The Great Reformer

Hazrat Mirza was a regular contributor to the periodical The Review of Religions. His articles, written for a target audience of Europeans and Americans, focused on the core message of Islam, and on his own claims. Some of his followers suggested that hismessage would be more efficacious if it was accompanied by his photograph because it was customary in the West for readers to forman opinion about the truthfulness, or otherwise, of a claimant by looking at his picture. Without providing any information regarding the identity of the person in the photograph, one of Hazrat Mirza’s disciples, MuftiMuhammad Sadiq, sent a copy of Hazrat Mirza’s photograph to an American lady who was an expert in physiognomy (the study of facial features to reveal character), and asked her to make a judgment using…

Reason for Publication On November 5, 1901, Hazrat Mirza published a three-page tract enti- tled Aik Ghalati Ka Izala (Correction of an Error). The rationale for its publication was a verbal altercation between a disciple and an opponent of Hazrat Mirza in which the disciple had denied, contrary to facts, that the words prophet and messenger had been used in some of Hazrat Mirza’s rev- elations. What the disciple should have done was to acknowledge that the words prophet and messenger did indeed appear in some…

On November 13, 1901, during a conversation on the subject of the human soul, Hazrat Mirza stated: “It appears as if God has placed an intermediate state (barzakh1) in everything. The intermediate state (barzakh) between plants and animals are those floras that possess beauty and consciousness. Similarly, the intermediate state (barzakh) between animals and humans are those…

A British traveler by the name of Mr. D. D. Dickson, who had journeyed through Arabia and Karbala to India, arrived unannounced in Qadian on November 17, 1901. Hazrat Mirza was sitting with his followers when he suddenly entered, greeted them with, “Assalam alaikum” and joined the gathering. Upon inquiry, it was learned that he was a…

When Hazrat Mirza’s sons Bashir Ahmad and Sharif Ahmad, and daughter Mubaraka Begum completed their first reading of the Holy Quran, the event was celebrated by holding the traditional ceremony known as Ameen on November 30, 1901. Indigents and orphans were fed on that occasion. Friends were also invited to a dinner reception. Hazrat Mirza also composed a poem for that…

Debut of the Magazine Hazrat Mirza had asked Maulvi Muhammad Ali to take up residence in Qadian for a special purpose and the time for the fulfillment of this pur- pose was now at hand. In January of 1902, the magazine, The Review of Religions, was launched from Qadianunder the editorship of Maulvi Muhammad Ali. An Urdu edition of the magazine was also initiated simulta- neously. There was no financial motivation in the decision to publish…