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Preface to Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V

With all praise to Allah, finally, this book of mine
Has been completed by the grace of Him who is my dear Lord.

After this [praise to the Lord], let it be known that what will be written after this preface is the Fifth Part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya. Through the wisdom and providence of God Almighty, it so happened that the publication of this book was delayed for approximately twenty-three years after its four parts were published. It is even more surprising that I composed nearly eighty books during this period, some of which were quite voluminous, yet I was unable to attend to the completion of this book. Many a time I experienced heartfelt pain that a long time had elapsed in completing Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya. Nevertheless, despite the utmost effort and urgency caused by the demand for the book from its buyers, and the strong criticism filled with the filth of ill-suspicion and obscene language during this protracted time, and such a prolonged period of delay—and [such objections] could genuinely arise in minds because of such a prolonged delay—the wisdom of divine providence did not enable me to complete this book. This shows that man does not have the power to step outside the limits established by divine decree and determination. I regret the fact—indeed, my heart aches to think of the fact—that so many people who had agreed to buy this book passed away from this world even before it could be completed; however, as I have already written, man is subject to divine decree. If the will of God does not coincide with that of man, then man cannot achieve his plan even if he exerts himself in a thousand ways. But when the time comes for the fulfilment of the Will of God, those very things that appeared to be the most difficult occur with the greatest of ease.

At this point the question naturally arises: Since there is wisdom and appropriateness in all that God Almighty does, then what was the wisdom that a book of such tremendous religious service—wherein the purpose was to refute all the opponents of Islam—remained incomplete for approximately twenty-three years? The answer to this is best known to God alone. No man can comprehend all His mysteries, but to the extent that I understand, it is that the first four parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya that had been published consisted of such matters that, until those matters had been manifested, the arguments of the four Parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya would have remained hidden and concealed. Therefore, it was essential that the writing of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya remain deferred until such time when, with the passage of time, those concealed matters became exposed and the arguments contained in the four parts became apparent; for, the word of God that lay hidden here and there in the four parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya—that is to say, His revelation to this humble one—stood in need of being explained. Moreover, it was necessary that the truth of the prophecies contained therein should become manifest to the people. Therefore, the All-Wise and All-Knowing God caused the publication of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya to be deferred until the time that all those prophecies were fulfilled.

Bear in mind that to establish the truth of any religion—that is to say, to prove the fact that that religion is from God—it is necessary that it must possess two types of supremacies.

First: That such a religion should be so comprehensive, perfect, complete, and free from defect in its doctrines, teachings, and commandments, that reason should fail to propose anything better; and no defect or deficiency be seen in it. And, in this perfection, it should triumph over all other religions; that is to say, no other religion should be its equal in these excellences. This is the claim that the Holy Quran itself has put forward:

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Meaning that, today I have perfected My religion for you and have completed My favour upon you, and I have chosen Islam to be your faith; that is to say, you should be established upon that reality which is contained in the word ‘Islam’, an explanation of which has been given by God Almighty Himself with reference to the word ‘Islam’.

In this verse it is stated clearly that only the Holy Quran has conferred the perfect teaching and in the time of the Holy Quran alone could the perfect teaching have been bestowed. Thus, this claim of perfect teaching that the Holy Quran has made was its unique right; apart from it no other heavenly book has made such a claim.

As is manifestly clear to all observers, both the Torah and the Gospel refrain from making this claim. The Torah contains a statement of God Almighty that I will raise a Prophet from among your brethren and will put My Word in his mouth, and whosoever will not hearken unto his Word I will require it of him.4 So it is quite clear that if heeding the Torah were sufficient to meet the requirements of the coming time, there would be no need for the advent of another Prophet, nor would deliverance from divine chastisement be dependent upon sincerely heeding the Word revealed to him.

Similarly, the Gospel has nowhere claimed that its teaching is perfect and comprehensive. On the contrary, it has clearly and openly admitted that there were yet many more things worthy of being said, but you cannot bear them; however, when the Paraclete comes, he shall disclose all things.5

Now, it should be noted that Hazrat Musa [Moses], having acknowledged the deficiency of his Torah, drew attention to the teachings of the coming Prophet. Similarly, Hazrat ‘Isa [Jesus] having admitted the incompleteness of his teachings, presented the rationale that it was not yet time for disclosing the perfect teaching, but when the Paraclete comes, he would disclose the perfect teaching. But the Holy Quran, unlike the Torah and the Gospel, has made no reference to anyone else; rather, it has proclaimed to the entire world that its teachings are perfect by declaring:

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Thus, it is clear that the Holy Quran is the only one to make the claim of a perfect teaching. I shall explain at its proper place that just as the Holy Quran has made this claim, so has it demonstrably fulfilled it, and it has presented such a perfect teaching which neither the Torah could present, nor the Gospel could express. This is, therefore, a magnificent argument to prove Islam’s truth that, by virtue of its teaching, it is triumphant over every single religion; and no religion can compete with it in regard to the perfection of its teaching.

Second: Then, the second kind of supremacy found in Islam, and not shared by any other religion, which puts the absolute seal of certainty upon its truth, is that it manifests living blessings and miracles, which other religions are entirely deprived of. These are the kind of perfect Signs through which Islam not only triumphs over other religions, but also—by showing its perfect light—draws hearts to itself. It should be borne in mind that the first argument of the truth of Islam, which I have just written—that is, its perfect teaching—is really not a manifestly clear argument to understand that the religion of Islam is from Allah since a bigoted denier, whose observation is not very keen, can say that it is possible that a perfect teaching might indeed exist, yet it may not be from God Almighty. Thus, although this argument brings an intelligent seeker after truth closer to certainty by affording him relief from many doubts, nevertheless, until the second argument mentioned above is joined and assimilated with it, it cannot enable him to ascend the tower of perfect certainty.

The light of the true religion reaches its perfection through the combination of these two arguments. Even though a true religion contains thousands of Signs and lights within itself, these two arguments—without need of any other argument—quench the heart of a seeker after truth with the water of certainty and totally confound the deniers. Hence, in the presence of these two types of arguments, there remains no need for any other argument. I had originally intended to document three hundred arguments in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya as proofs of the divine origin of Islam, but when I diligently reflected upon it, I realized that these two kinds of arguments are the equivalent of thousands of Signs. Thus, God turned my heart away from the earlier intention and bestowed upon my heart the contentment to write the above-mentioned arguments.

If I had been hasty in completing the book Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, it would have been impossible for me to demonstrate the divine origin of Islam to people in such a way because the earlier parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya contain many prophecies that are strong evidence for the truth of Islam, but the time had not yet come for those promised Signs of God Almighty to be openly manifested to the world. Every wise person can understand that composing miracles and Signs is not within the power of man and, in reality, the single greatest means of recognizing a true religion is that blessings and miracles are found in it; for, as I have just said, being a perfect teaching alone is not a sufficiently complete and manifestly clear sign of a true religion that can lead to the highest degree of satisfaction. So, if Almighty God so wills, I shall complete the book by documenting these two types of arguments in this book.

Although the manifestation of Signs was promised in the previous parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, it was not within my power to manifest any Sign through my own strength, and there were some statements in the earlier parts of the book whose explanation was beyond my ability, but when, after twenty-three years, the time came, all means were made available by God Almighty. Moreover, in conformity with the promise recorded in the previous parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, the divine insights and verities of the Holy Quran were disclosed to me, as Allah the Exalted has said:

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And thus, many a great Sign were manifested.

Those who seek God with a sincere heart know well that cognition of God can only be attained through God Himself; they can recognize God only with God, and only God can fulfil His own argument. It is not within man’s control. Man can never attain His nearness merely by cultivating a repugnance for sin through some contrivance, so long as perfect cognition of the Divine is not acquired. At this point, no atonement is of any use, nor is there any way to be cleansed from sin with the exception of that perfect divine cognition which generates perfect love and perfect fear. And perfect love and perfect fear are the only two things that stop one from sin; for, when the fire of love and the fear [of Allah] is set ablaze, it reduces the rubbish of sin to ashes. This pure fire can never coexist with the filthy fire of sin. In short, man can neither refrain from evil nor advance in love until he has the good fortune of perfect cognition, and perfect cognition is not attained until man is granted living blessings and miracles from God Almighty. This indeed is such a means of recognising the true religion that it silences all opponents. And such a religion which possesses within it both kinds of arguments mentioned above—that is to say, a religion whose teaching is perfect in every aspect, in which there is no omission, and moreover, God Himself testifies to its truth through Signs and miracles— this religion is forsaken only by him who has absolutely no regard for God Almighty and gives preference to a temporary life and the vain relationships with people over the Day of Judgment.

Faith in God—who is just as Powerful today as He was Powerful ten thousand years ago—can only be attained on the very condition that knowledge be attained of His fresh blessings, fresh miracles, and fresh manifestations of His Power; otherwise, it would have to be said that He is not the same God as He once was, or, that He has lost the powers that He once used to possess. Hence, the faith of these people—deprived of fresh blessings and fresh miracles of God and who believe His powers are left behind and did not advance [to the future]—amounts to nothing at all.

Finally, it should also be remembered that the twenty-three year delay in the publication of the remaining part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya was not meaningless and in vain. Rather, there was this wisdom in it that the fifth part was not to be published in the world until all those matters became manifest regarding which there are prophecies contained in the earlier parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya; for, the earlier parts were full of magnificent prophecies and the lofty purpose of the fifth part was that those promised prophecies would come to pass. And it is a special Sign of God that, by His sheer grace, He kept me alive until the time when those Signs became manifest and the time came that the fifth part be written. The divine help that was manifested at the time of this fifth part must necessarily be mentioned by way of gratitude. It is to express this matter that at the time of the writing of Part V of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya—which, in fact, should be referred to as the rebirth of this book—I also named this part Nusratul-Haqq [‘Help of God’], so that this name may forever remain a reminder of how it came into being merely through the help and assistance of God Almighty, despite the existence of hundreds of barriers and hurdles. This is why the title Nusratul-Haqq appears in the header of the first few pages of this part, but then, thinking that people should be reminded that this is the same Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, four parts of which have already been published, all the subsequent pages had Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V written in their header. I had initially intended to write fifty parts of this book, but then instead of fifty I contented myself with five, and since the difference between five [5] and fifty [50] is merely a dot [0], that promise was fulfilled by the five parts.

The other cause for this twenty-three year delay, during which Part V was not written, was that God Almighty willed to expose the inner thoughts of those people whose hearts were afflicted with the disease of ill-thinking, and this is exactly what happened insofar as the long delay caused people of weak understanding to grow in suspicion, so much so that some of the evil natured from among them even started using foul language. And of the four parts of this book that had been published, some were sold at different prices, while others were distributed free. So, many of those who had made payments, even vilified me and also took their payments back. Had they not behaved so in their haste, it would have been better for them. However, the extent of this delay served to test their true nature.

Yet another cause for the delay was that God Almighty may make it clear to His servants that this endeavour is in keeping with His Will, and that all these revelations which have been written in the earlier parts of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya were indeed from Him and not from any human being. Had this book not been in accord with the will of God Almighty and had all these revelations not been from Him, it would have been contrary to the practice of the Just and Holy God that a man who, according to Him, is an impostor and has sinned by making fabrications and calling them revelations from Allah and the revealed word of God, should be spared for twenty-three years so that he may complete—up to the extent that Allah may please—the remaining part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya; and not only that, but that God should also do him the favour of bringing into existence from Himself factors which were necessary for its completion that were also beyond human control. It goes without saying that God Almighty does not treat a person whom He knows to be an impostor with such kindness and favour. Thus, the extent of this delay and postponement also caused the Sign of Allah’s help and succour in my favour to be manifested.

During this long period, many who called me a kafir [disbeliever], a dajjal [deceiver], and a kazzab [liar]; considered me to be outside the pale of Islam; and cursed me by way of mubahalah [prayer duel], passed away from this world, but God kept me alive and helped me to such an extent that—not to talk of liars—there must be very few true and righteous people who received such divine help. This, therefore, is a manifestly clear Sign of God, but only for those who do not shut their eyes and are ready to accept the Signs of God Almighty.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian,
The Promised Messiah