The portrait sketch below was hand-drawn in June 1961 by Erfan Dahlan, who had been a student at the Lahore Ahmadiyya Anjuman’s Isha‘at Islam College in 1927 where Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi was a teacher.

In this portrait Erfan Dahlan has represented Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi in the garb of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. For comparison, see photo of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on the left. Below the portrait, Erfan Dahlan has quoted a verse from a poem by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. We translate this below:

“For so long had unbelief been devouring the faith [of Islam],
Rest assured now that the days are here for devouring unbelief
(From the poetry of the Promised Messiah, peace be upon him).”

About Erfan Dahlan

View photographs of Erfan Dahlan at our other page.

Erfan Dahlan had come from Java to study in Lahore at our Anjuman and had then been sent by the Anjuman to run a mission in Pattani in Siam, present-day Thailand. In the booklet World-Wide Religious Revolution, published in December 1932 by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore, it is recorded that a Dr A.W. Khan had established an Islamic mission at Pattani, and later Dr Khan came in contact with the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore and he:

“…obtained from our Society the services of Mr. Erfan Dahlan, a young Javanese and a student of our Ishaat Islam College. Mr. Erfan Dahlan joined the Pattani Mission in October 1930. A little later he was sent to Bangkok, the capital of Siam, to learn the Siamese language where he was cordially received by Maulana A. Karim Masoodee, Imam of the Royal Mosque, who is helping him in every way.” (p. 18)

Further information about Erfan Dahlan is found in a paper entitled The rupture between the Muhammadiyah
and the Ahmadiyya by Herman L. Beck published in the journal Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Vol 161, No 2/3, 2005) which can be read as below:

• Link to that issue on the publisher’s website: www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv/issue/view/737
• Local copy of the paper at our website.

According to this paper, Erfan Dahlan was son of Ahmad Dahlan (d. 1923), founder of the Muhammadiyah movement in Indonesia. He was born in 1905, and his name originally was Jumhan which he changed to Erfan during his stay in India (p. 228). He was sent to the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore by the Central Board of the Muhammadiyah for religious education, after the arrival in Yogyakarta of the Lahore Ahmadiyya missionaries Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig and Maulana Ahmad (p. 226, 227). He qualified as a Muslim missionary and was sent to work in Thailand where he spent the rest of his life.

Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi meets Erfan Dahlan again, June 1958

In June 1958, on his way to the Fiji Islands from Lahore, Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi stopped off in Bangkok on 23rd June. Here he met Erfan Dahlan again. This is mentioned in the Maulana’s letter about his journey published in the magazine Ruh-i Islam, October-November 1958 issue, p. 39.