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| Ahmadiyya Mosque, Bangladesh |
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,. this site will be discussing one of the books of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi of Islam. For a list of earlier articles in the series and a full schedule of the upcoming articles click here. Today- one day earlier than scheduled- we will be looking at Hadhrat Sahib's book 'Sabz Ishtihar' or 'The Green Announcement,' which is only 29 pages long and the full English translation of which is available for free online here.
Historical and Social Background of the Publication of Ishtihar
Since the publication of the fourth volume of Baraheen-e-Ahmadiyya in 1884, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had been praying to Allah for a sign that would publicly establish the supremacy of Islam. It was in 1886 that for this purpose he received several revelations which indicated that for this purpose he should travel to the town of Hoshiarpur and observe a period of seclusion in the same style that The Holy Qu'ran records Moses observed a period of seclusion. In this time, Hadhrat Sahib was to spend 40 days praying for a sign. Following this, on February 20th 1886 Hadhrat Sahib announced that a grand prophecy had been revealed to him in Hoshiarpur:
I confer upon you a Sign of My mercy according to what you begged of me. So I have heard your entreaties and have honoured your prayers with My acceptance through My mercy and made your journey (i.e. the journey to Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana) a source of blessings for you. Therefore, a Sign of power, mercy, nearness is bestowed on you, a Sign of grace and beneficence is awarded to you and you are granted the key of success and victory. Peace on you, O victorious one. Thus did God speak so that those who desire life may be rescued from the grip of death and those who are buried in the graves may come out of them and so that the superiority of Islam and the dignity of God’s Word may become manifest unto the people and so that truth may arrivewith all its blessings and falsehood may flee with all its ills, and so that people may understand that I am the Lord of Power, I do whatever I will, and so that they may believe that I am with you, and so that those who do not believe in God and deny and reject His religion and His Book and His Holy Messenger Muhammad, the Chosen One s.a.w. may be confronted with a clear Sign and the way of the guilty ones may become manifest. Rejoice, therefore, that a handsome and pure boy will be bestowed on you; you will receive an unblemished youth who will be of your seed and will be of your progeny. A handsome and pure boy is coming as your guest. His name is Emmanuel and also Bashir. He has been invested with a spirit of holiness, and he is free from all impurity. He is the light of Allah. Blessed is he who comes from heaven. He will be accompanied by grace which shall arrive with him. He will be characterised with grandeur, greatness and wealth. He will come into the world and will heal many of their disorders through his Messianic qualities and through the blessings of the spirit of holiness. He is the Word of Allah for Allah’s mercy and honour have equipped him with the Word of Majesty. He will be extremely intelligent and perceptive and will be meek of heart and will be filled with secular and spiritual knowledge. He will convert three into four (of this the meaning is not clear). It is Monday a blessed Monday. Son, delight of the heart, high ranking, noble. A manifestation of the First and the Last, a manifestation of the True and the High; as if Allah has descended from heaven. His advent will be greatly blessed and will be a source of manifestation of Divine Majesty. Behold a light comes, anointed by God with the perfume of His pleasure. We shall pour Our Spirit into him and he will be sheltered under the shadow of God. He will grow rapidly in stature and will be the means of procuring the release of those held in bondage. His fame will spread to the ends of the earth and peoples will be blessed through him. He will then be raised to his spiritual station in heaven. This is a matter decreed. Your house will be filled with blessings and I shall perfect My favours unto you and you will have a large progeny from blessed women, some of whom you will find hereafter, and I will cause a great increase in your progeny and will bless it; but some of them will die in early age and your progeny will spread greatly in different lands. Every branch of your collaterals will be cut off and will come to an end soon through childlessness. If they do not repent, God will send chastisement after chastisement upon them, until they are completely wiped out. Their houses will be filled with widows and God’s wrath will descend upon their walls. But if they turn to God, He will turn to them in mercy. God will spread your blessings about and will revive a ruined house through you and will fill a fearful house with blessings. Your progeny will not be cut off and will flourish till the end of days. God will maintain your name with honour till the day when the world comes to an end and will convey your message to the ends of the earth. I shall exalt you and shall call you to Myself but your name will never be erased from the face of the earth. It will so happen that all those who seek to humiliate you, and are determined to cause you to fail and wish to ruin you will themselves be frustrated and will die in failure and frustration. But God will grant you complete success and will grant you all that you desire. I will cause an increase of your true and sincere friends and shall bless their lives and their properties and they will grow in number and they will prevail over the other Muslims—who are jealous of you and are hostile to you—till the Day of Judgment. God will not forget your supporters and will not lose sight of them and they will have their reward according to the degree of their devotion. You are to me as the prophets of Bani Isra’il. You are to Me as My Unity. You are of Me and I am of you. The time is approaching, indeed it is near, when God will put your love in the hearts of kings and nobles till they will seek blessings from your garments. O you who deny and who oppose the truth, if you are in doubt concerning My servant, if you deny the grace and bounty that I have bestowed upon My servant, then produce some true Sign concerning yourselves like this Sign of mercy, if you are truthful. If you are unable to produce it, and be sure you will never be able to produce it, then be mindful of the Fire which has been prepared for the disobedient, the liars and the transgressors.
Hadhrat Sahib further added to this in an announcement the following month which specified the birth of the son in even greater detail:
In the Announcement of February 20, 1886 made by this humble one…there is a prophecy of the birth of a righteous son possessing the qualities mentioned in the announcement.…Such a son, according to the divine promise, will surely be born within nine years, soon or late, but certainly within this period.
It so happened, that in 1887 a son was born to Hadhrat Sahib who was named Bashir. However, this child passed away the following year. On his passing, scholars and leaders- including the vicious enemy Lekh Ram- from both the Muslim and non-Muslim Communities in India were in uproar, claiming that the prophecies of Hadhrat Sahib had been proven false. It was under these circumstances that in 1888 Hadhrat Sahib considered it necessary to clear these baseless misunderstanding and so he took up his pen to explain them in Sabz Ishtihar.Contents of IshtiharHadhrat Sahib pointed out how nonsensical the misunderstandings about the prophecy are. He explained that the prophecies had clearly stated that there was a nine year period within which the Promised Son could be born. He also reminded the readers that before the birth of Bashir he had made the following announcement:
I supplicated again for further disclosure concerning this matter and it was disclosed to me today, April 8, 1886, by God Almighty that a son will be born very soon. Such period cannot exceed the interval of one pregnancy. Thus, it is obvious, that a son will probably be born soon, or certainly in the next pregnancy, but it has not been disclosed whether the one who will be born soon is the same Promised Son or whether he will be born at some other time within the term of nine years.Thereafter the following revelation was also received: 'Is this the one who was to come or shall we wait for another?'
From this, Hadhrat Sahib wondered how anyone could have made the mistake of misinterpreting his prophecy. After all, he had made it clear even before the birth of Bashir that this son was not necessarily The Promised Son referred to within the prophecy. On the final page of the book, Hadhrat Sahib also announced that Allah had now revealed to him that the time had come for him to formally take the oath of allegiance from his followers. Impact of IshtiharThe aforementioned prophecies which had been revealed to Hadhrat Sahib in the period preceding the publication of Ishtihar had already drawn attention, some more and some less welcome. Lekh Ram, a leader of the Indian Hindus, responded by publishing what he claimed was his own revelation. Some of the less offensive and vile parts of it are reproduced below:
To me also God has revealed the fact that a few false stories have been mentioned in it (Hadhrat Sahib's revelation), which have no beginning and no end. Rather from beginning to end it is a collection of fancies. God knows well that there is no evil-wisher as you are. The truth is that the price of your wishing ill or good is only Rs. 5 or Rs. 7. He who pays you gets your good wishes, otherwise your wishing evil is an admitted fact. When your warner and bearer of glad tidings (Muhammad s.a.w) took an oath according to surah Tahrim and broke it, how can your oath be trusted? When it is the very first prophecy, then according to your own words all other prophecies mentioned in the Baraheen-e-Ahmadiyya are false. He (Hadhrat Sahib's son) shall be extremely dull and idiot. Why have the first three (sons of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) remained unknown? Now God says, it is absolutely wrong. Even in Qadian many will not know the name of that disgraceful fellow. Your progeny (Hadhrat Sahib's progeny) shall very soon come to an end, at the utmost your name will be forgotten in three years. God says : You will be known to some extent in Qadian for a few days in extreme disgrace and ignominy, then you will disappear absolutely. When even Muhammad’s wish was not realised in this respect how can yours. What are your people? One is L. Sharampat Ra’i, the witness of your prophecies, and the other is Abdullah Sanauri; and there are one or two other beggars. Give them a few rupees and they begin to praise, otherwise blame. You make a fraud and they become the witnesses. You have adopted all the ways of Muhammad. Whatever I have written in this Ishtihar has been written, word by word, at the command of God. (Lekh Ram, writing in Kulliyat Arya Musafir, Part 3, p493-499)
Despite the mockery and abuse of Lekh Ram, Allah soon distinguished which of the two was truthful, by fulfilling Hadhrat Sahib's prophecy and absolutely rejecting Lekh Ram's. Hadhrat Sahib's prophecy stipulated that a boy would be born amongst his progeny within nine years. In fact, several sons were given to him within this time frame and three of these grew up to live long lives; Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, Hadhrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad and Hadhrat Mirza Sharif Ahmad. The prophecy stated that the son would be named Bashir and this could have been fulfilled by either Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, or his younger brother Hadhrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad.
The prophecy goes on to say that the child would be a holy personage. In 1914 Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad became the second khalifa of Ahmadiyya and in 1944 he announced that divine revelation had revealed that he was the Promised Son and so fulfilled this aspect of the prophecy. The prophecy went on that he would be wealthy and that he would be blessed with both secular and spiritual knowledge. These were fulfilled magnificently and the commentary he wrote on The Holy Qu'ran as exceptional, not to forget the critical role he played in the secular field of politics.
The part of the prophecy mentioning that he would convert three into four refers to the sons of The Promised Messiah. The Promised Messiah had one son (who reached adulthood and had children of his own) before his prophethood from his first wife. This son was not an Ahmadi at first. He then subsequently had three further sons from his second wife who were born Ahmadi Muslims. However, it was the second khalifa who converted his brother, thus turning three Ahmadi Muslim brothers into four.
The prophecy mentions that his fame would spread till the ends of the earth, and with the spread of Ahmadiyya into almost every country of the world this has been fulfilled. The prophecy also mentions that the Promised Messiah would have a large progeny, some of whom would die at a young age and others of whom would spread around the world. This was fulfilled with the death of the first Bashir, and the progeny now has reached or has almost reach the number 1,000 and has spread across the globe. Considering that at the time the use of planes etc. was not in vogue and migration was uncommon and that The Promised Messiah lived in a village of India, this itself was a grand prophecy. The part of the prophecy in which Allah promises Hadhrat Sahib that as part of this sign He would 'bless' his progeny refutes the belief of a few rebellious people that Hadhrat Sahib's claim was true, but that the khulafa from amongst his progeny are, God forbid, false.
The prophecy goes on that every member of Hadhrat Sahib's family who does not accept him would be cut off. At the time, the majority of his extended family- numbering 70 people- rejected him. All of them, who did not accept him, passed away either without children or only with those children surviving who accepted Ahmadiyya and this was another striking fulfillment of the prophecy. The prophecy also promised that if those same family members repented they would be turned to with mercy. This was also fulfilled and the ones who accepted Ahmadiyya lived and their children live within the community to this day.
The prophecy goes on that the Ahmadiyya community would be blessed with success and that those who opposed it would largely fail. Moreover, that the numbers of the community would continue to increase. Let us remember, that at the time noone had accepted Hadhrat Sahib's claim. Even a year later, only 40 men took the oath of allegiance. Today we see millions and millions of Ahmadi Muslims spread around the world.
One objection often raised by the opponents against Hadhrat Sahib is that large portions of the Muslim Ummah still have not accepted him. However, the prophecy clearly states from the outset that his followers will 'prevail over the Muslims who are jealous of you and hostile to you till the day of Judgement'. This clearly indicates that until the end of time there will be a party amongst the Muslims who are hostile towards Ahmadiyya and perhaps there will never be such a situation as the whole Ummah accepting Hadhrat Sahib and this remains true to this day. The prophecy finishes by hinting at the prophethood of Hadhrat Sahib and his high status and by announcing his truth.
Discussion of Selected Passages from the Book
In a school, for instance, we find children who are extremely intelligent and clever and quick-witted and capable of absorbing knowledge with great speed, but their lives are at times cut short and they die young. On the other hand, there are many dull and unintelligent children who lack even basic human qualities; they drool at the mouth and look like savages, and yet live to an old age, and, on account of their natural inaptitude, leave the world no better off. (English translation of Sabz Ishtihar)
We found the imagery in the above passage quite amusing and so shared it on our site.
When God prunes a tree which He has Himself planted, He does not do so with the intention of destroying it, but only to help it grow and blossom so that it may yield as much fruit as possible. (English translation of Sabz Ishtihar)
In the above passage, Hadhrat Sahib explains one of the reason believers are exposed to the trial and hardship of having their young ones or loved ones pass away, his point being that such a hardship gives us an opportunity to supplicate to our Lord for help and so draw nearer to Him.
But when we go on to analyze their condition with the aid of true insight, we find that negligence and worldliness has completely eroded their ability to understand the matters of faith. Like lepers whose limbs begin to rot in the advanced stage of the disease, their worldliness has caused their spiritual faculties to fall into decay. (English translation of Sabz Ishtihar)
Hadhrat Sahib explains how neglecting spirituality for the sake of worldly pursuits eventually blunts our spiritual faculties to the extent that men are reduced to being like lepers in the spiritual world.
The Torah clearly shows that Moses made errors in understanding and communicating some of his prophecies, and the promises of instant victory and freedom that had been made to the Israelites were not fulfilled in exactly the same manner. Therefore, when the Israelites saw things happening contrary to their expectations, they became extremely frustrated and, overcome by their chronic impatience, said, "O Moses and Aaron! Would that God treat you as you have treated us."
It would seem that these impatient people had given in to despair because Moses’ words had led them to believe that they would soon be free, but this did not happen and some difficulties intervened which they had not been told about in clear terms. All this happened because Moses himself had not been given any clear information about the intervening difficulties and the length of their trials, and it was his own inference that the ignoble Pharaoh would soon be defeated through manifest signs, but God, in accordance with His eternal practice towards all His Prophets, and in order to try Moses in the early stages of his mission, kept these intervening difficulties hidden from him. If all the coming trials and afflictions had been revealed to him beforehand, he would have been reassured and his resolve would have been strengthened, but in that case he would not have been overawed by the ordeals by means of which God had intended to raise his and his followers’ spiritual status and make them recipients of Divine reward in the hereafter.
In the same way, Jesus’ disciples had believed that the promises of worldly success and prosperity that the Messiah had made to them would be fulfilled very easily and in a short time. Some of the glad tidings the Messiah gave them even seemed to imply that he would soon establish a great kingdom, and some of his disciples even began collecting weapons in anticipation. The Messiah also spoke of his second coming in a manner which suggested that the disciples and their contemporaries would still be alive when he returned to the world in glory, and it seems that Jesus was himself inclined towards this view which he impressed upon his disciples, but, as it turned out, his interpretation was wrong and he had made an error of judgement.
Another amazing thing mentioned in the Bible is that close to four hundred Prophets made a prophecy about the victory of an Israelite King, but it was not fulfilled and the King was met with defeat. See I Kings 22:19. (English translation of Sabz Ishtihar)
The above passage explains how although prophets are recipients of divine revelation, even they can make mistakes in the interpretations of those revelations.
One of the supplications which David made during his time of trials, and are recorded in the Psalms, is: Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am weary of my crying: mine eyes fail. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none. (Psalms 69)
The Gospels also contain an account of how the Messiahas prayed and supplicated during his night of trial, and how he remained awake all night and was overwhelmed by grief and anguish as if in the throes of death. All night he cried and beseeched his Lord to let the cup that he was destined to drink pass from him. But, despite his many prostrations, his prayer was not heard, because prayers that are offered during trials are not accepted.
We should also not forget the sufferings endured by our lord and master, pride of the Messengers, and seal of the Prophets, Muhammad s.a.w. during his times of trial. At one such time, he prayed, "My Lord! I complain to you of my weakness and confess my helplessness at your threshold. My humble state is known to You. I am ready to bear every hardship until You are pleased with me, and I have no strength other than You." (English translation of Sabz Ishtihar)
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