Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page v
about the author Hadrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad rh (1928–2003), a man of God, Voice articulate of the age, a great orator, a deeply learned scholar of phenomenal intelligence, a prolific and versatile writer, a keen student of comparative religions was loved and devoutly followed by his more than 10 million Ahmadi Muslim followers all over the world as their Imam, the spiritual head, being the fourth successor of Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (the Promised Messiah and Mahdi as ), to which august office he was elected as Khal i fatul Masih in 1982. After the promulgation of general Zia ul H aq anti- Ahmadiyya Ordinance of 26 th April 1984 he had to leave his beloved country, Pakistan, and migrated to England from where he launched Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA) which would (and still does) telecast its programmes 24 hours a day to the four corners of the world. Besides being a religious leader, he was a homeopathic physi- cian of world fame, a highly gifted poet and a sportsman. He had his schooling in Qadian, India, and later joined the Govt. College, Lahore, Pakistan, and after graduating from Jami‘ah Ahmadiyya, Rabwah, Pakistan with distinction, he obtained his honours degree in Arabic from the Punjab Univer- sity, Lahore. From 1955 to 1957 he studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He had a divinely inspired and very deep knowledge of the Holy Quran which he translated into Urdu. He also partially