Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada

Light of Prophesies of Warning and
Good News. I had seen this
gentleman, Sheikh Saeed Ahmad,
earlier in the Ahmadiyya mosque in
Jaranwala (near Faisalabad,
Pakistan) in my college days. I
came to know from the speech of
Maulana Ghulam Nabi that
government of the day had gifted
some agricultural land to Maulvi
Muhammad Hussain Batalvi in a
village (chak # 123) near Jaranwala
and his family had settled there.
Another highlight of Jalsa 2006, in
my view, was a speech in the
Punjabi language by Maulvi Giani
Tanvir Ahmad on the subject of
Ahmadiyyat: The True Islam. Being
a Punjabi myself, I enjoyed this
speech thoroughly. This was my
first time listening to a speech
delivered in Punjabi from the stage
of Jalsa Salana.
On December 29, I left Qadian for
Hoshiarpur, which is located at a
distance of about two hours by taxi
cab, in the company of Maulvi
Nasrul Haq, Missionary of
Hoshiarpur. We reached his
residence and the Jama`at Mission
House located on Bank Bazar (near
Old Kanak Mandi) by noon, well in
time for the Friday prayer. This
blessed and historic house is the
same house where the Promised
Messiah (as) spent 40 days in 1886
in seclusion, supplicating to Allah,
due to His command. This was a
very emotional visit for me, being
my first ever visit, to this house
which I had not had an opportunity
to visit although it was located in
my ancestral city.
This building consists of
several different parts. On
the street level are small
shops owned by non-
Muslims and a portion of
the upper level is owned
by the Jama`at. The old
staircase is also in the
possession of the Jama`at
but now it does not lead to
the street, and it is
functionally closed. A
garage-type room is also in
possession of the Jama`at.
The upper level, which is
in possession of the
Jama`at, has two sections.
One section is used as the
Missionary’s residence
and its opposite side
consists of a verandah and Entrance to the house from the street
two adjoining rooms in
east-west directions, which are used
as a mosque. Out of these two
The Promised Messiah (as) had a
long time wish and intention to
rooms, the western room (about spend 40 days in special
12x12 ft) is the historic room where
the Promised Messiah (as) did
“chilla”—a 40-days solitary retreat
supplication, like Hadrat Musa (as)
did in his life, at a place where no
body knew him so that he could
for supplication to God in pious concentrate without human
seclusion, following the command disturbance. In 1884 he had
of Allah, the Exalted. I spent 24
hours, out of my stay in Hoshiarpur,
intended to go to Sojanpur (district
Gurdaspur) for that purpose but
in these two rooms.
that journey was postponed
according to the will of Allah. He
The year of 1886 was a year of
momentous incidents, full of Allah’s
blessings, in which the Promised
wanted for the divine light to guide
him in the selection of the place to
which he would go. Allah revealed
Messiah (as) saw splendid to the Promised Messiah (as) in
manifestations of special signs from Urdu “tumhari uqda kushaee
Allah. He was divinely informed of Hoshiarpur mein ho gi”, (your
many future happenings, including
the birth of a Promised Son to him,
which the world came to know as
Hadrat Mirza Bashirudin Mahmud
Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih II (ra).
conundrum will be resolved in
Hoshiarpur). As a result, in January
1886, the Promised Messiah (as) left
for Hoshiarpur in the company of
Hadrat Maulvi Abdullah Sanori,
My Nostalgic Visit to Hoshiarpur 24