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Iqbal and the Ahmadiyya Movement

2. During the life of Hazrat Mirza
5. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
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Chapter 2

During the life of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

1. Dr. Iqbal’s father, Shaikh Nur Muhammad, was a great admirer of Hazrat Mirza.

2. Dr. Iqbal’s elder brother, Shaikh Ata Muhammad, had formally joined the Ahmadiyya Movement by taking the bai‘at (pledge).

3. Dr. Basharat Ahmad writes in his renowned biography of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, entitled Mujaddid-i A‘zam:

    “In 1892 Hazrat Mirza visited Sialkot and stayed at the house of Hakim Hassam-ud-Din. He made a speech in Hakim Hassam-ud-Din’s mosque after the zuhr prayers. The famous poet Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a fellow student of mine in those days, and was sitting on the roof of the porch of the mosque. Seeing me, he said: Look how the devotees are swarming around the light. He was very much favourably disposed towards Hazrat Mirza in those days. So when a poet of Sialkot, who used to have the pen-name jalwa, composed satire to ridicule Hazrat Mirza, Dr. Iqbal wrote a rejoinder in poetical form too, greatly praising Hazrat Mirza.”

4. Around that time, a virulent opponent of Hazrat Mirza by the name of Sa‘d-ullah of Ludhiana wrote an abusive poem against Hazrat Mirza. Dr. Iqbal could not tolerate this insult, and replied to it in a long poem entitled Jaisa Moon Taisee Chapayrh (or “A slap which your face deserves”). Some lines of this poem are give below: 

    “O Sa‘d, we have seen your filthy abuse. It will make street sweepers appreciate you. Don’t be perturbed by the heat of the sun of truth, for the devil himself will be your sun-shade. You have become the brother of the Christians, you renegade! What a great favour you have done to Islam!” (By Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal, F.A. class, Scotch Mission School, Sialkot. Ai'nah Haq Numa, p. 107.)

5. Dr. Iqbal’s attachment grew so much that in 1897 he formally took the bai‘at at the hand of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. This was confirmed by Maulvi Ghulam Muhiy-ud-Din Qasoori, ex-General Secretary of the Anjuman Himayat-i Islam, Lahore, at the time when the Munir Court of Enquiry was being held in Pakistan in 1953. His statement was reported in a newspaper as follows:

     “After five years, in 1897, Sir Muhammad Iqbal took the pledge of Mirza sahib.” (Daily Nawa-i Waqt, Lahore, 15 November 1953.)
Translator’s Note:
It was Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, son of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who testified at the Munir Court of Enquiry that Dr. Iqbal had taken the bai‘at of Hazrat Mirza, and he gave the year as 1892. After finishing his testimony that day, Khwaja Nazir Ahmad met Maulvi Qasoori who told him that the year was not 1892 but 1897. The following day Khwaja Nazir Ahmad took the stand again to correct the year. The whole incident was reported in the Pakistan newspapers at that time.

 6. In 1900, Dr. Iqbal published a paper in English on the famous Sufi saint Abdul Karim Jilli, and presented the saint’s view of the Unity of God from his book al-Insan al-kamil, illustrating the breadth and depth of Muslim philosophy. Mentioning the great scholarship of the saint, Iqbal wrote:

     “It will appear at once how strikingly the author has anticipated the chief phase of the Hegelian Dialectic and how greatly he has emphasised the doctrine of the Logos — a doctrine which has always found favour with almost all the profound thinkers of Islam, and in recent times has been readvocated by M. Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, probably the profoundest theologian among modern Indian Muslims.”
    (Indian Antiquary, vol. 29, September 1900, p. 239. The words quoted above are Iqbal’s original words in English.)
Go here to see scanned images of the original pages from the journal.

7. In 1904 when Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad visited Sialkot, Dr. Iqbal went with Mian Sir Fazl-i Husain to meet him. Thirty years later, Dr. Iqbal told Maulana Muhammad Ali, head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, that at that meeting Hazrat Mirza had affirmed that he did not call other Muslims as kafir. Maulana Muhammad Ali referred to this incident in an English booklet as follows:

     “During the conversation that ensued with the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Mian Sir Fazl-i Husain asked him if he looked upon those who did not believe in him as kafirs, and the Mirza sahib without a moment’s hesitation replied that he did not. This fact which Sir Muhammad Iqbal himself related to me last year [1934] is a clear evidence that the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement is not responsible for the present Qadiani doctrine.”
    (Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s Statement re. the Qadianis, p. 7.)

A little later, in 1936, Maulana Muhammad Ali further wrote in an Urdu article: 

    “Now he [Iqbal] has also given this testimony in writing, and exactly in the context of this discussion. He has written a letter to Dr. Mirza Yaqub Baig, dated 25 January 1936, in which he has admitted that the Mirza [Ghulam Ahmad] sahib uttered those words in his presence.”
 
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