One of the common arguments by the Ahmadi religious establishment and echoed by Syed Sulaiman Adnan in his blog replies is that the previous nations rejected their Prophets.  He calls us to learn from their mistakes and accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.  To me, this is very unsophisticated argument, but deserves a sophisticated response.

The previous peoples rejected their prophets.  That’s true and testified to in the Qur’an.  Lets analyze by juxtaposing the rejection of ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه صلاة و سلام, the rejection of the Prophet Muhammad عليه صلاة و سلام by the Quraysh and the rejection of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad by the Muslims.

In Surah Nisaa, verse 158 Allah says:

And for their saying, ‘We did slay the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;’ whereas they slew him not, nor did they bring about his death upon the cross, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified; and those who differ therein are certainly in a state of doubt about it; they have no certain knowledge thereof, but only pursue a conjecture; and they did not arrive at a certainty concerning it.
- The official Ahmadi translation of the Qur’an by Muhammad ‘Ali

They openly admitted that ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه صلاة و سلام was al-Maseeh, the Messenger of Allah.  But, their kufr (in this case, rejection) stemmed out of their desire to maintain political and social control over the masses of Bani Isra’eel.  So, they rejected ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه صلاة و سلام even though they knew he was truly from Allah.

Now lets move to the Quraysh.  On the day of the Battle of Badr, Abu Jahl was asked if Muhammad عليه صلاة و سلام was known to be truthful or was a liar.  He said, “Woe to you! By Allah, he is truthful. He never told a lie in his life. But if the Family of Qusay enjoyed the privileges of leadership, guardianship of the Sacred House, the honor of providing pilgrims with water and the honor of Prophethood, what would be left for the rest of Quraysh to be proud of?” He knew the Prophet Muhammad عليه صلاة و سلام was truthful, but he rejected him out of tribalism and arrogance.

Now lets compare the Muslims and the rejection of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.  I can talk about myself personally.  I have nothing to gain or lose from rejecting MGA.  I live in America; no one cares what I believe in or don’t believe in.  I do not reject him out of arrogance, I do so out of conviction.  We believe in our hearts that he was a false prophet, an open enemy of Allah.  Debate with us as they may, we have evidence to support us.  Having said that, the argument of “you reject him just as the previous nations do” fails, because the motivations for rejecting him are completely different than the past nations.  One is out of arrogance, the other is out of conviction.  In fact, we reply by calling the Ahmadis to embrace Islam!

This is also a weak argument because it is reactionary and lacks insight.  Just because previous nations rejected their prophets, should we blindly accept all claimants to prophethood?  Or al-Maseeh?  Or al-Mahdi?  That’s irresponsible.  The soul is not a game to play like that.  Use the ‘aql (intellect) Allah has given us.

Ahmadis will argue that he fulfilled the signs of al-Mahdi, so we should use our intellect to objectively analyze his claims and realize his truthfulness.  I don’t want to get into a tangent on why Ahmadis cannot conveniently make everything that disagrees with them into a metaphor, so lets analyze the signs of al-Mahdi that cannot be interpreted as metaphors.  Just to name a few:

• Al-Mahdi will be named Muhammad ibn Abdullah
• Will come from the Tribe of Qahtaan (which still exists to this day)
• Will flee Madinah to Makkah and will seek refuge in the Ka’aba
• Will take the Bay’ah (pledge) between the Rukun and the Maqam of Ibrahim at the Ka’aba
• Will never claim to be al-Mahdi, but will be recognized by others as such.  Traditionally, the scholars understood that if someone openly claimed to be al-Mahdi, he was not al-Mahdi.

For more signs, perhaps Ahmadis would be interested in the perspective of al-Mahdi by the Muslims in this scholarly and gripping lecture series by Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, The Mahdi: Between Fact and Fiction.

http://www.islamicgoodsdirect.co.uk/the-mahdi-between-fact-and-fiction-yasir-qadhi-cd.html
[I support copyright laws, but under the fair-use policy, but I am willing to provide Ahmadis with excerpts of this lecture series, specifically about the signs of al-Mahdi, upon request.  Leave your e-mail address below and I will reply to you, in sha Allah]

May Allah guide our Ahmadi friends to Islam
All Muslims, say Ameen!