Why did Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah, have a minaret built in Qadian, if the minaret in the prophecy is meant symbolically?

He did not build it as the minaret the prophecy speaks of, but deliberately as a symbol. A symbol remains a symbol, whether in words or in stone, and this one reminds people that the awaited one has come, who calls to them from the minaret of light and wisdom.

A well known prophecy about the coming of the Messiah mentions a minaret. Many people therefore expect a particular building at which the Messiah is to appear. But there are good reasons to understand this minaret symbolically. A minaret is the place from which people are called to prayer. What is meant, then, is a call that reaches far, a call of light and wisdom.

This raises the question of why Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah, nevertheless had a minaret built in Qadian. The answer is simple. He knew that this building was not the minaret the prophecy speaks of. He built it deliberately as a symbol.

A symbol can be expressed in words, and it can just as well be raised in stone. There is no contradiction in that. A contradiction would arise only if someone put up a building and claimed that this very building was what had been meant. Then the symbol would be destroyed and replaced by a mere object. That is exactly what did not happen in Qadian.

We know this from everyday life. A monument reminds us of an event, yet nobody takes the stone for the event itself. In the same way this minaret reminds people that the awaited one has come. Whoever sees it is meant to think of his message, which reaches people like a call from the minaret of light and wisdom.

The Holy Qur’an itself often speaks in parables, as the first verse above shows. And it teaches that respect for the signs of God comes from righteousness of the heart. A visible sign has its value in reminding the heart of the truth it stands for.