The Green Announcement — Page iii
About the Author Introduction Born in 1835 in Qadian (India), Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdias, devoted himself to the study of the Holy Quran and to a life of prayer and devotion. Finding Islam the target of foul attacks from all directions and the fortunes of Muslims at a low ebb, he, as the Imam and the voice articulate of the age, undertook the task of vindicating Islam and presenting its teachings in their pristine purity. In his vast corpus of writings, lectures, discourses, religious debates etc. , he argued that Islam was the only living faith, by following which, man could establish contact with his Creator and enter into communion with Him. He announced that God had appointed him the Messiah and Mahdi, according to the prophecies of the Bible, the Holy Quran and Ahadith. In 1889 he began to accept initiation into his Jamāʻat, which is now established in over a hundred and eighty countries. He wrote more than eighty books in Urdu, Arabic and Persian. After his demise in 1908, the Promised Messiahas was succeeded by Khulafā (Successors), who have continued his mission. Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih Vat is the present head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamāʻat and the fifth Successor of the Promised Messiahas. About the Book This booklet is entitled A Discourse upon the Death of Bashir, but has become generally known as The Green Announcement on the account of the colour of the paper it was first printed on. It was written by the Promised Messiahas to remove the doubts and misgivings that had arisen out of the death of his son Bashir, the First. ,