User:Ahmadi~enwiki/Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Reise nach Delhi
Delhi was then considered a centre of religious learning and home to many prominent religious leaders. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad traveled to Delhi in 1891 with the intention of distinguishing what he believed to be the truth from falsehood, and attempting to make it openly manifest for people through these influential divines, and for the 'completion of proof'. He published an advertisement in which he invited the scholars to accept his claim and to engage in a public debate with him regarding the life and death of Isa (Jesus), particularly Maulana Nazeer Hussein who was hailed as the greatest shaikh and a leading religious scholar. He also proposed three conditions that were essential for such a debate. Namely, that there should be a police presence to maintain peace, the debate should be in written form and that the debate should be on the subject of the death of Jesus.

Eventually it was settled and Ahmad traveled to the Jama Masjid Delhi (main mosque) of Delhi accompanied by twelve of his followers, where some 5,000 people were gathered. Before the debate started there was a discussion on the conditions, which led to the conclusion that the debate should not be upon the death of Jesus, but upon the claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He explained that his claim could only be discussed after the death of Jesus was proven, for Jesus was considered by many to be living and the one who will descend to earth himself. Only when this belief was refuted could his claim to be the Messiah be discussed.

Upon this there was a clamor among the crowds, and Ahmad was informed that the other party alleged that he was at odds with Islamic beliefs and was a disbeliever, therefore it was not proper to debate with him unless he clarified his beliefs. Ahmad wrote his beliefs on a piece of paper and had it read aloud, but due to the clamor among the people it could not be heard. Seeing that the crowd was drifting out of control and that violence was imminent, the police superintendent gave orders to dismiss the public and move them on and the debate did not take place. However, a few days later a debate did take place between Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Maulwi Muhammad Bashir of Bhopal.

Ahmad is known to have traveled extensively across India during this period of his life and having held various debates with influential religious leaders.

Die Eklipse von Sonne und Mond
In 1894, about three years after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claim to be the Mahdi and Messiah, both the moon and sun were eclipsed in the same month during Ramadan. He declared that this was a sign of his truth, and was in fulfillment of a tradition or prophecy attributed to the 7th century Imam Muhammad al-Baqir also known as Muhammad bin Ali.

This occurrence has faced some criticism, with critics of Ahmad asserting that this was a weak tradition with unreliable narrators, one which cannot be traced back to Muhammad himself, and that such eclipses have taken place before. Ahmadis however argue that such eclipses have never taken place as a sign for the truth of any person, and that this sign being mentioned in other religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Qur'an, and the fact that it actually took place while there was a claimant further enhances the reliability of the tradition.

Kenntnisse des Arabischen
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was criticized for his inadequate knowledge of the Arabic language. Subsequently, he claimed to have been taught Arabic directly by God and that he received the knowledge of 40,000 Arabic roots from God in a single night. He wrote some 20 books in Arabic, and Urdu combined with Arabic, as well as poetry upon what he considered was divine direction. He wrote:

Ahmad challenged his critics and contemporary religious scholars to produce the like of his Arabic works with as much help as they wanted individually or collectively. After having been alleged to have hired some experts of the Arabic language to write those books, he gave them leave to call to their aid the learned men and divines of Arabia, Egypt and Syria whose mother-tongue was Arabic thereby extending his challenge to all Arabs and non-Arabs alike. According to Ahmadi sources no one took up this challenge and those who did, only sought to find fault with the works of Ghulam Ahmad and failed to produce any book. He also declared Arabic to be the mother of all languages (Ummul-Lisana) and the original tongue of mankind. This subject he dealt with in detail in his book Minunur-Rahman.

Ghulam Ahmad has however been accused of plagiarising, and altering the words of Arab linguists to appear as his own. He claimed that the Arabic of his Hujjatullah (The Convincing Proof from God) was superior to the Arabic of any other book ever written by man. In this text however, several sentences and occasionally paragraphs are taken directly without alteration, from Maqamat al-Hariri, the best known poetry collection of the Arabic scholar and poet Al-Hariri of Basra. . For this reason, his claim to divine instruction in Arabic is not accepted in Islamic Orthodoxy. Ahmadis point out that only after his use of Arabic was labelled inadequate, ungrammatical and 'unchaste' by his opponents did Ghulam Ahmad deliberately amalgamated his own writing with that of Al-Hariri's in order to expose his opponent, whom he called upon to distinguish between his writings and that of Al-Hariri’s; as stated by him in the beginning of his book Hujjatullah Therefore, according to Ahmadis the allegation of plaigiarism does not hold true. Ghulam Ahmad stated:

Die geoffenbarte Predigt
In 1900, on the occasion of the festival of Eid ul-Adha, he is said to have delivered an hour-long sermon extempore in Arabic expounding the meaning and philosophy of sacrifice. This is considered from among the important events of the history of Ahmadiyya, was immediately written down by his companions and came to be known as the Khutba Ilhamiyya, the revealed or inspired sermon. It is said that during this sermon there was a change in his voice, he appeared as if in a trance, in the grip of an unseen hand, and as if a voice from the unknown had made him its mouthpiece. After the sermon ended Ahmad fell into prostration followed by the rest of the congregation as a sign of gratitude towards God.

Ahmad wrote later:

Landplagen und Erdbeben
In 1898 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to have seen in a vision the imminent plague and warned people against it. This plague was at its peak between 1902-1903 and ravaged the Punjab, with an average of forty thousand people dying every week and killing 10 million people in its wake. He forbade his followers to use any preventive vaccine and assured his true followers that they would be saved. His following is known to have grown rapidly during this period.

1905 saw a terrible earthquake, which Ahmad had claimed to have foreseen earlier, killing about 40,000 people.

Eine Beschuldigung der Verleumdung und Prozess
Another case brought against Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, which is believed to be yet another attempt to disgrace him, was that of defamation by one Karam Din. He had written to Ahmad in 1902 pretending to be a sympathizer. When Ahmad included these letters in one of his books and published it, Karam Din shifted to outright denial, rejecting that those letters were ever written by him. When Ahmad denounced him as mean-spirited and a liar, he launched a libel action against him. It was a case that lingered on for almost two years.

The accounts of this case relate that Ahmad traveled to Jhelum in connection with the case. But due to the exceeding crowds of thousands that had gathered to receive him both supporters and those who opposed him, the authorities adjourned the case to avert danger of violence, and later transferred it to Gurdaspur. It is said that nearly one thousand people pledged their allegiance to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on this day.

The Magistrate who happened to be a Hindu, is believed to have been pressurised by the members of the Arya Samaj in that this was an opportune time to have Ahmad arrested and imprisoned. However a Muslim clerk who had contact with the Arya Samaj revealed their intentions to a disciple of Ahmad. His disciple Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din who was also his lawyer in this case tried to have the case transferred to another town but was not successful. During this time Ahmad took up temporary residence in Gurdaspur.

While in Gurdaspur he was informed by one of his companions of how his opponents had sought to have him arrested upon which he laid out his hands and said “what can I do? I have submitted to God that I am ready to wear bindings of steel on my wrists and feet for the sake of your religion, but He says: “No, I shall protect you from abasement and shall acquit you with Honour.” Due to Ghulam Ahmad's excessive illness at this time, a doctor was called in who advised rest and issued a certificate stating that he was unable to attend court for the next month and upon demand, verified the certificate before the magistrate. Before the day he was to appear in court the magistrate was demoted and transferred to another town. He was replaced by another magistrate who chose a certain date to announce his verdict, then changed it to a Saturday, which it was discovered was with the intention of announcing a heavy fine before the court closed so that Ahmad, not being able to pay the sum would be arrested and as the next day was a holiday he would have to spend the rest of the weekend in prison.

When the day of his hearing arrived the police was ordered not to permit anyone to enter the court except Ahmad. His companion Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din saw him entering the court on his own, he sought to enter but was stopped by guards. He insisted that he was the lawyer of the accused and forcing them out of the way, entered just as the magistrate was imposing a fine of 700 rupees, an extraordinary sum at the time. Immediately he took the amount out from his pocket and placed it before the magistrate thus compelling him to acquit Ahmad. He walked out freely to the bewilderment of the crowds gathered outside the court, who were expecting him to walk out handcuffed and escorted by police. Finally his lawyers took the case to the court of appeal, which overturned the magistrate’s decision, returned the fine and there was no libel. The Judge justified the criticism of Karam din and expressed his amazement as to why such a minor case had dragged on for so long.

A great part of this period of his life is also known to have been spent in the spiritual training and upbringing of his disciples.

Letzte Reise
Towards the end of 1907 and early 1908 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to have received numerous revelations informing him of his imminent death. In April 1908 he traveled to Lahore with his family and companions. Here he gave many lectures. it is said that a banquet was arranged for dignitaries and upon request he spoke for some 2 hours explaining his claims, teachings and refuting objections raised against his person, here he preached reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims. He completed writing his last work entitled “Message of Peace” a day before his death.

Tod
While he was in Lahore at the home of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain (who was also his physician), Mirza Ghulam Ahmad fell ill. His last words were “Allah O merey pyarey Allah” [God O my loving God]. He passed away in Lahore on 26 May 1908.

Affinität zu Jesus von Nazareth
Numerous similarities between Jesus of Nazareth and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad are drawn in Ahmadi writings, some of which relate to their person while others relate to the circumstances of their appearance, the disposition of the people of their age, and the nature of their mission. The aforementioned writings of Ahmadi, and thus lacking authority as provided by scholarly consensus, sources include the following:


 * At the birth of both there was the appearance of a Comet. In the case of Jesus, a supernova occurred near the time of his birth and  a “darkening of the sun” at the time of crucifixion.  In the case of Ahmad, there occurred the “falling of stars” (which his followers claim occurred as fulfillment of the sign mentioned for the second coming in Matthew 24:29).  Ahmad's followers point out enormous meteor showers that occurred just before his birth in 1833, the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835 (the year Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born) and the meteor showers that occurred just before his claim in 1885.


 * Both appeared under a foreign, occupying government, Jesus within the eastern part of the Roman Empire and Ahmad within the eastern part of the British Empire.
 * Ahmad appeared around the same time after Muhammad as Jesus appeared after Moses. A significant point as Muhammad is equated with Moses in Islamic Hagiography.


 * One of the reasons of Jesus's rejection was that the Jews were expecting the physical return of Elijah himself with the coming of the Messiah. Jesus answered this idea of a literal, physical return by identifying John the Baptist as fulfilling the second coming of Elijah. Similarly to the Jews of Jesus' time, one of the main reasons of Ahmad's rejection was that Muslims were/are awaiting the physical descent of Jesus himself as is foretold by and described in numerous Muslim Hadith sources which are very specific in nature and exact in circumstance. Ahmad presented the same example as did Jesus by stating that the ‘second coming’ would be of a spiritual and metaphorical nature and comparison, not a literal fulfillment, thus directly contradicting the mainstream  understanding of the most trusted of the Muslim hadith.


 * The Jewish people believed their prophesied messiah will establish a physical Kingdom and will deliver Israel from Roman rule. The Muslims believe their Mahdi to be a physical ruler, descended from Muhammad himself and bearing many of his features, characteristics as well as qualities, who together with a physical Jesus, descended from heaven, will deliver the Muslims from the disbelievers. Here, again, Ahmad's claims go against the mainstream understanding of many of the authentic Hadith quoted from Prophet Muhammad.


 * Jesus appeared to be contrary to the physical expectations of the prophesied Messiah within Judaism and preached a message of humility, love, forgiveness and charity according to Christian tradition. Ahmad also appeared to be contrary to the physical expectations of the prophesied Messiah and Mahdi within Islam. It should be noted here that Muslims do not believe Mahdi, whose name according to Hadith considered authentic will be Muhammad bin Abdullah, to be the same person as Jesus the Prophet. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad did not advocate armed Jihad. In fact he entirely abolished it and called for an end to resistance against British rule, and preached the message of humility, forgiveness, charity, and prayer according to Ahmadiyya tradition.


 * Both were conspired against by their adversaries.
 * Disciples of both had left them at some point because of a failure to either understand or accept their teachings.
 * Both were accused of blasphemy by the prominent and established religious authorities of the time.
 * Both had to face trials within the courts, though their trials do differ considerably.
 * Both were alleged to have died an ‘accursed death’.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmads Vermächtnis
One of the main source of dispute during his lifetime and continuing since then, is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's use of the terms “Nabi” (prophet) and “Rasool” (messenger) when referring to himself. Muslims consider the prophet Muhammad to be the last of the prophets and believe that Ahmad's use of these terms is a violation of not only the rudimentary concept of the “finality of prophethood”, but the Qur'an itself. His followers fall into two camps in this regards, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community who believe in a literal interpretation of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophethood (with some qualifications), and is currently headed by Ahmad's fifth Caliph or successor carrying the title of Khalifatul Masih an institution believed to have been established soon after Ahmad's death. While the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement who believe in an allegorical interpretation of these two terms is administered by a body of people called the Anjuman Ishat-e-Islam (Movement for the propagation of Islam) headed by an Emir. This among other reasons caused a split in the movement soon after Ahmad's death.

Followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad are considered non-Muslims in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and have faced relentless persecution of various types over the years. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament amended the Pakistani constitution to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims for purposes of the constitution of the Islamic Republic. In 1984, a series of changes in the Pakistan Penal Code sections relating to blasphemy were made, which, in essence, made it illegal for Ahmadis to preach their creed, leading to arrests and prosecutions. However, no one has been executed yet, even though it is allowed under the law.

In 2007 The Ahmadiyya were banned from practising their faith openly in the state of Belarus, and given a similar status to other banned religious groups in the country.

Relative to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, some mainstream Muslim opinion towards the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has been more accepting, with the Lahore Ahmadiyya Literature finding greater acceptance among the Muslim Intelligentsia and some Orthodox Muslim scholars considering the members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as Muslims.

A number of modern Muslim scholars and Muslim intellectuals seem to conform to the idea of peaceful Jihad as a struggle for reform through civil means, in accordance with Mirza Ghulam Ahmed's standpoint on the issue, while abandoning the tradition of Muhammad to follow peaceful struggle with armed resistance. Furthermore, some Islamic scholars have opined that Jesus has died (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's assertion) or expressed their own confusion on this matter , though the majority orthodox position of most Muslims with regard to this issue has not changed.

Einzelnachweise
de:Mirza Ghulam Ahmad