Shams ud Din Khan
Shams ud Din Khan was an early Pashtun Ahmadi in the North West Frontier province of India. He remained its Provincial Ameer . He was a close associate of Khalifatul Masih II and III. in his lifetime. He was a member of the Jama'at Khilafat Committee and was one of the two proposers of the name of Mirza Nasir Ahmad at the time of his Election to the seat of Khilafat in November 1965. He remained a member of the Majlis Shura of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan.
Early life
Khan was born on 26 January 1900, to Hafiz Haji Noor Muhammad. His father died when he was four. Noor Muhammad, had an important legacy associated with him in the history of Ahmadiyya Community. Something which ultimately led Shams ud Din Khan to convert to Ahmadiyya in 1927. He received his education from the Islamia Collegite High School at Peshawar. He married three times, every time after the death of his wives. He had thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters. He was son-in-law to Sahibzada Abdul Lateef, a cousin of Sahibzada Nawab Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum His wife Amatul Aziz Begum had been Sadar of the Women Wing Ahmadiyya Community, Lajna Imaillah North West Frontier Province.Conversion
The family of Khan had a unique historical link with the Ahmadiyya movement. His father Hafiz Haji Noor Muhammad, went to Qadian in 1901. He met the Founder of Ahmadiyya Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. In fact Noor Muhammad had taken all this trouble, in his old age, and took the journey from Kotha Gari Amazai, District Swabi to Qadian to testify and see for himself the fulfillment of a vision of his own spiritual master Syed Ameer Sahib of Khota Swabi.The vision has also been mentioned independently, by other sources, not associated with the Ahmadiyya Community, Sahibzada Muhammad Ashraf in his biography of Syed Ameer sahib mentions the same experience of the Syed.
It is reported that Shams ud Din's father did not accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, he was old and weak, and he could not go back to his home and died at Nainital India in 1904. This strong emotional legacy must have touched Shams ud Din. He read the book 'Tohfa e Golarviyya' in 1927, with all the transforming effects of his father being mentioned by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, his journey to Qadian India and never returning home, leaving Shams ud Din an orphan at age four. He took Bay'ah at the hands of Khalifatul Masih II in 1927.