Khuddam USA Souvenir 1989 — Page 10
HAZRAT MIRZA BASHIRUDDIN MAHMUD AHMAD , KHALIFATUL MASIH II, MAY ALLAH BE PLEASED WITH HIM He was the promised son of the Promised Messi ah and the Promised Reformer born on January 12. 1889, according to proph esy pub li shed by the Promised Mes siah on february 20, 1886 The prophesy was published on green paper and thus became to be known as sabz ishtehaar (green brochure). It is an elaborate prophesy detailing distinguishing signs of the prom ised son Be cause the prophesy about the Promised Reformer was fu lfilled in him , he is also known as the Musl eh Maood (Promised Reformer). In Janua ry 1 944 , he was informed m a dream that he was the Musleh Maood {Promised Reformer) as prophesied by the Promised Messiah. The fullillment of the prophesy was related by Hazrat Khali - fatu Mas1h himself in his speech published as al- maood (the Promised One). At the demise of the Promised Messiah, he was the first one to take the pledge of allegiance on the hand of the Khalifatul Masih I on May 27 , 1 908. at the start of the first khilafat m Ahmadiyyat. All through the first khilafat, he was the right hand of the Khalifatul Masih I. He toured Egypt and Arabia in 19 12 and performed HaJj. He started the publication of the newspaper Al Faz/ in June 1 913 He accepted the pl edge of allegiance from jamaat members on March 13 , 19 14, when he was only 25, as the second successor to the Promised Messiah, at the demise of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih I lie headed the community for almost 52 years. half of the first century of the Ahmadiyya community. He was bestowed with exceptional understanding of the Holy Quran and the teachings of Islam. He wrote bnef and detailed c om - mentaries on the Holy Quran published as Tafseer Sagheer and Tafseer Kabeer, respectively. Occasionally he presented his messages in the form of poetry. Kalam1 Mahmud is the collection of his poems. His khutbas and speeches were masterpieces of Islamic knowledge orna- mented by excellent prose and unparallelled oratory. Audiences sat through his speeches transfixed for hours as birds were s it ting on their h ea ds and the birds would ny away iflhey moved A nu mber of volumes of his khut - bas have already bee n published as Khutbali Mahmud. Many of his speeches are available m book form and are exhaustive studies on respective topics. During his life span, he started many schemes for the propagation of Islam On December 7 1917 , he made a call for volunteers to devote their lives for the service of Islam. In respo nse , 63 young men submitted their names for acceptance. In the beginning of 1923. he started act1v1t y to counter Shuddhi movement to save Muslims from conversion to Hinduism. Hindus had started the Shuddhi movement to convert Muslims who were de - scendants of Hindus back to Hinduism He established 10 - Cc ntcnaty Souve nir Jamia Ahmadiyya on April 15 , 1928, for re ligious training of volunteers for the propagation of Islam, the mission- aries. In 1934, he started Teh nki Jadid for the propagation of Islam in foreign countries. He announced the Waqfi Jadid scheme in December 1957 for the propagation of Islam amongst the non-Muslims of Pakistan. Like Hazrat Omar (may Allah be pleased wit h him), th e second successor of the Holy Proph et Mohammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be on hi m), he paid special attention toward s tr engthening the structure and organization of various activities of the co mmun ity. Apart from fi r ming and ex pan di ng or ga nization at th e jamaat level, he al so or ga nized auxiliari es to address th e needs of all sections of the community. He es tablished ladies' organization, Lajna lmaillah, on December 25 , 1 922. He established MaJ l is Khuddamul Ahmadiyya in 1938 to organize the youth in the community and es t ab- lished Majlis Ansarullah for the elders of the community in 1940. He moved to Pakistan on the division of India in 1947. He established a new town Rabwah m Pakistan to serve as the headquarters of the community. He was attacked with a knife in 1954 while preparing to return after lead- ing Asr salat at Masjid Mubarak in Rabwah. He expired on November 8, 1 965. (Co mpil ed by Syed sa 11d A hm ad)