Mirza Khuda Bakhsh

Of Mughal descent, he hailed from District Jhang. He was a tutor and later, author of some books. He was also appointed to collect donations for the Boer War, asked to travel to various areas for 'research' and was even sent to Naseebain to look for the tomb of Jesus.

Mirza Khuda Bakhsh also worked on the 'linguistic research' of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

In the 1890s, he wrote a book 'Tableegh Haq' (Propagation of the Truth) in which he summarized the early claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and it was received well by Mirza (preface to Asal-i-Musaffa, 1901).

Asal-e-Musaffa

In 1901, Mirza Khuda Bakhsh wrote 'Asal-e-Musaffa' (Purified Honey) in which he gathered together all the claims and unique interpretations of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and tried to patch over the logical gaps in his claims and teachings. This book was read out to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself after evening prayer and over a period of 2-3 months and was again well-received. It can be said to be the first concise book of Ahmadiyya theology and interestingly, appears just before Mirza made himself known as a 'prophet', the ostensible cause of the later schism.

In 1914, just before the Ahmadiyya schism, the book was re-published in two volumes under the auspices of Hakeem Nooruddin. After the schism, Mirza Khuda Bakhsh moved to Lahore but his book continue to be popular with both the Qadiani and Lahori factions.

The two-volume edition of the book available on the Lahori web site was re-published in 1983 and is based on the 1914 second edition but does make significant additions. A comparison of the first and second editions, and the subsequent reprint, should be attempted by some scholar as it will shed considerable light on the evolution of Ahmadiyya thought before and after the schism.

2nd edition, Volume 2, page 6:

And when this humble person presented the first edition of Asal-e-Musaffa to Masih-Maud (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) he smiled a lot when he saw the book. Then, he said from his blessed tongue that you yourself should read out a portion every day after Maghrib prayer. So, I carried out this order for many months and used to read it out between Maghrib and Isha prayers. In short, Huzur (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) listened with continued desire for 2-3 months until it ended and he was very happy and said, 'Mirza Khuda Bakhsh Sahib has written such an excellent book that none of my followers has written such a good book to date.'

Mufti Muhammad Sadiq supports this (pages 22-23, Volume 1, 2nd edition, Asal-e-Musaffa)

This book was written in the period of Masih-Maud (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad), who listened to a large portion of it and liked it. I was part of those sittings when the book was read out.