Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad was born to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Nusrat Jehan Begum on 12 January 1889 in Qadian, the same year in which Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya faith. Accounts of his early childhood describe him to be rather mischievous, playful and carefree.[3] Due to excessive illness Mahmood could not attend to secondary education. During his youth he engaged himself in the service of his father's movement by founding a journal entitled Tash-heezul Azhaan. He accompanied his father on many of his journeys.[4]
In 1907 he claimed to have been taught the commentary of Al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Quran) by an angel by way of a vision. According to Mahmood this vision signified that God had placed the knowledge of the Quran in his mind in the form of a seed. From then onwards he is said to have been gifted with the special knowledge of the commentary of the Quran.[5]
He taught for a long time. When he reached [the verse]Thee alone do we worship and thee alone do we implore for help he said 'All previous commentators have been able to interpret up to this point. But I want to teach you further.' I said 'Go ahead' Thereafter he continued to teach me until finally he had imparted to me the commentary of the whole of Sura Fatiha... Since then not a single day has passed that I have not reflected upon Sura Fatiha and Allah has always taught me new points and opened for me diverse branches of knowledge. In his limitless Grace, He has explained to me all the difficult subjects discussed in the Holy Quran.
On 26 May 1908. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died at Lahore when Mahmood was 19 years old. On 27 May 1908, Mahmood Ahmad gave the oath of allegiance to Hakim Noor-ud-Din, the first successor of Ghulam Ahmad. He studied the Quran, Sahih Bukhari, the Masnavi and some Medicine under the tutelage of Noor-ud-Din, with whom he developed a close friendship and who became one of the leading influences on Mahmood later in life. He also began writing articles for various periodicles of the Ahmadiyya community and would often engage himself in theological debates with various scholars of the community.
Mahmood Ahmad visited Egypt and Saudi Arabia in September 1912 during the course of which he performed Hajj. In June 1913, he started a newspaper[6] which became the central organ of the Community.
