Intro
MGA died in his house in May of 1908, most likely at mid-night or 2am. He seems to have joined Ahmadiyya in the early 1900’s and was a class-mate of Allama Iqbal at the famous Scotch Mission High School. Colonel Dr. Bashir Husain, retired Director, Health Services, West Pakistan, is his son. In 1914, he quit Qadiani-Ahmadiyya and denounced the Mirza family and thus became a prominent Lahori-Ahmadi. He died in 1939._____________________________________________________________________________________________Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain Shah doubted MGA’s visions and dreams
Zikre Habib by Mufti Sadiq Qadiani page 225
MIRZA GHULAM WORKED HARD TO LEARN ART OF ILHAM?
It has been stated by Mufti Sadiq that there was a famous Medical Doctor in Lahore by the name of Dr. Muhammad Hussain. Hazrat Massih e Moud (Mirza Qadiani) used to have medical consultation from him. Once he said smilingly to hazrat sb, plz teach me the way how do you get ilham. Hazrat sahib replied Dr. Sahib you teach me the DOCTORI (Medicines). Dr. Sahib said it requires too much time and hard work to learn medicine. Hazrat Sahib (Mirza Qadiani) said same is the case with Ilham.
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1878
Dr Syed Muhammad Husain Shah was born in 1878 in Lakki Marwat in District Bannu, North West Frontier Province of India (now Pakistan), where his father, Khan Bahadur Syed Alim Shah, was posted as Assistant Settlement Officer in the Civil Service of the British Government in India. The family actually hailed from the village Kala Chichi in Tehsil (Sub-district) Shakargarh, District Gurdaspur in Punjab Province.
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1880’s
Having passed his early years in Lakki Marwat, he could understand Pushto, the lingua franca of that area. He went to school in Scotch Mission High School, Sialkot where, amongst others, Allama Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal was his classmate with whom he had a very friendly relationship which lasted for a whole lifetime.
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1899
After completion of his education at Sialkot he joined Medical College at Lahore and obtained his L.M.S Degree in 1899. Unfortunately, his father passed away the same day on which the result of the Medical Degree Examination was announced. After graduation, he was employed in the Department of Health Services of the Government of Punjab.
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1901-1902
“Before my visit to Qadian for the first time I was thinking of it as a gaddi (spiritual court), like the gaddies of other pirs, but when I arrived there I had a problem in recognizing Hazrat Sahib as he was sitting amidst other people, so I had to enquire as to who amongst them was the Promised Messiah. This unassuming behaviour of the Promised Messiah registered a deep impression on my mind. A person amongst the gathering asked the Promised Messiah to request his followers to grow beards as most of his followers were clean-shaven. In reply, Hazrat Mirza sahib said that he was more concerned about the hearts of the people, and once those are reformed the beards will automatically follow. After returning from Qadian, I kept thinking that such a person cannot be an imposter and I decided that I should join his Jama‘at (community of followers). So I again went to Qadian and took bai‘at (pledge of allegiance) at the hands of the Promised Messiah.”
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1903-1904
Some time later after that the Shah sahib was permanently posted at Lahore. In those days, he, along with Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Dr Mirza Yaqub Beg and Shaikh Rahmatullah, used to go to Qadian every weekend to spend time in the company of the Promised Messiah.
The Shah sahib was a devout and pious Muslim and a sincere devotee of the Promised Messiah. From the day he joined Ahmadiyyat he used to give 1/3rd of his income to the Ahmadiyya causes and spent money generously in the cause of religion and other good causes. As a regard of his sincere devotion and sacrifices in the cause of Islam, the Promised Messiah held him in great esteem, and whenever he visited him, the Promised Messiah would stand up in respect to receive him.
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1905
When the Sadr Ahmadiyya Anjuman was formed in 1905, the Promised Messiah nominated him as a member of its Central Committee, which was the supreme executive body to manage the affairs of the Movement. He held this position until the split in the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1914. Thereafter, he became one of the five founding members of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore.
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1908
MGA died abruptly and suddenly on the evening of May 25th, Ahmadi’s lie and claim that he died the following morning at 10am. Nevertheless, MGA died on the property of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain on Brandereth Road, Lahore, British India, Islamia College, which was opposite to Ahmadiyya Buildings, across Brandreth Road (at the future location of Ahmadiyya buildings). MGA left Qadian for Lahore on 27th April 1908 and arrived in Lahore on the 29th. Initially, he was staying at the house of Khwaja Kamaluddin (also on the property of Dr. Hussain), however, after just a few days, MGA moved to a different house of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain, this happened most likely because the women didn’t get along with each other. For holding congregational prayers, the arrangement at that time was that these were held at the open space on which the present Lahori Ahmadiyya Mosque is now situated. A marquee was installed there and thick cotton carpets with white sheets over them were spread on the ground. At the same open ground in the centre of the Ahmadiyya Buildings, where now stands the Ahmadiyya Mosque, Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din used to deliver Dars-i Quran every evening. As was his practice, he would start his exposition right from the beginning of the Quran and continue it till its end. Ever since the MGA came to Lahore, the Muslim’s of Lahore had set up their camp in the lawns of Islamia College, which was opposite to Ahmadiyya Buildings, across Brandreth Road. It being summer time, MGA used to go out in a horse-drawn carriage for outing in the evening with his wife. However, after touring the city of Lahore in the evening, as soon as MGA got home, his final illness began. He died a few short hours later. You can read his death story from Ahmadi sources here.
After MGA died
In 1908 (after MGA died), at considerable cost, Dr Syed Muhammad Husain Shah completed the expansion of Masjid-i Nur. He also purchased a plot of land on which he built a house in Qadian, which he later gave to the Promised Messiah’s family as a gift.
The housing area wherein MGA died
The Author of Tareekh Ahmadiyyat has given a lay out plan in his book. I have marked it as under:-Green circle= ahmadiya building.
Blue circle= Kh. Kamaluddin,s house.
Between two houses is a small gali linked with a bridge from upper portion. Arrow showing Road leading to Railway station. Opposite to both house is Islamia College ground.
The ROR of Jan-1940 alleges that he gave speech at the 1908 Jalsa at Qadian.
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1910
In 1910, he purchased land in the Ahmadiyya Buildings compound, Lahore and got the Mosque built on it. Further, he paid the cost of building a gallery attached to the Mosque for the ladies on land which was donated by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.
When the decision was taken in 1910 during Maulana Nur-ud-Din’s time to open a mission in England, Dr Syed Muhammad Husain Shah offered his services for the mission and got approval for an extended period of leave from his job in spite of the fact that his family and close relatives were opposed to the idea. However, on other grounds, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was allowed to go to England where he established a mission in London in 1912, which was shortly afterwards, in the summer of 1913, moved to Woking.
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1912
He was a speaker at the 1912 Jalsa at Qadian (see ROR of Jan-1913).
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1914
In 1914, the AAII Lahore was founded and the Shah sahib was made its Financial Secretary. There were not many members at that stage and it meant starting from scratch. Expenses for all the projects of the Anjuman at that time were mostly borne through the financial sacrifices of the Shah sahib, Dr Mirza Yaqub Beg and Shaikh Rahmatullah.
After the split in the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1914, when the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (AAIIL) was formed, Maulana Muhammad Ali was staying in a room in the house of the Shah sahib until a house was built for him adjacent to the Ahmadiyya Buildings Mosque. Maulana Muhammad Ali moved into this house and brought his family there.
Dr Syed Muhammad Husain Shah regularly sent one third of his monthly income to Qadian until 1914, and thereafter to AAII Lahore. Muslim Town was founded in 1915. In 1914, when Maulana Muhammad Ali migrated from Qadian, he lived for a few months in a room on the first floor of Dr Sahib’s home. This was the same room in which the Promised Messiah had stayed during his last visit to Lahore in May 1908 and in which he breathed his last. The Shah sahib built a house adjacent to the Mosque for the residence of the Head of the Community and Maulana Muhammad Ali moved into it and brought his family to live with him. He resided in that home for twenty years until he moved to his own home, which he built in Muslim Town. Thereafter, the next Head,Maulana Sadr-ud-Din resided in that house until he passed away in 1981. The Shah sahib transferred ownership of the house to AAII Lahore as a gift in 1921.
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1915
Muslim Town was founded in 1915 by Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain (1878-1939), son of Syed Alim Shah. He was a graduate of Lahore Medical School) and the Chief Chemical Examiner of Punjab as well as a renowned physician and philanthropist. During the early 20th century, Model Town was an exclusive Hindu locality of Lahore. Muslims could not buy property in that neighbourhood and in response to this prejudice, Hussain bought plots of agricultural land along the Lahore Canal. He then hired professionals to plan a residential neighbourhood, that was initially named Islamabad. However, on the suggestion of his friend Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Dr. Hussain decided to rename the locality as “Muslim Town”, to emphasize its Muslim character in response to the exclusivity of Model Town as a non Muslim locality.
Dr. Hussain, initially built a house for himself on 40 kanals of this land at #7 Muslim Town and donated plots of varied sizes ranging from 10 marlas to 12 kanals to his numerous relatives, friends, family retainers and household help. Some of his famous friends and early settlers included the renowned artist Ustad Allah Baksh, Abdul Majeed Salik (writer), Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr, Maulana Muhammad Ali (translator of the Quran), the Faruqi family and the renowned Faqir family. Dr Muhammad Hussain constructed a mosque in Muslim Town (Aisha Masjid), in memory of his late mother. He also allocated land for a graveyard for his descendants in Shah Jamal and another graveyard in Muslim Town for the benefit of general public. The Shah Jamal graveyard is under the exclusive custodianship of his great grand daughter. Dr. Muhammad Hussain’s agricultural land around surrounding Muslim Town was later acquired by the Lahore Development Authority as part of Shah Jamal, Gulberg and New Muslim Town schemes.
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1921
He is mentioned in “Truth About the Split”.
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1937
In 1937, the Shah sahib obtained 15000 acres of land in Bhopal State under the Abadkari Scheme. Out of this he got 1000 acres for himself and his near relatives and 500 acres for AAII Lahore. This required clearing of forest trees. Some work was started on it but neither the Anjuman nor the Shah sahib’s descendents pursued it after his death in 1939. This land was taken over by the Government of India in 1961.
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1938
In 1938, the Shah sahib transferred the ownership of his two houses in Ahmadiyya Buildings to the AAII Lahore as a gift. On one of these the Anjuman later built the Promised Messiah Memorial Hall while the other was being used by Maulana Ahmad Yar as his residence.
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1939
He died.
The Shah sahib had been suffering from high blood pressure for some years. On 26 April, 1939, during Tahajjud prayers when the Shah sahib was in the state of prostration, he became unconscious. When he did not rise from prostration after a long time, his wife checked on him, and finding him unconscious, sent for Dr Basharat Ahmad who was living in Muslim Town. He tried his best but the Shah sahib did not regain consciousness and ultimately at quarter past eight on the same evening he breathed his last. Inna li-llahi wa inna ilai-hi raji’on (“We belong to Allah and to Him do we return.”)
The next day a very large number of people, both Ahmadis and non-Ahmadis, joined in his funeral prayer, which was led by Maulana Muhammad Ali.
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1940
He is mentioned in the ROR of Jan-1940 (via “Truth About the Split”).
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Links and Related Essay’s
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