Mirza Tahir Ahmad is the former spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyyah Muslim community. Ahmad was born on September 10, 1914, in Punjab, British India, as a member of a family of scholars. His father, Maulana Mohammad Hussain Ahmad, was a scholar of the Arabic language and had been the principal of the Government College in Faisalabad for 23 years. His mother, Zehra Begum, was a teacher and a member of the All-India Women's Association
He received his early education at home from his mother and from private tutors. In 1926, after his father's death, he left home to attend Government College in Lahore. He graduated from there in 1931 with honors in English and Arabic languages.
In 1934 he went to Cambridge University to study for a B.A., but left midway to join the Islamic Missionary Society of Great Britain as lecturer and translator in Arabic and Urdu language and literature. He was also secretary and editor of the Journal of the Islamic Missionary Society.
Swords can win territories but not hearts, forces can bend heads but not minds.Mirza Tahir Ahmad
No religion with a universal message .. . under one flag can even momentarily entertain the idea of employing force to spread its message. Swords can win territories, but not hearts. Force can bend heads, but not minds.Mirza Tahir Ahmad
