The Great Reformer

Hazrat Mirza published his book Tiryaq-ul-Qulub (literally translates as “An Antidote for the Hearts“) on October 28, 1902. The book opens with HazratMirza’s famous eulogistic Persian poem in which he describes the characteristics of the per- fect men who are chosen by God for thereformation of mankind, and for the renewal of Islam. The poem in Persian begins with the following couplet: Of all mankind, he alone is made perfect by God Who, with clear signs, makes God known. The poem ends with the following couplet: You ought to dread the grieving sighs of the saints; Especially if that sigh happens to come from Mirza. In this last couplet, Hazrat Mirza calls these perfect men saints (abdal) and includes himself in this category. In the first couplet,…

The Mudh debate A storm of opposition brewed up in the town of Mudh in district Amritsar when one of its residents, Munshi Muhammad Yusuf, took the pledge at the hands of Hazrat Mirza. Since Munshi Muhammad Yusuf was at the time working as a scribe in the city of Mardan in district Peshawar, he was not personally affected by the opposition.  But when his brother, Muhammad Yaqub, who lived in Mudh also took the pledge, the miscreants of the town got an opportunity to harass…

Paraclete and Ahmad are synonymous On the evening of November 11, 1902, Maulvi Muhammad Ali drew the attention of Hazrat Mirza to an objection raised by someone, that the prophecy made by Jesus (peace be upon him) in the Quran — “…giving the good news of a Messenger who will come after me, his name being Ahmad” (61:6) is not found in the Gospels. The Gospels,…

Maulvi Abdullah Chakralvi Maulvi Abdullah Chakralvi, a resident of the town of Chakrala in Mianwali district, was a fanatic follower of the Ahl-e-Hadithsect. Later, he did an about face and totally rejected the importance of Hadith. He began referring to the Books of Hadith as trash andeven tried to extract the form of the daily prayers from the Quran. Maulvi Chakralvi and like-minded people came up with so many different versions of how to pray from the Quran that one…

In Chapter 22, entitled The Publication of Nuzul-ul-Masih, it was mentioned that Muhammad Hasan Faizi, a resident of village Bheen in district Jhelum, had written some critical comments in the margins of Hazrat Mirza’s book Ijaz-ul-Masih and Maulvi Muhammad Ahsan’s book Shams-e- Bazgha. After Muhammad Hasan Faizi’s death, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Golarwi collected these comments and published them under his own name in the form of a book called Saif-e-Chishtiyyai. After Faizi’s books had served PirGolarwi’s purpose, he returned the books through a courier who accidentally ran into Mian Shahab-ud-Din while…

The rationale for writing the book Hazrat Mirza published the book Nasim-e-Dawat on February 28, 1903. He wrote the entire book in a mere three weeks. The book was written in response to some of the nefarious activities of the Hindu Aryas of Qadian.  The Arya Samajists (members of the Arya Samaj sect of Hinduism) of Qadian had grown intensely envious of the Islamic missionary work that was underway from Qadian under the aegis of Hazrat Mirza. They decided to hold a public gathering of their own in Qadian, on February 28 and March 1, 1903. These plans were not objectionable per se, but the Arya Samajists signaled their hostile intent by publishing an abusive announcement onFebruary 7, 1903 titled, “Reply to a…