Maulavi Siraj-ud-Din

[ BACK ] Maulavi Siraj-ud-Din was the editor of the leading Muslim Urdu daily paper, the Zamindar of Lahore, at the time of Hazrat Mirza's death. He was the father of the well-known Maulavi Zafar Ali Khan, who himself later became editor of Zamindar. In his obituary of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad published in Zamindar, Maulavi Siraj-ud-Din wrote:

``Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sahib was a clerk near the district of Sialkot in about 1860 or 1861. He would be about 22 or 23 years of age at the time. We can say from personal experience that, even in his youth, he was a very virtuous and righteous person. After work all his time was spent in religious studies. He did not much meet people. In 1877 we had the honour of his hospitality at his home in Qadian for one night. In those days too, he was so engrossed in worship and devotion that he conversed little, even with guests…We have often said, and we again say, that even if his claims were the result of mental pre-occupation, he was innocent of pretence or fabrication…Scholarly figures such as Maulavi Nur-ud-Din and Maulavi Muhammad Ahsan, and products of modern education such as Khawaja Jamal-ud-Din, B.A., Khawaja Kamal-ud-Din, B.A., and Maulavi Muhammad Ali, M.A., are among his followers. Though we personally did not have the honour of believing in his claims or revelations, nonetheless we consider him to be a perfect Muslim.''

(Zamindar, 8 June 1908)