Disagreement with Muslim Ummah on every principle of Islam

Mirza exploited the aforesaid self-conferred divine authority to temper with the Quran and Hadith, for the purpose of expressing disagreement with the general mass of Muslims in every sphere, be it religious, social or national. His son Mirza Mehmood Ahmad said thus in one of his sermons:

“ These words of the Promised Messiah are still ringing in my ears: ‘ It is wrong that we differ from other people only with respect of the death of Christ or a few other matters. The fact is that we differ from them concerning Allah Himself, the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), the Quran, the daily canonical prayers, fasting, Hajj, Zakat - in short in each and everything”.

                                                                                    (Al-Fazl, 3 July 1931)

The detailed reproduction of all those issues on which Mirza expressed dissent with the Muslim Ummah would require several volumes. Consequently, only few of the salient issues are listed below by way of illustrations:

(i)                  Decent of angles

Mirza described angels to be the “souls of the stars” and on that basis argued in his Ayyam-us-Sulh (Days of Peace) that id the angels were to descend to earth as most Muslims believed, the stars would disintegrate and fall away from the sky. In support of this view, he quoted (or rather misquoted) portions of the following verses of Quran:

Translation: "They say: 'Why is an angel not sent down to him? If we did send down an angel', the matter would be settled (at once), and no respite would be grated them."    (VI, 8)

Say (O Prophet!): “If there were settled on earth angels walking about in peace and quiet, we should certainly have sent down from the heaven an angel for an apostle”.       (XVII, 95)

A perusal of the detailed context of the preceding verses would show that they had no relevance to the point made by Mirza. They had in fact been revealed by Allah to answer the objection of the disbelievers as to why a human being and not an angel had been sent to them as a prophet. Yet, in another of his writings containing a commentary on verse 4 of Surah Al-Qadr of the Quran (XCVII), Mirza himself conceded that angels did in fact descend to earth. (cf., Izalah-e-Awham). Furthermore, according to an entry in the “diary” of Mian Mehmood Ahmad, Khalifa of Qadian, published in Al-Fazl dated 10 April 1922, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and a fellow student during his childhood concerning a statement in an old book that Angel Gabriel no longer descended to earth: “ What the book says is wrong; Gabriel does come to earth even now”.

In his book " Mavahibur Rahman", Mirza wrote: “Gabriel came near me, and pointing towards me said, “God will protect thee against enemies”.

In short, Mirza Sahib had no scruples in interpreting even the Quranic verses in a manner that suited his purpose in a given situation.

(ii)                The Human Spirit (Ruh-e-Insaani)

The Holy Quran declares the Ruh (human spirit) to be “by the Command of the Lord” (XVII, 85). It thus belongs to a category of creation that is beyond human comprehension and transcends “abode and direction”. A hadith of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) describes the spirit in the following words:

Translation: "The spirits are the assembled armies (of God). Those of them that loved each other in the erstwhile world (of spirits), and those apposed to each other there, do the same in this world also".

On the other hand, Mirza declared thus in a speech made by him in a religious public meeting held in Lahore on 27 December 1896:

“We witness daily that thousands of germs infest the rotten sores in the human body. The fact, therefore, is that the spirit is a fine light, which is born right in the sperm that breeds in the female womb, and the essence of which is present in the sperm from the very beginning”.

(iii)               Yowm-ud-din (The Day of Judgment)

The words Yowm-ud-din have been used to denote the day of judgment at a number of places in the Holy Quran, for example:

1.      And lo! The wicked verily will be in hell; they will burn therein on the Day of Judgment. (LXXXII, 14-15)

2.      And  what will explain to thee (O Prophet) what the Day of Judgment is? Again, what will explain to thee what the Day of Judgment is? (It will be) the Day when no soul shall have power (to do) aught for the other: for the Command, on that Day, will be (wholly) with Allah. (LXXXII, 17-19)

As against these clear Divine pronouncements, Mirza declared that Allah had named the period of the Promised Messiah (i.e., his own period) as “Yawm-ud-Din” because the Din i.e., the religion of Islam would be given new life during this period.