A Primer of Religious Knowledge — Page xi
About the Author Hadrat al- Ha j Maul a n a Ha fi z Hakeem Noor-ud-Deen (1841–1914), may Allah be pleased with him, was the first Khalifah of the Promised Messiah— Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as. He was elected to this blessed office unanimously by the Community on 27 May 1908, shortly after the demise of the Promised Messiah as. Hadrat Maul a n a Hakeem Noor-ud-Deen ra was born in Bhera, India, and was the 34th direct male descendant of Hadrat Umar ibn al-Khattab ra, the second Khalifah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad s as. He started studying the Holy Quran at an early age and travelled far and wide in pursuit of knowledge, including Makkah and Madinah. He mastered Arabic and Hebrew, Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy, commentaries on the Holy Quran, and Persian poetry. In addition to his international renown as an Islamic scholar, he was an accomplished physician serving as the Royal Physician of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Like so many renowned scholars of the time, he immedi- ately recognised and accepted the Promised Messiah as, who wrote the following about him: Ever since I have been commissioned by Allah the Exalted and have been revived by the Ever-Living,