How can you test whether a claimant is true? The Quran’s yardsticks applied to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as)

When you go to buy gold, the jeweller rubs it on a touchstone. Gold leaves one kind of streak, brass another. You know what is pure not because someone says so, but because of the test.

The Quran has also placed a few touchstones in our hands for testing whether someone who claims to come from Allah is true. The interesting thing is that the Quran used these very touchstones to prove the truth of the Holy Prophet (sa). So no Muslim should have any objection to them.

The first touchstone: the life before the claim

When the people of Makkah were rejecting the Holy Prophet (sa), Allah told him to say:

A man who for forty years never lied even to people would not suddenly lie in the name of Allah; reason does not accept that. On Mount Safa even the Quraish admitted, “We have never known you to tell a lie” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 4971).

This very verse was also revealed to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), word for word. And he gave a challenge: “You cannot point to any fault, deceit, lie or fraud in my life before my claim… Which of you can show such a fault in my life?” (Tadhkirat ash-Shahadatain, Ruhani Khazain vol. 20, p. 64)

Hazrat Musleh Maud (ra) wrote that Maulvi Muhammad Husain Batalvi, who later became a fierce opponent, had himself testified in his own magazine that Hazrat Mirza sahib’s life was pure and blameless (Mi‘yar-e-Sadaqat, Anwar al-Ulum, vol. 6).

The second touchstone: one who forges revelation does not survive

Allah the Exalted says about the Holy Prophet (sa):

This verse is given as proof of the truth of the Holy Prophet (sa): he lived for twenty-three years after claiming revelation, and Allah did not seize him. Hazrat Mirza sahib began to receive revelation in the late 1860s, and went on claiming revelation for more than 45 years. He passed away naturally in 1908, when his work had already begun to spread around the world.

There is an important question here: if a false claimant could also survive for more than twenty-three years, how would this verse prove the truth of the Holy Prophet (sa)? The argument would collapse by itself. So to uphold the honour of the verse, we have to accept that Allah does not give such a long time to someone who falsely claims revelation.

The third and fourth touchstones: news of the unseen, and the final outcome

A guess sometimes comes true, but a large number of clear prophecies are revealed only through a servant chosen by Allah. A detailed list of the prophecies of the Promised Messiah (as) is in his book Haqiqatul Wahi. For example, in 1886 he foretold the birth of a great son; on 12 January 1889 Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra) was born, who later became the second Khalifa of the Community.

The fourth touchstone is the final outcome. The Quran says:

The man who once stood alone in Qadian, a village that received post only once a week, received the revelation that Allah would carry his message to the ends of the earth. Hazrat Musleh Maud (ra) asked: who today can say that his name has not reached the ends of the earth? For more than a century, through fierce opposition, the Community has not stopped; after every trial it has moved further ahead.

Questions people ask

“Verse 69:45 is only about the Holy Prophet (sa)”

Some say the verse speaks only of the Holy Prophet (sa) and is not a yardstick for anyone else. But think: something works as proof only when it rests on a general rule. If Allah gave liars a long time, then “I have survived twenty-three years” would be no proof at all. The force of the proof comes from this very rule: Allah does not let off someone who forges lies in His name.

“Many impostors also survived for a long time”

Living a long time is one thing. Regularly claiming revelation in Allah’s name, issuing public challenges, and going on to prosper with Allah’s help against all opponents is another. The Quran’s rule is about the second kind of claimant. Besides, the test of truth is not one yardstick but several together: a pure past, a long life, prophecies fulfilled, and continuing success. All of them together never fit the life of a liar.

“Everyone faces opposition; what does that prove?”

Opposition alone proves nothing, true. But the Quran says that every messenger was met with mockery and denial (Surah Ya Sin 36:31). So a fatwa of disbelief against a claimant does not prove him false; rather, the real testimony is that he survives and grows in the midst of opposition.