of  resources  they  have 
in  hand,  are  quite  unknown  in  the  history  of  any  other  movement" 
(Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  340). 

Its  success  is  readily  admitted,  as  was  needful  since  it 
represents  Dajjdl  (anti-Christ),  and  Dajjdl  must  have 
become  very  successful  before  the  promised  Messiah 
appears  to  put  him  to  flight.  He  quotes  from  Maulvi 
Sher  'AH,  B.A.,  one  of  his  followers  : 

"  Lives  are  risked  and  money  is  squandered  like  water.  Human 
brain  cannot  devise  any  means  which  have  not   been   made   use  of  by 

'  This  is  a  misrepresentation  of  the  Christian  and  (by  implication) 
of  the  Muslim  view  of  eternal  punishment  for  sin,  in  which  both 
religions  believe. 

■'  Cf.  p.  69,  Note  2. 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  97 

Christian  missionaries.  They  have  spread  all  over  the  world  like 
locusts.  They  have  been  to  every  land  and  have  made  their  way  into 
every  home.  There  is  no  ear  but  has  heard  their  voice,  no  eye  but 
has  read  their  mischief-spreading  writings,  and  there  are  very  few 
hearts  which  have  not  imbibed  some  kind  of  pernicious  influence 
from  them.  Immense  is  the  loss  that  Islam  has  suffered  at  their  hands. 
.  .  .  There  were  days  when  apostacy  was  unknown  to  Islam,  but 
now  thousands  of  Musalmans  have  gone  over  to  Christianity.  Many 
among  the  Muhammadans  have  found  the  temptation  of  Christianity 
to  be  irresistible,  and  thousands  of  the  naked  and  hungry  have  adopted 
Christianity.  Noble  families  have  also  fallen  a  prey  to  this  Great 
Tempter.  .  .  .  The  Holy  Prophet  said  that  70,000  Musalmans  shall 
follow  the  Dajjal.  This  prophecy,  too,  has  been  more  than  fulfilled  " 
(Article  on  Anti-Christ,  Review  of  Religions,  IV,  pp.  34-435). 

The  success  of  Christian  missions  among  high-caste 
Hindus  in  India  is  disputed,  as  the  number  of  conversions 
is  so  few,  although  in  the  Review  of  Religions  for  October, 
1908,  a  Hindu  writer  in  the  Vedic  Magazine  is  quoted  to 
this  effect : 

"  Christ  got  only  twelve  disciples  in  three  years,  and  one  of  them 
betrayed  him,  another  denied  him  and  all  fled  at  the  time  of  his 
crucifixion.  Thus  the  slow  growth  of  a  religious  community  need  not 
deceive  us.  Who  expected  that  the  missionaries  would  convert  all  the 
Hindus  in  India  the  moment  they  landed?  .  .  .  When  we  look  at 
the  difficulty  of  the  task  that  lay  before  these  alien  intruders,  we  are 
staggered  at  the  amount  of  success  they  have  attained.  They  come 
with  a  new  Gospel  ;  they  have  strange  manners  ;  they  speak  an 
unknown  tongue.  They  work  among  a  people  who  are  deeply 
attached  to  their  religion.  To  my  mind  the  Christians  are  increasing 
at  a  rate  which  is  truly  appalling.  .  .  .  Remember  Christians  have 
doubled  in  thirty  years.  Let  this  formula  be  repeated  so  often  that  you 
learn  to  estimate  its  terrible  significance,  which  is — that  the  death-shadow 
is  approaching  the  Hindu  community"  (Review  of  Religions,  VII, 
pp.  406-407). 

The  success  of  Christian  missions  among  the  low- 
caste  peoples  and  the  outcastes  of  India  is  sneeringly 
conceded.  We  wonder  that  any  professed  representative 
of  so  democratic  a  religion  as  Islam  could  thus  quote  with 
approval  a  Hindu  writer: 

"  We  think  the  good  days  of  Christianity  have  gone  by.  .  .  . 
Nowadays  the  converts  are  found  among  the  Pariahs,  the  Chandals, 
the  Chamirs,  the  sweepers,  the  butchers,  the  butlers,  and  the  most 
degraded  and  demoralized  people,  who  are  the  pests  of  the  country,  and 
whose  touch  defiles  the  higher  class  men.  These  dunces,  drunkards, 
debauchers,  and  starving  rogues  are  now  counted   by   millions   among 


98  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

the  Christian  converts  in  India,  and  the  higher  class  people  do  still 
remain  as  'untouched'  by  the  influence  of  Christianity  as  ever" 
{Revieiv  of  Religions,  III,  p.  378). 

In  the  Panjab  Census  Report  for  1901,  it  was  said  of 
Ahmad  that  he  began  his  work  "as  a  Maulvt  with  a 
special  mission  to  sweepers"  {Review  of  Religions,  \\, 
p.  83).  Ahmad's  petition  to  Government  to  issue  a  denial 
of  this  statement^  is  interesting  for  the  light  which  it 
reflects  on  the  missionary  activities  of  the  Ahmadiya  move- 
ment in  contrast  to  Christianity.     I  quote  it  in  part: 

"2.  That  this  statement  is  altogether  false  and  groundless,  and 
most  injurious  and  harmful  to  my  honour  and  reputation. 

"4.  That  the  sweeper  class  is  specially  associated  with  crimes, 
and  to  represent  me  as  connected  with  that  class  when  there  is  not  the 
slightest  foundation  for  such  a  charge  is  to  represent  me  as  being  in  a 
state  generally  considered  disgraceful.  The  sweepers  in  this  country 
are  looked  upon  as  the  most  degenerate  class  of  people,  and  the 
statement  made  in  the  Census  Report  is  calculated  to  do  the  greatest 
harm  to  my  reputation,  and  to  hurt  the  feelings  not  only  of  myself,  but 
also  of  the  thousands  of  the  most  loyal  and  respectable  subjects  of  the 
Government  who  follow  me  as  their  guide  and  leader  in  all  religious 
and  spiritual  matters. 

"5.  That  my  principles  and  doctrines,  which  I  have  been 
preaching  since  the  very  beginning,  are  morally  so  sublime  and 
spiritually  so  exalted  that  they  are  not  suited  to,  and  accepted  by, 
even  Muhammadans  of  a  low  type  and  bad  morals,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  sweepers,  and  that  they  are  accepted  only  by  intelligent  and  noble- 
minded  men  who  lead  pure  and  angelic  lives,  and  that  my  followers 
actually  include  in  their  number  Ra'ises,^  Jagirdars,^  respectable 
Government  officials,  merchants,  pleaders,  learned  Maulvis  and 
highly  educated  young  men  "  (Revieiv  of  Religions,  II,  p.  83). 

How  different  was  Jesus'  attitude,  reflected  in  his 
saying,  nov*'  so  often  quoted  in  India,  "I  came  not  to  call 
the  righteous  but  sinners  to  repentance"  (Luke  5:  32). 

The  Christian  establishment  of  schools,  colleges  and 
hospitals  is  praised  without  qualification  in  several 
passages,  although  in  one  place  we  read  : 

^  Undoubtedly  a  mistake  due  to  Ahmad's  having  been  confused 
with  his  first  cousin,  Mirza  Imam-ud-din,  who  undertook  such  a  mission 
to  the  Chuhra,  or  sweeeper,  community. 

^  Ra'is  is  a  person  of  authority,  a  chief. 

"  Jagirdar  is  the  holder  of  a  jaglr,  the  perpetual  tenure  of  a  tract 
of  land  subject  to  quit  rent  and  service. 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT  AND  CHRISTIANITY  99 

"The  arguments  (for  Christian  missions)  derived  from  the  estab- 
lishment of  hospitals  and  schools  are  too  silly  to  have  the  slightest  effect 
upon  any  reasonable  person"  {Revieiv  of  Religious,  V,  p.  438). 

The  Christian  missionary  attitude  of  alleged  antagonism 
toward  Islam  is  fiercely  censured,  although  in  his  later 
years  Ahmad  seems  to  have  discovered  a  new  attitude  of 
respect  and  sympathy  on  the  part  of  some  Christian 
missionaries  toward  Islam,  and  even  admitted  that  they 
were  setting  the  Aryas  a  good  example  in  this  respect. 

We  need  not  linger  long  over  Ahmad's  invectives, 
already  alluded  to,  on  the  subject  of  the  degeneracy  and 
weaknesses  prevalent  in  Christian  lands.  He  does  not, 
like  his  pupil,  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din,^  attribute  the 
weaknesses  and  failures  of  Christianity  in  history  to  St.  Paul, 
as  though  he  were  its  founder.  Rather,  he  writes  con- 
clusively, "The  deadliest  sin  is  to  be  attributed  to  him 
(Jesus)  that  he  is  at  the  root  of  all  Christian  corruption  " 
(Review  of  Religions,  I,  p.  159).  There  is  the  usual 
contradiction,  however,  to  be  found  in  the  first  number  of 
the  Review  of  Religions: 

"It  cannot  be  denied  then  that  the  fold  of  Christ  to-day  is 
walking  in  a  path  different  from  that  in  which  it  walked  in  the  days 
when  the  presence  of  its  holy  keeper  exercised  its  wholesome  influence 
over  it.  .  .  .  Is  the  wholesale  debauchery  and  excessive  drinking 
of  Christian  Europe  in  accordance  with  what  Jesus  taught  ?  .  .  . 
It  is  not  true  that  it  is  all  owing  to  the  absence  of  the  holy  personage 
who  worked  so  wonderful  a  transformation  in  the  apostles?" 
{Review  of  Religions,  I,  pp.  3,  4). 

The  free  intermingling  of  the  sexes  is  held  responsible 
for  much  of  the  immorality  in  the  West,  and  over  against 
it  the  Muslim  requirement  of  "  the  veil  "  is  upheld  as  the 
ideal.  Such  prostitution  as  exists  in  Western  lands  is 
charged  to  the  Christian  ideal  of  monogamy,  and  the 
Muslim  practice  of  polygamy  is  given  the  credit  for  the 
alleged  absence  of  the  social  evil  in  Muslim  countries, 
where  woman's  position  is  held  to  be  higher  than 
in  Christendom.  Drunkenness  and  gambling  are  declared 
to  be  everywhere  prevalent  in  Christendom,  and,  in  this 
connection,    absent    from    Islam."      The    Christian    mis- 

*  Cf.  Muslim  India  and  Islamic  Review,  I,  p.  137. 
»  See,  however,  p.  68ff. 


100  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

sionaries  and  clergy  are  charged  with  being  as  corrupt  and 
drunken  as  the  entire  Christian  civih'zation  of  which  they 
are  the  professed  exponents.  That  Christianity  is  dying 
out  is  asserted  with  the  same  monotonous  regularity  that 
characterizes  the  assurance  that  the  day  of  Islam's  revived 
glory  and  power  has  been  ushered  in  by  the  promised 
Messiah. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT  AND  THE 
INDIGENOUS  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA 

Toward  Hinduism  in  all  its  ramifications  Ahmad  turned 
an  uncompromisingly  hostile  face.  For  all  its  cherished 
beliefs  he  had  only  sneers.  After  stating,  "Of  all  the 
birds  I  have  an  extreme  liking  for  pigeon  flesh,  because  it  is 
the  emblem  of  the  Christian  Deity  "  (Review  of  Religions, 
I,  p.  347),  Ahmad  ironically  praised  the  Hindus  for  not 
making  their  sacred  cow  an  article  of  diet.^  He  scoffed  at 
the  theory  that  the  Ganges  water  can  wash  away  sins, 
considering  it  analogous  to  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
sanctification.  The  Vedas  were  denounced  as  having 
given  birth  to  the  lowest  forms  of  fetishism  and  idolatry, 
and  to  religious  festivals,  among  some  Hindus,  which  are 
"characterised  by  horrible  scenes  of  incest  and  adultery." 
Their  polytheistic  tendencies  are  contrasted  with  the 
strict  monotheism  of  the  Qur'an :  "I  would  like  to  be 
told  in  which  part  of  the  world  the  four  Vedas"  have  blown 
the  trumpet  of  monotheism.  In  India,  which  is  the 
home  of  the  Vedas,  we  find  that  a  variety  of  creature- 
worship  prevails,  such  as  worship  of  fire,  the  sun,  Visnu, 
and  so  on,  so  that  the  bare  mention  of  such  worship  is  a 
disagreeable  task.  Travel  from  one  end  of  India  to  the 
other,  and  you  will  find  the  entire  Hindu  population  deeply 
immersed  in  nature-worship.    Some  worship  Mahadevajee,^ 

*  Anyone  living  outside  of  India  can  scarcely  realise  what  a 
studied  insult  this  is  to  a  Hindu  whose  practice  of  vegetarianism  has  for 
him  the  most  sacred  significance.     Cf.  p.  69,  Note  2. 

^  Rigveda,  S5maveda,  Yajurveda,  Atharvaveda. 

'  "  The  Great  God,"  a  name  of  Siva,  who  is  associated  with 
Brahma  and  Vi§nu  in  the  Hindu  Trimurti. 


102  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

others  sing  odes  in  honour  of  Krisnajee,^  and  the  rest 
prostrate  themselves  before  idols  of  every  description " 
{Review  of  Religions,  XV,  p.  204).  The  editor  of  the  Review 
of  Religions,  in  the  issue  for  July,  1908,  quotes  from  the 
Vedic  Magazine,  for  June,  the  reasons  there  given  by 
Professor  Max  Miiller  (taken  from  his  India  :  What  it  Can 
Teach  Us)  for  his  belief  that  the  religion  of  the  Vedas  is 
not  monotheistic  (Review  of  Religions,  VII,  p.  272). 
Likewise,  the  alleged  universality  of  the  Vedas  is  vigorously 
disputed. 

Of  the  heroic  figure  of  Rama"  it  is  said:  "Rama  of 
Hindu  mythology  has  also  been  deified,  but  he  too  had  to 
suffer  the  disaster  and  disgrace  of  his  wife  being  kidnapped." 
In  another  passage  we  are  asked  to  "consider  the  jealousy 
which  Ram  Chandra  showed  when  his  wife  Sita  was 
kidnapped  by  Ravana"  (Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  140). 
This  jealousy  is  not,  however,  condemned.  The  Puranas^ 
are  described  as  "fabulous  legends,"  and  again,  of  Hinduism 
as  a  whole  it  is  said,  "  the  whole  system  is  a  mere 
plaything,  a  mass  of  fabulous  traditions,  which  must  vanish 
away  before  the  light  of  science  and  knowledge."  The 
doctrine  of  transmigration  is  condemned  because,  (1)  "It 
divests  the  Divine  Being  of  all  his  glorious  attributes 
and    of    his    power     and    control    over    the    universe"; 

(2)  it  "sweeps  away  all  distinctions  between  legality 
and  illegality"  and  vitiates  the  purity  of  family  life, 
"  for  it  is  possible  under  this  fantastic  law  that  a 
person's  own  mother,  daughter  or  sister  may  be  re-born 
to    be    his   wife"    (Review   of   Religions,   I,   p.  409-410); 

(3)  it  is  unfair  to  the  soul  that,  after  having  once 
attained    salvation,   it    should    be  "turned    out    of     the 

^  An  incarnation  of  the  god,  Visiiu,  the  hero  of  the  Bhagavadgtta 
(  "  Song  of  Love  ") . 

^  One  of  the  two  best-known  incarnations  of  the  god  Visnu,  the 
other  being  Krisna.  He  is  the  hero  of  the  great  Hindu  epic,  the 
Ranidyana,  which  tells  of  the  theft  of  Rama's  faithful  wife,  Sita,  by 
the  demon  Ravana,  and  her  eventual  recovery  by  her  husband. 

^  A  group  of  sectarian  Hindu  sacred  writings  that  followed  after 
the  Vedas  and  the  Upanisads,  in  the  first  millennium  of  the  Christian 
era.  They  contain  the  later  myths,  mostly  of  an  unwholesome  character, 
attaching  to  Krisna  = 


THE  MOVEMENT  AND  INDIGENOUS  RELIGIONS     103 

salvation  house  to  undergo  another  series  of  births  and 
deaths,  and  this  merely  because  of  the  helplessness  of  God 
and  his  inability  to  create  new  souls"  {Review  of  Reli- 
gions, VII,  p.  477). 

Notwithstanding  the  worthlessness  _of  the  Vedas,  in 
Ahmad's  eyes,  the  members  of  the  Arya  Samaj^  are 
denounced  for  their  neglect  and  ignorance  of  the  Vedas,  in 
spite  of  their  boasted  regard  for  them.  Replying  to  an 
Arya  attack  on  those  former  Hindus  who  had  adopted  the 
Ahmadiya  version  of  Islam,  the  Review  of  Religions 
contemptuously  stated 

"  for  the  information  of  the  public  that  the  Qadian  Arya  Samaj 
shall  be  the  last  body  in  the  world  to  prove  its  Vedic  learning  and 
erudition.  So  far  as  we  know,  the  body  is  constituted  of  village  shop- 
keepers, money-lenders,  retail  grocers  and  small  hucksters,  who  are 
ignorant  of  the  Vedas.  In  contrast  with  this  class  of  shopkeepers,  who 
have  deserted  their  old  Hindu  faith  for  that  of  Pundit  Dayanand,  the 
Hindus  who  accepted  Islam  are  mostly  educated  young  men,  of  whom 
some  have  studied  up  to  the  B.A.  standard,  and  who  read  the  Vedas 
in  Urdu  and  English  and  spend  day  and  night  in  the  study  of 
religious  lore." 

The  attack  on  the  Aryas  gathered  around  two  foci: 

1.  The  assertion  of  the  co-eternity  of  soul  and  matter  with  God, 
which  "  borders  actually  upon  atheism,  and  is  practically  a  denial  of 
the  need  of  God's  existence." 

2.  The  doctrine  of  Niyoga,'^  held  to  mean  that  "  if  there  is  a 
woman  who  is  living  in  actual  matrimony  and  has  a  living  and  healthy 
husband  who  cannot  raise  male  children  to  her,  i.e.,  either  only 
daughters  are  born  or  there  exists  some  other  reason   on   account  of 

*  The  .\rya  Samaj,  founded  by  Swami  Dayeinand  Sarasvati  in 
1875,  holds  that  only  the  original  V^edic  hymns  are  fully  inspired, 
and  that  they  contain  all  the  truths  of  religion  and  of  natural  science. 
It  believes  in  one  personal  God  and  in  transmigration  and  karma 
as  the  law  of  human  life.  Matter  and  soul,  as  well  as  God,  are 
considered  eternal,  and  the  three  constitute  a  kind  of  trinity  for  both 
religion  and  science.  The  Samaj  is  aggressively  missionary  in 
character. 

^  This  form  of  temporary  marriage,  established  by  the  founder  of 
the  Arya  Samaj,  is  now  for  the  most  part  repudiated  by  his  followers. 
A  man  might  contract  this  relation  with  eleven  women  in  succession, 
and  a  woman  with  eleven  men.  For  further  details  see  the  article 
on  the  Arya  Samaj  in  Hastings' £Hcyc/o/^cc/m  oj  Religion  and  Ethics, 
II,  p.  60. 


104  THE  AHMADTYA  MOVEMENT 

which  some  time  passes  without  the  birth  of  a  child,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
husband  to  invite  a  third  person  to  his  house  to  have  sexual  connection 
with  his  wife  ;  and  this  shameful  course  may  be  continued  until  eleven 
male  children  are  born  to  the  woman  from  the  stranger's  seed  " 
(Review  of  Religions,  II,  pp.  139-140). 

In  "The  Message  of  Peace,"  however,  Ahmad  seemed  to 
accept  the  Vedas  as  genuine  scriptures,  and  rightly  declared 
that  the  justification  of  the  repulsive  practice  of  Niyoga 
could  not  be  found  in  them : 

"  Similarly  the  doctrine  of  the  Niyoga  is  attributed  to  the  Vedas. 
Human  nature  revolts  at  this  hateful  doctrine.  But  as  I  have  already 
said,  we  cannot  believe  this  to  be  the  teaching  of  the  Vedas.  .  .  . 
That  millions  of  people  have  been  believing  it  to  be  the  word  of 
God  is,  however,  a  sufficient  reason  of  its  truth,  for  it  is  impossible  that 
the  word  of  an  imposter  should  enjoy  the  honour  which  the  Vedas 
have  enjoyed  "  (Review  of  Religions,  VII,  p.  256). 

The  Aryas  are  particularly  denounced  because  of 
their  violent  abuse  of,  and  attacks  upon,  Muslims  and 
Christians.  The  Review  of  Religions,  in  1908,  quoted 
from  Arya  w^ritings  a  series  of  attacks  on  Christian 
teaching,  such  as  that  Christ  was  "an  ignorant  savage, 
who  did  wicked  deeds  and  who  set  up  a  fraud  to  become  a 
religious  leader"  (Review  of  Religions,  VII,  p.  121),  and 
then  said  of  them  : 

"We  are  surprised  to  find  that  the  very  expressions  which  are 
considered  adornments  of  sacred  books  in  an  uneducated  country  like 
India  are  punished  with  imprisonment  in  free  and  advanced  England. 
....  How  far  the  right  to  criticize  entitles  a  man  to  depict  another 
in  the  darkest  colours  and  to  use  abusive  and  contumelious 
language  is  a  different  question,  which  I  shall  not  try  to  answer  in 
this  article.  It  is,  however,  clear  that  the  line  must  somewhere  be 
drawn  between  liberty  and  license"  (Review  of  Religions,  VII,  pp. 
124-125). 

That  there  is  a  limit,  nevertheless,  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment's toleration  of  such  "  contumelious  language  "  was 
illustrated  in  1914  in  the  prosecution,  under  the  Indian 
Press  Act,  of  the  Editor  of  Badr,  an  Ahmadlya  vernacular 
paper,  because  of  articles,  relating  to  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ,  tending  to  bring  subjects  of  Great  Britain  in  India 
into  contempt.^ 

*  See  also  p.  69,  Note  3. 


THE  MOVEMENT  AND  INDIGENOUS  RELIGIONS     105 

In  Ahmad's  last  "  Message  of  Peace,"  several  times 
referred  to  above,  he  made  the  astonishing  proposal  of 
a  kind  of  union  of  his  sect  with  the  Arya  Samaj,  and  w^ith 
Hinduism  generally,  on  a  basis  of  mutual  concessions,  as 
follows : 

'_'  If,  in  order  to  have  complete  peace,  the  Hindu  gentlemen  and 
the  Arya  SamSjists  are  prepared  to  accept  our  Holy  Prophet,  may 
peace  and  the  blessings  of  God  be  upon  him,  as  a  true  prophet  of  God, 
and  give  up  denying  and  insulting  him,  I  will  be  the  first  man  to  sign 
an  agreement  to  the  effect  that  we,  the  members  of  the  Ahmadiya 
sect,  shall  always  continue  to  believe  in  the  Vedas  and  to  speak  of  the 
Vedas  and  the  rishis^  in  the  most  respectful  terms,  and  bind  ourselves 
to  pay  to  the  Hindus  a  penalty  of  Rs.  300,000  in  case  we  fail  to  fulfil 
the  agreement.  If  the  Hindus  cordially  wish  for  this  peace  they  should 
also  sign  a  similar  agreement.  This  agreement  will  be  as  follows  : 
'We  believe  in  Muhammad  Mustafa,  may  the  peace  and  the  blessings 
of  God  be  upon  him,  and  regard  him  as  a  true  prophet.  We  will 
always  speak  of  him  respectfully,  as  a  true  believer  should.  And  if  we 
fail  to  fulfil  this  agreement,  we  shall  pay  to  the  leader  of  the  Ahma- 
diya movement  Rs.  300,000,  as  a  penalty  for  breach  of  agreement. 
.  .  .  But  in  order  to  make  the  agreement  strong  and  sure,  it  will  be 
necessary  that  it  should  be  signed  by  at  least  10,000  intelligent  men  on 
both  sides  "  {Review  of  Religions,  VII,  p.  257). 

There  was,  of  course,  no  response  to  this  impossible 
proposal,  which  was  regarded  by  the  Hindus  as  a  kind  of 
gambling  venture. 

Little  attention  was  paid  by  Ahmad  to  the  quiescent 
Brahma  Samaj. ^  It  is  referred  to  as  having  been  really  a 
hindrance  rather  than  help  to  the  spread  of  Christianity, 
because,  although  it  admits  the  greatness  of  Christ,  "those 
who  have  any  Christian  proclivities  find  a  refuge  in  the 
vagueness  of  Brahmaism." 

*  A  seer,  or  inspired  poet,  in  general;  used  specifically  in  the 
Purinic  period  for  "seven  primeval  personages  born  of  Brahmi's 
mind,  and  presiding,  in  different  forms,  over  each  manwantara." 
Balfour  :  Cyclopedia  of  India,  I,  p.  424. 

2  A  theistic  reforming  movement,  which  appeared  in  Calcutta  in 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  was  an  attempt  to  form  a 
pure  spiritual  religion  by  blending  some  of  the  leading  ideas  of  Hindu- 
ism and  Christianity.  It  has  now  split  into  three  sections,  the  Adi 
Samaj,  the  Sadharan  Samaj,  and  the  New  Dispensation  Samaj.  Its 
three  great  leaders  have  been,  successively.  Ram  Mohan  Ray,  Deben- 
dra  Nath  Tagore  and  Kesbub  Chandra  Sen. 


106  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

More  attention  is  paid  to  the  Sikh  off-shoot  of  the 
parent  Hindu  tree.  Guru  Nanak/  the  founder,  sought  to 
teach  "  religion,  pure  and  undefiled  " — the  remembrance 
of  God  and  the  doing  of  good — and  made  his  appeal  to 
Hindu  and  Muslim  irrespectively.  Ahmad,  however, 
claimed  to  have  made  the  unique  discovery  that  Guru 
Nanak  v/as  a  genuine  and  acknowledged  Muslim,  and 
was  sent  to  teach  Hindus  the  truth  of  Islam  : 

"  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  person  of  Nanak  was  an  embodi- 
ment of  divine  mercy  for  the  Hindus,  and  he  was,  as  it  were,  the  last 
avatar  of  the  Hindu  religion  who  tried  hard  to  purge  the  hearts  of 
Hindus  of  the  great  hatred  which  they  entertained  against  Islam,  but 
to  the  great  misfortune  of  this  country  the  Hindus  did  not  avail  them- 
selves of  the  holy  teachings  of  Nanak.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Pundits 
of  the  Hindu  religion  persecuted  this  great  man  only  because  he 
admitted  the  truth  of  the  religion  of  Islam.  He  had  come  to  bring 
about  a  union  between  Hinduism  and  Islam,  but  he  was  not  listened 
to  "  {Review  of  Religions,  VII,  p.  248). 

Ahmad  gave  many  reasons,  besides  the  fact  of  direct 
revelation,  for  his  statement  that  Guru  Nanak  was  a 
Muslim.  At  Dera  Baba  Nanak,  in  the  Panjab,  there  is 
preserved  a  chold  (cloak)  said  to  have  been  worn  by 
Nanak  and  his  successors  up  to  the  fifth  guru.^  Accord- 
ing to  Ahmad,  this  chold  was  said  to  have  had  a  miracu- 
lous divine  origin,  and  tradition  declared  also  that  verses 
from  the  sacred  scriptures  of  all  religions  had  been  written 
upon  it  by  the  hand  of  God.  Several  hundred  coverings, 
placed  over  the  chold  by  successive  generations  of  Sikhs, 
obscured  the  writings:  but  by  special  arrangement,  on  the 
30th  of  September,  1895,  the  coverings  were  removed 
to    allow     Ahmad,    who    had     undertaken     a    pilgrimage 

^  Nanak  (1469-1538),  like  Kabir,  his  contemporary,  condemned 
the  system  of  divine  incarnations  and  preached  against  idolatry  as 
practiced  in  Hindu  temples.  He  retained  the  doctrine  of  Transmigra- 
tion and  Karma,  and  made  no  change  in  the  Indian  social  system. 
Many  Muslims  as  well  as  Hindus  became  his  disciples,  and  it  is 
possible,  though  not  historically  established,  that  he  made  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca.  The  Granth  Sahib,  or  Noble  Book,  the 
sacred  scripture  of  the  sect,  is  now  accorded  almost  idolatrous 
worship. 

^  There  were  ten  gurus  in  all.  After  that  the  Granth  Sahib 
became  the  abiding  guru. 


THE  MOVEMENT  AND  INDIGENOUS  RELIGIONS     107 

for  the  purpose,  to  view  the  sacred  rehc.  Ahmad  then 
discovered  that  "  From  top  to  bottom  the  verses  of  the 
Holy  Qur'an,  especially  those  refuting  the  false  doctrines 
of  other  faiths  with  regard  to  Divine  Unity  and  attributes, 
were  written  upon  it  "    (Review  of  Religions,  II,  p.  32)/ 

And  we  are  told  that  obviously  "  Nanak  wore  the 
chold,  that  no  one  might  be  deceived  as  to  the  religion  he 
professed.  .  .  .  How  could  he  be  best  known  as  a  Muham- 
madan  except  by  wearing  a  cloak  which  could  not  be 
worn  by  any  but  the  truest  Muhammadan  ?  "  [Revieiv  of 
Religions,  II,  p.  33). 

This  discovery  by  Ahmad  is  held  to  be  another  proof 
of  his  Messiahship. 

"  As,  on  the  one  hand,  a  death-blow  has  been  dealt  to  the  Chris- 
tian error  of  resurrection  and  ascension,  by  the  discovery  of  Jesus'  tomb 
in  the  Khan  Yar  Street,  at  Srinagar,  the  false  notion  of  the  Sikhs  that 
Nanak  professed  any  religion  other  than  Islam  has  been  brought  to 
naught  by  the  discovery  of  the  sacred  chold.  Through  centuries  of 
Sikh  warfare,  the  cJiold  was  preserved  to  serve  as  a  testimony  of  the 
truth  of  Islam  at  the  appointed  time  when  the  sun  of  its  truth  was  to 
shine  forth  in  its  full  effulgence  ....  the  chold  was  miraculously 
preserved  so  that  it  may  both  fulfil  the  prophetic  word  in  relation  to  the 
appearance  of  the  Promised  Messiah  to  accomplish  the  object  of  making 
Islam  the  predominant  religion  by  strong  arguments  and  heavenly 
signs,  and  be  a  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Islam  by  showing  that  it  was 
from  this  source  that  the  founder  of  a  great  religion  received  all  his 
blessings"  (Review  oj  Religions,  II,  p.  35-36). 

Other  evidence,  of  Nanak's  Muhammadan  tendencies 
adduced  by  Ahmad  were  that  he  dressed  like  a  Muslim, 
frequented  the  company  of  Muslim  saints,  and  ascetics,  per- 
formed the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  married  into  a  Muham- 
madan family,  and  spoke  of  the  deity  in  the  terminology 
not  of  Hindu  thought  but  of  the  Muslim  Sufis.  It  was 
even  said  that  he  enjoined,  and  himself  observed,  the 
Muslim  requirements  as  to  repeating  \.\\e  Kalima,'  keeping 
the  fasts,  performing  the  prayers  and  refraining  from  pro- 
hibited food. 


'  I  have  questioned  several  well-informed  Sikhs  about  this  incident, 
but  found  them  unable  to  verify  it. 

^  The  witness  of  the  Muslim  that  there  is  no  God  but  Allah,  and 
Muhammad  is  his  Prophet. 


108  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

The  two  following  quotations  from  Macauliffe's  book, 
The  Sikh  Religion,^  will  indicate  what  basis  there  is  in 
Sikh  history  and  tradition  for  the  chold  story,  and  for 
Ahmad's  other  alleged  proofs  of  Nanak's  devotion  to  the 
Muslim  faith. 

"  The  Guru  (Nanak)  set  out  towards  the  east,  having  arrayed 
himself  in  a  strange  motley  of  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  religious 
habiliments.  He  put  on  a  mango-coloured  jacket,  over  which  he 
threw  a  white  safa,  or  sheet.  On  his  head  he  carried  the  hat  of  a 
Musalmin  Qalandar,-  while  he  wore  a  necklace  of  bones  and  imprinted 
a  saffron  mark  on  his  forehead  in  the  style  of  Hindus.  This  was  an 
earnest  of  his  desire  to  found  a  religion  which  should  be  acceptable 
both  to  Hindus  and  Muhammadans  without  conforming  to  either 
faith"  (I,  p.  58). 

"After  his  (Nanak's)  successful  discussion  with  the  Yogis,  the 
Guru  decided  to  visit  Makka,  the  pole  star  of  Muhammadan  devotion. 
He  disguised  himself  in  the  blue  dress  of  a  Muhammadan  pilgrim,  took 
a  faqir's  staff  in  his  hand  and  a  collection  of  his  hymns  under  his  arms. 
He  also  carried  with  him,  in  the  style  of  a  Musalman  devotee,  a  cup  for 
his  ablutions  and  a  carpet  whereon  to  pray.  And  when  an  opportunity 
offered,  he  shouted  the  Muhammadan  call  to  prayer  like  any  orthodox 
follower  of  the  Arabian  prophet"  (I,  p.  174).^ 

Ahmad  had  no  such  love  for  modern  Sikhism  as  he 
pretended  to  have  for  its  founder;  which  is  not  surprising 
when  one  remembers  the  vicissitudes  undergone  by  his 
own  family  in  the  days  of  Sikh  ascendancy  in  the  Panjab. 
He  once  said : 

"  The  brief  term  of  Sikh  ascendency  was  marked  by  complete 
anarchy  and  bloodshed,  and  the  people  were  plunged  into  unspeakable 
misery.  ...  At  last  the  measure  of  Sikh  iniquity  became  full  to  the 
brim,  and  the  time  came  when  the  plundering  career  of  these  marauders 
was  to  receive  a  check.     The  British  came  from  the  East  like  a  rising 

*  Max  Arthur  Macauliffe,  The  Sikh  Religion,  in  six  volumes, 
Oxford,  1909.  The  author  spent  many  years  in  compiling  the  contents 
of  this  massive  work  from  the  writings  in  the  vernacular  of  the  Sikhs 
themselves.  The  historical  portions  are  of  value  rather  for  the  picture 
they  give  us  of  the  great  Guru,  as  his  followers  have  conceived  him, 
than  as  a  trustworthy  historical  document. 

^  An  order  of  Muslim  darwishes,  or  ascetics  ;  also  used  of  any 
faqtr. 

^  I  am  informed  by  my  friend,  Sardar  Tara  Singh,  of  the  staff  of 
the  Khalsa  (Sikh)  High  School,  in  Lahore,  that  there  is  supposed  to  be 
achold  of  Guru  N5,nak  at  Dera  Baba  Ninak,  and  that  there  are  Arabic 
characters  upon  it  which  no  one  has  been  able  to  decipher, 


THE  MOVEMENT  AND  INDIGENOUS  RELIGIONS     109 

sun  and  dispelled  the  dark  clouds  of  Sikh  tyranny.  They  gave  the 
country  not  only  peace  and  tranquillity,  but  above  all  religious  liberty, 
which  to  me  seems  the  greatest  boon  which  a  just  ruler  can  confer 
upon  a  subject  people." 

Ahmad  had  h'ttle  personal  contact  with  the  Buddhist 
religion,  which  is  practically  non-existent  to-day  in  India 
proper,  and  hence  we  find  few  references  to  it  in  his 
writings  and  in  those  of  his  followers.  To-day,  however, 
the  sect  is  spreading  in  Buddhist  Burma,  and  no  doubt 
more  attention,  of  an  unflattering  variety,  will  be  paid  to 
that  religion  by  Ahmadiya  writers  in  the  future. 

Buddha's   alleged   weaknesses   are   referred   to   in    one 

place  as  follows : 

"  Whenever  a  man  has  been  deified  God  has  shown  his  weakness 
and  infirmities  in  all  points.  Buddha  was  made  a  God,  but  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  as  a  husband  and  a  father,  the  most  sacred  of 
the  obligations  of  man  towards  man,  he  was  an  utter  failure.  Nor  was 
he  able  to  observe  the  other  duties  towards  his  fellow-beings,  and  thus 
entirely  neglected  one  of  the  two  parts  of  the  law.  As  to  the  other  part, 
vis.,  his  duties  toward  God,  he  offers  no  better  example.  He  did  not 
believe  either  in  miracles  or  in  the  acceptance  of  prayer.  Thus  he 
could  not  find  out  the  path  in  which  the  elected  of  God  have  walked." 

In  the  attitude  of  the  present  head  of  the  movement 
toward  other  religions,  there  is  evident  at  times  a  more 
eclectic  and  irenic  spirit  than  we  have  found  in  Ahmad. 
In  an  article  by  him  in  Review  of  Religions,  for  March, 
1916,  he  upholds  the  thesis  that  all  religions  are  from  God, 
but  that  either  they  have  been  limited  to  a  certain  people 
and  locality,  or  else  they  had  lost  their  original  character  at 
the  time  when  the  Qur'an,  containing  the  universal  and 
final  religion  abrogating  all  others,  was  sent  down  to 
Muhammad.  This  is  bringing  up-to-date  and  making 
definite  for  India  to-day  the  principle  enunciated  in  the 
Qur'an  that  to  every  people  a  prophet  and  book  were  sent, 
after  which  Muhammad,  the  last  of  the  prophets,  came  to 
the  Arabs  with  the  Qur'an,  by  which  all  previous  revela- 
tions were  abrogated.^  In  accordance  with  this  develop- 
ment we  read,  in  the  article  mentioned   above : 

"So  in  comparing  Islam  with  other  faiths,  nothing  is  farthest 
{sic)  from  my  purpose   than   to  call   other  faiths   pure  human   under- 

»  Cf.  Qur'an,  LXI,  5;  LXIV,  46. 


no  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

takings  and  the  prophets  of  the  world  so  many  imposters.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  my  bounden  duty  as  a  Muslim  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth  of  all  the  righteous  servants  of  God,  wherever  they  had  happened 
to  appear,  and  admit  without  any  reserve  or  demur  the  truth  of  the 
Indian  prophets,  Rama  and  Krisna,  quite  as  readily  as  that  of  the 
Israelite  prophets.  It  is,  again,  my  business  to  testify  to  the  truth  of 
the  Persian  sage,  Zoroaster,  or  any  other  heavenly  personality  who 
claimed  to  be  the  recipient  of  Divine  revelation,  who  was  backed  up 
with  Divine  succour  and  favour,  and  for  whose  acceptance  millions  of 
minds  were  opened  by  God  "  (Review  of  Religions,  XV,  p.  84). 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  AHMADIYA  COMMUNITY 

In  the  first  chapter,  in  giving  an  account  of  the  life  of 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  the  general  line  of  development  of 
the  sect  was  traced  up  to  the  death  of  the  founder  in 
1908.  We  saw  that  the  real  beginning  of  the  movement, 
as  a  distinct  sect  within  Islam,  came  in  1891  with  the 
Mirza  Sahib's  announcement  that  he  combined  and  ful- 
filled in  his  own  person  the  prophecies  regarding  the 
promised  Messiah  and  the  Mahdi.  However,  we  may  say 
that  the  Ahmadiya  community,  as  such,  owed  its  inception 
to  the  earlier  declaration  of  Ahmad,  in  March,  1889,  that 
he  was  entitled  to  receive  bai'at  (homage)  from  his 
fellow  Muslims.  The  first  of  the  disciples  attracted 
by  this  announcement  was  Hakim  Nur-ud-Din,  who  was 
destined  to  become  the  "first  Khalifa.''  In  the  begin- 
ning the  Mirza  Sahib's  followers  were  called  Qadianis, 
or  Mirzais,  partly  in  derision  and  partly  to  distinguish 
them  from  other  Muslims  in  whose  worship  in  the 
mosques  they  refused  to  participate.  In  1900  the 
members  of  the  community  were,  at  their  own  request, 
entered  under  the  name  "Ahmadiya"  in  the  official 
census  list  of  the  Government  of  India,  as  a  distinct 
Muhammadan  sect,  and  it  is  by  that  name  that  they 
prefer  to  be  known.  In  1891,  as  has  been  written  above, 
the  storm  oi  opposition  broke  upon  Ahmad  from  orthodox 
Islam,  the  Arya  Samaj,  and  Christianity — the  forces  of  the 
opposition  being  led,  respectively,  by  Maulvi  Muhammad 
Husain,  Pandit  Lekh  Ram  and  Mr.  Abdulla  Atham. 
This  period  of  acute  controversy,  which  included  nearly 
all  of  his  prophecies,  ended  with  the  order  of  the 
Government  of    the  Panjab,  dated   February  24th,   1899, 


112  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

to  which  reference  has  been  made  above, ^  although 
it  must  be  said  that  the  MIrza  Sahib  did  not  altogether 
adhere  to  his  enforced  promise,  as  illustrated,  for  ex- 
ample, by  his  later  prophecy  regarding  John  Alexander 
Dowie.^ 

In  the  year  1896  the  community  numbered  313  mem- 
bers. In  the  Census  of  India  Report  for  1901,  1,113 
male  Ahmadis  were  returned  for  the  Panjab,  931  for  the 
United  Provinces  and  11,087  for  the  Bombay  Presidency. 
It  is  certain  that  the  number  returned  for  the  Bombay 
Presidency  was  inaccurate,  since  throughout  its  history  a 
a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  community  have  been 
found  in  the  Panjab.  The  total  strength  of  the  movement 
in  the  Panjab  at  that  time  was  given  as  3,450.  Ahmad 
himself  in  that  year  claimed  12,000  followers  {Review  of  Re- 
ligions, XV,  p.  457).  Three  years  later,  in  1904,  his  claim 
had  grown  to  "  more  than  two  hundred  thousand 
followers,"  and  the  editor  oi Review  of  Religions  has  recently 
seen  this  number  doubled  in  his  imagination,  and  writes  that 
"  in  1904  the  number  of  Ahmadis  rose  to  400,000  persons  " 
(Review  of  Religions,  XV ,  p.  47).  Shortly  before  his  death, 
in  1908,  Ahmad  stated  that  the  full  strength  of  the  movement 
throughout  the  world  was  then  no  less  than  500,000.  No 
evidence  whatever  is  given  to  substantiate  these  reckless 
statements,  and  we  must  set  over  against  them  the  returns 
of  the  Government  of  India  Census  of  1911  where,  in  the 
section  on  the  Panjab  (Vol.  XIV,  Part  2),  the  statistics  of 
the  movement  are  given  as  follows:  Males,  10,116; 
Females,  8,579;  total,  18,695.  No  returns  were  made  for 
the  whole  of  India  in  the  Census,  but  the  Panjab  returns 
give  us  a  clue  to  the  total  strength  of  the  movement.  In 
1912  Dr.  H.  D.  Griswold  stated^  that  in  his  opinion 
50,000  would  be  a  liberal  estimate  of  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  Ahmadiya  movement  at  that  time.  Allow- 
ing for  a  considerable  increase  in  the  six  years  that  have 
since  elapsed,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  at  the  very  most  there 
are  not  more  than  70,000  followers  of  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad  at  the  present  time. 

»  P.  43.         '  Cf.  p.  45.         '  Moslem  World,  II,  p.  373. 


THE  AHMADlYA  COMMUNITY  113 

After  the  death  of  the  founder,  in  1908,  the  direction  of 
the  movement  passed  into  the  hands  of  Hakim  Nur-ud- 
Din,  the  first  disciple,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  studi- 
ous, clever  and  industrious  man.  In  accordance  with  the 
last  will  of  the  founder,  the  affairs  of  the  community  were 
placed  under  the  control  of  a  committee,  called  Sadr- 
Anjuman-i-Ahinadlya  (Chief  Ahmadiya  Society^), which  (it 
was  assumed  by  all,  though  not  clearly  stated  in  the  will) 
was  to  be  under  the  direction  of  the  elected  head  of  the 
movement,  now  known  as  the  "Khalifaf-ul-j\Iasth  " 
(Successor  of  the  Messiah).  Nur-ud-Din,  as  the  first 
Khalifa,  abstained  from  assuming  undue  authority,  and  con- 
sidered himself  merely  a  servant  of  the  Anjunian  to  do  its 
bidding.  Under  this  policy  the  community  made  some 
progress,  in  spite  of  the  loss  of  the  magnetic  personality  of 
its  original  head.  There  were,  however,  signs  of  division 
that  became  more  evident  and  ominous  with  each  passing 
month.  These  first  became  manifest  in  1913,  at  the 
time  of  the  Muhammadan  riots  following  the  Govern- 
ment's action  in  attempting  to  remove  an  abutting  portion 
of  a  mosque  in  Cawnpore  in  order  to  realign  a  road. 
The  entire  Muhammadan  community  in  India  was  aroused, 
and  among  those  who  expressed  themselves  very  earnestly 
at  this  time  was  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din,  already 
referred  to^  as  a  leading  member  of  the  Ahmadiya 
community,  who  had  just  begun  the  publication  of  a 
Muhammadan  magazine^  in  England.  As  this  was  a 
notable  departure  from  the  counsel  of  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad,  that  his  followers  should  avoid  all  political 
controversy  and  concentrate  their  energies  on  distinctly 
religious  effort,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  some  of  the 
members  of  the  community  would  view  Kamal-ud-Din's 
action  with  alarm.  The  resultant  protest  was  most 
strongly  voiced  in  an  Ahmadiya  vernacular  paper,  Alfazl, 

'  It  thus  became  a  Samaj,  analogous  to  the  Arya  Samaj  and 
Brahma  Samaj  in   Hinduism. 

=  P.  17.     Cf.  Muslim  India  and  Islamic  Revieiv,  I,  p.  366ff. 

'  Then  known  as  Muslim  India  and  the  Isldmic  Review.  The 
name  has  since  been  changed  to  The  Isldmic  Revievo  and  Muslim 
India, 

8 


114  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

by  its  editor,  Mirza  Bashir-ud-Din  Mahmud  Ahmad,  the 
eldest  son  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  by  his  second  wife. 
Before  this  controversy  within  the  community  had  pro- 
ceeded far  the  cause  of  the  original  trouble  in  Muham- 
madan  India  was  removed  by  the  action  of  the  Viceroy,  Lord 
Hardinge,  through  which  the  entire  difficulty  was  adjusted 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Muslims  concerned.  A  number 
of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Ahmadiya 
community,  however,  continued  to  cherish  resentment 
against  the  son  of  the  Mirza  Sahib,  who,  they  felt,  was 
inclined  to  assume  undue  authority  for  his  opinions  because 
of  his  relationship  to  the  founder  of  the  movement.  On 
the  other  hand,  many  conservative  Ahmadis  felt  that 
Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din  and  his  party  had  been  disloyal 
to  the  memory  of  the  founder  in  making  common  cause 
with  Muhammadans  throughout  India  in  political  con- 
troversy, as  well  as  in  having  joined  the  All-India  Moslem 
League,  which  had  been  denounced  as  pernicious  by  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad. ^  During  the  last  illness  of  Nur-ud-Din 
both  parties  were  active,  the  party  of  the  Mirza's  son  in 
preparing  for  his  immediate  election  to  the  office  of 
Khalifa,  and  the  opposing  party  in  issuing  and  distri- 
buting a  booklet  giving  it  as  their  interpretation  of 
the  Mirza's  last  will  that  there  should  be  no  Khalifa 
at  all,  but  rather  that  the  Sadr-Anjuman-i-Ahmadiya 
should  have  entire  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  community. 
Immediately  following  Nur-ud-Din's  death,  Mirza  Bashir- 
ud-Din  Mahmud  Ahmad  was  elected  Khalifa  by  a 
gathering  of  Ahmadis  in  Qadian,  despite  the  protests 
of  members  of  the  other  party  who  were  present  and 
who  thereupon  seceded,  and,  with  all  who  shared  their 
opinions,  formed  a  new  Anjuman,  with  headquarters  at 
Lahore,  called  Anjuman-Ishd'  at-i-Isldm  (Society  for  the 
Spread  of  Islam).  In  the  absence  of  Khwajah  Kamal-ud- 
Din  in  England,  the  leadership  of  this  party  fell  to  Maulvi 
Muhammad  'Ali,  M.A.,  LL.B.,  who  has  already  been 
referred  to"  as  the  able  editor  of  The  Review  of  Religions  since 
its  inception,  and  who  had  prepared  the  pamphlet  regard- 

1  Cf.   page  67.         '  P.  17. 


THE  AHMADlYA  COMMUNITY  115 

ing  the  Khaldfat  preceding  Nur-ud-Din's  deaih.  The 
chief  immediate  point  of  dispute  between  the  two  parties 
was  whether  or  not  the  original  Anjuman  should  have  full 
control  of  the  affairs  of  the  community.  The  question 
had  not  become  acute  in  the  time  of  Nur-ud-Din,  because 
of  his  tactful  handling  of  the  situation,  but  with  the 
election  of  a  son  of  the  founder,  who  had  already  tended 
to  presume  upon  his  fam.ily  relationship  and  who  was 
likely  to  arrogate  to  himself  an  increasing  degree  of 
authority,  further  compromise  was  impossible  and  a  per- 
manent split  inevitable.  The  difference  was  really  a 
fundamental  one,  involving  the  essential  nature  of  the 
claims  the  founder  had  put  forward.  The  Qadian  party, 
as  we  may  now  call  it,  held  that  he  must  be  considered 
one  of  the  prophets  {nabV),  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
orthodox  Islam  believes  that  Muhammad  was  "the  last  of 
the  prophets  and  the  seal  of  the  prophets."^  Further, 
they  declared  that  since  only  those  are  true  Muslims  who 
believe  in  the  prophets  of  God,  those  who  do  not  so 
accept  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  are  "kafirs"  (unbelievers), 
with  whom  no  true  believer  may  worship,  no  matter  how 
many  other  points  of  belief  they  may  share  v/ith  Muslims." 
On  the  other  hand,  the  seceding  party  held  that  the 
"  Promised  Messiah  "  made  no  such  outstanding  claim 
for  himself,  and  they  are  unwilling  to  call  non-Ahmadi 
Muslims  kdfirs.  In  general,  the  latter  minimize  the 
difference  between  the  Ahmadiya  community  and 
orthodox  Islam,  whereas  the  Qadian  party  regard  the 
points  of  difference  as  of  fundamental  importance. 
This  is  evident  in  many  ways.  The  Qadian  party  still 
insist  on  the  importance  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad's 
prohibition  of  true  Ahmadis  from  following  non-Ahmadi 
imams  in  their  prayers,  attending  non-Ahmadi  funeral 
services,  and  giving  the  hands  of  their  daughters  to  non- 
Ahmadi  men,  although   their  sons  are   permitted   to  marry 

»  Cf.  p.  109. 

^  Cf.  Appendix  VI  for  a  ruling  of  the  High  Court  of  Patna, 
Bengal,  by  which  Ahmadis  were  declared  to  be  Muslims,  at  liberty 
to  worship  behind  any  recognized  iuiani,  but  not  entitled  to  form  a 
separate  congregation  in  the  mosque. 


116  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

non-Ahmadi  girls.  The  Lahore  party  believe  that  these 
prohibitions  were  only  necessary  in  the  early  days  of  the 
movement  and  had  but  a  temporary  significance.  In  their 
writings  and  missionary  work  the  person  and  claims  of 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  are  almost  invisible.  At  most  they 
consider  him  to  be  only  the  latest  of  the  Mujaddids,^  and 
his  influence  survives  only  in  their  belief  in  the  death  of 
Jesus  and  his  burial  in  Kashmir,  and  in  the  hostile  attitude 
toward  other  religions  which  is  found  among  them  to  an 
extent  that  does  not  exist  among  educated  Muslims  generally 
in  India  to-day. 

In  dealing  with  the  recent  history  of  the  movement,  we 
shall  have  to  consider  the  two  divisions  separately.  With 
regard  to  the  members  of  the  Qadian  Anjuman,  the  con- 
troversy with  the  alleged  disloyal  party  has  had  the  effect 
of  fusing  their  loyalty  and  intensifying  their  zeal,  as  being 
now  the  orthodox,  faithful  people.  The  present  Khalifa 
does  not  seem  to  be  a  man  of  his  father's  force,  although, 
as  he  is  still  a  young  man,  it  is  too  early  finally  to  appraise 
his  character.  He  is  described  as  follows  by  a  friendly 
writer  in  the  issue  of  Review  of  Religions  for  June,  1915 
(XIV,  p.  217)  : 

"  He  is  a  young  man,  below  thirty  years  of  age,  fair  of  complexion, 
of  medium  height,  slender  of  build,  with  a  clean  broad  forehead,  thin 
lips,  thick  short  beard,  eyes  which  through  their  half-open  lids  always 
look  to  the  ground,  modest  and  retiring  habits;  such  is  the  appearance 
of  the  man  who  now  guides  the  destiny  of  this  community.  .  .  .  His 
life  is  simple  and  retiring,  and  his  manners  sincere  and  affable." 

This  fairly  well  describes  my  own  impression  of  the 
man  on  the  occasion  of  my  two  conversations  with  him  at 
Qadian,  in  January,  1916.  He  strikingly  resembles  his 
father  in  appearance,  in  his  sedentary  habits  and  in  his 
readiness  and  cleverness  in  controversy.  He  is  also,  like 
his  father,  a  semi-invalid.  He  has  recently  married  a  second 
wife  without  divorcing  the  previous  one,  who  is  still  living. 

There  seem  to  be  no  such  outstanding  personalities  in 
this  segment  as  there  are  in  the  Lahore  Anjuman;  but  in 
this  group  of  loyal  supporters  of  the  Khalifa  there  is  present 
an  earnest  spirit  of  enterprise  and  industry.     The  original 

»  Cf.  p.  131,  Note  1. 


THE  AHMADlYA  COMMUNITY  117 

Sadr-Anjtiman  Is  vigorously  pushing  forward  education  in 
the  community.  The  keystone  is  the  English  high  school 
at  Qadian,  which  contains  about  four  hundred  students 
in  all  the  grades  from  primary  through  the  fifth  high 
standard,  and  which  is  affiliated  to  the  Panjab  University. 
About  half  of  these  students  come  from  outside  Qadian 
and  one  hundred  of  them  are  non-Ahmadls.  The  former 
headmaster,  Maulvi  Sadr-ud-Din,  B.A.,  B.T.,  went  out 
with  the  secessionists  and  will  be  mentioned  later.^  His 
successor,  Maulvi  Muhammad  Din,  B.A.,  is  ably 
prosecuting  the  work  in  the  new  building  just  completed. 
Of  the  twenty-five  students  who  went  up  for  the  matricu- 
lation examination  of  the  Panjab  University  in  1916, 
twenty-one  passed,  a  very  high  average.  There  is,  likewise, 
a  madrassah^  for  the  study  of  Arabic  and  the  Qur'an,  in 
which  more  than  seventy-five  students  are  enrolled,  of 
whom  thirty  are  expected  to  go  out  as  missionaries  when 
the  seven-year  course  is  completed.  Primary  schools  have 
been  opened  in  different  districts  and  many  more  are 
projected.  A  beginning  has  been  made  in  the  education 
of  women,  and  the  status  of  women,  on  the  whole,  seems 
to  be  above  the  standard  obtaining  in  Islam  generally.  On 
three  days  a  week  the  KhaUfa  addresses  all  of  the  members 
of  the  community,  after  the  evening  prayer  in  the  mosque. 

On  the  literary  side,  in  addition  to  the  English  monthly 
paper.  Review  of  Religions,  less  vigorously  and  ably  edited 
than  in  the  long  period  of  M.  Muhammad  'All's  editor- 
ship, the  following  vernacular  papers  are  published  at 
Qadian  :  tri-weekly,  Alfazal;  weekly,  Alfaruq,  Alhakam, 
NUr;  monthly,  Tashiz-ul-Azhan,  Sddiq,  Review  of  Religions 
in  Urdu ;  quarterly,  Tafsir-ul-Qur'dn.  A  former  paper, 
Badr,  whose  stormy  career  was  interrupted  by  Govern- 
ment in  1914,''  has  not  since  re-appeared,  but  its  editor. 
Mufti  Muhammad  Sadiq,  now  edits  the  paper  callid  Sddiq. 

The  new  Anjuman  Taniqqi-i- Islam  (Society  for  the 
Advancement  of  Islam),  founded  by  the  present  Khalifa, 

»  P.  125. 

*  A  Muslim  school  or  college  for  the  study  of  religious  subjects 
solely. 

»  Cf.  p.  104. 


118  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

to  supplement  on  the  religious  side  the  work  of  the  Sadr- 
Anjunian,  has  been  active  in  missionary  efforts.  It  claims 
to  be  supporting  twelve  paid  missionaries  in  different  parts 
of  India,  Ceylon  and  Mauritius,  as  well  as  in  London, 
where  there  is  one,  with  a  paid  assistant,  whose  work  is 
entirely  distinct  from  that  of  the  Kamal-ud-Din  party. 
Ambitious  plans  are  afoot  to  send  further  missionaries  to 
"  England,  Ceylon,  Java,  Japan,  China,  the  Philippines,  etc." 
In  addition  to  these  regular  workers,  "All  the  Ahmadls  are 
regarded  as  honorary  workers,  and  school  teachers  as  well 
as  editors  are  also  sent  on  preaching  tours  whenever  occa- 
sions arise."  The  converts  have  mostly  come  from  the 
ranks  of  orthodox  Islam,  and  are  most  numerous,  outside 
the  Panjab,  in  parts  of  Bengal,  the  Deccan  and  Malabar. 
The  following  quotation  from  the  Government  Census 
Report  for  Bengal,  Bihar  and  Orissa,  covering  the  period 
from  1901  to  1911,  gives  an  illuminating  summary  of 
Ahmadiya  missionary  activities  in  that  part  of  India  where, 
as  in  the  Panjab,  Muslims  represent  an  important  element 
of  the  population  : 

"  The  Alimadiya  doctrines  appear  to  have  been  first  introduced 
in  Bihar  in  1893,  when  a  Musalnian  missionary  of  Bhagalpur  became 
a  convert.  The  movement  has  already  gained  a  considerable  number 
of  adherents  from  among  the  educated  and  well-to-do  classes.  They 
are  most  numerous  in  Bhagalpur  and  Monghyr,  which  form  one  section 
with  a  committee  affiliated  to  the  Sadr-i-Anjuman-Ahmadiya,  that  is, 
the  central  committee  at  Qadian.  Funds  are  raised  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Ahmadiya  doctrines  and  for  the  publication  of  its  monthly 
m2ig?iz\nt,  \\\t  Review  oj  Religions.  .  .  .  In  Monghyr  the  Ahmadiyas 
have  met  with  considerable  opposition  from  the  orthodox  Musalmans. 
At  a  large  meeting  held  at  ?vIonghyr,  in  June,  1911,  the  claims  of  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  were  debated,  and  after  long  controversy  he  was 
denounced  as  a  heretic  and  renegade.  The  sect  has  even  made  its 
way  into  Orissa.  Some  educated  Musalmans  of  Cuttack  embraced  its 
doctrines  during  a  visit  to  Gurdaspur,  and  in  their  turn  succeeded  in 
winning  over  some  of  their  co-religionists  in  Puri  ;  their  total  number 
is  however  small." 

Two  years  later  a  missionary  at  Brahmanbaria,  in  East 
Bengal,^  thus  described    the   growth    of    the    sect    in    his 

^  Rev.  John  Takle,  of  the  New  Zealand  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
author  of  The  Faith  of  the  Crescejit  (Association  Press,  Calcutta, 
1913). 


THE  AHMADIYA  COMMUNITY  119 

village,  which  had  its  beginning  in  the  secret  interest  of  a 
high  school  maulvi  teacher : 

"  During  the  Puja  vacation  he  went  the  long  trip  to  Qadian  on 
purpose  to  find  out  on  the  spot  whether  the  Mahdi  and  his  sect  were 
true  or  not.  He  and  the  four  men  who  went  with  him  came  back, 
initiated  followers  and  now  about  fifty  ignorant  Muhammadans  in  the 
town  have  gone  over  to  his  side,  much  to  the  angry  disgust  of  the  ortho- 
dex  section.  On  the  first  Friday  after  the  return  of  the  maulvi  a  reli- 
gious riot  was  averted  only  by  the  prompt  action  of  the  magistrate. 
The  renegade  maulvi  had  all  along  led  the  Friday  prayers,  but  after 
his  return  the  orthodox  Muhammadans  were  determined  that  he  should 
not  enter  the  mosque,  so  they  locked  the  door  on  him.  He  and  his 
party  went  to  the  mosque  bent  on  breaking  it  open,  but  the  magistrate 
appeared  on  the  scene  and  prevented  him.  Feeling  is  running  high 
here  just  now,  and  subscriptions  have  been  raised  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  some  learned  maulvls  to  argue  out  the  matter  with  the 
pervert." 

Another  missionary  in  the  same  station  (Rev.  W.  F. 
White)  writes:  "They  do  not  carry  on  any  open  propa- 
ganda, but  work  quietly  in  the  villages  trying  to  propagate 
their  tenets.  Occasionally  some  lecturers  come  from 
other  places,  but  they  are  not  allowed  to  lecture  in  public 
gatherings." 

We  have  already  seen^  how  the  AhmadI  who  introduced 
the  movement  into  Timapur,  in  the  Deccan,  where  there  is 
now  a  large  community  of  the  Mirza  Sahib's  followers,  in 
time  formed  his  own  sect  and  attracted  to  his  party  several 
hundred  former  Ahmadis. 

The  following  account  of  Ahmadiya  activities  in 
Malabar  is  given  in  the  Bombay  Advocate  of  31st  August, 
1915  : 

"  The  Ahmadiya  movement  among  the  Musalmans,  which  had  its 
origin  in  Gurdaspur,  in  the  Panjab,  has  secured  about  three  thousand 
followers  in  the  Moplah^  centre  of  Cannanore  in  North  Malabar. 

' '  For  some  time  past  the  orthodox  and  this  new  party,  which  believes 
in  the  advent  of  another  prophet  like  Christ  in  place  of  Esanabi,^  and 

'   P.  46,  Note  1. 

-  The  Moplahs  (Mapillas),  comprising  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
Muslim  population  of  Malabar  (about  800,000),  are  descendants  of 
Arab  immigrants  of  the  eight  and  ninth  centuries,  with  a  consider- 
able admixture  of  Hindu  blood.  They  have  in  the  past  shown  fanatical 
hatred  of  the  Hindus,  but  are  to-day,  for  the  most  part,  peaceful  traders. 

'  I.e.,  'Isd  nab'i,  the  Prophet  Jesus. 


120  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

whose  creed  is  a  sort  of  Protestant  Muhammadanism,  have  been  in 
open  hostility,  the  latter  being  subjected  to  a  number  of  annoyances 
and  ill-treatment.  The  tension  has  now  become  very  severe,  and  pam- 
phlets of  an  inflammatory  nature,  calculated  to  create  disturbance,  are 
circulated  broadcast. 

"A  Musaliar^  of  the  orthodox  party  is  reported  to  have  been  recently 
arrested  by  the  police  in  connection  with  it.  The  Neo-Musalmans, 
who  are  in  a  minority,  are  petitioning  district  authorities  to  afford  them 
protection  from  the  orthodox  party,  who  are  hostile  towards  them  and 
who  have  excluded  them  to  a  certain  extent  from  the  mosques." 

The  following  quotation  from  the  Ceylon  Independent, 
quoted  in  Review  of  Religions  for  June,  1916  (IV,  p.  224), 
indicates  that  the  movement  is  active  in  and  about 
Ceylon  : 

"  The  Ceylon  Ahmadiya  Association.  ...  A  meeting  of  this 
Association  at  10,  Wekanda,  Slave  Island,  on  the  19th  instant,  Mr. 
T.  K.  Lye  presided.  Mr.  C.  H.  Mantara  read  letters  from  the 
Ahmadiya  headquarters  at  Qadian  and  the  Islamic  Mission  in  London. 
He  announced  the  formal  initiation  into  the  Ahmadiya  Movement  of 
Professor  Abdiil  Latif,  lecturer  at  Chittagong  College,  Dr.  Syed 
Usmani,  of  Panipat,  and  the  Imam  and  others  of  the  Rose  Hill  Mosque 
at  Mauritius.  Resolved  that  a  revised  scheme  for  a  mission  to  Java 
and  the  Far  East  be  submitted  to  headquarters.  Resolved  that  the 
printing  press  be  established  at  Slave  Island,  and  a  journal  in  English 
and  Tamil  be  started,  to  be  called  IslSiii,  and  also  that  the  names  and 
addresses  of  all  would-be  subscribers  be  ascertained  by  the  secretaries. 
After  a  study  of  the  Holy  Qur'an  the  meeting  terminated  with  the 
usual  vote  of  thanks  and  with  prayers  to  Allah." 

To  this  is  appended,  in  Review  of  Religions,  2l  note  from 
the  honorary  secretary  of  the  Anjuman-i- Ahmadiya  on 
Slave  Island  : 

"  The  Tamil  paper,  Islam  Mittrian,  is  attacking  us  most  severely, 
we  are  being  grossly  misrepresented,  and  if  our  voice  is  not  raised 
against  these  calumnies,  the  cause  of  the  Ahmadiya  in  Ceylon  may  be 
prejudiced." 

The  annual  gathering  of  Ahmadis  from  all  parts  of 
India  at  Qadian  each  December  tends,  as  does  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  in  the  case  of  the  orthodox,  to 
inspire  in  the  pilgrims  fresh  zeal  for  the  cause,  as 
opportunity  is  furnished  to  hear  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment   and     to    meet    with    other    Ahmadis    from    distant 

^  The  Musaliars  are  the  Moplah  viaidvh,  travelling  preachers  and 
teachers  of  the  Qur'an  and  the  commentaries. 


THE  AHMADIYA  COMMUNITY  121 

places.  On  my  visit  to  Qadian,  in  1916,  at  the  time 
when  th'e  annual  assembly  was  just  closing,  I  was 
generously  entertained  in  European  style  in  a  house  that 
had  been  built  by  an  Ahmadi  police  inspector  of  Bengal 
for  his  use  when  he  came  to  Qadian  on  the  pilgrimage. 

A  recent  undertaking  of  the  Anjutrian  Taraqql-i-Isldm 
has  been  the  translation  of  the  Qur'an  into  English,  with 
notes  and  cross-references  .  .  .  the  entire  work  to  be  pub- 
lished in  thirty  parts,  of  which  one  has  appeared  at  this 
writing  (1918).^  A  reason  given  in  the  preliminary 
advertisement  for  this  translation  is,  that  "  the  English 
translations  so  far  published  have  been  done  either 
by  those  who  have  been  swayed  by  nothing  but 
religious  prejudice,  and  whose  object  was  certainly  not  the 
manifestation  of  truth,  but  the  presentation  of  a  ghastly 
picture  of  the  Holy  Qur'an  before  the  world  ;  or  by  those 
who  had  no  acquaintance  worth  the  name  with  the  Holy 
Qur'an  and  the  Arabic  language,  the  result  being  that 
those  translations  are  too  poor  reading  to  afford  anything 
like  a  real  insight  into  the  excellencies  of  Islam." 

We  will  let  that  sweeping  arraignment  of  the  labours  of 
Sale,  Palmer  and  Rodwell,  as  well  as  of  several  Muslim 
translators,^  speak  for  itself.  The  commentary  on  the 
Qur'anic  verses  is  written,  as  we  should  expect,  wholly 
from  the  Ahmadiya  viewpoint,  and  combines  the  presenta- 
tion of  Ahmadiya  teaching  with  continual  tilting  at 
Western  critics  of  the  Qur'an,  especially  Sale  and  Wherry. 
Typographically  the  work  is  excellent. 

With  regard  to  the  present  beliefs  of  the  members  of 
the  Qadian  party,  one  of  them  who  speaks  with  authority 
has  given  me,  in  writing,  the  following  three  chief  tenets: 

"1.  The  Qur'an  is  the  word  of  Allah  revealed  to  the  Holy 
Prophet  Muhammad,  whose  own  words  are  preserved  in  the  tradition. 
It  is  from  A  to  Z,  with  the  arrangements  of  chapters  and  even  vowels, 
from  Allah.  It  is  the  perfect  and  final  code  of  law,  and  the  words  of 
the  Prophet,  as  embodied  in  the  traditions,  are  its  commentary. 

'  Cf.    article,  "The    Koran    According   to    Ahmad,"  by    R.   F 
McNeile,  Moslem  World,  VI,  p.  170  (April,  1916). 

"  For  an  account  of  the  translations  of  the  Qur'an  into  English,  see 
Zwemer,  Moslem  World,  V,  p.  244. 


122  THE    AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

"2.  Revelation  did  not  stop  with  Muhammad;  it  is  nowadays 
also  sent  to  the  righteous  servants  of  God.  The  living  example  of  a 
recipient  of  Revelation  has  been,  in  our  time,  the  person  of  Ahmad, 
the  promised  Messiah.  This  continued  revelation  is  only  for  the 
support  of  the  Qur'an  and  of  the  truth  of  Muhammad's  mission.^ 

"3.  Muhammad  is,  according  to  Ahmad's  teaching,  the  per- 
fect man  and  model  for  human  guidance.  He  is  free  from  sin.  He 
is  a  servant  of  Allah.  It  is  he  through  whom  one  can  have  access  to 
the  gates  of  heaven.  To  say  that  Christ,  Son  of  Mary,  will  come  for 
the  reforms  of  Muhammad's  people  is  to  us  a  blasphemy  and  derogatory 
to  the  high  dignity  of  the  prophet  of  Arabia." 

Regarding  the  respective  positions  occupied  by  Mirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  and  Mirza  Bashir-ud-Din  Mahmud  Ahmad, 
the  same  informant  writes  : 

"  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  came  in  the  spiritof  Christ  and  was  the 
second  manifestation  of  the  Prophet  of  Arabia.  His  advent  was 
promised  by  all  the  prophets  of  yore.  Sahibzuda-  (Bashir  Ahmad)  is 
the  second  successor  of  the  promised  Messiah,  and  it  is  believed  that 
promises  for  the  spiritual  revival  and  progress  of  Islam  are  to  be 
fulfilled  in  his  time.  He  is  the  promised  son  of  the  promised  Messiah; 
for  the  Messiah  was  to  marry  and  beget  a  son." 

Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  himself  is  reported  to  have  said:  "My 
second  manifestation  shall  appear  in  the  form  of  my  successors,  as  it 
appeared  after  the  Holy  Prophet  in  the  person  of  Abu  Bakr,  Omar,  etc. 
A  man  from  God  from  among  my  own  children  will  arise,  and  shall  be 
named  the  Promised  Reformer.  His  shall  be  the  time  of  conquests  for 
Islam." 

In  this  we  can  trace  a  possible  beginning  of  a  "doc- 
trine of  the  person  of  the  second  Khalifa,"  who  clearly 
occupies  already  a  position  superior  to  that  of  Hakim 
Nur-ud-Din,  in  whose  veins  no  blood  of  the  promised 
Messiah  flowed,  and  in  whose  day  no  prophecy  of  a 
spiritual  revival  was  destined  to  be  fulfilled. 

A  belief  in  the  intercession  of  Muhammad  on  the  last 
day,  and  in  the  miracles  of  the  prophets,  are  other  articles 
of  faith  that  are  being  emphasized  to-day.  The  May,  1915, 
issue  of  the  Review  of  Religions  explains  in  detail  how  it 
was  possible  (in  the  view  of  the  Qadian  party)  for  Ahmad 
to  be   a  prophet,  in  spite  of  the   universal   Muslim   belief 

'  Cf.  p.  55. 

^  Sdhibzdda  is  equivalent  to  "  Young  Master,"  and  is  often  used 
of  the  heir-apparent  to  a  throne  as  well  as  in  the  general  sense  of  an 
honoured  son. 


THE  AHMADIYA  COMMUNITY  123 

that    Muhammad    was    the    seal    (i.e.,    the    last)    of    the 
prophets. 

"  ....  A  man  can  even  gain  prophethood  by  the  help  of  our 
Lord  Muhammad's  spiritual  powers.  But  no  prophet  with  a  new 
book  or  having  been  appointed  direct  will  ever  come  ;  for  in  this  case 
it  would  be  an  insult  to  the  perfect  prophethood  of  our  Lord.  .  .  . 
According  to  this  we  believe  that  a  man — the  Promised  Messiah — 
has  gained  prophethood  in  spite  of  his  being  a  follower  of  our  Lord," 
i.e.,  of  Muhammad  "  (^Review  of  Religions,  XIV,  p.  196). 

Ahmad  himself  said  the  same  thing  in  a  slightly 
different  way : 

"All  the  doors  of  prophethood  are  closed  save  one,  i.e.,  that  of 
completely  losing  one's  individuality  in  that  of  the  prophet.  One 
that  approaches  the  Almighty  through  this  door  begins  to  reflect 
the  same  old  prophethood  of  Muhammad.  He  becomes  a  prophet, 
but  we  cannot  call  him  a  new  prophet  for  he  is  one  with  his  master  " 
{Review  of  Religions,  XV,  p.  475). 

When  asked  about  his  doctrine  of  future  salvation,^ 
following  the  Judgment,  the  present  Khalifa  informed  the 
writer  that  orthodox  Muslims,  since  they  are  kdtirs,  who 
do  not  believe  in  the  prophetship  of  Ahmad,  cannot  here- 
after be  admitted  to  the  Garden.  When  pressed,  however, 
he  declared  that  there  was  hope  that  they  and,  in  fact, 
kdfirs  of  every  variety,  might  reach  Paradise  ultimately. 
He  then  dwelt  at  length  on  his  interesting  personal  belief 
in  ultimate  universal  salvation.  At  first,  he  said,  only 
those  who  are  perfect  in  faith  and  works  (perfection  in 
works  consisting  in  conformity  with  the  fundamental 
requirements  of  Islam,  getting  a  51  per  cent,  pass-mark,  as 
he  expressed  it)  would  be  admitted  ;  while  outside  would 
be  ranged  all  the  various  grades  of  unbelievers,  reaching 
down  to  the  lowest  hell.  These  would  then  begin  to 
ascend  toward  Paradise  and,  as  they  became  true  Muslims, 
would  be  admitted,  until  at  last  Allah's  mercy  shall  have 
comprehended    all.      He    was    willing  to  concede  that  the 

*  Orthodox  Muslims  believe  that  a  Muslim  who  has  committed 
greater  sins  (kabira)  must  pass  a  purgatorial  period  in  the  Fire,  from 
which  he  can  only  be  saved  by  the  intercession  of  Muhammad.  The 
heretical  Mu'tazilite  (cf.  p.  65,  Note  3)  denied  that  Muhammad's 
intercession  could  accomplish  this.  Lesser  sins  {saghha)  can  be 
removed  in  many  ways.     See  also  p.  36,  Note  3. 


124  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

seceders  belonging  to  the  Lahore  party  would,  through 
Muhammad's  intercession,  secure  early  admittance  to 
Paradise,  by  reason  of  their  faith  in  the  promised  Messiah, 
although  they  will  find  themselves  sadly  deficient  on  the 
score  of  works. 

Darwishes,  Sufis,  saint  worship  and  asceticism  of  all 
kinds  are  under  the  ban  as  emphatically  at  the  present  time 
as  in  Ahmad's  lifetime,  yet  it  seems  that  already  the  tomb  of 
Ahmad  has  become  to  some  extent  an  object  of  supersti- 
tious regard  in  the  eyes  of  his  followers,  whose  desire  and 
duty  it  is  to  visit  Qadian  at  one  of  the  annual  gatherings 
in  December,  there  to  behold  the  scenes  of  the  promised 
Messiah's  life  and  ministry,  to  hear  his  teachings  ex- 
pounded by  his  son,  and  to  offer  prayer  before  his  tomb.^ 

In  the  Appendix  further  facts  are  given  regarding 
the  present  beliefs  and  constituency  of  the  Ahmadiya 
community. 

The  work  of  the  two  Qadian  Anjumans  is  supported 
by  contributions  of  the  faithful  throughout  India,"  and,  in 
addition,  every  true  believer  is  expected  to  leave  behind 
him  a  will  which  bequeathes  at  least  one-tenth  of  his 
property  to  the  cause.  The  Qadian  community  makes  no 
appeal  to  orthodox  Muslims  for  funds  and  claims  to  be 
wholly  supported  by  Ahmadls. 

Turning  now  to  the  Anjuman-I shd^ at-i-I slam ,  with 
headquarters  in  Lahore,  there  is  little,  if  any,  pro- 
paganda carried  on  by  its  members  on  behalf  of  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  as  such.  The  appeal  which  is  made 
by  the  leaders  and  missionaries  of  this  party  is  to  Muslims 
generally,  urging  them  to  forget  their  differences  and  unite 
in  order  to  further  the  interest  and  spread  of  Islam 
throughout  the  world.  Their  pristine  educational  venture, 
in  1915,  took  the  form  of  a  so-called  "  college "  in 
Lahore,  where  a  number  of  young  men  were  trained 
to  become  missionaries  of  Islam.  According  to  a  state- 
ment written  for  me  at  that  time  by  a  member  of  this 
Anjiiman,  "  the  admission  qualifications  for  the  college  are 

^  Cf.  p.  24. 

^  The  regular  zakat  (alms)  must  all  be  sent   to  Qadian,  as  the 

Bait-uI-Mal  (treasury). 


THE  AHMADIYA  COMMUNITY  125 

the  matriculation  examination  of  the  Panjab  University, 
or  other  equivalent  examination,  or  Munshi  Fazil,  or 
Maulvi  Fazil,  that  is,  high  proficiency  in  Persian  or  Arabic 
with  English  equivalent."  Maulvi  Muhammd  'Ali, 
M.A.,  LL.B.,  was  the  chief  member  of  the  staff,  which 
contained  a  "  Professor  of  Hadis,"^  a  "  Professor  of  Bible, 
Hebrew  and  Arabic  grammar,"  and  a  "  Professor  of 
Islamic  and  other  history."  It  might  be  of  interest,  as 
casting  light  on  the  relationship  between  the  two  parties, 
to  quote  a  paragraph  from  a  letter  of  a  member  of  the 
staff  of  Review  of  Religions,  from  whom  information  about 
the  Lahore  "college"  was  requested — given  with  no 
understanding  that  it  be  considered   confidential : 

"  There  exists  no  college  worth  the  name,  for  a  class  of  hired 
students  (about  half  a  dozen),  taking  instruction  from  an  ordinary 
maulvi  and  an  incompetent  Christian  convert,  cannot  rightly  be  termed 
a  college.  I  do  not  think  that  such  an  irregular  institution  can  do 
useful  work.  There  are  already  a  lot  of  classes  of  the  kind  opened 
and  maintained  by  Muslims,  but  they  all  lack  the  life-giving  spirit,  so 
marvellously  manifest  in  the  institutions  of  Qidian.  You  may  guess 
the  reason,  for  the  living  and  the  dead  cannot  be  on  the  same  par  ;  and 
the  nominal  followers  of  Ahmad  of  Qadian  cannot  reap  a  good  harvest 
after  their  vain  attempts  at  putting  a  scythe  to  the  green  fields  of 
Qadian.  They  will,  along  with  their  mimic  institution,  disappear 
from  the  scene  in  the  near  future,  and  be  merged  in  the  vast,  but  dead, 
Muslim  community.  This  being  the  case,  what  sort  of  work  can  this 
so-called  college  do,  and  what  good  can  we  expect  from  it  ?" 

The  "  college  "  has  been  discontinued,  but  in  1916 
the  Anjuman  opened  a  "  Muslim  High  School  and  Senior 
Cambridge  Local  College"  in  Lahore,  with  Maulvi  Sadr- 
ud-Din,  B.A.,  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din's  former  associate 
in  the  Woking  Mission,  at  its  head.  I  am  informed  that 
there  are  upwards  of  one  hundred  students,  of  whom  a  few 
are  in  residence,  who  are  being  prepared  for  the  Cambridge 
Local  Examination.  The  English  Bible  is  taught  (1917- 
18)  by  a  Christian  chaplain,  Rev.  F.  F.  Shearwood. 

In  the  autumn  of  1918,  a  hostel  "  for  the  benefit  of 
Muslim  collegiate  students"  was  opened  by  the  Anjuman 
in  Lahore. 

In  addition  to  this  educational  work,  other  activities 
of  the  Lahore  Anjuman  consist  of  the  publication  of  the 

>  Cf,  p.  56,  Note  3. 


126  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

tri-weekly  Paighdin-i-Siilali  in  Urdu,  and  also  of  some 
literature,  including  another  translation  of  the  Qur'an  into 
English,  completed  in  December,  1917,  by  Maulvi 
Muhammad  'Ali,  the  president  of  the  Anjuman.  The 
Anjuman  claims  to  have  several  missionaries  in  different 
parts  of  India,  whose  purpose  is  "  to  advance  the  cause 
of  Islam."  It  has  also  inherited  fcom  Ahmad  his  penchant 
for  holding  public  debates  on  religious  themes.^  A 
growing  interest  in  politics,  on  the  part  of  this  Anjuman, 
was  evidenced  by  the  sending  of  a  deputation,  headed 
by  Maulvi  Sadr-ud-DIn,  to  Mr.  Montagu,  Secretary  of 
State  for  India,  on  behalf  of  the  so-called  Congress-Moslem 
League  Scheme  of  Home  Rule,  in  December,  1917.  The 
Islamic  Review  and  Muslim  India  is  published  in  English 
at  Woking,  and,  in  addition,  an  Urdu  edition  is  published 
in  Lahore  and  a  Malay  edition  in  Singapore. 

A  species  of  social  service  has  been  undertaken  by  the 
Anjuman  on  behalf  of  the  criminal  tribes  of  Kot  Mokhal 
in  Sialkot  district  of  the  Panjab.  In  1917  the  total  in- 
come of  the  Anjuman  amounted  to  Rs.  36,923-0-9,  and  the 
expenditure  totalled  Rs.  34,479-10-9.  An  anniversary 
meeting  of  the  Anjuman  takes  place  in  the  Ahmadiya 
buildings,  Lahore,  each  December. 

The  chief  missionary  interest  of  this  branch  of  the 
Ahmadiya  community  centres  in  the  mission  in  England, 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  made."  Its  founder, 
Khwajah  Kam.al-ud-Din,  a  graduate  of  Forman  Christian 
College,  Lahore,  received  his  B.A.  in  1893,  became  a 
pleader  in  Peshawar  and  then  in  Lahore,  and  early  in 
1912  proceeded  to  England  as  a  missionary  of  Islam. 
He  first  established  his  headquarters  at  Richmond,  but 
in  August,  1914,  moved  with  his  helpers  to  Woking,  in 
Surrey,  where  there  already  existed  a  mosque,  built  by  the 
late  Professor  Leitner,  a  former  principal  of  the  Oriental 
College,  Lahore,  and  given  by  his  heirs  after  his  death  to 
the  Muslim  community.  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din  believed 
that  his  first  duty  was  the  removal  of  the  misrepresentation 

'  Cf.  Appendix  VIII  for  a  typical  Ahmadiya  challenge  to  a 
public  debate.  »  Cf.  p.  118." 


THE  AHMADlYA  COMMUNITY  137 

of  Muhammadanism  which  he  held  was  current  in 
Christian  circles  in  the  West.  To  further  this  end  he 
commenced  the  publication  of  the  paper,  first  named 
Muslim  India  and  the  Islamic  Review.  He  also  seized 
every  opportunity  of  delivering  lectures  on  various  subjects 
connected  with  Islam.  For  instance,  in  January,  1913,  a 
debate  was  arranged  at  Cambridge  on  the  subject  of 
"  Polygamy,"  in  which  it  was  stated,  in  favour  of  polygamy 
(as  reported  in  the  Islamic  Review),  that  "  even  God  was 
pleased  to  take  birth  in  the  house  of  a  polygamist,  as  the 
blessed  Virgin  was  the  second  wife  of  Joseph,  father  of  the 
Lord."  On  another  occasion  the  subject  of  the  position  of 
women  in  Judaism,  Christianity  and  Islam  was  discussed  and 
compared,  and  it  was  argued  that  Islam  had  done  more  than 
all  other  religions  to  raise  the  status  of  womankind.  At 
the  International  Congress  on  Religious  Progress,  held  in 
Paris  in  July,  1913,  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din  delivered  an 
address  on  the  subject  of  Islam  and  received  a  cordial 
reception.  All  such  meetings  are  reported  at  length  in  the 
Islamic  Revieiv,  which,  in  addition  to  Muhammadan 
apologetics,  contains  a  great  variety  of  attacks  on  the 
Christian  faith  and  its  founder,  similar  to  those  quoted 
in  Chapter  IV  above.  At  first  some  space  was  given  in 
the  paper  to  political  affairs  in  connection  with  Islam  in 
India,  but  of  late  the  articles  have  been  almost  wholly 
religious  in  character 

In  addition  to  the  mosque  at  Woking,  the  Mission 
has  rooms  at  111,  Camden  Hill  Road,  Notting  Hill 
Gate,  London,  W.,^  where  Sunday  religious  lectures, 
Friday  prayers,  with  sermon,  and  literary  and  scientific 
lectures,  on  alternate  Thursdays,  are  held.  The  last- 
named  are  promoted  by  the  London  Muslim  Literary 
Society,  which,  like  the  Central  Islamic  Society,  the 
Society  of  London  Muslims,  and  the  British  Muslim 
Association,  is  a  British  development  of  Ahmadiya  Islam. 

A  number  of  English  ladies  and  gentlemen  have 
professed  conversion  to  Islam,  the   most  prominent  being 

Cf.  Appendix  V  for  a   newspaper    report  of   a   meeting  in  the 
ormer  London  headquarters  of  the  Mission  at  Caxton  Hall. 


138  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

Lord  Headley,  an  Irish  peer,  engineer  and  sportsman,  who 
is  now  the  president  of  the  British  Mush'm  Association.^ 
Other  English  Muslims  who  are  constant  contributors 
to  the  Islamic  Review  are  Professor  Henri  M.  Leon, 
M.A.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  F.S.P.,  A.  Neville  J.  Whymant, 
Ph.D.,  Litt.D.,  F.S.P.,  and  Mr.  L  Parkinson.  Alto- 
gether perhaps  two  hundred  had  announced  their 
conversion  by  the  end  of  1917.  A  quotation  from  The 
Islamic  Review  for  January,  1916,  will  indicate  what  is 
involved  in  the  acceptance  of  Islam  in  England  to-day. 

"  The  Brotherhood,  being  universal,  is  open  to  all,  and  anybody 
who  would  like  to  join  it  can  either  attend  the  Friday  prayers  at  one  p.m., 
at  39,  Upper  Bedford  Place,  London,  W.C.,  on  any  Friday;  or 
Sunday  services,  held  at  3.15  p.m.  at  the  Woking  Mosque.  Send  the 
accompanying  declaration  to  the  Imam  of  the  Mosque,  Woking, 
Surrey,  who  will  always  be  glad  to  answer  any  inquiries.  Islam  claims 
to  be  a  rational  faith,  and  undertakes  to  satisfy  the  reason  and  con- 
science both,  so  criticism  is  encouraged  and  every  effort  made  to 
answer  questions  satisfactorily. 

DECLARATION    FORM 

son 

I daughter  of 

wife 

of  ( address) _      _  do  hereby  faithfully 

and  solemnly  declare  of  my  own  free  will  that  I  adopt  Islam  as  my 
religion;  that  I  worship  One  and  only  Allah  (God)  alone  ;  that  I 
believe  Muhammad  to  be  his  messenger  and  servant  ;  that  I  respect 
equally  all  prophets — Abraham,  Moses,  Jesus,  etc. — that  I  will  live 
a  Muslim  life  by  the  help  of  Allah. 

La  ilaha  ill-Allah, 
Muhammad  al  rasul-Allah.^ 
N.B. — Please  address  all   inquiries  to  the   Maulvi   Sadr-ud-Din, 
B.A.,  B.T.,  Head  of  the  Mosque,  Woking,  Surrey.^ 

^  On  December  9,  1916,  Lord  Headley  was  fined  ten  shillings,  or 
seven  days'  imprisonment,  at  Tower  Bridge  Police  Court,  London,  for 
being  drunk  and  disorderly  in  Waterloo  Road.  The  case  was  appealed, 
and  at  the  County  of  London  Sessions,  on  January  19,  1917,  the  appeal 
was  dismissed  with  costs.  See  The  Glasgow  Weekly  Herald  for 
December  16,  1916,  and  January  20,  1917.  See  also  Lord  Headley's 
explanation  in  Islamic  Review,  October  1917,  Vol.  V,  p.  421. 

2  I.e.,  Kalima.     Cf.  p.  104,  Note  1. 

^  Compare  with  the  Form  for  Initiation  into  the  Ahmadiya 
Movement,  in  Appendix  II. 


THE  AHMADlYA  COMMUNITY  129 

Another  quotation,  from  the  issue  of  September,  1915, 
will  illustrate  the  aspirations  and  dreams  of  the  group  at 
Woking : 

"  The  time  is  approaching  fast  when  God  will  no  more  remain  an 
absurd  mathematical  problem,  even  in  Christian  lands.  The  time 
will  come  when  Europe  will  be  freed  of  its  four  curses  of  selfish 
materialism,  drunkenness,  gambling  and  licentiousness.  The  time  will 
come  when  the  Christian  belief  that  woman  was  the  cause  of  that  sin  with 
which,  according  to  Christian  nations,  all  mankind  is  permeated  from 
birth,  will  die  out.  The  time  will  come  when  innocent  and  angelic 
children,  if  they  die  unbaptized,  will  not  be  sent  to  perdition  because 
of  the  crimes  committed  by  their  remotest  possible  ancestors,  and  if 
they  live  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  grow  up  with  the  demoralizing 
conviction  in  their  minds  that  they  were  born  sinners,  and  that  their 
sins  can  only  be  cleansed  by  the  blood  of  Christ.  The  time,  in  short, 
will  come,  and  that,  hisha  Allah,^  soon,  when  Islam  will  be  accepted  by 
the  European  nations  as  the  religion  which  satisfies  man's  reason  and 
conscience  both.  The  time  will  come  when  in  European  countries 
Eid-ul-Fitr^  and  other  Muslim  festivals  will  no  more  remain  novelties, 
and  when  the  cry  of  La  ilaha  illaUah  M\ihammad  Rasulallah 
will  be  heard  from  high  minarets  five  times  every  day  from  European 
cities." 

This  periodical  is  sent  free  to  several  thousand  non- 
Muslims  with  the  idea  of  interesting  them  in  Islam,  and 
the  editors  make  it  their  boast  that  because  of  their  work 
the  Western  mind  has  already  been  disabused  of  "  such 
misrepresentation  and  misunderstanding  which  has  been 
enveloping  Islam  and  tarnishing  its  beauty  for  centuries." 
The  same  claim  is  made  for  a  book  by  Lord  Headley, 
entitled  A  Western  Awakening  to  Isldm,^  which  is 
really  a  modified  restatement  (for  the  most  part  published 
previously  in  the  Islamic  Review)  of  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad's 
glorification  of  Islam  at  the  expense  of  Christianity. 

At  this  writing  an  effort  is  being  made  to  compass  the 
erection  of  a  mosque  in  the  city  of  London  itself,  and 
Khwajah  Kamal-ud-DIn  has  spent  considerable  time  in 
India  arousing  interest  and  securing  funds  throughout  the 

'  I.e.,  "  Please  God." 

^  The  'Id-ul-Fitr  is  the  feast  which  celebrates  the  end  of  the  fast 
of  Ramadan. 

^  Right  Hon.  Lord  Headley,  B.A.,  etc.,  A  Western  Awakening  to 
Islam;  Being  the  Result  oj  Over  Forty  Years'  Contemplation,  London 
1915. 


130  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

entire  Indian  Muhammadan  world  (not  simply  from  Ahma- 
dis,  be  it  noted),  on  behalf  of  this  project  as  well  as  of  all 
the  work  of  the  Muhammadan  Mission  in  England,  in 
which  there  are  now  several  paid  and  many  voluntary 
workers. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  a  resume  of  the  beliefs  of  the 
members  of  the  Woking  Mission  there  is  included  in 
Appendix  IV,  p.  147,  a  part  of  an  editorial  on  "What  is 
Islam?"  which  is  taken  from  the  Islamic  Review.  The 
following  subjects  of  articles  that  have  appeared  recently  in 
that  periodical,  selected  at  random,  will  give  an  idea  of 
the  range  and  nature  of  its  contents: 

"  A  Muslim's  Obligations  to  His  Kinsmen,"  "Universal 
Brotherhood,"  "  God  and  Science,"  "  Haeckel  and 
Islam,"  Relative  Position  of  Man  and  Woman  in  Islam," 
"  The  Age  of  the  New  Testament,"  "  Christendom  and 
Islam,"  "Islam,"  "  Islam  and  Idolatry,"  "  Misrepresenta- 
tions of  Missionaries,"  "Jesus  Christ  as  Man  and 
'God',"  "The  Solidarity  of  Islam,"  "Islam  and  Civili- 
zation," "  Who  was  the  Founder  of  '  Church  Religion' 
in  the  West  ?  " 

Regarding  the  financial  condition  of  the  Woking 
Mission,  the  receipts  from  Muslims  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  during  the  year  1917  totalled  Rs.  26,765-8-3,  and 
the  expenditure  was  Rs.  31,963-6-0.  These  figures 
include  the  expenses  involved  in  the  publication  of  the 
Islamic  Review,  a  considerable  enlargement  of  which  is 
proposed  in  the  near  future. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  AHMADlYA 
MOVEMENT 

In  considering  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  Ahmadiya  move- 
ment, it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  motive 
and  the  reasoning  of  its  original  leader,  and  the  motives 
that  have  actuated  those  w^ho  have  joined  the  sect  both 
before  and  after  the  founder's  death.  In  the  case  of 
MIrza  Ghulam  Ahmad  himself,  as  in  the  case  of  his  great 
master,  Muhammad,  thirteen  centuries  earlier,  a  predom- 
inant influence  leading  to  his  assumption  of  the  role  of 
prophet  v^^as  undoubtedly  his  overwhelming  sense  of  the 
evil  that  was  in  the  world,  particularly,  in  Ahmad's  case, 
that  part  of  the  world  which  was  nominally  subject  to 
Muhammadan  law  and  ethics.  As  he  meditated  upon 
this  he  was  mindful  of  the  tradition^  that  at  the  beginning 
of  every  hundred  years  a  reviver  (Mnjaddid')  would  appear, 
who  should  revivify  Islam  and  restore  it  to  the  pure  prin- 
ciples of  its  founder.  Ahmad's  conviction  that  he  had 
been  chosen  to  fulfil  a  unique  mission  may  well  have  had 
its  inception  in  the  growing  consciousness,  which  appears 
early  in  his  writings,  that  he  was  the  divinely  appointed 
reformer  for  the  fourteenth  century  of  the  Muslim  era. 

Following  this,  through  his  contact  with  Christian 
missionaries  and  their  claims  and  doctrines,  a  new  Chris- 
tian element  was  introduced  into  his  thinking,  and,  from 
that  time  forward,  occupied  a  far  more  prominent  place  in 
his  mind  than  is  the  case  with  the  average   Muhammadan 

'  See  Ed.  of  Ihyd  of  Al    Ghazali,   with  commentary  of    S.   M  ,   I, 
p.  26  ;  and  Goldziher,  Vorhsungen  iiber  den  Islam,  p    314 
»  Cf.  p.  116. 


132  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

teacher  and  preacher.  He  early  recognized  the  importance 
of  the  unique  place  given  to  Jesus  by  Muhammad,  especi- 
ally in  the  fact,  as  the  Qur'an  is  generally  interpreted  by 
Islam,  that  Jesus  was  taken  up  alive  into  heaven.  Ahmad 
saw  that  a  live  Jesus,  whose  tomb  nowhere  existed,  and 
a  dead  Muhammad,  whose  tomb  at  Medina  was  an  object 
of  pilgrimage  for  Muslims,  gave  Jesus  an  advantage  of 
which  Christian  missionaries  might  have  made  far  more  use 
than  they  had.  After  Ahmad  had  reflected  upon  these 
things  and  discussed  them  with  Muslim  and  Christian 
friends,  the  revelations  began  to  come,  as  described  in  the 
first  chapter,  giving  to  Ahmad  all  the  honours  which 
Muslims  usually  ascribe  to  Jesus,  and  most  of 
those  conferred  by  Muslim  "agreement"  upon  Muham- 
mad. From  all  classes  of  Muslims  he  sought  acknowledg- 
ment as  the  "  next  step  "  in  the  divine  revelation, 
which  came,  in  time,  to  mean  that  he  was  not  only  the 
reformer  of  the  present  generation,  but  that  he  was  also 
the  fulfiller  of  all  the  apocalyptic  hopes  of  Muslims — those 
looking  toward  the  Mahdi  as  well  as  to  the  promised 
Messiah.  Then,  even  as  Muhammad  from  believing  that 
he  was  sent  specially  to  his  own  followers  came  to  regard 
himself  as  appointed  to  a  more  universal  mission,  Ahmad 
extended  his  claims  to  other  religions  as  well,  declaring 
that  his  revelation  was  to  all  mankind,  to  the  Christian 
and  the  Hindu  as  well  as  to  the  Muslim.  But  here  the 
difficulty  of  Jesus'  ascension  into  heaven  in  his  earthly 
body,  according  to  both  Muslim  and  Christian  ideas,  had 
to  be  conclusively  dealt  with  by  Ahmad,  since,  were  Jesus 
really  alive  in  such  a  unique  manner,  which  did  not  hold 
true  of  Muhammad  and  the  other  prophets,  it  would  be 
expected  that  his  return  would  be  supernatural  in  character, 
in  which  case  Ahmad  would  have  no  ground  for  his  claim 
to  Messiahship.  Ahmad  accepted  the  issue  by  boldly  and 
repeatedly  declaring  that  if  the  commonly  accepted  view 
of  Jesus'  ascension  was  true,  he  (Ahmad)  was  an  imposter; 
and  we  have  seen  how  earnestly  he  sought  to  prove  that 
orthodox  Muslims  and  Christians  were  wrong,  through 
his  revelation  declaring  that  Jesus  died  an  ordinary  death 
and  was  buried  in  Srinagar,  Kashmir.     The  efforts  of  his 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT        133 

later  years  were  divided  between  urging  the  proofs  of  his 
various  claims  to  unique  eminence,  building  up  the  new 
community  centring  in  Qadian,  and  giving  in  his  lectures 
and  writings  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  Muhammadan 
teachings  which  he  held  to  be  needful  for  the  revitalizing 
of  the  Muslim  world.  His  proposal,  just  before  his  death, 
to  form  a  union  of  the  Arya  Samiij,  Hinduism  and  Islam, 
was  the  climax  of  his  life's  activities. 

To  understand  the  motives  of  those  Muslims^  who 
have  joined  the  movement — other  than  those  who  were 
attracted  by  the  personality  of  the  founder  and  immedi- 
ately and  blindly  accepted  his  judgments  and  revelations 
as  valid,  without  any  use  whatever  of  their  reasoning 
faculties — it  is  necessary  to  survey  briefly  the  recent 
development  of  Islam  in  India.  Dating  roughly  from 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  came 
to  the  religious  thought  and  life  of  India,  moribund 
for  so  many  centuries,  a  notable  awakening  and 
advance,  due,  as  Dr.  Farquhar  has  shown, ^  to  the 
co-operation  of  three  forces — the  British  Government  in 
India,  Protestant  Christian  Missions  and,  at  a  later  period, 
the  work  of  the  great  Western  orientalists.  The 
Muhammadan  community  in  India  (comprising  more  than 
sixty  millions  of  the  three  hundred  odd  million  inhabitants) 
was  the  last  large  unit  of  the  population  to  feel  and 
respond  to  this  new  stimulus,  as  it  was  farthest  behind  in 
education  and  culture.  It  was  their  great  progressive 
leader,  Syed  Ahmad  Khan,'^  of  Delhi  and  Aligarh,  who 
first  realised  that  the  Muslims  must  join  the  Bengalis, 
Marathas,  Parsis,  and  other  races  and  communities,  in 
seeking  to  assimilate  the  results  of  Western  scholarship,  and, 
where  necessary,  to  adapt  their  religious  ideas  and  practices 
to  fit  the  new  environment  created  by  the  influx  of  British 
civilians.  Christian  missionaries  and  oriental  scholars.  He 
advised  his    fellow-Muslims    in    India    to  eschew  political 

*  The  number  of  Hindus  and  Christians  who  have  become 
Ahmadis  in  India  and  other  countries  is  so  small  as  to  be  negligible 
for  our  present  purpose  of  estimating  the  significance  of  the  sect. 

*  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  p.  5. 
'  See  p.  66,  Note  I. 


134  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

controversy,  and,  thankfully  recognizing  the  advantages 
afforded  to  Islam  in  India  by  the  presence  of  the  British 
Government,  to  seek  in  every  w^ay  to  advance  the  cause  of 
education  and  social  reform  within  their  ow^n  ranks.  In  his 
residential  college,  at  Aligarh,  Western  arts  and  sciences 
w^ere  taught  by  European  scholars  along  w^ith  the  religious 
instruction  given  by  Sunnite  and  Shi'ite  maulvis.  To  the 
utter  abomination  of  the  orthodox,  he  mingled  freely  in 
English  society,  even  dining  with  English  ladies  and 
gentlemen  in  their  homes,  and  in  his  periodical,  TahzWul 
Akhldq  ("  Reform  of  Morals"),  he  urged  upon  his  commu- 
nity the  importance  of  female  education  and  enfranchise- 
ment, and  of  other  advanced  reforms.  In  religious  matters 
he  was  a  liberal  and  a  rationalist,  going  so  far  as  to  place  the 
Christian  Bible  on  a  par  with  the  Qur'an,  as  no  less,  and 
no  more,  inspired,  holding  that  the  Bible  has  not  been 
corrupted  by  the  Christians,  and  that  in  the  Qur'an,  as  in 
the  Bible,  there  is  a  human  as  well  as  a  divine  element.  He 
also  wrote  part  of  a  commentary  on  the  book  of  Genesis. 
One  of  his  watchwords  was,  "Reason  alone  is  a  sufficient 
guide,"  and  he  quoted  with  approval  the  remark  of  a 
French  writer,  that  Islam,  which  lays  no  claim  to  miracul- 
ous powers  on  the  part  of  the  founder,  is  the  truly 
rationalistic  religion.^  As  Goldziher  has  pointed  out^ 
this  represents  a  return  to  the  old  Mu'tazilite  position,^ 
and  in  its  universalistic  outlook  upon  other  religions  is 
akin  to  Babism  in  Persia,  which  arose  at  about  the  same 
period. 

Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan  and  his  followers,  then, 
represent  the  first  development  of  Indian  Islam,  under  the 
stimulus  of  its  contact  with  Western  ideas,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  profound  influence  of  this 
movement  on  the  articulate  section  of  the  Muhammadan 
world  of  India.  In  the  second  stage  we  pass  from  what 
Dr.  Farquhar  calls  "  movements  favouring  vigorous  re- 
form," to  those  in  which  reform  is  checked  by  defence  of 

*  See  Weitbrecht,  Indian  Islam  and  Modern  Thought,  Church 
Congress,  1905. 

^  Vorlesungen  iiber  den  Islam,  p.  313. 
=  Cf.  p.  65,  Note  3  ;  and  p.  123,  Note  1. 


SIGNIFICANCE  OP^  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT         135 

the  old  faiths,  from  the  atmosphere  of  the  theistic  Brahma 
Samaj,  of  Ram  Mohan  Roy  and  Keshub  Chandra  Sen,  to 
that  of  the  largely  reactionary  and  strongly  anti-Christian 
Arya  Samaj  of  Dayanand  Saraswati.  Such  well-known 
living  Muslims  as  Syed  Amir  'Ali  and  Maulvi  Chiragh  'All 
represent  this  school  of  thought,  which  in  its  Muhammad- 
anism  is  as  rationalistic  as  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan,  but  in  its 
attitude  toward  other  faiths  is  much  more  dogmatic  and 
less  tolerant.  These  writers  are  greatly  concerned  to  prove 
that  the  reforms — religious,  social,  moral  and  political — 
which  have  been  forced  upon  Islam  by  pressure  from 
without  are  really  in  line  with  the  original  spirit  of  Islam, 
however  much  Muhammadan  tradition,  law  and  present- 
day  practice  may  actually  oppose  them.  Furthermore,  they 
declare  that  the  real  Islam  is  the  universal  religion  of  the 
future,  because  it  meets  sinful  man  on  the  lower  level  of  his 
practical,  everyday  life,  instead  of  holding  up,  as  does 
Christianity  (sic),  ideals  impossible  of  attainment.  This 
probably  represents  that  "  side  development  of  Islam  "  to 
which  Professor  Macdonald  alludes  in  Aspects  of  Isldm,'^ 
when  he  writes:  "  Or  are  the  wheels  of  progress  to  crush 
out  all  ideals,  and  is  the  future  civilization  of  the  world  to 
be  woven  of  philosophic  doubt,  of  common-sense  attitudes 
and  of  material  luxury  ?  There  is  a  curious  side  develop- 
ment of  Islam  which  looks  in  that  direction,  and  which 
sees  in  the  narrowed,  utilitarian  aims,  in  the  acceptance  of 
the  lower  facts  of  life,  in  the  easy  ideals  which  characterize 
that  religion,  the  promise  that  its  will  be  the  future  in  the 
common-sense  world  to  come,  and  holds  that,  even  as  the 
world  is,  Islam  must  be  the  religion  of  all  sensible  men." 

Syed  Amir  'Ali  seems  to  hold  that  view  of  Islam,  in  its 
essence,  only  insisting  that  Muhammad's  practical  rules 
assist  morality  more  than  do  general  precepts  ;  and  yet 
admitting  that  in  order  to  the  wide  acceptance  of  Islam  in 
the  West  certain  modifications  of  its  requirements  are 
essential.  In  The  Spirit  of  Islam  he  has  written:  "The 
Islam  of  Muhammad,  with  its  stern  discipline  and  its  severe 
morality,  has  proved  itself  the  only  practical  religion  for  low 

»  Pp.  256,  257. 


136  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

natures,  to  save  them  from  drifting  into  lawless  materialism. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  should  the  creed  of  the 
Arabian  Prophet  receive  acceptance  among  European 
communities,  much  of  the  rigid  formalism  which  has  been 
imparted  to  it  by  the  lawyers  of  Central  Asia  and  Irak 
will  have  to  be  abandoned."^ 

Thus  has  reform  passed  over  into  apologetic,  as,  in  the 
main  thesis  of  Syed  Amir  'All's  book,  it  advances  to 
polemic  and  straightforward  attack  essential  to  the 
assertion,  on  this  new  ground,  of  the  superiority  of  Islam 
over  Christianity.  As  Syed  Amir  'Ali  and  Maulvi 
Chiragh  'Ali  have  departed  from  the  policy  of  Sir  Syed 
Ahmad  Khan  in  the  latter's  unpolemical  religious 
eclecticism,  the  vigorous  group  of  Muslims  composing 
the  All-India  Moslem  League^  has  departed  from  it  in  a 
different  direction  in  their  active  championship  of  the 
political  rights  and  ambitions  of  the  Muslims  of  India  in 
the  present  day.  The  editor  of  the  defunct  Comrade 
(the  organ  of  this  group),  Muhammad  'Ali,  by  reason 
of  his  seditious  articles  and  utterances,  was  interned  by  the 
British  Government,  together  with  his  brother  and  a 
number  of  other  prominent  Muslims,  soon  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war  with  Germany. 

We  come  now  to  the  Ahmadiya  movement,  which 
represents  on  the  religious  side  a  further  departure  from 
Sir  Syed  Ahmad's  position,  in  the  matter  of  religious 
liberalism,  but  is  a  return  to  it,  though  on  different 
grounds,^  in  the  matter  of  the  absence  of  political  contro- 
versy. The  rationalism  of  all  the  newer  school  is  utterly 
repudiated  by  Ahmad,  as  we  have  seen,  and  there  is 
present  here  a  zeal  for  reform  more  analogous  to  the 
Wahhabites  than  to  any  other  modern  party  of  Muslims. 
It  represents  a  later  stage  of  the  reaction  to  a  Christianity 
by  this  time  established  and  rapidly  winning  converts.  It 
has  attracted  those  Muslims  who,  concerned  alike  at_the 
inroads  of  Christianity  and  (to  a  small  extent)  of  the  Arya 
Samaj  from  without,  and  of  rationalism  and  worldliness 
from  within,  turned  eagerly  toward  a  leader  who  took  his 

»  Preface,  p.  xii.  ^  Cf.  p.  114.  ^  Cf.  p.  103. 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT        137 

stand  firmly  upon  Islam  as  a  revealed  religion,  as  being  the 
supreme  revelation  of  God  to  man,  and,  allowing  no 
quarter  to  Christianity,  pressed  forward  in  unsparing  attack, 
not,  however,  asserting  the  superiority  of  Islam  on  the 
ground  of  its  rational  character,  but  rather  because  of  the 
authentic  and  conclusive  nature  of  its  divinely  inspired 
revelation.  Accordingly,  following  in  this  Syed  Amir  'Ali 
rather  than  Sir  Syed  Ahmad,  Western  civilization,  as  well 
as  the  Christian  religion,  is  generally  and  heartily 
condemned. 

Undoubtedly  one  element  which  helped  to  convince 
many  Muslims  of  the  validity  of  Abmad's  claim  to  be 
the  medium  of  revelation  in  our  day  was  his  theory 
regarding  the  death  of  Jesus,  which  brought  them 
relief  from  the  predicament  in  which  they  had  hitherto 
been  placed  in  religious  controversy  with  Christians. 
This  reason  for  success  is  frankly  set  forth  in  a  recent 
article  by  Ahmad's  son,  the  present  Khalifa,  which 
is  the  substance  of  a  letter  sent  by  him  to  the  Nizam 
of  Hyderabad  : 

"  The  chief  reason  why  the  reformer  of  this  age  was  given  the 
title  of  Messiah  was  tha  the  was  destined  to  fight  against  '  Church 
Christianity'  and  to  break  its  power,  and  as  an  actual  fact  the  instru- 
ments which  the  reformer  used  towards  this  end  were  such  as  were 
altogether  beyond  the  power  of  the  Christians  to  face.  For  example, 
it  was  the  practice  of  the  Christians  to  take  in  Musalmans  by  such 
arguments  as  the  following:  — '  Mark,  how  our  Messiah  is  still  alive 
while  your  prophet  is  dead.'  '  Our  Messiah  used  to  bring  the 
dead  to  life.  Your  prophet  did  not  bring  any  dead  to  life.' 
'  Our  Messiah  is  sitting  in  the  sky,  your  prophet  lies  buried  under 
the  sand.'  '  Your  prophet  will  not  visit  the  earth  again,  but 
our  Messiah  will  once  more  come  to  the  earth  to  purge  it  of  its 
corruptions,  and  it  is  he  who  will  overthrow  the  perils  of  the  latter 
days.'  '  Now,  say  truly,  which  of  the  two  is  superior?'  The  argu- 
ment was  such  as  could  not  possibly  be  escaped  by  the  Musalmans 
and  most  of  them  fell  a  prey  to  the  deception.  What  the  reformer 
did  was  to  establish  by  powerful  arguments  the  falsity  of  all  such 
notions.  He  thus  saved  Musalmans  from  the  clutches  of  the  Chris- 
tians. ...  By  proving  that  Jesus  died  a  natural  death,  the  new  reformer 
gave  a  fresh  lease  of  life  to  Islam,  and  now  the  Musalmans  are  for  all 
times  saved  from  falling  a  prey  to  the  Christian  missionaries" 
(Review  of  Religions,  XV,  p.  9). 

A  further  powerful  element  of  attractiveness  in  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  is  its  appeal  to  the  age-long  eschato- 


138  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

logical  hopes  of  Muslims,  held  to  some  extent  in  common 
with  earnest  adherents  of  most  of  the  great  religious  com- 
munions of  the  world.  It  is  on  this  side  that  it  is  distant- 
ly related  to  the  Babi  and  Baha'i  movements,  from  which 
it  differs  essentiallj',  as  we  have  already  seen, ^  in  the  matter 
of  its  exclusiveness  and  intolerance,  insisting,  as  it  does, 
not  on  the  oneness  of  all  religions,  but  rather  on  the  unique 
supremacy  of  Islam  as  interpreted  by  Ahmad.  The  late 
Dr.  S.  G.  Wilson,  author  of  Bahaism  and  Its  Claims,  for 
thirty-two  years  a  missionary  in  Persia,  traces  the  parallel- 
ism between  the  two  movements,  in  eschatological  and 
other  directions,  in  part  as  follows  :" 

"In  this  effort  to  propagate  itself  in  Christendom  (referring  to 
the  Mission  at  Woking,  England),  it  is  like  Baha'ism.  In  not  a 
few  points  there  is  a  striking  resemblance  between  these  offshoots  from 
Miihammadanism.  Some  of  these  may  be  accounted  for  by  their 
springing  up  in  a  similar  soil,  a  Muhammadan  soil  impregnated  with 
Sufiism  and  Mahdiism.and  in  which  some  elements  of  nineteenth  century 
Christian  thought  had  found  lodgment.  Both  (Ahmad  and  Baha'Uilah) 
claim  that  a  new  revelation  is  needed,  because  Christianity  is  dead  and 
Islam  needs  reforming.  .  .  .  Both,  after  the  example  of  Muhammad, 
sent  letters  to  kings  announcing  their  coming  and  inviting  them  to 
faith.  Both  practised  polygamy  and  praised  Muhammad  and  the 
Koran.  Both  belittled  Jesus  Christ,  denying  his  miracles,  his 
resurrection,  his  ascension  and  literal  Second  Coming.  Both  failed  to 
bring  about  moral  reformation  in  the  conduct  of  their  disciples,  who 
have  divided  into  sects  on  the  death  of  their  founders.  Both  claimed 
as  signs  of  their  mission  their  eloquence  in  the  Arabic  tongue,  the 
writing  of  spontaneous  verses,  fulfilled  predictions,  their  success  in 
winning  converts,  and  the  good  effects  seen  in  the  conduct  of  their 
followers.  Both  made  large  use  of  the  press  ;  Baha'  UUah  sent 
his  books  to  Bombay  to  be  published,  owing  to  lack  of  liberty  in 
Turkey  and  Persia;  Ghulfim  Ahmad  had  a  press  of  his  own  at  Qadian. 
The  teachings  of  Ahmad  are  free  from  some  of  the  extravagances  and 
inanities  of  Baha'ism.  Neither  sect  appears  to  have  any  great  future 
before  it.  Their  chief  usefulness  has  been  to  help  towards  the 
breaking  down  of  scholastic  Islam — the  one  among  the  Shi'ahs,  the 
other  among  the  Sunnis  of  India.  Baha'ism  has  definitely  broken  with 
Islam,  while  the  Ahmadiya  movement  continues  within  its  fold." 

While  all  the  reasons  given  above  help  to  explain  the 
measure  of  success  attained  by   the   Ahmadiya  movement, 

1  Cf.  p.  53. 

^  Modern  Movements  Among  Moslems,  Fleming  H.  Revell, 
N.Y.,  1916,  pp.  138,  139. 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT         139 

it  is  chiefly  significant  as  giving  added  evidence  of  the 
craving  ol  the  human  heart  everywhere  for  a  real  and 
vitalizing  religious  life.  It  has  shown  how  many  Indian 
Muslims  there  are  who  could  not  rest  satisfied  with  a 
rationalistic  faith,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  with  mere  empty 
orthodoxy  combined  with  formal  worship,  on  the  other. 
My  visit  to  Qadian,  in  January,  1916,  although  it  took 
place  more  than  eight  years  after  the  death  of  Ahmad, 
showed  me  a  community  where  there  existed  abundant 
enthusiasm  and  zeal  for  religion,  of  a  vigorous,  positive  kind 
unusual  in  Islam  in  India  at  the  present  time.  One  could 
understand  how  an  earnest  Muslim  who  had  come  to  feel 
a  species  of  contempt  for  the  ignorant,  unfaithful  maulvis 
of  his  acquaintance,  a  A'luslim  to  whom  Muhammad  seemed 
a  long  way  back,  historically,  and  Mecca  a  long  way  off, 
geographically,  would  find  in  the  spirit  of  industry,  con- 
fidence and  aggressiveness  to  be  encountered  at  Qadian  a 
heartening  faith  for  which  he  had  looked  in  vain  to  ortho- 
dox relatives  and  priests.  We  can  understand  how  he 
would  thankfully  accept  as  true  the  revelations  of  the 
Mirza  Sahib,  without  subjecting  their  content  to  the 
scrutiny  of  a  trained  intellect,  partly  because  his  pragmatic 
mind  could  see  that  here  was  something  that  worked,  and 
partly  because  of  his  not  being  one  of  the  rare  few  in  the 
Muslim  world  who  as  yet  have  attained  to  fair  and  critical 
judgment  in  matters  affecting  the  religious  life. 

The  split  in  the  sect,  following  the  death  of  the  first 
Khalifa,  shows  the  counter  effect  upon  the  community  of 
the  strong  present-day  rationalistic  and  political  elements 
in  Indian  Muhammadanism,  pressing  in  upon  the  minds  of 
educated  Ahmadis  like  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din  and  his 
fellow-seceders.  They  are  so  far  men  of  affairs  in  the 
world  that  they  could  not  wholly  give  themselves  over  to 
that  absorption  in  religious  matters  which  is  characteristic 
of  the  Qadian  party.  As  already  related,  their  secession 
tended  naturally  to  accentuate  in  the  members  of  the  true 
Ahmadiya  remnant  their  belief  in  supernatural  religion 
and  their  loyalty  to  the  unique  claims  of  their  revered 
leader.  How  the  faces  of  these  loyal  Ahmadis  are  turning 
more  and  more   toward   Qadian  as  a  second   Medina,  not 


140  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

to  say  Mecca,  is  evident  from    the  following  paragraph   in 
the  Review  of  Religions  for  January,  1917  (XV,  p.  41)  : 

"  More  than  five  thousand  delegates,  from  almost  ail  the  parts  of 
India,  attended  the  annual  gathering  of  Ahmadis,  and  the  meetings 
held  on  the  26th,  27th,  and  28th  December  were  a  complete  success. 
His  Holiness  the  Second  Successor  to  the  Promised  Messiah  spoke  on 
the  remembrance  of  God,  for  five  hours,  and  His  Hazrat's^  impres- 
sive, interesting  and  instructive  sermon  was  listened  to  with  rapt 
attention  by  the  spell-bound  assembly  of  the  faithful,  who  returned 
home  with  increased  knowledge  and  refreshed  faith.  There  was  also 
a  ladies'  conference,  about  five  hundred  ladies  being  present.  The 
blessed  town  of  Qadian  this  year  witnessed  the  truth  of  the  Promised 
Messiah's  great  prophecy  about  this  place,  with  even  greater  splendour 
and  grandeur  than  before,  and  everyone,  with  the  praise  of  Allah  on 
his  lips,  involuntarily  sang  the  following  couplet  of  the  Messiah — 
'  The  place  of  Qadian  is  now  honoured,  and  with  the  gathering 
together  of  people  resembles  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  Ka'ba.'  " 

It  now  appears  certain  that  the  Lahore  party  will  be 
absorbed  into  the  "  All-India  Moslem  League  "  section  of 
Indian  Islam,  contributing  to  it  a  certain  added  anti- 
Christian  animus  and,  in  part  perhaps,  the  new  Ahmadlya 
interpretation  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  whereas  the  Qadian 
party  will  continue  as  a  permanent,  and  possibly  a 
gradually  widening,  segment  of  the  great  circle  of  Islam. 

*  "  Lordship  "  or  "  Excellency." 


AHMADIYA   BIBLIOGRAPHY 

H.  D.    Griswold — M'lrzd    Ghuldin   AJitnad,   the   Mehdi-Messiah    of 

Qddidn,  Ludhiana,  1902. 
G.    L.    Thakur    Dass — The     "  Greatest     Discovery  "     Exploded, 

Ludhiana,  1903. 
Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad — The  Teachings  of  Islam,  London,   1910. 
Right    Hon.     Lord     Headley — A     Western    Awakening    to     Islam, 

London,  1915. 
H.  D.  Griswold — "The  Ahmadiya  Movement,"  Moslem   World,  II, 

p.  373ff. 
H.  A.  Walter — "The  Ahmadiya  Movement  To-day,"  Mo5/e)H  World, 

VI,      ff. 
R.    Siraj-ud-Din — "  Mirza    Ghulam    Ahmad,    a    False    Messiah   of 

India,"  Missioyiary  Revieiv   of    the    World,   New    Series,    XX, 

p.  749ff. 
M.  T.  Houtsma — "Ahmadiya,"  in  Revue  du  Monde  Musulman,  I, 

p.  333ff. 
H.A.Walter — "  Qadiani,"    in  Hastings'  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics,  X. 
T.  M.  Arnold — Acts  du  XII   me  Congris  Internat.  des  Orientalistes, 

Rome,  1899,  III,  I,  p.  139ff. 
Ignaz   Goldziher — Vorlesungen    iiber   den   Islam,   Heidelberg,    1910, 

p.  313ff. 
J.  N.  Farquhar — Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  New  York, 

1915,  p.  137ff. 

S.  G.  Wilson — Modern    Movements    Among    Moslems,    New    York, 

1916,  p.  132ff. 

Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad — Bardhin-i-Ahmadiya,  Qadian,  1880. 

The  Review  of  Religions ,  Qadian,  monthly  since  1902. 

The   Isldmic   Review    and    Muslim    India,   Woking,   monthly  since 

1912. 
Government  of  India  Census  Reports,  1901  and  1911. 
Numerous    books,   periodicals    and    controversial     pamphlets    in    the 

vernacular. 


APPENDIX    I 

Excerpts  from  article,  entitled  "  Revelation,^'  by 
Chaudri  Fateh  Muhammad  Sayal,  M.A.,  in  Review  of 
Religions,  November,  1916: 

"  Revelations  begin  in  dreams,  as  it  is  related  of 
Prophet  Muhammad.  His  wife  says  that  at  first  the 
prophet  used  to  have  beautiful  dreams,  and  their  fulfilment 
w^as  as  sure  as  day  follow^s  night.  The  same  has  been  told 
by  Ahmad  about  himself  in  his  life.  He  first  used  to  see 
true  dreams  and  clear  visions  before  he  received  verbal 
revelations  containing  grand  prophecies.  It  is  quite 
intelligible  that  it  should  be  so,  for  in  order  that  the 
spiritual  sense  should  be  able  to  vi'ork  in  its  initial  stages  it 
is  necessary  that  all  the  other  senses  should  be  at  rest.  It 
is  a  common  experience  that  all  the  senses  cannot  v^^ork 
their  best  at  the  same  time.  When  a  man  with  strong 
spiritual  powers  has  a  dream,  probably  he  does  not  notice 
it  at  first,  but  when  he  sees  that  the  dreams  he  has  are 
often  fulfilled,  he  becomes  curious  about  them  and  begins 
to  remember  them  in  order  to  see  if  they  are  fulfilled  or 
not.  He  finds  to  his  surprise  that  they  are  fulfilled  with 
wonderful  accuracy,  which  is  beyond  the  power  of  hallu- 
cination. By  this  time  the  spiritual  sense  has  grown  stronger 
by  use,  and  visions  are  seen  in  a  light  sleep,  then  in  a  semi- 
waking  state,  and  finally  when  a  person  is  wide  awake. 
This  is  all  done  to  save  the  prophet  from  doubt,  surprise 
or  shock.  The  frequency  of  the  visions  and  their  fulfil- 
ment convinces  him  of  the  working  of  the  spiritual  sense  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  proclaims  this  among  other  people 
and  has  the  courage  of  conviction  to  say,  '  Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away,  but  the  word  of  my  mouth  shall  not 
pass  away.'  And  the  Holy  Qur'an  says,  'It  is  as  sure  as 
your  own  speech.'     After  a  long  experience  of  this  kind, 


APPENDIX  I  143 

when  a  person  sees  a  future  event  in  a  vision,  or  is  other- 
wise informed  of  it  through  his  spiritual  sense,  he  has  no 
hesitation  in  claiming  that  that  event  shall  occur  as  shown 
to  him.  The  difference  between  prophecy  and 
surmise  is  the  same  as  between  certainty  and  expecta- 
tion. Of  course,  a  future  event  may  be  shown  in 
an  allegorical  manner,  but  the  repeated  experience 
of  the  person  who  sees  it  will  explain  the  allegory  to  him. 
Progressing  from  this  state,  revelation  becomes  clearer  ;  a 
piece  of  writing  may  appear  before  the  eyes,  one  may  hear 
words  as  if  spoken  from  the  other  side  of  a  curtain,  or  each 
separate  word  may  strike  the  heart  as  a  hammer  strikes 
the  gong.  Sometimes  a  sort  of  electric  influence  passes 
through  the  whole  body,  and  all  physical  powers  are  sus- 
pended for  a  time,  and  the  prophet  utters  some  words 
which  he  knows  are  not  his  own.  At  first  the  revelations 
are  very  short,  but  as  time  goes  on  they  become  longer, 
and  more  frequent.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  Prophet 
Muhammad  had  very  short  verses  revealed  to  him  at  first, 
but  as  time  went  on,  and  he  became  accustomed  to  receive 
revelations,  the  verses  became  longer  and  were  revealed 
more  frequently. 

"  Further  on,  I  let  Ahmad  speak  on  this  difficult 
subject. 

"  '  It  is  also  one  of  the  signs  of  the  perfect  one  that  Ahnighty  God 
makes  his  tongue  utter  sweet  and  eloquent  divine  words,  which  have  in 
them  a  divine  awe,  divine  blessings  and  wonderful  power  of  revealing 
deep  secrets  of  the  future.  Such  words  are  accompanied  with  a  light 
which  shows  with  certainty  that  the  words  proceed  from  a  divine 
source,  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  about  their  divine  origin. 
There  is  in  these  words  a  divine  brilliance,  and  they  are  free  from  all 
impurities.  In  most  cases  they  reveal  a  grand  prophecy.  The  pro- 
phecies so  revealed  relate  to  a  great  variety  of  subjects  and  in  all 
respects  they  are  unparalleled.  They  are  distinguished  from  the 
predictions  made  by  astrologists  by  the  signs  of  belovedness  and 
acceptance  which  are  the  chief  characteristics.  There  are  in  them  the 
good  tidings  of  divine  assistance  and  help  to  the  recipient  of  the  divine 
revelation.  These  matters  are  revealed  to  him,  which  are  not  revealed 
to  others,  and  his  prophecies  disclose  these  deep  secrets  of  the  future 
which  are  not  met  with  elsewhere.  Such  is,  in  short,  the  blessing 
which  is  granted  to  the  tongue  of  the  perfect  one  in  the  utterance  of 
unparalleled  words. 

' '  '  His  eye  is  also  granted  an  unparalleled  power  of  vision,  and  the 
perfect  one   can  see  objects  hidden  from  ordinary  sight.     Sometimes 


144  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

writings  are  brought  before  his  eyes  which  have  no  existence  in  the 
outside  word.  He  can  see  the  dead,  and  talk  with  them  as  if  they  were 
living.  Sometimes  things  at  a  distance  of  thousands  of  miles  come 
before  him  in  such  a  manner  as  if  they  were  in  his  ken. 

"  '  His  ear  is  also  granted  the  faculty  of  hearing  voices  which  ordi- 
nary ears  cannot  hear.  Very  often  he  hears  the  voices  of  the  angels, 
and  in  moments  of  affliction  and  restlessness  finds  comfort  from  them. 
He  can  also  hear  voices  of  material  things,  vegetables  and  animals. 
His  heart  is  granted  a  supernatural  power  of  judgment  and  discernment. 

"  '  Similarly  a  blessing  is  granted  to  his  hands  and  feet  and  his 
whole  body,  and  it  often  happens  that  his  mere  touch  cures  many 
diseases. 

"  '  .  .  .  It  (the  revelation)  often  takes  the  form  of 
question  and  answer.  A  man  puts  a  question  and  receives  an  answer 
from  God,  and  this  process  is  repeated  several  times.  During  the 
times  that  the  answer  is  communicated  to  him,  he  is  under  the 
influence  of  a  sort  of  slumber.  But  the  mere  utterance  of  certain 
words  in  a  state  of  slumber  is  no  evidence  of  their  divine  origin. 

"  '  It  sometimes  comes  in  languages  quite  unknown  to  the  person  to 
whom  it  is  revealed.'  "  * 

*  A  common  experie  ice  with  mediums. 


APPENDIX    II 


FORM    FOR    INITIATION    INTO  THE  AHMADIYA 
MOVEMENT 
To  • 

Hazarat  Khalifatul  Mesih  II, 

MiRZA  Bashir-ud-Din  Mahmud  Ahmad  Sahib. 

Most  Reverend  Sir, 

Peace  be  with  you.  I  have  gone  through  the  conditions  of 
Bai'dt,  the  Articles  of  Faith,  the  Duties  of  Ahmadis  and  General 
Instructions,  and  have  accepted  them.  I,  having  filled  up  the  sub- 
joined form,  send  it  to  you  and  pray  that  my  Bai'at  may  be  accepted. 

I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no  God  but  Allah.  He  is  one,  having 
no  partner,  and  Muhammad  is  the  servant  and  messenger  of  God. 

I son   of enter  the 

Ahmadiya  Movement  at  the  hands  of  Mahmud,  and  ask  pardon  for 
all  my  sins.  In  future  I  will  try  my  best  to  guard  myself  against  all 
kinds  of  sins.  I  will  never  set  up  equals  to  God  and  will  give  prece- 
dence to  my  religion  before  all  worldly  considerations.  I  will  try  my 
best  to  act  upon  all  the  laws  of  Islam.  I  will  always  try  to  learn, 
teach  or  hear  the  Holy  Qur'an  and  the  traditions.  I  will  consider  the 
propagation  of  Islam  as  the  first  of  my  duties.  I  will  obey  you  in 
everything  good  that  you  will  tell  me.  I  consider  our  Lord  Muham- 
mad (peace  be  upon  him)  to  be  the  seal  of  prophets,  and  believe  in  all 
the  claims  of  the  Promised  Messiah. 

(Arabic  Characters.) 

I  beg  pardon  from  Allah  my  Lord  for  all  my  sins,  and  turn  to  him. 
I  beg  pardon  from  Allah  my  Lord  and  turn  to  him. 

(Arabic  Characters.) 

O  my  Lord  I  have  wronged  my  soul,  and  I  confess  all  my  sins. 
Pray  forgive  my  sins,  and  there  is  no  forgiver  except  thee. 

O  my  Lord  I  have  wronged  my  soul,  and  I  confess  all  my  sins. 
Pray  forgive  my  sins,  and  there  is  no  forgiver  except  thee. 

O  my  Lord  I  have  wronged  my  soul,  and  I  confess  all  my  sins. 
Pray  forgive  my  sins,  and  there  is  no  forgiver  except  thee. 

Amen  !     Amen  ! 


Signature 
*  Printed  at  the  Ahmadiya  Printing  Works,  Lahore, 

10 


APPENDIX    III 


CONDITION    OF    BAI'AT    (INITIATION    INTO   THE 
AHMADlYA    MOVEMENT)^ 

The  man  who  accepts  Bai'dt  should  firmly  make  up  his 
mind  : — 

Firstly,  that  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  will  abstain  from  Shirk, 
i.e.,  setting  up  equals  to  God. 

Secondly,  that  he  will  keep  away  from  falsehood,  adultery,  look- 
ing at  women  other  than  near  relatives,  cruelty,  dishonesty,  riot  and 
rebellion,  and,  in  short,  every  kind  of  evil  :  and  will  not  allow  himself 
to  be  carried  away  by  his  passions,  however  strong  they  may  be. 

Thirdly,  that  he  will  pray  five  times  a  day  without  fail,  according 
to  the  commands  of  Allah  and  his  Apostle,  and  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  will  try  to  offer  his  Tahajjud  prayers  (prayer  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  night),  to  invoke  the  blessings  of  God  (Durud)  upon  his 
prophet,  to  ask  pardon  for  his  sins  and  the  help  of  God;  and  that, 
remembering  the  blessings  of  God,  he  will  always  praise  him. 

Fourthly,  that  he  will  in  no  way  harm  God's  creatures  generally, 
and  Moslems  particularly,  under  the  influence  of  his  passions — neither 
with  his  hands,  nor  with  his  tongue,  nor  by  any  other  means. 

Fifthly,  that  in  every  state  of  sorrow  or  pleasure,  prosperity  or 
adversity,  felicity  or  misfortune,  he  will  prove  himself  faithful  to  God, 
and  that  in  every  condition  he  will  accept  the  decree  of  God,  and  in 
this  way  he  will  be  ready  to  bear  every  kind  of  insult  and  pain.  At 
the  time  of  any  misfortune  he  will  never  turn  away  from  him,  but 
rather  he  will  advance  further. 

Sixthly,  that  he  will  not  follow  vulgar  customs  and  will  abstain 
from  evil  inclination,  and  that  he  will  completely  submit  to  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  Qur'an,  and  that  he  will  make  the  sayings  of 
God  and  his  Apostle  the  guiding  principle  of  his  life. 

Seventhly,  that  he  will  fully  give  up  pride  and  haughtiness,  and 
will  pass  his  days  with  humility,  lowliness,  courtesy  and  meekness. 

Eighthly,  that  he  will  consider  religion,  the  dignity  of  religion  and 
the  well-being  of  Islam  dearer  than  life,  wealth  and  children,  and,  in 
short,  dearer  than  everything  else. 

'  Obtainable  in  pamphlet  form  at  the  Qadian  headquarters. 


APPENDIX  III  147 

Ninthly,  that  he  will  be  for  God's  sake  showing  sympatliy  with 
he  creatures  of  Allah,  and  to  the  best  of  his  power  he  will  use  his 
natural  abilities  for  the  welfare  of  God's  creatures. 

Tenthly,  that  he  will  establish  a  brotherhood  with  me  (the 
promised  Messiah)  on  condition  of  obeying  me  in  everything  good, 
and  keep  it  up  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  this  relationship  will  be  of 
such  a  high  order  that  its  example  will  not  be  found  in  any  worldly 
relationship,  either  of  blood  relations  or  of  servant  and  master. 

The  Articles  of  Faith  of  the  Ahmadiya  Community. 

1.  God  is  one,  and  nobody  is  or  can  be  his  co-sharer  in  his  self, 
attributes,  names  or  worship. 

2.  The  angels  exist. 

3.  God  has  been  sending  from  time  immemorial  liis  apostles  in 
every  country  and  nation  for  the  guidance  of  his  creatures,  and  we 
believe  in  every  one  of  them  whose  names  have  been  mentioned  in 
the  Holy  Qur'in  individually  and  in  the  rest  collectively. 

4.  Our  Book  is  the  Holy  Qur'an  and  our  prophet  is  Muhammad 
(peace  be  upon  him),  and  he  is  the  seal  of  prophets. 

5.  The  door  of  inspiration  has  always  been,  and  will  always  be, 
open,  and  no  attribute  of  God  ever  becomes  useless.  As  he  used  to 
hold  communion  with  his  good  servants,  so  he  does  even  now,  and 
will  continue  to  do  up  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

6.  This  is  our  firm  faith  that  divine  decree  (taqdir)  as 
enunciated  by  the  Holy  Qur'an  is  correct,  and  that  God  listens  to  and 
accepts  the  prayers  of  his  creatures,  and  great  deeds  are  achieved  by 
means  of  prayer. 

7.  We  believe  in  the  rising  of  the  human  beings  after  their 
death,  and  also  we  firmly  believe  that  the  heaven  and  the  hell,  as 
described  by  the  Qur'an  and  the  Traditions,  exist  and  that  on  the  day 
of  Resurrection  our  prophet  Muhammad  will  be  the  intercessor. 

8.  We  firmly  believe  that  the  man  about  whom  prophecies  have 
been  made  by  the  old  prophets  under  different  names  and  of  whom 
the  Holy  Qur'an  speaks  in  the  verse,  "  He  it  is  who  raised  a  prophet 
amongst  the  Meccans  .  .  .  and  among  others  of  them  who  have  not 
yet  overtaken  them,"  as  the  second  advent  of  our  Lord  Muhammad, 
and  whom  our  Lord  Muhammad  calls  Messiah  the  prophet  and  the 
Mahdi  (the  man),  is  Hazrat  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  of  Qidian,  and 
besides  him  nobody  is  the  promised  Messiah. 

9.  It  is  our  firm  belief  that  the  Holy  Qur'an  is  a  perfect  book 
and  that  no  new  law  will  be  required  till  the  day  of  Resurrection,  and 
that  our  Lord  Muhammad  possesses  collectively  all  the  qualities  of  all 
the  prophets,  and  that  after  him  none  can,  far  from  gaining  any 
spiritual  eminence,  ever  become  a  true  believer  except  by  complete 
obedience  to  him.  We,  not  for  a  moment,  believe  that  any  old 
prophet  will  come  to  this  place  a  second  time,  because  in  that  we  will 
have  to  admit  some  defect  in  the  spiritual  powers  of  our  Lord  Muham- 
mad— but  we  believe  among  his  followers  Reformers  have  appeared,and 
will  continue  to  appear,  with  spiritual  knowledge  of  a  very  high  order. 


148  THE  AHMADiYA  MOVEMENT 

Not  only  this,  but  a  man  can  even  gain  prophethood  by  the  help  of  our 
Lord  Muhammad's  spiritual  powers.  But  no  prophet  with  a  new  book 
or  having  been  appointed  direct  will  ever  come  ;  for  in  this  case  it 
would  be  an  insult  to  the  perfect  prophethood  of  our  Lord,  and  this  is 
the  meaning  of  the  seal  of  prophets,  and  in  this  sense  the  Lord  has  on 
the  one  hand  said,  "  There  is  no  prophet  (i.e.,  an  independent  prophet 
or  a  prophet  with  a  new  law)  after  me,"  and  on  the  other  hand  has 
called  the  coming  Messiah  a  prophet  of  God. 

10.  According  to  this  we  believe  that  a  man,  the  Promised 
Messiah,  has  gained  prophethood  in  spite  of  his  being  a  follower  of 
our  Lord.  We  believe  in  the  miracles  of  the  prophets,  which,  in  the 
words  of  the  Qur'an,  are  called  signs  of  God,  and  this  is  our  firm 
faith  that  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory  and  for  proving  the 
truth  of  his  apostles,  has  been,  through  his  servants,  showing  signs 
which  are  beyond  the  power  of  human  beings. 

The  Duties  of  the  Ahmadiya  Community. 

The  Ahmadiya  community  is  neither  an  Anjuman  nor  is  it  a 
religion.  But  the  meaning  of  the  Ahmadij'a  movement  is  this,  that 
it  is  a  body  of  Moslems  that,  having  recognised  the  Promised  Messiah 
as  a  means  of  guidance,  have  accepted  the  true  Islam,  which  was  given 
to  the  world  through  our  Lord  Muhammad,  and  who  have  accepted  all 
the  claims  of  the  last  messenger  of  God,  viz.,  the  Promised  Messiah. 
Hence  the  obligations  of  the  Ahmadls  are  the  same  as  have  been  fixed 
by  the  Holy  Qur'an  for  a  Muslim,  and  which  have  been  sanctioned  by 
the  usage  and  practice  of  our  Lord  Muhammad  and  his  companions. 
Hence,  acting  upon  the  laws  of  the  Qur'an,  the  practices  and  sayings 
of  the  Prophet  is  a  distinct  duty  of  every  Ahmadi.  But  since  Islam 
considers  the  proclamation  of  the  truth  as  one  of  the  important  duties 
of  a  Muslim,  and  it  has  been  considered  as  one  of  the  distinguishing 
features  of  the  Muslims  that  they  ask  the  people  to  do  good  and  pro- 
hibit from  doing  evil — a  duty  the  performance  of  which  made  the 
Muslims  so  successful  in  the  beginning,  hence  the  Promised  Messiah 
has  laid  much  stress  upon  this  point,  and  has  made  it  obligatory  for  the 
members  of  the  community  that  they  should  send  a  part  of  their  in- 
come to  Qadian  for  this  purpose.  This  money  is  spent  for  the  propa- 
gation of  Islam  on  the  lines  fixed  by  the  Promised  Messiah.  Hence 
every  Ahmadi  should  make  it  a  rule  for  himself  to  send  a  part  of  his 
income  for  the  furtherance  of  the  objects  of  the  movement.  The 
amount  of  this  contribution  has  not  been  fixed,  but  left  to  be  determined 
by  the  love  and  zeal  of  a  man  for  the  movement.  Be  the  sum  small  or 
great,  it  is  obligatory  on  every  Ahmadi  to  help  the  movement  with  his 
mite.  Some  friends  spend  one-tenth,  and  even  more,  of  their  income 
for  the  help  of  their  religion. 

The  Management  of  the  Ahmadiya  Movement. 

As  has  been  the  custom  of  God  from  time  immemorial  that 
he  starts  a  line  of  successors   for   looking   after   the   welfare  of   the 


APPENDIX  III  149 

community  which  is  prepared  by  the  messengers  of  God,  so  in  this 
age  too  he  has  started  a  line  of  successors.  Without  it  no  progress 
is  possible,  for  a  disorganised  body  is  incapable  of  performing 
anything  great.  Hence,  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  community 
united,  and  for  using  its  potentialities  collectively  for  the  welfare 
of  Islam,  a  line  of  successors  has  been  started.  This  is  our 
firm  conviction,  as  it  is  also  mentioned  in  Chapter  XXIV, 
p.  55,  that  successors  are  appointed  by  God.  Hence  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  Ahmadi,  as  long  as  it  pleases  God  to  favour 
us  with  this  blessing,  to  accept  the  Bai'at  of  the  caliphs,  one 
after  another. 

All  the  new  converts  should  also  enter  into  the  Bai'at  of  the 
successors  to  the  Promised  Messiah,  or  their  representatives.  But  if 
any  man  for  any  reason  cannot  personally  come  to  Qadian  he  may 
also  enter  into  the  Bai'at  by  means  of  a  letter.  At  present  there 
are  two  Anjumans — (a)  Sadr-Anjuman  Ahmadiya,  (6)  Anjuman 
Taraqqi  Islam — under  the  Khalifatul  Masih  for  carrying  on  the 
work  of  the  movement.  The  Sadr-Anjuman  Ahmadiya,  according 
to  the  instructions  of  the  Promised  Messiah  and  in  consultation 
with  the  Khalifatul  Masih,  looks  after  the  executive  and  educational 
necessities  of  the  community.  Among  some  of  the  most  important 
duties  of  this  Anjuman  is  looking  after  the  comforts  of  the  guests 
who  come  to  Qadian,  maintaining  schools  for  the  secular  and 
religious  instruction  of  the  community,  carrying  out  the  instructions 
contained  in  the  Will  of  the  Promised  Messiah,  and  conducting  the 
Revieiu  of  Religions.  But  as  the  propagation  of  Islam  requires 
special  attention,  hence  the  Anjuman  Taraqqi  Islam  busies  itself  with 
this  work.  Those  friends  who  send  their  contributions,  generally 
point  out  how  much  is  to  be  given  to  the  Sadr-Anjuman  and  how 
much  is  to  be  allotted  to  the  Taraqqi  Islam.  As  zakdt  (legal  alms) 
should  be  kept  in  the  Bait-ul-Mal  (the  treasury)  so  everyone  on 
whom  zakdt  is  compulsory  sends  it  to  Qadian.  It  is  collected  by  the 
Anjuman  Taraqqi  Islam,  and  spent  according  to  the  instructions  of 
the  successor  to  the  Promised  Messiah.  As  it  is  necessary  for  the 
progress  of  the  movement  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  centre,  hence, 
according  to  the  instructions  of  the  Promised  Messiah,  an  annual 
gathering  of  the  community  is  held  by  the  end  of  the  month  of 
December  every  year.  This  gathering  is  attended  by  the  members  of 
the  community  from  every  part  of  the  country.  In  these  meetings 
means  are  devised  for  strengthening  the  faith  of  the  Ahmadiya 
community  and  for  enlarging  its  mission  work.  This  should 
be  attended  by  every  member  of  the  community.  Besides,  friends 
should  also  from  time  to  time  try  to  come  to  Qadian,  and  should 
write  letters  to  the  Khalifatul  Masih  (successor  to  the  Promised 
Messiah)  every  now  and  then,  for  in  this  way  the  Khalifatul  Masih 
feels  an  inclination  to  pray  for  the  writer,  and  besides,  the  welfare  of 
the  different  members  of  the  community  also  becomes  known.  The 
first  Khalifa  of  the  Promised  Messiah  was  the  late  Hazrat  Maulvi 
Nur-ud-Din  Sahib,  and  the  present  Khalifa  is  Hazrat  Mirza  Bashir-ud- 
Din  Mahmud  Ahmad  Sahib. 


ISO  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

Some  Instructions  for  the  New  Ahmadls 

Since  the  Promised  Messiah  was  a  messenger  of  God,  and  the 
denying  of  the  Apostles  of  God  is  a  dangerous  boldness  and  deprives 
a  man  of  faith,  hence,  according  to  the  Qur'in,  the  Traditions  of  the 
seal  of  prophets,  and  the  sayings  of  the  Promised  Messiah,  it  is  the  duty 
of  every  Ahmadi  that  he  should  pray  under  the  leadership  of  Ahmadi 
Imams  only.  But  in  those  places  where  Ahmadi  Imims  can  not 
be  found,  he  should  offer  his  prayers  alone,  and  should  pray  to 
God  to  give  him  a  Jama 'at,  or  Society,  of  his  own,  because  a 
true  believer  can  never  remain  alone.  Similarly,  it  has  been  prohibit- 
ed that  Ahmadis  should  give  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  non- 
Ahmadis,  for  wives  are  generally  influenced  by  their  husbands,  and 
thus  it  is  making  a  soul  apostate.  Likewise,  Ahmadis  should  not 
attend  the  funeral  service  of  non-Ahmadis,  for  it  would  amount  to 
interceding  to  God  for  a  man  who  has  proved  himself  an  enemy  by- 
denying  and  opposing  the  Promised  Messiah. 


APPENDIX   IV 


WHAT    IS    ISLAM?! 

Isldm  is  a  simple  faith.  A  belief  in  One  and  only  God  (Allah), 
possessing  all  the  conceivable  good  attributes  and  absolutely  free  from 
all  frailties,  is  its  first  principle.  Those  who  follow  Islam  are  called 
Muslims  or  Musalmans,  but  not  Muhammadans.  They  worship  One 
God — the  All-mighty,  the  All-knowing,  the  All-just,  the  Cherisher  of 
the  Worlds,  the  Master  of  the  East  and  the  West,  the  Author  of  the 
Heavens  and  Earth,  the  Creator  of  all  that  exists.  The  God  of  Islam  is 
Loving  and  Forgiving,  but  also  just  and  swift  in  reckoning.  He  is  the 
Friend  ;  the  Guide  ;  the  Helper.  Every  place  is  sacred  to  him. 
There  is  none  like  him.  He  has  no  partner  or  co-sharer.  He  has 
begotten  no  sons  or  daughters.  He  is  free  from  passions,  and  is  indi- 
visible, impersonal.  From  him  all  have  come  and  to  him  all  return. 
He  is  the  Light  of  the  Heaven  and  the  Earth,  the  Glorious,  the  Magni- 
ficent, the  Beautiful,  the  Eternal,  the  Infinite,  the  First  and  the  Last. 

The  Prophet  of  Islam  was  Muhammad,  whom  the  Muslims  must 
follow.  He  was  the  last  Prophet,  and  finally  and  faithfully  preached 
and  established  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God  in  a  way  that  it  can 
never  now  be  shaken  by  any  amount  of  progress  of  rationalism. 
Those  who  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  are  expected  to 
respect  his  servant  and  messenger,  who  established  that  doctrine. 
Muhammad  is  highly  reverenced  by  all  the  Muslims,  but  is  recognized 
as  a  man,  as  are  other  Prophets,  like  Abraham,  Moses,  Jesus,  etc., 
who  are  all  respected  by  Muslims  as  righteous  persons  sent  down 
by  the  loving  God  to  guide  his  children.  All  the  Prophets,  whether 
of  the  East  or  the  West,  the  North  or  the  South,  brought  the  same 
common  message  from  the  Creator,  but  their  followers  afterwards 
altered  or  corrupted  it,  until  Muhammad  came,  who  left  behind  him 
an  uncorruptible  book. 

The  Gospel  of  Muslims  is  Al-Qur'an.  It  teaches  man  how  to 
hold  direct  communion  with  his  Maker,  and  also  how  to  deal  with  his 
fellow-beings  as  well  as  God's  other  creatures.  It  has  enjoined,  "  Be 
constant  in  prayer,  for  prayer  preserveth  from  crimes  and  from  that 
which  is  blamable,  and  the  remembrance  of  Allah  is  surely  a  most 
sacred  duty."  But  it  has  also  said,  "Blessed  are  they  who  fulfil  the 
covenant   of    God     and    break    not     their    compact ;     and    who   join 

*  From  an  editorial  in  the  Islamic  Review,  IV,  pp.  248-250. 


152  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

together  what  God  hath  bidden  to  be  joined;  and  who  fear  their  Lord 
and  dread  an  ill-reckoning  ;  and  who  from  a  sincere  desire  to  please 
their  Lord  are  constant  amid  trials,  and  observe  prayers,  and  give 
alms  in  secret  and  openly,  out  of  what  we  have  bestowed  on  them  ; 
and  turn  aside  evil  with  good  ;  for  them  there  is  the  recompense  of  that 
abode,  gardens  of  eternal  habitation,  into  which  they  shall  enter, 
together  with  such  as  shall  have  acted  rightly  from  among  their  fathers; 
their  wives  and  their  posterity  and  the  angels  shall  go  in  unto  them  by 
every  portal  (saying),  '  Peace  be  with  you  ;  because  you  have  endured 
with  patience'  "  (Sura  xiii,  20-24). 

Al-Qur'an  is  a  book  which  has  withstood  the  ravages  of  time,  and 
stands  to-day,  after  more  than  thirteen  centuries,  word  for  word  and 
letter  for  letter  as  it  came  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Prophet  Muhammad. 
There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Muslims  who  know  the  whole  of 
it  by  heart.  It  is  an  uncorrupted  and  a  living  book,  and  the  religion 
it  preaches  is  a  living  religion. 

There  is  No  Priesthood  in  Islam.  There  is  no  intercession,  no 
redemption,  no  saviourship.  Every  soul  is  responsible  for  its  own 
actions.  Islam  points  out  both  the  ways — the  one  which  brings  to  God, 
and  that  is  good;  the  other  which  leads  away  from  him,  and 
that  is  et'il.  No  one  can  carry  the  burden  of  the  other.  Sincere 
repentance  secures  forgiveness.  "  O  My  servants,  who  have  trans- 
gressed to  your  own  injury,  despair  not  of  Allah's  mercy,  for  all  sins 
doth  Allah  forgive  ;  gracious  and  merciful  is  He"  (Qur'an,  Chap. 
XXXIX,  54). 

Islam  docs  not  recognize  any  difference  of  sex  in  piety.  Whether 
males  or  females,  those  who  act  rightly  get  their  salvation.  It  does  not 
lay  down  that  human  beings  are  born  sinners,  or  that  woman  was 
instrumental  in  the  "fall  of  Adam."  The  holy  Prophet  has  said, 
"  Paradise  lies  at  the  feet  of  mother." 

Islani  forbids  impurity  of  every  kind.  Cleanliness,  both  of  body 
and  mind,  is  essential  for  a  Muslim.  Physical  cleanliness  is  a  natural 
concomitant  to  the  idea  of  moral  purity,  for  no  man  can  approach  him 
who  is  All  Pure  and  Clean  in  a  state  of  uncleanliness.  All  intoxicants 
are  forbidden,  so  is  gambling  and  the  flesh  of  the  pig.  Suicide  is 
practically  unknown  among  Muslims. 

Islam  enjoins  prayers,  fixed  alms  to  the  needy,  fasting,  affection 
to  parents,  and  kindness  to  all  creatures — even  animals  and  birds. 

Islam  encourages  rational  vie-ws  and  scientific  research,  by 
declaring  that  sun  and  moon  and  all  the  elements  are  subservient  to 
human  intellect  and  will  in  a  great  measure,  and  man  can  utilize  them 
if  he  discovers  the  secret  of  those  laws  according  to  whicii  they  work. 


APPENDIX   V 


THE    MISSION    TO    ENGLAND 

The  following  popular  account  of  a  Muslim  service  in 
London,  in  connection  with  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din's 
British  mission,  which  was  clipped  from  the  New  York 
Times  of  December  21,  1913,  may  be  of  interest.  Nawab 
Zafar  'All  Khan,  here  referred  to,  was  the  editor  of  a 
Lahore  Muslim  paper,  the  Zaminddr,  the  publication  of 
which  was  suspended  by  the  Panjab  Government,  because 
of  its  political  activities,  after  the  beginning  of  the  war: 

PEER  AT  MOSLEM  SERVICE 

Other  Converts  to  Muhammadanism  are  announced 
IN  London. 

London,  December  6. — Lord  Headley,  whose  recent  conversion 
to  the  Muslim  faith  caused  a  sensation,  took  part  a  few  days  ago  in  a 
gathering  of  Muhammadans  at  Caxton  Hall,  for  "  jooma-nimaz,"  or 
prayers.  The  Khwiijah  Kamal-ud-Din,  leader  of  the  Muslims  in 
England,  announced  several  more  converts,  including  Viscount  de  Pudre 
of  Antwerp,  Capt.  Stanley  Marquis,  and  Miss  Lilley  Ranson.  Two 
other  women,  he  said,  had  been  initiated,  one  belonging  to  the  middle 
class  and  one  to  the  "  upper  ten,"  but  for  the  present  they  wished 
their  names  to  be  secret. 

Lord  Headley  has  adopted  the  Muhammadan  name  of  "  Saifur- 
rahman  Sheikh  Rahmahillah  Farooq." 

With  Lord  Headley  as  one  of  the  worshippers,  some  thirty 
Muhammadans  of  all  nationalities  met  yesterday  at  Lindsey  Hall, 
Notting  Hill  Gate.  The  service  began  shortly  before  noon.  The 
worshippers  were  Turks,  Indians,  Persians,  and  men  of  other  nation- 
alities. Lord  Headley  arrived  shortly  before  the  service  began, 
with  the  Khwajah  Kamal-ud-Din. 

Mr.  Fisher,  a  young  Englishman  who  has  lived  for  some  time  in 
Northern  Africa,  and  has  been  a  Muhammadan  for  ten  years,  took  part 
in  the  service.  After  the  floor  had  been  covered  with  spotless  white 
sheets  the  men  all  removed  their  shoes,  and  for  a  time  sat  cross-legged 
on  the  floor. 

Then  one  of  the  company  stood  up,  and  in  a  loud  voice — just  as 
they  call  from  the  minarets  of  the  mosques  in  the  East — cried  out: 
"  Allah-o-Akbar  !"    ((Jod  is  great !) 


154  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

The  worshippers  who  did  not  wear  the  fez  covered  their  heads 
with  pocket  handkerchiefs.  All  touched  the  ground  with  their  fore- 
heads as  they  said  their  devotions.  For  some  minutes  the  worshippers 
alternately  stood  up  and  bowed  their  heads  to  the  ground  in  silent 
prayer. 

The  Khw?.jah  Kamal-ud-Din,  a  tall  imposing  Indian  with  a  black 
beard  and  wearing  a  large  dark  turban,  then  gave  an  address  with  a 
text  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  After  the  Moulvie,  Zafar  Ali 
Khin,  gave  an  address. 

"It  is  not  true  what  Kipling  says,  that  'East  is  east  and  West  is 
west,  and  never  the  twain  shall  meet,'  "  he  said.  "The  two  are 
rapidly  meeting  each  other,  and  Lord  Headley  has  done  much  to 
bridge  the  gulf   between  them." 

Lord  Headley  then  came  in  front  of  the  worshippers  to  read  the 
"dua" — the  prayer.     Some  extracts  from  it  are  as  follows  : 

"May  we,  O  God,  our  preserver  and  comforter,  endeavour  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  thy  holy  prophets — Moses,  Christ,  and 
Muhammad — and  from  their  teachings  may  we  learn  humility  and 
patience.  .  .  .  Give  us  courage  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  thy  pro- 
phet, the  divinely  inspired  Muhammad,  whose  memory  do  thou, 
O  God,  keep  fresh  and  green  in  our  hearts." 


APPENDIX   VI 

AHMADlYAS    DECLARED    TO    BE    MUHAMMADANS 

Ruling  of  the  Patna  High  Court,  21st  December,  1916. 

Hakim   Khalil  Ahmad  vs.   Malik   Israfi,   and  Malik   Israfi  vs. 

Hakim   Khalil  Ahmad. 

The  facts  of  the  case  were  as  follows  : — 
The  plaintiff  alleged  that  they  were  Muhammadans 
and  followers  of  Hazrat  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad  ;  that  they 
used  to  offer  up  their  prayer  with  other  followers  of  their 
own  sect  in  a  mosque  in  Dillawarpur,  Monghyr;  that  they 
did  so  up  to  the  2nd  December,  1911,  when  they  were 
illegally  and  maliciously  interfered  with  and  prevented 
from  entering  the  mosque  by  the  defendants'  1st  party,  at 
the  instigation  of  defendants'  2nd  party.  The  plaintiffs 
used  for  declaration  that  they  had  a  right  to  offer  prayers 
in  the  said  mosque  with  the  people  of  their  own  sect, 
and  that  the  defendants  had  no  right  to  prevent  them 
from  doing  so,  and  that  the  defendants  be  permanently 
restrained  from  interfering  with  right  of  the  plaintiffs  to 
offer  prayers  in  the  said  mosque,  collectively  and  indi- 
vidually. The  Court  of  first  instance  held  that  the 
plaintiffs  were  Muhammadans,  and  that  they  were  entitled 
to  offer  prayers  individually  behind  the  Hanifi  Imam  of  the 
mosque,  but  that  they  were  not  entitled  to  form  a  separate 
congregation  for  prayer  in  the  mosque.  The  suit  was 
dismissed.  An  appeal  to  the  District  Judge  was  dismissed, 
but  he  ordered  it  to  be  declared  that  the  plaintiffs  are 
at  liberty  to  worship  in  the  disputed  mosque  behind 
the  recognised  Imam  of  the  mosque,  in  the  same 
congregation  with  the  defendants  and  other  Sunnls. 
Both  sides  appealed  to  the  High  Court. 

Chamier,   C.  J. — There    are    cross    appeals    against    a 
decree    of    the    District    Judge    of     Monghyr,    modifying 


156  THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 

a  decree  of  the  Subordinate  Judge  of  Monghyr,  which 
dismissed  the  plaintiffs'  suit. 

The  plaintiffs  are  professed  followers  of  Mirza  Ghulam 
Ahmad  of  Khadian  in  the  Punjab,  who  acquired 
considerable  notoriety  as  a  preacher  about  thirty-five  years 
ago,  and  attracted  a  considerable  following  in  the  Punjab, 
and  elsewhere.  The  followers  of  Ghulam  Ahmad  are 
known  generally  as  Ahmadis  or  Khadianis.  The 
plantiffs'  case  was  that,  though  dissenters  from  what 
is  generally  regarded  as  the  orthodox  Muhammadan 
faith,  they  are  true  Muhammadans.  They  say  that 
till  December,  1911,  they  were  in  the  habit  of  offering 
up  their  prayers,  both  individually  and  as  a  congregation, 
in  a  certain  mosque  in  Mahalla  Dilawarpur,  in  the 
town  of  Monghyr,  but  were  prevented  by  the  defendants 
from  doing  so.  They  claimed  a  declaration  of  their  right 
to  offer  prayers  in  the  mosque,  both  individually  and  as  a 
congregation,  and  also  an  injunction  restraining  the 
defendants  from  interfering  with  them.  The  defendants 
resisted  the  suit  on  various  grounds,  and  inter  alia  pleaded 
that  the  plaintiffs  were  not  Muhammadans  at  all.  The 
Subordinate  Judge  held  that  the  plaintiffs  were  Muham- 
madans, but  were  not  entitled  to  form  a  separate  congre- 
gation for  prayer  in  the  mosque.  He  held  that  they  were 
entitled  to  offer  prayers  individually  behind  the  Hanifi 
Imam  of  the  mosque,  but  as  they  did  not  desire  to  do  so 
he  dismissed  the  suit.  On  appeal,  the  District  Judge 
agreed  that  the  plaintiffs  must  be  regarded  as  Muham- 
madans, and  that  they  could  not  be  allowed  to  form  a 
separate  congregation  for  prayers  in  the  mosque,  but  gave 
them  a  declaration  that  they  were  entitled  to  worship  in 
the  mosque  behind  the  recognized  Imam,  and  in  the  same 
congregation  as  the  defendants. 

In  the  second  appeal  the  plaintiffs  contend  that  their 
claim  should  have  been  decreed  as  laid,  and  the  defendants 
contend  that  the  suit  should  have  been  dismissed  al- 
together. 

Some  attempt  was  made  on  behalf  of  the  defendants  to 
controvert  the  concurrent  findings  of  the  Courts  below, 
that  the   plaintiffs  were   Muhammadans,   but   it  was    not 


APPENDIX  VI  157 

seriously  pressed.  The  Courts  below  have  given 
convincitvg  reasons  for  holding  that  the  plaintiffs  are 
Muhammadans,  notw^ithstanding  their  pronounced  dissent 
from  orthodox  opinion  on  several  important  articles 
of  the  faith.  The  plaintiffs,  as  Muhammadans,  appear 
to  be  entitled  to  enter  the  mosque  if  they  please, 
and  to  offer  up  prayers  with  the  regular  congrega- 
tion behind  the  recognised  Imam,  but  as  they  profess  to 
regard  '  orthodox  '  Muhammadans  as  infidels,  it  is  unlikely 
that  they  will  take  advantage  of  the  decree  made  by  the 
District  Judge. 

The  important  question  in  the  case  is,  whether  the 
plaintiffs  are  entitled  to  pray  as  a  separate  congregation  in 
the  mosque,  i.e.,  behind  an  Imam  of  their  own.  The 
claim  is  an  extravagant  one,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  if  it  is  allowed  there  will  be  serious  trouble  in  the 
mosque.  The  plaintiffs  contend  that  every  mosque  is 
dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God,  and  is  open  to  any 
Muhammadan,  to  whatever  sect  he  may  belong,  who 
chooses  to  pray  in  it.  The  cases  of  Queen-Empress  vs, 
Ramzan  (1),  Ataullah  vs.  Azim-ullah  (2),  and  Jnagu  vs. 
Ahmad-uUah  (3),  and  other  authorities  on  which  the 
plaintiffs  rely,  certainly  support  this  contention,  but  they 
lend  no  support  to  the  further  contention  advanced  by  the 
plaintiffs,  namely,  that  the  members  of  any  and  every  sect 
are  entitled  to  pray  in  every  mosque  as  a  separate 
congregation  behind  an  Imam  chosen  by  themselves.  The 
mosque  in  question  has  been  in  existence  for  about  200 
years,  and  appears  to  have  been  used  all  along  by  orthodox 
Sunni  Muhammadans.  In  all  probability  it  was  established 
for  the  benefit  of  Sunni  Muhammadans,  although  it  may 
be  that  other  Muhammadans  are  entitled  to  pray  in  it 
individually,  or  join  in  the  congregational  worship  which  is 
conducted  there.  No  authority  whatever  has  been  cited 
for  the  proposition  that  half  a  dozen  members  of  a  new 
sect  (it  is  said  that  there  are  only  so  many  Ahmadis  in 
Monghyr)  are  entitled  to  thrust  themselves  into  a  mosque 
which  has  been  used  by  orthodox  Sunni  Muhammadans 
for  generations,  form  a  separate  congregation  there,  and 
disturb  the  old  standing  arrangements  for  the  conduct  of 


158  THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 

worship  in  the  mosque.  It  is  suggested  that  certain 
times  might  be  allotted  to  the  plaintiffs  for  congregational 
worship  with  their  own  Imam.  Such  an  arrangement 
appears  to  be  unknown  to  the  Muhammadan  law.  It 
would  curtail  the  time  available  for  the  orthodox  Sunnis 
who  have  used  the  mosque  for  so  many  years.  As  already 
stated,  the  plaintiffs  regard  orthodox  Sunnis  as  infidels. 
The  orthodox  Sunnis,  in  their  turn,  regard  the  Ahmadis 
as  infidels,  and  have,  we  are  told,  formally  denounced 
them  as  such.  There  would  almost  inevitably  be  serious 
trouble  in  the  mosque.  It  appears  that  what  the  plaintiffs 
wish  to  do  is  like  to  cause  acute  friction  (if  not  worse), 
if  they  actually  disturb  the  orthodox  in  their  prayers  in 
the  mosque.  As  there  is  no  authority  for  the  contention 
advanced  by  the  plaintiffs,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  rights 
enjoyed  by  the  orthodox  for  generations  would  be  seriously 
impaired  by  the  intrusion  of  the  plaintiffs  as  a  separate 
congregation,  and  it  is  certain  that  admission  of  their 
claims  could  result  in  umseemly  conflicts  in  the  mosque, 
I  am  of  opinion  that  their  claim  should  be  rejected. 

I  would  dismiss  both  appeals  with  costs. 

Roe,  J. — I  agree  that  this  appeal  should  be  dismissed, 
the  sole  object  of  the  case  is  to  secure  a  decree  that  the  appel- 
lants are  entitled  to  deliberately  abstain  from  joining  in 
the  ordinary  worship  of  the  mosque,  and  to  appoint  an 
Imam  of  their  own  to  read  prayers  for  them  after  the 
ordinary  worship  has  been  concluded.  The  learned 
Subordinate  Judge,  who  tried  the  case,  is  himself  a  Muham- 
madan gentleman,  and  he  quotes  it  in  his  judgment  as  a 
well  known  rule  of  worship,  that  where  people  deliberately 
come  late  to  prayers  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  have  a 
second  service  of  their  own.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  in 
accordance  with  an  extract  from  B — 7  and  B — 13  of 
volume  of  the  chapter  relating  to  Azan  of  Zadul  Maad, 
which  runs :  "  Even  if  he  waits  for  the  Imam  of  his  own 
sect,  having  removed  himself  from  the  midst  of  the  men  of 
different  sect,  while  offering  up  prayers  with  the  congre- 
gation, this  act  of  his  will  not  be  considered  as  his  turning 
away  from  the  congregation  with  abhorrence  when  it  is 
known  that  he  is  waiting  for  a  congregation  which  is  most 


APPENDIX  VI  159 

perfect."  This  seems  to  imply  that  if  he  does  turn  away 
from  the  regular  prayers  with  abhorrence  he  cannot  be 
allowed  to  have  a  special  Imam  of  his  own.  In  the  case 
before  us  the  plaintiffs  state  clearly  that  they  will  not 
under  any  circumstances  worship  behind  an  Imam  who 
does  not  recognize  Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad.  Having  made 
that  statement  of  fact,  it  seems  to  me  clear  that  they  are 
not  permitted  to  have  subsequent  services  and  worship 
under  an  Imam  of  their  own.  I  agree,  therefore,  that  the 
appeals  should  be  dismissed  with  costs. 


APPENDIX   VII 

AN  AHMADIYA  CHALLENGE 

The  following  letter  appeared  in  Hablul  Matin,  a 
Calcutta  Muslim  paper,  in  December,  1915.  It  is  given 
without  corrections  exactly  as  it  appeared  : — 

Calcutta, 
5th  December,  1915. 

To 

The  Editor  of  "Hablul  Matin." 

Dear  Sir, 

I  send  herewith  for  favour  of  publication  a  copy  of  my  letter  to  the 
address  of  the  Rev.  S.  G.  Eddy  American  Missionary'  which  was 
delivered  to  him  yesterday. 

It  is  expected  that  the  reverend  gentleman  will  agree  to  the  public 
discussion  suggested,  and  that  the  dates  will  shortly  be  fixed  which 
may  be  convenient  to  both  the  parties.  The  reverend  gentleman 
has  given  out  in  his  lectures  that  the  regeneration  of  India  through 
Christianity  is  his  life's  mission  therefore  it  is  hoped  that  he  will  agree  to 
the  proposal  suggested. 

I  remain, 
Brendreth  Road,  Very  faithfully  yours, 

Ahmadaya  Buildings,  Mirza  Yaqub  Beg. 

Lahore. 


4th  December,  1915. 
To       . 

The  Rev.  S.  G.  Eddy. 

American  Missionary. 

Y.M.C.A.,  Lahore. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  hear  that  in  your  public  lectures  in  Lahore,  which  I  am  sorry  to 
say  I  have  not  been  able  to  attend,  you  have  put  forward  the  startling 
claim    that   Christianity   is    the   only   religion    which    is    calculated    to 

*  The  original  copy  of  this  letter  was  received  by  G.  Sherwood 
Eddy,  Esq.,  then  Secretary  for  Asia  of  the  International  Committee  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from 
Lahore  after  delivering  a  series  of  five  lectures  on  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, in  which  attacks  on  other  religions  were  scrupulously  avoided, 


APPENDIX  VII  161 

elevate  mankind.     I  write  those  lines  on  behalf  of  a  great  majority  of 
people  here  who  differ  from  you  in  this  contention. 

In  view  of  the  great  importance  of  your  claim  for  mankind  gener- 
ally and  India  especially  I  venture  to  suggest  that  a  public  discussion 
may  be  held  on  the  claims  of  Christianity  as  a  religion.  I  hope  that 
in  the  interests  of  humanity  you  will  kindly  agree  to  this  proposal,  and 
fix  a  suitable  date  for  this  discussion.  It  is  further  suggested  that  the 
following  points  should  receive  special  attention  in  this  discussion  : — 

1.  That  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  elemental  wickedness  of 
man  with  all  the  consequences  flowing  from  it  has  proved  a  source  of 
degradation  to  mankind,  and  the  civilisation  of  Europe  dates  from  the 
final  rejection  of  this  doctrine. 

2.  That  Christian  Ethics  has  proved  a  miserable  failure  in  the 
life  of  individuals  as  well  as  nations,  and  that  the  entire  history  of 
mankind  is  opposed  to  the  principles  of  Christian  morality. 

3.  That  the  present  state  of  European  thought  and  life  is  wholly 
opposed  to  both  Christian  dogma  and  Christian  ethics. 

4.  That  modern  European  criticism  has  shattered  the  Bible  into 
pieces,  and  assuming  that  the  message  of  Christ  is  still  preserved  in- 
tact in  this  book,  it  never  claimed  to  be  a  universal  message. 

5.  That  the  Quran  claims  to  be  a  universal  book,  and  that  all 
the  healthy  institutions  of  the  modern  world  can  be  traced  directly  or 
indirectly  to  its  influence. 

6.  That  Islam  is  the  only  religion  which  can  keep  pace  with  the 
growth  of  modern  ideas. 

7.  That  the  failing  off  of  the  Muslim  World  from  the  ideals  of 
the  prophet  is  due  to  the  assimilation  by  Musalman  people  of  non- 
Moslem  views  of  life. 

Yours  truly, 

MiRZA  Y.\QUB  Beg,  L.M.S., 

Honorary  Secretary  the  Ahiitadia  Awjuman 

Ishaat-i-lslaiii,  Lahore 


11 


INDEX 


A  BDUL  Karlm,  Maulvl  68 

^^  Abdul  Latif,  Maulvi,  Af- 
ghanistan 70,  74 

Abdul  Latif,  Professor,  Ceylon 
120 

Abdulla  Atham  43,  44,  111 

Abdulla  Chakralvi  40 

Abdulla  of  Timapur  46 

Abdur  Rahman,  Syed  93 

Ablutions  108 

Abraham  128,  151 

Abrogation,  of  other  religions  by 
Islam  109;  of  Qur'anic  verses 
denied  42,  56 

Abu  Bakr  122 

Abu  Hurairah  30 

Abyssinia,  Christian  king  of  73 

Adam  25,  26,  28,  82,  152 

Adi  Samaj  105 

Adoption  of  Islam,  see  Initiation 

Advent,  second,  of  Elijah,  John 
in  his  spirit  and  power  28,  88; 
of  Jesus,  Ahmad  in  his  spirit 
and  power  ^5-37,  52,  77,  78, 
88,  122,  132,  137,  138;  of 
Muhammad,  Ahmad  55,  147 

Afghanistan  19,  70,  74,  75,  90, 
91;  Amir  of  70,  74 

Africa,  North  153 

"  Age  of  the  New  Testament, 
The"  130 

Agra  92 

Agreement,  Muslim  (ijmd')  42, 
67,  132 

Ahl-i-HadIs"17 

Ahl-i-Qur'an  40 

Ahmad,  Mirza  Ghulam,  meaning 
of  name  30;  birth  13;  early  life 
14-15;  founder  of  movement  16, 
104,  132;  literary  work  16-18; 
character  18-33;  loyalty  to  Gov- 


ernment 14,  35,  71-74;  last 
days  and  death  23,  24,  113; 
claims,  Promised  Messiah  25-37, 
Mahdi  37-39;  Incarnation  of 
Krisna  50,  51;  other  titles  51, 
116,  131,  132;  signs,  miracles 
and  prophecies  40-50,  105-108; 
elements  of  orthodoxy  in  teach- 
ing 53-58;  of  Sufiism  58-64;  of 
heresy  70-74,  90-94;  reactionary 
character  of  teaching  64-67; 
criticism  of  Christianity  24,  75, 
81,  94-99;  of  Islam  35,  68-70; 
of  Hinduism  24,  101-105;  of 
Sikhism  108;  of  Buddhism  109; 
conception  of  Jesus  and  the 
Christian  Scriptures  77-80,  82- 
94;  relation  to  Bashir-ud-Din's 
claims  122;  relation  to  Baha- 
'ism  53,  138;  present  attitude 
of  Ahmadis  toward  124,  139, 
140;  final  estimate  of  131-133, 
138 

Ahmad  Khan,  Sir  Syed  17,  66, 
67,  133,  136,  137 

Ahmad,  Muhammad,  of  Dongola 
72. 

Ahmad,  Syed,  of  Oudh  72 

Ahmad,  Syed,  of  Mysore  72 

AhmadT,  see  Ahmadiya 

Ahmadlya  Association,  Ceylon 
120 

Ahmadiya  buildings,  Lahore  126, 
161 

Ahmadiya  community,  name  111; 
origin  16,  24,  111;  opposition 
of  orthodox  111;  size  112;  first 
Khalifa  113;  political  contro- 
versy and  resentment  against 
Bashir-ud-Din  113,  114;  second 
Khalifa  114;  split  114-116,  139; 


164 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Qadian  party  116-125;  Lahore 
party  116,  124-130;  mission  to 
England  120-130;  significance 
of  136-140;  conditions  of  initi- 
ation and  articles  of  belief  123, 
128,  145-148,  151-153;  duties 
and  management  148-150; 
Ahmadis  declared  Muslims 
155ff.^ 

Ahmadlya  periodicals,  see  Peri- 
odicals 

Ahmadiya  societies,  see  Society 

Akbar,  Allah-o,  (God  is  great) 
153 

Aleppo  74 

Alfdruq  117 

Alfazl   113,    117 

Al  Ghazali  131 

Alhakam  117 

Al-Hallaj  38 

'Alil7 

Aligarh  45,  66,  133,  134 

Allah,  see  God 

All-India  Moslem  League  67, 
114,  126,  136,  140 

Almsgiving  58,  151,  152 

America,  references  to,  in  Review 
of  Religions  17 

American  Messiah,  The,  Dowie 
32 

American  Missionary,  an,  G.  S. 
Eddy  160 

Amir  '  Ali,  Syed  17,  64,  65,  67, 
135,  136,  137 

Amir  of  Afghanistan  70,  74 

Ananikian,  Prof.  M.  H.  74 

Anas,  tradition  from  36 

Angel,  Ahmad  37;  Gabriel  23, 
54 

Angelic,  children  129;  lives  98 

Angels  61,  67,  144,  151 

Animals'  voices  144 

Anjunian-i- Ahmadlya  of  Ceylon 
120  ;  Sadr  57 

Anjinuan-Ishd'at-i-Isldin  94,  114, 
124,  125,  126,  161 

Aujunian  Taraqqi-i-Isldiii  117, 
121,  149 

Anti-Christ  (Dajjdl)  31,  38,  96 

Anti-Christian  135,  140 


Antwerp  153 

Apocalyptic  hopes,  see  Eschato- 
logy 

Apocrypha  84 

Apologetics,  Muslim  127,  134, 
136 

Apostacy  in  Ahmadiya  commu- 
nity 150  ;  in  Islam  74,  97,  see 
Murtadd 

Apostles  of  God  146,  147,  148, 
150  ;  of  Jesus,  see  Disciples 

Apostolic  Church  in  Zion,  Christi- 
an 45 

Arabs,  Arabia,  Arabic  14,  15, 
22,  30,  33,  40,  41,  64,  66, 
68,  73,  109,  117,  121,  136, 
138 

Arkdn  (Pillars  of  Islam)  57,  58, 
71. 

Arts  134 

Articles  of  Faith,  Ahmadiya  147, 

_  148,  151-152,  161  ■ 

Arya  Samaj   16,    17,  43,  51,  99, 

_  103,  104,  111,  135,  136 

Asaj,  ("to  gather")  93 

Ascension  of  Jesus  84,  107,  132, 
138,  see  Cross,  The 

Ascetics,  Muslim  107,  124,  see 
Darwish 

Asia   13,   136,  160 

Aspects  of  Islam,  by  Macdonald 
21,  135. 

Assam  47 

Assyria  91 

Astrologers  143 

Ath  Thalabi,  "Stories  of  the 
Prophets,"  by  78 

Avatdr,  Ahmad,  of  Kri§na  50; 
the  Brahman  51  ;  Nanaic,  the, 
of  the  Hindus,  106,  see  Incar- 
nation 

Awakening  of  Islam,  The,  by 
Heaford  75 

DABAR  13 
^     Babism  134 
Badakhshan  91 
Badr 104,  117 
Al-Baghawi  30 
Baha'ism  53,  138 


INDEX 


165 


Baha'ism  and  its  Claims,  by 
Wilson  138 

Baha'UIIah53,  138 

Bai'at  16,  111,  145,  146,  149 

Bait-ul-Mal  124,  149 

Balfour,  E.,  Cyclopedia  of  India 
105 

Baptist  Missionary  Society,  New- 
Zealand  118 

Baqar'Id,  or  'Id-uz-Zuha  43 

Barahin-i-Ahiuadiya  13,  15,  33 

Barker,  Elsa,  Letters  froiu  a 
Living  Dead  Man  23 

Barlaam  and  Josaphat92 

Barzakh  (intermediate  state)  62 

Bashir-ud-DIn  Mahmud  Ahmad 
15,52,  109,  114,  il6,  122,' 133, 
137,  145 

Bengal  47,  48,  49,  118,  120, 
133 

Bengal,  East  118 

Bernier  91 

Bhagalpur  118 

Bhin  45 

Bible,  the  authority  of  26  ;  Con- 
trasted with  Qur'an  54;  Mu- 
hammadan  attitude  toward  79  ; 
Ahmad's  attitude  toward  79, 
SO;  quoted  by  Ahmadiya 
writers  83  ;  professor  of  125  ; 
taught  in  Ahmadiya  school  125; 
Syed  Ahmad  Khan's  attitude 
toward  134  ;  higher  criticism  of 
80,  161,  see  Old  Testament, 
New  Testament 

Biblical  World,  The  18 

Bihliothcqne  de  Curabas  93 

Bihar  118 

Bombay  Advocate  119 

Bombay  City  138 

Bombay  Presidency  113 

Book,  the,  ('hristian  Scriptures 
77,  79  ;  Granth  Sfthib  106  ; 
Qur'an  147,  148,  153;  for  every 
people  109  ;  none  after  t)ic 
Qur'an  133 

Books,  the  holy,  of  (jod  36 

Brahma  101,  105 

Brahman  Avatar,  the,  Ahmad, 
51 


Brahmanbaria,  E.  Bengal  118 
Brahma  Samaj  17,  105,  135 
British,  coming  to  India  31,  108  ; 

rule  in  India  13,  35,  37,  71,  75, 

108  ;     liberal    Government   48; 

Muslim    Association    137  ;  war 

with  Russia  31 
Brotherhood,  with    Ahmad    147  ; 

of  Islam  73 
"  Brotherhood,  Universal  "  130 
Browne,  E.  G.  18 
Bubonic     Plague,     A     Revealed 

Cure  for  the,  by  Ahmad  41 
"  Buddha  of  the  East,"    Ahmad 

53 
Buddhism  17,  109 
Bulbul  Shah  93 
Bulgaria  49 
Bull  of  Pope  Gregory  XIII  73 

,,    ,,     ,,      Pius  V  73 
Burma  109 
Buriiz,    A.hmad,    of   Muhammad 

37;    of    Krisna   50,  sec    Mani- 
festation. 

(CALCUTTA  64,  68,  105,  160 

Cambridge,  England  137 
Cambridge     Local     College    and 

Examination  135 
Campbell,  Rev.  R.  J.  18 
C!ana,  Jesus'  miracle  at  83,  85 
Canada  34 
Cannanore  119 
('apital  punishment  73 
('astes,      low,      not     wanted      by 

Ahmad  97 
Cawnpore  113 

Caxton  Hall,  London  137,  153 
Celibacy  66 
Census  report,    of   India    111  ;    of 

Bengal,  Bihar  and   Orissa  118; 

of  tlie  Punjab  98,  112 
Central  Islamic  Society  127 
Century  Bible,  The  27 
Ceremonialism  of  Islam    35,    57, 

68,  69 
Ceylon    118,    120 
Ceylon  Independent  120 
Chakralvi,  Abdulla  40 
Chamars  97 


166 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Chandals  97 

Chicago,  U.S.A.  21 

Chief  Court  of  Panjab,  decision 
of  42 

China  118 

Chiragh'Ali,  Maulvi  135,  136 

Chiragh  Din  43 

Chittagong  College  120 

Chittu,  Shaikh  Muhammad  40 

Chold  (cloak)  of  Ninak  106 

Christ,  see  Jesus 

Christ,  Dictionary  of,  and  the 
Gospels    Hastings  78,  79,  86 

Christ  in  Jewish  Literature,  by 
Herford  86 

Christ  in  Muhammadan  Litera- 
ture, by  Sell  and  Margoliouth 
78,  79 

Christ,  The  Moslem,  hy  Zwemer 
39,  77,  78 

Christ,  Unknown  Life  of,  by 
Notovitch  92 

"Christendom  and  Islam,"  130 

Christian  Apostolic  Church,  The 
45 

Christian  Civilisation  69,  75,  100 

Christian  era,  history  of  the  94 

Christian  king  of  Abyssinia  73 

Christian  misrepresentation  of 
Islam   126,  129,  130 

Christian  rule  73,  75 

Christian  scholarship  80 

Christian  teacher,  a  19,  78 

Christianity,  attacks  on  127,  129, 
136,  137 ;  controversy  on  the 
part  of  16,  81,  99,  111,  137; 
conversions  from  and  to,  see 
Converts;  corruption  of  79,  80, 
96,  99;  departure  from  Jesus' 
teaching  89;  error  regarding 
Jesus'  death  90,  91;  Eschato- 
logy  25ff;  ethics  and  morality 
161;  Missions  and  Missionaries, 
see  Missionaries  ;  power  of  133, 
134;  Scriptures  of,  see  Bible;  a 
source  of  Islam  64;  women  in 
99,  127. 

Chronicles,  Book  of.  First,  see 
Old  Testament 

Chuhras  98 


Civil     ayid     Military     Gazette, 

Lahore  74 
Claim  to  Promised  Messiahship, 

My,  by  Ahmad  25 
Cleanliness  of  Muslims  152 
Clergy  of     Islam,   new  school  of 
67;  of  United  States  and  Canada, 
crimes   of   34,   see     Priesthood, 
Maulvis,  Missionaries. 
College,    at  Aligarh   66,   134;  of 
Lahore    party   124;  Cambridge 
Local  125;  Oriental  125 
Commentaries,  Commentators,  on 
Old    Testament    27,     134;    on 
Qur'an  79,  121 
Companions  of  Muhammad  148 
Comparative  religions  52. 
Comrade,  The  136 
Conference  of    Religions,   Lahore 

17 
Congress      (Indian       National), 
League    (All    India    Moslem) 
scheme  126 
Constantinople  74 
Contemporary  Rcvieio,  The  18 
Converts,  to  the  Ahmadiva  move- 
ment  46,   103,  118,    133,    134, 
145;      to     Baha'ism      138:    to 
Christianity   97,   125;  to  Islam 
72,  73,  135,  153. 
Cornhill,  History  of  Israel  91 
County  of  London  Sessions  128 
Cow,  sacred  to  Hindus  101 
Creation,  new  60;  of  souls  102 
Creative  act  of  Allah,  Adam  82  ; 

Jesus  77,  82 
Creator,  the,  God  150,  152 
Creed  of  Muhammad  22,  136,  see 

Kalima 
Crime,  Crimes,  of  ancestors  damn- 
ing their  descendants    129;    of 
clergy  and  missionaries  34,  100; 
of  Lord  Head  ley  128;  of  sweepers 
98;   prayer  keeping  from  152 
Crimes  of  Preachers  34 
Criminal  tribes,  the  126 
Critical  attitude  of  Ahmad  24 
Critical      judgment      absent,     in 
Ahmad   18;  in   the   Ahmadiya 
community  139 


INDEX 


167 


Criticism,  the  higher,  of  the 
Bible  18,  80,  161;  of  the  Qur'an 
121 

Cross,  the,  Jesus'  cry  on  86;  Jesus' 
suffering  on  95;  Jesus'  alleged 
escape  from  42,  76,  88,  89,  90, 
91;  to  be  broken  by  Jesus  30 

Crucifixion,  doctrine  of,  rejected 
by  Muhammad  78;  Jesus'  al- 
leged attempt  to  escape  85 ; 
Jesus'  desertion  before  97 

Curse,  Curses,  pronounced  by 
Ahmad  on  his  enemies  30,  43ff; 
by   Jesus   on    the  fig  tree  83 

Custom,of  Muhammad, 5ef  5  i(«?!a; 
of  Islam  to-day  135 

Cuttack  118 

Cyclopedia  of  India,  Balfour  105 

Cyrus,  king  of  Persia  27 


r>iAJJAL   (Anti-Christ)  31,  38, 

^     96 

Damascus  20  ;  John  of  92 

Daniel,  Mr.  19,  20 

Ddr-ul-Harb  71 

Ddr-ul-Isldm  71 

Darwishes,  banned  124  ;  Qalandar 
order  of  108  ;  Senusite  order  of 
72 

Dayanand  Sarasvatl,  Swami  103, 
135 

Dead,  C  h  r  i  s  t  i  a  n  i  t  y  91,  138  ; 
Islam  68,  69,  139;  Lahore 
party  125;  Muhammad  in  con- 
trast to  Jesus  132,  137;  raised 
by  Ahmad  42;  by  Jesus  77,  84, 
137;  seen  by  Ahmad  63,  144 

Debates  and  discussions,  public 
118,  119,  126,  127,  160,  161 

Debendra  Nath  Tagore  105 

Deccan,  the  46,  118,  119 

Decree,  of  God  146,  147;  of  Dis- 
trict Judge,  Monghyr  156 

Deity,  of  Buddha  109;  of  Rama 
102;  of  Jesus  86,  87,  sec  God 

Delhi  47,  133 

Dementia  of  Ahmad  suggested 
19,  20 

Democracy  of  Islam  97 


DeMassignon,  ifi7a6  jtt  Tawdsin 
38 

Dera  Baba  Nanak,  Panjab  106, 
108 

Deputy  Commissioner,  Lahore  42 

Desai,  Rev.  N.  46 

De  Slane,  Mukaddima  20,  30, 
38 

Deuteronomy,  Book  of  Driver's 
Commentary  on,  in  Interna- 
tional Critical  Commentary  27, 
see  Old  Testament 

Development  of  Muslim  Theo- 
logy, Jurisprudence  and  Con- 
stitutional Theory,  by  D.  B. 
Macdonald  65 

Diabetes  of  Ahmad  15 

Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the 
Gospels,  Hastings'  78,  79,  86 

Dictionary  of  Isldm,  Hughes'  71, 
74 

Dilawar  Husain  66 

Dilawarpur,  Monghyr  155,  156 

Disciples,  of  Ahmad  138;  of 
Jesus  44,  80,  90",  95,  99 

Discoveries,  great,  of  Ahmad, 
absence  of  abrogated  verses  in 
Qur'an  42  ;  Arabic  the  mother 
of  languages  41  ;  Cure  for 
Bubonic  Plague  41,  42  ;  tomb 
of  Jesus  in  Kashmir  93  ;  Nanak, 
a  Muslim  106 

Diseases, "bf  Ahmad  15,  20,  24; 
cured  by  Ahmad  144 

Disloyalty,  in  India  74,  see 
unrest ;  of  Lahore  party  to 
Ahmad  116 

Divorce  68 

Doctrine  of  person  of  second 
Khalifa  122 

Douglas,  Prof.  J.  A.  92 

Dovvie,  J.  A.  21,  32  43,  45,  49, 
112 

Doyle,  Sir  A.  C.  23 

Dreams,  interpretation  of  20,  143, 
see  Visions 

Driver,  Commentary  on  Deutero- 
nomy 27 

Drunkenness,  in  Europe  99,  129  ; 
in    Islam    35,    69  ;     of     Jesus 


168 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


alleged  85,  86  ;  of  Lord  Head- 
ley  128 

Dulunijal,  Panjab  45 

Duritd  ( Prayer  invoking  a  bless- 
ing)  146 

r-ARTHQUAKE,   Sign   of  the 

^-^  Messiah's  advent  28  ;  of  1905 
48,  49 

East,  the,  Jesus'  alleged  residence 
in  90,  91,  92 

East,  the  Far  120 

East  and  West,  God  the  Master 
of  151  ;  the  prophets  of  151 

East,  The,  and  the  Wi'st  18 

East  Bengal  118 

Eclecticism,  of  Babism  and  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  134,  136 
138  ;  of  Bashir-ud-Din  109 

Eclipse  of  Sun  and  Moon,  sign  of 
the  Messiah's  advent  30 

Eddy,  G.S.  160 

Edinburgh,  World's  Missionary 
Conference  at  18 

Educated  Muslims  116,  118 

Education,  Muslims  behind  in 
133,  134;  Western  66,  133; 
of  Lahore  party  124  ;  of  Qadiiin 
party  116,  149 ;  of  women  at 
Qadian  117 

Egypt  18; 

Elias,  see   Elijah 

Elijah,  death  of  84  ;  second  com- 
ing 28,  87  ;  Dr.  Dowie's  claim 
to  be  the  second  21,  45;  John's 
coming  in  his  spirit  and  power 
28,  88 

Elizabeth,  Queen  72 

Encyclopedia  Bihlica,  The  18,  80 
88 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  The 
18,  91 

Encyclopedia  oj  Islam,  The 
Leyden  18 

Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  The,   Hastings'  103 

Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Know- 
ledge, The  New  Schaff-Herzog 
92 

Enemies,  of  Ahmad  denounced  16, 


85  ;  of  Jesus  defined  34  ;  succes- 

ful  89  ;  not  to  be  prayed  for  150 

England,  Muslim  Mission  to  118, 

120,  125ff,  138,  153,  154;  refer- 
ences to,  in  Reiic'u'  of  Religious 
17 

English,  Bible  125;  High  School 
at  Qadian  117;  periodicals  of 
Ahmadiya  movement,  Qadian 
party  117;  Lahore  party  113, 
126;  translations  of  the  Qur'an 

121,  126 

"  Esau, "  Jewish  name  of  Jesus  77 

Eschatology,  of  Jews  and  Christ- 
ians 25-30;  of  Muslims  30-31. 
37-39,  49,  132,  137,  138 

Essays,  Indian  and  Islamic,  by 
S.  Khuda  Bukhsh  64,  66,  68 

Ethics,  Christian  161;  of  Islam  131 

European,  civilization  161;  con- 
version to  Islam  129  ;  drunken- 
ness, debauchery,  etc.  99,  129; 
scholars  134  ;  style  in  house  121 

Evangelistic  Societies,  Christian 
96 

Eve  26 

Evil,  foresworn  146,  148;  in  the 
world  131;  overcome  by  God 
150;  Spirits  83 

Examination,  Cambridge  Local 
125;  Matriculation,  of  Panjab 
University  125 

Ezekiel,  Book  of,  sec  Old  Testa- 
ment 

UAITH  OF  ISLAM,  THE,  by 

^      E.  Sell  37 

Faith  of  the  Crescent,    The,    by 

J.  Takle  118 
Fakhr-ud-DIn  ar-Razi  79 
Famine,    sign   of   the    Messiah's 

advent  28 
Faqlr  108 
Far  East,  The,  120 
Farquhar,  J.  N.  92,  133,  134 
Fasting  58,    67,    107,    129,    152 

See  Roza,  Saum 
Fath  '  All  Shah  46 
Fatk-i-Isldm  16 
Father,  the,  in  the  Trinity  94 


INDEX 


169 


Fatiha,  Surat-al  41 

Fativd  16,  69,  70 

Festivals,      religious      101,      see 

Id. 
Fetishism  101 

Finality   of  the   Christian    Reli- 
gion, The,  by  G.  B.  Foster  17 
Finances,   of    Qadian    party  118, 

124,  148,  149;  of  Lahore   party 

126;  of  Woking  Mission  130 
Fire,  worshipped  in  India  101 
Fire,  The,  see  Hell 
Fisher,  Mr.  151 
Fitzgerald,  Edward  64 
"Five    Principle    Doctrines"    of 

Ahmad  72 
Forgiveness,  of  Jesus  88;  of  God 

151,  152 
Form,  for  reception  into  Islam  in 

England     128 ;     for     reception 

into  the    Ahmadiya    movement 

145 
Formalism  of  Islam  136,  139 
Forman  Christian  College,  Lahore 

46,  126 
Foster,  G.  B.  17 
"Fraud  theory"    of  Jesus'  death 

90 
French  writer,  A  134 
Friday,     day     of     Adam's      and 

Ahmad's  births  26;  prayers  41, 

119,  127,  128,  151 
Fuller,  Sir  B.  47 
"  Fundamental   Doctrines  of    the 

Muslim        Faith,      The,"     by 

Ahmad  57 
Funeral    service  of   non-Ahmadis 

150 
Future,  life  59,  60-63,  123,  152  ; 

civilization  135 

pABRIEL,  the  Angel  23,  54 
^^     Gairdner,   Rev.  W.  H.  T. 
18 

Gambling     condemned     35,    65, 

99,  129,  152 
Ganges  water  101 
Gardens    of     Paradise    152,    see 

Paradise 
Cienesis,    Book    of.    Commentary 


on,  by  Sir  Syed   Ahmad   Khan 
134,  see  Old  Testament 
Generation  of  Jesus,  see  Virgin 
German,    Germany    18,   80,   136 
Gethsemane,  Garden  of  85 
Ghaza  (Warring  Expedition)  72 
Ghazali,  Al-  131 
Ghulam     Ahmad,      Mirza,     see 

Ahmad 
Ghulam  Dastagir,  Maulvi  45 
Ghulam  Murtaba,  Mirza  13,  14 
Glasgow  Weekly  Herald  128 
God,    attributes    147,   151,    152; 
personality    103,   151;    protect 
ing  Ahmad  49;   revealing  truth 
109;  source  of  all  religion  105; 
union  with  60  ;  unity  of    106, 
107,  128;  writing  on   Nanak's 
Chola  106 
"  God  and  Science  "  130 
Gods  in  the  Trinity  94 
Gog  (Ydji'ij)  and  Magog  31 
Goldziher,  L  27,  131,  134 
Gospel,   brought    by  missionaries 
97;     Jesus'     teachings    in    88; 
taken  to  the  ten  lost  tribes  91, 
see  New  Testament,  Injil 
Gospel  of  Thomas  the  Israelite  84 
"  Gospels,"  by  Schmiedel  80,  83 
Government    census    reports,  see 

Census 
Government  of   India,  action,  re- 
garding   Badr    82,    104,    117; 
regarding    Cawnpore     mosque 
113,   114;    regarding    Muham- 
mad   'All  136;    regarding 
Zamindar  153 
Government  of  Panjab,  action  re- 
garding Ahmad  43,  111 
Government  officials  98 
Grades  and  growth  hereafter  63, 

123 
Granth  Sahib  106,  107 
Greek  Physicians  82 
Gregory  XIII,  Pope  72 
Griswold,  H.  D.  20,   21,  27,  30, 

48,  72,  112 
Guide,  the,  Ahmad  37,  98,   148; 
all    prophets   151  ;     God    151  ; 
Muhammad  121 

12 


170 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Gurdaspur,  Panjab  13,  118,  119 
Guru  Nanak,  see  Nanak 
Gurus    (spiritual     guides),   Sikh 
106 

LJABlBULLAH,  Amir  of  Af- 
^     ghanistan  70,  74 

Hahlul  Matin  160 

Hadh  56  125,  sec  Traditions 

"  Haeckel  and  Islam"  130 

Hajj  57,  58,  sec  Pilgrimage 

Hakain  37 

Hakim  Khalil  Ahmad  155 

Hallaj  Al  38 

Hanifite  Imams  155,  156 

Hard-heartedness,  of  Jesus  85  ;  of 
Muslims  69,  70 

Hardinge,  Lord  114 

Hartford,  Conn.,  U.S.A.  31,  74 

Hastings,  W.  78,  79,  86,  103 

Headley,  Lord  128,  129,  153 

Heaford,  W.  75 

Heaven,  according  to  Ahmad  63, 
64,  147  ;  God  the  light  of  151; 
Muhammad  gives  access  to  122, 
see  Paradise. 

Heavens,  Jesus  in  one  of  the  28, 
78,    132 

Hebrew,  language  77,  93,  124 ; 
appearance  of  Afghans  and 
Kashmiris  91,  sec  Israel 

Hebrews,  Book  of,  see  New 
Testament 

Hell  63,  64,  87,  96,  123,  147 

Heresy,  of  Ahmad  16,  70ff, 
118;  of  a  Christian  78  ;  of  Jesus 
alleged  86,  87;  of  a  Maulvi  119; 
of  the  Mu'tazilites  123;  punish- 
ment of,  in  Islam  74;  by  the 
Jews  87 

Herford,  R.  Travers  86 

Hibbcrt  Journal,  The  18 

Higher  criticism,  sec  Criticism 

Hinduism,  Ahmad's,  knowledge 
of  17  ;  criticism  of  24,  51, 
101,  104;  proposed  union  with 
105,  106 
Hindus,  Ahmad  sent  to  51,  132  ; 
converts  from,  to  the  Ahmadiya 
movement   133;    to  Christianity 


97;    in    Kashmir    93;    Nanak, 

avatar  of  106,  108 
Hindu  thoughts  108 
Historicity,  of  Nanak  108;  of  the 

New  Testament  79,  80 
History,  Professor  of  Islamic  125 
Holy  Ghost,  The  95,  101 
Home,  D.D.  23 
Home  Rule  in  India  126 
Hospitals,  Mission  99 
Hughes,  T.  P.  18,  71,  74 
Hurairah,  Abu  30 
Hurgronje,  C.  Snouck  18 
Husain,  Imam  41 
Hyderabad  73,  137 
Hymns  of  Nanak  108 

TBN  HAZM79 

*      Ibn  Khaldun  20,  30,  38 

Ibrahim  of  Alleppo  74 

Iceland  18 

'Id^  the,  or  'Id-uz-Zuha,  or  Baqar- 

'Id  43 
'Id-ul-Fitr  129 

Ideals,    of   Christianity,    harmful 
75;   impossible   135  ;   of  Islam, 
low  135 
Idiocy  in  Islam  20 
Idolatry,    Muhammad's    compro- 
mise with  56  ;  Nanak's  opposi- 
tion to   106  ;    of  Hindus,  criti- 
cised 101 
'_'  Idolatry,  Islam  and  "  130 
Ijdz-iil-Maslh  41 
Ijma*  (Agreement)  42,  67 
Ikmal-ud-Dhi   92 
I  la  hi  Bakhsh  69 
Ilhdiii  55 
Image,    Ahmad,   of   God   37;   of 

Krisna  51 
Images,  in  dreams  60  ;  of  Heaven 

and  Hell  63 
Imilm,  a    Hanifite    155,  156  ;    of 
Mosque,     Mauritius     120  ;     of 
Mosque,  Woking  129 
Imams,   Ahmadiya   150  ;  Mahdl, 

the  last  of  the  38 
Imam  Husain  41 
Imam-ud-DIn,  MIrza  98 
Imam-uz-Zaman,  Ahmad  37 


THE  AHMADlYA  MOVEMENT 


171 


"Imperator"  23 

Important  Discovery  Regarding 
Jesus  Christ,  An  9^ 

Imposter,  An,  Ahmad,  if  Christia- 
nity true  90 

Imposters,  other  prophets  not  109 

Impurity,  forbidden  by  Islam   152 

Incarnation,  Ahmad  of  Kri?na 
50,  51  ;  Jesus,  of  God  '  96  ; 
Kri§na,  of  Vi§nu  101;  Nanak 
106;' Rama,  of' Visnu  102 

Incarnations,  Hindu,  condemned 
by  Nanak  106 

India,  Buddhism  dead  in  109  ; 
Creature,  worship  of  101;  Islam 
in  127,  133-136,  139  ;  Jesus' 
alleged  visit  to  92  ;  Muslim 
prophets  sent  to  109  ;  regenera- 
tion of,  Christianity's  mission 
160  ;  social  system  of  106  ;  un- 
educated in  104,  see  British 
Rule 

India,  Cyclopedia  of ,  Balfour  105 

India  Musliiii  and  the  Islamic 
Rez'ieiv  113 

India,  What  it  can  teach  us, 
Miiller  102 

Indian,  Christian  teacher,  an  19; 
converts  to  Christianity  97  ; 
Muslims  in  London  153;  phy- 
sicians 82;  prince,  an  92,  93; 
prophets,  Rama  and  Kri$na 
109;  story,  an  92 

Initiation,  into  the  Ahmadiya 
movement  145;  into  Islam  in 
England   128,  151 

Infidelity,  of  Christianity  75;  of 
Islam  69 

Infidels  70,  157.  158 

Ifijil,  The  77,  79,  80,  see  New 
Testament 

Inoculation  for  plague,  Ahmad's 
objection  to  49,  50 

Inspiration,  in  Islam  137,  147;  of 
the  Bible  79,  134;  of  the  Qur'- 
an  54,  121,  134;  human  and 
divine  distinguished  54,  55 

Intercession,  in  orthodox  Islam 
36,  152;  of  Husain  41;  of  Jesus 
36,  87;  of  the  Meccan  idols  56; 


of     Muhammad   36,  56,     122, 
123,  147;   of  the   prophets    87; 
of  the  saints  93,  sec   Prayer 
International  Bible     Students' 

Association  29 
International    Committee,     Y.M. 

C.A.  160 
Intoxicants  prohibited  68,  152 
Invalidism,  of  Ahmad  15,  19,  20; 

of  Bashir-ud-Din  116 
Irak  136 

'Isd  77,  79,  see  Jesus. 
Isaiah,    Book    of,  in   the   Century 

Bible  27,  sec  Old  Testament 
Ishmael,  Children  of  27 
Israel,    Children   of   27,    90,    91; 
House  of  91;   Kingdom   of  91, 
I        see  Hebrew 

}    Israel,  History  of  the  People  of, 
I        by  Cornhill  91 
j    Israelite,  father,   lacking   to  Jesus 
I        82;  prophets  84,  110 
1    Israelite,    Gospel     of     Thomas 

The  84 
I  Islam  (orthodox),  Ahmad  in  rela- 
I  tion  to  53ff ;  Ahmadiya  move- 
I  ment  in  relation  to  118,  120, 
!  136ff  ;  Lahore  party  in  relation 
I  to  124,  140  ;  belief  regarding, 
I  Jesus'  birth  82;  Jesus'  death  28, 
78,  132  ;  Jesus'  second  coming 
25ff;  Jesus'  character  78,  82, 
132 ;  the  Christian  scriptures 
79  ;  the  future  life  123  ;  inter- 
cession 36ff;  the  intermediate 
state  62  ;  the  Mahdi  37ff,  71ff; 
the  sinlessness  of  the  prophets 
81  ;  ceremonialism  of  57  ;  con- 
verts from  118;  converts  to  73, 
153 ;  differences  with  the 
Ahmadiya  movement  71ff,  115; 
with  Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan 
134;  essence  of  60;  glorified 
by  Ahmad  60ff,  129  ;  hosti- 
lity to  Ahmad  19,  34,  51, 
111,  118,  '119,  120,  155ff; 
idiocy  in  20  ;  in  India 
127,  133-136,  139;  recent 
periods  of  development  133ff  ; 
rationalistic    and    universalistic 

13 


172 


THE  A?IMADiYA  MOVEMENT 


and  unpolitical  133,  134,  136; 
rationalistic,  dogmatic  and  poli- 
tical 134-136,  137  ;  dogmatic, 
supernaturalistic  and  unpoliti- 
cal 136-140,  144  ;  rationalistic, 
dogmatic  and  political  139,  140; 
misrepresented  in  the  West  126, 
129  ;  modifications  of  135,  136; 
the  religion  of  the  future  135  ; 
its  revival  by  Bashir-ud-Din 
122;  meaning  of,  "  resigna- 
tion "  60  ;  scholastic  174; 
sources  of  64  ;  spirit  of  135  ; 
superiority  to  Christianity  136  ; 
truth  of,  admitted  by  Nanak 
106  ;  wickedness  of  35,  68,  69, 
70,  see  Muhammadan 

"  Islam  "  130 

Islam  120 

"  Islam  and  Civilization  "  130 

Islam,  Aspects  of,  by  Macdonald 
21,  135 

Islam,  Religious  Attitude  and  Life 
in,  by  Macdonald  20,  55,  58 

Islam,  the  Awakening  of,  by 
Heaford  75 

"  Islam  in  Kashmir,"  by  Walter 
93 

Isldyn  Mittrian  120 

Islam,  the  Faith  of,  by  Sell  37 

Islam  the  Spirit  of,  by  Amir'Ali 
64,  65,  66,  135 

Islam,  the  Teachings  of,  byMirza 
Ghulam  Ahmad  16,  54,  55,  57, 
58-63,  143  ■ 

Islam,  Vorlesungen  iiber  den,  by 
Goldziher  131,  134 

"  Islam,  What  is?  "   130,  151ff. 

Islamic  History,  Professor  of  125 

Islamic  Review  and  Muslim  India, 
The  113,  127,  128,  129,  130, 
151 

Islampur  13 

Italy  18 

TAGlRDAR  98 
J     Jainism  17 
Jama' at  150 
Jammu  45 
Japan  18,  49   118 


Java  118,  120 

Jerusalem,  destruction  of  88,  91  ; 
Jesus  in  temple  at  92 

Jesus  Christ's,  life,  birth  82,  83, 
104,  127;  visit  to  the  temple  92; 
baptism  85,  92;  miracles  33, 
77,  83,  84,  138;  failure  and 
success  89;  persecution  34,  85; 
betrayal  97;  desertion  97; 
alleged  trip  to  the  East  52,  78, 
90,  96,  114,  132;  death  and 
burial  28,  32,  34,  42,   73,   78, 

88,  90-95,  97,  107,  116,  132, 
137,  140  ;  resurrection  28,  90, 
107,  138;  ascension  (Christian 
conception)  84,  107,  138; 
(Muslim  conception)  28,  78, 
132;  prophecies  33,  44,  49,  78, 
87,  88,  90;  teachings  29,  87,  88; 
character  besmirched  81,82,  85, 

89,  99,  138;  praised  35,  15,  84, 
99;  doctrine  of  the  person  of. 
Incarnation  96;  atonement  95, 
96;  one  Person  of  the  Trinity 
94,  95;  sinlessness  36,  80,  81, 
84;  intercession  36,  87;  divinity 
and  deity  80,  83,86,87,  88,  89; 
Christian  worship  of  33,  41; 
second  advent  26,  31,  38,  52, 
119,  122,  132,  137,  138; 
Ahmad's  unique  relation  to  27, 
31-34;  a  Prophet  in  Islam  {'Isa) 
32,  38,  77-79,  84,  87,  119,  128, 
151,  154 

Jesus  Christ,  An  I  m  p  o  rtant 
Discovery  Regarding  94 

"  Jesus  Christ  as  Man  and  God" 
130 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  by  Krauss  86 

Jewish, appearance  of  Afghans  and 
Kashmiris  91  ;  eschatological 
hopes  25ff,  28,  physicians  42  ; 
Rabbinical  writings,  sources  of 
Islam  64 

Jewish  Encyclopedia,  The  18,  26, 
86 

Jewish  Life  of  Christ,  The  86 

Jews,  the,  abused  by  Jesus  85 
attacks  on  Jesus  81,  82,  84 
attitude  towards  Jesus  86,   87 


INDEX 


173 


ceremonialism  68;  crucifixion  of 
Jesus  95;  'denial  of  Christian 
Trinity  94;  name  for  Jesus  77 
persecution  of  Jesus  34,  85,  89 
religious  leaders  corrupt  34,  35 
women's  position  among  127 
writings  plagiarized  by  Jesus  88 

fhelum,  District,  Panjab  45 

libra'il  23,  see  Gabriel 

Jihad  38,  70-74 

Hzya  71 

[ohannine  Sect,  18 

|ohn,  Gospel 
of,  see  New  Testament 

[ofin  of  Damascus  92 

[ofin,  the  Baptist  28,  82,  85,  88, 
92 

[onah  90 

[osaphat  92,  93 

[oseph    93 

[oseph   (in  New  Testament)  127 

[udgment,  critical,  absent  in 
Ahmad  18,  in  the  Ahmadiya 
movement  133,  139 

ludgment  Day  25,  28,  30,  32, 
37,  71,  122,  123 

"Julia"  23 

[ustice  of  God  96 

KA'BA  140 
Kabir  106 

Kabtra  (greater  sins)  123 

Kafir  41,  70,  115,  123 

Kalima  107,  128,  129 

Kamal-ud-DIn,  Khwajah  17,  24, 
74,  99,  113,  118,  125,  126,  127 
129,  139,  153,  154 

Kangra,  District,  Panjab  49 

Karma    103,  106 

Kashmir  52,  78,  90,  91,  92,  93, 
94,    116,  132 

Keshab  Chandra  Sen  105,  135 

Keswick  movement  18 

Khaldun,  Ibn,  Mukaddima  20, 
30,  38. 

Khalifa,  first,  of  Ahmadiya  move- 
ment 111,  113,  149,  see  Nur- 
ud-Din;  second  114,  149,  see 
Bashir-ud-Din. 

Khalifas,  early,  of  Islim  17,  73 


KhaUfat-ul-Masih    113,   149,  see 

Nur-ud-Din,  Bashir-ud-DIn 
Khalsa  High  School,  Lahore  108 
Kharijites  17 
Khilafat  115 
Khinzir  (pig)  41 
Khuda  Bukhsh,  S.  64,  66,  68 
King-Emperor,  the  47 
Kingdom,  the,  of  God  29;    of  the 

Son  of  Man  88,  90;    of   Israel 

91 
Kipling,  Rudyard  154 
Kitab-iit-Tau'asin,    by  AI-Hallaj 

38 
Koran,  see  Qur'an 
"  Koran,     The,      according      to 

Ahmad,"  by  McNeile  121 
Koran,  Preliminary  Discourse  to, 

by  Sale  25,  30 
Korea  49 
Krauss,  Dr.  S.  86 
Krisna50,  51,  102,  110, 

I   AHORE  17,   20,   24,   42,  47, 
^     69,  74,   96,   108,   114,    124, 

125,  126,  160 
Lahore   party,  the  115,  116,  124, 

124-125,  140 
Lalitaz'istdra  92 
Last  Day,  see  Judgment  Day 
Law,  of   God    121;  of   Islam    19, 

68,131,  135,  145,  147,148,  151; 

of    Moses  87,     88  ;    of     nature 

136, 152 
Lectures,  see  Debates  and  discus- 
sions 
Leitner,   Professor  126. 
Lekh  Ram,  Pandit  43,  111 
Leon,  Professor  H.  M.  128 
Letters  from  a  Living  Dead  Man, 

by  Elsa  Barker  23 
Leyden  Encyclopedia  of  Islam  18 
Liberal,    (Government    in    Great 

Britain  48,  religion,  in  U.S.A. 

53;  of  Syed  Ahmad  Khan  65, 

134 
Liberty    of     the     Press    138;    of 

worship  155 
Lilith  26 
Lindsey  Hall,  London  153 


174 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Literature,  of  Ahmadiya  move- 
ment, 17  ;  of  Qadian  party  117, 
118,  120  ;  of  Lahore  party  125, 
126 

Lodge,  Sir  Oliver  23 

London  64,  118,  120,  127,  153. 

London  Muslim  Literary  Society 
127 

London  Quarterly  Review  18 

Loyalty,  of  Ahmad  and  his  family 
to  Government  13,  14,  35,  71- 
74  ;  of  Muslims  in  India  73, 
74;  of  the  Qadian  party  to 
Ahmad  116,  139 

Luck now  67 

Luke,  Gospel  of,  see  New  Testa- 
ment 

Luxury  condemned  35,  68 

Lye  T.  K.  120 

*'A/]  A.  OXON"  (Rev.  W. 
^^^'       S.  Moses)  23 

Macauliffe,   M.A.  108 

Macdonald,  D.B.  20,  21,  42,  55, 
58,  65,  135 

Madrassah  at  Qadian  117 

Magdalen,  Mary  86 

Magnetizer,  Ahmad  76,  88 

Magog  (Majuj)  31 

Mahadevaji  101 

Mahdi,  The,  Ahmad  16,  25,  37- 
39,  71,  111,  119,  135,  147; 
not  a  man  of  blood  38,  71-73 

*' Mahdis  bloody  "  71 

Mahdiism  138 

Majuj  ( Magog)  31 

Malabar  118;  North  119 

Malachi,  Book  of,  see  Old  Testa- 
ment 

Malay  126 

Manifestation,  of  Ahmad,  Bashlr- 
ud-DIn  149;  of  God,  Ahmad 
36,  76;  Muhammad  56;  of 
Muhammad,  Ahmad  122,  see 
Buruz 

Mansukh  (abrogated)  42 

Mantra,  C.  H.  120 

Maracci  30 

Marithas,  the  133 
.Margbliouth,  D.  18,  78,  79 


Marhdin-i-'lsd  ("Ointment  of 
Jesus")  41,  90 

Mariam  77.  see  Mary 

Mark,  Gospel  of,  see  New  Testa- 
ment 

Marquis,  Captain  Stanley  153 

Martyrdoms  of  Ahmad's  folio'wers 
19,  70,  74 

Mary,  Jesus,  son  of  29,  30,  32, 
80,  86,  94,  122;  character  of, 
aspersed  82,  84,  127;  alleged 
insults  to,  by  Jesus  86;  see 
Mariam,  Virgin 

Masdbih  as  Sunna  30 

Masih,'Khalifat-ul  113,  115,  149 

Materialism,  of  Europe  99,  129; 
of  Islam  35,  68,  135 

Matthew,  Gospel  of,  see  New 
Testament 

Matter,  eternity  of  103 

Matriculation  examination  117 

Maulvi,  Ahmad  called  a  98  ;  of 
East  Bengal  119 ;  of  Lahore 
46,  125  ;  a  renegade  119 

Maul  vis,  corrupt  35,  69,  96 ; 
educated  67,  98 

Mauritius  118,  120 

Mecca  58,  73,  106,  107,  108,  139, 
140. 

Media  91 

Mediator  between  God  and  man, 
Ahmad  37,  76 

Medina  93,  132,  139 

Medina  Suras  of  Qur'an  68 

Mediums,  Spiritualistic  23 

Mercy  of  God  96. 

Mesopotamia  91 

Message  of  Peace,  T/jc, by  Ahmad 
24,  104,  105 

Messenger  of  God,  Ahmad  148, 
149;  150;  Muhammad  128, 
145,  149 

Messengers  of  God  149,  see  Rasril 

Messiah,  the  Promised,  Ahmad 
16,  20,  21,  25-37,  39-51,  76 
111,  124,  132,  145,  147,  149 
of  America,  J.  A.  Dowie  32,  45 
of  Moses,  Jesus  33  ;  of  Muham- 
mad, Ahmad  33  ;  was  not  Jesus 
87 


INDEX 


175 


"Messiah  of  Qadian,  The,"  by 
H.  D.  Griswold  20 

Messiahship— of  Ahmad,  proved 
by  Jewish  prophecies  25-37  ; 
Christian  prophecies  27-29  ; 
Muslim  prophecies  29-31  ;  re- 
velation identifying  Ahmad 
with  Jesus  28,  29,  122  ;  simi- 
larity in  situation  of  Ahmad 
and  Jesus,  34-37  ;  Ahmad's 
manifestation  of  and  superiority 
to  Muhammad  36,  37  ; 
Ahmad's  fulfilment  of  pro- 
phecies regarding  the  Mahdi 
37-39  ;  outward "  signs  39-50  ; 
identity  of  Ahmad  and  Krisna 
50-51  ;  Ahmad's  "  great  dis- 
coveries," see  Discoveries 

Messiahship,  My  Claim  to  Pro- 
mised, by  Ahmad  25 

Millenial  Dan'n  books,  by 
"  Pastor"  Russell  28,  29 

Millennium  of  Muslims  25,  26,  28 

Miracles  and  signs,  of  Ahmad 
39-50,  93,  143  ;  of  Islam  40, 
67  ;  of  Jesus  33,  77,  83,  84, 
138  ;  of  Muhammad  39,  40, 
56,  84  ;  of  Ninak's  chold  106, 
107  ;  of  the  prophets  122,  148  ; 
of  the  saints  69 

Miraculous,  the,  denied  by  Bud- 
dha, 109;  denied  by  Sir  Syed 
Ahmad  Khan  67 

Mi'raj-ud-Din  13,  15 

Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  see  Ah- 
mad 

"Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  A  False 
Messiah  of  India,"  by  R.  Siraj- 
ud-Din  47 

Mirza  Ghulam  Ahmad,  the  Meh- 
dt  Messiah  of  Qadian,  by  H.  D. 
Griswold  21,  27,  48,  72 

Mirzais  111,  see  Ahmadiya 

Mishkat-ul-Masabih  71,  81  _ 
Misrepresentations  of   Islam  in  the 

West  126,  129,  130 
Missionaries  Christian  13,  14,  17, 
18,  31,  33,  34,  44,  54,  85,  96, 
97,  98,  99,  100,  130,  137,  160; 
Ahmadiya,  118,  125 


Missionaries,      misrepresentations 

of  130 
Missionary     work,    Arya     Samaj 
103;   Ahmadiya   community  at 
Qadian '117-120,    148;    Ahma- 
diya party  in  Lahore   116,  124, 
125,    126;    Christian,    changed 
spirit  of  99  ;  success  of  97  ;   of 
Lahore  party  in  England  118, 
125,  126-130,  138,  153,  154 
Missionary  Conference,  World's  18 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 

The  47 
Modern  Movements  among  Mos- 
lems, by  S.  D.  Wilson  138 
Modern  Religions  Movements  in 
India,  by  J.  N.   Farquhar  92, 
133 
Modernism  in  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  18 
Modifications   necessary  in  Islam 

135,  136 
Mohammedanism,   by    C.  Snouck 

Hurgronje  38 
Monasteries,   Muslim  68. 
MonghyrllS,  155,  156,  157 
Monogamy,  in  Christianity  99  ;  in 

Islam  66 
Monotheism,  of  Muslims  101  ;  of 

Vedas  denied  102 
Montagu,  E.  S.  126 
Moplahs  119 
Moral  responsibility  152 
Morality,  of  the  Ahmadiya  move- 
ment and    Baha'ism,    a    failure 
138;  of  Christianity, a  failure  89, 
161  ;    of  Islam,    practical  135  ; 
severe  135  ;  low  135 
Mormonism  17 
Moses  27,  33  87,   88,    128,    151, 

154. 
"  Moses,  Rod  of  "  69 
Moses,  Rev.  Stainton  23. 
Moslem,  see  Muslim 
Moslem  Christ ,  The,  Zwemer  39, 

77,  78 
Moslem    League,     the,   All-India 

67,  114,  126,  136,  140 
Moslem  World,   The  18,  42,  55. 
93,  112,  121 


176 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Mosques  68,  111,  113,   115,  117, 
119,  120,  128, 129, 153, 155, 157 
Maftis70 
Mughal  race  13 

Muhammad,  Ahmad's,  spiritual 
relation  to  36,  37,  50,  121, 
122  ;  superiority  to  37,  132  ; 
belief  of,  regarding,  the  Bible 
79  ;  Jesus'  death  78  ;  Jesus' 
personality  78;  Jihad  71, 
Christian  attacks  on  81  ;  deser- 
tion of,  by  later  orthodox  Islam 
68,  75  ;  life  and  character  of, 
Ishmaelite  stock  27  ;  miracles 
and  signs  39,  40,  56,  84  ;  pro- 
phecies 29-31,  49  ;  success  89  ; 
buried  in  Medina  93,  132, 
139;  sense  of  sin  131;  sinlessness 
56,  122  ;  warlikeness  89,  see 
Jihad  ;  offices  of  medium  of  re- 
velation 65-67,  121,  142;  pro- 
phetship  (Last  and  Seal)  55, 
56,  93,  97,  109,  131,  145, 
147,  148,  150  ;  saviour  56  ;  titles 
of.  Messenger  of  God  128,  145, 
151  ;  model  for  human  guidance 
122  ;  the  Moses  of  Islam  27  ; 
Servant  of  God  122,  128, 145, 151 
Muhammad  'All,  editor  of  Co)'.i- 

rade  136 
Muhammad     'Ali     Maulvi     17, 

li4,  125,  126 
Muhammal  Din,  Maulvi  117 
Muhammad  Hasan,  Maulvi  45 
Muhammad  Husain,   Maulvi  16, 

43,  46,  111' 
Muhammad  Ibn-i-Bahwaih  92 
Muhammad  Inayat  'Ali  39 
Muhammad  Ismail,  Maulvi  45 
Muhammad  Sadiq,  Mufti   117 
Muhammadan  — apologetics    127; 
Muhammadan  commentators  and 
theologians  58,  79  ;  community 
in  India,  sec  India,   Islam. 
Muhammadan   Anglo-Oriental 

College,  Aiigarh  67 
Muhammadan   Educational  Con- 
ference 66,  67 
Muhammadan   Tract   and    Book 
Depot,  Lahore  39 


Mnjaddid  ("  Reviver")  Ahmad 
116,   131 

Mukaddivia  of  Ibn  Khaldun  20, 
30,  38 

Mulham  55 

Mullahs  16,  30,  35,  see  Maul- 
vis 

Muller,  Max  102 

Multaqa-ul-Abhar  74 

Munshi  Fazil  examination  125 

Murtadd  74 

Musaliar  120 

Mushrik  41 

Mtislim  Faith,  The  Fundmental 
Doctrines  of  the,  by  Ahmad 
57,  60 

Muslim  High  School,  Lahore  125 

Muslim  India  and  IsldniicReview, 
The  99,  113,  126,  see  Islamic 
Rez'ieii' 

Muslims,  '  Ahmadis  declared  to 
be  155ff,  see  Islam,  Muham- 
madan 

Mu'tazilites  65;  123,  134 

Mutiny  of  1857,  the  13 

Mysore  72 

Mythology,  Hindu   102 

M/IB/,  Jesus   77,  119  ;  Prophet 
^^      Ahmad  115,  see  Jesus  Christ 
Nadvvat'-ul-'Ulama  67,  68 
Nanak,     Guru    106,      107,     108 
Nature,  denial  of   the  Trinity  in 
94;  law  of  135,152;  worship  of, 
in  Islam  101 
Neo-Musalmans  120 
•  "  Neurotic     theory  "     of     Jesus' 
miracles  83 
New  Dispensation  Samaj  105 
New      Scliaff-Herzog     Encyclo- 
pedia  of  Religious  Ktioivledge 
92 
New    Testament,     echoes    of,    in 
Ahmad's  teaching  60  ;   histori- 
city of  79,  80  ;  Jesus  in  78,  79  ; 
prophecies    of,    fulfilled    in 
Ahmad  27,  29  ;  quotations  from 
[New     Testament,      quotations 
from!  Matthew  (4:  4)58;  (12: 
31)  80  ;   (12:  39)  83;  (12:40) 


INDEX 


177 


90  ;  (12:  48)  86;  (15:  24)  91 
(16:  2S)  88,  90  ;  (17:  12)  28 
(20:  1-16)  27  ;  (24:  34)  87 
(27:  42)  89;  (27:  46)  80,  86 
Mark  (3:  21)  80;  (10:17)  80 
(10:  18)  87  ;  (13:  32)  80;  (15 
34)  80;  Luke  (1:  17)  88  ;  (2 
17)  28;  (7:  37,  38)  86;  (22 
36)  89;  (23:  43)  87;  John  (4 
21)  27;  (10:  8)  88;  (10:  16) 
92;  (14:  12)  87;  (14:  25)  30 
(16:  7)27,  30:  I  Corinthians(2 
9)  61;  Hebrews  (5:7)  85;  (7 
25)  36,  87;  I  John(4:  1-3)  27 
Revelation  (20:  1-10)  26;  (2 
8)  31 

"  New  Testament,  The  Age  of 
the"  130 

New  Theology,  The  IS 

New  York  Times,  the  153 

New  Zealand  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  118 

Nimaz57,  153,  sec  Friday  prayers 

Nineteenth  Century,  The  92 

Niyoga  103,  104 

Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  The  137 

Noldeke,  E.  18 

Non-Ahmadi  Muslims,  relation 
of,  to  Ahmadis  115,  116,  117, 
150         ■ 

Non-resistance,  Jesus'  teaching 
regarding  88,  89 

North  Africa  153 

North  Malabar  119 

Notovitch,  Nicolas  92 

Nur  117 

Nur-ud-Din,  Hakim  40,  82,  111, 
113,  114,  115,  122,  139,  149 

QBSCURANTISM   of    Christ- 

^^     ianity  75 

*'  Ointment  of  Jesus  "  41,  90 

Old  Testament,  History  of  91; 
prophecy  fulfilled  in  Ahmad  26, 
37;  prophets  of  83,  84,  88,  151; 
quotations  from  [Old  Testa- 
ment, quotations  from]  Genesis 
(2:  8)  26;  Deuteronomy  (18: 
18)  27;  (33:  2)  27;  I  Chron- 
icles (5:26)  91;  Isaiah  (21:  6) 


27;  (41:2)27;  Ezekiel  (39:  16) 

31;  Malachi  (4:  5)  28 
Omar,  Khallja  122 
Omar  Khayyam  64 
Orders,  religious,  see   Darwlsh 
Original  Sources  of  the   Qur'an, 

The,  by  Tisdall  64 
Orissa  118 
Orthodoxy   of    Ahmad    53ff,   see 

Islam  (Orthodox) 
Oudh  72 
Outcastes  97 

r>AIGHAM-I-SULAH  123 

^     Palestine   18,    93 

Palmer,  E.  H.  121 

Pandits,    Hindu    106 

Panipat  120 

Pan)ab,thel3,40,  42,  49,  72,106. 
108,  112,  118,  119  126,  156 

Panjab     Census    Report    98 

Panjab  Chief    Court  42 

Panjab,  Government  of  the  43, 
111,  153 

Panjab  University  117,  125 

Paraclete,  the  30 

Paradise,  at  the  mother's  feet  152; 
hereafter  60,  61-63,  87,  123, 
151  ;  on  earth  59,  see  Heaven 

Parallelism,  bet%veen  the  Ahma- 
diya  movement  and  Baha'ism 
53,  138  ;  claimed  by  Ahmad 
between  Jewish,  Christian  and 
Muslim  Messianic  prophecies 
25-27 

Pardah,  67,  sec  Veil,  the 

Pardon,  sec  Forgiveness 

Pariahs  97,  134 

Parkinson,  J.   128 

Parsis,  the  42,  51,  133 

Path  ot  God,  the  59 

Patna  High  Court  155 

Paul,  St.  99 

Peer,  Lord  Headley  153 

Perfection,  hereafter  60,  61-63; 
in  faith  and  works  123  ;  of 
Ali.mad  36,  143;  of  Christian 
Trinity  95  ;  of  IslQm  54,  64; 
65,  66.  75  ;  of  Jesus  36,  84,  of 
Muhammad  36,  121,  122 


178 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


Periklutos  30 

Periodicals,     Ahmadiya     17  ;    of 

Islam  136,  153,  160  ;  of  Lahore 

party  127,  138,  130;  of  Qadian 

party  117,  120 
Persecution,    of    Ahmad    19,    34, 

85  ;  of  Ahmadis'70,   74,    118, 

119;  of  Jesus   34,  35,    89  ;   of 

Nanak  106 
Persons  of  the  Trinity,  the  95 
Persia,  Persian,  Persians   49,  53, 

73,  90,  93,  109,  125,  134,  138, 

153 
Peshawar,  N.-W.  F.  P.  72,  125 
Pfander  IS 

Pharisees,  the  34,  39,  85 
Philippines,  the  118 
Philosophy  of  Muhammad  22 
Physicians,    Greek     82  ;    Indian 

14,     82;     Jewish,      Christian, 

Pars!  and  Muslim  42 
Pigeon,  the  Holy  Spirit  95,  101 
Pilate  35 
Pilgrimage,    of    Ahmad   to    Dera 

Baba  Nanak  106;  to  Mecca  58, 

68,  106,    107,    108,    120,    132, 

140  ;    to  Medina  132,    139  ;   to 

Qadian    119,    120,    124,     139, 

149 
Pillars  of  Islam,  the  five  {Arkdti) 

57,  58,  71 
Pius  V,  Pope  72 
Plagiarism  of  Jesus  alleged  88 
Plague,     sign    of    the    Messiah's 

advent  28,   31,   48.     Ahmad's 

alleged  protection  from  49,  50 
Plague,  A  Revealed  Cure  for  the 

Bubonic,  by  Ahmad  41 
Police  arrests  120 
Police  Inspector  of  Bengal,  a  121 
Police    Court,     Tower     Bridge, 

London  128 
Political    controversy    113,     114, 

125,  136,  139 
Poll   tax  ijizya)  71 
Polygamy,     justified    67,    99;    of 

Ahmad    138;     of    Baha'Ullah 

138  ;    of    Bashir-ud-Din  116  ; 

of  Joseph  127, 
Polytheism  of  Hindus  101 


Polyuria,  Ahmad's  disease  15,  20 

Pope  Gregory  XIII  72 

Pope  Pius  V,  72 

Post- Resurrection  appearances  of 
Jesus  90 

Powers  of  darkness,  the  25 

Practice  of  the  Prophet  148,  see 
Sunna 

Pragmatism  139 

Prayer,  Prayers,  call  to  108;  effi- 
cacy denied  by  Sir  Syed  Ahmad 
Khan  67;  by  Buddha  109;  na- 
ture of  57,  59;  of  Ahmadis  115, 
150,  I55ff  ;  of  Bashlr-ud-Din 
149;  of  Jesus  85;  prescribed 
Muslim  41,  57,  107,  115,  119, 
127,  128,  146,  149,  152, 153; see 
Intercession 

Prayer  Carpet  108 

Prayer  duels  of  Ahmad  32,  44 

Preliminary  Discourse  to  the 
Koran,  A,  by  Sale_25,  30 

Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  the 
46 

Presidency  College,  Calcutta  64 

Priesthood,  Priests  85,  96,  139, 
153,  see  Maulvis,  Mullahs, 
Missionaries 

Progress  after  death  63,  123 

Prohibition,  of  certain  foods  107; 
of  intoxicants  68,  152;  of  mysti- 
cism and  asceticism  124;  of  to- 
bacco smoking  68;  relating  to 
non-Ahmadis  115,  118,  120, 
150 

Promised  Messiah,  the,  see  Mes- 
siah 

Prophecy,  Prophecies,  denied  by 
Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan  67  ;  in 
visions  143;  uttered  by  Ahmad 
42-50,  108,  122  ;  by  Jesus  33, 
44,  49,  78,  87,  88,  90;  by  Mu- 
hammad 49;  regarding  Ahmad 
16,  25-31;  regarding  Bashir- 
ud-Din  122 

Prophet,  a  false,  Jesus  49,  87,  88 

Prophets,  inspiration  of  55  ;  mir- 
acles of  122  ;  of  all  peoples  109, 
115,  122  128,  147,  153,  155; 
of    India,    Rama    and    Krisna 


INDEX 


179 


110;  of  Old  Testament  83,  84, 
88,  128 

Prophetship,  of  Ahmad  55,  122, 
123,  131,  147;  of  Jesus  77,  78, 
128,  132;  of  Muhammad  55, 
56,  93,  97,  109,  131,  145,  147, 
148,  150 

Prosecution,  of  Ahmad  16,  43;  of 
the  editor  of  Ba'dr  104,  117  ;  of 
the  editor  of  the  Zamtnddr  153 

Prostitution  99 

Protestant  Islam  120,  see  Wahha- 
bites 

Psychic  elements  in  Ahmad's  re- 
velations 22,  23,  142-144;  in 
Muhammad's  21,  22 

Psychics,   modern  23 

Psychology,  modern  21 

Pudre,   Viscount  de  lo3 

Puja  holidays  119 

Puranas,  Puranic  83,  101,  105 

Purgatory,  Muslim  123 

QADIAN,    antecedents    of   13  ; 
Ahmad's     birth-place     14  ; 
burial    place    21,     124,     139; 
headquarters    of    A  h  m  a  d  i  y  a 
movement  17,  24  ;    alleged  spe- 
cial protection  from    plague  49, 
50  ;    place  of  Messiah's  advent 
52  ;  library  at  92  ;   Arya  Samaj 
at  103  ;  visits  to,  of  Mr.  Daniel 
19  ;  of  Dr.   Griswold  27;  of 
Prof.  Siraj-ud-Din    46  ;    of   the 
author  116,  139;  of  Ahmad's  fol 
lowers  119,  120,  124,'  139,  149; 
of  Ahmad's  opponents  40,  46; 
headquarters    of     later    Qadian 
party  114,   115,   117,  120,  124, 
133,  138,  140,  149 
Qadiani  111,  see  Ahmadiya 
Qalandar  order  of  Darwishes  108 
Qasida  Ijazia,  by  Ahmad    41 
Qasur,  Lahore  District  45 
Qazis,  in  Afghanistan  70 
Qisas-ul-Anbiya  78 
Quartremere  Ed.,  by  De  Slane,  of 
Mukaddima    of    Ibn    Khaldun 
20,  30,  38 
Queen-Empress,  the  157 


Qur'an,  the  attitude  toward,  of 
Ahmad  and  the  Ahmadiya 
movement  14,  17,  54',  117,  138, 
147;  of  Baha'ism  138  ;  of  Chris- 
tians 82  ;  of  Islam  to-day  34  ;  of 
Sir  Syed  Ahmad  Khan  130  ;  of 
the  Woking  Mission  152  ;  cha- 
racter of,  a  guidance  for  Islam 
56,  146  ;  inspired  54,  134,  152  ; 
a  miracle  40;  perfect  147;  verses 
abrogated  56,  67  ;  teaching  of, 
regarding  Ahmad  29,  147  ; 
Books  and  prophets  109,  150  ; 
the  divine  decrees  147  ;  the 
Injll  79;  intercession  36  ;  Jesus 
29,  32,  33,  77,  78,  79,  81,  82, 
83,  84,  132  ;  Jihad  71,  72  ;  the 
last  day  30,  31  ;  the  life  to  come 
60,  63,  147  ;  monotheism  101  ; 
Muhammad  39  ;  sinlessness  of 
Prophets  81  ;  stages  of  progress 
59  ;  the  Trinity  94  ;  verses  cited 
or  translations  of,  into  English 
120,  121,  125 

[Qur'an  verses  cited  or  quoted] 
(II,  81)  81;  (III,  214,  215) 
71;  (III,  40,  42)  77;  (III,  43, 
47)  78  ;  (11148)32;  (III,  52) 
26,  82;  (III,  43)  84;  (IV, 
76,  79)  71;  (IV,  84)  40;  (IV, 
156)  78;  (IV,  169)  77  ;  (V, 
116)  94;  (VI,  109)  39;  (VIII, 
39,  42)  71  ;  (IX,  5,  6)  71; 
(X,  38,  39)  40;  (XII,  53)  58; 
(XIII,  20-24)  152;  (XIV,  42) 
81;  (XVIII,  93,  97)  31  ;  (XIX 
llff.)  82;  (XIX  22-34)  82; 
(XIX,  92)  29;  (XXI,  89)  82; 
(XXI,  96)  31  ;  (XXIII,  52) 
82;  (XXIII,  102)  62;  (XXIV 
32)  67;  (XXXII,  17)  61; 
(XXXIX,  54)  152;  (XLI  57) 
81  ;  (XLIII,  61)  29;  (LIII, 
20)  56;  (LXI,  5)  109  ;  (LXI, 
6)  29;  (LXIV,  46)  109; 
(LXVI,  8)  63  ;  (LXVI,  12) 
32:  (LXXV,  2)  58;  (LXXXIX 
27)  58  ;  (LXXXIX,  28,  30) 
59;  (XCVII,  40)  36 

Quraish,  The  39 


180 


THE  AHMADIYA  MOVEMENT 


RABBINICAL  writings  of  the 
*^     Jews  26 

Railways  in  India,  sign  of  Mes- 
siah's advent  31 
Ra'is  98 
Rama  102,  110 
Ramayana,  the    102 
Ramadan,  fast  of  129,  see  Fasting 
Ram  Mohan  Roy  105,  135 
Ranjit  Singh  13 
Ranson,  Miss  Lilley  153 
Rasiil,  Jesus  77,  the  Qur'an  40; 

^cc  Messenger 
Rationalism,    of    Islam   65,    137, 

139,    151,     153;    of    Sir    Syed 

Ahmad   Khan  67,   134;  of  the 

West   75 
Ravana   103 
Raymond,  by  Lodge  23 
Reason  in  religion,  advocated  54, 

128,  134;  deprecated  136,  139 
Recompense  hereafter  61,  152,  see 

Heaven,   Paradise 
Redemption,  none  in  Islam   152, 

see  Salvation 
Reformer,   Ahmad  51,   131,  137, 

147;  Bashir-ud-DIn   122;  Jesus 

85,  88 
Reform,  zeal  for  134,  136 
Reforming  movement,  the  Brahma 

Samaj      105;     Syed      Ahmad 

Khan's  party  134 
Reforms  forced  on  Islam  143 
Regeneration,    of    India    161; 

through     Islam     60,    64;    sec 

Salvation 
"  Relative    position  of    Man    and 

Woman  in  Islam,  The"   130 
Religions  Attitude  and    Life    in 

Islam,  The,  by  Macdonald   20, 

55,58 
Remembrance  of  God  152 
Repentance  153 

Resignation  to  God  (Islam)  60 
Responsibility,  Moral  152 
Resurrection,   Day  of  25,  32,  63, 

147,  see  Judgment  Day;  general 

28,  147;  of  an  Ahmadiya  martyr 

predicted  70;  of  Jesus  33,     107, 

138 


Resurrection,  appearances  of  Jesus, 

post  90 
Retaliation  88 

Revealed  Cure  for  the  Bubonic 
Plague,  A,  by  Ahmad,  41 

Revelation,  Revelations,  in  the 
Qur'an  109  ;  in  the  Bible  83  ; 
to  Ahmad  19,  20,  22,  23,  67, 
70,  71,  93,  106,  121,  133,  133, 
137,  138,  139,  142-144;  to  Jesus 
79;  to  Muhammad  33,  70,  136, 

137,  143  ;■  of  other  Prophets 
109;  denial  of  67,  see  Inspira- 
tion, Rationalism 

Revelation,  New  mediums  of  33, 

138,  139 

Revelation,  Book  of,  see  New 
Testament 

"Revelation  in  Islam,  The  Doc- 
trine of,"  by  Macdonald  55 

Review  of  Religions  in  English 
17,   114',    117,   118,    135,    149 

[Review  of  Religions]  passages 
cited  or  quoted: — Vol.  I,  (I,  3, 
4),  p.  99;  (I,  15),  36;  (I,  16), 
36;  (1, 17),  34;  (I,  30,31),  73; 
(I,  33),  70;  (I,62),69;(I,65), 
94;  (I,  72),  82;  (I,  80),  41; 
(I,  99).  41;  (I,  110),  87;  (I, 
112),  89;  (I,  114),  85;  (I, 
120),  86;  (I,  141),  86;  (I, 
144),  82,  83,  (I,  152),  87; 
(I,  159),  89,  99;  (I,  196),  84; 
(I,  205),  43;  (I,  306),  37,  33; 
I,  307),  84;  (I,  339),  88;  (I, 
351),  33,  37;  (I,  366),  30;  (I, 
377),  54;  (I,  380),  95;  (1,311), 
65,  66;  (I,  315)  43;  (I,  318), 
35,  68;  (I,  331),  67;  (I,  333), 
68;  (I,  339),  67;  (I,  333),  37; 
(I,  340),  33,  70,  96;  (I,  347), 
101;  (I,  348),  87;  (I,  349),  34; 
(I,  368),  40;  (I,  371),  85;  (I, 
393), 37; (I, 409,  410), 103;  (I, 
417),  50;  (I,  418),  50;  (1,451), 
88;  (I,  452),  86;  (I,  453),  83; 
(I,  454),  84;  (I,  456),  40;  (I, 
457),  95;  (I,  463),  86;  (1,495), 
41.  Vol.11,  (II,  33,  33),  107; 
(II,   35,   36),   107;    (II,   55), 


INDEX 


181 


85;  (II,  67),  36,  84;  (II,  83), 
98;  (II,  100),  82;  (II,  135), 
95;  (II,  136),  96;  (II,  139), 
104;  (II,  140),  103,  104;  (II, 
148),  44;  (II,  167),  88; 
(II,  192),  28,  88,  89;  (II,  194), 
80;  (II,  270),  85; (II,  366),  29; 
(II,  369),  29,  31;  (II,  405), 
19;  (II,  421),  32;  (II,  446), 
70.  Vol.  Ill,  (III.  29),  p.  53; 
(III,  46),  40;  (111,327,  328), 
96;  (III,  331),  30;  (III,  340), 
32;  (III,  341),  32;  (III,  350), 
44;  (III,  378),  98;  (III,  397), 
26;  (III,  399),  68;  (III,  411), 
51;  (III,  415),  87;  (III,  441), 
69;    (III,  449,   450)  56.     Vol. 

IV,  (IV,  145),  p.  66;  (IV, 
174),  67;  (IV,  230),  49; 
(IV,  272,  273),  65;  (IV,  317), 
54;  (IV,  318),  54;  (IV,  355), 
86;    (IV,  434,  435),    97.     Vol. 

V,  (V,  82),  p.  47;  (V,  150  ff.), 
19;  (V,  215),  34;  (V,  365), 
48;  (V,  390),  89;  (V,  438), 
99;  (V,  459),  45;  (V,  461), 
44;  (V,  477),  88.  Vol.  VI 
(VI,  25),  p.  57;  (VI,  28),  57; 
(VI,  30),  58;  (VI,  31,  32),  58; 
(VI,  230),  74;  (VI,  251),  49; 
(VI,  424),  75.  Vol.  VII,  (VII, 
43),  76;  (VII,  121), 104;  (VII, 
124,  125),  104;  (VII,  222), 
13;  (VII,  241),  p.  24;  (VII, 
248),  106;  (VII,  256),  104; 
(VII  257),  105;  (VII.  264, 
265), 65;  (VII, 272),  102;  (VII, 
406,  407),  97;  (VII,  477),  103. 
Vol.  XIV,  (XIV,  196),  p.  123, 
(XIV,  217),  116;  (XIV,  449), 
57;  (XIV,  453),  69.  Vol.  XV, 
(XV,  9),  p.  137;  (XV,  26), 
13;  (XV,  41),  140;  (XV,  47), 
112;  (XV,  84),  110;  (XV, 
121),  49;  (XV,  168),  48;  (XV, 
204),  102;  (XV,  224),  120; 
(XV,  440),  95,  96;  (XV,  457), 
112;  (XV,  475),  123. 

Review  of  Religions  in  Urdu  117 
Reviexv  of  Rericivs  18,  23 


"  Revival  Absociation,   Muslim" 

67 
Revival  in  Wales,  the  18 
Revival   of    Islam    under  Bashir- 

ud-DIn  122 
Reviver,    Ahmad    116,    131,   see 

Mujaddid 
Richmond,  England  126 
Riskh,  Hindu  51,  105 
"  Rod  of  Moses"  69 
Roman  Catholic  Church  18,  72 
Roman  rule  over  Jews  35 
Rose  Hill  Mosque  120 
Roza  57,  see  Fasting 
Ruba'iyat     of     Omar    Khayyam 

64 
Russell,  "  Pastor"  28,  29 
Russia  18,  31,  49 

CABAEANISM  64 

Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per 85 

Sadharan  Samfij  105 

Sadiq  117 

Sadr  Anjiniian-i-Ahmadiya  57, 
113,  114,  117,  118,  149 

Sadr-ud-Din,    Maulvi  117,    125, 

■  126,  128 

Saghira  123,  sec  Sin 

Sahibzada  122,  see  Bashir-ud-Din 

Saint,  Yus  Asaf  93 

Saints  28,  29,  88,  107 

Saint's  tombs  93 

Saint  worship  condemned  35,  69, 
124 

Salat,  57,  sec  Prayer 

Sale,  G.  25,  30,  121 

Salvation,  according  to  Ahmad, 
17,  57,  76;  according  to  Bashir- 
ud-DIn  123  ;  according  to 
Muhammad  152;  Christian 
doctrine  of ,  criticized  30;  Hindu 
doctrine  of,  criticized  101,  sec 
Regeneration 

Sanctification   101 

Sargon,     King    of    Assyria    91. 

Satan  26,  97 

Sauvi  58,  sec  Fasting 

Saviour,  Ahmad  37;  Muhammad 
56 


184 


THE  AHMADIYA   MOVEMENT 


Two  Hundred  and  Fifty-two 
Authentic  ]\Iiracles  of  Muham- 
mad 39 

T  TNITED      PROVINCES,    the 

^      112 

United  States  of  America, 
Criynes  of  Preachers  in  34; 
J.  A.  Dowie  on  Lake  Michigan 
45,  references  to,  in  Review  of 
Religions  17;  a  religious  libe- 
ral in  55 

Union,  between  Aryas,  Hindus 
and  Ahmadis  sought  104, 
105;  of  Hinduism  and  Christia- 
nity in  the  Brahma  Samaj  105; 
of  Hinduism  and  Islam  in 
Nanak  106,  108;  with  God, 
how  attained  60 

Unity,  of  God  103,  106,  127;  of 
religions  73 

"  Universal  Brotherhood  "  130 

Universal  Mission  of  Muhammad 
132;  of  Ahmad  132 

Universal  religion  of  the  future, 
Islam  135 

Universal  religion  of  the  Qur'an 
109,  161 

Universalism,  of  Bashir-ud-Din, 
122;  of  Babism  Baha'ism  and 
the  Ahmadiya  movement  133, 
135,  138 

Universality  of  Vedas  denied  111 

University  Hall,  Lahore  24 

Unknown  Life  of  Christ,  The,  by 
Notovitch  92 

Unrest  in  India  47,  113,  see  Dis- 
loyalty 

Upanishads,  the  102 

Urdu  language  89,  94,  103,  125, 
jog 

Usmani,  Dr.  Syed  120 

\/EDAS,   The  101,   102,    103, 
^      104,  105 

Vedic  Magazine,  The  97,  102 
Veil,  the  (Pardah)  67,  99 
Vernacular   periodicals,    17,   117, 

120  ;  see  Periodicals 
Vertigo,  disease  of  Ahmad  15 


Viceroy  of  India  114 

Victoria  Institute  of  Great  Britain 

20 
Virgin,   Jesus   born  of  77,  82,  86, 

127,  See  Mary 
Visnu  100 
Visions,    of     Ahmad's    greatness 

15;  of  the  future   142;    of    the 

dead,  63,  144 
Vorlesiingon  iiber  den  Islam,  by 

Goldziher  131,  134 


AHHABITES  17,  46,  136 
Wahy   (major  inspiration) 


W 


57 

Wales,  revival  in  18 

War,  with  Germany  136;  with 
Russia  31 

Wars,  of  Sikhs  13,  108;  sign  of 
Messiah's  advent  28,  89 

West,  God  of  East  and  ISI; 
meeting  of  East  and  I5i> 

Western,  acceptance  of  Islam  135, 
136;  appreciation  of  Islam  129; 
art  and  science  134;  civilization 
68,  69,  75,  100,  137;  critics  of 
Qur'an  121;  education  65,  134; 
immorality  99;  misrepresenta- 
tion of  Islam  126,  129;  orienta- 
lists 133;  scholarship  80 

Western  Awakening  to  Isildm,  A, 
by  Lord  Headley  129 

Westminster  Review,  The  18 

"What  is  Islam?  "  129,  151ff 

Wherry,  E.  M.  121 

Whymant,  A.  N.  J.  128 

White,  Rev.  W.  F.  119 

Whitehouse,  O.  C.  27 

"Who  was  the  Founder  of  'Church 
Religion'  in  the  West"  130 

Will,  of  Ahmad  24,  112,  149;  of 
all  Ahmadis  124 

Wilson,' S.  G.  138 

Wives,  of  Ahmad  114;  of  Joseph 
127;  of  Bashir-ud-Din  114;  of 
Muhammad  87,  142;  influenc- 
ed by  husbands  150,  152  ;  see 
Polygamy,  Women 

Woking   (Surrey)    Muslim    Mis- 


INDEX 


185 


sioninl25,  126,  127;  128,  138, 
153 

Women,  education  of  117,  133;  in 
Christianity  and  the  West  99, 
127;  in  Islam  66,  99,  127;  in 
Islam  in  England  153;  in 
Judaism  127;  in  Qadian  115; 
in  relation  to  Adam's  fall  152; 
in  relation  to  man  130,  152;  to 
be  veiled  from  man  67,  99, 
146;  see  Polygamy,  Wives 

Word,  of  God,  the  New  Testa- 
ment 79;  from  Allah,  Jesus  77 

Worlds,  the  three  61,  63 

World's  Missionary  Conference 
18 


«'■%/"  2- 


\AHYA  (John)  82 
*■      Yahya  Siddyk  75 
Yajuj  (Gog),  and  Majuj  31 


Yaqub  Beg,  Mirza  13,  15,  22, 
42,  160,  161 

Yasu  93 

Yisu'  93 

Yogis  108 

Young,  Sir  W.  M.  72 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion 160 

Yus  Afat  92,  93 

Yus  Asaf  92,  93 

ZAFAR  'Ali  Khan,  Nawab  153 
Zaid  56 
Zakdt  57,  59,  124,  149 
Zainab  56 
Zamlndar  153 
Zeitschrift  of  J.  O.  S.  27 
Zion  City,  U.S.A.  45,  see  Dowie 

J.  A. 
Zionism  17 
Zoroaster  110 
Zoroastrianism  17,  64 
Zuhd,  'Id-uz  43 
Zwemer,  S.  M.  18,  39,  77,  121 


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