In this third year of Al Hakam, we will present a selection of incidents from the blessed life of the Promised Messiah, peace be upon him, this time, with some more details
24 April 1889: The Promised Messiahas replied to a letter of Maulvi Muhammad Bashir of Bhopal on this date. After explaining the reasons for not being able to promptly reply, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas shared some jewels from the divine realm regarding the acceptance of men of God.
24 April 1893: It was indeed a historic day in the religious history of the Indian subcontinent, when Rev Dr Henry Martyn Clark MD, CM (Edinburgh), MRAS, CMS, medical missionary in-charge of Amritsar district agreed on the principles of the debate with the Promised Messiahas. A day earlier, Hazrat Ahmadas had sent a letter to Dr Clark through his trusted friends and assigned those ambassadors to parley with the Christian group to finalise topics for discussion and general terms and regulations to smoothly run the much needed debate. Hazrat Ahmadas was happy that the decisive debate was going to take place because Christian missionaries were carrying on their work in the country without much opposition. The orthodox Muslims and their mullahs bothered little about the progress of Christianity. The next day – 25 April – Huzooras dispatched another registered letter to the Christian camp with the aim to further cement the particulars of the agreed debate.
24 April 1900: This day came with another development in the case with the sufi of the Chishti school of thought, Pir Meher Ali Shah of Golra, district Rawalpindi – a bitter foe of the Jamaat – who produced a book entitled Shamsul-hidayah fi athbati hayatil-Masih after several years. It was printed at the Mustafa‘i Press, Lahore in Ramadan 1317 AH. Hazrat Maulvi Abdul Karimra wrote a crushing rejoinder in Al Hakam and pressed Meher Ali Shah to answer the eleven questions that were posed in his article, but this went in vain. These eleven questions were earlier raised by Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Nuruddinra after reading the book of Pir Sahib.
24 April 1902: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to his companion, Hazrat Maulvi Ghulam Hassan Khanra Peshawari and asked for the hand of Maulana Ghulam Hassan’s daughter, Sarwar Sultan, for her marriage with his son Hazrat Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmadra.
24 April 1908: It was a Friday and the last Friday of the Promised Messiahas in Qadian as he would soon depart for his journey to Lahore, where he would leave this mortal world. Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Nuruddinra led the Jumuah prayer.
25 April 1887: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Nuruddinra. Hazrat Ahmadas expressed that the receipt of each of his letters was a source of delight because having a sincere friend was far dearer to him than a philosopher’s stone. Huzooras prayed that Allah may increase him in rendering services to Islam.
25 April 1893: The Promised Messiahas issued a notification accepting the call of Maulvi Abdul Haq Ghaznavi for mubahala [prayer duel]. Initially, Huzooras did not wish to quarrel with one of his own coreligionists. He wanted to defend Islam from its enemies and was too occupied for anything else. But the scribes and Pharisees of the age would not leave him in peace and were, as is customary, eager to abuse and persecute him. Huzooras had to subdue their ill-conspiracies and vernacular methods which they used to deceive weak Muslims.
25 April 1898: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Hazrat Haji Allah Rakha Abdur Rahmanra updating him about the pandemic of the plague in the area and also personal health issues.
26 April 1883: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Mir Abbas Ali of Ludhiana, educating him about the elevated stages of the spiritual world. Huzooras advised him to be regular in prayers after guiding him towards a spiritual formula.
26 April 1886: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Hazrat Munshi Rustam Alira ensuring him that he prayed for him regularly. In his letter, Huzooras advised him about a medical tip for a certain health issue.
27 April 1897: After the murder of Lekhram, the Arya Samaj put the blame on the Promised Messiahas for conspiracy to murder. Huzooras invited them to settle the issue through oath of certain wordings regarding the issue. On this date, Huzooras issued another detailed notification setting the details of this proposed oath to finalise the matter of the murderer. In it, Huzooras addressed Lala Ganga Bashan to come up with absolute terms.
27 April 1899: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Hafiz Muhammad Yusuf, ensuring him that he would not file any litigation process in any of the British courts as Munshi Ilahi Bakhsh, an accountant in Lahore, was permitted to publish his so-called revelations regarding the claims of the Promised Messiahas. Actually, Huzooras was informed that the said erstwhile follower of Huzooras was fearing that Huzooras would sue him if he revealed his inspirations.
28 April 1895: The Promised Messiahas wrote a letter to Hazrat Nawab Muhammad Ali Khanra and shared his ongoing project with him, which was about proving that Arabic is the mother of all languages. Huzooras encouraged him to take part in this vast venture through relieving his personal secretary to spend two months in Qadian assisting him in that novel project. In this letter, Huzooras also mentioned the ailment of Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Nuruddinra and praised how he had given precedence to religion over all worldly careers as he had migrated to Qadian from Jammu Kashmir.
28 April 1895: The Promised Messiahas sent a brief letter to his affectionate follower Hazrat Mian Abdullah Sanaurira asking him to give an update about his existing health and well-being. Hazrat Ahmadas also prayed for him in the letter.
28 April 1900: A much-loved companion of the Promised Messiahas, Hazrat Mirza Ayub Baigra succumbed to a prolonged ailment and passed away on this date. On 25 April, Huzooras dispatched a distressed and very concerning letter after being informed that his illness had taken a turn for the worse. Hazrat Mirza Yaqub Baigra later recorded that as the letter of the Promised Messiahas reached and was read out to his brother, he breathed his last after kissing the paper and placing it on his eyes, as if he was waiting for that letter.
29 April 1905: The Promised Messiahas issued a notification about a coming earthquake, stating, “Today, I have again been vouchsafed a revelation about that devastation, which had been decided in heavens to befall the earth very soon.” Huzooras said, “My sympathies for the creation of God made me openly warn everyone about this tremor.”
29 April 1906: The Promised Messiahas issued a notification briefing Jamaat members about heavenly signs manifested in his favour in the recent past. The array of these fresh signs comprise of earthquakes, triumph in many court cases, death of enemies and dissidents and plague etc. Al Hakam published a piece on this in its next issue on pages 10 and 11.
30 April 1902: The Promised Messiahas replied to Hazrat Maulvi Abdullah Sanaurira that Chanda of 30 rupees and 7 annas from him had been received. Huzooras plainly articulated that during the ongoing pandemic of the plague, deaths of some members of the Jamaat may occur, but these men would be considered shaheed [martyrs] and these deaths would not surge as total devastation and would not shroud the Jamaat in sheer despair.
30 April 1907: In this date’s issue, Al Hakam published a notification written by the Promised Messiahas which was an open query to rival camps. God had given Hazrat Ahmadas the glad-tiding:
اِنِّی اُحَافِظُ کُلَّ مَن فِی الدَّارِ
“I shall safeguard all those who are in this house,” during this widespread plague. Thus, the Promised Messiahas raised the question whether this prophecy of God’s protection was not fulfilled in the most clear manner and without any kind of doubt?