“Manifestation” of Ahmad

A Question answered

by Dr. Zahid Aziz

The Light (UK), June 2007 Issue (pp. 5–6)

Our esteemed and valued member in San Diego, U.S.A., Dr Hamid Rahman, recently asked me to clarify the meaning of a statement by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad which is quoted by Maulana Muhammad Ali in his book The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. This book had been given by his daughter Fatima to someone for study who raised a question regarding the following statement:

“As being the manifestation of the Holy Prophet, I was called Ahmad, though my name was Ghulam Ahmad” (page 2, footnote 4).

The question asked by the reader of the book is:

“How was Hazrat Mirza a manifestation of the Holy Prophet when he was in fact a Mujaddid [ Reformer]?”

The explanation that I sent was found by Dr Hamid Rahman to be very convincing and he has requested me to publish the same in this magazine.

Explanation:

People don’t understand that a claim to be a “manifestation” of the Holy Prophet means that all that person’s achievements are due to and for the Holy Prophet, and are not of that person himself. He is not proclaiming his own greatness but that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

Many of the successes which Allah promised to the Holy Prophet Muhammad were not attained during his lifetime, but later on at the hands of his true followers. Those true followers represented the Holy Prophet and received the success on his behalf. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself wrote as follows:

“An example is the prophecy of our Holy Prophet Muhammad that the keys to the treasures of the Qaisar and the Kasra [Byzantine and Persian emperors] have been placed in his hand, whereas it is clear that the Holy Prophet had died before the fulfilment of this prophecy, seeing neither the treasures of the Qaisar and the Kasra, nor the keys. But as it was destined that Hazrat Umar receive those keys, and the person of Hazrat Umar was, as it were, the person of the Holy Prophet Muhammad by way of zill, therefore in the realm of revelation the hand of Hazrat Umar was considered to be the hand of the Messenger of God, the Holy Prophet.” (Ayyam-us-Sulh, p. 35)

The word zill in this extract means “reflection” and is similar to the word burooz used in the earlier statement, translated there as “manifestation”.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad has been promised all the achievements and successes of Islam that were ever to come for long after him. When they come at the hands of some khalifa [caliph], mujaddid or deputy of him, he in a spiritual sense represents the Holy Prophet and is his manifestation.

Hazrat Mirza also writes:

“It is admitted that the miracle of a wali (saint) is the miracle of the prophet whom he follows.” ( Ayyam-us-Sulh, p. 74)

Any person who acquires certain of the Holy Prophet’s qualities by following him “manifests” him in this world to that extent. In case of Hazrat Mirza sahib, his claim is that victory over Dajjal (anti-spiritual materialism of the modern world that emerged from the West) will be achieved by his “Ahmadiyya” mission by manifesting the qualities of the Holy Prophet that are exemplified by the name Ahmad. That victory will not be due to something new brought by a man called Ghulam Ahmad, but by re-manifesting the “Ahmad” qualities of the Holy Prophet.

Further Quotes:

To add to the explanation which I gave above, I now quote the following further extracts from the writings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. After speaking of the two names of the Holy Prophet, Muhammad and Ahmad, he writes:

“And one of these two names belongs especially to one period and the other to the other period … God intended that He should make the Muslim nation to inherit these two names by way of zill (reflection) so that they may be as recurring blessings for this people … so He made the companions and those who followed them a manifestation (mazhar) of the name Muhammad in conditions of glory and beneficence and gave them triumph and helped them with successive favours. And He made the Promised Messiah a manifestation (mazhar) of the name Ahmad and He raised him in conditions of beauty and mercy … for the name Jesus and the name Ahmad have a unity in nature and a correspondence in disposition and from their very nature indicate beauty and the giving up of fighting, and as for the name Muhammad it is a name of supreme-ness and glory, and both these are as zill (reflection) of the (Divine names) Beneficent and Merciful.” (Ijaz-ul-Masih, pp. 106–108)

The life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad after being raised to prophethood consisted of two distinct periods: before Hijra [Migration] and after Hijra. These two periods correspond to the significance of the names ‘Ahmad’ and ‘Muhammad’ respectively, as ‘Ahmad’ denotes a mission of inner beauty like that of Jesus and ‘Muhammad’ denotes a mission of outward power and glory like that of Moses. Hazrat Mirza sahib says above that the history of Islam after the Holy Prophet had initially a period corresponding to the name ‘Muhammad’ when Muslim power and rule spread in the world. Thus the companions (sahaba) and early Muslims were a manifestation of the name ‘Muhammad’. In the same way, due to the conditions of modern times, the mission of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad manifests the aspects of Islam represented by the name ‘Ahmad’.

Hazrat Mirza sahib has also clearly explained that “manifestations” of prophets and the “likes” of prophets arising among Muslims are not prophets but the saints of this Umma [Muslim nation]. Answering the objection that

“only a prophet can be the like of a prophet”,

he wrote:

It will be noted that he is describing these views as being widely accepted by the scholars of Islam. Unfortunately, since in our modern times Islam is generally presented to Muslims by Muslims as a mere political, superficial ideology, devoid of any spiritual depth, as a result people are unfamiliar with its fine and profound teachings that were accepted for centuries. Therefore, they tend to think that Hazrat Mirza sahib has expressed ideas that are novel and alien to Islam.

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