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Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Dr. Saeed Ahmad Khan passes away

Life-long devoted service to Islam, Ahmadiyya Movement, and humanity for most of the twentieth century

Sketch of life of a great man and his services

End of the era of the Companions of the Promised Messiah

(The Light & Islamic Review : Vol. 73; No. 6; Nov-Dec 1996; p. 3-5)

Dr. Saeed Ahmad Khan had been Head of the Movement since 1981, and was previously the senior Vice-President for several years. Although restricted by illness and infirmity in the last 3 years or so, he continued to attend to some of his duties to an incredible extent, beyond what his health really allowed. Till the final days of his life, he remained abreast of the activities of the Movement, gave valuable advice as well as spiritual guidance, and received visitors. He continued to perform the opening and closing of the annual gatherings, delivering a keenly-awaited address to the audience, even at the very last such function of his life in December 1995.

A great turning point in his life, and in the history of this Movement, was his coming to settle in Lahore, at the Centre of the Anjuman, from his home in Abbottabad in 1974, following the anti-Ahmadiyya riots of the summer of that year in Pakistan. As a result of this move, he was able to travel abroad to visit Lahore Ahmadiyya Jama'ats in several other countries almost every year for the next ten years. These visits breathed new life into the members of the Movement living in these countries, and this revival led to the establishment of many new branches and centres. Among the countries outside Pakistan which Dr. Saeed Ahmad visited where he will be especially remembered are: U.K., U.S.A., Holland, Canada, Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname.

Perhaps the most historic achievement for which posterity will remember Dr. Saeed Ahmad is that he consolidated the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in its most critical hour in the period following the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims in the Constitution of Pakistan in September 1974. He was the standard-bearer and focal-point around whom gathered those persons who believed in the continued existence of this Movement. It was a time when our members in Pakistan and outside were severely shaken. There was doubt and uncertainty everywhere about the survival of the Movement. Ahmadis were not only facing physical attacks against their persons and property, but also the more insidious attempts of so-called 'sympathizers', including non-Ahmadis and former Ahmadis, who were urging us to drop the name 'Ahmadiyya' so as to be accepted as Muslim. Dr. Saeed Ahmad was the embodiment of standing firm and resolute in the face of this most intense attack and pressure from those who wished to make Ahmadis slip and slide.

By his personal example of fortitude, and by providing a lead and rallying point for others, Dr. Saeed Ahmad stabilized the Movement. Perhaps it is to these events that the following revelation of the Promised Messiah refers:

"Our pure members are in Lahore. Let them know that doubt (waswasa) has arisen but the clay is fine. The doubt will be removed but the clay will remain."

The doubts cast into the hearts by events and by other people about the future of the Movement were removed, and the fine and unsullied clay of the Movement remained.

It was not only Dr. Saeed Ahmad's firmness and resolution but also his moral and spiritual qualities which were an invaluable source of strength to the Jama'at. His righteousness, high moral standing, purity of character, devotion to the worship of Allah, and an eminent spiritual rank of closeness to Allah, were qualities for which he was well-known.

We noted in our headline that the death of Dr. Saeed Ahmad brings to an end the age of the Companions of the Promised Messiah. He was the last remaining person to have taken the bai'at at the Promised Messiah's own hand, and could vividly remember the occasions, when he was eight years old, on which he met and was in the company of the Promised Messiah. He used to recount those events with much fondness and pride. But he was not merely a Companion of the Promised Messiah in the physical sense, of having seen his time, but more importantly in being one of his true followers.

Dr. Saeed Ahmad was born at the turn of the twentieth century into a family renowned for its high spiritual and scholarly standing belonging to the Hazara area of the North-West Frontier of India (now Pakistan). His father, Maulana Muhammad Yahya, and uncle, Maulana Muhammad Yaqub, had already joined the Ahmadiyya Movement. His father is mentioned in the writings of the Promised Messiah. At the age of six, when some people from his village were sending a postcard to Qadian to take the bai'at of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Dr. Saeed Ahmad also put his name on the card for taking the bai'at.

In December 1907 he went to Qadian with his father and stayed there for some three months. It was during this period, as referred to above, that he was regularly in the company of the Promised Messiah (who died in May 1908).

He went to visit Qadian again in 1912, during the period of headship of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, and the following year he obtained admission in the Ahmadiyya school in Qadian, known as the Taleem-ul-Islam High School. This stay gave him the opportunity to attend the famous lectures of the Hazrat Maulana on the Holy Quran. In 1914 when the Hazrat Maulana passed away and the Split in the Ahmadiyya Movement took place, Dr. Saeed Ahmad was a witness to many of the crucial events of that episode in Qadian.

After the Split, he returned to his home and continued his education in the local city of Abbottabad. As he says in an interview which he recorded on video tape about four years ago, "after the death of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ur-Din, Qadian just did not remain that same Qadian as it was before, and I did not want to live there any more."

For his medical qualification, Dr. Saeed Ahmad entered King Edward's Medical College, Lahore, from where he obtained his degree in 1925. He was awarded a medal during the course of his studies, the first time that a Muslim student had received that medal in the history of the college. During his stay in Lahore, he attended Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ali's lectures on the Quran, and came under the Maulana's spiritual and moral influence. He became very close to the Maulana and always remained so. He also became the first president of the Ahmadiyya Youngmen's Association.

After qualifying, Dr. Saeed Ahmad joined the government's health department and specialized in chest diseases. In 1939 he was appointed the first superintendent of the government's new tuberculosis sanatorium at Dadar in the North-West Frontier, and held this post for 25 years. He attained renown not only for his excellent medical skills but also for his care and concern for his patients and service to the sick. For his work, he was awarded the title Khan Bahadar by the British government of India and the title Sitara-i Khidmat by the government of Pakistan.

While receiving medical education, Dr. Saeed Ahmad also applied himself to religious studies and attained a highly scholarly knowledge of Islam and the Ahmadiyya Movement. He knew most of the Holy Quran by heart and had a good knowledge of the Arabic language. During his years in employment, he used to teach regular dars on the Holy Quran, Hadith, and the writings of the Promised Messiah. He also regularly led prayers and gave Friday khutbahs. He was always a speaker at the annual Jalsa in Lahore. Due to his beautiful recitation of the Holy Quran and the heart-felt, humble manner of his prayers, he was often asked by Maulana Muhammad Ali to lead the prayers at the annual Jalsa.

After retirement from government service in 1964, he continued his own medical practice in Abbottabad, treating the poor free of charge. He bought a plot close to his house on which he built a mosque for the Jama'at where he continued religious teaching. A residential summer school was also sometimes held there, at which the leading figures and scholars of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement gave lectures.

Then came that historical landmark, the summer of 1974, when the fanatical Islamic parties incited mob attacks against Ahmadis throughout Pakistan as part of their campaign to force the government to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims in the law of the land. A mob attacked Dr. Saeed Ahmad's property and succeeded in burning down his clinic and some of his house. Dr. Saeed Ahmad and the other residents were besieged in a part of the house, with the mob threatening to kill them all unless they renounced their Ahmadi beliefs. However, as Allah would have it, the mob itself took fright under a misconception, and the residents were saved.

There then followed his move to Lahore and the great work which we outlined at the outset.

In this article we have only related the main highlights of the life and services of Dr. Saeed Ahmad Khan. In the near future we intend, insha-Allah, to devote an issue of The Light to contributions by some of those numerous people who can speak in more detail about various aspects of the remarkable, noble and long life of this man of God.

May Almighty Allah grant him mercy and protection and admit him to His highest places where dwell His most righteous servants!