Prophets and other Messengers are raised by Allah,
the Most High. He bestows His favour on whomsoever He
wills among His servants and such persons declare a Divine Mission when the
Divine Grace descends on them. And Allah knows best when and where to place His
Message (6: 125). The Holy Qur’an
declares: ‘He cannot be questioned as to what He does’, but those who reject the Messengers will be questioned
as to what they did (21:21).
About the Divine Messengers, Allah
states in the Holy Qur’an: “We sent none as Messengers
before you but men to whom We sent revelations. So ask those who are well
versed in scriptures, if you know not. And We did not give them bodies that ate
no food, nor where they to live forever” (21:8-9).
No wonder, Divine Messengers
invariably affirm their humanity. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly mentions this
fact: “We are indeed only men
like yourselves, but Allah bestows His favour on whomsoever He wills from among
His servants”
(14:12). About his status and mission, a
Messenger declares: “I am only a man like yourselves;
but I have received the revelation that your God is only One God. So let him
who hopes to meet his Lord do good deeds, and let him join no one in the
worship of his Lord” (18:111).
Hence, the profound duty and responsibility of a Messenger of Allah
is to make people understand the real purpose of life and to guide them in leading
a life of meaning and enduring value, both in this world and the world to come.
Their life as lived in this very earth is the message for their fellow beings. In
this way, the Messengers essentially seek to purify people and to guide them to
their Lord through their noble precepts and credible practices.
To know the prophets and the Divine messengers is to know
the ways of Allah. The
life of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian is a recent testimonial to
the enduring principles of Divine Mercy and continuity of revelations confirmed
by the Holy Qur’an. Understanding the physical and material circumstances of
his times, family background, early education, traits of character and
spiritual inclination from early life are important in a way for the believers
to marvel at the contingent circumstances against which Divine Messages emerge
and thrive.
In a world that refuses to
recognize the spiritual reality of a Living and Ever- Subsisting Lord who
speaks to His servants and answers the prayers of His supplicants, what better
way to affirm those principles than to remember the lived history of such
Divine Messengers? In his Friday Sermon of March
16, 2012, Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius
Read the
second and final part of the Sermon:
“Hazrat Massih Ma’ud’s (upon him be
peace) father as well as being the hereditary chieftain of Qadian, was a
trained soldier used to commanding men and having his orders obeyed. People
were scared of him. He was equally choleric to people of his own rank and to
British Government officials. At a meeting with one British official the
British asked him how far away Qadian was. It produced an immediate
misunderstanding. For the British official it was a polite, innocuous
generality, a way of starting off the conversation. That was not how Mirza
Ghulam Murtaza took it. He flared up. “If you want to know how far places
are apart then ask your servant” he told the official. He rammed the point
home, “I am not your servant!”
The British official was confused,
unsure how to react, but then he apologised and the conversation started again.
If Mirza Ghulam Murtaza had a sense of his own dignity it might also be through
that beneath his gruff exterior was a kind heart. He had studied medicine and
as there were no doctors in the area he looked after all the people in the
surrounding district. He never charged for his services.
“My father was an expert physician
and I read some books on medicine with him”, Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be
peace) wrote later. This belief in his ability was not confined to Hazrat
Massih Ma’ud (upon him be peace). The Rajah of Batala sent for Mirza Ghulam
Murtaza when he was ill. When the Rajah recovered he offered him the rents of
two villages as a reward for his services. Mirza Ghulam Murtaza refused. He
never took any payment for his medical treatments and he certainly could not
accept the rents of these two villages. They were two of the villages in his
ancestral estate and to accept them in this way, when he believed they were
rightfully his, would compromise not only his honour but also that of his
descendants.
Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be
peace) could ride and swim. He was once saved from drowning by an old man who
happened to be near and he could run fast, but he never cared for games or
sports and seldom took an active part in them. Usually his playmates asked him
to be umpire. Most young men learned martial arts in those days. Fencing was a
popular pastime – and for a member of the Mirza family it was considered almost
essential to be skilled in the use of the sword, the bow and the gun. But
Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be peace) never became involved in any of these
martial sports. Already his future life was starting to take shape. In that
worldly household “getting on” and recovering the family estates were the two
main subjects of conversation.
“By that time I had become very
fond of reading books, so much so that I paid little attention to anything
else”,
Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be peace) wrote later... “My father repeatedly
admonished me to reduce my study of books as he was afraid that too much
concentration on books might have an adverse affect on my health. He was also
desirous that, laying aside books I should begin to take an interest in his
affairs and should become involved with the problems with which he was
preoccupied.”
Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be
peace) was interested in a different life. He recalled that when he was “quite
young I found myself powerfully attracted towards my Lord and there dawned upon
me the dim consciousness of a future when God would use me as His instrument in
carrying out one of His great plans. I was like gold hidden in dust which, at
some time in the future, was to display its brightness.”
When he was a mere child he was
with a cousin called Hurmat Bibi, the daughter of his maternal uncle, when the
subject of prayer arose, as it does even with small children. Hazrat Massih
Ma’ud (upon him be peace) asked her, “Pray that I might be
granted the grace of prayer”.
When he was 17 he and Hurmat Bibi
were married. It was an arranged marriage, not a love match and it faltered
from the start. There were two sons born from their wedlock, Sultan Ahmad and
Fazal Ahmad. They were born in the first four years, but after that the light
of their marriage grew dim and finally went out. Hurmat Bibi and her two sons
moved into the household of Massih Ma’ud (as) brother – whose only child, a
boy, had died young.
Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be
peace) moved back into his single bachelor room. When he was not in his room reading
the Quran the family always knew where to look for him – he was in the mosque.
Indeed, one of his father’s friends visiting them one day, said, “I know you say that you
have two sons, but I have only ever seen one. Where is your other son?” Hazrat Massih Ma’ud (upon him be
peace) was sent for, a shy, diffident boy, it is recalled, and who stared at
the ground and answered monosyllabically when he was spoken to..."