The Great Reformer

Motivation for the book Hazrat Mirza’s book Chashma Marifat (The Fountain of Wisdom) was published on May 15, 1908. The motivation for its writing was a long chain of events which are best understood by starting at the beginning. Inter-faith meeting hosted by the Arya Samaj Hindus The Lahore branch of the Arya Samaj Hindus had decided to sponsor an inter-faith meeting after their 1907 Annual Gathering,and for this purpose had invited leaders of various religions to prove, based on their faith, “Which of the Religious Books is a Revealed Scripture?” At the insistence of the Aryas, Hazrat Mirza accepted to write an article on the subject. There was a four annas per personcharge for admission to the conference. Immediately following the Annual Meeting…

Land purchased for school One of the growing responsibilities and needs of the Ahmadiyya Organization was the expansion of Madrasah Talim-ul-Islam (School of Islamic Education) which was currently a high school lodged in an ordinary mud building located inside the town. A suggestion was made to construct a spacious boarding house and academic building for the school.  Consequently, a vast tract of land inthe north of Qadian was purchased from the Ahmadiyya Organization’s own funds collected from monthly member donations. Specialdonations were requested for the construction of the buildings during the Annual Conventions of the years 1906 and 1907. In the year 1908, Maulvi Muhammad Ali,…

Journey to Lahore Hazrat Mirza’s wife had been ailing for some time, and she expressed a desire to visit Lahore for a change of scene. When Hazrat Mirza supplicated to God for guidance in arriving at a decision regarding the proposed visit by performing the istikhara prayer, he received a revelation at 4 A.M. on April 26, 1908, which was in the form of a line from a Persian verse: “Remain vigilant, and do not become unmindful of the intrigues of this world.” This revelation created some apprehension, but because it contained no prohibition and was only in the…

Hazrat Mirza’s illness Because of Hazrat Mirza’s continuous engagement in intellectual labor over many years, he had become afflicted by the neural weakness that is called neurasthenia in medical nomenclature. This ailment manifested itself when he engaged in intellectual exertion. Accordingly, the symptoms surfaced whenever Hazrat Mirza worked on writing a significant book or preparing an important lecture. The laws of God are absolute — no one is exempt from them, be…

Uncommon steadfastness of the Ahmadis After the demise of Hazrat Mirza, his opponents thought that it would be easy to make the Ahmadis disavow their beliefs. To achieve this objective, the opponents assembled all their objections and nonsensical arguments and launched a concerted attack on members of the Ahmadiyya Organization. Newspapers like Paisa Akhbar, Ahl-e-Hadith, and others launched an anti- Ahmadi blitz of objections and slander. The opponents used every tactic available to them in their speeches and writings…

1. Opinion of Maulvi Abdullah al-Imadi: The newspaper Wakeel of Amritsar was the leading Muslim newspaper of the time enjoying the highest reputation for its profound and serious journalism. In particular, the editor of this newspaper, Maulvi Abdullah al-Imadi occupied an eminent status among the Muslims for his knowledge, scholarship and eloquent writing. He was not an Ahmadi but…