Intro
He allegedly converted to Ahmadiyya in 1907 at age 19.
In 1914, he sided with the Lahori-Ahmadi’s who also gave him a job. He was a student at their psuedo-jamia school. From 1918 to the 1940s, he participated in public debates against Arya Samaj Hindus and Christian missionaries. He published an Urdu translation of part of a Hindu scripture, the Yajur Veda. Many years later, he bore the title “vidyarthi” due to his extensive knowledge of the Hindu Vedas.
In 1929, he famously worked with Maulvi Sanaullah, in fact, they seem to have both represented Muslims in a debate vs. Hindus.
His famous book, “Muhammad in World Scriptures” was first published in 1936. Many years later, the Lahori-Ahmadi’s published “Allah — The Unique Name of God” by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, however, this was already published within the three-volume edition of
Muhammad in World Scriptures, 1966–1975. First published as separate book after complete revision, 2005. When written it was called Mithaq-al-Nabiyeen (میثاق النبیین, Promise of the prophets). It was written in Urdu in 1936. The book was translated to English in 1942 and called Muhammad in World scriptures. After publication of the translation, the book became very popular across the world. The book claims the mention of Muhammad in scriptures of the world’s major religions including Abrahamic religions and Indian religions. The English translation has 3 editions with 3 volumes. The book has been translated in many languages including Turkish, Indonesian, French etc. The book has been quoted extensively by many inter-faith scholars including Ahmed Deedat, Zakir Naik, Ved Prakash Upadhyay (Kalki Avatar and Muhammad), Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad, Muḥammad Jawād Mughnīyya etc.
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1888
He is born.
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1907
He converted to Ahmadiyya (Taylor, Patrick; Case, Frederick I. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions: Volume 1: A – L; Volume 2: M – Z (Volume 1:A-L ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780252094330. Retrieved 27 October 2019.)
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1914
In 1914, Maulana Muhammad Ali and his associates founded the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam missionary society in Lahore and Maulana Abdul Haq joined.
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.
Maulana Abdul Haque Vidyarthi, along with his family, was living in another room on the ground floor of the Shah sahib’s house. Another room on the ground floor was being used as the Anjuman’s office as there was no office building yet. Another large room on the ground floor was being used as guest house where beds for 25-30 persons were provided and the Shah sahib had detailed a personal servant whose duty it was to look after the needs of guests. The food for guests was supplied and prepared from the Shah sahib’s home.
In the beginning there used to be 50-60 persons for Maghrib prayer who all dined together in the Mosque afterwards. This food too was prepared in the Shah sahib’s home, after which Isha prayers were offered and then people would disperse to their homes. Later, food would be prepared in turn in the homes of Maulana Muhammad Ali, Dr Mirza Yaqub Beg and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.
Even when Dr Muhammad Husain Shah had moved to his new home in Muslim Town, there still used to be 40-50 persons joining him in partaking food at dinner time. Taking dinner in the company of his friends, family members and his other relatives or even those whom he was helping financially or otherwise had become second nature with him. This was a real sense of community based on the teachings of Islam.
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1915
Who was Akbar Shah Khan of Najibabad ?
Akbar Shah Khan Najeebabadi was member of the Lahori-Ahmadi’s and authored Maulana Noor Ud Din biography, “Mirqat-ul-Yaqin” in 1912. He also authored famous Tarikh e Islam (History of Islam) in 3 volumes).
In 1915, he announced the proposal for starting his journal, “Ibrat” in Paigham Sulh, 16 November 1915, and the idea was supported by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Jamaat and Maulana Muhammad Ali, and they appealed for financial support for his magazine. At this link you can read pages 1 and 2 of that issue of Paigham Sulh. Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi once accompanied him on a missionary tour in 1915 to combat the Arya Samaj on behalf of Islam. See this link.
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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died on the land of Dr. Syed Muhammad Hussain (1878-1939) on Brandereth road in Lahore – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
When the Shah sahib purchased quite a large section of land by the Canal Bank on Ferozepur Road, Lahore to be developed into a Muslim town, he reserved 10 acres in it to be called Ahmadiyya Basti, wherein land was offered to the members of the Jama‘at at a nominal price. Only Maulana Muhammad Ali, Maulana Abdul Haque Vidyarthi, Maulvi Murtaza Khan, Master Faqirullah, Deputy Muhammad Sadiq and Ch. Rahmat Khan Bahadur built their homes there, while many others sold out the land at a higher price.
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1923
ps-1923-jul-7
Public lectures in Peshawar, June 1923
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1929
Who is Maulana Sanaullah Amritsari (1868-1948)? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
He wrote a refutation of Rangila Rasul, read about it herein.
The Lahori -Ahamdi’s would often send Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, while that local organisation would also have obtained the services of Maulana Sanaullah. So Maulana Sanaullah was on the same platform and in the same team representing Muslims with a well known Lahori Ahmadi scholar (who had taken the bai`at at the hands of the Promised Messiah in 1907)! As an example, we have a booklet entitled Munazira, published by the Anjuman Nusrat-ul-Islam of Hyderabad, Sind (an orthodox Muslim body), being the account of a debate between the Arya Samaj and Muslim representatives in January 1929.
Here is the link. (Opens in new window)
On the first day, Maulana Sanaullah appeared against a Pandit (see p. 14). On the second day, Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi appeared against another pandit (see p. 24). The speeches of all the representatives are reproduced.
Once Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi published a challenge addressing Sanaullah and saying: You said in a gathering in my presence: “I (Sanaullah) have made a lot of money by opposing Mirza”. Can you deny saying this?
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1957
Who is Ameer Ali, the Lahori-Ahmadi missionary from Trinidad and Tobago? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi in Trinidad, June 1957. Group photo taken at the home of Muhammad Ibrahim. Moulvi Ameer Ali on the left.
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1959
In 1959, he met with the famous Muhammad Abdullah in San Francisco and even had dinner at Muhammad Abdullah’s home (See “Muhammad Abdullah, Lahore-Ahmadi Americans and the Black Muslims of America” by Fathie Bin Ali Abdat).
Dawud promised to print a new edition of Vidyarthi’s magnum opus, Muhammad and World Scriptures for American readers. The msusa jumped on the offer, hoping to associate themselves with Dawud and Staton- both boasting impressive credentials in the fluid, overlapping universe of Ahmadiyya-American Islam, black bebop musicians and African nationalism. But Dawud merely paid lip service to the project and Abdullah tried recovering the manuscripts by visiting Dawud’s three-storey residential apartment and headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood of the USA (mbusa) movement at 5312 West Girard Avenue, Philadelphia. Despite failing to retrieve the manuscripts, Abdullah spent the next three years in the City of Brotherly Love. Abdullah ’s history in Philadelphia between 1960 and 1963 has traditionally been glossed over as a brief, unimportant phase but on closer scrutiny, Abdullah was no mere innocent missionary but in fact dabbled in skullduggery and underhanded politicking amidst the erratically shifting terrain of black Islamic movements in Philadelphia.
Left in the dark by Dawud, Abdullah reached out to Elijah Muhammad’s noi. Ever since Dawud returned in July 1959 from pilgrimage to Mecca, both mbusa and noi were embroiled in a fiery and well-publicized lawsuit over Elijah’s Islamic authenticity. As Dawud posed as a common enemy, Abdullah rang up Wallace Delaney Mohammad, newly minted Minister of noi Temple # 12 at 4218–20 West Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia. After several spurned efforts, Abdullah’s patience made headway in 1960 when Wallace invited Abdullah for dinner. Right from the outset, Abdullah sought to clear the misunderstanding between their movements. Towards the end of 1958, Rabbani Khan, Imam of Woking Mosque, an aaiil-affiliated institution abandoned their earlier friendly disposition to the noi by castigating Elijah for preaching a “most fantastic … caricature of Islam” and extricated all links with the noi. Thus, Abdullah reassured Wallace that the Lahore-Ahmadi’s stance towards black Islam fundamentally differed from the Woking Mission’s.
Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi arrived in Suriname in 1959, however, he was only visiting.
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1970’s
The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog » Blog Archive » Will LAM allow other muslims to use any of their mosques?
A mosque was built in Muslim Town Lahore in the 1930s by Dr Sayyid Muhammad Husain Shah, one of the founding fathers of the LAM. (In fact, Muslim Town itself was founded by him, as he originally bought all the land.)
LAM elders living in Muslim Town (Maulana Muhammad Ali himself, Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, and several others), used to pray in it, especially maghrib and isha. I myself prayed maghrib, isha, and Eid in it as a child. I was last in it in December 1975 or January 1976, attending dars-i Quran by Mr N.A. Faruqui, followed by maghrib prayers led by Dr Saeed Ahmad Khan sahib, with leading LAM members present.
A few years later, the “khatam-i nubuwwat” organisation took it over by force. LAM went to court to get back possession of it. Eventually LAM obtained judgment in their favour, but in practice no one can dare enforce the judgment. There would be riots by the anti-Ahmadiyya. Islamic Knight would get the opportunity to “grab a sword” and slay those trying to enforce the court order for the LAM.
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AAIIL – Personality
https://www.aaiil.org/Pages/Personality?ContentId=39&ID=5
Literary work on this website Abdul Haq Vidyarti
Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi (1888 – 1977), who bore the title vidyarthi due to his extensive knowledge of the Hindu Vedas, was a scholar of the major religions of the world and their languages, and a missionary of Islam of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. The environment of multi-faith debate, polemic and discussion, prevailing in the Indian subcontinent in the early 20th century, greatly influenced and interested him. This was one reason why, in 1907, he joined the Ahmadiyya Movement at the hands of its Founder, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as this Movement had a broad, universalistic outlook towards other religions, regarding all of them as originally revealed, a fact first disclosed by Islam. In 1914, when the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam was founded in Lahore by Maulana Muhammad Ali and his associates, Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi joined this Muslim missionary society, in which he worked for the rest of his life as missionary, journalist, lecturer, writer and scholar. First he mastered the Hindu scriptures and studied the Sanskrit language. Later on, he studied Hebrew and other ancient languages of world scriptures. His purpose was two-fold: (1) to be better equipped to refute the storm of criticism and vituperative allegations against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad by the Hindu Arya Samaj sect as well as Christian proselytisers; (2) to unearth prophecies about the coming of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which, according to Islam, are to be found in previously-revealed scriptures. In the period 1918 to the 1940s, the Maulana was frequently called upon, by various Muslim bodies throughout India, to represent Islam in public debates against Arya Samaj Hindus and Christian missionaries. He achieved supreme triumph in these debates, and his name became renowned and legendary. He also wrote several Urdu books in response to the Arya and Christian objections against Islam. On a purely scholarly front, he published an Urdu translation of part of a Hindu scripture, the Yajur Veda. After the founding of Pakistan and the ending of the multi-faith environment, the Maulana toured the countries of Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Fiji during the 1950s at the invitation of the local Muslim communities, and gave lectures to large multi-faith audiences, achieving fame and renown for his knowledge and noble character in those countries as well. He also spent time in the U.S.A. during 1959-1962, collecting further material for the second edition of his book Muhammad in World Scriptures from reference works in libraries. He originally wrote Muhammad in World Scriptures in Urdu as Mithaq-un-nabiyyin, published in 1936. Then he had it translated into English and it appeared under the present title in 1940. A little later he published a second part in Urdu. He then went on to expand the English version considerably, and this second edition was published in 3 volumes between 1966 and 1975. Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi was renowned and respected not only as a man of the highest learning and scholarship, but also as one who was thoroughly upright and saintly, and a recipient of extensive spiritual experiences. Having a humble and unassuming nature, and well-known for his good humour, Maulana Vidyarthi served the cause of Islam by pen, speech and personal example for more than sixty years in a unique and rare way which will have its own place in the history of religion.
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Links and Related Essay’s
Abdul Haq Vidyarthi – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Haq_Vidyarthi
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#ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat #trueislam #mirzaghulamahmad
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