White Minaret (Qadian)

The White Minaret (Arabic: منارہ المسیح, manārat-ul masīh; lit. Minaret of the Messiah) is a stone tower and monument standing beside the Aqsa Mosque in Qadian, India. It was constructed under the direction of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement specifically as a light tower symbolising the ultimate preeminence of Islam.

The minaret has three stages, 92 steps, and a total height of about 105 feet, 32 meter. Its construction was completed in 1916 and has since become a symbol and distinctive mark in Ahmadiyya Islam. The minaret features on the Ahmadiyya flag and also (sometimes with rays of light) in the movement's major publications. It is classified as a historical monument.

According to a prophecy in Islamic tradition, Jesus, upon his advent in the end times, would descend near a white minaret to the east of Damascus.

Allah would send the Messiah, son of Mary, and he will descend near (at/by) the white minaret, East of Damascus, wearing two saffron-coloured garments, his hands resting on the wings of two Angels.

According to Ghulam Ahmad, this prophecy was fulfilled with his advent in Qadian, a town situated directly to the east of Damascus, and the significance of the minaret was symbolic. Reference to a white minaret, according to him, symbolised the far-reaching spread of the "light" of Islam, and also implied that with the coming of the Messiah, the truth of Islam was to tower up as it were like a minaret to a height of eminence which would establish its superiority over other religions, similar to how the sound of a call from atop an elevated platform such as a minaret prevails over other sounds. The prophecy was also stated to be pointing to an age of enlightenment, where distance would not keep things hidden from view and the numerous facilities for communication and transport would make the transmission of the message of Islam easier. This was reflective of the physical purpose that minarets served in Islamic societies: the efficient communication of the call to prayer to a wider audience in the locality. In elaboration of this point Ghulam Ahmad wrote:

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