Why did Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah, not perform the Hajj?

The Holy Qur’an makes the Hajj a duty only when the way there is safe. For him the way was not safe, and it was the very scholars who blamed him for it who had made it unsafe.

The pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the pillars of Islam. But the Holy Qur’an links it to a condition. It is a duty for those who can find a way there. Part of that is that the way is safe. Where it is not, God does not require the pilgrimage.

How seriously this condition is meant is shown by the events at Hudaibiya. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) had set out with his Companions to visit the Ka’bah, but the Meccans blocked their way. Many Companions would have been ready to fight their way in. But a road on which blood would flow is not a safe road. He forced nothing, made peace with the Meccans and turned back that year.

The same was true for Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah. Many scholars of his time opposed him so fiercely that the way to Mecca was not safe for him. Under these circumstances the pilgrimage was not a duty for him.

That is why the objection is strange. The very people who blame him for not performing the Hajj were the ones who had made the way there unsafe for him. In this he followed exactly the rule of the Holy Qur’an and the example of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw).