Intro
Muzaffar Baig Sateh (aka Mirza Muzaffar Beg Sateh) was a Lahori-Ahmadi was sent to the Fiji islands in 1932 to help the famous Muhammad Abdullah run Sunni Muslim schools and defend Islam. While Abdullah earnestly tried propping up Fijian Islam, he unintentionally unleashed a chain of forces that irrevocably ruptured the FML. Initially, events started on a positive note as the AAIIL, Abdullah’s former employers based in Lahore, swiftly acted on his appeals by handpicking Mirza Muzaffar Beg Sateh, a highly skilled debater, polyglot linguist and missionary—for the task in Fiji. The FML gratefully endorsed Abdullah’s recommendation and accelerated plans to bring Sateh over. Nonetheless, the FML board members seemed unaware of Sateh’s Lahore Ahmadiyya affiliation until just a few days prior to the missionary’s scheduled embarkation (See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
When the FML finally caught wind of it, this generated a political maelstrom as the anti-Ahmadi FML faction threatened to stop his landing in Fiji whereas the pro-Ahmadi FML faction were equally pugnacious in demanding his presence in Fiji (See Shams-ud-dean, “Ahmadiyyat in Fiji”, Khitaab (Fiji), Vol. 3, No. 4, Oct–Dec. 1996, p. 10)(See Fathie’s work). Amidst the heated impasse, arrangements for Sateh’s accommodation had been overlooked such that on the eve of his arrival, the pro-Ahmadi faction within the FML scrambled at the last minute to raise the £60.00 needed to establish his residence, including a contribution of £30.00 by Mr. Sahu Khan (See “Master Muhammed Abdullah Passes Away”, Paigham-e-Haqq, Jul/Sep. 1992, No. 61, p. 3)(See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
When Sateh finally arrived in Fiji in 1933, he tenaciously locked horns with the Arya Samaj missionaries in highly polemical debates by harnessing his erudite knowledge on comparative religious systems—between Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism and Jainism—and rhetorical flourishes in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. As a result of his prowess, Hindu-Muslim tensions simmered such that the colonial authorities dissuaded him from participating in public debates while the Arya Samajis entirely avoided him (See Ahmed Ali, “Fiji and the Franchise: A History of Political Representation, 1900-1937”, Ph.D. Thesis, Australian National University, Oct. 30, 2007, p. 202). (See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
Despite acting as a vanguard of Islam in Fiji, accusations over his heretical authenticity snowballed such that the FML banned AAIIL members, prohibiting them from performing salat in the Jame Masjid in Amy Street, Suva, and subsequently voted Lahori Ahmadiyyas out of the FML board. In response on 3 October 1934, the Lahore Ahmadis severed their cords from the FML and instead formally registered the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-i-Islam Lahore, Fiji (AAIIL-F) in Suva, marking the starting point of the movement in the Pacific. (See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
By 1934 he was totally ousted and wasn’t allowed into Muslim schools or mosques ever again. His name is also written as Mirza Muzaffar Beg Sateh (See Fathie’s work). Despite not holding any formal leadership role in the newly formed AAIIL-F, Abdullah retained his Lahore-Ahmadi sympathies by serving as an informal client. Between 1934 and 1935, Abdullah operated as a freelance, ad-hoc correspondent for Young Islam, a bi-weekly English language magazine that reported on the AAIIL’s global outreach activities in Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Asia-Pacific nations including Fiji. In August 1934, Abdullah penned a column “The Ahmadiyya Movement Day by Day” announcing that the “regular branch of the AAAIL (held a) very successful conference” on 1 July 1934 in Suva amidst the backdrop of their ignominious expulsion from the FML (See Manzur Ilahi, “The Ahmadiyya Movement Day by Day”, The Young Islam, Vol. 1, No. 6, Aug. 15, 1934)(See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
As early as the 1934 Annual Report, Abdullah’s work has been symbiotically intertwined with Beg Sateh’s subsequent missionary drive in the 1930s. Lahore headquarters marvelled that by the end of 1934, the AAIIL-F had recovered from their setback, outlining that both “Master Muhammad Abdullah and Mirza Muzaffar are doing very useful work in Fiji” in transforming the initial hostility of the islands’ inhabitants into a friendlier disposition towards the Lahore-Ahmadis as reflected by 500 Fijians who joined the nascent movement (The Annual Report of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-i-Islam Lahore: A Digest, Lahore, 1934, p. 4)(See also Muhammad Abdullah: Reformer of Indo-Fijian Islam, 1930–1960 by Fathie Ali Abdat, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2025.2476136).
From 1935 to 1980 he went totally missing.
He died in 1980 in Lyallpur, Pakistan (See Paigham-E-Haqq, Vol. 2, No. 27/28, Jul/Dec.
2020, p. 4).
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Links and Related Essay’s
Maulana Hafiz Sher Muhammad — My Benefactor by Shahid Aziz – Islam Ahmadiyya – alahmadiyya.org
The history of #Ahmadiyya in #Fiji – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
CommencementofAhmadiyyatinFiji.pdf
Paigham-e-Haqq (July to December 1980) — www.aaiil.org
Click to access paighamehaqq_198007to12.pdf
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