Evidence for the for the truth -The Review of Religions

The Sign of the Heavens 20

The Plague 58

A Murder in British Lahore: Closing the Case of Lekh Ram 80

World War One: Centenary of Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy 102

vol. 110 - issue eightaugust 2015 www.reviewofreligions.org

evidenCe FOR tHe

truthYou be the Judge...

S P e C i A L 1 6 4 P A G e e d i t i O n

And [ Jesus] shall be a Sign of the Hour [of Judgment]; therefore have no doubt about it, but follow Me: this is a straight way.iSLAM, tHe HOLy QuR’An, CH.43:v.61.

The Messengersa of Allah observed, “What will be your state when the Son of Mary descends amongst you, and there will be an Imam amongst you? What would you do when the son of Mary would descend and lead you?”iSLAM, tHe HOLy PROPHetSA, HAditH OF MusliM.

Whenever the Imam of an age makes his appearance in the world, he is accompanied by thousands of lights. There is jubilation in heaven and people’s good qualities are stimulated through the spread of spirituality and light. iSLAM, tHe PROMiSed MeSSiAHAS, The essence of islaM, vOL. 4, P. 108.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” JudAiSM And CHRiStiAnity, tHe BiBLe, isaiah, 9:6-7.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.CHRiStiAnity, MaT Thew, 24:29-31.

He shall be the victorious Benefactor (Saoshyant) by name and World-renovator [Astavat-ereta] by name. He is Benefactor because he will benefit the entire physical world; he is World-renovator because he will establish the physical living existence indestructible. He will oppose the evil of the progeny of the biped and withstand the enmity produced by the faithful. ZOROAStRiAniSM, avesTa, farvardin YasT 13:129.

Whenever the Law declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to reestablish the Law. BuddHiSM, suTra OF tHe GReAt ACCOMPLiSHMent OF tHe MAitReyA.

The Messiahworld faiths

Hazrat Hudaifara relates that the Holy Prophetsa once said:

“Prophethood shall remain among you for as long as Allah wills. He will then cause it to end. Then a caliphate will be established in the footsteps of prophethood which will last for as long as Allah wills. He will then cause it to end. Kinghood will follow which will inflict great pain and misery on its subjects. Its rule will last for as long as Allah wills. He will then cause it to end. After this tyrannical monarchies will follow. Their rule will last for as long as Allah wills. He will then cause it to end. The caliphate will be re-established in the footsteps of Prophethood.”[1]

Thereafter, the Holy Prophetsa became silent.

1. Masnad Ahmad, Vol. 5, P.342. No.17939. Mishkat ul Msabih, Kita bur Riqaq, Bab Al-Anzar wal Tahzir.

A Grand Prophecy About the Latter days

12 untold Stories

20 The Sign of the Heavens Various world scriptures mention the coming of a great reformer in the last days. Mention is made of a remarkable sign that would accompany this great reformer. Late Professor Hafiz MuHaMMad

saLeH aLLadin

edited by dr. syed MuHaMMad

taHir nasser ‘science and reLigion’

editor, tHe review of reLigions

58 The Plague This article seeks to examine Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas prophecy of the plague and to closely analyse its salient features and the extent of its fulfilment within the parameters specified by the prophecy itself.Mirza usMan aHMad, rabwaH, Pakistan

80 A Murder in British Lahore Closing the case of Lekh Ram

One prophecy of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas warned the Pundit Lekh Ram to refrain from hurling abuse at Prophet Muhammadsa, as his attacks on the character of the Prophetsa were extremely insulting and provocative, and could lead to Divine Wrath. We examine this prophecy in minute detail.asif M basit, London, uk

102 World War One - Centenary of the Fulfilment of a Great Warning

This article examines some of the Promised Messiah’sas prophecies and announcements relating to the Great War in light of accurate historical sources and eyewitness accounts. It then assesses the degree of fulfilment of these prophecies and critically discusses their wider reception.biLaL aHMed taHir, uk

contents

august 2015 vol.110 issue eight

102

20

58

CHieF editOR & MAnAGeR

Syed Amer Safir

ASSOCiAte editORS

Nakasha Ahmad, Tariq H. Malik

ReLiGiOn & SCienCe

Editor: Dr. Syed Muhammad Tahir Nasser

Deputy: Dr. Tauseef Khan

iSLAM & COnteMPORARy iSSueS

Editor: Shahzad Ahmad

LAW & HuMAn RiGHtS

Editor: Qudsi Rasheed

Deputy: Ayesha Mahmood Malik

AnCient ReLiGiOnS & ARCHAeOLGOy

Editor: Fazal Ahmad

Deputy: Rizwan Safir

CHRiStiAnity

Editor: Navida Sayed

Deputy: Arif Khan

GendeR & eQuALity

Editor: Aliya Lateef

Deputy: Meliha Hayat

BOOK RevieWS

Editor: Sarah Waseem

WeB teAM

Mubashara Ahmad, Hibba Turrauf

editORiAL BOARd

Mansoor Saqi, Bockarie Tommy Kallon, Professor

Amtul Razzaq Carmichael, Murtaza Ahmad, Fiona

O’Keefe, Hassan Wahab, Jonathan Butterworth,

Munazza Khan, Waqar Ahmedi, Mahida Ahmad

SuB-editORS

Munawara Ghauri (Head), Maryam Malik,

Nusrat Haq, Mariam Rahman

PROOFReAdeRS

Farhana Dar (Head), Hina Rehman, Amina Abbasi, Ayesha Patel

HOuSe StyLe Guide

Maleeha Ahmad (Head), Sadia Shah

SOCiAL MediA

Tazeen Ahmad (Head), Mala Khan (Deputy), Nudrat

Ahmad, Hajra Ahmad, Mishall Rahman, Shumaila Ahmad

PRint deSiGn And LAyOut

Ahsan Khan

inteRnAtiOnAL SuBSCRiPtiOn & diStRiButiOn

Muhammad Hanif

ACCOuntS & MARKetinG

Musa Sattar

ARt & CReAtivity

Zubair Hayat, Mussawir Din

indeXinG, tAGGinG & ARCHivinG

Mirza Krishan Ahmad (Head). Amtus Shakoor Tayyaba Ahmed

(Deputy). Humaira Omer, Humda Sohail, Shahid Malik, Ruhana

Hamood, Mubahil Shakir, Adila Bari, Hassan Raza Ahmad

MAnAGeMent BOARd

Munir-Ud-Din Shams (Chairman), Syed Amer Safir (Secretary), Mubarak Ahmad Zaffar, Ataul Mujeeb

Rashed, Naseer Qamar, Abdul Baqi Arshad, Abid Waheed Ahmad Khan, Aziz Ahmad Bilal

fold of Ahmadiyyat. Alhamdulillah (All praise belongs to Allah)!

The village of Coban is approximately 300 km away from the Baitul Awal Mosque, and 47 km of that journey is very arduous, being along a broken road.

On 4th July 2015, Mr. David Gonzalez (General Secretary), Mr. Dario Samayoa (President of Majlis Khuddam-ul-Ahmadiyya - auxiliary group of Ahmadi Muslim men aged between 15-40 years), Hafiz Dawood of Mexico and I reached Coban after a journey of nine hours by car. On this day, Mr. Domingo had gathered some of his friends and rel-atives in a school. The discussion began with the translation of the Holy Qur’an. Islam’s beautiful teachings were presented in a discussion that continued for about seven hours. This was followed by a ques-tion and answer session. Alhamdulillah, on 5th July 2015, 89 individuals including

ladies, men and children, accepted Islam Ahmadiyyat from Coban Alta Verapaz, after learning of the beautiful teachings of Islam.

Among the individuals who did Bai’at (oath of allegiance) was a priest, who had served as a catholic priest for 34 years and was affiliated with the protestant faith for 5 years. Now by the Grace of Allah, he has accepted Islam. He now openly opposes the vices of the Church, including the dishonesty of priests and other evil practices. Alhamdulillah, he was so impressed after learning the true and beautiful teachings of Islam, that he announced himself to be a Muslim in front of everyone.

Abdul Sattar Khan, National President and Missionary In Charge, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Guatemala

islam’s Beauty Accepted in GuatemalaIn March 2015, three Ahmadi missionar-ies arrived from Canada with the purpose of distributing literature in Guatemala, in order to introduce the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Mr. Domingo from Coban had the privilege to receive one of these literature packs. This sparked his curiosity about the Community; consequently he decided to contact me. He wanted to know more about the Community and thus came to our Baitul Awal Mosque. We spent many hours dis-cussing the beautiful teachings of Islam. As he left, I gave him some further

literature about Islam and Ahmadiyyat. When he returned home he introduced the remarkable teachings of Islam to his wife and children and also his friends.

In April 2015, Mr. Domingo brought along another six individuals to the Baitul Awal Mosque upon my invita-tion, who were in search of the truth. They stayed there for about a week and gained a good insight into Islam and Ahmadiyyat through the different classes on various topics given by Mr. David Gonzalez, Mr Dario Samayoa, Mr Faiz and myself. Thereafter, Mr. Domingo and his wife accepted Islam and entered the

[UNTOLD]STORIES

12 The Review of Religions | augusT 2015 augusT 2015 | The Review of Religions 13

In the course of consequent interro-gations, three more Pakistani Mullahs were discovered in the community and also arrested. During questioning by the security personnel, the Pakistani Mullahs claimed that they were in the country to propagate the religion of Islam during the Holy Month.

As their claims was contrary to their earlier actions, the security personnel rebuffed them and informed them that they were not in the country to propagate Islam, but rather to cause violence and chaos among the peace-loving Ahmadis there, who had co-existed peacefully within the local community for many years.

In the course of further investigations, it was discovered that the Pakistani Mullahs entered the country illegally from Cameroon. Thus, they were deported back within 24 hours.

This is how Allah the Almighty exposed and foiled the evil plans of Pakistani Mullahs targeted at Ahmadis in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Missionary Abdul Kabeer (missionary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community)

Pakistani Mullah Attack on Ahmadis Thwarted by GodOn Thursday, 25th June 2015, at about 5:40pm (local time), there was an inter-ruption to the programme at the Compo Yaoundé Mosque, Malabo, during the Ramadan Tafseer (commentary of the Holy Qur’an) Programme, when two Pakistani Mullahs (Muslim clerics) entered the mosque and disrupted the ongoing activities.

Events transpired when one of the Mullahs walked up to the Missionary In Charge of the Ramadan Tafseer and tried to instigate violence by claiming before the congregation that Ahmadis are Kafir (disbelievers), and conse-quently have been justifiably attacked and killed in Pakistan. Thus, he claimed that Ahmadis are not true Muslims.

He also demanded that a similar bru-tal attack should be carried out there (in the Mosque). He insinuated that Ahmadis use their own Qur’an, which he claimed was different from the one other Muslims use throughout the world.

The congregation refused to accept his false accusations and treaties, and began laughing at his absurd claims, as they were well aware that Ahmadis are true-followers of the Holy Prophetsa and a peace-loving Jama’at (Community). The Mullah then physically assaulted the mis-sionary by grabbing him by the neck; a scuffle ensued.

Security personnel were alerted and the two Mullahs were apprehended.

The congregation refused to accept his false accusations and treaties, and began laughing at his absurd claims, as they were well aware that Ahmadis are true-followers of the Holy Prophetsa and a peace-loving Jama’at (Community).

untold stories

do you have an “Untold

Story” you wish to share

with us? email us your unique story at [email protected]


The Holy Prophet Muhammadsa

advent of the messiah in the latter days

Allah’s Apostlesa came to us all of a sud-den as we were busy in a discussion. He said: “What are you talking about?” The com-panions said: “We are discussing about the Last Hour”. Thereupon, he said: “It will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke, Dajjal, the beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the descent of Jesusas, The Gog and Magog, and landslides in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of which fire would burn forth from Yemen, and would drive people to the place of their assembly.”[1]

1. Sahih Muslim, Book 40, No. 6931.

© Masood T

evidenCe FOR tHe

truthYou be the Judge...

The scriptures of many religions speak of a great reformer appearing in the latter days, whose mission would be to bring mankind together and establish

everlasting peace. The founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, claimed to be the Promised Messiah and the Mahdi (The Guided One) of the latter days. Indeed, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidences. Thus, he established the truthfulness of his claim by not only presenting irrefutable arguments found in the scriptures of various world reli-gions but also but also through thousands upon thousands of miracles, signs and prophecies. The fulfilment of these grand prophecies were witnessed by millions during his lifetime and beyond and stand as a living testimony to his divine appointment.

The Review of Religions presents a detailed analysis of some of these historic prophecies and their global impact.

© MarcelClemens | shutterstock.com

“You imagine that a Mahdi will come who will shed blood

And make religion prosper by killing disbelievers,

O ignorant people, these ideas are com-pletely wrong

They are calumnious and baseless, and they will not flourish,

O my dears ones, the man who was to come, has already come

Even the sun the moon have disclosed this secret to you.”

(Durre Sameen v.43-45 by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi)

introductionThe prophecy of the coming of a great reformer from God in the latter days is found in the scriptures of various world religions. Mention is also made of a remarkable sign which would accompany this great reformer – two natural phe-nomena that cannot be forged by human hands: eclipses of the sun and the moon.

In the New Testament, Jesus, peace be on him, narrating the signs of his second

coming, said:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”[1]

In Hinduism, Mahatma Surdasji has mentioned the prophecy that when the Kalki Autar (destroyer of ignorance) would appear, the moon and the sun

S c i e n c e

Solar Eclipse “Elements of this image furnished by NASA”

© muratart | shutterstock.com

by the late Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saleh AlladinEdited by Dr. Syed Muhammad Tahir Nasser

‘Science and Religion’ Editor, The Review of Religions

This article was edited together from three smaller articles, orig-inally written by the late Hafiz

M.S. Alladin, Professor of Astronomy at Osmania University, India and Director of the Centre of Advanced Study in Astronomy. Additions have

been made to the original writings in places, to update the content with new and appropriate evidence. The original articles are listed in the references for purposes of comparison.

The Sign of the Heavens

Close up of old Holy Bible book© Janaka Dharmasena | shutterstock.com

The prophecy of the coming of a great reformer from God in the latter days is found in the scriptures of various world religions. Mention is also made of a remarkable sign which would accompany this great reformer...


1. Fatawa Hadisiya by Allama Sheikh Ahmad Shahabuddin Ibn Hijrul Haismi.

2. Hejajul Kirama by Nawab Siddeeq Hassan Khan.

3. Maktoobaat-e-Imam Rabbani Mujaddid Alf-e-Sani.

4. Qiyamat Nama Farsi by Hazrat Shah Rafeeuddin Muhaddis of Delhi.

5. Aqaedul Islam by Maulana Abdul Haq Muhaddis of Delhi.

6. Iqtirabus Saa’t by Nawab Nur-ul-Hassan Khan.

7. Ahwalul Akhirat by Hafiz Muhammad of Lakhoke.

Before the fulfilment of this prophecy

is to be assessed, the phenomenon of eclipses and their science should first be appreciated and understood.

Lunar and Solar eclipses in Light of the Laws of natureLunar and solar eclipses are phenom-ena which occur according to the laws of nature. The Holy Qur’an has repeat-edly drawn our attention to natural phenomena:

“Holy is He Who created all things in pairs, of what the earth grows and of themselves, and of what they know not. And a Sign for them is the night from which We strip off the day, and lo! they are left in darkness. And the sun is moving on to its determined goal. That is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing God. And for the moon We have appointed stages, till it becomes again like an old dry twig of a palm-tree. It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor can the night

would be eclipsed. He wrote:

“Both the moon and the sun will be eclipsed and there will be much violence and death.”[2]

In one of the holy book of the Sikhs, Sri Dasam Granth Sahib, it is written about the latter day Nehkalank (the one without sin):

“All the suns and moons and even Indra and Vaman are subservient to Kal (Nehkalank).”[3]

In short, various religious scriptures mention signs of the sun and the moon in support of a latter day reformer sent from God. The Islamic scriptures too are not silent on this topic but in fact offer a degree of detail that is absent from other scriptures. The Holy Qur’an refers to eclipses of both the sun and moon occurring as a sign of the latter days:

“He asks, ‘When will be the Day of Resurrection?’ When the eye is dazzled, And the moon is eclipsed. And the sun and the moon are brought together.”[4]

While the root of this prophecy thus lies in the Holy Qur’an, a hadith (narration) of the Prophet of Islamsa elucidates these verses and gives valuable detail. Hazrat Ali bin Umar Albaghdadi Ad-Darqutni, an eminent authority on the reported sayings of the Prophet of Islamsa, who lived from 918 C.E to 995 C.E, had recorded the following hadith by Hazrat Imam Baqar Muhammad bin Ali, son of Hazrat Imam Zainul Abideen (may Allah have mercy on them):

“For Our Mahdi there are two Signs which have never appeared before since the crea-tion of the heavens and the earth, namely, the moon will be eclipsed on the first night in Ramadan and the sun will be eclipsed on the middle of it (the same month), and these Signs have not appeared since God created the heavens and the earth.”[5]

These Signs are mentioned in the collec-tions of hadith of both Sunni and Shia sects. Eminent Muslim scholars have quoted these signs in their books. This prophecy is recorded in several books, some of which are mentioned below:

the sign of the heavens

© Igor Zh. | shutterstock.com



the conditions that produce a new moon are necessary also for a solar eclipse and the conditions that produce a full moon are required also for a lunar eclipse. For example, at the time of the new moon, the longitudes (alignment) of the sun and the moon are the same and the moon is said to be ‘in conjunction.’ If the earth was also to be at the same longitude, a solar eclipse would occur. A full moon occurs usually on the 13th – 15th of a lunar month, with the new moon occurring on the 27th-29th. These are therefore the only possible dates of a lunar and solar eclipse, respectively.

This phenomenon of the solar and lunar eclipses occurring only on the dates of the new moon and full moon, respectively, has been recognised throughout human history. For example, the well-known

Islamic theologian, Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328 C.E), writes on the science of eclipses that:

“Thus Allah has decreed that the sun is eclipsed only in dark nights, and the moon is eclipsed only in moonlight nights. These are the nights when the moon is full, and during which days the keeping of optional fasts is preferable. These nights are the thirteenth, fourteenth and f ifteenth. Hence, the moon is eclipsed only on these nights.”[8]

An eclipse does not occur at every new moon and full moon because for the occurrence of an eclipse it is necessary that the sun, moon and earth should be aligned. If the earth’s orbit around the sun and the moon’s orbit around the earth were in the same plane, there would

outstrip the day. All of them float smoothly in an orbit.”[6]

In the first of these verses a fundamental fact has been mentioned that Almighty God has created all things in pairs. We learn from science that the earth and the moon move around each other and complete a revolution in one month. Therefore, they form a pair. The earth and the moon jointly move around the sun and complete a revolution in one year. Thus, the sun and earth-moon system form another pair. In the solar system there are numerous pairs within pairs. The sun, with all its planets and their satellites, move around the centre of the

Galaxy completing a revolution approxi-mately every two hundred million years. “Holy is He Who created all things in pairs.”

When the moon in the course of its motion around the earth, comes between the sun and earth in such a way that it prevents the light of the sun from reach-ing the earth, we have a solar eclipse. When the earth comes between the sun and the moon in such a way that its shadow falls on the moon, we have a lunar eclipse. Both solar and lunar eclipses occur when the three celestial bodies are in alignment. This is known as ‘syzygy.’

In astronomical terminology, we say that a solar eclipse only occurs at the time of a new moon and a lunar eclipse only occurs at the full moon.[7] This is because


Solar eclipse, space earth moon sun.© Naeblys | shutterstock.com


of the lunar month. At that time the moon cannot be seen at all. The month of the Islamic Calendar (Hijri) begins with the first sighting of the lunar crescent, i.e. when the phase of the moon becomes big enough to be visible. An excellent book dealing with the problem of the first visibility of the lunar crescent, has been written by Dr. Muhammad Ilyas.[12]

With this background understanding we

now turn to the prophecy at hand made by the Prophet Muhammadsa and sup-ported by various religious scriptures.

The Sign of the HeavensAccording to the prophecy; the lunar eclipse would occur on the first night and

have been alignment twice every month, and hence there would have been one lunar eclipse and one solar eclipse every month.[9] In reality, the two orbital planes are inclined to each other by an angle of approximately five degrees, on account of which the maximum number of eclipses in a solar year does not exceed seven (four or five being solar and two or three being lunar). The minimum number of eclipses which can occur in a year is two, both

being solar. For further information, see works on spherical astronomy.[10]

The motion of the moon is quite compli-cated. To a first approximation, the moon moves around the earth in an elliptic orbit, on account of which its distance from the earth and its speed varies within certain limits. When the moon is closest to the earth, it is said to be at ‘perigee.’ The speed of the moon with respect to the earth is greatest when it is at perigee. On account of the gravitational attraction of the sun, the position of the perigee changes in space. Thus, sometimes the moon moves faster in the early part of the month and sometimes it moves faster in the latter part. Likewise, the distance and velocity of the earth-moon pair with respect to the sun also changes within certain limits in accordance with the law of gravitation. As the Holy Qur’an states:

“The sun and the moon run their courses according to a fixed reckoning.”[11]

The changes in the distances and veloci-ties of the bodies have their effects on the dates on which the eclipses can occur.

Astronomers take the time of conjunc-tion (when the sun and moon come together in alignment) as the beginning

Solar and Lunar Eclipses. © Alhovik | shutterstock.com

In reality, the two orbital planes are inclined to each other by an angle of approximately five degrees, on account of which the maximum number of eclipses in a solar year does not exceed seven (four or five being solar and two or three being lunar).

© Photobank gallery | shutterstock.com



day of the same Ramadan.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas of Qadian, India, was born in the year 1835 of the Gregorian Calendar. From early childhood, he displayed a profound love for the Holy Prophetsa; as the salient fea-ture of his personality. He was grieved to see the perpetual attacks against Islam by its critics and the poor spiritual condi-tion of all peoples. He dedicated himself to the service of Islam and prayed fer-vently for the spiritual regeneration of the world. His epoch-making work, Braheen-e-Ahmadiyya, published in five volumes from 1880 to 1908, is a mas-terpiece in which the truth of Islam and the excellences of the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Prophetsa were triumphantly advocated.

Hazrat Ahmadas had the privilege of being the recipient of Divine revelation from 1876 until 1908, when he passed away. In 1882, he received his first rev-elation regarding his appointment as a divine reformer in the following words:

“Allah bless thee O Ahmad. It was not thou who didst throw but it was Allah Who did throw. The Most Gracious One has taught thee the Qur’an so that thou shouldst warn the people whose ancestors have not been

warned and that the way of the guilty ones might become manifest. Proclaim; I have been commissioned and I am the first of the believers.”[16]

He also received the following revelation:

“Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, then will you believe? Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, then will you submit?”[17]

In obedience to Divine command, he declared that he was the Mujaddid (reformer) of the 14th century of the Islamic era in 1884. On March 23rd, 1889, under Divine command; he took the first Oath of Allegiance at Ludhiana, India, and thus formed the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. On the same day 40 individuals swore allegiance to him and solemnly promised that they would give priority to religion and spirituality over all worldly affairs.

Towards the end of 1890 C.E; Hazrat Ahmadas claimed to have been informed by God that the Prophet Jesusas, whose re-advent was awaited by Christians and Muslims alike, had died a natural death and that the prophecy of his second advent was to be fulfilled by a person of Jesus’sas character and spiritual qualities.

the solar eclipse would occur on the mid-dle day in the same month of Ramadan.

But what do these terms mean? Does this mean that on the 1st night of the lunar month; there should be a lunar eclipse and that the solar eclipse should happen on literally the middle of all the days in Ramadan, i.e.: the 15th? A closer study of the hadith in Arabic dispels this interpretation. In the hadith, a particu-lar Arabic word, Qamar, is used for the moon and not the word, Hilal. This is significant because the crescent of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd nights is called Hilal; while Qamar denotes the moon from the fourth night onward.[13] Hence, the wording of the hadith itself unambiguously dispels

the interpretation that the 1st night of Ramadan is meant.

In addition, such an interpretation would violate the words of the Holy Qur’an itself; which states that the sun and moon are fixed in their movements and do not go beyond the limits God has set for them:

“It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. All of them float in an orbit.”[14]

“The sun and the moon (run their courses) according to a fixed reckoning.”[15]

What then is meant by the terms first night and middle day?

As a lunar eclipse can only occur when the moon is full (13th-15th of a lunar month) and a solar eclipse can only occur when the moon is new (27th-29th of a lunar month), this indicates that the meaning of the first night means the first night of the possible nights on which a lunar eclipse can occur and the term the middle day means the middle of the days on which a solar eclipse can occur. This would make the prophecy fulfilled if a lunar eclipse occurred on the 13th night of Ramadan and a solar eclipse occurred on the 28th


Image 2 - The Crescent Moon: This moon is in the first three days of its cycle, thus known in Arabic as “hilal”. After three days old, the moon is referredto as “Qamar”, as in the prophecy.

© Don Williamson | shutterstock.com


He was further informed that he was that long awaited second coming. Among the revelations, which he received to this effect, was the following:

“The Messiah, son of Mary, prophet of Allah, had died and in his spirit thou hast come in accordance with the promise. And the prom-ise of Allah was bound to be fulfilled.”[18]

After receiving this explanation from Almighty God, Hazrat Ahmadas claimed in 1891 to be the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi whose advent was proph-esied by the Holy Prophetsa as well as Jesusas. He asserted that Almighty God had sent him to remove the malaise that had grown between mankind and God and to re-establish human moral-ity. He wrote over 90 books in support of his claim during the course of his life. However, despite the evidences he

presented, many contemporary theolo-gians rejected his claims and he met a storm of fierce opposition, not least from the Muslim leaders of the time.

In his book, Noorul Haq (Light of Truth) Part I, written in Arabic and published in early 1894, Hazrat Ahmadas, the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi, made the following humble supplica-tion to God:

“Judge between us and our people with jus-tice for Thou are the Best of those who judge. O God! Please send thy succour for me from the heavens and help Thy servant in this time of adversity.”[19]

Among the objections raised against him by contemporary theologians was that the prophecy pertaining to the eclipses of the sun and moon had not been

Moon, partial lunar eclipse

© Sarit Wuttisan | shutterstock.com

Table 1 - Solar eclipse dates in the 19th and 20th centuries and their characteristics.

Table 2 - Lunar eclipse dates in the 19th and 20th centuries and their characteristics.


calculations. The calculations do indicate that there was a possibility of sighting the moon on the evening of March 8th, 1894, if meteorological conditions were good; but meteorological conditions were not favourable and the lunar crescent could only be observed in the evening of March 9th from Qadian.[21] The age of the moon at sunset on March 8th was 22.7 hours.[22] As Dr Mohammad Ilyas has stated: “On the basis of recorded accounts, sightings of the moon younger than twenty hours are rare and sightings of more than twenty four hours are not uncommon although the vis-ibility may at times require it to be more than thirty hours old.”[23]

Using images provided by the NASA Five Millennium Eclipse Database, we can see the tracking path of the eclipses across the sky as the people of Qadian would have seen them.[24] Image 3 shows the lunar eclipse of the 13th Ramadan after the sunset of March 21st, 1894, at 14:20TD/GMT (TD refers to “Terrestial Time”, which for our purposes is syn-onymous with GMT), corresponding to approximately 19:50 in Qadian, India. The sunset in Qadian on March 21st, 1894, began at 18:28, making the time of the eclipse squarely in the beginning of the 13th day of Ramadan.[25] Image 4 demonstrates the tracking pattern of

the shadow cast by the solar eclipse of April 6th, 1894. This eclipse began at 03:54TD/GMT, making the time of eclipse in Qadian approximately 09:24 on the same day.

Another method to confirm the dates of the Christian era for these eclipses is to use The Canon of Eclipses or the Nautical Almanac.[26,27] Apart from the almanacs, there was mention of the eclipses in the Indian newspapers of the time, such as Azad and Civil and Military Gazette (see Image 5). Interestingly, mention of the solar eclipse of 1894 can also be found from the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (see Image 6).[28] In this, the authors refer to the solar eclipse of the 6th April, 1894 as “consid-erable” resulting in a “reduction in light (which) was very marked.”

It should be noted that online Hijri-Gregorian converters that are commonly found on the internet vary and have an error margin of 1 day.[29] In addition, many such converters take into account the fact that Hijri days start from sun-set of the previous Gregorian day. Thus, the Hijri date given for any Gregorian day is the day that will begin after sun-set of that day. For example, the March 21st, 1894, would be given as the 13th

fulfilled in his favour. Extraordinarily however, the prayer made in Noorul Haq was answered in an awe-striking man-ner. Later the same year, in 1311 Hijri (1894 C.E), the lunar and solar eclipses occurred over Qadian in India, on the specified dates of Ramadan in fulfil-ment of the grand prophecy of the Holy Prophetsa. The lunar eclipse occurred after sunset on the 13th of Ramadan (March 21st, 1894) and the solar eclipse occurred on Friday, the 28th of Ramadan (April 6th, 1894).

Proof of the dates of the eclipses is reproduced in Tables 1 and 2 below,[20]

demonstrating the dates in the 19th cen-tury and early 20th century of all lunar and solar eclipses during the month of Ramadan, as provided by the Positional Astronomy Centre of the Meteorological Department in Calcutta, India. This data demonstrates that it was only in 1894 and 1895 that the lunar and solar eclipses occur on the 13th and 28th Ramadan respectively, during the lifetime of a claimant to being the Mahdi.

The date of Ramadan depends upon when the lunar crescent was first sighted and this depends on meteoro-logical conditions as well as astronomical


Earth with the Mooon.

© Filipe Frazao | shutterstock.com


Ramadan, 1311, because after sunset on March 21st, the 13th Ramadan would begin. This should be borne in mind for any Hijri-Gregorian calculators used in confirming the dates of the eclipses to avoid miscalculations.

extraordinary Features of the eclipsesSoon after the celestial Signs were witnessed, the Promised Messiah and

Mahdias, wrote the book Noorul Haq (Light of Truth) Part II, which is devoted to an extremely enlightening discussion on the accurate fulfilment of the proph-ecy of the Holy Prophetsa. In this book, he explained in light of divine revelation that the true interpretation of the hadith is that in the time of the Imam Mahdi, the moon would be eclipsed on the first of the three nights in Ramadan, on which a lunar eclipse can occur i.e. on the 13th night, and that the sun would be eclipsed on the middle day out of the days on which a solar eclipse can occur, in the same month of Ramadan, i.e. on the 28th.

The Promised Messiahas drew atten-tion to several properties of the eclipses, which highlight their extraordinary nature. He pointed out that the words ‘first’ and ‘middle’ used in the hadith was fulfilled in two ways: with regard to the dates as well as the times. Not only did the lunar eclipse occur on the first of the three nights but it also occurred in the first part of the night in Qadian; soon after sunset. The solar eclipse not only occurred on the middle day but also occurred towards the forenoon in Qadian. It did not occur early in the morning and it was over before noon. According to Calcutta Standard Time, the lunar eclipse was visible in India in


Image 3 - Lunar eclipse as seen from Earth. The pathway of the Earth’s shadow (small circle) tracking across the moon (red sphere) during the lunar eclipse of March 21st, 1894 at 14:20TD/GMT. Courtesy of NASA Eclipse archive: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

Image 6 - Extract from the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, describing the solar eclipse of the 6th April, 1894 as “marked” with “considerable” meteorological effects. Provided by NASA Astrophysics Data System.

Left: Image 4 - Solar eclipse as seen from Earth. Shadow of the solar eclipse over India and other countries on April 6th, 1894 at 03:54TD/GMT. Courtesy of Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Online Eclipse Portal; http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0241894/.

Above: Image 5 - Newspaper cutting with explanatory text, from the Civil and Military Gazette Lahore, following the solar eclipse of April 6th, 1894.

II. - Annular-Total Eclipse of the Sun 1894 April 06

Circumstances Time (UT) Longitude Latitudeh m o / o /

Eclipse begins; first contact with Earth 1 15.8 E 72 25.8 S 6 31.5

Beginning of southern limit of penumbra 2 00.8 E 63 40.8 S 26 48.4Beginning of southern limit of umbra 2 23.6 E 53 59.3 N 6 31.5Beginning of centre line; central eclipse begins 2 23.9 E 53 53.0 N 6 47.0Beginning of northern limit of umbra 2 24.2 E 53 46.7 N 7 02.5

Central eclipse at local apparent noon 4 27.6 E 113 43.5 N 47 21.8

End of northern limit of umbra 5 23.0 W157 18.4 N 63 00.9End of centre line; central eclipse ends 5 23.3 W157 30.1 N 62 47.3End of southern limit of umbra 5 23.5 W157 41.6 N 62 33.8End of southern limit of penumbra 5 46.7 W172 22.6 N 29 37.0

Eclipse ends; last contact with Earth 6 31.5 W179 33.9 N 49 44.1

C HM Nautical Almanac Office Globe centred on E 107.7o and N 30.8oT = -6.4s∆


both eclipses were visible in the same location - that of the claimant. The Promised Messiahas, exhorted people to ponder over the fact that the sign was manifested in his country. He thus wrote:

“O servants of God, ponder and think. Do you consider it permissible that the Mahdi should be born in the countries of Arabia and Syria and his Sign should be manifested in our country; and you know that the wisdom of God does not separate the Sign from the person for whom the Sign is meant. Then how could it be possible that the Mahdi should be in the East but his sign should be in the West? And this should be sufficient for you if you are really seekers after truth.”[32]

A Miracle, Repeated“The sun will be eclipsed twice in Ramadan

before the advent of Mahdi.”[33]

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”[34]

The above narrations indicate a mani-festation of this sign a second time. In the following year of 1895 C.E, the lunar and solar eclipses again occurred in the month of Ramadan on the 11th March and the 26th March respectively (see Images 7 and 8). Whilst the eclipses of 1894 occurred in the Eastern hemi-sphere, the eclipses of 1895 occurred in the Western hemisphere, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jesusas regarding his second advent, as set out above. These eclipses were not visible from Qadian in India, yet when the eclipses occurred

the evening between 7 pm and 9:30 pm, and the solar eclipse was visible in India in the forenoon between 9 am and 11 am.

Aided by divine revelation, the Promised Messiah and Mahdias elucidated the deeper meaning of the hadith as follows:

“So the correct interpretation and the true meaning of the expression ‘the lunar eclipse will occur in the first night of Ramadan’ are that it will occur in the first of the three full-moon nights and you know the expression ‘white nights.’ In addition to this there is also a hint that when the lunar eclipse occurs in the first full-moon night, it will occur in the beginning of the night and not after a long time, as will be clear to an enlight-ened person. And the lunar eclipse did occur accordingly and many had seen it in this country.”[30]

With regard to the solar eclipse, he stated:

“The saying that the sun will be eclipsed in the ‘middle’ implies that the solar eclipse will manifest itself in such a way that it will divide the days of the eclipse into two halves (The word nisf used in the had-ith and translated as ‘middle’, also means ‘half ’). It will occur in the second day of the eclipse and its time will not exceed the first

half of the day because that is the limit of the half. So just as Almighty God ordained that the lunar eclipse should occur in the first night, so also He ordained that the solar eclipse should occur in the eclipse days in the time specified by ‘half ’. So it happened as prophesied. Almighty God does not reveal His secrets to anyone except to those whom He chooses for the reformation of the world. Hence there is no doubt that this hadith is from the Messenger of God, peace and bless-ings of Allah be upon him, who is the best of all messengers.”[31]

It may also be noted that both the lunar and solar eclipses were visible from Qadian, India. A lunar eclipse can be seen from more than half the earth’s sphere, but a solar eclipse is visible from a much smaller area. It often happens that a solar eclipse is only seen from a sparsely populated area or over an ocean. The solar eclipse of April 6th, 1894, was visible from a vast area of Asia includ-ing India is shown by Oppolzer’s map (Chart 148), the Nautical Almanac of 1894 as well as Image 4 above from Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac.

The conjunction of the prophesied eclipses occurring at the specified times, dates and month, is made all the more extraordinary when one considers that

© Harm Kruyshaar | shutterstock.com



Qur’an thus states:

“He asks: When will be the day of Resurrection? When the eye is dazzled, And the moon is eclipsed, And the sun and the moon are brought together, On that day man will say, whither to escape?”[37]

The above verses clearly speak of a lunar eclipse followed by the coming together of the sun and moon in ‘conjunction’ i.e.: a solar eclipse. The hadith of Dare Qutani gives valuable details about the

prophesied eclipses but the root of the prophecy is in the Holy Qur’an itself. From this angle then, objections against the authenticity of the narration are meaningless for the Holy Qur’an has confirmed it.

It is worth mentioning in regards to this Qur’anic verse, that the prophesied eclipses may be argued to occur at the destruction of the universe, as the eclipses are given as a reply to the question “When will be the day of Resurrection?” This however, is not a valid interpretation, as explained by the Promised Messiahas:

“It must not be supposed that the sign indi-cated here is one among the events of the Day of Judgement; because the eclipses referred to in the verse depend for their occurrence upon the existence of this earth. They are the result of certain definite and well-known circum-stances and occur at fixed times and stated periods. In the case of the eclipses, the circum-stances are such that after they have ceased, the sun and moon will return to their former condition. On the other hand, the phenom-ena which will be manifested on the last day are such as will come to pass only after the universe has been completely upset … In short, the eclipses depend for their occurrence, upon the existing order of our system and from the beginning of the universe, form a

in the Western hemisphere, the dates in Qadian were the 13th and the 28th of Ramadan, respectively. Image 7 shows how the lunar eclipse of the 11th March occurred in the early hours of the morn-ing at 03:39TD/GMT. The 13th day of Ramadan had already begun with the sunset of the 10th March. Image 8 shows that the solar eclipse of March 26th, 1895, occurred in the morning at 10:10TD/GMT which corresponds to the 28th day of Ramadan in India, which had already begun with the sunset of March 25th. Thus, this remarkable prophecy was accurately fulfilled a second time.

The Promised Messiahas also made mention of these eclipses in his book Haqiqatul Wahi:

“In accordance with another hadith, these eclipses occurred twice in Ramadan, first in this country and then in America, and on both occasions it occurred on the same dates. Since at the time of the eclipses there was no claimant on earth of Mahdi Ma’ud (Promised Mahdi) and since nobody else declared these eclipses as his sign and pub-lished hundreds of pamphlets and books in Urdu, Persian and Arabic, this heavenly sign is for me. Another proof of this is the fact twelve years before this sign occurred, Almighty God had informed me that such

a sign would occur and this information, which is stated in Braheen-e-Ahmadiyya was announced to hundreds of thousands of people before the sign was manifested.”[35]

Sir Isaac Newton had discovered the law of gravitation in the 17th century C.E. Detailed astronomical calculations of the eclipses were not possible before this dis-covery. Despite this, our lord and master, the Holy Prophetsa made such a prophecy that could not have been possible without knowledge from the Omniscient God. One cannot conceive of a better heavenly sign than this for indicating the advent of the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdias. It is irrefutable, for it is beyond the reach of human concoction.

“So blessed is Allah, the Best of creators.”[36]

How Authentic is the Prophecy? A common objection against the hadith of the sun and moon eclipses is that it is an inauthentic hadith, with no evidence of it having originated from the Holy Prophetsa.

The first point is that the root of the prophecy lies in the Holy Qur’an. It is well known that the time of the advent of the Promised Messiah and Mahdias is also known as the ‘Latter Days.’ The Holy


Sir Isaac Newton, who elucidated the law of gravity and made possible detailed astronomical calculations.


fulfilled because God has borne witness to its truth since except God nobody has power over the unknown. The Holy Qur’an says: ‘He (Allah) is the Knower of the unseen, and He reveals not His secrets to anyone, except to whom He chooses, namely a Messenger of His.’ i.e. only the Messengers of Allah can narrate the unseen in a perfect way; oth-ers cannot be of this rank. Here Messengers include Rasool, Nabi, Muhaddath and Mujaddid.”[39, 40]

When the prophecy in the hadith has been fulfilled, the criticism against the narrators thus loses significance. The Promised Messiahas has discussed this point further in other works also.[41]

In regards to whether the hadith is in itself inauthentic one should note that Hazrat Ali Bin Umar Albaghdadi Ad Dare-Qutani, the compiler of the had-ith, was a very respected saint and was

part of its phenomena. It therefore follows that the lunar and solar eclipses mentioned in the Holy Qur’an are only the harbingers of the last day and not the sign of the last day having already begun.”[38]

The second proof of the authenticity of this hadith, was elucidated by the Promised Messiahas also:

“That hadith is quite correct and is recorded

not only in Dar Qutani but also in other books of hadith of both Shia and Sunni sects. Furthermore, this principle has been accepted by the scholars of hadith that if a prophecy of any hadith has been fulfilled, then even if, for the sake of argument, that hadith was earlier considered as false, the hadith will be regarded as true after the prophecy has been

Imaginary space and astromony

banners with sun eclipse


Image 7 - Lunar eclipse as seen from Earth. Pathway of the Earth’s shadow tracking across the Moon during the lunar eclipse of March 11th, 1895 at 03:39TD/GMT. Courtesy of NASA Eclipse archive: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.

Image 8 - Solar eclipse as seen from earth. Shadow of the solar eclipse over the Western hemisphere on March 26th, 1895 at 10:10TD/GMT. Courtesy of Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Online Eclipse Portal; http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0221895/

II. - Partial Eclipse of the Sun 1895 March 26

Circumstances Time (UT) Longitude Latitudeh m o / o /

Eclipse begins; first contact with Earth 8 38.8 W 39 33.0 N 31 20.3

Beginning of southern limit of penumbra 8 57.5 W 43 52.1 N 23 31.4

Greatest eclipse (magnitude = 0.3534) 10 09.6 W 64 56.4 N 61 11.8

End of southern limit of penumbra 11 21.1 E 115 33.1 N 81 11.0

Eclipse ends; last contact with Earth 11 39.9 E 165 26.9 N 87 38.0

C HM Nautical Almanac Office Globe centred on W 32.8o and N 60.2oT = -6.4s∆



Hazrat Imam Baqar. Muhammad Bin Ali is considered as Hazrat Imam Baqar in Iqtirabus Saat by Nawab Nur-Ul-Hassan Khan (p.1061). In this connection it may also be noted that Allama Shaikh Shahabuddin Ibn Al Hajar-al Hashimi wrote:

“Muhammad Bin Ali, an elite among the Ahle-Bait, narrates that there will be two signs for Imam Mahdi which have never been shown to mankind since the creation of the heavens and the earth. One of these is the eclipse of the moon on the first of its nights in the month of Ramadhan, and the eclipse of the sun on the middle of the days.”[43]

Finally, it should be noted that many scholars and saints of Islam have writ-ten about the future fulfilment of this prophecy. One particularly outstand-ing example is that of Hazrat Sheikh Muhammad ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Pahaarwi, a well-known Indian saint of Multan. In his works he writes of being informed by revelation that the sign of the eclipses would be fulfilled in the year 1311 of the Hijri calendar.[44] This corresponds to 1894 C.E – the same year in which the prophecy was fulfilled for the Promised Messiahas.

Are the dates of the eclipse Correct?In this article it has been demonstrated that the dates of the lunar and solar eclipses should be taken as the 13th, 14th, 15th and 27th, 28th, 29th respectively of the Islamic calendar. Dr David McNaughton has opined that lunar eclipses can occur on 13th, 14th and 15th and solar eclipses on 28th and 29th and that only under special circumstances can a solar eclipse occur on the 27th of the Islamic month.[45]

Also, under special circumstances, a lunar eclipse can occur on the 12th. Hence, the dates of the eclipses should be taken as 13th, 14th, 15th and 28th, 29th or as 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 27th, 28th and 29th.

Perhaps the author is the first person to point out that it is possible to observe a lunar eclipse on the 12th. On the other hand, it seems to be well known from observational records that a solar eclipse can occur on the 27th. Two examples taken from authoritative books in which the 27th is considered as one of the dates for the solar eclipse are presented below:

Firstly, Nawab Siddeeq Hasan Khan writes that according to astronomers a lunar eclipse does not take place on any date other than 13th, 14th and 15th; and in the same way a solar eclipse does not take place on any date other than 27th, 28th and 29th.[46]

scrupulously careful in recording the sayings of the Holy Prophetsa. Hazrat Shah Abdul Aziz, Muhaddith of Delhi, another eminent elite of Islam, com-ments about Imam Dare-Qutani in his book, Nukhbatul Fikr:

“Imam Dare-Qutani once said, ‘O residents of Baghdad. Do not even think that any narrator would be able to refer any false or incorrect statement to the Holy Prophet of Islamsa during my life time.’”[42]

Some individuals have expressed doubts as to whether the narrator really was

…there will be two signs for Imam Mahdi which have never been shown to mankind since the creation of the heavens and the earth. One of these is the eclipse of the moon on the first of its nights in the month of Ramadhan, and the eclipse of the sun on the middle of the days.

© NikoNomad | shutterstock.com



In response to this it should be noted that the hadith does not merely imply that eclipses did not occur on the 13th and 28th Ramadan ever before, but it implies that such eclipses never happened before as signs. The Promised Messiahas wrote in this regard:

“The hadith of Dar Qutani does not say at all that solar and lunar eclipses did not occur ever before, but it does clearly say that such eclipses never occurred earlier as Signs, because the word Takoona is used which denotes the feminine gender; this implies that such a Sign was never manifested before. If it was meant that such eclipses never occurred before, Yakoona which denotes the masculine gender was needed and not Takoona which denotes the femi-nine gender. It is clear from this that the reference is to the two signs because signs are of the feminine gender. Hence if any-body thinks that lunar and solar eclipses have occurred many times before (as signs), it is his responsibility to show the claim-ant to Mahdi who declared the solar and lunar eclipses as his signs and this proof should be certain and conclusive and this can only happen if a book of the claimant is produced who claimed to be the Mahdi Ma’ud (Promised Mahdi) and had writ-ten that the lunar and solar eclipses which occurred in Ramadan on the dates specified

in Dare Qutani are the Signs of his truth.

In short, we are not concerned with the mere occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses even if they had occurred thousands of times. As a sign this has happened at the time of a claimant only once and the hadith has proved its authenticity and truth through its fulfilment at the time of the claimant to Mahdi.”[48]

It is noteworthy that although lunar and solar eclipses have occurred on the spec-ified dates many times; the occurrence of these dates from a specified place is quite rare. A lunar eclipse can be seen from more than half the earth’s sphere, but a solar eclipse is visible from a much smaller area. It often happens that a solar eclipse is only seen from a sparsely popu-lated area or from an ocean. The solar eclipse of the April 6th, 1894 was visible from a vast area of Asia, including India.

The calculations made by Professor G.M. Ballabh and the author at the Department of Astronomy, Osmania University, Hyderabad, indicate that from the time of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, up to the present day, pairs of eclipses have occurred in the month of Ramadhan 109 times. Of these only three times were both eclipses visible

Second ly, Professor F. Richard Stephenson, who has devoted consider-able effort to the study of ancient records of eclipses, writes:

“In the Islamic calendar, lunar eclipses con-sistently take place on or about the 14th day of the month and solar eclipses around the 28th day.”[47]

Hence, considering the dates as 13th, 14th and 15th for the lunar eclipse and 27th, 28th and 29th for the solar eclipse for interpreting the prophecy in 1894 at the time of the claimant, is quite reason-able. The purpose of the prophecy was to help people recognise the time of the Promised Messiahas and it has served the purpose very well.

It may also be noted that the Promised

Messiahas claimed on the basis of divine revelation that the prophecy has been fulfilled in his person. He declared on oath that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdias.

In order to understand the hadith on the basis of our present knowledge we should note that the time between the astronomical new moon and full moon varies between 13.9 days and 15.6 days, as mentioned by Dr McNaughton. Hence, if a lunar eclipse occurs on the 12th of a month, the solar eclipse cannot occur on the 28th of the month because in that case the interval between the new moon and the full moon would exceed 15.6 days. If the hadith had not laid any restriction on the date of the solar eclipse, the first date of the lunar eclipse may have been considered as 12th. But since the hadith has specified the date of the solar eclipse, the first night in the hadith has to be interpreted as the first of the well-known three nights, i.e. the 13th.

Have eclipses in Ramadan Occurred Before?Another issue that is sometimes raised is that lunar and solar eclipses have occurred on the 13th and 28th of Ramadan thou-sands of times whereas the hadith states that these events had not occurred before.

It may also be noted that the Promised Messiahas claimed on the basis of divine revelation that the prophecy has been fulfilled in his person. He declared on oath that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdias.



do not have any evidence of any claim-ant who put forward the testimony of eclipses in support of his claim.

In an article entitled “Fraud of Eclipses” by Idare Dawato-Irshad, the author has mentioned the names of Saleh Bin Tarif, Mirza Ali Muhammad Bab, Hussain Ali Bahaullah, Mahdi Sudani, and Dr Alexander Dowie. The author states that they could have claimed signs of eclipses, though he gives no written evidence of their claims.

With regard to the above persons we make the following comments on the basis of our calculations:

Saleh Bin Tarif claimed to be the Mahdi in 125 AH and ruled until 174 AH. During the period 125 AH to 174 AH, pairs of eclipses occurred in Ramadan in 126 AH (744 CE) 127 AH (745 CE), 170 AH (787 CE) 171 AH (788 CE). We studied the occurrence of pairs of eclipses in Ramadan with respect to Morocco, the place of the claimant. We found that in none of these years was the solar eclipse visible from Morocco. The lunar eclipses were visible in 745, 766, 787, and 788 CE.

Mirza Ali Muhammad Bab claimed to be the Mahdi in 1264 AH (1848 CE) and was killed on 28 Shaban 1266 AH (9th July 1850CE). During the period 1848 to 1850 CE there was neither a lunar eclipse nor a solar eclipse in any part of the world.

Hussain Ali Bahaullah did not claim to be the Mahdi. He claimed to be a mani-festation of God in 1867. He died in May 1892. During the period 1867-1892, we do not have any year in which both lunar and solar eclipses occurred in Ramadan and were visible in Iran. In 1289 AH (1872 CE) both eclipses occurred in Ramadan but neither of them were vis-ible there. In 1290 AH (1873 CE), both eclipses occurred in Ramadan but only the lunar eclipse was visible on the 14th Ramadhan.

Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan claimed to be the Mahdi in 1298 AH (1881 CE) and he died on the 9th Ramadhan 1302 AH (22nd June 1885). During the period 1881-1885, neither a lunar eclipse nor a solar eclipse occurred in Ramadan in any part of the world.

Dr Alexander Dowie did not claim to be the Mahdi. He was a Christian reli-gious leader and a self-declared enemy

from Qadian on the specified dates, i.e. on the 13th and 28th of Ramadhan. Hence, the eclipses occurring on speci-fied dates at a specified place is quite rare (for details see Review of Religions, June 1992 and September 1994).

In regards to the relationship between a claimant and the signs, it is often argued that the signs should occur before the claimant appears, not after. The Promised Messiahas has given valuable guidance in this matter. He writes:

“The hadith does not imply that before the advent of the Mahdi there would be eclipses of the moon and the sun in the month of the Ramadan, because in that case it was pos-sible that after seeing the lunar eclipse and

the solar eclipse in the month of Ramadan, any impostor could claim to be the Promised Mahdi and the matter would become ambiguous since it is easy to claim after-wards. If after the eclipses there are many claimants it is clear that the eclipses cannot testify in favour of anyone.”[49]

“From ancient times, this has been the way of God that a Sign is manifested when the Messengers of God are treated as liars and are regarded as impostors.”[50]

Have eclipses Occurred in Support of Other Claimants?The fifth common objection is that the eclipses have occurred on the 13th and the 28th Ramadan at the time of other claimants also.

Professor G.M. Ballabh and the author investigated the dates of eclipses that occurred in Ramadan at the time of 25 other claimants to the title of ‘Mahdi.’ The dates depend upon the place of observation. We calculated the dates with respect to the place of the claimant. We found that for none of the claimants can we definitely say that after their claim a lunar eclipse occurred at their locations on the 13th and a solar eclipse on the 28th, within the same month of Ramadan, dur-ing their lifetimes.[51] Furthermore, we

Mirza Ali Muhammad Bab claimed to be the Mahdi in 1264 AH (1848 CE) and was killed on 28 Shaban 1266 AH (9th July 1850CE). During the period 1848 to 1850 CE there was neither a lunar eclipse nor a solar eclipse in any part of the world.



also declared on oath that he was the Promised Divine Messenger and that the lunar and solar eclipses were divine signs for him. He stated as follows:

“I swear by God in Whose Hand is my life that He has manifested this sign in the sky to testify my truthfulness, and He manifested it at a time when the Maulvis (theologi-ans) named me the Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the greatest liar, infidel and even the great-est infidel. This is the same sign regarding which twenty years ago I was promised in Braheen- e-Ahmadiyya, namely: ‘Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you then believe? Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you then accept?’ It should be remembered that although there are many proofs from Almighty God for vindicating my truthful-ness and more than a hundred prophecies have been fulfilled to which hundreds of thousands of people are witnesses, but in this revelation, this prophecy has been mentioned specifically. I have been given such a sign which was not given to anybody else from the time of Adam to the present time. In short I can stand in the sacred precincts of the Ka’abah and swear that this sign is for testifying to my truth.”[54]

This sign verifies the truth of not only the Promised Messiahas, but also the Holy

Prophetsa from whose blessed tongue this remarkable prophecy was made. The resplendent manner in which these signs have been fulfilled in support of these beloved ones of Allah Almighty is encapsulated beautifully in the words of the Holy Qur’an:

“Nay, We hurl the truth at falsehood, and it breaks its head, and lo, it perishes. And woe be to you for that which you ascribe to God.”[55]

The original articles from which this article was edited together can be found at the following sites: Professor Saleh Muhammad Alladin, Comments on the Article Entitled “Flaws in the Ahmadiyya Eclipse Theory” by Dr David McNaughton: https://www.alislam.org/topics/eclipses/response-to-mcnaughton.html Professor Saleh Muhammad Alladin, The Truth About Eclipses; The Review of Religions, May-June, 1999: https://www.alislam.org/library/articles/new/TruthAboutEclipses.html Professor Saleh Muhammad Alladin; The Advent of the Promised Mahdi and the Lunar and Solar Eclipses: https://www.alislam.org/library/sign.html

of Islam. In 1903 CE he claimed to be the harbinger of the Messiah. He died in 1907. During the period 1903-1907, there was no eclipse of the sun or the moon in Ramadan in any part of the world.

ConclusionThe above are some examples of how allegations are easily made. When, how-ever, the facts are examined in detail, it emerges clearly that the Promised Messiahas is the only claimant for whom

the sun and moon bore testimony. That there were to be false claimants is indi-cated in the words of the hadith itself, when the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, refers to the Mahdi as “our Mahdi.” The indication in this is that there would also be false Mahdi’s who would ascribe themselves to the Holy Prophetsa, but who would not belong to him.

The Promised Messiahas, summarised this sign most wonderfully when he wrote that:

“As a matter of fact, since Adam to the pre-sent time, nobody ever made a prophecy like this. The prophecy has four aspects: (1) the occurrence of the lunar eclipse on the first of the eclipse nights. (2) the occurrence of the solar eclipse on the middle of the eclipse days, (3) the occurrence of both in the same month of Ramadan and (4) the presence of the claimant who has been rejected. Hence if the greatness of this prophecy is denied, then show a parallel to it in the world, and until a parallel cannot be found, this proph-ecy ranks foremost among all those prophecies to which the verse ‘He reveals not His secrets to anyone’ can be applied, because it is stated here (in the hadith) that from the time of Adam to the end, it has no parallel.”[52, 53]

The Promised Messiah and Mahdias


As a matter of fact, since Adam to the present time, nobody ever made a prophecy like this. The prophecy has four aspects: (1) the occurrence of the lunar eclipse on the first of the eclipse nights. (2) the occurrence of the solar eclipse on the middle of the eclipse days, (3) the occurrence of both in the same month of Ramadan and (4) the presence of the claimant who has been rejected.


https://www.alislam.org/library/sign.html

https://www.alislam.org/library/sign.html

as Signs of the Promised Messiah, Review of Religious, July 1987.

21. Professor Saleh Muhammad Alladin, Lunar and Solar Eclipses as Signs of the Promised Messiah, Review of Religious, July 1987.

22. The Review of Religions, September 1994.

23. Mohammad Ilyas, A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calculations of Islamic Calendar, Times & Qibla (Kuala Lumpur: Berita Publishing, 1984).

24. See: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html or http://moonblink.info/Eclipse/search; the coordinates of Qadian (31.82N, 75.39E), elevation (250m) and time zone (GMT+05.30) require inputting.

25. Calculated through use of Solar Calculator (accessed: 03/07/15): http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/ using the coordinates of Qadian (31.82N, 75.39E), elevation (250m) and time zone (GMT+05.30).

26. Prof T. R Von Oppolzer, Canon of Eclipses (Dover Publications: New York, 1962).

27. Nautical Almanac, (London, 1894).

28. C. M Smith, Sun, Annular Eclipse of, 1894 April 6, observed at Madras; Monthly Notices of

the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 55, p. 76.

29. http://www.islamicfinder.org/hijri_intro.php , accessed 03/07/15.

30. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Noorul Haq, Part II, p. 201.

31. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Noorul Haq, Part II, p. 204.

32. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Noorul Haq, Part II, p. 215-216.

33. Abdul Wahab Sherani, Mukhtasir Tazkira Al-Qurtabi, p. 148.

34. Matthew, 24:27 (King James Bible).

35. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Haqiqatul Wahi, p. 195.

36. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Mu’minun, Verse 15.

37. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Qiyamah, Verse 11.

38. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Najamal Huda, Ruhani Khazain, Vol.14, p. 117-120.

39. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 28.

40. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Aiyamus Suleh,

endnotes

1. Matthew, 24:29 (King James Version).

2. Surdas; Sursagar “Ocean of Melody.”

3. Sri Dasam Granth, p.107, line 9: http://www.sridasam.org/dasam?c=t ; accessed 02/07/15

4. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Dahr, Verse 7-10.

5. Sunan Darqutni, Kitabul Eidain, Chapter: Salat-ul-kasoof-ul khasoof wa haitahuma.

6. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Ya Sin, Verse 37-41.

7. Robin M. Green, ed., Spherical Astronomy, Chapter 18: Eclipses and Occultations (Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 439.

8. Fatawa Sheikh ul Islam Taqi ud Din, Chapter Khasuf ul Qamar, Vol. 1.

9. Robin M. Green, ed., Spherical Astronomy, Chapter 18: Eclipses and Occultations (Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 439.

10. Robin M. Green, ed., Spherical Astronomy, First Edition edition (Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

11. Holy Qur’an, Al-Rahman, Verse 6.

12. Mohammad Ilyas, A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calculations of Islamic Calendar, Times & Qibla (Kuala Lumpur: Berita Publishing, 1984).

13. Aqrabul Mawarid, Vol. 2.

14. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Ya Sin, Verse 41.

15. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Rahman, Verse 6.

16. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 3, pp. 238–242 subfootnote 1; Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 1, pp. 265–268, subfoot-note 1.

17. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 3, pp. 238–242 subfootnote 1; Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 1, pp. 265–268 subfoot-note 1.

18. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Izala-e-Auham, pp. 561–562; Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 3, p. 402.

19. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Noorul Haq Part 1; Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 8, p. 6.

20. Provided by: Positional Astronomy Centre of the Meteorological Department in Calcutta, India, first reproduced in: Professor Saleh Muhammad Alladin. Lunar and Solar Eclipses



Ruhani Khazain, Vol.14, p. 419.

41. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Zameema Anjame Atham, Ruhani Khazain, Vol.11, pp. 333-334.

42. Nukhbatul Fikr, Footnote p.52.

43. Allama Shaikh Shahabuddin Ibn Al Hajar-al Hashimi, Kitabul Fataw Al Hadeesiyya, p.31.

44. Badr, 14th March 1907, p. 8.

45. See: http://www.dlmcn.com/qadsum.html#beg , accessed 03/07/15.

46. Nawab Siddique Hasan Khan, Hujajal Kirama, p. 344.

47. Professor Richard Stephenson, Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation (Cambridge University Press: 1997), 436.

48. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Chashma-e-Marifat, Ruhani Khazain, Vol.23, pp. 329-330.

49. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra Anwarul Islam, Ruhani Khazain, Vol.9, p.48.

50. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Tohfae Golarviya, Ruhani Khazain, Vol.17, p.142.

51. Al-Fazal International, London, 12th June

1998.

52. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 27.

53. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Tohfa-e-Golarviya, p. 29.

54. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadra, Tohfa-e-Golarbiyya, p. 53.

55. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Anbiya’, Verse 19.

The English Rendering of the 5 Volume Commentary of the Holy Qur’an One of the most comprehensive commentaries of the Holy Qur’an ever written.

Commentary by Hadhrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad(ra)

Read it online at: http://www.alislam.org/quran/Or Purchase the print version at: http://store.alislam.org/

© A

MA

GA

LLER

Y U

K

Your feedback is important to us

write to us with comments, feedback and suggestions at info@Reviewof Religions.org

52 The Review of Religions | augusT 2015

The

Promised Messiahas

& imam mahdi( g u i d e d o n e )

founder of the review of religions

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas

The Holy Qur’an Regarding the eclipse

The root of the prophecy in fact lies in the Holy Qur’an:

He asks: When will be the day of Resurrection? When the eye is dazzled, And the moon is eclipsed, And the sun and the moon are brought together, On that day man will say, ‘Whither to escape?’[1]

Quotes of the Promised Messiahas Regarding the eclipse

We are not concerned with how often solar and lunar eclipses have occurred in the month of Ramadan from the beginning of the world till today. Our aim is only to mention that from the time man has appeared in this world, solar and lunar eclipses have occurred as Signs only in my age for me. Prior to me, no one had this circumstance that on the one hand he claimed to be Mahdi Ma’ud (Promised Reformer) and on the other, in the month of Ramadan, on the appointed dates, lunar and solar eclipses occurred and he declared the eclipses as signs in his favour. The Hadith of Darqutani does not say at all that solar and lunar eclipses did not occur ever before, but it does clearly say that such eclipses never occurred earlier as Signs, because the word Takoona is used which denotes feminine gender; this implies that such a Sign was never manifested before. If it was meant that such eclipses never occurred before, Yakoona which denotes masculine gender was needed and not Takoona which denotes feminine gender. It is clear from this that the reference is to the two signs because signs are feminine gender. Hence if anybody thinks that lunar

and solar eclipses have occurred many times before, it is his respon-sibility to show the claimant to Mahdi who declared the solar and lunar eclipses as his signs and this proof should be certain and con-clusive and this can only happen if a book of the claimant is produced who claimed to be Mahdi Ma’ud and had written that the lunar and solar eclipses which occurred in Ramadan on the dates specified in Darqutani are the Signs of his truth. In short, we are not concerned with the mere occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses even if they had occurred thousands of times. As a sign this has happened at the time of a claimant only once and the Hadith has proved its authenticity and truth through its fulfillment at the time of the claimant to Mahdi.[2]

O servants of God, ponder and think. Do you consider it permissible that the Mahdi should be born in the countries of Arabia and Syria and his Sign should be manifested in our country; and you know that the wisdom of God does not separate the sign from the person for whom the sign is meant. Then how could it be possible that the Mahdi should be in the East but his sign should be in the West? And this should be sufficient for you if you are really seekers after truth.[3]

The Hadith does not imply that before the advent of the Mahdi there would be eclipses of the moon and the sun in the month of the Ramadan, because in that case it was possible that after seeing the lunar eclipse and the solar eclipse in the month of Ramadan, any impostor could claim to be the Promised Mahdi and the matter would become

ambiguous since it is easy to claim afterwards. If after the eclipses there are many claimants it is clear that the eclipses cannot testify anyone.[4]

From ancient time, this has been the way of God that a Sign is manifested when the Messengers of God are treated as liars and are regarded as impostors.[5]

In my age only, in the month of Ramadan, eclipses of the sun and the moon occurred; in my age only, in accordance with the authen-tic sayings of the Holy Prophetsa and the Holy Qur’an and earlier Books, there was the plague all over the country, and in my age only, a new mode of transport, namely railways came into existence and in my age only, as per prophecies, terrible earthquakes came. Does not then righteousness demand that one should not be bold in denying me. Look! I swear by Almighty God and say that thousands of signs for establishing my truth have been manifested, are being manifested and will be manifested. If this were a man’s plan, never would he have enjoyed such support and help.[6]

endnotes

1. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Qiyamah, Verses 7-11.

2. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Chashma-e-Marifat, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 23, pp. 329-330.

3. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Noorul Haq, Part 2.

4. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Anwarul Islam, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 9, p. 48.

5. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Tohfa e Golarviya, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 17, p. 142.

6. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Haqiqatul Wahi, p. 45; Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 22, p. 48.

In short, we are not concerned with the mere occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses even if they had occurred thousands of times. As a sign this has happened at the time of a claimant only once…

The importance placed by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas on the content of his prophecies can-

not be understated. He viewed them as part of the historic fabric of religious truths and averred that only through the insights which are revealed by God from ‘behind the veil of the unseen,’ can the truth of anyone claiming to be a divine

prophet or messenger be recognised. It is firmly within this context that the following study is situated. This article seeks to examine Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas prophecy of the plague and to closely analyse its salient features and the extent of its fulfilment within the param-eters specified by the prophecy itself.

The origins of the plague prophecy can be traced back to one of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas earliest and most well known revelations. Whilst writing his first book, Barahin-i-Ahmadiyya (The Proofs of Ahmadiyyat), he asserted that God had divinely disclosed to him the words, “A Warner came to the world but the world did not accept him. But God will accept him and manifest his truth through powerful assaults.”[1] This was revealed before Hazrat Ahmadas had made any claim to being the Messiah or a prophet of God. As the passage of time would show, this revelation formed the basis of not only the prophecy in question, but all of Hazrat Ahmad’sas punitive pre-dictions. It also alludes to several key aspects of the plague prophecy. Firstly, in the period leading up to the outbreak, Hazrat Ahmadas would not only have made a divinely inspired claim, but would also be engaged in his prophetic mission. Secondly, that the epidemic would have its origins in the rejection and denial of the Promised Messiahas. Thirdly, that God would punish the people for their actions and manifest the truth of the Promised Messiahas through powerful assaults, in this case the plague. More implicit references to the outbreak of the disease appeared well after Hazrat Ahmad’sas claim to be the Messiah.

The earliest intimation he received of this was in 1893, when he prophesied the death of one of his fiercest opponents, Lekh Ram.[2] In a letter dated June 14, 1903, he wrote “[At that time] it was disclosed to me that shortly after he [Lekh Ram] dies, Punjab would be afflicted with plague.”[3] This is an extremely important and crucial source, for it is the only refer-ence to the plague mentioned by Hazrat Ahmad,as which predates the spread of the disease. All other historical source material is from 1898 onwards.

It was in February 1898, that Hazrat Ahmadas made his first public announce-ment regarding the plague, and foretold its spread throughout the Punjab. When

The Plague by Mirza Usman Ahmad, Rabwah, Pakistan

Yersinia pestis bacteria which caused Bubonic Plague.

© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

This article seeks to examine Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas prophecy of the plague and to closely analyse its salient features and the extent of its fulfilment within the parameters specified by the prophecy itself.


Foreign plague commissions also arrived in India to statistically and scientifically investigate the causes of it and identify ways of combating it.[5]

Despite these circumstances, the Promised Messiahas forcefully prophesied that only divine intervention could tame the devastation and that the pestilence would soon wreak havoc in the Punjab. He wrote,

“Today, Sunday, February 6, 1898, I saw in a dream that God’s angels were planting black trees in different parts of the Punjab. Those trees were very ugly, black in colour, terrifying and of small size. I asked some of those who were planting them: ‘What kind of trees are these?’ They answered: ‘These are trees of the plague which is about to spread in the country.’ It remained unclear to me whether it was said that the plague would spread during the coming winter or the winter after, but it was a terrible sign which I saw.”[6]

In the same announcement, the Promised Messiahas also referred to another revela-tion. He wrote,

“Before this [dream] I also received a rev-elation about the plague, that is: Until the people do not cure themselves of the disease

of their sins, the epidemic of this world will not be alleviated.”[7]

He added that because this was a proph-ecy of warning it could be averted if the people repented of their wrongdoing and turned to piety and virtue.

Several months later, on May 2nd, the day of Eid-ul-Adha, the Promised Messiahas held a ‘plague meeting’ for his follow-ers in which he “dealt with the objections raised against the measures of segrega-tion and isolation which the authorities prescribed, explained their necessity and usefulness and emphasised the importance of cooperation with the authorities.”[8,9] Again, he also elucidated that the disease was a divine punishment for the precipitous rise of sin and evil among people of all faiths and that the only way to put off the devastation would be to seek repentance from God.

Further elaborating on the causes of the plague, in light of one his Arabic revela-tions of 1902, the Promised Messiahas identified one principle reason for the disease as being the rejection of God’s messenger and the various attempts to cause him harm.

He explained:

this announcement was published, the plague had already arrived in India, starting in Bombay in 1896 and then spreading to its surroundings, how-ever; it had not yet reached epidemic proportions.

The occurrence of the disease greatly perturbed the governing British adminis-tration, who made “vigorous and energetic” efforts from the outset of the outbreak to curtail its spread.[4] There was a real fear among the ruling elite that a wide-spread epidemic could threaten the empire, Indian social order and interna-tional trade. This resulted in wide scale state intervention to control the disease, including measures such as quarantine, travel restrictions, isolation camps for the sick and the evacuation of entire towns.

Plague Hospital, Mumbai.© Clifton and Co., Bombay, India.

“Today, Sunday, February 6, 1898, I saw in a dream that God’s angels were planting black trees in different parts of the Punjab. Those trees were very ugly, black in colour, terrifying and of small size. I asked some of those who were planting them: ‘What kind of trees are these?’ They answered: ‘These are trees of the plague which is about to spread in the country.’


who are obedient to me and who on account of their righteousness have devoted them-selves to me; will be saved from the plague… However, anyone who does not follow me absolutely is not part [of my Jama’at].”[12,13]

He added,

“I repeat long before today, the Lord of heaven and earth; the all-knowing and all-powerful God, disclosed to me that He would save all those who live within the four walls of my home from death by the plague; but, on the condition that they enter my alle-giance with complete sincerity, humility and obeisance and extinguish the fire of prejudice and enmity. Also, that they do not consider themselves superior to His commandments or those of His prophet; that they do not pos-sess a selfish and rebellious disposition, nor behave at variance with their beliefs.”[14]

In Nuzul-ul-Masih the Promised Messiahas explained the meaning of the words ‘four walls of your home,’

“In recent days God has revealed to me – ‘I will save all those who dwell in the four walls of your home, except for them who behave with arrogance and presume for themselves a high station. And I will save you with distinction. Peace be on you from God, the Merciful.’

It ought to be known, that the decree regard-ing Qadian has two aspects; f irstly, His decree which relates to the town in gen-eral; that [Qadian] will be saved from such plague as brings chaos and destruction and consumes entire dwellings, secondly, His decree which relates to my home in particu-lar; that all those who reside within it will be saved from the ravages that might inflict certain inhabitants of Qadian.”[15]

The Promised Messiahas also issued a challenge to various religious leaders throughout India to pray for the protec-tion of those towns and cities where the headquarters of their religious institu-tions were based in order to show that they, and not Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, or any other individual group or community, were supported by God.

In Dafi-ul-Bala he wrote:

“If the Aryas sincerely believe in the truth of the Vedas, they should prophesise that their Parmeshwar will save Banares (Varanasi), the seat of Vedic learning. Likewise the Sanatan Dharam should prophesise the protection of a town known as a habitat for cattle. For example, they could proph-esise that Amritsar will be saved from the plague because of the blessings of the cow; and should any bovine demonstrate this

“Firstly, the plague was not raised in the earth solely because of the rejection of the Messiah of God, but also on account of the multiple sufferings inflicted on him; the intrigues of those who conspired to kill him; and his being branded a disbeliever and a Dajjal [antichrist]… In truth, the non-acceptance of a messenger is not the reason a calamity befalls a people. If a messenger of God is rejected with propriety and good conduct and is not made to endure the hard-ships of injury and abuse, the judgement of his deniers awaits them [not in this world but] in the hereafter.”[10]

The same revelation contained another significant element of the plague proph-ecy, that those who resided in the home of the Promised Messiahas would be saved from the calamity. The revelation was, “I will save all those who live within the four walls of your home.”[11] From the moment these words were revealed, they came to form an integral part of the prophecy.

In his book Kishti Nuh, the Promised Messiahas wrote,

“In these present times, God has willed to show a sign of heavenly mercy, so He has informed me that I and all those who dwell within the four walls of my home; who wholly and unconditionally follow me;

Plague infected house, Mumbai, IndiaClifton and Co., Bombay, India.

the plague

“In recent days God has revealed to me – ‘I will save all those who dwell in the four walls of your home, except for them who behave with arrogance and presume for themselves a high station. And I will save you with distinction. Peace be on you from God, the Merciful.’


take into consideration cases that were misdiagnosed, unreported, concealed or wrongly classified.[18]

It is interesting to compare the geo-graphical spread of the disease and death toll with various other parts of the world affected by the plague. The third plague pandemic began in the Yunnan province in China in 1855, and accord-ing to the World Health Organisation remained active until 1959 - “The network of global shipping ensured the widespread distribution of the disease over the next few decades.”[19] In the years to come, the plague spread as far as Europe, the United States and even to countries in South America, such as Peru and Argentina. However, in all these places its effects were “limited in epidemic force to coastal cities and even there hardly pen-etrated beyond docklands. Instead of millions killed, as happened with the previous two pandemics, and as Europe feared at the beginning of the twentieth century, death counts of this third pandemic in temper-ate zones rarely exceeded one hundred.”[20] Nor was the number of victims in any of these places comparable to that of India and Punjab. For example, in Honolulu where the disease lasted for a year there were 61 reported deaths. The American city of San Francisco also succumbed to

the epidemic, but in the four years that the disease was active it only claimed 113 lives.[21] The only country where the destruction was in any way comparable to

miracle, it would be wholly understandable were the government to enforce a total ban on the slaughter of this wondrous animal.

Again, the Christians ought to predict that the plague will not afflict Calcutta as it is the home of the chief bishop of the British Empire. So too should Mian Shams-ud-Din and the members of the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam foretell that Lahore will be protected. The account-ant, Munshi Ilahi Bakhsh, who claims to be the recipient of divine revelation, has a wonderful opportunity to assist the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam in this. It would also be appropriate for ‘Abdul Jabbar and ‘Abdul Haq to make a similar proph-ecy regarding Amritsar. And because Delhi is the centre of Wahabism, both Nadhir Hussain and Muhammad Hussain should prophesise the protection of the city. In this way the whole of the Punjab will be rescued from the clutches of this virulent disease and the British regency will be relinquished of the responsibility and expense of having to control the epidemic. But, should they fail to do this, it will perforce be determined that the true God is He Who has raised His mes-senger in Qadian.”[16]

By taking these revelations together one can see that the salient features of the plague prophecy were,

1. The plague would spread throughout the Punjab and cause havoc in the province

2. The plague was both a warning and a sign of punishment because of the unyielding rise of sin and wrongdo-ing, and on account of the persecution of God’s messenger. If the people repented, the plague would be abated; otherwise it would spread devastation and fear.

3. Those who resided within the four walls of his home; that is his physi-cal home, the town of Qadian or as members of his spiritual community, would for the most part be saved from the ravages of the plague, as long as they truly and sincerely believed in his teachings.

What then was the impact of the plague and to what extent were the various strands of the prophecy fulfilled?

To begin with, the force of devastation in the Punjab and India as a whole was immense. The third plague pandemic claimed more than 12 million lives between 1898-1948.[17] It should be noted that this and any other such figures are only modest estimates which do not

the plague

A photo of an old pamphlet on how to prevent the plague.

To begin with, the force of devastation in the Punjab and India as a whole was immense. The third plague pandemic claimed more than 12 million lives between 1898-1948.


the epidemic. According to figures pro-duced by J. N. Hays, the annual death toll exceeded 1 million in these years. It is also significant to note that in the period of peak mortality, it was the Punjab that was the worst affected area.[23]

The fulfilment of the Promised Messiah’sas prophecy was also evident through the public and civic reaction caused by the disease. As has already been made clear the Promised Messiahas saw the plague as a sign of warning and divine wrath. Its purpose was to frighten people so that they would repent from their sins. This is extremely pertinent for almost all writers and historians who have written on the subject and agree that the panic caused by the plague at all levels of society “bore no direct relation to the virulence of the epi-demic.”[24] Although the bubonic plague was a great killer, it was not the most destructive epidemic to ravage India over a similar period. Both malaria and tuberculosis claimed twice as many vic-tims.[25] Parts of India also suffered at the time from famine and cholera. But it was the plague that struck the most fear and panic both among the ruling elite and the general public. Some writers on the sub-ject have gone so far as to suggest that the significance of the plague lies not in the cost of human lives (which was indeed

great) but in the political and public unrest it caused.[26] A tragic and promi-nent example of the immense terror and chaos which the disease created, were the riots in Pune, which were sparked by the sanitary measures adopted by the British and resulted in the murder of the plague commissioner in the city W. C. Rand.[27]

Similar instances of panic occurred in other cities where the perceived invasive policies of the government led to strikes and the mass flight of people from cities and towns affected by the plague.[28]

Evidence for the third part of the proph-ecy comes from the writings of the Promised Messiahas and the accounts of his companions. Though there are no real statistics for the extent to which plague affected Qadian, we know from anec-dotal evidence including the Promised Messiah’sas own, that the town expe-rienced small outbursts but nothing like the devastation that affected large

India and the Punjab was China, where close to 10 million people died.

In terms of the havoc that the plague would wreak in the Punjab, a further dimension was given to the prophecy when in 1903 the Promised Messiahas received the revelation:

“‘The door of the plague has been opened.’ Thus, it seems that from this point forth, there will be no relenting in the Plague.”[22]

This is immensely significant because it is widely acknowledged amongst experts in the field that the years 1904, 1905 and 1907 were the most deadly of

Inoculation against the plague, Mumbai, India.Colombo, Sri Lanka Apothecaries and Co. Ltd. Photographers.

Yersinia pestis

Some writers on the subject have gone so far as to suggest that the significance of the plague lies not in the cost of human lives (which was indeed great) but in the political and public unrest it caused.


house from the plague, had been false. This distress[ed] me greatly. At about midnight the boy’s condition deteriorated and I became apprehensive that it may be something quite serious and not just ordinary fever. I cannot describe my feeling, because if the boy was to die, God forbid, it would provide prejudiced people with convenient means to suppress the truth. In that state I performed the ablu-tion and stood up for prayer. Immediately, I found myself in a state which was a clear sign of the acceptance of prayer. I call God to witness, in Whose hand is my life, that I had just completed about three rak’as [One sequence of the mandatory Muslim prayers, from a standing to a prostrating position] when I saw in a vision that the boy had recovered completely. When I finished my prayer, I saw him sitting fully conscious ask-ing for water. He was immediately given water and when I put my hand on his body I found no trace of temperature whatso-ever. His state of delirium, restlessness, and unconsciousness completely disappeared, and he regained full health.”[30]

Thus, it is clear from this that in terms of the content of the prophecy itself, the words of the Promised Messiahas were indisputably fulfilled.

There is yet a further dimension to this prophecy, which is of considerable

swathes of the province. Again, there is no statistical evidence about numbers of Ahmadi Muslims who may have suc-cumbed to the disease, however, nor is there anything to suggest that the num-ber was in any way significant. During the plague years, the Promised Messiahas widely published a number of books and advertisements on the subject of his prophecy, none of which were con-tested by his opponents. What is certain and beyond doubt is that there were no deaths among the people living in the actual home of the Promised Messiahas. In fact, according to various excerpts from Hazrat Ahmad’sas writings, in all cases where plague was feared or a dis-ease could be understood as plague, the individual made a full recovery.

In Haqiqatul Wahi the Promised Messiahas writes,

“During the days of rampant plague, when

Qadian was affected to a degree, Maulawi Muhammad ‘Ali M.A. had a severe attack of fever. He was almost sure it was plague and like one who approaches death, he made a will and apprised Mufti Muhammad Sadiq of everything. He was staying in a part of my house about which God had revealed

August 2015 Economic System of Islam

[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague

ار إني أحافظ كل من ف الد

:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]

اعة زلزلة الس

:::1:::

اعة، ق وا أ ن فسكم، إن اهلل مع زلزلة الساألب رار، دن منك الفضل، جاء ال حق

وزهق الباطل :::2:::

دائد والزل زل: الش

3

[94]

[95]

[99]

ر وقت هذا ربي أخي

[103]

ى ره اهلل إل وقت مسم أخ[104]

(I shall save all those who dwell in your home). I visited him to inquire about his health. Finding him upset and disturbed, I said to him, ‘If you are suffering from plague, it means I am a liar and my claim to be the recipient of divine revelation is false.’ Having said this, I felt his pulse and witnessed a strange sign of providence. As soon as I touched his wrist, I found it normal and there was no sign of fever.”[29]

Mentioning another incident he writes,

“Again, at a time when Qadian was afflicted with the plague, my son Sharif Ahmad was suffering from high fever which seemed to be typhoid. He had lost consciousness and was beating about his arms in that condition. I thought to myself that no one was immortal, but if this boy died while the plague was in Qadian, all my enemies would say that this fever had in fact been the plague, and would claim that the divine revelation vouchsafed to me:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


that is, I shall safeguard all who dwell in your

Bubonic plague

MichaelTaylor | shutterstock.com

This is a 3d representation of the Yersinia pestis bacteria better known as the bubonic plague.

MichaelTaylor | shutterstock.com

the plague

What is certain and beyond doubt is that there were no deaths among the people living in the actual home of the Promised Messiahas.


showed that oriental rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) carried the plague bacillus between rats.[35,36] These fleas were also found to parasitize and bite humans, thus transmitting the disease. Thus, it was demonstrated that the flea was the principle vector of the virus.

Initially, Simond’s findings were dis-missed by the medical community and in particular by physicians familiar with the bubonic plague. Many were unable to accept the idea that a creature as small as the flea could be such an important fac-tor in the spread of epidemics.[37] It took a further ten years for Simond’s research to gain currency. Some of the earliest evidence in support of his claims came from Sydney, Australia, and the findings of researchers investigating the plague epidemic of 1900. Then, during 1903-1905, the observations and experiments of W. G. Liston also advanced the rat-flea connection and in 1908 the Indian Plague Research Commission accepted the original findings of Simond. Six years later, in 1914, the research work of A. W. Bacot and C. J. Martin outlined how the flea contracted the bascillus and passed it on to people.[38]

It did not take the Promised Messiahas nearly as long to endorse Simond’s

findings. From as early as the turn of the century, he fully accepted and indeed promoted the thesis that the plague was transmitted to humans from the bite of infected fleas.

He wrote,

“It has been proven by recent breakthroughs that plague is spread through an insect of the earth.”[39]

Also,

“Various assumptions have been formed about the deadly epidemic that currently decimates our lands. Medical practitioners, whose sole concern is with the physical and that which pertains to it, say that the prin-cipal vehicles of contagion are fleas which first infect rats and from there the disease is passed onto humans.”[40]

In the modern context the Promised Messiah’sas acceptance that the plague was transmitted to humans may not feel particularly significant, but for its time it was an incredibly radical stance.

It should be remembered here that the link made by the Promised Messiahas between the contents of the verse under discussion and medical findings of the

interest and that is its place within the broader canon of Islamic literature. In the Holy Qur’an, there is reference to a Dabata al-Arz or “beast of the earth.”[31] This verse has long been considered by Muslim scholars and divines as referring to the time of the Promised Messiahas and the latter days. Allamah Isma’il Haqqi al-Buruswi wrote that the Dabata al-Arz would precede the coming of the mahdi, the dajjal and the messiah. The Shiite scholar mullah, Fath-Ullah Kashani, also sought to connect this verse with the emergence of the “Divine Authority who is the Mahdi of the Muslim Ummah.”[32] In various other Shiite traditions, the Dabat al-Arz is closely associated with the end of days and the arrival of dajjal. Elsewhere, the prominent jurist, scholar and historian, Ibn Kathir, inferred from the verse that a great beast, who would talk to human beings, would appear at the appointed hour. The Dabata al-Arz, also features prominently in the hadith (sayings of the Holy Prophetsa) litera-ture and is mentioned on a number of occasions as one of the signs of the lat-ter days and the time of the Promised Messiahas.[33]

While agreeing with past scholars that the Dabata al-Arz was a sign of the time of the advent of the Promised Messiah,

Hazrat Ahmadas interpreted the word as actually meaning ‘insect’ and associated it with the plague.

This is highly important because the third plague pandemic coincided with various scientific breakthroughs, which helped researchers determine that fleas were the principle vector of the disease.

The first significant development in this field occurred in 1894 when the bacteri-ologists Alexandre Yersin of the Pastuer Institute and the Japanese Kitasato Shibasaburo, isolated the pathogenic agent of plague. Yersin named the bacil-lus Pastuerella Pestis, after his mentor Louis Pasteur. However, in 1970, it was renamed Yersina Pestis in hon-our of the discoverer of the organism. Despite Yersin’s fundamental discovery, the problem of how the bascillus spread and infected human beings still remained unresolved.[34]

This task fell to the French bacteriolo-gist, Paul L. Simond. From 1897-1898, Simond tested an anti-serum for the plague which led him to discover the transmission mechanism for the disease. Publishing his findings in a paper enti-tled La Propagation de la Peste, he wrote that the results from his experiments

the plague


About the Author: Usman Ahmad is from the UK and he studied History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has been based in Pakistan since 2004. He is currently working at the English Desk of the Fazle Umar Foundation. Fazle Umar Foundation was established by the Third Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in order to promote and advance the legacy of the Second Caliph. He has also written and produced photo essays and articles for a number of other publications including Foreign Policy Magazine, The National and Dawn.

endnotes

1. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Tadhkira (Islam International Publications, 2009), 128.

2. The Pundit Lekh Ram was an Arya Samaj Hindu leader who was a vocal critic and fierce opponent of Islam. The Promised Messiahas repeatedly called on him to desist from spread-ing false and offensive allegations against the religion and the Holy Prophetsa. When his appeals went unheeded, it was revealed to him through several revelations that God Himself would punish Lekh Ram for his actions.

3. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Tadhkira (Islam International Publications, 2009), 295.

4. Rajnarayan Chandayarkar, Imperial Power and Popular Politics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1920), 234.

5. Mark Harrison, Disease & the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day (Wiley, 2013).

6. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Tadhkira (Islam International Publications, 2009), 407-408.

7. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas: Apni Tehreero Ki Ruh Se, Vol. 2, p. 1215.

8. The Muslim festival celebrated on the day marking the close of the Hajj ceremony.

9. A. R. Dard, Life of Ahmadas: Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement (Tilford, UK: Islam International Publications Limited, 2008), 591.

10. Dafi ‘ul-Balai, Ruhani Khazain Vol. 18, p. 229.

11. Al-Hakm, Vol. 6, No. 16, 30 April 1903: 7.

12. Jama’at here refers to the spiritual com-munity of Ahmadi Muslims initiated by the Promised Messiahas.

13. Kashti Nuh, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 19, p. 2.

14. Ibid.

time was not stimulated by scientific dis-coveries, but because he claimed God had taught him this interpretation. Although, prior to the outbreak of the plague, the Promised Messiahas interpreted this verse differently, his sole interpretation from the actual occurrence of the epidemic of this verse was as a prophecy regarding the plague in India.

He wrote with reference to this,

“[T]he Dabbata al Arz mentioned in these Qur’anic verses is the same as was decreed to appear in the time of the Promised Messiahas since the remotest ages and which has been shown to me in my visions in various forms. It has been revealed to me that it is the insect of plague and been named by God as Dabba al-Arz…”[41]

Moreover, the Promised Messiahas for-warded a number of arguments to give legitimacy to his interpretation that Dabata al-Arz meant insect and not beast. For example, in accordance with the Qur’anic principle that the verses of the holy book explain each other, he highlighted verse 15 of ‘Surah al-Saba,’ which speaks of the demise of the Prophet Solomonas and also includes the term Dabata al-Arz, which here is commonly accepted as insect – in this

context, the termites that used to eat Solomon’sas staff. He also posited that the verse of Surah al-Naml was contingent on the fact that the events prophesied in it would occur during the time of a claimant and would act as a punishment against his enemies. Thus, with his own advent as the Promised Messiahas and the outbreak of the plague, which was proved to be spread by fleas, this interpretation was entirely justified.[42]

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas prophecy of the plague was an emphatic confirmation of his claim to prophet-hood. It appeared as a sign of warning for those who rejected his message and portrayed him as an imposter. It was remarkably fulfilled in the exact manner it which it had been foretold; not only was it a fulfilment of his own revelations, it was also the realisation of a strong, Islamic tradition about the time of the advent of the Promised Messiahas. When historians look at the legacy of the third pandemic, they focus on such things as its impact on medical science, its effect on British rule in India and the huge devastation it left in its wake. However, perhaps the real testament the disease left behind was its validation of God’s chosen servant, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas.

the plague


33. See Ibn Majah, Hadith 4066, and Tafseer Ibn Kathir, footnote Fath al-Biyaan Surah al-Naml.

34. H. Kupferschmidt, “[Epidemiology of the plague. Changes in the concept in research of infection chains since the discovery of the plague pathogen in 1894],” Gesnerus. Supplement 43 (1993): 1–222.

35. Charles de Paolo, Epidemic Disease and Human Understanding ( Jefferson, USA: McFarland & Company Incorporated, 2006), 133.

36. “Oriental Rat Flea | Insect,” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed July 6, 2015, http://www.britannica.com/animal/Oriental-rat-flea.

37. Charles de Paolo, Epidemic Disease and Human Understanding ( Jefferson, USA: McFarland & Company Incorporated, 2006), 138.

38. A. W. Bacot and C. J. Martin, “Observations of the Mechanism of the Transmission of Plague by Fleas,” The Journal of Hygiene, no. 13 (1914): 423.

39. Nuzul-i-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 18, p.417.

40. Dafi ‘ul-Balai, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 18, p.

221.

41. Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 18, p.416.

42. Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 18, pp. 417-419.

15. Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 18, pp. 401-402.

16. Dafi-ul-Bala, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 18, pp. 230-231.

17. Joseph Patrick Byrne, The Black Death (Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 2004), 17.

18. Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, Imperial Power & Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State of India, c. 1850-1950 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 234.

19. A. W. Bacot and C. J. Martin, “Observations of the Mechanism of the Transmission of Plague by Fleas,” The Journal of Hygiene, no. 13 (1914): 423.

20. Samuel J Kohn JR, “Epidemiology of the Black Death & Successive Waves of Plague,” Medical History Supplement, no. 27 (2008): 74.

21. J. N. Hays, Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History (Santa Barbara, USA: ABC-Clio, 2005), 332-333.

22. Al Badr, Vol 2 No. 10, 27 March 1903: 80. Cited in Tadhkira (Urdu Edition), 2004, p. 386.

23. Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, Imperial Power & Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the

State of India, c. 1850-1950 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 234-237.

24. Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, Imperial Power & Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State of India, c. 1850-1950 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 234.

25. Ibid.

26. Medical Hisory of British India, “Medical History of British India: Disease Prevention and Public Health,” National Library of Scotland, http://digital.nls.uk/indiapapers/plague.html.

27. Mark Harrison, Disease & the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Limited, 2013).

28. Ibid.

29. Haqiqatul Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 22, p. 265.

30. Ibid. p. 87.

31. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Naml, Verse 83.

32. Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth (Tilford, UK: Islam International Publications, 1998), 636-637.

the plague




The

Promised Messiahas

& imam mahdi( g u i d e d o n e )

founder of the review of religions

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas

And I also swear by Almighty God that I am the Promised Messiah and I am the same person who was promised by the prophets. There is news about me and my age in the Torah and the Gospel and the Holy Qur’an. It is stated that there will be eclipses in the sky and severe plague on the earth.[7]

I swear by God in Whose Hand is my life that He has manifested this Sign in the sky to testify my truthful-ness, and He manifested it at a time when the Maulvis (Muslim Clerics) named me Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the biggest liar, infidel and even the biggest infidel. This is the same Sign regarding which twenty years ago I was promised in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, namely, Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you believe it or not? Tell them I have with me testimony from Allah, will you accept it or not? It should be remembered that although there are many proofs from Almighty God for vindicating my truthfulness and more than a hundred prophecies that have been fulfilled to which hundreds of thousands of people are witnesses, but in this rev-elation, this prophecy has been mentioned specifically, i.e. I have been given such a Sign which was not given to anybody else from the time of Adam to the present time. In short, I can stand in the sacred precincts of the Ka’bah and swear that this Sign is to testifying to my truth.[8]

Quotes of the Promised Messiahas regarding Signs

God has informed me directly through His living Word that if I am troubled by people asking how they should

know that I am from Him, I should tell them: It is sufficient proof that His heavenly signs are my witness, my prayers are accepted, knowl-edge of the unseen is revealed to me beforehand, and such mysteries, as are known to none other than God, are disclosed to me in advance. And the second sign is that should anyone want to challenge me in the aforesaid matters—in the acceptance of prayers, being given prior knowledge of their acceptance, and in being given knowledge of unseen matters that lie beyond the limits of human knowledge—he will surely be defeated in this challenge, be he from the East or from the West. These are the signs that have been vouchsafed to me.[9]

I swear by God, in Whose hand is my life, that if all the people who have witnessed the signs that have been shown for my sake and for my support were to be gathered at one place, there would be no monarch on earth whose army would exceed them in numbers. Yet the earth is so full of sin that people are rejecting even these signs. Heaven has testified in my support and so has the Earth.[10]

I emphatically claim that if a Christian were to stay in my company, he would witness a number of signs within one year. Divine signs are raining down in this place and God, Whom people have forgotten and have put His creatures in His place, is now manifesting Himself in my heart. He wants to reveal Himself. Is there anyone desirous of beholding Him?[11]

If someone were to object, “Where are the miracles you speak of?,” I would not merely say that I can show them, rather, by the grace of God, I would say that God has shown so many miracles in order to prove the truth of my claim that few are the Prophets who have shown so many miracles. The truth is that He has caused a river of miracles to flow and—with the sole exception of our Holy Prophetsa

—it is impossible to find categorical evidence of so many miracles being shown by any of the past Prophetsas. For His part, God has incontrovertibly established the point. It is now up to the people to accept it or not.[12]

endnotes

7. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Dafiul Balaa p. 18, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 18, p. 238.

8. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Tohfa e Golarviya; Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 17, p. 143.

9. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Government Angrezi Aur Jihad, Ruhani Khaz-ain, Vol. 17, pp. 29-30.

10. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, I’jaz-e-Ahmadi, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 19, p. 108.

11. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Kitab-ul-Bariyyah, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 13, p. 108.

12. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Haqiqat-ul-Wahi, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 22, p. 574.

Divine signs are raining down in this place and God, Whom people have forgotten and have put His creatures in His place, is now manifesting Himself in my heart. He wants to reveal Himself.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas of Qadian (d. 1908), founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim

Community, claimed to be the Promised Messiah, the Mahdi (The Guided One) and a messenger of Allah, subservient to the Holy Prophet of Islamsa. As with all other claimants of such divinely guided ranks, the people and scholars of his time asked for proofs of his truthfulness. While he had the legacy of a whole range of Islamic literature to support his claims, he was given signs by God to show to those who so desired.

His claim caught the attention of not only the Muslims but of Christians and Hindus alike, as these faiths awaited the coming of a saviour in the latter days. All three religions had mention of such a saviour in their eschatology. So it was not only the Muslims that required proof of the truthfulness of this messiah, but also the followers of these major faiths.

The majority of the books written by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, rich in intellectual discourse, were and still remain a detailed study of the escha-tological interpretations of all major world religions.[1] Intellectual discourse was not however always deemed suffi-cient in the diverse, religious culture of

the British India of his era. A trend of street preaching (munazira) had become highly fashionable in most of the Indian states, with opponents debating face to

A Murder in British Lahore - Closing the Case of

Lekh Ramby Asif M Basit, London, UK

His claim caught the attention of not only the Muslims but of Christians and Hindus alike, as these faiths awaited the coming of a saviour in the latter days. All three religions had mention of such a saviour in their eschatology.


Movement. This prophecy was by way of a warning issued to him by Hazrat Ahmadas. He warned him to refrain from hurling abuse at Prophet Muhammadsa, as his attacks on the character of the Prophetsa were extremely insulting and provocative, and could lead to Divine Wrath.

The Arya SamajThe British Indian Punjab was the richest of all states in terms of religious diver-sity. The three major faiths prevalent were Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. Christian missionary societies joined this religious hotbed with new tools of propaganda. This meant four major faiths vied to co-exist in the region, with Hindus being the only non-proselytising faith. Mass con-versions of Hindus to Christianity and Islam became a matter of huge concern for the Hindus. Not only did the low-castes find it more rewarding to convert to Islam, but those Hindus who opted for a Western education, were prone to converting to Christianity. It was in these conditions that the Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand in 1875, as a reform movement to revive the Hindu faith and enable the lost Hindu masses to revert. Being a modern, proselytising sect as opposed to orthodox Hindus, Swami Dayanand faced greater opposition from

orthodox Hindu groups than indeed Muslims and Christians.

After the death of Swami Dayanand in 1883, three of his disciples namely Guru Datt, Pandit Lekh Ram and Lala Munsi Ram, played a lead role in shaping and interpreting the Arya Samaj ideol-ogy. Guru Datt, highly educated and influential in academic circles, gathered around himself a group of Arya Samajists who supported the reinterpretation of Dayanand’s teachings. This turning point saw the Arya Samaj turn into a militant sect of Hinduism.[4] Later, Pandit Lekh Ram, a prominent leader of the militant section of the Arya Samaj, focused the Arya efforts on the opposition of Islam. Kenneth Jones, commenting on Lekh Ram’s militant tendencies, suggests that “Growing up in a Muslim area and serv-ing under Muslim officers in the police, Lekh Ram reacted by becoming self-consciously and militantly Hindu.”[5] His aggres-sive attacks on Islam came to define his identity. It was not only Muslims who complained of his militantly aggressive attitude towards Islam, but his own fol-lowers held the same opinion and openly expressed it in their accounts of his char-acter.[6]

Arya Samajist biographers are of the

face and both claiming victory at the end. This discourse never concluded amicably, as both parties would aim at insult-ing the other. Hazrat Ahmadas, having indulged in a number of munaziras, saw no benefits to this way of preaching. The distinct way of knowing the truth, which he introduced, was by Divine guidance; he believed that anyone who sought the truth should come to him, live with him for some time and see the signs of God. Thousands are reported to have adopted

this means and verified the truthfulness of Hazrat Ahmadas. This approach was exactly in line with the practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammadsa and thou-sands of Islamic saints, but had become almost extinct with the passage of time.

Another unique approach adopted by Hazrat Ahmadas involved foretelling events, classified as prophecies in theo-logical terminology. The Holy Qur’an states that Allah gives some knowledge of the future and the unseen to His appointed ones, so that the world may take heed.[2] A number of such foretold events by Hazrat Ahmadas were of a universal nature, while others were appar-ently limited to certain individuals. They ranged from the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Punjab, the fall of the Tsar and the destructive World Wars, all materi-alising at a later point in time.[3] Time was to prove that the prophecies regard-ing individuals were also going to catch trans-religious and global attention. Prophecies about claimants of divinity in the West such as John Hugh-Smyth Piggott and Alexander Dowie were publicised in the British, American and Australian Press.

One such prophecy was about Lekh Ram, a leading figure of the Arya Samaj

Lekh Ram, a leading figure of the Arya Samai Movement.© Makhzan-e-Tasaweer

a murder in british lahore -closing the case of lekh ram


from the date of the prophecy, while Hazrat Ahmadas claimed that he was told by God that Lekh Ram would be killed during the days of Eid (a Muslim Festival), within six years of the prophecy being made public.[18,19]

To understand the true nature of the con-troversy, it is important that the factors leading to it must first be understood. Lekh Ram was known in all religious circles for the extremely inflammatory language he used in his verbal and writ-ten discourses with all major religions. He had inherited his aggressive and abusive approach from the founder of the Arya Samaj, Pandit Dayanand, who had practised such attacks on all other faiths, especially Islam.[20,21] His choice of words was extremely provocative and hurtful for all Muslims. for example, he declared the Islamic concept of paradise as a grove of prostitutes.[22] Lekh Ram carried this legacy forward by focusing particularly on attacking Islam and its founder, Prophet Muhammadsa, hence intensifying the Hindu-Muslim tension of 19th century Punjab.[23] This abusive language created distress in the majority of Muslim circles in India, but there was an absence of a reasonable reaction.[24] The abuse hurled by Lekh Ram and other Arya Samajists against the Prophet

Muhammadsa, resulted in Muslims either hurling abuse in retaliation or resorting to violence and vandalism. Vernacular Papers of the British Indian Punjab published in late 1880s and most of the 1890s, regularly covered the “Hindu-Muslim Tension” and described how followers of both faiths reacted violently in response to one another’s attacks on their faiths. Approaching the close of the decade, such news stories grew in vol-ume and intensity, especially by 1897.[25] The only reasonable reaction to the Arya Samajist attacks on Islam was to come from Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas

of Qadian, who was to be hailed as the ‘Champion of Islam.’[26] His first major work to be published, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya (proofs of the truthfulness of Islam and its Holy Foundersa), as Bob van der Linden states, “argued systematically against the statements” made against the religion of Islam by other faiths, espe-cially by the Arya Samajists.[27] Hazrat Ahmadas sent a copy to Dayanand, the founder of Arya Samaj, offering him to come forward for a debate based on the book but Dayanand did not even respond, let alone challenge it.[28] Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya was well received by all Muslims, who felt it was their moral duty to respond to such baseless attacks. This book, not only a defence of

opinion that “his love for Arya faith had made him so prejudiced that he would not forgive the opponents’ weaknesses or short-comings. He would not stay quiet when anything was said about the Vedas and would say the harshest words in response, regardless of the stature of his addressee.”[7] The writer goes on to state that Lekh Ram’s harsh tone peaked during his ver-bal discourse.[8]

The Arya Samaj had split into two factions in 1893; both had become ide-ologically opposed. The more educated wing worked under the control of Lala Hans Raj and Lala Lajpat Rai, while the other wing, radical and extremist as it was

in its ideology, was led by Pandit Lekh Ram.[9] This militant wing of the Arya Samajists invested all their energy in to organising events that led to open con-frontation with Muslims.[10]

The ControversyHazrat Ahmadas, after having come across the extremely abusive allegations of Pandit Lekh Ram on the Prophet Muhammadsa, invited him to visit Qadian and to stay there for a while, so that his allegations could be refuted and a sign from Allah manifested.[11,12]

Lekh Ram accepted the offer and trav-elled to Qadian in 1885.[13] During his stay, he exchanged correspondence with Hazrat Ahmadas, mocking the faith of Islam, the Holy Prophet Muhammadsa, and the claims of Hazrat Ahmadas.[14] He also asked Hazrat Ahmadas to ask his God to show a sign in favour of Islam, while claiming that he too was asking Parmeshar to show a sign in favour of the Hindu faith.[15] Lekh Ram proposed that both supplicate to their respective Gods, to end the life of the one who belonged to the false religion.[16] While Hazrat Ahmadas refuted all of Lekh Ram’s alle-gations in their correspondence, he also accepted this challenge.[17] Lekh Ram made a prophecy that Hazrat Ahmadas would die of cholera within three years

He also asked Hazrat Ahmadas to ask his God to show a sign in favour of Islam, while claiming that he too was asking Parmeshar to show a sign in favour of the Hindu faith. Lekh Ram proposed that both supplicate to their respective Gods, to end the life of the one who belonged to the false religion.



God during the days of Eid.[38] Hazrat Ahmadas also made it clear right at the onset, that Lekh Ram’s death would not be as a result of an illness, rather both the cause and effect would be extraordinary and unusual in nature.[39]

Lekh Ram continued to use abusive and provocative language against the Prophet of Islamsa. Mockery of the Prophetsa was, historically speaking, the best ammunition the opponents of Islam had to provoke Muslims and gain desired results.[40] Hazrat Ahmadas was the only person to come forward as the defender of Islam.[41] Lekh Ram’s provoc-ative tracts, especially the one titled “The Epistle of Jihad”, led to a mass reaction by the Muslims, leaving Lekh Ram the

sole contributor to the “growth of con-frontation in the Punjab and soon he was attacked in Muslim, Sikh and Christian newspapers.”[42] The fire of violence that Lekh Ram himself sparked and then inflamed through persistently vulgar attacks, led the way to the fulfilment of Hazrat Ahmad’sas prophecy.

The Murder of Lekh RamMuslims were becoming increasingly agitated. The Maulvis (Muslim clergy) of Bombay threatened Lekh Ram with court action if he did not “make over to them all copies of a work in which the Pandit had wounded the religious feelings

Islam but also a counter attack on other faiths, provoked both the Christians and Arya Samajists.[29,30,31] Silenced by logic, followers of both faiths retaliated with an increase in inflammatory language against Islam. Lekh Ram responded by writing Takzeeb Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya (refutation of proofs of truthfulness of Islam and its Founder), that was to be followed by a whole range of tracts being published by Hazrat Ahmadas and Pandit Lekh Ram, one after the other. Lekh Ram came to be known as the most outrageous enemy of Islam in both speech and print, constantly attacking Islam with the most derogatory lan-guage. Although the Punjab had a long history of religious conflict, no other issue created such unrest and violence as the attacks of Pandit Lekh Ram upon Islam.[32,33] Dialogue, debate, print and even violence, were all employed in an attempt to curb these foul verbal attacks against Islam. Hazrat Ahmad’sas Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, and his other works, were the most powerful and logical refuta-tion of Lekh Ram’s allegations.[34,35] It was at this point, that the prophecy by the ‘Champion of Islam’, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, was issued.

The Prophecy by Hazrat Ahmadas

The prophecy by Hazrat Ahmadas was

published on February 20th, 1893, whereby he prophesied that if Lekh Ram did not refrain from hurling abuse on the Founder of Islamsa, he would incur a painful fate that would be extraordinar-ily cruel in all aspects.[36] The prophecy unfolded in several stages by the Will of God. They progressed in accordance with the reactions of Lekh Ram. When Lekh Ram first asked for a prophecy, Hazrat Ahmadas announced that God had told him that “his [Lekh Ram’s] transgressions will make him see the Wrath of God. He is nothing but a lifeless calf making strange sounds.”[37]

Then on February 20th 1893, Hazrat Ahmadas claimed that while meditat-ing about Lekh Ram, he was told by God that “within six years from this date, which is 20th of February 1893, this per-son will become a victim of God’s Wrath and Curse as a result of the transgressions that he has committed against the Prophet Muhammadsa.”

Another revelation received by Hazrat Ahmadas was that “his matter will be over within six.” The duration for the proph-ecy to be manifest was announced by Hazrat Ahmadas in his book Karamat-us-Sadiqeen by way of Divine revelation; Lekh Ram would see this Wrath of


Photo of Lekh Ram at the time of his death.© Makhzan-e-Tasaweer


from falling out.[49] The alleged murderer, who had disguised himself as a disciple, was nowhere to be found. Lekh Ram’s mother and wife gave testimony that no one had escaped the room from the main door of the room and there was no other way to flee from the house. Lekh Ram, on his deathbed is stated to have accused the man who had come to him to be purified. This statement is said to be sup-ported by his widow and mother.[50] The circumstances of the murder were sus-picious from the very onset. Vernacular Newspapers carried speculations that the murderer could have been from the Sanatan Dharm, the beliefs of which had been constantly under attack by Lekh Ram. It was stated in some newspapers that since he was found naked, his mur-der could have been the result of an illicit relationship that he had with a woman, and that the murderer was an Arya rela-tive of the woman involved.[51]

It is astonishing that the name of this person accompanying such a high-profile leader and public figure like Lekh Ram, remained unknown to any of the friends or associates of Lekh Ram, despite his accompanying him for three weeks.[52]

Whilst speculation about the murderer’s identity went on in the local Press, all

Arya Samajist newspapers seemed to be pointing their fingers at Hazrat Ahmadas, due to the prophecy he had issued about the death of Lekh Ram. All Arya Samajist articles not only claimed that Hazrat Ahmadas had plotted the mur-der in order to fulfill his prophecy, but also alerted the Aryas to be on guard in case Hazrat Ahmadas might desire the same fate for them all.[53] This accusa-tion was so forcefully levied by the Arya Samajists, that the investigating teams of police searched the house of Hazrat Ahmadas in Qadian in an attempt to find any incriminating evidence.[54]

Fallacies in the Arya Samajist Propaganda It is quite natural that the Arya Samajists

of the Muhammadans by using disrespectful language in criticizing their religion and its founder.”[43,44] Despite this, the tension between the Muslims and the Aryas con-tinued to grow.

The Paisa Akhbar, in its edition of August 29th, 1896 stated that “Takzib-e-Brahin-i-Ahmaddiyya … is calculated to cause great mischief. The book purports to be a refutation of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’sas ‘Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya,’ but the Pandit, in utter disregard of the cannons of strict criticism has used the most offensive and insulting language towards Islam, its leaders, its fol-lowers, including the prophets, and things held sacred by the Muhammadans.”

The Paisa Akhbar also called for the

government to take action against Lekh Ram and ban his books and pamphlets. They tried threatening him with court action and attempted to file a law suit against him in Delhi, which was dis-missed by the Court.[45,46] The Punjab, rich in diversity, saw its inhabitants drifting towards aggression and vio-lence. Lekh Ram had not only earned animosity from among the Muslims but also from among the orthodox Hindus, Sanatan Dharm, Christians and Sikhs.[47,48]

Muslims of the Punjab celebrated their festival of Eid on 6th March, 1897. The joy and fervour of festivity was still in the air of Lahore, when Lekh Ram was at home in Wachhu Wali Street, in the heart of the walled city. He was accompa-nied by a pupil who was learning Sanskrit from him and who had been seen in his constant company for three weeks. Lekh Ram was alone with this new disciple in his room. His mother and wife sat outside the room in the compound of the house. The silence of the dusk was broken by a loud scream from inside the room. Shocked and startled, Lekh Ram’s mother and his wife stormed into the room to find Lekh Ram stabbed, bathed in blood by a deep stab wound on his belly, struggling to keep his intestines

The silence of the dusk was broken by a loud scream from inside the room. Shocked and startled, Lekh Ram’s mother and his wife stormed into the room to find Lekh Ram stabbed, bathed in blood by a deep stab wound on his belly, struggling to keep his intestines from falling out.

Historic haveli and rooftops of the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore.Tracing Tea | shutterstock.com



a whole lobby of Muslim leaders who were involved. This propaganda led to the houses and offices of other promi-nent Muslim Associations and their leaders being searched. The premises of Anjuman-i-Himayat Islam as well as the house of its secretary and the house of the secretary of Anjuman-i-Naumania, were also searched to no avail.[62] This clearly shows that the search of Hazrat Ahmad’sas house had been carried out on fair grounds and the authorities were under no influence when clearing Hazrat Ahmadas of any involvement. Hazrat Ahmadas had only issued a prophecy about Lekh Ram’s death and had made it public.

A telegram was brought to the atten-tion of the investigation. It had been sent from Bombay a few days prior to Lekh Ram’s murder. The sender had inquired about Lekh Ram’s address.[63] It is sur-prising to note that when such suspicious material was received, there was still no attention given to the pending proph-ecy of Hazrat Ahmadas and no alarms raised with the authorities. Some of the Vernacular Papers highlighted this point, reminding the public that if such suspi-cion had prevailed with the Arya Samaj, why was Lekh Ram not provided with security as the Christian Community had

provided Abdullah Atham, when Hazrat Ahmadas made a prophecy against him.[64]

The Chauwdhwin Sadi, on March 23 1897, stated that Lekh Ram had been warned “of his impending fate only a few days before his assassination.” Common sense would suggest that Lekh Ram and his associates would have reminded the law enforcement authorities to moni-tor Hazrat Ahmadas, as he would have been the prime suspect. No such com-plaints were ever lodged, clearly showing that Hazrat Ahmad’sas prophecy had no importance for them and they doubted that it could ever be fulfilled.

A Murder Mystery or a Prophecy Fulfilled?The police are said to have promptly arrived at the scene of his murder. They searched the property and could not reach a conclusion as to how the assas-sin may have escaped, when Lekh Ram’s mother and wife were just outside the sole door to the room. Lekh Ram was rushed to the Mayo hospital in Anarkali, where he stayed alive for a further six hours. He is said to have been in great pain but was conscious. He is recorded to have mentioned the assassin, but never to have accused Hazrat Ahmadas. He was treated by Dr Mirza Yaqub Beg and

would have accused Hazrat Ahmadas of conspiring to fulfill his prophecy, how-ever they had no supporting evidence to back their claims. The details of the prophecy published by the Arya news-papers were inaccurate, as they declared that 1897 was the sixth year of the prophecy, by when Lekh Ram should have been dead.[55] This was an incorrect statement which seems to have been made only to pressurise the authorities to charge Hazrat Ahmadas with the mur-der. The prophecy, as mentioned earlier, was issued in February 1893 and so the period of six years would not have expired before February 1899. It is evident that the timeframe of the prophecy was well known to the Aryas, but was purpose-fully corrupted to corroborate their false allegations.[56] While Hazrat Ahmadas

himself pointed out the fallacy that he would have conspired the murder just as the timeframe of the prophecy was about to end, the Paisa Akhbar newspa-per also drew attention to the fact that the prophecy still had two years before it expired.[57,58]

Hazrat Ahmadas also tried to bring to light the fact that it was in no way plau-sible that he would commission one of his followers to murder Lekh Ram. Hazrat Ahmadas argued that such an

act, would have lead to that follower doubting Hazrat Ahmad’sas claims of being Divinely appointed, and would no longer have remained a follower.[59] This reasoning was very openly supported by the editor of the Paisa Akhbar, who stated that “it is impossible that Mirza could have asked any of his disciples, among whom are several educated and learned persons, to murder the deceased, for by doing so he would have proved himself an imposter.”[60]

The Arya Samajist constantly insisted that even if Hazrat Ahmadas was not behind the murder of Lekh Ram, he should have been employed to use his prophetic faculties and to ask his God to reveal to him the whereabouts of the assassin in order to resolve the controversy.

Despite the police searching his house under pressure from the Arya Samaj,[61] no proof of any kind was ever found to connect Hazrat Ahmadas to the murder. Hazrat Ahmadas read out to the superin-tendent the terms of the contract which was concluded between Lekh Ram and himself; he had nothing to hide and the police had nothing to suspect.

Some Arya circles then claimed that it was not Hazrat Ahmadas alone, but



not be found, there was an undercurrent of acknowledgement that the prophecy of Hazrat Ahmadas ‘may’ have come true. Maulvi Muhammad Hussain of Batala, is reported to have commented on the prophecy in his Ishaatusunnah that, “even if it has come true, it cannot be considered anything more than the forecast of an astrol-oger.”[68] Another communication to the Wafadar read that, “the Mirza may make predictions, but this can be done with the aid of mesmerism.”[69]

The immense pressure by the Arya Samajists on the Government to impli-cate Hazrat Ahmadas in the murder of Lekh Ram remained for months amongst the main headlines of Vernacular Newspapers throughout the Punjab. It was at the end of April 1897, that the Press was seen reporting the innocence of Hazrat Ahmadas in the murder case of Lekh Ram.

The Victoria Paper (Sialkot) in its issue of May 1, 1897, published a report stating,

“Notwithstanding the fact that the ene-mies of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad[as] made many complaints against him (to the effect that he was the murderer of Lekh Ram), the Government acted wisely in not inter-fering without sufficient proof. The present

Lieutenant Governor deserves great credit for not taking action on hearsay.”

The Hindus resorted to accusing the government of favouring the Muslims and not taking the search of the assassin of Lekh Ram seriously.[70] This accusa-tion can now be proved as baseless, after studying the secret correspondence that went on between the Government of the Punjab and the Secretary of State for India in London. This exchange of correspondence clearly indicates that the case was taken incredibly seriously, as the Home Department’s public wing wrote to the Government of the Punjab, on March 25, 1897, that,

“Government of India will be pleased to receive telegraphic information of Lieutenant Governor’s views to the extent of ill-feeling between Muhammadans and Hindus consequent on recent murder of Lekh Ram, and to be kept informed of any developments.”[71]

The Government of Punjab wrote back by telegram no. 372 on March 27, 1897 the following information:

“Lieutenant Governor of Punjab believes that bitterness of feeling between the Hindus and Muhammadans which has been founded

Lieutenant Colonel. F Perry, the former being a follower of Hazrat Ahmadas. Dr Beg states that even being aware of his association to Hazrat Ahmadas, Lekh Ram never made any mention of Hazrat Ahmadas as a suspect. As the story reaches its end, many astonishing facts emerge, such as that the police officers were with Lekh Ram from the time he was found stabbed to the moment he breathed his last breath, but his dying declaration was never recorded.[65] Questions were also raised as to why the friend of Lekh Ram, who had shown apprehension about Lekh Ram’s life being in danger, was not brought forward by the Aryas to explain why he entertained such fears. This again highlights the fact that Hazrat Ahmadas had absolutely no involvement in the murder of Lekh Ram, or else such friends would have expressed their sus-picion to the authorities.

A vigorous search was carried out by the police but no trace of the assassin was ever found. All areas adjacent to Lekh Ram’s house, alongside the whole of the neighbourhood were raided and searched, but the assassin was never found.

While Hazrat Ahmadas and the Muslim Community of the Punjab were accused by the Aryas to be involved in the murder

of Lekh Ram, Hazrat Ahmadas was the only one not to have displayed any vio-lence in retaliation. The Vernacular Press was filled with news of Arya-Muslim clashes across the Punjab, however, not a single account reported any violence in Qadian or elsewhere, that was instigated by Hazrat Ahmadas. The only response witnessed from Hazrat Ahmadas was the announcement of the fulfillment of the prophecy and the expression of sorrow that Lekh Ram had to suffer the Wrath of God, which he could have avoided by abstaining from hurling abuse upon the Prophet of Islamsa.66 The moderate minded public could not ignore the phi-losophy behind the prophecy issued by Hazrat Ahmadas. There were many who declared that they too were inclined to think that Hazrat Ahmadas was involved in the murder of Lekh Ram, but hav-ing read the works of Lekh Ram and the response of Hazrat Ahmadas, they had changed their opinion. Some wrote to newspapers offering to claim, on oath, that Hazrat Ahmadas had nowhere used harsh or foul language but had, while pointing out the weak points of the Hindu religion, refuted the misstate-ments to which currency had been given by his adversaries.[67]

By May 1897, when the assassin could



endnotes

1. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Ruhani Khazain, www.alislam.org/rk.

2. Holy Qur’an, Surah al-Jinn, Verse 27-28.

3. James Thayer Addison, “The Ahmadiya Movement and Its Western Propaganda,” Harvard Theological Review 22, no. 01 ( January 1929): 1–32, doi:10.1017/S0017816000000468.

4. Kenneth W. Jones, “Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution,” The Journal of Asian Studies 28, no. 01 (November 1968): 39–54, doi:10.2307/2942838.


6. Pandit Lekh Ram, Kulliat-e-Arya Musafir (Saharanpur: Satya Dharam Parcharak Press, 1904).

7. Pandit Lekh Ram, Kulliat-e-Arya Musafir ( Jullundur: Satya Dharam Parcharak, 1897).

8. Pandit Lekh Ram, Kulliat-e-Arya Musafir ( Jullundur: Satya Dharam Parcharak, 1897).

9. Gene R. Thursby, Hindu-Muslim Relations

in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict and Communal movements in Northern India, 1923-1928.

10. Gene R. Thursby, Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict and Communal movements in Northern India, 1923-1928.

11. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Aina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 5 (Surrey: Islam International Publications, 2009), 651.

12. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Istafta, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 12 (London: 1984), 110.


14. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Istafta, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 12 (London: 1984), 113-116.



17. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Istafta,

on expressions in the native press regard-ing the murder of Lekh Ram is confined to the educated classes in Lahore, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepore and Peshawar and especially the student classes, and has been stirred up by the Arya com-munity to whom Lekh Ram belonged … The excitement is now quieting down, but the assassin is still at large.”[72]

This shows the level of keen interest maintained by the Government of the Punjab in the case of Lekh Ram. This secret correspondence also shows no bias against the Aryas.

The mystery murderer, whose name remained unknown, murdered Lekh Ram on the festival of Eid. He mys-teriously escaped a room that only had one door to be used as both an entrance

and an exit. All religious communities accused one another as the conspira-tors behind this mysterious murderer. Lekh Ram had insulted all major reli-gions during his life, so it was plausible that followers of any one of these faiths could have perpetrated his violent and cruel death and the murder remained clouded in speculation. Despite all lines of investigation, the mystery murderer was never found and the prophecy about Lekh Ram’s death was fulfilled to the letter. The attempts to prove Hazrat Ahmadas as culpable failed miserably.[73] The case was and always will remain closed, and is a grand testimony to the truth of Hazrat Ahmadas, the Promised Messiah, as a prophet of God.

About the Author: Asif M Basit, Curator Ahmadiyya ARC (Archive and Research Centre), Director Programming MTA International [email protected]

Skyline of Lahore old city scape with Badshahi Mosque, Pakistan.Lichtmeister | shutterstock.com


34. Muhammad Abdul Majid, Sadqa-e-Jariya baraey Firqa-e-Arya.

35. Khalil Muhammad, Adam: Nijat-e-Arya.

36. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Aina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, p.650.

37. Ibid.

38. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Karamat us Sadiqeen, Ruhani Khazain.

39. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Barkaat-ud-Dua, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 6 (Tilford, Surrey: 2008), 2-3.

40. Publications like Ummahatul Momineen, Rangeela Rasool, Satanic Verses, caricatures and satirical depiction of the Prophet in the very recent years are all examples of actions leading to violent reactions.

41. Antony Copley, ed., Gurus and Their Followers: New Religious Reform Movements in Colonial India (New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 111.

42. Bob van der Linden, Moral Languages from Colonial Punjab, (New Delhi: Manohar, 2008), 186.

43. Akmal-ul-Akhbar, March 21, 1890.

44. Tribune, May 3, 1890.

45. “Synopsis of the lawsuit against Lekh Ram in Delhi,” (India Office Records, British Library) Shelf Mark IOR/LP/R/1/1/223.

46. Kenneth W. Jones, “Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution,” The Journal of Asian Studies 28, no. 01 (November 1968): 152, doi:10.2307/2942838.

47. “The Chaudhwin Sadi,” March 23, 1897.

48. Rahbar-i-Hind (Lahore), March 15, 1897.

49. Dafe-ul-Auham, 81.

50. Akhbar-i-Am (Lahore), March 26, 1897.

51. Rahbar-i-Hind (Lahore), March 15, 1897.

52. As far as the author has been able to research on the literature printed in India in response to Lekh Ram’s murder, Arya or Non-Arya, no name of the suspected murderer has been mentioned.

53. “Special Supplement,” Bharat Sudhar (Lahore), March 13, 1897.


55. Punjab Samachar (Lahore), March 13, 1897.

Ruhani Khazain, www.alislam.org/urdu/rk/Ruhani-Khazain-Vol-12.pdf.


19. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Aina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 5 (Surrey: Islam International Publications, 2009), 650.

20. Vernacular Papers British Library, Akhbar-e-Aam (Lahore), 169.

21. Ganga Prasad Upadhaya, The Light of Truth, 780.

22. Ganga Prasad Upadhaya, The Light of Truth, 780.

23. Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm (London: University of California Press, 1976),146.

24. Vernacular Papers British Library, Punjab Samachar, 184.

25. Vernacular Papers British Library, “Summaries,” (India Office Records).

26. Kenneth W. Jones, “Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution,” The

Journal of Asian Studies 28, no. 01 (November 1968): 146 & 148, doi:10.2307/2942838.




30. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, The Message or a Cry of Pain, p.19.






56. Bharat Sudhar (Lahore), March 13, 1897.

57. Paisa Akhbar (Lahore), March 27, 1897.

58. Siraj ul Akhbar ( Jhelum), March 22. 1897.

59. Various books of the Hazrat Mirza Sahibas carry references to this e.g. Aina Kamalat-e-Islam, Al-Istafta, Barakat-ud-Dua.

60. Paisa Akhbar (Lahore), March 27, 1897.

61. Paisa Akhbar (Lahore), Apr. 14, 1897.

62. Wafadar (Lahore), March 15, 1897.


64. The Nur Afshan, April 23, 1897.

65. “The Chawdhwin Sadi,” March 23, 1897.

66. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Barkat-ud-Dua.

67. Paisa Akhbar (Lahore), April 10, 1897.

68. Jaafar Zattali (Lahore), May 1, 1897.

69. Wafadar (Lahore), May 15, 1897.

70. Arya Gazzette (Lahore), Jun 24, 1897.

71. “Telegram 444” ( Judicial and Public Department, India Office Records British Library), File 765/1897.

72. “Telegram 444” ( Judicial and Public Department, India Office Records British Library), File 765/1897.



The world is passing through turbulent times. The global economic crisis continues to manifest new and grave dangers at every juncture. The similarities of the current circumstances to the build-up of the Second World War are stark. Events appear to be moving us rapidly towards a Third World War. The consequences of a nuclear war are beyond our imagination. In this book, the historic addresses of Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaba, Fifth Khalifah of the Promised Messiah and Supreme Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, to prominent dignitaries at Capitol Hill, the House of Commons, the European Parliament and other notable locations around the world have been collated. The book also includes the momentous letters sent by His Holiness to the numerous world leaders. Over and over again, His Holiness has reminded all that the only means of averting a global catastrophe is for nations to establish justice as an absolute requirement of their dealings with others. Even if mutual enmity exists, impartiality must be observed at all times, because history has taught us that this alone is the way to eliminate all traces of hatreds and to build everlasting peace.

Read online at: www.alislam.org

Purchase the book here: http://store.alislam.org/


© Masood T

Acceptance of this Messiah is abso-lutely crucial, as the Holy Prophetsa said: “When you see him, pledge alle-giance (bai’at) to him, even if you have to crawl over ice, because he will be the Khalifa of Allah – the Mahdi.”[2] The Holy Prophetsa also said: “Whoever among you lives will see the time of the Messiah ( Jesus son of Mary) who will be the Imam Mahdi, the Arbiter and the Judge.”[3] In other words, the Mahdi and the Messiah will be one person who will also be the Arbiter and the Judge in all matters of disagreement among the Muslims. He will have the final word! The Holy Prophetsa further said: “Convey my salam (greet-ings) to him.”[4] All of these narrations show us the grandeur of the Messiah and Mahdi in the eyes of the Holy Prophetsa. He gives us emphatic instructions to do his bai’at [oath of allegiance], to consider his word as the final word and to convey his salam to him. These are not ordinary instructions for an ordinary person. Rather, they are meant for a person

of extraordinary status in the eyes of the Holy Prophetsa and, in turn, in the eyes of God Almighty.[5]

Hazrat Abu Hurrairahra narrates: “When Surah Jumu’ah (Chapter 62) of the Holy Qur’an was revealed to the Holy Prophetsa we happened to be there in his company. When he recited the verse ‘And among others from among them who have not yet joined them.’ Someone asked, ‘Who are they O Messenger of Allah?’ The Holy Prophetsa did not pay attention. The man repeated the question two or three times. At that time Salmanra, the Persian was also sitting among us. The Holy Prophetsa placed his hand on him and said, ‘Even if faith ascended to the Pleiades (completely dis-appearing from the earth), there would be some from his people;’ In another ver-sion ‘one man’ is mentioned instead of ‘some’ – ‘who would restore faith (back) to earth.’”[6]

The Holy Prophet Muhammadsa

acceptance of the messiah

1. Sahih Muslim, Book 40, No. 6931.

2. Sunan Abu Dawud, Bab Khurujul Mahdi; Sunan Ibn Majah, Kitabul Fitn, Bab Khurujul Mahdi.

3. Hadiqatus Salihin, Hadith no. 948, 898.

4. Durr Mansur, Vol. 2.

5. Maulana Farhan Iqbal, “The Holy Prophet Muhammadsa on his Messiah,” Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada, October 15, 2014, http://www.ahmadiyyagazette.ca/articles/751-the-holy-prophet-muham-madsa-on-his-messiah.html.

6. Bukhari, Tafseer–ul-Quran, Vol. 3, p. 1560 (English Translation: Beacon of Truth, p. 114).


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“He is the Knower of the unseen; and He reveals not His secrets to anyone, except to him whom He chooses, namely a Messenger of His.”[1]

This concept is not limited to Islam alone, but belongs to the wider Abrahamic tra-dition. For example, we read in the Bible:

“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”[2]

Commenting on this criterion, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadianas (1835–1908), who will henceforth be referred to as the Promised Messiahas, writes:

“The sublime excellence of prophets is that they receive news from God. Thus the Holy Qur’an states ‘He reveals not the unseen to anyone, except to him whom He chooses from among His Messengers.’ This means that the

unseen things from God, Most High, are not revealed to anyone except His prophets, whom He chooses. Those people who par-take in the excellences of prophethood are informed by God, Most High, about future events before their occurrence. This is a mag-nificent sign of [the truthfulness of ] God’s appointees and messengers. Indeed, no other miracle is greater than it.”[3]

Prophecies are one of the primary objects of atheistic critique, often premised on the argument that, “no information sup-posedly gained during a mystical or religious experience, which could not have been oth-erwise known to the individual claiming the experience, has ever been confirmed.”[4] Thus, in addition to demonstrating the recipient’s truthfulness, authentic proph-ecies provide evidence for the existence of the transcendent source who con-veyed the information. The Promised Messiahas made many such prophecies that were conclusively fulfilled and have stood the test of time. Although he never left his native homeland of India, many of his prophecies relate to distant lands and major global events. It is not pos-sible to present an exhaustive study of each prophecy within the space of this article. By way of illustration, however, this article intimately explores one such prophecy.

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, Ever Merciful

1. introductionThe Holy Qur’an has stipulated divine knowledge as an essential criterion for judging a prophet’s truthfulness. The one claiming prophethood is bestowed divine

knowledge of the future that is mark-edly distinct from political forecasts and other educated guesses, as it originates directly from God. In other words, the prophet is bestowed knowledge a human being simply cannot concoct. As Allah the Almighty says:

World War One: Centenary of the Fulfilment

of a Great Warningby Bilal Ahmed Tahir, UK

WWI. Serbia trench position at the crest of a hill. Ca. 1914-18.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com


the calamity, he proclaimed that it “shall overtake the world.” Further describing its unprecedented nature, the Promised Messiahas stated:

“[I]t would be more terrible than the ones before. It would be awful in its intensity. Were I not forced to disclose all this out of my deep sympathy for my fellow beings I would not have mentioned it.… Hearken! I have warned you. The earth listens as does the heavens that whoever, departing from righteousness, is inclined towards mischief and pollutes the earth with his viciousness will be seized. God Almighty warns that His wrath is about to descend upon the earth, for the earth is filled with sin and vice. Then arise and be warned that the end is near as had been foretold by the previous prophets. I call Him to witness Who has sent me that all this is from Him and not from me. Would that my warnings were viewed in good faith. Would that I were not treated as a liar, so that the world would escape ruin. … Otherwise, the day is approaching which will turn men mad. The unfortunate fool will say: These are all lies. Alas! Why is he in such deep sleep when the sun is about to rise?”[5]

In light of the global scale of the impending calamity mentioned in the announcement, the Promised Messiahas

emphatically instructed affluent mem-bers of the Community that: “they should try to print more [copies] and publicise it throughout the world.”[6] Consequentially, news of the prophecy reached “foreign lands such as England, the United States of America, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Japan, Australia, Egypt, East Africa, West Africa, and other parts of the world.”[7] The prophecy was even the subject of several foreign newspaper headlines; for example, the New Zealand Herald of 21 April 1906, headlined it as “Predictions of Earthquakes: An Indian Prophet.”[8]

2.2. Prophecy of 15 April 1905

Seven days later, on the basis of divine revelation, specific details pertaining to the prophesied global calamity were com-posed in prosodic form and appended to a lengthy poem comprising of twelve couplets with each divided into two half-lines of verse. It was dated 15 April 1905. The prophetic poem was eventually pub-lished posthumously in 1908, in the fifth part of the Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya:[9]

What began with the assassination of the Archduke and heir-apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the sum-mer of 1914, escalated into the biggest bloodbath the world had witnessed up to that date. One of the Promised Messiah’sas most astonishing prophecies is that of the tragic conflict known as the Great War of 1914–1918, also referred to as the First World War. This article examines some of the Promised Messiah’sas prophecies and announcements relating to the Great War in light of accurate historical sources and eyewitness accounts. It then assesses the degree of fulfilment of these proph-ecies and critically discusses their wider reception.

2. Prophecy of

الساع ة لز ل ة ز :::1:::

أ ز لز ل ة ق وا م ع الساع ة ، اهلل إن ن ف س ك م، ال ح ق ج اء الف ضل ، م نك د ن األب ر ار ،

الب اط ل و ز ه ق

‘A Calamity Resembling Judgment day’From April 1905, the Promised Messiahas received numerous revelations warning of an impending and unprecedented global calamity, one that would resem-ble doomsday. As was his custom, he had the revelations widely published in various Urdu and English newspapers, tracts, and periodicals of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

2.1. Prophecy of 8 April 1905

The first revelation that the Promised

Messiahas received in relation to the Great War of 1914–1918 was on 8 April 1905. This prophecy was initially pub-lished in the newspaper Al-Hakam on 10 April. It was subsequently translated as part of the April 1905 edition of The Review of Religions magazine, under the title “A Warning – Read it attentively for it is the Word of God.” The Promised Messiahas stated:

“About 3 a.m. I received holy revelation from Allah the Almighty, which is given below:

الساع ة لز ل ة ز :::1:::

أ ز لز ل ة ق وا م ع الساع ة ، اهلل إن ن ف س ك م، ال ح ق ج اء الف ضل ، م نك د ن األب ر ار ،

الب اط ل و ز ه ق

‘[…] A calamity (lit. earthquake) resem-bling Doomsday. Save your lives. Indeed, Allah is with the pious. My Grace has drawn close to you. Truth has come and falsehood has vanished.’”

Commenting on this prophecy, the Promised Messiahas writes:

“This means that God will show a fresh Sign. It will be a shock for the people. That will be the calamity like the Judgment Day…”

Emphasising the global proportions of

world war one: centenary of the fulfilment of a great warning

[…]



A Sign will appear some time from now (today is April 15, 1905) which shall overwhelm villages, towns and meadows.

The wrath of God will bring a revolu-tion in the world; the naked one will have no time to fasten his trousers.

Suddenly a calamity (zalzalah lit. earthquake) will severely shake them all—be they humans, trees, rocks, or oceans.

In the twinkling of an eye the land will be turned upside down and streams of blood will flow like the water of a rivulet.

Those whose night garments were white as Jasmine will be in the morning [as if clad in red] like the Sycamore tree.

Men shall lose their senses and birds their consciousness and nightingales and pigeons will forget their songs.

That hour will bear heavily upon every traveller and wayfarers will lose their way in confusion and deliriousness.

With the blood of the dead, the run-ning waters of highland streams will turn red like Bistort syrup.[10]

The terror of it will exhaust everyone, great and small, and even the Tsar at that hour, will be in a pitiable state.

That divine Sign will be a specimen of terror. The sky will attack with a drawn sword.

Hasten not to repudiate this, thou undiscerning fool, for my truthfulness depends entirely on the fulfilment of this Sign.

This is a prophecy based on divine revelation and will surely be fulfilled; wait then awhile in righteousness and steadfastness.

Prophecy of impending global calamity as it was reported in the New Zealand Herald, 21 April 1906


then Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The assas-sin was Gavrilo Princip (1894–1918), a Bosnian Serb nationalist, radicalised by the ‘Black Hand Society.’ The Black Hand Society—who engineered the attack—was an underground pan-Slavic conspiratorial military society aimed at creating a Greater Serbia that would unify all territories with majority South Slavic populations located within the borders of the Habsburg Empire.[11]

Although royal assassinations were not uncommon in the decades prior to this incident, as a number of prominent monarchs had been assassinated such as the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in 1898, Italian King Umberto I in 1900, Serbian King Alexander I and his wife in 1903, and Greek King George I in 1913, this particular assassination would be unique in terms of its cataclysmic con-sequences. The assassination precipitated ‘the July Crisis,’ a series of diplomatic manoeuvrings between the Great Powers, spanning several weeks. The July Crisis culminated in the Austro-Hungarian Empire formally declaring war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, for refusing to accept all conditions of its ultimatum. This trig-gered a chain of events through certain alliances. The first event came two days

later, when Russia, the self-proclaimed protector of the Slavic peoples, mobilised her army. As an ally to Austria-Hungary, Germany issued an ultimatum to Russia on 31 July to stop mobilisation, which Russia ignored. This led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August and her ally France on 3 August. France was bound to Russia through a formal alliance treaty. In an attempt to win a swift and decisive victory on two fronts, Germany implemented a modified form of a military deployment plan, notori-ously known as the ‘Schlieffen plan.’ The Schlieffen plan entailed rapidly defeat-ing France in the West and subsequently directing troops eastwards in order to defeat Russia, which was expected to be slower in its mobilisation. However, due to heavy fortifications along the Franco-German border, this required violating the neutrality of Luxemburg and Belgium. As a guarantor of Belgium’s neutrality, Britain entered into the war on the side of the Allies, France and Russia, on 4 August 1914. The Great War had begun.

In relation to the suddenness associated with the prophecy, one line of the pro-phetic poem proclaims:

2.3. Constituent details of the prophecy

The aforementioned prophetic revela-tions and pronouncements demonstrated that the prophesied calamity would be inextricably associated with some of the following attributes:

• It would be an unexpected event

• It would be unprecedented in its ferocity

• It would be a global event

• All peoples, both great and small, would be affected

• There would be enormous human casualties

• There would be significant blood loss

• It would occur in various theatres: cit-ies, towns, meadows, rocky terrain, sea and sky

• Bird life would be affected

• There would be psychological effects

• There would be hardships for travellers

• The plight of the Tsar of Russia would

be particularly pitiable

• I t would cause a wor ldwide transformation

3. Fulfilment of the prophecyWith the outbreak of the Great War of 1914–1918, the prophecy’s fulfilment is self-evident from even the most cursory review of the specific details contained within it. Such details, when taken collec-tively, cannot possibly apply to any other event. The following instances demon-strate how these details were fulfilled in the most remarkable and awe-inspiring manner.

3.1. The Unexpected Nature of World War One

The prophecy stated that the impending calamity would occur unexpectedly:

“Suddenly a calamity will severely shake them all.”

The spark that ignited the Great War was the assassination in the Balkans of the Habsburg Archduke, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand (1868–1914) and his wife, Sophie (1859–1914), on 28 June 1914 during a visit to Sarajevo (part of the



“The naked one will have no time to fasten his trousers.”

It was literally the case that in some battles people had no time to dress. For example, consider the following report relating to the Belgian town of Contich, issued by a correspondent of The Sphere on 28 November 1914:

“The German guns had been brought up to the bank of a river nearby, and from the position they threw shrapnel into the doomed town. There were many who had to flee naked as they were down the streets in panic, when the enemy opened fire on them. The place presented a picture of utter desolation.”[12]

3.2. Global War

The Promised Messiahas had clearly described the impending calamity as global in its scope. Initially, in August

Below: German WW1 soldiers with machine gun 40 meters from the British trenches. 1916. A soldier with the metal helmet is ready to throw a hand grenade.

Above: WWI. Dramatic illustration of a British bayonet charge through poison gas. On April 22, 1915, German forces introduced the use of lethal chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium.

Left: Canadian troops going, over the top, during training near St. Pol, France. WWI. October 1916.

Below: WWI. The arrival of British Expeditionary Forces in Boulogne, France. The Scots are greeted by French onlookers in August 1914.

Austrian newspaper illustration of the assassination of Archduke and wife.Wikimedia Commons

Archduke Franz Ferdinand & wife’s funeral ceremony.Wikimedia Commons




Above: German WW1 machine gun crew firing from a trench on the Eastern Front. 1914-15.




Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.Wikimedia Commons


The prophecy has also clearly stated that the calamity would affect all classes of society:

“The terror of it will exhaust everyone, great and small.”

This was met with remarkable fulfilment as all classes of people from elites and aristocrats to ordinary people at the grass roots bore the brunt of the war.

It is interesting to note the variant read-ing of the phrase ‘great and small’ within the prophetic couplet. In his seminal work of history, Tarikh-e-Ahmadiyyat, charting the history of the Ahmadiyya

Muslim Community, the late Maulana Dost Muhammad Shahid, the foremost historian of the Ahmadiyya Community, explains how the extant original manu-script of the page containing the 15 April 1905 prophecy used the word taaqatein (powers) instead of jiin o ins (great and small people). This would render the translation to be “the terror of it will exhaust all the powers.”[15] This alterna-tive reading is also an apt description of the events that were to transpire nine to thirteen years later, i.e., during the First World War, as all the great military and economic powers of the time were drawn into the conflict. The Allied Powers con-sisted of the British, French, Russians, Italians, Americans, and Japanese, while the Central Powers consisted of the Germans, Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans.

Although the wartime experience of neu-tral states was obviously different from that of the belligerents, they too were also affected. For example, neutral states such as Belgium and Luxembourg were ‘vic-tims of geography’ and their neutrality was violated.[16] Others, such as Albania and the Netherlands, bore the influx of refugees from its war-torn neighbours. Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare policy continuously sank ships

1914, the war was a continental conflict involving only some of the European states and was thus referred to by many commentators as the ‘European War.’[13]

But as events unfolded and time passed, most nations were drawn into taking sides with either the Allies or the Central Powers.[14] For example, the Ottoman Empire, the last great Islamic Empire, whose territory then included modern-day Turkey and much of the Middle East, entered into the war on the side of the Central Powers on 29 October 1914, with a series of pre-emptive naval strikes on Russian bases in the Black Sea. Similarly, the United States, who initially maintained neutrality for a large part of the war, entered on the side of the Allies on 6 April 1917, after Germany refused to end its policy of unrestricted subma-rine warfare. Furthermore, as the great powers had virtually colonised most of the known world, colonial troops in far-off lands played a vital part in the war effort, thus further extending the conflict beyond continental Europe.

In popular memory, particularly in Britain and France, this war is most often associated with the poignant and traumatic experience of soldiers on ‘the Western Front.’ This was the name given to the battle zone comprising of two

continuous lines of defensive trenches stretching across the fields of Belgium and France, from the Swiss border to the North Sea. However, this was not charac-teristic of the experience of every soldier, nor was the war limited to that region. Indeed, this was truly a global conflict involving belligerents from every con-tinent, with battlefronts spanning from the jungles of Africa to the deserts of the Middle East, the Caucasus Mountains, and all the oceans of the world.

World map of the participants in World War I. Green = Allies, orange = Central Powers and grey = Neutrals.Wikimedia Commons



the world had ever seen.”[21] Yet no one at the time, including those militarily and politically informed, could predict

the brutal fate that lay ahead for soldiers who believed the common misconcep-tion that the war would be over “before the leaves fall.”[22] This was largely based on the false assumption that most wars of the previous decades were relatively short and decisive and that the destruc-tive potential of novel technologies of warfare and the sustainability of the

belonging to neutral states. Although some countries may have benefitted from maintaining neutrality, there was a notable strain on the global economy. Professor of Military History Hew Strachan writes:

“Given London’s position as the centre of global finance in 1914, but with Britain at war, neutrality became a relative term rather than an absolute one. In 1914 any state in the world which engaged in inter-national commerce could not but be affected by what happened in the city of London. The war’s effects on trade and finance were deepened with the British blockade, which extended to the interdiction of neutral trade with the Central Powers, and with Germany’s response, the adoption of unre-stricted U-boat warfare. Economic war did not spare the neutrals as more direct forms of fighting did.”[17]

3.3. Human Casualties and Severe Loss of Blood

Another deeply tragic aspect of the prophesied calamity was the colossal cost in human casualties and the severe loss of blood. The prophecy described rivers of blood flowing to the extent of changing the colour of running water to red. One such example where the latter detail was

met with remarkably literal fulfilment was during the Gallipoli expedition in April 1915, when the Allies carried out a disastrous attempt to seize control of the Dardanelle straits from the Ottoman Empire. The campaign entailed a major amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, involving mainly British, Anzac (Australian and New Zealand) and French troops.

Due to fierce Ottoman resistance and their clear strategic advantage of hold-ing the higher ground, the Allies suffered staggering casualties. Many troops did not reach shore and were shot whilst at sea.[18] One Allied pilot, Commander Charles Samson, who was performing aerial reconnaissance, later gave an eye-witness account of what he saw from his plane. He stated that the sea was “abso-lutely red with blood to 50 yards out.”[19] This was also confirmed by an Ottoman Turkish officer, Major Mahmut of the fifth army, who vividly described the scene: “The fire changed the colour of the sea with the blood from the bodies of the enemy – a sea whose colour had remained the same for years.”[20]

In the words of the American historian, Professor Robert Citino, “World War I was the largest and bloodiest conflict that


Left: English women and men working in storage shed for large shells of a munitions factory. Artillery was the deadliest weapon of WWI, responsible for an estimated 60% of casualties. Ca. 1918.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

Below left: British poster instructing soldiers in use of WW1 gas masks. 1915. It reads,

‘Learn to adjust your respirator correct and quick...,’ soldier on the battlefield, collapsing and clutching his throat.’© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

Below: Tyne Cot Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium. Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres.© chrisdorney | shutterstock.com


Messiahas who served as Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from 1914 to 1965, wrote:

“This means that garments which will be as white as jasmine flowers at night, will be transformed to the red of the sycamore tree by morning, having been drenched in blood. Now if this was merely a hyperbolic simile and such a thing would occur in the battle, it would still have been difficult to explain to those people about whom this prophecy was made, that like the leaves of the Sycamore tree, your clothes have become red with blood. This is because those people who had never

seen the Sycamore tree and who had no idea what the colour of the Sycamore leaf is, would not have been able to understand this analogy. The most they could imagine would be that the redness in the sycamore leaves will be similar to the subtle redness found in the leaves of some other trees. The reality, however, is that sycamore leaves contain such redness just like the colour of thick coagulated blood. And it looks exactly like blood. Now look, in France, where the fighting has been the most intense and still is now, sycamore trees are spread far and wide in the battlefields there. Incidentally, only a short while ago, one of our friends wrote that: ‘I am standing in the battlefield in order to perform military service. Bombs are raining down and I am standing under a sycamore tree while reciting this couplet of the Promised Messiahas:

Those whose night garments were white as jasmine will be in the morning [as if clad in red] like the Sycamore tree.’

This friend had also sent a sycamore leaf, which on one side was exactly the colour of blood and on the other, a little yellowish.

Thus, this no longer remains a statement of poetic notion; instead the act of God has showed that in reality, at that location, there were the leaves of sycamore trees and

global economy, all made the chance of a prolonged conflict impossible.[23] However, according to the most recent scholarly calculations, during the four dreadful years of the war in which more than 65 million men were mobi-lised, an estimated 10 million died.[24]

A further 20 million were severely wounded.[25] Although difficult to ascer-tain with any precision, civilian fatalities have been estimated to be approximately 7 million, rendering the total casualty fig-ure in the region of 37 million.[26]

The horrific nature of the conflict had also been described in the following

couplet:

“Those whose night garments were white as Jasmine will be in the morning [as if clad in red] like the Sycamore tree.”

Commenting on the prophetic nature of the couplet, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra (1889-1965), the Second Successor of the Promised


Wounded American soldiers entering an aid station in France during WW1. 1917-18. 1927 lithograph by Lucian Jonas.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

WWI. Propagandistic British illustration of a German counter-attack on the British occupied Hohenzollern Redoubt, an extension of the Battle of Loos (Sept. 25-Oct. 13, 1915).© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com


rubble, and finally stretches of bricks; woods first [became] gaps and tangles, then fields of dead pale stumps, eventually desert.”[30]

Yet the prophecy mentions that the bru-tal calamity would destroy the very land itself:

“In the twinkling of an eye the land will be turned upside down.”

This was particularly characteristic of the conflict on the Western Front, where trench warfare transformed many of the scenic landscapes of northern France and Belgian Flanders beyond the point of recognition.[31] The digging of trenches upheaved the earth while artillery

shelling and mines led to craters, some of which can still be viewed today.[32] The prophecy also specifically mentioned the devastation of trees:

“Suddenly a calamity will severely shake them all—be they humans, trees, rocks, or oceans.”

According to the French Forestry ser-vice, “350,000 hectares of forest had been

garments were taking on their very colour. If the war occurred in such a country where sycamore leaves did not point towards gar-ments turning red with blood, then someone could have said that this was stated in a poetic manner. However, the presence of these trees there and then the blood-soaked state of the people under them, tells us that this was no mere statement of poetic notion. Rather, actual reality was elucidated.”[27]

3.4. Prophesied Theatres of the War

One tragic aspect of the prophecy is that the destruction would not be limited to human life but would also involve land, sea and air. The specific theatres of war-fare identified in the prophecy include villages, towns, meadows, rocks (i.e. mountains), seas and skies, examples of which are presented below.

3.4.1. Land Warfare and Environmental Effects

The prophecy specifically mentions the destruction of “villages, towns and meadows.” Commenting on the devas-tating effects the war had on these three theatres, Dr Dorothee Brantz, an envi-ronmental historian of warfare writes:

“Villages and towns lay in ruins, fields had

been turned into moonscapes, and forests had been reduced to acres of stumps.”[28]

The First World War saw the annihilation of many towns and villages. For example, the Belgian town of Ypres was reduced to mere rubble.[29] Similarly, during the Battle of Verdun fought from February to December 1916, a large number of French villages were obliterated. In the words of one German writer, “Beautiful villages first became ruins, then mounds of

Craters on Combres Hill, France, created by WWI bombs and artillery fire. Ca. 1918-1919.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com


Cloth Hall Tower, Ypres, [ca. 1918]Photographer UnknownCanadian Expeditionary Force albumsBlack and white printReference Code: C 224-0-0-9-1Archives of Ontario, I0004760

Major art installation at the Tower of London,designed by ceramic artist Paul Cummins.888,246 ceramic poppies in total were plantedwhere each poppy represents a British Empiremilitary fatality during the First World War. Theartist was inspired by a line in the will of ananonymous soldier from Derbyshire, who waskilled in Flanders, which describes vividly thehorrors of the war: “The blood-swept landsand seas of red, where angels fear to tread.”

© Ron Ellis | shutterstock.com


were forced to burn our homes and crops, we weren’t allowed to take our cattle with us, we weren’t even allowed to return to our homes to get some money.”[37]

3.4.2. Mountain Warfare

Mountainous terrain formed a major part of the landscape for many soldiers during the war. For example, Ottoman soldiers fought Russians in the Caucasus and Russians battled Austro-Hungarian troops in the Carpathian Mountains in Galicia. Yet the Italian front in the high Alps and Dolomites has gone down in history as the bloodiest and deadli-est theatre of mountain warfare during the Great War. The vast majority of Italian troops fighting against Austria-Hungary experienced this battle.[38] One such mountain called ‘Col di Lana’ has been dubbed ‘Col di Sangue,’ meaning ‘The Mountain of Blood,’ in light of the heavy casualties it claimed. Many soldiers were buried alive due to the fact that the Italians blew up its summit.[39]

3.4.3. Naval Warfare

The prophecy stated that the calamity would involve the seas. The Promised Messiahas also received a more specific revelation relating to naval warfare on 11

destroyed during the war, an amount that would have supplied the tree harvest for the next sixty years.”[33] In a letter to his wife, Major Rowland Charles Fielding recorded the vivid and horrific scene of the aftermath of a battle on the Western Front:

“[N]ot a brick or stone is to be seen, except where it has been churned up by a bursting shell. Not a tree stands. Not a square foot of surface has escaped mutilation. There is nothing but the mud and the gaping shell-holes; a chaotic wilderness of shell-holes, rim overlapping rim; and, in the bottom of many, the bodies of the dead.”[34]

It was also not uncommon for retreat-ing armies to adopt ruthless large-scale

‘scorched earth’ policies.[35] This pol-icy entailed destroying and burning fields, crops, and any resource that could potentially benefit an advanc-ing army. Russian forces commonly employed scorched earth tactics dur-ing their withdrawal from surrendered territory. This had a dire effect on local civilian populations, particularly on Poles, Jews and other non-Russian ethnic minorities of the Empire.[36] One group of refugees described their traumatic experience stating: “We didn’t want to move, we were chased away . . . we

Austrian mountain troops in the Isonzo district, clinging to rocks and helping each other along by ropes. They are climbing over mountain pass to surprise an Italian detachment, 1915. © Shutterstock.com | Everett Historical

A badly shelled main road after the Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916, showing trees ravaged by artillery.Wikimedia CommonsBelow: American soldiers emerging from shelter in No Man’s Land during WW1 battle. 1917-18. 1927 lithograph by Lucian Jonas.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

Night bombing by aeroplanes striking horses and soldiers near Soissons in WW1. 1918. 1927 lithograph by Lucian Jonas.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com


3.4.4. Aerial warfare

One truly remarkable detail in the prophecy related to a new vehicle of war, unknown to man at the time:

“The sky will attack with a drawn sword.”

Explaining the significance of this aspect of the prophecy, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmadra (1928–2003), the Fourth Spiritual Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community), states:

“When this great Warner foretold in 1905 heavenly attacks and destructive fire descending from the sky there was yet no indication of any such possibility or of the availability of the means there for. It was the time when the Wright Brothers were still occupied with elementary experi-ments aimed at the production of a flying machine. Three years after the publication of this prophecy, when this great Warner had already departed this life in May 1908, the Wright Brothers carried out their second experimental flight in September 1908, and it was not till several years later that in human history aircraft were first employed for bombardment from the skies.”[44]

Although aircraft were first employed militarily during the Italo-Ottoman war

of 1911–1912, the Great War of 1914–1918 is the first war in which they were employed on a large scale.[45] Initially, their sole purpose was for reconnaissance, but it later developed into a formidable instrument for bombardment and aerial combat.[46]

When scrutinising the prophetic line “the sky will attack with a drawn sword,” critics may object to an apparent vague-ness and alleged unwarranted metaphoric extrapolation in attributing it to the emergence of aerial warfare. It must be borne in mind, however, that the proph-ecy should be looked at in totality and not dismissed based on the metaphorical nature of one individual constituent. As part of a cumulative case, the prophecy is clear that in addition to land and sea, the catastrophe will bear some relation with the skies in the form of an attack. Metaphors are a part of all languages and a particularly prominent feature of reli-gious discourse. Indeed, when looked at in totality, the metaphoric nature of one constituent does not detract from the grandeur of the whole.

3.5. Psychological Effects of World War I

The Promised Messiahas prophesied that as a result of the calamity, “men will turn

May 1906:

“Vessels sail so that there might be [naval] duels.”[40, 41]

Commenting on this prophecy, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra (the Second Spiritual Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) states that, “the expression used in the revelation is kashti (vessels) which points to a bias for fighting sea craft of small size.”[42] Larger battleships, such as the colossal dread-noughts, were originally envisaged to be game-changers and were the focus of much of maritime military develop-ment during the naval arms race between Britain and Germany in the years leading up to the Great War.

In fact, only one major full-scale head-on confrontation of opposing battle fleets occurred during the war. The Battle of Jutland occurred on 31 May to 1 June 1916, when the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet met the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet at the North Sea near Danish Jutland. The majority of naval encounters, however, involved a novel vessel that would revolutionize the war at sea. The submarine or U-boat (short for the German ‘Unterseeboot,’ mean-ing ‘undersea-boat’) campaign was the

German strategy for counteracting the numerical superiority commanded by the Royal Navy. This naval campaign initially involved the sinking of allied warships followed by their merchant ships. It eventually escalated into the indiscrimi-nate sinking of neutral civilian ships after the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare.[43]

British two-seater monoplane fires on a WW1 German Taube fighter. 1914-15. A rifle is used to shoot the pilot of the German plane.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com

Below: RMS Lusitania torpedoed by a German submarine on 7 May 1915.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com



it has been reported in the literature that the Belgian Waterslager canary popula-tion was close to extinction during World War I. Systematic breeding was re-estab-lished only after the conflict.[52]

One prominent feature of the carnage was the high noise intensity produced by artillery which was “loud enough to split the eardrums” and which “quite commonly caused permanent hearing loss, especially among gunners.”[53] Often, the deafen-ing sounds were audible all the way in the UK.[54] The ear-piercing noises were reported to have greatly perturbed birds.[55] Recent studies have also shown that once deaf, a bird cannot sing in tune, much like humans.[56] The shellfire pro-duced noise levels exceeding 140 decibels. This resulted in devastating hearing loss to humans and would have inevitably affected birds too, including pigeons.[57,

58, 59, 60]

3.7. Hardship for Travellers

In relation to the effect the calamity would have on travellers, the prophecy declared:

“That hour will bear heavily upon every traveller and wayfarers will lose their way in confusion and deliriousness.”

The heart-rending diary entries and per-sonal accounts of travellers, who found themselves stranded in enemy coun-tries, vividly portray the difficulties they had to face. For example, describing the plight of Russian tourists, Dr Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia, Lead East European Curator (Russian Studies) at the British Library writes:

mad,” i.e., they would suffer wounds that would be psychological in character.[47] In response to the extremely traumatic conditions of the war and the constant and intense bombardment, medical symptoms seldom seen at that time were reported amongst soldiers; such as delu-sional states, nervous collapses, paralysis and tremors. These symptoms were not a direct result of demonstrable physical damage to the brain.[48] Charles Myers, a British physician and psychiatrist, thus coined a new term in medical literature. In an article in 1915 published in the renowned medical journal, The Lancet, Myers used the term ‘shell shock’ to describe the mental illnesses of such psy-chiatric casualties of war.[49]

3.6. Ill-effects on Birds

Besides the impact on human life, the prophecy also referred to the adverse effects the calamity would have on birds:

“Men shall lose their senses and birds their consciousness and nightingales and pigeons will forget their songs.”

Commenting on this aspect, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra wrote that “day and night bombing and the destruction of trees are highly detrimental to bird-life. The birds

either die or suffer greatly.”[50] He further stated that “the noise of cannonading and bursting of shells kept the birds flying in the air and prevented them from alighting on the trees so that many of them died of exhaustion and fatigue.”[51] Furthermore,

American WWI Soldier’s Diary Pages.© Susan Law Cain | shutterstock.com

In response to the extremely traumatic conditions of the war and the constant and intense bombardment, medical symptoms seldom seen at that time were reported amongst soldiers; such as delusional states, nervous collapses, paralysis and tremors.


Imperial Russia at the onset of the First World War.Wikimedia Commons


it then was, in October, 1914. We travelled by the ill-fated S.S. Arabia, which was one of the mail steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The German destroyer, Emden, was then operating in the Arabian Sea. It had already sunk several vessels. We made the voyage all right, but on a

subsequent voyage the Arabia, like so many other vessels, was sunk by the Emden in the Arabian Sea.”[62]

Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khanra refers to the unfortunate fate of the S.S. Arabia when it was sunk with-out warning in the Mediterranean on 6 November 1916.

3.8. The Pitiable State of the Tsar of Russia

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the prophecy relates to the miserable plight of one particular monarch:

“In summer 1914 many foreigners, Russians included, holidayed in spa towns in Germany and Austria, for example in Carlsbad (now Kavlovy Vary in the Czech Republic), and were detained there after war broke out. The diaries of these detainees truly reflect the mood of people who had to spend several months in an enemy country in a hostile environment and under constant surveillance by the Austrian police. Many of them had no money, as they had not planned to overstay their holiday and those who had the means could not get cash as their accounts had been frozen. Although this type of deten-tion was not real imprisonment, foreigners

were not allowed to move about freely, and it eventually became difficult for them to rent accommodation not only because they could not pay, but also because of the grow-ing xenophobia. In some places, the police prohibited the local population from renting out rooms to citizens of the enemy states, and in some cases people would get rid of foreign tenants before police warnings. The major-ity of people who could not find any suitable occupation felt lost and demoralised.”[61]

Similarly, civilians were not exempt from indiscriminate enemy attacks. Due to the unrestricted submarine warfare policy of the Germans between 1915 and 1918, vessels carrying non-combatant passen-gers were constantly in danger of being sunk. Describing his narrow escape from a German U-boat in one of his mem-oirs, Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khanra (1893–1985), former President of the UN General Assembly and International Court of Justice, recalls:

“I was called to the Bar in June, 1914, but had to stay on for my Bachelor of Law’s degree examination in October, 1914, which means that I was in England at the begin-ning of the First World War. My three years’ stay in England, therefore, coincided with the three last peace years in Europe and in a sense, in the world . . . I returned to India, as

The Russian Imperial Family, 1913. Left to right: Grand Duchess Maria, Tsarina Alexandra, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, Tsar Nicholas II, and Grand Duchess Anastasia. Tsarevich Alexei sits in front of his parents. The picture was taken to mark the tercentenary celebrations of the Romanov dynasty and sold as postcards throughout the Empire.Library of Congress LC-B2- 2868-2 [P&P]

German advertisement warning travelers of RMS Lusitania. May 1, 1915. The liner was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German submarine on May 7, 1915.




fifth richest man in history and the rich-est man of his time.[66]

Although Tsar Nicholas II had to face a number of political setbacks during his career such as defeat at the Russo-Japanese war in 1904–1905, the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, however,

temporarily strengthened the monarchy. In a show of sincere love for their emperor, a large crowd of roughly 250,000 people waving portraits and icons of the Tsar, crammed the Palace Square on 2 August 1914. The Tsar accompanied by his wife, while overlooking them, proclaimed war on the German Empire from the balcony of the Winter Palace.[67] The crowd sank to its knees and responded by singing the national anthem “God save the Tsar.”[68]

Although the Russian army was able to gain victories over the Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans, even with a commanding numerical superiority, it was to be no match for the far more advanced and industrialised German army. Consequentially, the Russian army

“And even the Tsar at that hour, will be in a pitiable state.”

The Tsar, a title given to the Emperor of Imperial Russia, had been divinely sin-gled-out by the prophecy. In light of the grammatical and linguistic structure of this line of the prophetic poem, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra inferred the fol-lowing conditions of fulfilment of the prophecy:

“The prophecy indicated several things in respect to this portion:

Firstly, the Tsar’s government would not be shaken by internal revolutions before the beginning of this war (as the Tsar will still be in power). Secondly, that his gov-ernment would not survive the war, as it had been foretold that he would be reduced to a miserable plight during the war (and thus his government will be terminated). Thirdly, that he would be dethroned before his death (as it is impossible for him to be in a pitiable state whilst still on the throne). Fourthly, that he would be the last Tsar, for the words of the prophecy were directed against Tsars as such, and not against any particular monarch. Lastly, that he would not die suddenly but would be subjected to great humiliation, disgrace and torture (as indicated by the prophesied pitiable state

that he will be in).”[63]

In light of the above, the remarkable ful-filment of the prophecy is evident from historical events. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (1868–1918) was a member of the Imperial House of Romanov. By 1913, the Romanov dynasty had ruled Russia under the pretext of divine ordi-nance for three centuries. On 20 October 1894, Nicholas succeeded his father, Tsar Alexander III (1845–1894), to the Russian throne. His official concise title was Nicholas II, ‘Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia.’[64] As defined by Article 1 of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, the nature of his monarchy was that of absolutism, justified theologically through the Russian Orthodox Church: “The Emperor of Russia is the monarch absolute and unrestricted. To obey His supe-rior power not only because of fear but as a conscience duty God Himself commands.”[65] By the eve of war in 1914, the mighty Russian Empire was at the zenith of its power. It encompassed vast swathes of land, stretching across three continents, equivalent to around one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface. Nicholas II had also accumulated such great wealth that, when taking inflation into account, it would be worth an estimated $300 bil-lion today. This amount makes him the

Nicholas II Declares War on Germany from the balcony of the Winter Palace, 2 August 1914.Wikimedia CommonsBelow: Nicholas II riding amongst his troops.Wikimedia Commons



and fuelled the February Revolution in 1917, when the army garrison at the capital Petrograd mutinied after join-ing widespread demonstrations, which saw anarchy and the breakdown of law and order.[71] Amidst the unprecedented unrest and deprived of the support of his most senior generals, Nicholas was forced to abdicate on 15 March 1917, in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail. Mikhail himself subsequently declined the crown, thus forever terminating the Tsarist autocracy, and with it the three centuries-old Romanov dynasty. A provi-sional government made up of moderates and progressive-minded elitists was formed in the immediate aftermath of Nicholas’s formal abdication.[72]

suffered humiliating defeats and stagger-ing losses at the front. One such example occurred early in the war in August 1914, during the Battle of Tannenberg. This particular defeat resulted in the near total annihilation of the Russian Second Army. As the war raged on and with the expo-nential rise in losses and the fall of the Empire’s Polish provinces to Germany, Nicholas made the disastrous decision in September 1915 to assume direct com-mand of the Russian armies and travelled to the frontline. In an official letter to the then serving Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, his uncle, Grand Duke Nikolai, he details his reasons for assuming the post:

“My duty to my country, which has been entrusted to me by God, impels me today, when the enemy has penetrated into the interior of the Empire, to take the supreme command of the active forces and to share with my army the fatigues of war, and to safeguard with it, Russian soil, from the attempts of the enemy.”[69]

Indeed, this would prove to be a grave mistake because from that point onwards he was personally associated in the pub-lic eye with every military failure and setback.

At the same time, Nicholas’s wife Alexandra Feodorovna (1872–1918) was left in charge of domestic issues and the capital. Alexandra was accused of harbouring pro-German sentiments due to her German ancestry. She also rapidly became the focus of disdain and anger from the Russian people, particu-larly because of her acquaintance with the infamous mystic Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916). Rasputin commanded a cancerous influence over her and her governmental decisions due to a puta-tive ability to treat her son and heir to the throne, Alexei, who suffered from hae-mophilia. Discontent with Rasputin was not limited to the general public but was also echoed by many nobles, including Prince Felix Yusupov (1887–1967) and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (1891–1942). They would ultimately orchestrate Rasputin’s murder on 17 December 1916.[70]

Russia suffered devastating defeats and colossal losses during the war. Likewise, it bore the brunt of economic ruin on the home front, including extortionate inflation, severe food and fuel short-ages, and widespread poverty, the latter already being a major part of the lives of many Russians. This exacerbated dis-content among the Russian population

Imprisoned Russian Czar Nicholas II and family gardening at Tsarskoe-Selo. 1917.© Everett Historical | shutterstock.com


Above: Nicholas II engaged in physicalwork in the kitchen-garden at Tsarskoe Selo whilebeing watched over by guards, 1917.Library of Congress LOT 11119, no. 5 [P&P]Left: Former Tsar Nicholas II shovelling snow while under internment atTsarskoe Selo following the February Revolution, 1917.Library of Congress LOT 11119, no. 5 [P&P]

Amidst the unprecedented unrest and deprived of the support of his most senior generals, Nicholas was forced to abdicate on 15 March 1917...


The abdication marked only the begin-ning of a series of miseries that would befall the dethroned Tsar and his family. As he feared for his life, he was desperate to seek asylum in the United Kingdom. However, although he was a first cousin and wartime ally of King George V, and his wife, Alexandra, was the favour-ite granddaughter of the late Queen Victoria, the British King refused to grant him and his family asylum amidst fears that it may incite a revolt in the UK. The French, another of his wartime allies, also refused him asylum.

Initially, Nicholas II and his family were allowed to remain at their residence at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, albeit under house arrest, and still enjoyed a certain degree of comfort, fitting for an ex-King. With their newfound sense of liberation after the revolution, however, the former imperial family began to become the target of the palace guards’

Following the abdication of the Tsar, the prophetic verse proclaiming the piti-able plight of the Tsar was the subject of much discussion, as members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community had immediately proclaimed fulfilment of their Founder’s prophecy. The then Head of the Community, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra, had also devoted a Friday sermon to the topic of the magnificent fulfilment of the prophecy around a week later on 23 March 1917. He recalled how only several days earlier while visiting Gurdaspur, a critic had objected to the prophecy stating:

“So what. If the Tsar has been deposed, scores of Tsars have been deposed before now. Now another Tsar will take his place as was the case in Iran where the father was replaced by his son and in Turkey, where one brother was dethroned and another made king. In this very manner, the same will happen here. Thus, this prophecy has not been ful-filled because another Tsar has been made and his condition was not pitiable.”[73]

In refutation of the critic’s objection, his Holiness emphasised the spectacu-lar nature of this particular abdication in contrast to previous dethronements:

“Although his statement that, up to the present time, scores of Tsars were deposed is incorrect, if we agree [for argument’s sake] that this happened, this makes the gran-deur of the prophecy of the abdication of the present Tsar all the more manifest. This is because the news which has been received up till now indicates that no Tsar will ever be made in the future. Rather, there will be a parliament. Thus, the Tsar is indeed in such a pitiable state that no Tsar will ever again appear in the future.”[74]

Indeed, history is replete with examples of royal abdications and dethronements, but none of them would have such a pro-found and cataclysmic effect on Tsardom.

Although his statement that, up to the present time, scores of Tsars were deposed is incorrect, if we agree [for argument’s sake] that this happened, this makes the grandeur of the prophecy of the abdication of the present Tsar all the more manifest. This is because the news which has been received up till now indicates that no Tsar will ever be made in the future.


Nicholas II was first cousins with both Wilhelm II and George V. All of them were descendants of King George II of England, making them also fifth cousins.Wilhelm II image: Wikimedia Commons- Reichard und Lindner, publisher: Gustav Liersch & Co.; George V image: Wikimedia Commons- Bain News Service, publisher; Nicholas II image: Wikimedia Commons- Author unknown.


of the Soviet Union. One such eyewit-ness statement is from a confession note written in 1922 by Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of the Ipatiev House and chief executioner of Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, four daughters–Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, son Alexei, their personal physician Dr Botkin, and three of their servants:

“I went to the lodgings, woke up Dr Botkin, and told him that everyone has to dress quickly because there are disturbances in the city, and that I must transfer them to a safer place. Not wishing to hurry them, I gave them the opportunity to get dressed. At 2 o’clock, I transferred the escort [guard] to the lower premises. [I] told them to arrange themselves in [their] arranged order. I alone led the family downstairs. Nikolai was car-rying Alexei in his arms. The rest, some with pillows in their hands, some with other items, we came down to the lower level to a special room previously prepared. Alexandra Fedorovna asked for a chair, Nikolai asked for a chair for Alexei.

I ordered that the chairs be brought. Alexandra Fedorovna sat down. Alexei as well. I suggested that everyone stand up. Everyone stood up, taking up the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his

back to me. I announced: the Executive Committee of Soviet Workers, Peasants and Soldier Deputies of the Urals carried [a deci-sion] to shoot them. Nikolai turned around and asked (sic). I repeated the order and commanded ‘Shoot.’ I shot first and killed Nikolai to drop (sic). The firing went on for a very long time, and despite my hopes that the wooden wall would not cause a ricochet, the bullets bounced off it. I was not able to stop this shooting for a long time, which took on a disorderly character. But when I finally was able to stop it, I realized that many were still alive. For instance, Dr Botkin lay propped up on the elbow of his right arm, as if in a relaxed pose, a revolver shot fin-ished him off. Alexei, Tatiana, Anastasia and Olga were still alive too. Also alive was Demidova. Com. Ermakov wanted to finish the job with a bayonet. However, this was not possible. The reason for this became clear later (the daughters had diamond armor [sewn] into their under bodices). I was forced to shoot each one in turn.”[80]

After the merciless executions, in a bid to cover up the murders, Yurovsky supervised the disposal of the bodies in two unmarked graves located in a swamp at the side of the road outside of

hooliganism and ill-discipline. The guards were reported to regularly defy orders and roam around the palace, sometimes even entering the former imperial fam-ily’s rooms, impromptu.[75] Some of the guards would go to further heights in humiliating them. For example, “on one occasion, soldiers knocked Nicholas off his bicycle by sticking a bayonet into the spokes as he rode by, and then laughed raucously as the former emperor picked himself up.”[76] At times, crowds would gather around the gates of the palace, staring at Nicholas and his wife, hurling insults at them.[77]

Later, in August 1917, the provisional government led by Kerensky relocated the family to the former Governor’s mansion in Tobolsk. The family kept strong by holding on to the belief that pro-Tsarist loyalists would eventually res-cue them. But their hopes were soon to be shattered by the cataclysmic events of the ‘October Revolution’ of 1917, which resulted in the Communist Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrowing Kerensky’s provisional government.

The Bolsheviks had initially imposed soldiers’ rations on the former Tsar. On 30 April 1918, the Bolsheviks exiled the Romanov family to the town of Yekaterinburg in the Urals. Pavel

Matveev, a member of the guards escort-ing the former Tsar, narrates that when he was informed of his destination, he remarked, “I would go anywhere at all, only not to the Urals,” as he heard that the residents there held staunch anti-Tsarist sentiments.[78]

This fact was confirmed with the arrival of the family in the Yekaterinburg train station where a huge angry mob awaited them, shouting threats such as, “We ought to throttle them!” The station commissar even exclaimed, “Bring the Romanovs out of the car. Let me spit in his dirty face!”[79] Had it not been for the local soviet officers ensuring safe passage to their destination of incarceration, these threats most certainly would have materialised.

In Yekaterinburg, they were impris-oned in the Ipatiev House, which would later come to be known as the “House of Special Purpose.” Numerous heart-rending reports exist, some of which contain graphic and horrific details of what the family experienced while in this house. It is unclear whether they are all authentic, but what can be ascertained with historical accuracy is the deeply tragic event of the night of 17 July 1918. The full details of this night were only made widely available after the collapse

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky. Commandant of the Ipatiev House and chief executioner of the last Tsar and family, July 1918.Wikimedia Commons



butchery. In 2007, a boy and a girl were exhumed from a separate gravesite near the original site. Coble et al published DNA findings and concluded:

“Combined with additional DNA test-ing of material from the 1991 grave, we have virtually irrefutable evidence that the two individuals recovered from the 2007 grave are the two missing children of the Romanov family: the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters.”[85]

Speaking on the tragic plight of the Tsar and the specific reference to him in the prophetic verse, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community stated:

“A recital of his sufferings makes one’s hair stand on end and causes one’s heart to weep for him, but at the same time, one’s faith in the Omniscient God is also enhanced when one sees how He had revealed these things twelve years prior to their occurrence, at a

time when nobody could even imagine that they could come to pass.”[86]

3.9. Global Revolution

The prophecy clearly stated that the calamity would bring about a global revolution:

“The wrath of God will bring a revolution in the world.”

The First World War was undoubtedly one of the most transformative events in history and would have momentous consequences on the world. On a politi-cal level, the war resulted in the collapse of four major empires (German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Turkish) and the dissolution of their respective cen-turies-old dynasties (Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs, Romanovs and Ottomans).

Yekaterinburg.[81] In his infamous note, Yurovsky recounted graphically how he, and his radical Bolshevik comrades, doused nine of the bodies including the Tsar, his wife, and three of his daughters, in sulphuric acid to prevent them from being recognised and piled them into one of the pits. He further recalled that the other two bodies were torched prior to burial.[82]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and with the official report of the execution being made public, the ruth-less murder of the Romanov family has

been the subject of several forensic inves-tigations and scientific studies. In July 1991, the bones of the Romanovs were exhumed with official sanction and iden-tified by Russian forensic authorities to be the remains of nine individuals: the last Tsar and wife, three of his daughters, his royal physician, and three servants. Subsequent DNA analysis by British sci-entists, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Genetics, also further bolstered the claim whereby they con-cluded that, “the DNA evidence supports the hypothesis that the remains are those of the Romanov family.”[83]

Two bodies still remained, however, that of the Tsarevich Alexei and one of the four daughters. Some conspiracy theo-rists claimed that this proved the alleged escape of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, a myth in widespread circulation. Several imposters have emerged over the dec-ades claiming to be the Grand Duchess herself. Yet none has achieved as much fame as Anna Anderson, identified by several investigators to be Franziska Schanzkowska; an eccentric, mentally ill Polish woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess from as early as 1920.[84] A more recent study, however, has dis-missed the possibility that a daughter of the Tsar would have escaped the brutal

Map of Europe before WW1, superimposed with 1923 borders. Wikimedia Commons

The First World War was undoubtedly one of the most transformative events in history and would have momentous consequences on the world. On a political level, the war resulted in the collapse of four major empires (German, Austro- Hungarian, Russian and Turkish) and the dissolution of their respective centuries-old dynasties…



This objection has been addressed in length by Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra on numerous occasions in his published works.[93] Firstly, he writes that “although the word zalzalah has been employed in this prophecy, in the Arabic language, zalzalah can denote any type of calamity.”[94] Under the root of the word in question, in the highly regarded Lisan-ul-Arab Dictionary, one of the most authorita-tive lexicons of the Arabic language, we find the following entry:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“Zalazil (plural of zalzalah) means calamities.”[95]

Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra also pre-sented an example in the Qur’anic discourse of a derivative of the same root of this word in the context of the well-known Battle of the Trench, which unequivocally carries the connotation of war:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“There and then were the believers sorely tried, and they were shaken with a violent shaking.”[96]

Furthermore, when this prophecy was published, the Promised Messiahas him-self had appended a note to it. This note also indicates that he did not believe that the calamity had to be a literal earth-quake:

“Divine revelation has repeatedly employed the word earthquake in this context and has indicated that the earthquake will be an example of the Judgment Day. Indeed, it should be termed as ‘earthquake of Judgment Day’ which is described in the verse:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


‘When the earth is shaken with her violent shaking.’[97]

But I am not able to apply the word earthquake with certainty upon its actual manifestation. It is possible that it may not be a common earthquake but some other dire calamity, which would be an exam-ple of the Judgment Day, the like of which has not been witnessed before, and which would bring about great destruction of life and property. If no such extraordinary Sign appears, while people have not openly reformed their way of life, I shall in such case have been proved false.”[98]

Moreover, in response to critics on

In their place, new borders and smaller nation states with new political systems were carved out, thus forever chang-ing the map of Europe and the Middle East. The most radical change perhaps was that caused by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, described as “the most consequential event of the 20th century, inspiring communist movements and revo-lutions across the world.”[87]

Linguistically, the Arabic word inqilab used in the prophecy and translated here as ‘revolution’ is not limited in meaning to a political revolution, but is used in both the Arabic and Urdu languages more generically to refer to any type of change.[88, 89] In light of this, we see that the prophecy was fulfilled with astonish-ing accuracy as the Great War profoundly impacted the world at the social and eco-nomic levels as well as the political.

Even early in the conflict, many could see that it was provoking cataclysmic changes. For example, the then Minister of Munitions, David Lloyd George, who would later become British wartime Prime Minister, while addressing a rest-less crowd of trade unionists in Glasgow on the Christmas of 1915, proclaimed: “It is a deluge, it is a convulsion of Nature . . . bringing unheard of changes in the social

and industrial fabric. It is a cyclone which is tearing up by the roots the ornamental plants of modern society.”[90]

4. ObjectionsFollowing on from the Russian Tsar’s abdication, and the subsequent prom-ulgation by the then Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and his followers of the fulfilment of the prophecy, opponents of the Community circulated several objections.[91] The Head of the Community thus published an Urdu treatise in May 1917, entitled, God’s Mighty Signs of Wrath: An answer to those who ridicule the Russian Tsar prophecy to address several of the major contentions.[92] These are dealt with first in the fol-lowing section alongside other possible objections.

4.1. Earthquake or War?

In this article, I have chosen to translate the Arabic word zalzalah throughout as a ‘calamity’ rather than the commonly understood meaning of ‘earthquake.’ Some may argue that this is being unfaithful to the original text and that attributing the fulfilment of the prophecy to the Great War is unwarranted. Critics argue that only a literal global earthquake could have fulfilled the prophecy.



far from their routes. But earthquakes do not trouble travellers. They trouble those staying in houses, in big cities. A calam-ity which can trouble travellers can only be war. When war starts, travellers cannot fol-low their normal routes. They have to give them up and adopt devious and difficult routes instead . . . The prophecy points to the ill-effects of the calamity on farms, fields, etc.; but earthquakes have no ill-effects on farms and fields, which are destroyed only by war . . . The prophecy points to the ill-effects of the calamity on birds; they were to lose their ‘senses’ and their ‘songs.’ An ordi-nary earthquake can have no such effects. The vibrations only last for a time. If birds sitting on a tree or a building fly into the air, they experience no ill-effects whatever. A modern war, however, is very hard on birds.”[102]

Incidentally, David Lloyd George also described the Great War as an earth-quake: “It is an earthquake which is upheaving the very rocks of European life. It is one of those seismic disturbances in which nations leap forward or fall backward gen-erations in a bound.”[103]

4.2. Fulfilment in the Life of the Promised Messiahas

Another objection that was raised when

the fulfilment of the prophecy was widely publicised was that the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community pro-claimed that the calamity would occur “in his lifetime.”[104]

Although this is correct regarding the initial prophecy, critics fail to admit that on 27 March 1906, the Promised Messiahas received subsequent revelations instructing him to pray for postponement of the calamity:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“O my Lord! Postpone the time of this (pun-ishment).”[105, 106]

The next day on 28 March 1906, his prayer was answered and he received the following revelation:


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“Allah has postponed it, till a time appointed.”[107, 108, 109]

Commenting on this revelation, the Promised Messiahas writes:

“Allah has accepted this supplication and has postponed the earthquake to another time.”[110]

this subject, the Promised Messiahas emphasised that the calamity would resemble an earthquake in some of its qualities without necessarily being liter-ally so, in the appendix of the fifth part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya:

“Although the word used is earthquake, it is quite possible that it might be some other calamity which possesses the quality of an earthquake. It will be a severe calamity—more ruinous than that which has occurred before—which will affect buildings also.”[99]

It is easy to draw similarities between earthquakes and wars, for both cause the loss of life and property. Referring to the quality of an earthquake in caus-ing higher land to be turned upside down, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra

presents the Qur’anic example of victo-rious kings during wars, who transform the vanquished higher classes into lowly subdued people:[100]


[1]

.... ...

:::1::

:

. .. ...

:::2:::

... ...

[2]

...

...

[3]

The Plague


:::1:::


:::2:::

World War 1

...

* ... [1]


:::1:::




3

[94]

[95]

[99]


[103]


“She said, ‘Surely, kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and turn the highest of its people into the lowest. And thus will they do.”[101]

Moreover, modern warfare can cause violent shakings at ground level like earthquakes, and severe destruction to buildings and infrastructure due to shell-ing and bombardment.

Finally, the specific details contained in the prophecy appear to clearly indicate that the prophesied event had to be a war. As Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra explained, “the prophecy says that the earth-quake will involve the whole world. But everybody knows that earthquakes never do that; they only involve parts of the world.” He further wrote that “the prophecy says the calamity will prove very hard on trav-ellers, who will lose their way and stray

Moreover, modern warfare can cause violent shakings at ground level like earthquakes, and severe destruction to buildings and infrastructure due to shelling and bombardment.



“This is a harrowing account of a future dis-tress which is to fall humanity in the near or remote future. The description is of a complex character and its dire details are dreadful enough to cause a shudder and make one’s hair stand on end. . . . the name of Russian Tsar attaches special interest to the predicted event . . . Our readers can easily interpret the wording of the Promised Messiahas in the light of the events as they occur under their very eyes and testify to the truth of the prophecy according to their own way of looking at things.”[113]

Furthermore, the prophecy was repub-lished throughout the duration of the war as events unfolded, in the aforemen-tioned periodical, in the September 1914, June 1915, January 1916 and March 1917 issues, as a reminder of the prophetic warnings vouchsafed to the Promised Messiahas a decade earlier.

Critics of prophecies also allege that such predictions are often concocted after the occurrence of the prophesied events. Commenting on how such a conten-tion cannot possibly apply here, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra writes:

“These are the days of the printing press, and we are at liberty to reject any proph-ecy respecting which there is no written

evidence. All the prophecies of the Promised Messiahas that I have mentioned are to be found printed in various books, news-papers, and periodicals prior to the event. Hence not even the bitterest foe can have the face to assert that these prophecies have been invented after the event. For, they were not only published, both among friends and foes, long before these events came to pass but God has brought about another way of proving that these prophecies had been actually published beforehand. The Promised Messiahas lived under a Government which professes an alien religion and according to the laws of this government, a copy of each and every book, periodical, advertisement, or newspaper that is published in India is sent to the Government Office for file, at the time of its publication.[114] Thus, the fact that these prophecies were actually published beforehand may be ascertained by reference to governmental records and files. This evi-dence is irrefutable.”[115]

4.5. Can the title ‘Tsar’ Apply to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II?

Some sceptics object to the application of the title ‘Tsar’ (In Russian ‘Царь’) in ref-erence to the Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, until his abdication on March 1917. They argue that the term Tsar was not formally applied to Nicholas II, as Peter

4.3. A Calamity Limited to India?

Yet another vacuous objection raised to challenge the fulfilment of the prophecy was that the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community proclaimed that the calamity would occur in India.

Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra rebuts this objection stating that, “the prophecy didn’t say it would only afflict India.”[111] On the contrary, as previously detailed in this article, the prophecy explicitly refers to a global calamity. It must be borne in mind that India, being part of the then British Empire, devoted an estimated 1.5

million soldiers to the Allied war effort, many of whom were from the Promised Messiah’sas homeland of the Punjab. A third of these men were Muslims who fought at almost all theatres of the con-flict.[112]

4.4. Is the Prophecy Concocted or Retrospectively Interpreted?

Some sceptics argue that the propo-nents of prophecies claim fulfilment retrospectively and engage in a process of interpretational gymnastics to fit the prophecy to a certain global event after it has occurred. This allegation is invalid here. The prophecy relating to the impending global calamity was so well known to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community that at the outbreak of war—when the conflict was limited to continental Europe—the Community published the prophetic poem of 15 April 1905 in its original Urdu, along with an English translation in the Community’s official English language periodical, The Review of Religions, in its August 1914 edition. In the editorial comments on the prophetic poem, the following was stated and the relationship that the unfolding events would have on precipitating a miserable plight of the Russian Tsar was emphasised:

“These are the days of the printing press, and we are at liberty to reject any prophecy respecting which there is no written evidence. All the prophecies of the Promised Messiahas that I have mentioned are to be found printed in various books, newspapers, and periodicals prior to the event.



I (1861–1948). In answer to this, sev-eral points must be noted. Firstly, the Promised Messiahas made this proph-ecy in April 1905, at which time there was no Tsar of Bulgaria. Ferdinand I proclaimed this title for himself on 5 November 1908, roughly six months after the Promised Messiah’sas death. This was when Bulgaria had achieved de jure inde-pendence from the Ottoman Empire and Ferdinand I elevated the country’s status to that of a kingdom—thus finally refer-ring to himself as a Tsar. At the time of the prophecy, however, there could be no other Tsar intended except for the only Tsar in existence, namely, the Emperor of Imperial Russia.

Secondly, the word for ‘Tsar’ has been used in Urdu as zar and according to the most authoritative Urdu lexicons, the word zar is applied to the Russian emperor only. For example, in the Farhang-e-Asfiya, which comprises of more than 60,000 entries, we find the following entry under zar:

“The form of address for the emperor of Russia.”

Similarly, we find under the same entry in another authoritative Urdu dictionary, Feroz-al-Lughat:

“The title of the emperors of Russia.”

The Promised Messiahas has also used the word zar explicitly in the context of the Tsar of Russia. For example, on 30 January 1903, approximately two years prior to the prophetic poem of 15 April 1905, he wrote:

“The same night I saw in a dream as if the sceptre of the Tsar of Russia was in my hand.”

In light of this, it is clear that in Urdu and according to the vocabulary of the Promised Messiahas, he is unequivocally referring to the Emperor of Russia when he uses zar, the Urdu rendering of Tsar.

It is also pertinent to note that at the outbreak of the war in August 1914, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s English language Magazine, The Review of Religions, had translated the word zar as the “Tsar of Russia,” demonstrating that members of the Community under-stood that the word only referred to the Russian emperor.[122]

4.7. Inevitability of the Russian Revolution

Some sceptics argue that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was predictable,

the Great (1672–1725) abolished it in 1721. However, we find that officially, ‘Tsar’ was among the titles of Nicholas II, according to the fundamental state laws of the Russian Empire of 23 April 1906, particularly in relation to several regions such as Kazan, Poland, and Siberia.[116]

Peter the Great may have opted to be addressed as Gosudar Imperator, meaning ‘sovereign emperor’ rather than the Slavic ‘Tsar,’ in light of his pro-Western senti-ments, however, the term ‘Tsar’ remained in common usage until the abdication of Nicholas II. It is well known that Nicholas II himself preferred to be referred to as ‘Tsar’ rather than emperor, on account of his Slavophilic tendencies.[117, 118]

Similarly, the general public referred to Nicholas II as ‘Tsar’ and not as ‘emperor.’ Indeed, the national anthem of Imperial Russia from 1833 to 1918 was “God save the Tsar” - “Боже, Царя храни!” (trans-literated as “Bozhe, Tsarya khrani”) and not “God save the Emperor.”[119] The reader will recall that a quarter million Russians sung these very words to their Tsar on 2 August 1914, when Nicholas II and his wife appeared at the balcony of the Winter Palace to formally declare war on Germany.[120]

Furthermore, even in the immediate aftermath of the murder of Nicholas II, foreign newspapers referred to him as the ‘Tsar’ (or American-English alternative spelling: Czar), indicating that this was the more popular title by which he was known. For example, following the exe-cution of Nicholas Romanov, The New York Times published an article with the headline “Ex-Czar of Russia Killed by Order of Ural Soviet.”[121]

4.6. Can the Title of Tsar only apply to Ferdinand I of Bulgaria?

Related to the previous contention, some critics also claim that the only offi-cial ‘Tsar’ during the First World War was the Tsar of Bulgaria, Ferdinand

Peter the Great may have opted to be addressed as Gosudar Imperator, meaning ‘sovereign emperor’ rather than the Slavic ‘Tsar,’ in light of his pro-Western sentiments, however, the term ‘Tsar’ remained in common usage until the abdication of Nicholas II.



But such a view still provides no adequate naturalistic explanation as to how the Promised Messiahas could have accurately predicted in April 1905 that the Russian Tsar would be in a “pitiable state,” at the same time as that of a global calamity in which numerous other events would occur concurrently. For if Tsardom had ended before or after the global calamity and not during it, the prophecy would have been falsified.

4.8. Was the First World War inevitable and predictable?

Some critics may also argue that the First World War was itself a logical consequence of the prevailing political conditions in Europe prior to 1914. They further argue that given the purported inevitability of the conflict, the Promised Messiahas could have easily predicted the onset of the war.

In answer to this contention, it should be borne in mind that many of the major events cited in the literature as the main factors which contributed to the desta-bilisation of international relations and eventually rendered an armed conflict inevitable, occurred after the publication of the prophecy in 1905. For example, historians often cite events such as

the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire in 1908 which infuriated many Serbs, who viewed it as their rightful ter-ritory and the first and second Balkan wars of 1912-1913, which compelled the Ottoman Empire to cede nearly all of its centuries-old remaining territory in Europe, leaving behind a vacuum of power and thus fomenting instability in the Balkans. They also cite the Moroccan crisis of 1911 between Germany and France when a German gunboat was sent to the Atlantic port city of Agadir, on the pretext of protecting German national interests within the region and eventually led to an escalation in tensions between several of the great powers. All these events, however, transpired after the April 1905 date of the publication of the prophecy. In short, the prevailing politi-cal situation at the time of the prophecy was not indicative of the outbreak of a large-scale continental conflict between the European powers, let alone a global conflict of unparalleled ferocity, which would propel distant countries such as America, Brazil and Japan to join the fray.

The inevitability thesis has also been con-tended by several historians who have even argued that as late as July 1914, after

based on events of 1905. Such sceptics cite the defeat at the Russo-Japanese war or the public outcry resulting from the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ on 22 January 1905, where a large procession of workers led by Father Georgy Gapon were fired upon by armed guards on their way to present a petition to the Tsar. They fur-ther argue that it was only a matter of time before such a revolution occurred, which would inevitably bring about a pitiable plight for the Tsar—regardless of the First World War occurring.

This so-called ‘pessimistic narrative’ is in stark contrast to the ‘optimistic nar-rative’ which denies the inevitability of

the Russian revolution, which eroded the foundations of the Tsarist regime, had the First World War not occurred.

In his magisterial study, Russia in 1913, Professor of Imperial Russia, Wayne Dowler, reviews a large corpus of archi-val data to the end of 1913, the eve of the war. He concludes that, “if Russia was still far from becoming a liberal capitalist democracy in 1913, it was even further from socialist revolution. Severe stresses and ten-sions remained, but the clear trend before the war was towards co-operation and integration.”[123]

Even if we assume, for argument’s sake, that the Russian Revolution was indeed inevitable regardless of whether the First World War broke out or not, a glaring question yet remains: how could the Promised Messiahas possibly know that the Russian Revolution was inevitable? What evidence exists that someone, anyone, told him of this impending rev-olution or that he was able to deduce it based on the available data at the time?

Furthermore, the central argument has always revolved around the simultaneity of the events and not the occurrence of any single event. One may adopt the pes-simistic view of the Russian Revolution.

Some critics may also argue that the First World War was itself a logical consequence of the prevailing political conditions in Europe prior to 1914. They further argue that given the purported inevitability of the conflict, the Promised Messiahas could have easily predicted the onset of the war.



concocting a falsifiable prophecy which could jeopardise his entire life’s work?

4.9. Why wasn’t the Prophecy more specific?

Many critics object to an apparent vagueness in the details of the proph-ecy. Atheists, in particular, argue that had a transcendental Omnipotent Being existed, it would have certainly revealed a prophecy with greater specificity. For example, they may object that barbed wire, artillery and trenches, which were characteristic of the experience of sol-diers at the Western Front, should have been explicitly mentioned. Some may even demand more stringent condi-tions for belief, such as the necessity of explicitly mentioning the exact date and time of the onset and conclusion of the prophesied events and the names of all the main parties involved.

In answer to this objection, the funda-mental question is who gives us a right to demand greater specificity? Indeed, as being the lesser consciousness in the equation, we are not in the position to dictate the terms to the purported omniscient Being and demand from it greater specificity as an essential precon-dition of belief.

The following example illustrates this point. A student who undergoes an examination may feel that they are asked questions that are irrelevant. However, that student will never object to their examiners and dictate the questions to them. Instead, the student will accept what they are given and try their best to formulate an appropriate answer. In the same manner, it would be arrogant of us to dictate the level of specific-ity and precision by which a purported Omniscient God should reveal infor-mation of the future. Given the theistic worldview that this life is temporal and a test, it may be that this Being has good reasons for choosing to disclose prophe-cies with this degree of specificity which is hitherto unfathomable by our limited intelligence. Instead, we should make a sincere effort to understand divine revela-tion with our God-given rationality and employ it to seek ultimate truth.

5. ConclusionDuring the years of 1914 to 1918, the world witnessed a spectacle of doomsday, the like of which was never seen before. In the words of the French historian, Professor Antoine Prost: “the Great War, was a hecatomb without precedent, with losses on a truly monstrous scale.”[129] As the world now reflects on the centenary

the Sarajevo assassinations, the July crisis could have still been resolved by adequate multilateral peace-keeping mechanisms already in place since the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars in 1815. It has been further argued that given the fact that compromise had been achieved in previ-ous crises, thus averting armed conflict, the onset of this war could have been a result of carelessness and miscalcula-tions on the part of Europe’s foremost statesmen.[124]

One may look at the underlying and apparent causes of the Great War with hindsight, such as the alliance system, intense nationalism, militarism, and by exhaustively evaluating the sum total

of evidence, deem it to be inevitable. It is fallacious, however, to infer from this that its inevitability necessitated its predictability to contemporaries of the event. Indeed, inevitability does not imply predictability. That the war was not predictable has been supported by several historians who have drawn upon a vast corpus of primary sources demon-strating that European contemporaries were absolutely shocked when hostili-ties broke out.[125] This reaction was not limited to Europe, but the utter shock was felt worldwide, as far as Japan and America.[126, 127] If this was the state of affairs at the outbreak of war, how then can it be asserted that the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a man from a remote village in India, with no access to communications except by horse-drawn cart to the nearest telegraph office eleven miles away, possessed the political insight to formulate an educated guess based on the available data? How could he have forecasted the catastrophic events a decade earlier, when there was not the slightest hint of the impending global calamity? By 4 November 1905, only several months after the prophecy, the membership of his Community had already reached 300,000 and was con-stantly increasing.[128] One may question what he could have possibly gained by

It has been further argued that given the fact that compromise had been achieved in previous crises, thus averting armed conflict, the onset of this war could have been a result of carelessness and miscalculations on the part of Europe’s foremost statesmen.



experience when they perceive themselves to be in touch with the supernatural correspond to anything outside their heads, and we have no reason to rely on those feelings when they occur. However, if such evidence or reason should show up, then scientists will have to consider it whether they like it or not.”[130]

Unfortunately, Professor Stenger is not alive to consider the prophecy presented in this article. Atheist polemicists world-wide, however, should now have more than sufficient reason to consider the evidence.

This is by no means an exhaustive account of all of the Promised Messiah’sas prophecies related to the First World War, nor is it claimed that all available archival records and scholarly works in this field have been consulted. Such an arduous task would require access to the numerous languages spoken by all nations involved in the conflict and to the archival records found in notebooks, diaries, letters, etc. A humble attempt has been made, however, to demonstrate the fulfilment of several aspects contained in the poetic form of the prophecy of 15 April 1905.

This article ends with the words of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra, who spoke

about the prophecy in a treatise presented to the then Prince of Wales on the occa-sion of his official visit to India in 1922:

“Thus, the numerous aspects of this proph-ecy have been so clearly fulfilled that this single sign alone is sufficient to establish the truthfulness of the Promised Messiahas.”[131]

About the Author: Bilal Ahmed Tahir is currently a research fellow at the University of Sheffield and Weston Park Cancer Hospital, specialising in the field of medical physics. He serves as the Head of the Arabic Desk for the Northern UK regions and is a member of the international

of this tragedy, we must not forget that at the onset of the twentieth century, in the distant foothills of the Himalayas, in a tiny remote Indian village, a divinely inspired man proclaimed to the world that the Omniscient God had warned him of the impending global catastro-phe. His words were to be met with awe-inspiring fulfilment.

The miracle exists in the fact that all these events had been predicted to occur simultaneously and thus furnishes an irrefutable cumulative case argument. If one objects to vagueness, inevitability, or its contemplation in popular fiction, it has no bearing on explaining how such a precise, multifaceted and detailed proph-ecy could have been predicted nine years prior to the event. The characteristic of

a false prophecy may be that only sev-eral strands of the prophecy are fulfilled while others remain unfulfilled. To find a prophecy that has all its aspects fulfilled is indeed an extraordinary event. In 1905, it would have been inconceivable to con-coct such a precise and detailed prophecy. In light of no plausible naturalistic expla-nations, one is compelled to accept the explanation given by the proclaimer of that prophecy- that they are indeed the words of the Omniscient God.

In critique of the claims of divine proph-ecies, one of the foremost proponents of ‘New Atheism,’ the late Professor Victor Stenger writes:

“If someone’s inner sense were to warn of an impending earthquake unpredicted by science, which then occurred on schedule, we would have evidence for this extrasen-sory source of knowledge. Claims of “divine prophecies” have been made throughout history, but not one has been conclusively confirmed. In just one of countless examples of the same nature, the claimed prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem was fulfilled after the fact by the Gospel writers inventing implausible, inconsist-ent, and historically disprovable scenarios by which Jesus could have been born there. So far we see no evidence that the feelings people

The characteristic of a false prophecy may be that only several strands of the prophecy are fulfilled while others remain unfulfilled.To find a prophecy that has all its aspects fulfilled is indeed an extraordinary event.

If someone’s inner sense were to warn of an impending earthquake unpredicted by science, which then occurred on schedule, we would have evidence for this extrasensory source of knowledge. Claims of “divine prophecies” have been made throughout history, but not one has been conclusively confirmed.



14. 1914-1918-online. A Global Encyclopedia of a Global War, in: Helmut Bley, Anorthe Kremers (Hg.): The World During the First World War, Essen 2014, pp. 361-363.

15. Dost Muhammad Shahid, Tarikh-e-Ahmadiyyat, Vol. 2, p. 386.

16. Samuël Kruizinga, “Neutrality,” in The Cambridge History of the First World War, ed. Jay Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 542–75, http://uni-versitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CHO9780511675676A033.

17. Hew Strachan, Epilogue. In: Jay Winter (ed.) The Legacy of the Great War: Ninety Years on (University of Missouri Press, 2009), 194.

18. Les Carlyon, Gallipoli (Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2001), 183.

19. Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli, (Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1956), 143.

20. IWM Library, Special Collection: Major Mahmut, “Memoirs of the Battalion Commander Who Opposed the First Landings at Seddulbahr,” p. 3. Quoted in Peter Hart, Gallipoli (Profile Books, 2013), 139.

21. Robert M. Citino, The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich

(University Press of Kansas, 2008), xvi.

22. Laurence Moyer, Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War, 1914-1918 (Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1995), 80.

23. Laurence Moyer, Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War, 1914-1918 (Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1995), 81.

24. Antoine Prost, “The Dead,” in The Cambridge History of the First World War, ed. Jay Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 561–91, http://uni-versitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CHO9780511675683A036.

25. Deborah Cohen, “Will to Work: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany after the First World War,” in Disabled Veterans in History, ed. David A. Gerber (University of Michigan Press, 2012), 295.

26. Micheal Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts - A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000 (McFarland & Co Inc, 2002), 479.

27. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Khutbat-e-Mahmud, 23 March, 1917.

28. Dorothee Brantz, “Environments of Death: Trench Warfare on the Western Front

Arabic Desk of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He has translated several publications both from and into the Arabic language. He has been engaged in a community-history research project on the First World War and its legacy, from the perspective of the Ahmadiyya Community.

endnotes

1. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Jinn, Verses 27-28.

2. Deuteronomy, 18:22 (King James Version).

3. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Malfoozat, Vol. 1, pp. 312-313.

4. Victor J. Stenger, God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist (Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 2007), 170.

5. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, “Ishtihar al-Indhar,” Al-Hakam, Vol. 9, No. 12, April 8, 1905, 2; The Review of Religions, April 1905, 159-161.

6. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Ishtiharat, Vol. 3, p. 522.

7. The Review of Religions, January 1916, p. 31.

8. New Zealand Herald, Vol. XLIII, Issue 13157,

21 April 1906, 5.

9. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part 5; Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, pp. 151–152.

10. Polygonum bistorta (commonly known as Bistort) is a flowering plant native to many parts of Europe and Asia. Its roots, which are internally coloured reddish-brown, are used to make medicinal syrups for treating a number of conditions including dysentery and diarrhoea. Even today it is sold as a red coloured potion in South Asia (e.g. http://www.marhaba.com.pk/prd_details.php?prd=53&cat=37).

11. For a comprehensive study of the origins of the First World War, the reader is referred to the popular and scholarly literature on the topic, such as Professor Margaret MacMillan’s recent publication: The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War, (Profile Books, 2014).

12. The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home, 28 November, 1914 (Quoted in The Review of Religions, June, 1915, 211-212).

13. David Reynolds, “The Origins of the Two ‘World Wars’: Historical Discourse and International Politics,” Journal of Contemporary History 38, no. 1 ( January 1, 2003): 29–44, doi:10.1177/0022009403038001962.



Ahmadra, Invitation to Ahmadiyyat (Islamic International Publications Ltd, 1997), 278.

43. Lawrence Sondhaus, World War One: The Global Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 273-306.

44. The Review of Religions, February 2005, pp. 15-16.

45. Lee Kennett, The First Air War: 1914-1918 (Simon and Schuster, 1999), 8.

46. John H. Morrow, “The Air War,” in The Cambridge History of the First World War, ed. Jay Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 349–375, http://uni-versitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CHO9780511675669A025.

47. Prophecy of 8 April, 1905. The 15 April, 1905, prophetic poem also states that “men will lose their senses.”

48. Jay Winter, “Shell Shock,” in The Cambridge History of the First World War, ed. Jay Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 310–333, http://uni-versitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CHO9780511675683A025.

49. Charles Myers, “A Contribution to the Study of Shell Shock: Being an Account of

Three Cases of Loss of Memory, Vision, Smell, and Taste, Admitted into the Duchess of Westminster’s War Hospital, Le Touquet,” The Lancet, 13 February, 1915, 316–320.

50. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Invitation to Ahmadiyyat (Islamic International Publications Ltd, 1997), 272.

51. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud

Ahmadra, Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam (Islamic International Publications Ltd., 2008), 121.

52. Pelemann, B. (1922) Broschüre über den Belgischen Wasserschläiger. cf. J. Sandfort (1989) Kanarienfreund, 42, 470-473.

53. Leo van Bergen, Before My Helpless Sight: Suffering, Dying and Military Medicine on the Western Front 1914 – 1918 (Ashgate Publishing, 2009), 130.

54. R. W. Shufeldt, “Science, Ornithology, and the War,” The Wilson Bulletin, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1915), pp. 344-347.

55. Ibid.

56. Katherine A. Tschida, Richard Mooney, Deafening Drives Cell-Type-Specific Changes to Dendritic Spines in a Sensorimotor Nucleus Important to Learned Vocalizations, Neuron, Volume 73, Issue 5 (2012), 1028–1039.

1914-18,” in War and the Environment: Military Destruction in the Modern Age, ed. Charles Closmann (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), 82.

29. Lawrence Sondhaus, World War One: The Global Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 79.

30. Dorothee Brantz, “Environments of Death: Trench Warfare on the Western Front 1914-18,” in War and the Environment: Military Destruction in the Modern Age, ed. Charles Closmann (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), 82.


32. Battle Remains on the WW1 Western Front, http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/battle-remains-western-front.htm.


34. Rowland Fielding, War Letters to a Wife: France and Flanders, 1915-1919 (Naval & Military Press, 2001), 70.

35. Alan Kramer, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2007), 47, 49, 151.

36. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 17.

37. Peter Gatrell, “War, Population Displacement and State Formation in the Russian Borderlands, 1914-1924,” in Homelands: War, Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia, 1918-1924, ed. by Nick Baron (Anthem Press, 2004), 12.

38. Vanda Wilcox “Mountain Warfare in the Italian Theatre of War,” The British Library, accessed January 2, 2015, http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/mountain-warfare.

39. Gaetano V. Cavallaro, The Beginning of Futility (Xlibris, 2010), 230.

40. Badr, Vol. 2, No. 20, May 17, 1906, 2.

41. Al-Hakam, Vol. 10, No. 17, May 17, 1906, 1.




http://volume/issue

66. “Nicholas II of Russia Net Worth,” Celebrity Net Worth, accessed July 5, 2015, http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/richest-billionaires/nicholas-ii-russia-net-worth/.

“No. 10 Cornelius Vanderbilt - Photos - Top 10 Richest People of All Time,” NY Daily News, accessed July 5, 2015, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/top-10-richest-people-time-gallery-1.1186737.

67. Walter G. Moss, A History of Russia Volume 1: To 1917 (Anthem Press, 2003), 509.

68. Solomon Volkov, St Petersburg: A Cultural History (Free Press, 1997), 195.

69. Ed. Charles F. Horne, Source Records of the Great War: Volume III (National Alumni, 1923).

70. Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, Reprint edition (New York: Anchor Books, 2001).

71. Prior to 1 January 1918, Russia used the Julian calendar which, by the 20th century, trailed behind the Gregorian calendar by 13 days. Thus, it would have been the March revo-lution according to the latter calendar.

72. Michael Kort, A Brief History of Russia, (Facts on File, Inc., 2008), 152-153.

73. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Khutbat-e-Mahmud, 23 March 1917.

74. Ibid.

75. Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalëv, The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 124.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid.

78. Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalëv, The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 277.

79. Ibid.

80. Yakov Yurovsky (1922), Confession note, In: Iakov Iurovskii, ‘Slishkom vse bylo iasno dlia naroda’, Istochnik, 0 (1993), pp. 107–16. For an English translation see: http://www.alexander-palace.org/palace/YurovskyNoteEnglish.html.

81. Wendy Slater, The Many Deaths of Tsar Nicholas II: Relics, Remains and the Romanovs (London ; New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 13.

57. Editorial, “The Deaf Soldier,” J Laryngol Otol XXXII, no. 11 (1917): 337-338.

58. P Marler, M Konishi, A Lutjen, MS Waser, “Effects of Continuous Noise on Avian Hearing and Vocal Development,” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 70, no. 5 (1973): 1393-1396.

59. M Müller, JW Smolders, D Ding-Pfennigdorff, R Klinke, “Regeneration After Tall Hair Cell Damage Following Severe Acoustic Trauma in Adult Pigeons: Correlation Between Cochlear Morphology, Compound Action Potential Responses and Single Fiber Properties in Single Animals,” Hear Res. 102, no. 1-2 (1996): 133-154.

60. M Müller, JW Smolders, D Ding-Pfennigdorff, R Klinke, “Discharge Properties of Pigeon Single Auditory Nerve Fibers After Recovery From Severe Acoustic Trauma,” Int J Dev Neurosci 15, no. 4-5 (1997): 401-416.

61. Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia “Witnessing and Remembering Russia’s War,” The British Library, accessed January 4, 2015, http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/witnessing-and-remembering-russias-war.

62. Muhammad Zafrulla Khanra and Wayne Wilcox and Aislie T. Embree, The Reminiscences of Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, pp. 1-2.

63. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, “Tuhfat Shahzad Wales,” Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 6, p. 523.

64. His full title as set forth in Article 59 of the 1906 Constitution was “We, Nicholas the Second, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, King of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Białystok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria, and other territo-ries; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhny Novgorod, Chernigov; Ruler of Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav, and all northern territories; Ruler of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories; hereditary Ruler and Lord of the Cherkess and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth.”

65. Alexander M. Yakovlev, The Rule-of-Law Idéal and Russian Reality. In: Legal Reform in Post-Communist Europe: The View from Within, ed. Stanisław Frankowski and Paul B. Stephan III (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994), 12.



Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part 5, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, p. 151, footnote.

99. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Damimah Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 5, pp. 93–94, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, pp. 253–255.

100. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Khuda ke qahri nishan, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 3.

101. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Naml, Verse 35.

102. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Invitation to Ahmadiyyat, (Islamic International Publications Ltd, 1997), 272-273.

103. Authorized report of Glasgow speech sup-plied to daily press, 27 December 1915.

104. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Damimah Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 5, pp. 93–94, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 21, pp. 253–255.

105. Badr, Vol. 2, no. 13, March 29, 1906, p. 1.

106. Al-Hakam, Vol. 10, no. 11, March 31, 1906, p. 1.

107. Badr, Vol. 2, no. 14, April 5, 1906, p. 2.

108. Badr, Vol. 2, no. 15, April 12, 1906, p. 2.

109. Al-Hakam, Vol. 10, no. 11, March 31, 1906, p. 1.

110. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Haqiqatul-Wahi, p. 100 footnote, Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 22 p. 103 footnote.


112. Brill ’s Encyclopedia of the First World War ed. Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012), Vol. 2, pp. 625-627.

113. The Review of Religions, August 1914, p. 307.

114. This is in reference to the (Indian) Press and Registration of Books Act of 1867 which stipulated that a copy of every printed or lithographed work in British India must be deposited at the India Office Library. The India Office archives are currently housed at the British Library, London.

115. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Zinda Khuda ke zuburdust nishan, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 3, p. 558.

116. Thomas Sanders, Historiography of Imperial Russia: The Profession and Writing of History in a

82. Yakov Yurovsky (1922), Confession note, In: Iakov Iurovskii, ‘Slishkom vse bylo iasno dlia naroda’, Istochnik, 0 (1993), pp. 107–16. See also: http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/YurovskyNoteEnglish.html.

83. Peter Gill et al., “Identification of the Remains of the Romanov Family by DNA Analysis,” Nature Genetics 6, no. 2 (February 1994): 130–135, doi:10.1038/ng0294-130.

84. Penny Wilson, Greg King, The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson, and the World’s Greatest Royal Mystery ( John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 2.

85. Michael D. Coble et al., “Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis,” PLoS ONE 4, no. 3 (March 11, 2009): e4838, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004838.


Ahmadra, Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam (Islamic International Publications Ltd., 2008), 122.

87. S. A. Smith, The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, 1st edition (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 1.

88. Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (1993), 2553.

89. John Thompson Platts, A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English (London: W. H. Allen & Co, 1884), 94.

90. Authorized report of Glasgow speech sup-plied to daily press, 27 December 1915.

91. See Friday sermon of 23 March 1917, Khutbat-e-Mahmud, for an early recorded instance in Ahmadi literature of the fulfilment of the prophecy relating to the Tsar’s pitiable plight.


93. See for example: Khuda ke qahri nis-han, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 3; Invitation to Ahmadiyyat; Ahmadiyyat or the true Islam; Tuhfat shahzad Wales, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 6.

94. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Tuhfat Shahzad Wales, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol 6, p. 522.

95. Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-‘Arab.

96. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Ahzab, Verse 12.

97. Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Zilzal, Verse 2.

98. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas,



131. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-Ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra, Tuhfat Shahzad Wales, Anwarul ‘Uloom, Vol. 6, p. 524.

Multinational State, p. 13.

117. Zhand Shakibi, Revolutions and the Collapse of the Monarchy: Human Agency and the Making of Revolution in France, Russia and Iran, (2006), 72.

118. Justin C. Vovk, Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires (2012), 523.

119. James Von Geldern and Louise McReynolds, eds., Entertaining Tsarist Russia: Tales, Songs, Plays, Movies, Jokes, Ads, and Images from Russian Urban Life, 1779-1917 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 107.

120. Walter G. Moss, A History of Russia Volume 1: To 1917, p. 509.

121. The New York Times, 21 July 1918.

122. The Review of Religions, August 1914, p. 307.

123. Wayne Dowler, Russia in 1913 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010), 279.

124. Friedrich Kiešling, Unfought Wars: The Effect of Détente before World War I (2007). In: Holger Afflerbach and David Stevenson, An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and

European Political Culture before 1914 (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007).

125. Holger Afflerbach, The Topos of Improbable War in Europe before 1914 (2007). In: Ibid.

126. Frederick R. Dickinson, The View from Japan: War and Peace in Europe around 1914 (2007). In: Holger Afflerbach and David Stevenson, An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914 (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007).

127. Fraser Harbutt, War, Peace, and Commerce: The American Reaction to the Outbreak of World War I in Europe (2007). In: Holger Afflerbach and David Stevenson, An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914 (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007).

128. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Lecture Ludhiana (Delivered on 4 November 1905), p. 2.

129. Antoine Prost, “The Dead,” in The Cambridge History of the First World War, ed. Jay Winter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 561–591, http://uni-versitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CHO9780511675683A036.

130. Victor Stenger, God and The Folly of Faith (Prometheus Books, 2012), 27.




The official website of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community worldwide.

You can find a huge collection of free online material, including translation and commentary of the Holy Qur’an and you can access literature of the Community

including the books written by its founder, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas.

www.alislam.org


suBsCriPtion

Subscription Contacts:

india - Khursheed Ahmademail: [email protected]: +91 1872 500970Tel: +91 981 544 6792fax: +91 1872 500971

uSA - Adnan Ahmed Bhalliemail: [email protected]: +1 412 639 9108

Canada - Muhammad dawood Khalidemail: [email protected]: +1 647-779-1810

nigeria - Qasim Oyekolaemail: [email protected]: + 23 481 2221 1949

Ghana - naeem A. Cheemaemail: [email protected]: +23 320 0517 181 +23 324 2105 652

uK - Athar Ahmar Bajwa email: [email protected]: +44 745 533 91205

for all other subscription issues or for general enquiries email [email protected] or contact head office:Tahir house22 Deer Park Road, london sw19 3Tl

nOte ABOut ReFeRenCeS

verse references to the holy Qur’an count ‘Bismillah…’ (in the name of allah…) as the first verse of each Chapter. in some non-standard texts, this is not counted. should the reader refer to such texts, the verse quoted in The Review of Religions will be found a verse earlier, i.e. at one verse less than the number quoted in this journal.for the ease of non-Muslim readers, ‘sa’ or ‘(saw)’ after the words, ‘holy Prophet’, or the name ‘Muhammad’, are used normally in small letters. They stand for ‘sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam’ meaning ‘peace and blessings of allah be upon him’. likewise, the letters ‘as’ or ‘(as)’ after the name of all other prophets is an abbreviation meaning ‘peace be upon him’ derived from ‘alaihis salatu wassalam’ which are words that a Muslim utters out of respect whenever he or she comes across that name. The abbreviation ‘ra’ or ‘(ra)’

stands for ‘Raziallahu Ta’ala anhu and is used for Companions of a Prophet, meaning allah be pleased with him or her (when followed by the relevant arabic pronoun). finally, ‘rh’ or ‘(rh)’ for Rahemahullahu Ta’ala means the Mercy of allah the exalted be upon him. in keeping with current universal practice, local transliterations of names of places are preferred to their anglicised versions, e.g. Makkah instead of Mecca, etc.

Thursday 6th AugustFaith: Christianityevent: Transfiguration

This Orthodox Christian feast commemo-rates the moment Jesusas transfigured and suddenly became radiant upon a mountain.

Friday 21st AugustFaith: Islam event: Jalsa Salana UK (first day)

Jalsa Salana is the annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, found-ed by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiahas. It spans over three days, with the purpose of spiritual and mor-al advancement, and to increase one’s per-sonal relationship with God.

Saturday 29th AugustFaith: Hinduism event: Raksha Bandhan

This Hindu festival is the celebration of love and duty between brothers and sisters. Sisters tie a rakhi (sacred thread) to their brother’s wrist, symbolising their love and prayers for their well-being, and the broth-er’s vow to protect their sisters.

Saturday 29th AugustFaith: Christianity event: Beheading of John the Baptist

This is a holy day commemorating the mar-tyrdom of Saint John the Baptist on the or-ders of Herod Antipas.

calendar of religiousevents & Festivals

august 2015

SPINE

vol. 110 - issue eightaugust 2015

ww

w.review

ofreligions.orge

vid

en

Ce

FO

R t

He

tR

ut

H: yO

u B

e t

He

Jud

Ge

…

The review of religions, in print since 1902, is one of the longest-running comparative religious magazines.

The objective of the magazine is to present the teachings of islam, reflecting its rational, harmonious and inspiring nature. it also brings together articles and viewpoints on different religions and seeks to make discussions on religion and religious philosophy accessible to a wider readership.

The magazine is devoted to promoting intellectual and lively debate that is based on respect for all prophets and religions. islam repeatedly stresses the need to seek knowledge and The Review of Religions provides a unique platform for people to acquire, and share knowledge.

Yearly subscription is only £15 sterling or $30 for overseas customers.

To subscribe, or for more info, visitwww.reviewofreligions.org/subscription

follow us on Twitter @ReviewReligions

© islamiC PuBliCations, 2015

issn no. 0034-6721

tHe

iSLAMiC

diLeMA

Evidence for the for the truth -The Review of Religions

Spiritual

Transcript of Evidence for the for the truth -The Review of Religions