Sahibzada Mirza Munawwar Ahmad

39 SAHIBZADA MIRZA MUNAWWAR AHMAD ‘ (Bashir Ahmad Orchard) The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam mourns the death of one of its illustrious sons, Dr Munawwar Ahmad, who passed away in Rabwah, Pakistan on the 19th September, 1990, at the age of seventy-two. He was the grandson of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. He was also the third son of Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, second successor of the Promised messiah, and his spouse Umme Nasir. Dr Munawwar Ahmad was born in Qadian, India, on the 1st of Feb- ruary, 1918.1nl940he married Mahmooda Begum, daughter of Nawab Muhammad Ali. He studied medicine at the King Edward Medical College, Lahore and had the distinction of being the first doctor in the family of the Promised Messiah. After graduation he was medical demonstrator at Glansay Medical College, Amritsar, and from 1945-1947 he worked at the Nur Hospital, Qadian. Later, after the partition of the Indian sub-continent, he played a large part in building the Fazl-e-Omer Hospital in Rabwah, Pakistan, and was its chief medical officer from 1955-1983. Now the post is held by his son, Dr. Mubashar Ahmad. Dr Munawwar Ahmad was particularly concerned for the medical care of the poor and he organised a system for providing them with free treatment and medicine at the hospital. He always prayed for his patients and considered that trusting in medicine alone was tantamount to the setting up of an equal with God. He was the personal physician to both the second and third successors of the Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad and Hazrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad res- pectively. In 1955 He accompanied Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mah- mood Ahmad to Europe where he went for treatment following a das- tardly attack on his life when he received a deep and dangerous stab wound in the neck. As I have mentioned he was a very prayerful person and was regular 40 • REVIEW OF RELIGIONS in attending congregational prayers in the mosque. He did not allow climatic and weather conditions to prevent him from going to the mosque. He would offer long prayers with full and earnest attention. He was also very loyal, respectful and obedient to the Khalifa of the time. In addition to his medical duties which required much of his time and attention, he was also engaged in other activities of the Community. He was the Vice-President of the Central Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Associ- ation which attended to the spiritual and all round training of the male members of the Community between the ages of fifteen and forty. He held this office from 1950-1956. Later he became the Vice-Presicent of the Central Ansarullah Association which attends to similar needs for male members over the age of forty. He also served on various other com- mittees. I first had the pleasure of meeting him in one of the narrow tho- roughfares of Qadian during one of my early visits to that holy place either in 1945 or 1946. At that time I was unaware who he was nor do I remember what words may have passed between us. What I do remem- ber, however, was the bright and smiling countenance with which he greeted me and which was always a permanent feature in his appearance. The last time I met him was at his home in Rabwah, Pakistan, when my wife and I paid him a surprise visit during our short ten day stay there in 1989. He welcomed us in a most gracious, cheerful and amiable manner. He was suffering from several ailments which he nobly con- cealed under cover of his pleasant and happy demeanour. Dr Munawwar Ahmad has progeny of four sons and one daughter, Amatul Hayee, who is married to Dr Hamidullah Khan of Batley, York- shire, U.K. In addition he has been blessed with fourteen grand children. May God bless and elevate his soul in paradise. Amin. …. confined from page 33 statue of some Parses benefactor whose body was eaten by those very vultures, when he sees at the bank or market or in the club a wealthy and educated man; a knight of England, perhaps, who knows that his body will eventually be food for those same waiting birds. Western poets have gloomily dwelt on the horrors of the grave and the ravages of the worm, but time and custom have softened those dread pictures, the living do not see the grave worm at his work, but the vulture swoops down upon his prey in the open light. Whatever one may think of the towers of silence and its company of black-feathered, sharp-beaked vultures, a visit to the place is something never to be forgotten.”