• Contact us
• Search the website

Qadiani contradiction in their own alleged date of change of claim

When the Qadiani Khalifa Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad started trying to prove that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had claimed to be a prophet, he was faced with the great difficulty that Hazrat Mirza had denied claiming to be a prophet in his writings. To overcome this difficulty, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad invented the theory that Hazrat Mirza had realized after a certain date that he was indeed a prophet, and therefore all his denials of prophethood before that date must be regarded as having been cancelled and no longer applicable.

In his book Al-Qaul-ul-Fasl, published on 30th January 1915, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad set this date at October 1902, alleging that Hazrat Mirza has changed his claim to prophet subsequent to the publication of his book Tiryaq-ul-Qulub which appeared in October 1902.

So Mirza Mahmud Ahmad writes:

The last sentence of the above extract runs:

“It is absolutely unallowable to use any writing before 1902 as evidence because the Promised Messiah has given the decision that as regards his belief about prophethood which he expressed in Tiryaq-ul-Qulub, later revelation made him change it.”

(p. 24 of the original edition. This book is available on the Qadiani website www.alislam.org in the collection Anwar-ul-‘ulum, vol. 2, book no. 8. See page 285 for this extract.)

However, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad published another book only two months later in March 1915, entitled Haqiqat-un-Nubuwwat, in which he wrote:

“…the issue of prophethood became clear to him in 1900 or 1901, and as Ayk Ghalati Ka Izala was published in 1901, in which he has proclaimed his prophethood most forcefully, this shows that he made a change in his belief in 1901.… It is proved that the references dating prior to the year 1901 in which he has denied being a prophet, are now abrogated and it is an error to use them as evidence.”

(p. 121 of the original edition. This book is available on the Qadiani website www.alislam.org in the collection Anwar-ul-‘ulum, vol. 2, book no. 10. See pages 444–445 for this extract.)

First Mirza Mahmud Ahmad set the date of change of claim as being after October 1902 because Hazrat Mirza was denying being a prophet in the book Tiryaq-ul-Qulub published in October 1902. Then when Mirza Mahmud Ahmad thought that he could use Ayk Ghalati ka Izala, published in November 1901, to prove that Hazrat Mirza claimed to be a prophet, he altered the date of change of claim to “1900 or 1901”.

The very fact that Mirza Mahmud Ahmad changed this date is conclusive proof that it was his own invention and that Hazrat Mirza never mentioned any date after which his claim changed from non-prophet to prophet.

Whichever of these two dates they set for this alleged change of claim, the Qadianis are caught in a trap:

• If Mirza Mahmud Ahmad’s first date is right, that “it is absolutely unallowable to use any writing before [October] 1902 as evidence”, then the Qadianis are entirely wrong in propagating the booklet Ayk Ghalati Ka Izala to prove that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a prophet because it was published in November 1901, almost a year before October 1902.
• If Mirza Mahmud Ahmad’s second date is right, that “the issue of prophethood became clear to him in 1900 or 1901” then the Qadianis should accept Hazrat Mirza’s explanation of his claim and rank, that of a non-prophet, as given by him in Tiryaq-ul-Qulub because it was published in October 1902.