While serving in England as an Ahmadi Muslim missionary, Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) received instructions from Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), Khalifatul Masih II, in 1919, to travel to the United States of America and establish the Ahmadiyya mission there.
He departed from Liverpool on 26 January 1920 and reached Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 15 February. On his arrival, he was refused entry into the United States and was detained for nearly seven weeks at the Gloucester City immigration station in New Jersey. Eventually, he was allowed to enter the country and start his missionary work.
As one of the first voices of Islam in America, he utilised every method possible to convey the message of Islam Ahmadiyyat to the masses. He visited different cities, delivered lectures and met Americans from all walks of life.
Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) was in the news from the very day he arrived in Philadelphia. Apart from local Philadelphian newspapers such as The Philadelphia Record, Public Record, North American, Evening Bulletin and Public Ledger etc., other newspapers also reported his arrival.
Soon after, he took up residence in New York City. The Ahmadiyya community’s pioneer newspaper Al Hakam mentions two of his postal addresses in 1920 as: 245 West 72 Street, NY and 1897 Madison Ave NY (Al Hakam, 7 July 1920, p. 11)
Missionary work was carried out through articles in newspapers and correspondence with different dignitaries and other individuals.
In his letter dated 7 August 1920, he expressed his intentions to move to Chicago, considering it more suitable as the centre of the Ahmadiyya mission (Al Fazl, 23 September 1920, p. 1). And in the very next letter, he wrote that he had reached Chicago.
Chicago remained his station. He reached Detroit on 5 February 1921, on an invitation for lectures in the city. This time, he had adequate programmes in Detroit, which gave him widespread fame in the city and facilitated his missionary work.
In Highland Park, a suburb of Detroit, a new mission house was established, in which Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) resided. It was from here that he started his renowned quarterly magazine The Moslem Sunrise.
In July 1921, he visited Toledo, Ohio. In the same month, he also visited Fort Wayne, Indiana and Bremen, Indiana on the invitation of Mr and Mrs Michael Abraham.
Being invited to Grand Rapids, Michigan, he delivered a series of lectures there in early October 1921.
In February 1922, Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) fell seriously ill, so much so that he even wrote his will (Al Fazl, 27 March 1922). By Allah’s grace, he recovered, but still suffered from an eye condition, for which he travelled to Niles, Michigan to be treated by the internationally known eye doctor Dr Frederick N Bonine (1863-1941). He was advised to see the doctor twice a week and during his free time during the rest of the week, he visited nearby cities and towns to convey the message of Islam. He paid a visit to the Michigan cities of Benton Harbor and Dowagiac, along with South Bend, Indiana. There, he delivered many lectures, distributed literature and gave interviews on Islam. (Al Fazl, 8 and 22 June 1922)
In May 1922 he travelled to Chicago and once again made it the mission’s centre. The first Ahmadiyya mosque in America was built in Chicago on 4448 Wabash Avenue.
By the end of 1922 (most probably in October), he travelled to Ross and Stanley, North Dakota (nearly 970 miles from Chicago). This is believed to be the farthest journey he had taken towards the west.
In Stanley, he delivered a lecture in Picture Hall. In all likelihood, this journey was undertaken at the invitation of some Muslim brethren residing near Ross. In his lecture, he thanked brothers Hessen Husain Jaha, Farhat, Omar and others. On his way back, he spent some days conveying the message of Islam in both Crookston and St Paul, Minnesota. (The Moslem Sunrise, Issue I, 1923, p. 166, 167)
An organisation named Exchange Club in Grand Haven, Michigan invited him to deliver a lecture on Islam at a banquet attended by a large gathering of ladies and gentlemen. Accepting the invitation, he travelled to Grand Haven in November 1922.
It was during this period that he was informed of his transfer to Qadian and that Hazrat Maulvi Muhammad Din (ra) – who reached Chicago on 29 March 1923 – was to replace him in America (Al Fazl, 14 May 1923).
He spent nearly three months with the new missionary and handed him charge of the mission. While awaiting the travel expenses from Qadian, Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) visited yet more cities. As he had not yet visited the western part of America, he intended to depart from the west coast for India via Japan. That would also enable him to convey the message of Islam in western America, but the delay of travel expenses from Qadian made him give up this idea and he ended up visiting neighbouring areas instead.
In early July 1923, he was in Ashland, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia. Travelling further, he reached Williamson, West Virginia and met some Muslims working as coal miners (Al Fazl, 4 September 1923). Logan, West Virginia was his next stop where he was invited by some locals.
In his report in Al Fazl, dated 9 October 1923, he mentioned his stay and preaching activities in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York.
As he was to depart from the Port of Boston, he travelled to Boston, making a short stay in Springfield, Massachusetts. He made good use of his time before departure by delivering eminently successful lectures in Peabody, a city in the suburban area of the North Shore in Massachusetts.
