Maulana Muhammad Ali Lahori
Born in 1874 at Murar, a small village in Kapurthala State, India. Passed his matriculation examination in 1890, obtained BA degree in 1894 from Lahore Govt. College. While still attending the MA classes he joined the Islamia College, Lahore, as a professor of mathematics. After getting through his MA in 1895, while still working in the Islamia College, he joined the Law College and came out Second, First and Third in the three Law Examinations of Punjab University. In 1897 he left the Islamia College for the Oriental College, Lahore, where he worked as a professor till 1900, when he left that college to start practice as a lawyer in Gurdaspur Punjab.
While studying in Kupurthala, he had heard a lot about the reputation of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian as a great saint and saviour of Islam. He saw Hazrat Mirza Sahib for the first time in 1892 at a public meeting in Lahore. He was deeply impressed by Mirza’s dynamic personality and also by his yeoman’s services in the defence and propagation of Islam. Thereafter he frequently met Mirza Sahib, corresponded with him and finally in the year 1897 enlisted himself as a member of this great revivalistic movement in Islam. His joining the Ahmadiyya Movement opened a new chapter for him. Thereafter he paid frequent visits to Qadian and translated some Urdu writings of Mirza Sahib into English.
In 1900, he made arrangements to start practice in law at Gurdas Pur Punjab, but decided to spend some time with his spiritual mentor at Qadian, in order to seek his blessings and advice. During this stay Mirza Sahib told him that he was thinking of starting an English monthly to carry the message of Islam to Europe and America and that he would like him to edit it. Muhammad 'Ali immediately gave up the idea of working as a legal practitioner. Assiduously learning all he could in the company of the founder of the movement, he undertook to convince the world of the beauties and practicability of the teachings of Islam for the rest of his life.