THE MESSIAH OF QADIAX. 



251 



Qadianl claims to be, like Jesus Christ, a cli finely appointed 

 Mediator between God and man, and so a true Intercessor with 

 God for man. To sum up, the Mirza Sahib claims to be the 

 spiritual leader of his time, the mediator between God and 

 man, the promised Mahdi or spiritual warrior of God, the 

 Hakam or divinely-sent arbitrator, the second Adam, the true 

 Ahmad or spiritual manifestation of the prophet Muhammad, 

 the promised Messiah, and metaphorically a manifestation of 

 Deity; (/) As regards credentials. Ahmad of Qadian claims 

 to be like Jesus of Xazareth, as regards the " signs " which 

 have accompanied his mission. These signs are both natural 

 and supernatural and consist of miracles, fulfilled predictions, 

 answers to prayer, eloquence in the Arabic tongue, profound 

 understanding of the Quran, growth in the number of disciples, 

 good effect of the doctrine on the lives of disciples, etc. 



Such then are the proofs, both negative and positive, by 

 which Ahmad of Qadian seeks to demonstrate his claim to be 

 the promised Messiah. As by claiming to be the promised 

 MaMi, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad seeks to focus the Messianic 

 expectations of the Muhammadans upon himself, and as by 

 claiming to be the promised Avatar he seeks to fix tbe- 

 Messianic hope of the Hindus upon himself, so by claiming to 

 be the promised Messiah he clearly hopes to turn all the 

 Messianic expectancy of Christians towards himself. As The 

 Review of Religions puts it: " The appearance of a single 

 person, in fulfilment of the expectations of three different 

 nations, is a happy sign of the union of the three great nations 

 of the world, the Hindus, the Muhammadans, and the Chris- 

 tians." (Xovember, 1904, p. 427.) 



Thus, the programme is universalistic, and the aspiration is 

 toward religious sovereignty over the nations. The Roman 

 empire has ceased to be, nevertheless it still exists in the form 

 of the Roman Church ; for is not the Pope of Rome (jealously 

 selected as a rule from Italy) the spiritual ruler of a vast 

 multitude over all the earth ? In like manner the Moghul 

 empire has ceased to be, and yet there seems to be in the mind 

 of the Moghul chief of Qadian the dream of a Moghul church 

 with himself as the head, and wielding spiritual sovereignty 

 over all mankind. 



III. The Ahmadiyyah Society. 



According to the census of 1901, there were reported for the 

 Punjab, " 1,113 followers, males over 15, of Mirza Ghulam 



