Chapter 1
The First Forty
Years
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Family History / Education
/ Righteous and God-fearing / Father’s
death /
Family History
HAZRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD,
the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, was born at Qadian, a village
in the Gurdaspur District, Punjab, in 1836. {See Note
1} His father’s name was Mirza Ghulam Murtaza,
and the family is descended from the Barlas tribe {See
Note 2} of the Moghul family. His ancestors had
long resided in Khurasan, a province of Persia, and were the dignitaries
of the land. In the tenth century of the Hijra, when Babar ruled India,
one of his ancestors, Mirza Hadi Beg, emigrated from Persia, most probably
on account of some family dissensions, and with his family and about
two hundred attendants sought refuge in India. Settling in a vast and
fertile sub-Himalayan plain, called the Majjha, he there built a village,
about 70 miles from Lahore in a north-easterly direction, and called
it Islampur. The ruling monarch granted him a vast tract of land as
a jagir with the right to exercise the powers of a Qadzi
(lit., a magistrate) or chief executive authority. Hence,
Islampur became known as Islampur Qadi Majjhi, ultimately shortened
to Qadi, and at last became known as Qadian. {See
Note 3}
In the latter days of the Moghul Empire, when it was undergoing the
process of dissolution, the jagir granted to the ancestors of
Ahmad {See Note 4} became an independent
state. In the early days of the Sikh rule, when anarchy and oppression
were the order of the day and Islam and the Muslims were being persecuted
everywhere, Qadian remained for a long time the centre of peace and
prosperity. Mirza Gul Muhammad, the great-grandfather of Ahmad, was
then the head of the family and, after the manner of the good Oriental
chiefs, his purse was open for the learned and his table ministered
freely to the poor and to the strangers. He had only eighty-five villages
in his possession but, on account of his great love for piety and learning,
many of the learned men who could not find shelter elsewhere felt assured
of a warm reception at Qadian. After the death of Mirza Gul Muhammad,
his son, Mirza ‘Ata Muhammad, became the chief, but he was soon overpowered
by the Sikhs, who seized village after village until not a single village,
except Qadian, was left in his possession. This place was strongly fortified,
but a body of Sikhs, called Ram Garhis, made an entry into the town
under false pretences and took possession of the village. Mirza ‘Ata
Muhammad and his whole family were made prisoners and deprived of their
possessions. Their houses and the mosques were made desolate, and the
library was burned to the ground. After inflicting all kinds of torture,
the Sikhs ordered the family to leave the village of Qadian. Thus, expelled
from their home, they sought shelter in another state, where ‘Ata Muhammad
was poisoned by his enemies. In the latter days of Ranjit Singh’s ascendancy,
Mirza Ghulam Murtaza obtained five villages from the jagir of
his ancestors and re-settled at Qadian. Below is reproduced the opening
paragraph of Sir Lepel Griffin’s account of the family, published in
the Punjab Chiefs:
"In 1530, the last year of the Emperor Babar’s reign, Hadi Beg,
a Mughal of Samarqand, emigrated to the Punjab and settled in Gurdaspur
District. He was a man of some learning, and was appointed Kazi or Magistrate
over seventy villages in the neighbourhood of Kadian, which town he
is said to have founded, naming it Islampur Kazi, from which Kadian
has by a natural change arisen. For several generations the family has
held offices of repeatability under the Imperial Government, and it
was only when the Sikhs became powerful that it fell into poverty."
The Sikh anarchy was, soon after Ahmad’s birth, replaced by the peace
and security of the British rule, and the Punjab Muslims once more breathed
freely. The family naturally welcomed the change, and Mirza Ghulam Murtaza
showed his staunch loyalty to the British rule in the Mutiny of 1857.
In recognition of his services, he received a handsome pension and was
highly esteemed by the officials.
Ahmad’s own impressions of the Sikh misrule and the persecution of
Muslims were deep-seated, and he always spoke of the coming of the British
as a blessing and as saving the Punjab Muslims from slavery and annihilation.
It is for this matter-of-fact statement, which finds frequent expression
in his writings, that he has been criticised by a certain school of
politicians, who, therefore, regard him as favouring an alien government.
Education
In his childhood, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad received his education at home.
He learned the Holy Quran and some Persian books from a tutor named
Fazl Ilahi, and later on some books on Arabic grammar from another tutor,
named Fazl Ahmad. When he was seventeen or eighteen years old, a third
tutor, Gul Ali Shah, was employed to teach him the ordinary Arabic textbooks
of those days. He also studied some works on medicine from his father,
who was a famous physician in his time.
Righteous and God-fearing
From his early days, Ahmad had studious habits and he loved to remain
in seclusion with his books. His father was, on that account, very anxious
about him and repeatedly asked him to leave his seclusion and books
for the more practical business of life, by which he meant that he should
assist him in carrying out the plans which he was conceiving for the
recovery of his lost jagir. Such worldly occupations were hateful
to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and he cared nothing for the restoration of the
lost dignity and honour of the family. In obedience to his father’s
wishes, however, he did whatever was required of him. At one time he
was compelled to accept Government service at Sialkot, where he passed
four years of his life, 1864-1868. His experience in this line of life
made upon his heart a deep impression of the degeneracy of those with
whom he came in contact in that sphere of action, and therefore he did
not mix with them. When his day’s work was finished, he would go straight
to his residence and bury himself in the pages of his books. Only those
who were interested in religion, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, sought
his company. It was there that he came in contact with some Christian
missionaries, with whom he had conversations on religious topics. Speaking
of those days, Maulvi Sirajuddin, the father of Maulvi Zafar Ali Khan,
who is one of the greatest opponents of the Ahmadiyya movement, wrote
in his paper, the Zamindar:
"Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a clerk in Sialkot about the year 1860 or
1861.* His age was then about 22 to 24 years.
We can say as an eye-witness that, even in the prime of youth, he was
a very righteous and God-fearing man. After finishing his official work,
he spent the whole of his time in the study of religious works. He mingled
very little with others".
[* The date is wrong. He joined
the service in 1864]
So deep was the impression made upon Maulvi Zafar Ali’s father by Ahmad’s
piety and learning that he paid him a visit at Qadian, later in 1877.
His impression then, to which, as editor of the Zamindar, he
subsequently gave expression was still the same:
"In 1877, we had the honour of passing one night as his [Ahmad’s]
guest. In those days, too, he was so deeply devoted to Divine worship
and religious study that he did not talk much even with his guests."
At last, his father recalled him from Government service, and he was,
for a time, again required to carry on the law-suits relating to his
father’s estate, but the task was extremely repugnant to him. Even while
thus obeying the orders of his father, he devoted a part of his time
to the refutation of Christian attacks on Islam. The town of Batala,
about eleven miles from Qadian, was an important Christian missionary
centre. He frequented the place in connection with the affairs of the
estate, and it pained him to see how Christian propaganda, unrefuted
as it was, misled ignorant Muslims. The Batala Muslims, when hard-pressed
by Christian missionaries, would come to Qadian to seek his help, and
he sent them back well-armed to meet the situation.
Father’s death
Mirza Ghulam Murtaza died in June 1876. The following account of his
death is from his son’s pen:
"I was told in a vision that the time of my father’s death had drawn
nigh. At the time that I saw this vision, I was at Lahore. I made haste
to reach Qadian and found him very ill, but I never thought that he
would die so soon, for the disease had abated to an appreciable degree.
The next day we were all sitting by his bedside when, at noon, he told
me to rest for a while, for it was the month of June and the heat was
excessive. When I lay down for rest, I received the following revelation:
‘By heaven and by the accident which shall befall after sunset’. I was
given to understand that this revelation was a kind of condolence from
the Almighty, and that the accident which was to befall was no other
than the death of my father . . . When I received this revelation foretelling
the death of my father, human weakness made me think that, since some
of the sources of the income of our family would cease with my father’s
death, we might be put in trouble. No sooner had the idea passed into
my mind than I received a second revelation saying: ‘Is God not sufficient
for His servant?’ This revelation brought tranquillity and satisfaction
to my mind, and went into my heart like a nail of iron. I call the Lord
to witness that He wrought the fulfilment of the joyful news contained
in this revelation in a wonderful manner . . . My father died that very
day after sunset, and it was the first day in my life that I saw such
a sign of mercy from God. {See Note 5}
. . . Thus I passed about forty years of my life under my father. His
passing away from this life marked the dawn of a new era for me, and
I began to receive Divine revelations incessantly. I cannot say what
deed of mine drew this grace of God to me, but I feel that my mind had
a natural attraction for faithfulness to God which no power in the world
could alienate."
Footnotes
(by the author, except where indicated as Publisher's
note.)
Note 1: In the first edition of this book, 1839
was given as the date, and this is also the date given by the founder
himself in the short autobiography which he wrote in 1897 and which appeared
in his book Al-Kitab al-Bariyya. This was, however, a guess, as
there is no written record of the exact date of his birth. Further on
in this same autobiography, he states that he passed nearly forty years
of his life with his father, whose death took place in 1876. On this basis,
1837 or 1836 would appear to be a more probable date. His son, Mirza Bashir
Ahmad, has produced strong arguments in favour of 1836 as the year of
his father’s birth.
(Publisher’s Note to 1984 edition: Further research has shown
that the date of the Founder’s birth was most probably 13 February 1835.)
{Back to main text}
Note 2: This tribe was descended
from Haji Barlas. He lived at Kush, to the south of Samarqand, but was
expelled from there by Taimur when he conquered that land. Haji Barlas
took shelter in Khurasan, and the family lived there till they came
over to India, in the time of Babar. On account of their long residence
in Persia, the Barlas tribe may be included among the Persians. Some
authorities, however, say that Barlas is not a Moghul but a Persian
tribe, as both Barlas and Mirza (the sur-title) are words
of Persian and not of Turkish origin. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself says
that his ancestors were Persians. {Back to main text}
Note 3: The name Kad’a,
which is only another form of Qadi or Kadi, is mentioned
in a hadith of the Holy Prophet Muhammad as the place of the appearance
of Mahdi (Jawahir al-Asrar, p. 55). {Back to
main text}
Note 4: The shortened name
Ahmad is adopted instead of the full name Mirza Ghulam Ahmad for the
sake of brevity. This is the name which he adopted in taking bai`a
(oath of fealty), though in all his letters and writings he used his
full name. In his revelations, both the long and the shortened forms
occur; the following reason for this is from his own pen: "As being
the manifestation of the Holy Prophet, I was called Ahmad, though my
name was Ghulam Ahmad" (Review of Religions, vol. ii, p. 437).
{Back to main text}
Note 5: This refers to the
consoling revelation which he had received. {Back to
main text}
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