Tadhkirah - Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Promised Messiah and Mahdi

1385 Pages·2009·30.86 MB·English

Tadhkirah
English rendering of
the divine revelations,
dreams and visions vouchsafed to

a rat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian,
H d
The Promised Messiah and Mahd
i,
on whom be peace

Published under the auspices of
Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad
Imam and the Head of
The Worldwide Ahmadiyyah Muslim Jama‘at,
Fifth Successor to the Promised Messiahas
[May Allah the Almighty be his help]
Tadhkirah
An English rendering of the revelations, dreams and visions of
Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, The Promised Messiah and
Mahdi, on whom be peace.
Published under the auspices of Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaba,
Fifth Successor to the Promised Messiahas.
Translated by: Hadrat Chaudhry Muhammad Zafrullah Khanra
Revised by: Munawar Ahmed Saeed
First English translation Published in UK in 1976
Reprinted in UK in 2004
Present Edition Published in UK in 2009
© Islam International Publications Ltd.
Published by:
Islam International Publications Ltd.
“Islamabad” Sheephatch Lane
Tilford, Surrey GU10 2AQ UK

Printed in the UK at:

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system, without prior written permission from the Publisher.
For further information you may visit www.alislam.org
ISBN: 978-1-84880-051-9
Table of Contents
Table of Contents _________________________________ iii
Introduction _______________________________________ v
Foreword to the First English Edition __________________ vii
Foreword to the Second English Edition ________________ xiii
Publishers’ Note _________________________________ xvii
Early Years – 1881 _________________________________ 3
1882 ____________________________________________ 55
1883 ____________________________________________ 73
1884 ___________________________________________ 147
1885 ___________________________________________ 159
1886 ___________________________________________ 171
1887 ___________________________________________ 189
1888 ___________________________________________ 195
1889 ___________________________________________ 217
1890 ___________________________________________ 221
1891 ___________________________________________ 225
1892 ___________________________________________ 255
1893 ___________________________________________ 283
1894 ___________________________________________ 319
1895 ___________________________________________ 349
1896 ___________________________________________ 353
1897 ___________________________________________ 375
1898 ___________________________________________ 405
1899 ___________________________________________ 427
1900 ___________________________________________ 449
1901 ___________________________________________ 517
1902 ___________________________________________ 533
1903 ___________________________________________ 579
1904 ___________________________________________ 653
1905 ___________________________________________ 685
1906 ___________________________________________ 781
1907 ___________________________________________ 911
1908 ___________________________________________ 991
Appendix Tadhkirah _____________________________ 1005
Glossary ______________________________________ 1093
Indexes _______________________________________ 1099

TADHKIRAH

VI
Foreword to the First English Edition
This volume presents an English rendering of the dreams,
visions and verbal revelations vouchsafed to Hazrat Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, over a
period of more than 30 years. The original was compiled
from various publications (books, journals and newspapers)
in which the material was contemporaneously publicised.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in February 1835
at Qadian, India and died at Lahore on May 26th 1908. He
was a scion of a noble family which had been settled in
Qadian for 400 years. From his childhood he had been
devoted to spiritual values and had an innate antipathy
towards worldly concerns.
In compliance with his father’s wishes he took up a
minor administrative appointment in his younger days but
soon abandoned it and returned to his life of religious study
and devotion. Off and on, under his father’s directions, he
would proceed upon an errand of a temporal character but
derived no satisfaction from it. His father perceiving his
strong bent towards matters spiritual gave up the attempt to
persuade him to interest himself in a worldly career.
A deep study of the Holy Quran, a passionate devotion to
the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be on him) and a constant
pre-occupation with divine worship and prayer became the
pattern of his life. He was much distressed at observing the
indifference of the Muslims towards the moral and spiritual
values inculcated by the Holy Quran and was deeply pained
by the attacks of non-Muslim propagandists against the
doctrines and teachings of Islam.
He found that the Christian missionaries of the time put
themselves in the vanguard of those elements which were
TADHKIRAH

hostile to Islam. After deep and prolonged reflection over
this painful situation he was moved to undertake a
vindication of Islam from every point of view. This took
the shape of his epoch-making production entitled the
Braheen Ahmadiyya, the publication of the very first part
of which endeared him to the hearts of all sincere Muslims
as an outstanding champion of Islam.
By that time he had become a recipient of revelation. The
successive parts of Braheen Ahmadiyya set forth many of
his dreams and visions and the verbal revelations received
by him. It became obvious to the readers of Braheen
Ahmadiyya that he was destined to be a great force in
Islam.
In 1889 he laid the foundations of the Ahmadiyyah
Movement and sent forth a call for the righteous to enter
into a covenant of spiritual allegiance to him as a Reformer
within the body spiritual of Islam. His call was responded
to by several people who covenanted to be his helpers and
to obey him in all matters of moral and spiritual import. His
call also aroused a certain degree of opposition among the
Muslims which in the course of time took on the character
of bitter hostility in which certain sections of the non-
Muslims also joined.
Under divine direction Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to
be the Messiah and the Mahdi whose advent had been
foretold by the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be on him).
The gravamen of the charge made against him by the
Muslim divines was that he claimed to be a prophet
contrary to the directive contained in the Holy Quran to the
effect: Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but
he is the Messenger of Allah and Seal of the Prophets
(Khatam-an-Nabiyyeen). Allah has full knowledge of all
things (33:41).

VIII
FOREWORD TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION

In answer to this Mirza Ghulam Ahmad explained that he
most sincerely and whole-heartedly believed that the Holy
Prophet, peace be on him, was Khatam-an-Nabiyyeen in
the fullest and most exalted connotation of the expression.
He believed that the Holy Prophet was most richly
endowed by Allah with all the excellences of prophethood
at the highest level. He affirmed that by the advent of the
Holy Prophet the prophethood of all previous prophets
which was current and binding upon their respective
peoples had come to an end and that thereafter the only
prophethood that was to be current was the prophethood of
the Holy Prophetsa and no other prophethood. The spiritual
status of Prophet would thereafter be conferred only upon
one who would be the most sincere and most faithful
follower of the Holy Prophetsa and whose light would be a
reflection of the light of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him,
and would be wholly derived from him. Such a person
would be spiritually at one with the Holy Prophetsa and
would have no separate independent spiritual identity of his
own. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a prophet only in
that sense and he claimed that in his advent were fulfilled
the prophecies concerning the advent of the Messiah and
the Mahdi. He rejected as false and derogatory of the
dignity of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, as Khatam-
an-Nabiyyeen, the notion that Jesus, a prophet in Israel,
would come back from heaven to carry out the revival of
Islam.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad affirmed that the Holy Quran
comprehends the totality of divine guidance needed for the
whole of mankind for all time, and that it cannot be added
to or subtracted from in the least degree. He rejected as
unfounded the false notion entertained by the bulk of his
Muslim opponents that a number of verses of the Holy

IX
TADHKIRAH

Quran had been abrogated. He taught that every directive
set out in the Holy Quran was binding for all time
according to its true import.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad affirmed that his claim to
prophethood, as explained by him, was in accord with the
Holy Quran and the true Hadith. He set forth in support of
his claim: Children of Adam, if Messengers come to you
from among yourselves, rehearsing My commandments,
unto you, then whoso is mindful of his duty to Allah and
acts righteously, on such shall come no fear nor shall they
grieve. But those who reject Our Signs and turn away from
them in disdain, these shall be the inmates of the Fire;
therein shall they abide. (7:36-37)
He also pointed out that the Holy Prophet, on whom be
peace, speaking of the advent of the Messiah had described
him as a prophet of Allah, and on the death of his son
Ibrahim he had said that had he lived he would have been a
true prophet. Concerning Abu Bakr he had said: Abu Bakr
is the most exalted person among my people except one
who might be a Prophet. He also drew attention to an
admonition of Ayesha, wife of the Holy Prophetsa, to the
effect: Call him Khatam-an-Nabiyyeen but do not say that
there will be no Prophet after him.
Attention might in this context be drawn to a criterion
laid down in the Holy Quran wherein it is affirmed: If he
had fabricated any saying and attributed it to Us, We would
surely have seized him by the right hand, and then surely
We would have severed his large artery, and not one of you
could have kept Us from it. (69:45-48)
Divines and commentators are agreed that these verses
furnish an irrefutable test of the truth of a claimant of the
receipt of divine revelation. If such a claimant persists in
his claim and survives for a period of twenty three years,

X