Complete Service Timeline
Jamia Ahmadiyya
(1949-1955), Pakistan
Student - Shahid degree
B.Sc. at Talim-ul-Islam College, Lahore
(1950)Lahore, Pakistan
He took his B.Sc.
Arabic Training
(1955-1956)Damascus, Syria
Arabic language immersion
Ghana Mission
(1956-1960)Swedru, Ghana
Arabic Instructor
Rabwah Teaching
(1960-1964)Rabwah, Pakistan
Lecturer at Jamia & T.I. High School
Germany - First Mission
(1964-1967)West Germany
Missionary
His own manuscripts give 1968.
Nigeria - Amir and Missionary In-charge
(1968-1972)Nigeria
and - Schools & institutional development
Germany - Amir and Missionary In-charge
(1972-1977)Germany
Amir and Missionary In-charge, asylum initiative
Office of the Private Secretary
(from 1977)Rabwah, Pakistan
Worker in the office of the Private Secretary to Hazrat Khalifatul Masih III (rh), from 1977, handling correspondence from abroad
Islamabad - Murabbi
(one year after returning from Germany)Islamabad, Pakistan
Murabbi
Additional Nazir Islah-o-Irshad (Taleem-ul-Quran)
(1979-1982)Rabwah, Pakistan
Additional Islah-o-Irshad (Taleem-ul-Quran) and Secretary of
His own manuscripts place these years at Rabwah.
The Gambia - Amir and Missionary In-charge
(1982-1983)Gambia
Amir and Missionary In-charge
Nigeria again, Amir and Missionary In-charge
(1983-1986)Nigeria
Amir and Missionary In-charge
Return to Pakistan, teacher at Jamia Ahmadiyya
(1986-1988)Rabwah, Pakistan
He returned to Pakistan and taught at .
Wakalat-e-Tasneef
(1988)Rabwah, Pakistan
He was appointed to the , then retired, and was in Germany from then on.
Germany - Senior Adviser
(1988-2017)Germany
Advisory capacity, legal & humanitarian adviser
The way that opened after 1974
After the violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan in 1974, and having learned from the case of a Jordanian that Germany would grant a visa to a man whose life or honour was in danger at home and whose government would not protect him, he took legal advice and wrote to friends in Pakistan that a way had opened. He records both feelings honestly: joy at the community growing around him, and fear that it might bring further trouble on the Jamaat in Pakistan. When he heard that some non-Ahmadis had begun presenting themselves as Ahmadis to obtain visas, he wrote unprompted to the Federal Interior Minister proposing that the mission issue a certificate of membership, and enclosed a specimen. The Minister acted at once and had copies sent to police stations across Germany.
Offices and service
- First Germany: Chaired the first annual convention in Hamburg (28 December 1975)
- Community Building: Establishing structures for the growing German Ahmadiyya community
- Educational Initiatives: Promoting Arabic language and Islamic scholarship
- Interfaith Dialogue: Representing Islam in German academic and social circles
Aisha SiddiqaHis wife
Writing of his departure for Damascus in 1956, he records that of everyone around him it was his wife who showed the greatest patience and steadfastness, "the one who had the closest bodily and spiritual connection with me". The footnote naming her reads simply: Aisha Siddiqa.
Aisha Siddiqa suffered a chronic illness from her years in Pakistan onward, for which she was repeatedly admitted to hospital in Faisalabad. It continued through the family’s second period in Nigeria and after their move to Germany. From their permanent home in Obertshausen she was also treated for a congenital heart condition.
His daughter Hafsa was four years old when he left for Damascus in February 1956, and a second child was born about a month after his departure. When the family joined him in Nigeria, Hafsa was sixteen and his son Zakariya Ismail was twelve.
A few weeks after the family reached Nigeria she developed acute pain and a dilated pupil in her right eye. Glaucoma was diagnosed at the university hospital in Ibadan. Surgery was deferred on medical advice and the sight of that eye was lost permanently. The headaches she had endured for two and a half years were then understood to have been the same condition, untreated for want of facilities.
Aisha Siddiqa died in 2010. She had lived with him at Obertshausen, and he outlived her by seven years.
He left for Damascus in February 1956 knowing he might not return for four or five years. He records that of everyone around him, it was she who showed the greatest patience.
Literary Legacy
, eight volumes, six of them printed. He gathered close to two hundred and fifty true dreams, sent to him by more than a hundred men and women after he placed a notice in the daily .
: "Prophecies about the Middle East" (18 October 1990).
Al-Fazl Articles: Numerous contributions on Islamic topics and community affairs.
Recognition by Khilafat
In the of 17 March 2017, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V (aba) spoke of the work he did after 1974 in bringing Ahmadis to Germany and helping them settle, which Hazrat Khalifatul Masih III (rh) had greatly appreciated, and mentioned that Irfan Khan Sahib had written that he kept them there like a father.
The farewellPublished References
Bhera ki Tareekh e Ahmadiyyat
Documents father (Maulana Imam Ali Sahib) and son (Maulana Fazal Ilahi Anweri Sahib) on pages 136-137. This rare record shows both together in local Ahmadiyya history of .