The Famous Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsari and the Challenge

The famous Sanaullah Amritsari and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

The focus of this debate is to prove whether the document titled as the “The final decision” is a mubahala challenge (prayer duel) or merely a supplication. The document in itself does not, however, include any condition of a mubahala challenge. But Ahmadi missionaries insist this letter is part of the chain of “challenges” that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had made to Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsari, which the Maulvi failed to accept throughout the lifetime of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

So, in short AMJ wants everyone to understand this document in light of the following points:

1.       The document is not a standalone prayer, but it is to be understood in terms of a mubahala challenge.

2.       While addressing this document, one must keep in mind the cowardice of Maulvi Sanaullah in failing to accept any challenges. 

Before we examine the document, there’s another aspect that is crucial to this case. The fact that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad signed a court legislation over refraining from making death prophecies and prayer duels In 1899. So if this is, indeed, a prayer duel, then Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is guilty of breaching court order.

Now, let’s examine the document “The Final Decision”:

The Last Decision with Mr. Maulvee Sanaaullaah (Amratsaree)

In the Name of Allaah, the Most Beneficent, the Ever Merciful

[Submitted] to Mr. Maulvee Sanaaullaah.

Salaam [peace] on whosoever follows the guidance. For a long time, your periodical Ahl-e-Hadeeth has been continuing to brand me a liar and a profligate. … If I am as much of a liar and a forger [‘muftaree’, an impostor, one who makes a false accusation, an accusation which, in this context, is to impute something to God] as you quite often refer to me in your periodical, then I shall die during your lifetime. Because, I know that the life span of a corrupter [mischief-monger] and a liar is not very long and, ultimately, he dies, unfulfilled, in humiliation and despair, during the life of his enemies. And it is better that he die so that he may not destroy the servants of God. And if I am not a liar and a rogue, and am honored by God’s discourse and address, and am the Promised Messiah, then I hope that by the Grace of God, according to the practice of Allaah, you shall not escape the punishment [given] to liars.

Hence, [I declare that] if, during my lifetime, you are not afflicted with such punishment as is not [possible] from human hands but is entirely from God’s hand, for example, fatal diseases such as plague, cholera etc., then I am not from God Almighty. This is not a prophecy based on revelation [of any sort]. [Rather] just in terms of a supplication I have desired a verdict from God Almighty. And I pray to God: O my Master, the Observer, the Powerful, who is the Knowing, the Omniscient, who is aware of the situation of my heart. If this claim of being the Promised Messiah is just an imputation from my self and, in your view, I am a mischief-monger and a liar and am engaged in making false imputations day and night then, O my beloved Master, I humbly pray to You to make me perish in the lifetime of Mr. Maulvee Sanaaullaah and make him and his group happy by my death. Aameen. But O my Perfect and True God, if Maulvee Sanaaullaah is not true in the accusations that he levels at me, then I humbly pray to You to perish him in my lifetime. But not with human hands [but] rather by fatal diseases such as plague, cholera etc. Except in the case that he openly repents, facing me and in the presence of my Jama`at, from all those vile epithets and the verbal abuse that he considers [his] official duty [and with which] he always inflicts pain on me.

 Aameen, O Lord of all the worlds, Aameen. … I see that Maulvee Sanaaullaah, by dint of these calumnies, wants to destroy my organization [the Ahmadiyya Movement] and dismantle that edifice which You made with Your own hands, O my Lord and O You who have sent me. For this reason, I am beseeching You, holding on to Your Holiness and Mercy: Provide a true verdict between me and Sanaaullaah and [as to the one] who in Your view is in reality a mischief-monger and a liar, make him depart from this world in the lifetime of the truthful one; alternatively, afflict him with some extremely severe tribulation that is equivalent to death. O my beloved Master, [please] do just as this [i.e., as supplicated]. Aameen and again Aameen. [Arabic text of a portion of the verse Quraan 7:90: … O our Lord, decide Thou between us and between our people with truth and Thou art the Best of those who decide.]

At the end I request Maulvee Saahib to publish this entire article in his periodical and write whatever [he] wants under it. Now the decision is in God’s hands.  The writer: Servant of Allaah, The Eternal -- Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah May God protect him and help him.

Date of writing: Monday, April 15, 1907 AD; Rabee`-ul-Awwal 1325 AH. [MAJMOO`AH, v. 3, pp. 578-579]

If your still wondering whether this was a prayer duel or a prayer alone? The image below finally puts an end to this debate:

The excerpt from Akhbar Badr 6 (34). 22 August 1907. P. 8. Col. 1 proves that this was solely a prayer supplicated by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to prove his "truthfulness".

The next excerpt from the then Newspaper Al-badr vol. 6 number 24 (dated 13 June 1907 page 2 column 1) presented is also further proof that the document was actually a prayer sought by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, apparently as his last resort to intimidate Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsaree:

Mufti Sadiq Qadiani writes on 5th May 1907:

Naqala Khat Banaam Molvi Sana Ullah Sahib

"...ap ka registry shuda card murasla 3 June 1907 Hazrat Masih Maud ki khidmat ma pohncha. Jis ma aap na 4 April 1907 k akhbaar k hawala da kar kitab HaqeeqaTulWahi ka aik nuskha manga ha. Es k Jawab ma aap ko mutla kiya jata ha k aap ki taraf HaqeeqaTulWahi bhajnay ka irada wo es liya zahir kiya giya tah, jab k aap ko mubahila k wastay likha giya tah ta k mubahila sa pahlay aap kitab parh latay. Magar choon'k aap na badeen khayal k Hazrat Mirza Sahib na Quran o Hadees k bar'khalaf to karna he nahi, ao aik aise baat paish karian k kisi tarha ya piyala tal jaway, apnay wastay ta'ayun(تعیین) azaab ki khawaish zahir ki. Or bagahir es k mubahila sa inkar kar k apnay liya faraar ki aik rah nikali. Es wastay Masheat-a-Aazdi(Allah) na aap ko dusri rah sa pakhra. Or Hazart Hujjatullah(Mirza Qadiani) k qalb main aap k wastay aik dua ki tahreek kar k faisla ka or tareeq(which was in poster of 15th April 1907 of Mirza) akhtiyar kiya(which was making Dua agianst Mollana Sanah Ullah Amratsari RA). Es wastay muhaila k sath jo shuroot tah wo sab k sab bawaja na iqraar patay ho'ay mubahila k munsookh hoay, lihaza aap ki taraf kitab bhajnay ki zuroorat na rahi."

Summary of the excerpt: 

Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsaree writes a letter to MGA asking him to provide him a book. Mufti Sadiq replies (on behalf of MGA) saying that providing him (Maulvi Sanaullah Amritsaree) a book was conditional, i.e., if the Mubahila chellenge had taken place, but since he did not accept it, they are no longer obliged to provide him with MGA's book. But instead MGA has made a prayer against him invoking God to manifest a divine decision as an "alternative" to Mubahala Challenge.

In yet another excerpt, this same author writes to Maulvi Sanaullah warning him of a prayer's fulfillment that will soon afflict him most certainly by annihilating him in the lifetime of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad:

"Molvi sahib aap k liya b Khuda ki gharat karishma dikhlay ge, Sadiq ki dua qaza samjhiya jo seedha jigr k paar honay wala ha, Haan ya maloom nahi k kab aisa ho ga, lakin ya zuroori ha k aakhri fiasla zuroor ho. us waqt maloom ho ja'ay ga k Allah ta'ala kabhi pasand nahi karta k us k mamoroo ki zillat ho. main aap ko koi dhamki nahi daita bal'k sirf aap ko ya samjhanay ki khater k aap ka ya kahna k chon'k aap barhay sakht mukhalif silsa Aalia Ahmadiyya k hain or aap ki mukhalfat oroon tak asar karti ha, es liya chahiya k aap ka pahlay khatima ho, Ba-zroor pora ho ga magar jis tarha Khuda Ta'ala ko manzoor ha."(Al-Hukm number 14 vol. 12 page 6 first column dated 22 February 1908)

The result of the prayer:

·         Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died shortly according to his own criteria and that which he cursed his opponents with

·         He died of a disease similar to Cholera (if not cholera itself)

·         Maulvi Sanaullah lived on for 40 years after MGA’s death (as opposed to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's position: "a liar does not have a long life").

·         He was reported to have died in a car accident.

·         At the time of MGA’s death, his last words were “I have developed epidemic cholera".  (reference provided below)

The Final Decision in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's own writings:

http://files.qern.org/qarchives/haneef/