Did the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat perform miracles that prove his claim?

Yes, though not as spectacles. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah, showed the signs the Holy Qur’an names for true messengers: a pure life before his claim, God’s protection and help against all opposition, and prophecies that came true.

Many people think of a miracle as a spectacle that breaks the laws of nature. The Holy Qur’an shows, however, that such demands do not create faith. When a sign was demanded of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), the first verse above answered that those demanding it would not believe even then. Apart from the magicians, hardly anyone among Pharaoh’s people believed after seeing the signs of Moses (as). And the disciples of Jesus (as) followed him because of his truthfulness, not because of a spectacle.

Religious miracles are often to be understood like parables. Prophets raise the spiritually dead and heal people of spiritual diseases that no earthly remedy can cure. When opponents at a public debate brought seriously ill people before him and demanded that he heal them if he truly resembled Jesus (as), he stayed calm. He reminded them that, by the words of Jesus (as), even a little faith would be enough to do the same. So his opponents should first show their own faith. At that, they quickly led the sick people away again.

The real signs are named by the Holy Qur’an itself. The first is a pure life before the claim. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) was known as a truthful man, and even later opponents had praised his work for Islam. The second is God’s protection, for God does not let a man who invents words in His name go on. Yet he was abandoned by family and friends, and still his community grew steadily and today reaches people in a great many countries.

Then there are prophecies. He interpreted the walking of Jesus (as) on water and the birds made of clay as pointing to the future power of the Christian world at sea and in the air. He spoke of a war that would engulf the whole world, with ships on the seas and fire falling from the sky. He said this at a time when there were no aeroplanes yet and no such war was in sight.