Nuzhat J. Haneef Recognizing the Messiah
Assessing Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qaadiyaan: His Claims, His Views, His Character, and His Movement

1.2 OVERVIEW OF THE DOCUMENT


The core of this document is Chapter 3 and next in importance is Chapter 4. However, I have provided some more information surrounding these to put them into context and to supplement them, for those who might be interested. I describe each chapter below.

In the descriptions of Chapters 3 and 4, I also point out where you will find summaries and suggestions to help you select what to read, in case you do not wish to read all.

  • Chapter 1: Introduction. This chapter, in which I introduce the document.

    The remaining sections of this chapter describe some of the documentation conventions I have used, provide an introduction to the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, and explain my review and analysis of Ahmadiyya literature.

  • Chapter 2: My Journey Through the Ahmadiyya Movement In Islam. This chapter recounts how I entered the Movement and what moved me to review my allegiance such that I finally decided to leave. It also states my current position with respect to the Ahmadiyya Movement.

    This chapter is not an essential part of this document; it may be skipped without significant loss to the continuity of presentation.

  • Chapter 3: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad: The Evidence Examined. This is the chapter you must read, at least partially, if you want to understand why I no more accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as an apostle of God.

    I have provided ample quotations (translated) from books by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and I encourage you to check out the references in your own copy of the books. (In the case of books that I suspected most of my readers would not have, I have provided scanned images of some of the pages I reference.) Those of you who cannot read Urdu will either have to trust the translation I provide or ask an Urdu-speaking person to check it out for you. In many cases, I have referenced Ahmadiyya English material as well.

    In my introductory remarks at the beginning of this chapter, I list a subset of the chapter’s sections and subsections that I suggest you read, in case you do not want to read the whole chapter.

    The last section of the chapter, Section 3.4, “Summary/Highlights of Examination Findings”, provides a table summarizing the main points from each major sub-section of the preceding sections of the chapter; you could review that table to see what is of interest to you.

  • Chapter 4: Counter Questions and Answers. This chapter presents some counter questions -- along with my answers to these questions -- that might occur to you as you read my review of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his claims.

    You might say to yourself that even though some of the evidence you see presented is compelling and difficult to waive off, you cannot accept that the Ahmadiyya Movement is wrong because of such and such a counter argument. Many such questions occurred to me in my search for the truth and I tried to answer them for myself. In this chapter I share these questions and answers with you.

    At the beginning of the chapter I provide a table summarizing the questions addressed in the chapter; in the last section, Section 4.3, “Summary of the Answers”, there is a table summarizing the questions as well as the answers. You could review either of these tables to see what is of interest to you.

  • Chapter 5: Epilogue. In the main body of the document I do not discuss Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s motivations (except for a few comments here and there), since the purpose of this document is only to explain why I do not accept him as a Divine apostle. In the Epilogue, however, I do present my opinions about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s motivations and also discuss his modus operandi.

    Additionally, I share with you some thoughts regarding my current and future religious position.

  • Chapter 6: Bibliography. The first section of this chapter lists a few sources of anti-Ahmadiyya information and the second section lists references cited in this document.

  • Attachment: Membership Termination Correspondence: This provides copies of my correspondence with the Ahmadiyya Movement related to the termination of my membership.