Friday, December 03, 2004

Double eclipse + Other prophesies

MGA wrote as follows: "
…One Hadith of Dar-e-Qatni also proves that the Promised Mahdi will appear at the head of the 14th century; and that hadith is this ....Translation of the whole hadith is:'There are two signs of our Mahdi. Since the creation of earth and heaven these signs have not been revealed for any appointee (“mamoor”), messenger and prophet; and those signs are that moon will eclipse in the first night of its fixed nights of eclipse and sun will get eclipsed in the middle of the fixed days for its eclipse, during the month of Ramadhan.'...this hadith clearly fixes the 14th century." (Roohani Khazain, vol. 17, pp. 132 - 133)
...However, the actual hadith recorded in Dar-e-Qatni reads as follows:Narrated Amr son of Shamir, quoting Jabir, who quoted Mohammad bin 'Ali:"For our Mahdi, two signs are given which never occurred in the past from the creation of the heavens and the earth. One is that a lunar eclipse will occur on the first night of Ramadhan and the second sign is that a solar eclipse will occur in the middle of Ramadhan and these signs had never happened from the creation of the heavens and the earth." (Dar-e-Qatni, vol. 1, p. 18

313 Sahabis
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad published the names of 327 persons, who had attended the second Jalsa Salana in December 1892. This he later on said could be taken as the list of his followers. This list can be seen in his book "A'ina kamalat-i Islam". One interesting observation is that this list also includes the name of "Shaikh Abdullah. Student. Aligarh". He later on came to be an important personality in the Indian Islam. He was born in a Hindu Pandat family of Kashmir and converted to Islam in his early youth. Maulavi Nuruddin, the first Caliph after MGA, is said to have supported him during his studies in Aligarh, which at that time was still a college. He was a great crusader for the emancipation of the Muslim women. He started a Girls school, which I understand is still working. His daughter Dr. Rashid Jahan, a writer in her own right, was one of the founding members of "Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand" of the Urdu writers. She was stationed in Amritsar at a time, when Dr. Taseer and Faiz Ahmad Faiz were teaching as lecturers in a college in that city. Faiz wanted to marry the sister of Dr. Tasir's English wife. It was through Dr. Rashid Jahan's kind collaboration that this marriage could be arranged. Everybody knows that the Nikah of Faiz and Alys Faiz was solemnized in Srinagar by Shaikh Abdullah and everybody thinks that this person was the political leader, who came to be known as "Sher-i Kashmir". But this is wrong. It was the father of Dr. Rashid Jahan, at whose hand Mrs. Alys Faiz had accepted Islam. I am not sure if he ever became an Ahmadi. He was very much under the influence of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Now back to our list which also includes many persons, who had just attended the Jalsa Salana and not taken Bai'a. Therefore, MGA prepared a special list of his followers in 1896 and published it in his book "Anjam-i Aatham", pp. 325-328. This list has 313 names of his "Sahabis".The first observation is that this list includes only about two dozen persons, who could be categorized as "learned". The rest are all sorts of unlettered persons. There are two names, about whom we know definitely that they not only left the Ahmadiyya, but also became bitter enemies. The first name is of Dr. Abdul Hakeem Khan of Patiala. About whom we had discussed in another thread. He challenged MGA and wrote copiously against him. MGA published his prophecy that he will die during MGA's life time. Also Dr. Abdul Hakeem published a counter prophecy, according to which MGA will die within three years. MGA died in this period and Dr. Abdul Hakeem was given a long life. He died ten or more years after the death of MGA. The second person is Maulavi Muhammad Fazal Khan, about whom I had written variously in the Forum. He left the Jama'at after an association of 40 years and wrote that MGA misunderstood his Ilhams.


Superstition
Ahl-e Hadith and also Wahhabis are against all kinds of superstition. We have on numerous occasions stated that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had been under the influence of Ahl-e Hadith. If you go through his religious proclamations, you will find them to be strictly puritanical. But than you read in his life history things which are dangerously near superstition. The list is quite long. But I will confine myself here to one example. When his youngest son Mirza Mubarak Ahmad was terminally ill and there was no hope of his survival, MGA came up with the plan to celebrate his marriage, because, he said, in this way a "taqdeer-e mubram" could be changed. It is as if you can put dust in the eyes of the destiny and a newly wed will be spared death. A minor girl was found and duly married to the boy of 8 years. He died soon after and his widow was many years later taken by Mirza Mahmood Ahmad as his fourth wife. She was the mother of Mirza Tahir Ahmad.