The Great Reformer

The confrontation with Pir Golarwi started in the year 1900 and dragged on till the publication of the book Tuhfa Golarwiyya in1902. For the sake of continuity, the entire affair involving Pir Golarwi was narrated with- out interruption till the year 1902. Thenarrative now returns back to the year 1900. Publication of Arbain In the year 1900, Hazrat Mirza resolved to publish forty proclamations in order to conclusively settle the matter of his claims with his opponents, and others who rejected his message. The plan was to publish these procla- mations at intervals of fifteen days, providedthat other events did not impede this undertaking. Since the intention was to publish forty such proclamations, this planned series of proclamations was appropriately titled Arbain (the word in Arabic for forty) by Hazrat Mirza. The first such proclamation, titled Arbain Number One, was indeed in the format of a proclamation. But the subsequent proclamations were signif- icantly greater in…

Vital for an organization to have a name Whenever an individual is born or an organization is created, a name is given to that individual or organization. Has there everbeen a person with- out a name? If an organization does not choose a name for itself, then others will go ahead and give it a name. In fact, the name brings to mind the full description of a thing in a way that a verbal narration of its features does not. For example, a verbal description of a horse does not convey the same men- tal image as the word “horse” does. Similarly, no amount of verbal characterization of that great companion of the Holy Prophet, Abu Bakr, can convey the full sense of his personality to the…

An Important Suggestion: On January 15, 1901, Hazrat Mirza published an announcement titled An Important Suggestion, in which he proposed the publication of a religious journal in the English language with the English-speaking people of India and Europe as the target audience. The objective of the magazine would be to create awareness of all the pure truths and the…

The Al-Sulh Khair announcement There are some people who criticize Hazrat Mirza now for using a stern tone in his discourse with the maulvis (religious clerics). In his defense, it must be said that the stern tone was forced upon Hazrat Mirza by the actions of the clerics themselves. It is mentioned in the Holy Quran: “Allah loves not the public utterance of hurtful speech, except by one who has been wronged” (4:148). That is, if a person…

In the year 1901, a raging plague was taking its toll on the populace of India. The province of Punjab was especially hard hit by the plague. Since Hazrat Mirza had been informed by Allah that this plague had spread in the land as a punishment for the wicked ways of the people, he repeatedly exhorted the…

It was Hazrat Mirza’s heartfelt wish that there should be a large number of people in his Organization who should become the inheritors of the religious knowledge that he had been granted by God. For this purpose, he published an announcement titled Mufid-ul-Akhyar on September 9, 1901 in which he remarked: “It has become necessary that in our organization…