What did Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) actually claim?

The late nineteenth century. Qadian, a small village in the Punjab. Far from the railway station, at the end of a dirt road, stands a mosque. There, day after day, a man reads the Quran, prays, and writes books in defence of Islam.

Outside, these were hard times for Islam. Christian missionaries were openly announcing that Islam would soon be wiped out. Pandits of the Arya Samaj were writing books against the Holy Prophet (sa). The Muslims were divided and weary.

This man was Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as). Little by little he announced that Allah had given him a special task for this age. The nature of that task was made known in several steps.

The claims, step by step

1882: Commissioned by Allah, and Mujaddid. In 1882 he received the revelation which made it known that Allah had appointed him for His work. He wrote that as the thirteenth century was coming to an end, Allah told him through revelation that he was the Mujaddid of the fourteenth century (Kitab al-Bariyyah). A Mujaddid is a reformer of the faith, whose coming the Holy Prophet (sa) promised at the start of every century.

1889: The bai‘at and the founding of the Community. At Allah’s command, on 23 March 1889, in Ludhiana, he accepted the first bai‘at, the pledge of allegiance. This is how the journey of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community began.

1891: The Promised Messiah and Mahdi. In 1891, in Qadian, he received revelation again and again that Hazrat Jesus (as) had died a natural death, and that his “second coming” meant the coming of someone with his qualities; and that person was he himself. At the same time he announced that he was the Mahdi whose good news the Holy Prophet (sa) had given, and that the Messiah and the Mahdi are not two different people, but one and the same.

In his own words (Tadhkirat ash-Shahadatain): “Some years later, Allah’s revelation told me clearly that the Messiah whose coming was promised to this Ummah from the beginning, and the Mahdi whose coming Allah had appointed for the age of Islam’s decline and the spread of misguidance, who would receive guidance directly from Allah… and whose coming the Holy Prophet (sa) foretold thirteen hundred years ago, I am that person.”

1901: An ummati prophet. In 1901 he published a short booklet called Ek Ghalati ka Izala (A Misconception Removed). In it he explained that he had brought no new law and was not an independent prophet; he had received the rank of prophethood through complete obedience to the Holy Prophet (sa) and by his blessing, as his reflection (zilli and buruzi). The booklet contains this sentence of his: “Wherever I have denied being a prophet or messenger, it is only in the sense that I have not brought any independent law, and I am not an independent prophet.”

All the claims come down to one

The names may sound different, but the claim is really one. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), the fourth Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said in a television interview that the core claim was this: Allah had sent him as the reformer of this age.

Different religions are waiting for a world reformer in the last days. Muslims are waiting for the Messiah and the Mahdi, Christians for the second coming of Jesus, Hindus for the return of Krishna. If they all came as separate people, new conflicts would break out between religions in the very name of God. So the explanation of Ahmadi Muslims is that these names are different titles of one reformer, who would unite everyone. And he would be a follower of the Holy Prophet (sa), obedient to the Quran and the Sunnah.

He received a revelation: “Jariullahi fi hulalil anbiya”, meaning “the Champion of Allah in the mantles of all the prophets.” It means that the qualities of the various prophets of the past would be reflected in one person (Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part five).

Questions people ask

“Isn’t making one new claim after another a sign of a liar?”

Some say that raising the claims step by step, first Mujaddid, then Messiah, then prophet, is suspicious. Let us look at the life of the Holy Prophet (sa). First, Allah said:

Later came the announcement:

Those sent by Allah do not raise their claims by their own choice; they announce as much as Allah reveals, when He reveals it. And think about it: when a liar faces fatwas of disbelief, abuse and boycott after his very first claim, would he make an even bigger claim and increase the danger? The more the opposition grew, the more firmly he announced the identity Allah had given him. That is not how a worldly man behaves.

“Isn’t claiming to be a prophet against Khatam an-Nabiyyin?”

He answered this question himself. The heart of Ek Ghalati ka Izala is this: the verse of Khatam an-Nabiyyin contains the prophecy that after the Holy Prophet (sa) only his own reflection can come, one who is never independent of the original. The door of law-bearing prophethood is shut. In fact, it is if Hazrat Jesus (as) himself, an independent prophet of the Children of Israel, were to come back that the meaning of Khatam an-Nabiyyin would be changed. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh) also said that the Holy Prophet (sa) is the last law, the last book and the last leader to be followed.

“Why make claims in the name of Krishna or other religions?”

Because Islam is universal. The Quran says that a warner from Allah has come to every people. If the promise of a reformer that people of other religions are waiting for is also fulfilled in a follower of the Holy Prophet (sa), it builds a bridge for inviting people of all religions to Islam. This is not bowing down to other religions; it is showing them that the answer to their waiting lies within Islam.