Intro
Fateh Masih was the person who told MGA to make his claim of being the Mahdi based on the eclipses of March and April 1894 (See the scans in the below from the Nur Afshan). Fateh Masih also wrote this in private letters to MGA as such. He urged MGA to go to Mecca and make his claims. Fateh Masih was posted at Fatehgarh, District Gurdaspur and was working as a Christian Missionary. These were the eclipses that MGA used to solidify his claim of being the Mahdi and were written in Nurul-Haqq Part-2. However, there are authentic hadith reports from Muhammad (saw) which clearly assert that eclipses don’t signify the birth of anyone.
MGA’s interactions with Fateh Masih go back to May of 1888, this was before MGA’s wildest claims of being the Messiah were made and even before MGA created his community (See Dard). In 1893, during MGA’s written debate and death prophecy vs. Athim, Fateh Masih was listening to the news. After the prophecy expired, Fateh Masih would poke fun at MGA for losing (See Dard).
MGA also wrote a letter to Fateh Masih on February 1, 1895, in which he said that the harsh words in his answer were not used in any fit or temper but only to teach the Christian missionary how to behave decently in such matters (See Hidden Treasures).
Fateh Masih continued to poke fun at MGA for his failed death prophecy vs. Athim in the Nur Afshan (See Dard).
In late 1895, MGA seems to have dedicated his entire book, Noorul Quran, Part-2 towards Fateh Masih.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1888, via Dard, we don’t agree with this story at all, seems like a lie, nevertheless, archived
“””In May 1888 MGA was staying at Batala (he had gone there on account of the illness of his son Bashir I for medical treatment) at the house of Nabi Bakhsh Dhaildar, when on the 18th, which was a Friday, a Christian missionary named Fateh Masih came to him and in a public meeting of over 50 Muslims and Hindus told him that he also claimed, like MGA, that his prayers were answered by God and that he also received the Word of God which contained prophecies about the future. He challenged MGA to compete with him in this respect and he suggested that both should publish their prophecies in the Nur Afshan, a Christian paper issued from Ludhiana. The following Monday, May 21st, 1888, was therefore fixed for this purpose. The time arranged for the meeting was 10 a.m.
A great number of Muslims and Hindus gathered at the appointed time to hear the prophecies of MGA and Fateh Masih. But, to the astonishment of everyone, Fateh Masih started talking of other things. The Christian missionary was reminded of the real purpose of the meeting and the public demanded that he should proceed with his prophecies, as, already arranged. Munshi Muhammad Bakhsh Mukhtar openly testified to the fact that Fateh Masih had claimed powers similar to those of MGA. He had also informed the Rev. Herbert Udny Weitbrecht Stanton, Ph. D. D. D. (District Missionary, Batala, 1884-1896) in writing of his having done so. In answer to this, Fateh Masih declared that he did not really mean to claim that he was the recipient of revelation; but that he had merely put forward a counter-claim in the previous meeting in a meaningless manner because he was sure that MGA’s claim was also void of truth. Ra’i Bashambar Das, a leading Hindu of Batala, and Babu Gurdit Singh Mukhtar publicly censured the Christian missionary on the spot for making such a false claim. He was thus humiliated in the eyes of the public, and the meeting dispersed.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Fateh Masih proposed another method of test in the Nur Afshan, dated June 7th, 1888. Four questions should, he said, be written on a paper at a public meeting held for this purpose, and they should be sealed and handed over to a person present there. MGA should then be required to tell the people the contents of the paper. MGA issued a leaflet on June 9th, 1888 (printed at the Riyad-e-Hind Press, Amritsar) in which he announced his acceptance of the proposal, but added that it was of no use to address Fateh Masih, who had already proved his untrustworthiness in this connection. MGA wanted the Rev. Mr. Stanton to come forward, in which case he undertook to disclose the contents within ten weeks, provided, of course, the Christian missionary gave a public undertaking to the effect that he would become a Muslim if MGA succeeded in disclosing the contents, or, failing that, would pay Rs. 1,000 as damages to the Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam of Lahore.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1894–Ramadhan, March and April
The dates of Ramadhan in 1894 are as follows, March 8th to April 6th, 1894. The first eclipse happened on March 20th and the second eclipse happened on April 4th, 1894. Before this, MGA and his team of writers had no idea about any hadith in Dar-e-Qutni about the Mahdi and eclipses.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1894—May
Fateh Masih was the person who told MGA to make his claim of being the Mahdi based on the eclipses of March and April 1894 (See the scans in the below from the Nur Afshan). Fateh Masih also wrote this in private letters to MGA. He urged MGA to go to Mecca and make his claims. Fateh Masih was posted at Fatehgarh, District Gurdaspur and was working as a Christian Missionary. These were the eclipses that MGA used to solidify his claim of being the Mahdi and were written in Nurul-Haqq Part-2. However, there are authentic hadith reports from Muhammad (saw) which clearly assert that eclipses don’t signify the birth of anyone.
May 11th, 1894
Summary
MGA was trolled by Fateh Masih to make the claim of being Mahdi in Makkah and he said the people in Makkah are going crazy and waiting for the Mahdi.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________1894
On May 18, 1894, Noor-ul-Haq Part-2 was published (see Mujadid e Azim, abridged english edition, page 507).
From 1894 to MGA and his team wrote that these types of eclipses had never happened ever before or would ever happen after, see Noorul Haq, Part-2, which corresponds to RK-9.
“This has never happened and absolutely never happened, except in my time, since the beginning of universe till now, that lunar and solar eclipse had gathered in the month of Ramadhan in such a manner that some claimant of messengership or prophethood or muhaddathiyat (one who converse with God) had also been present.” (Roohani Khazain, Noorul Haq, Part-2, Vol. 9, P. 50).
“Combination of lunar and solar eclipse in Ramadhan has never taken place in the time of any Prophet or Messenger or muhaddith and since the birth of universe during the time of any claimant of messengership or prophethood or muhaddithiyat lunar and solar has never combined. Combination of Lunar and Solar eclipse and Mahdi is an unnatural phenomenon.” (Roohani Khazain, Noorul Haq, Part-2, Vol. 9, P. 84).
_______________________________________________________
MGA even quoted the letter by Fatih Masih in Nur ul Haq, Part-2
We have highlighted where MGA says that I read in a letter that the people of Makkah are going crazy over the eclipses. Then he goes on to say on the same page that I see troops from Makkah entering into the army of Allah (his jama’at).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1895, via Dard
“””The Nur Afshan, dated September 13th, 1895, published an article in which it was said that 12
months had passed and Athim was still alive. So MGA issued a leaflet in which he explained that he had yet fixed no time for Athim’s death. Twelve months were the limit if he had taken the oath.
In December 1895, a Christian missionary, Fateh Masih, said to a friend of MGA that Athim did not come forward for the oath because MGA had only a handful of followers. MGA at once issued a leaflet in which he asked the missionary how many people should ask Athim to take the oath. If he wanted a petition signed by one, two, three or four thousand Muslims, MGA would arrange it immediately, provided Athim agreed to take the oath. But nobody came forward.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1895–December
Nurul-Qur’an (Number II) is published on December 20th, 1895 (see Dard), it was priced at 8 annas and covered about eighty pages in Urdu. It was published from Qadian. It seems to be about Fateh Masih and how MGA considered OK to cuss at any Christian who spoke about Muhammad (saw) in a derogatory way. However, the reality was that only MGA was allowed to do this, Muslims were too scared that the colonist would come and kill them for behaving as such. Further, MGA was looking to get street credibility from Muslims, as a puppet of the colonists, whereas behind the scenes, the colonists were helping MGA in all of his pursuits.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1896
MGA wrote a letter also to Fateh Masih on 1-2-1896 (February), in which he said that the harsh words in his answer were not used in any fit of temper, but only to teach the Christian missionary how to behave in such matters (See Dard).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1906, via Tadhkirah, [al-Hakam, vol. 6, no. 5, February 7, 1906 p. 4, column 3]
“””A Christian of the name of Fateh Masih once claimed that he was the recipient of revelation. I asked him to make a prophecy and he was much confused. He proposed that a written note should be enclosed inside an envelope and that I should then spell out what was written therein. God the Almighty directed me that:
[Urdu] You [should] accept it.
When I accepted that challenge also, Reverend Whitebrecht announced, in the presence of several hundred people, that Fateh Masih was a liar.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1939
He is mentioned in the ROR of Dec-1939.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Links and Related Essay’s
Reverend Weitbrecht of Lahore vs. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Yuz Asaf theory
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Tags
6 Pingback