The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 17
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI burnt. Mirza family was banished to an area across the river Beas, known as Begowal where they lived in poverty for the next 15 years. . By about 1818, the Sikh ruler, Maharajah Ranjit Singh had established his authority and permitted Mirza family to return to. Qadian. He rewarded Mirza Ghulam Murtaza with return of five villages due to his services in his army. . British conquered Punjab in the 1840's and made it part of their British empire of India. They recognized Mirza Ghulam Murtaza as land owner of Qadian but refused his ownership of five adjoining villages. Mirza Ghulam Murtaza spent the rest of his life in legal battles in Indian courts to recover his family estate. . By the time Hadhrat Ahmad was in his 20's, his father was much worried that his son was spending too much of his time in reading and praying and not learning how to make a living. He decided that Ahmad should represent him in legal battles in courts to recover their lost family fortune. Hadhrat Ahmad agreed reluctantly, out of his feelings of obedience and goodwill to his father and not for the sake of any worldly gain. . Alhaj A. U. Kaleem has written about this subject in his article, Life of the Promised Messiah (as published in Review of. Religions, August 1995). . He writes: "Hadhrat Ahmad's father was anxious to acquaint him with the affairs of his estate and wanted him to devote himself to the restoration of the lost worldly glory of the family. But Hadhrat Ahmad had no such interest, and his leanings were all in the opposite direction not to become the richest in means, but in spirit; not the greatest in worldly position but in true honour: not the most intellectual, but the most virtuous; not the most powerful and influential, but the most truthful, upright and honest. Yet he thought it his duty to carry out his father's wishes. Much against his own inclination, he occupied himself for a considerable time in pushing the legal proceedings that his father had started in the courts for regaining of the ancestral estate. In obedience to his father, he had also to attend to agricultural affairs. However his heart was not in 17