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The spectacular panorama of the universe constantly proclaims that:
There is One who laid its foundation and built it up.

He has no associate and no partner,
There is none to interfere in His work, or to share His secrets.

He is the Maker of this universe,
But He Himself transcends it and is independent of it.

He is One and has no partner, the Living, the Almighty,
The Eternal, the Everlasting, the Unique, the All-Seeing.

The Maker of the universe, the Holy, the Eternal,
The Creator, the Provider, the Gracious, the Merciful.

The Mentor, the Teacher who leads to the path of faith,
The Guide, the Revealer of the true knowledge.

The Possessor of all lofty attributes in their perfection,
Far above the need for a spouse and children.

He is ever Immutable,
And beyond the reach of death and decline.

Nothing is out of the reach of His command,
He is not derived from anything, nor He is like anything.

We cannot say that He is close to us,
Nor can we say that He is far from us.

Though His Being is far above everything,
We cannot say that anything is below Him.

He transcends everything that can be conceived through reason, intellect or imagination;
His Being is above all kinds of doubts.

He is Matchless and Unique,
Free from all bounds and limitations.

None is equal to Him,
Either in His person or in His attributes.

Everything has been created by His Power.
The diversity of His creation bears witness to His Oneness.

If He had any partner in His creation,
The entire creation would be in chaos.

The Peerless One is free from all
That is made of dust and is dust.

He has set constraints on all things,
But is Himself free from all bounds.

Man is a slave bound in fetters,
Trapped by countless desires and greed.

So are the sun and the moon constrained
To move in their own orbits.

The moon has no power to act freely,
And to shine during the day.

Nor has the sun any power
To step onto the throne of the night.

Water is a slave too, to have a cooling effect,
It cannot do otherwise on its own.

The blazing fire is also His slave,
He is the One who causes it to burn with such intensity.

O wise man! No matter how you beg or beseech the fire,
You cannot abate its heat.

The tree trunks are firmly rooted in the soil,
Their feet firmly secured by shackles.

All these phenomena point to the One,
And serve as proofs and signs of His existence.

O Lord of all creation and all the worlds!
The whole universe is wonderstruck at Your power.

How marvellous is Your Might and Majesty!
How strange are Your works and Your creation!

From the first, all praise belongs to You;
In this, You have no associate and no equal.

You are the One, Matchless and Eternal;
Far above the need for an associate or partner.

You alone are the Lord of both the worlds;
None is like You in the one or the other.

Your Might rules everything,
Before You, nothing has any worth.

Fear of You makes one secure against every fear;
The more one knows You the more one lives in awe of You.

People seek protection and shelter from others,
But You alone grant protection to one and all.

Your remembrance is the key to resolving all difficulties.
Without You, everything that occurs in the mind is anguish for the heart.

Whosoever cries unto You with humility;
Finds again his lost fortune.

Your grace never abandons Your true seekers;
No one ever suffers loss in Your path.

Whosoever submits himself before You,
Turns himself away from all others.

Why indeed should he turn to others,
When he has left his affairs in Your mighty hands!

Just as we have only one heart and one soul,
So is Your Holy Being enough for us as the One and Only Friend.

Whosoever establishes a relationship with You unknown to others;
Your mercy is bestowed upon him openly, for all to see.

Whoever sticks to Your threshold with devotion and sincerity;
His household is filled with light.

Whosoever adheres to Your path, achieves all his objectives,
And a plenitude of hope shines upon all his affairs.2

Whosoever seeks Your path, finds it,
And resplendent becomes the face that does not turn away from You.

But he who runs away from Your shelter,
Finds only disgrace no matter where he turns.

O my God, forgive my sins,
And show me the path to Your Presence.

Vouchsafe light to my heart and soul,
And cleanse me of my hidden sins.

Be my Beloved, win my heart and soul,
And with a single look, do away with all my tribulations.

You alone are dear to me in both the worlds.
All I desire from You is You.

Worthy of infinite praise and adoration is the Mighty Lord who demonstrated His great power by creating all souls and bodies through His command and decree, without any preexisting matter or substance and who manifested the sign of His eternal grace by imparting knowledge to, and perfecting the morals of, all the noble Prophets(as) without the agency of a teacher or mentor.

Holy is Allah! The Gracious and Beneficent, who gave us poor mortals, without any merit of our own, all that we needed. For our physical sustenance, He appointed the sun, the moon, the clouds and the winds. And to satisfy our spiritual needs, He sent down the Torah, the Gospels, the Quran and all other heavenly Books at their appropriate times. Countless thanks be to You, O Allah, for guiding us to the path that leads to You, and for saving us from errors of thought and reason by sending down Your Holy Books. We invoke blessings on the Chief of Prophets, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa(sa) [the Chosen One], on his progeny and on his Companions. Through him God guided an entire world that had lost its way to the right path. He was the teacher and the benefactor who led misguided people back to the right path; the benevolent and compassionate one who delivered people from shirk [polytheism] and the curse of idols; the light and the disseminator of light who illumined the world with the light of Tauhid [Oneness of God]; the healer and physician who enabled ailing hearts to tread the path of righteousness; the noble miracle-worker who revived the dead with the elixir of life; the merciful and compassionate one who suffered pain and sorrow for his ummah; the valiant and the brave one who rescued us from the jaws of death; the humble and selfless one who bowed his head before his Lord in total submission and completely annihilated his self; the perfect believer in the Oneness of God and the ocean of knowledge who was overawed by nothing except the Majesty of God and saw everything beside Him as worthless; and the miracle of divine power who, despite being unlettered, surpassed all in respect of divine knowledge and brought home to all nations the errors and mistakes from which they suffered.

My heart is surging with the desire to praise the master,
Who has no peer in excellence;

Whose entire being is devoted to God, the Eternal Friend;
Whose soul has attained union with the Beloved.

Who has been drawn towards the Divine with His bounties and grace.
Who has been raised in His lap like a child.

Who, in piety and beneficence, is a boundless ocean,
Who, in kindness and compassion, is a matchless pearl;

Who, in his generosity and munificence, is like the spring rain;
Who, in his favours and bounties, is a sun.

Who is merciful and a sign of God’s mercy;
Who is generous and a manifestation of divine munificence.

Whose countenance is so delightful,
That a glimpse of it turns an ugly face into one of beauty.

Whose luminous heart has caused hundreds of souls,
That had been plunged into darkness, to shine like stars.

It was a blessed hour when his blessed self came as a mercy,
From the Sustainer of the universe.

He is Ahmad of the latter days,
Whose light makes the hearts shine brighter than the sun.

He is the most beautiful of the progeny of Adam,
And more lustrous than the purest of pearls.

From his lips flowed a fountain of wisdom;
And in his heart is an ever-flowing spring full of divine knowledge.

There is none like him on land or sea,
Who disassociated himself from all for the sake of God.

God has given him a lamp,
That is forever safe from tempests.

He is the champion of the Mighty Lord God,
Wearing the dagger at his side in all his glory.

His arrows showed their speed in every battle;
His sword proved its worth in every field.

He proved to the world the helplessness of the idols;
He revealed the might of the All-Powerful One;

So that no one who adores, worships or carves idols,
May remain unaware of the Almighty’s power.

Truthfulness, rectitude, and uprightness he adores;
Falsehood, corruption and all kind of mischief he abhors.

He is the master, yet a servant of the weak and humble;
He is the king, yet he attends upon the helpless.

The compassion that mankind received from him,
None has ever received even from a mother.

Intoxicated by the wine of the Beloved’s love,
He laid down his head at His doorstep.

His radiance reached every people;
His light shone upon every nation.

He is a sign of the Gracious God for all who have the insight,
And for every man of understanding, a divine testimony.

With kindness he aids the weak and helpless;
With compassion he shares the grief of the forlorn.

The beauty of his countenance surpasses the sun and the moon;
The dust of his abode is more fragrant than musk and ambergris.

How indeed can the sun and the moon be like him,
Whose heart shines with divine light like hundreds of suns.

A single look at his unmatched beauty,
Is better than a life of eternity.

Being cognizant of his charm, I readily give him my life,
While others only offer him their hearts.

The thought of his countenance sends me into transports of ecstasy;
A drink from his goblet keeps me forever intoxicated.

If only I had wings and pinions,
I would keep flying towards his court.

Of what use are tulips and sweet basil to me,
For I am in love with that countenance and that being.

His beauty pulls at the strings of my heart,
And attracts me like a powerful magnet.

I have seen that he is the light of the eyes,
And his love is as warming as the rays of the sun.

Resplendent is the face that does not turn away from him;
Successful is he who holds on to his door.

Whoever sets sail on the ocean of faith without him,
Is destined to miss his port at the very outset.

He is unlettered, yet peerless in knowledge and wisdom;
Can there be any greater and more truthful testimony?

God granted him the elixir of such knowledge,
That every star paled before its dazzling light.

The true potential of man, that had long remained hidden,
Was finally manifested through him.

Every excellence found its culmination in his holy person;
No wonder the reign of all Prophets ended with him.

He is the sun of every land and of every age;
A guide for all—dark or fair.

He is a perfect personification of knowledge and cognition,
And also combining in his person the attributes of the cloud and the sun.

My eyes searched all around but found not,
A fountain purer than that of his Faith.

For seekers, there is no leader besides him;
For those who are in search of truth, there is no guide but he.

His is the exalted station, where the intensity of its light,
Would scorch even the wings of Gabriel.

Permanent and unalterable is the Law,
And the Faith that God has granted him.

It first shone upon the land of Arabia, and put an end to all its evils and idolatry,
To bring about the spiritual reform of its inhabitants;

Then the light of Faith and the Holy Law,
Covered the world like the limitless expanse of the sky.

He granted people, from the Lord God, the purpose of their lives,
And rescued them from the jaws of the dragon.

On one side, great kings were wonderstruck by him,
On the other, scholars and sages were left dumbfounded.

No one could reach the depth of his knowledge and power;
He shattered the pride of all the arrogant.

He does not need any man’s praise;
Indeed, praising him is itself an honour.

He resides in the gardens of holiness and majesty,
Far above the comprehension of those who eulogize him.

O Lord! Convey to him our humble salutations,
And to all Prophets—his brethren.

Every Prophet was the light of truthfulness;
Every Prophet was a luminous sun.

Every Prophet was like a divine shelter for the faith,
Every Prophet was a fruit-bearing orchard.

Without the holy community of these Prophets,
All objectives of faith would have remained unfulfilled.

Whoever is not grateful for their coming,
Rejects the bounties of the Almighty.

They are a hundred pearls from the same shell;
Equal in their person, essence and brilliance.

Never have there been a people,
To whom a Warner did not come at the proper time.

Adam was the first and Ahmad the last;
Blessed is he who recognizes the latter.

All Prophets are luminous gems,
But Ahmad is the brightest of all.

Every Prophet was a treasure-house of knowledge;
Every one of them a guide towards the Lord.

Whoever has any knowledge of Tauhid [Oneness of God],
Owes this knowledge to one Prophet or another.

He has surely learnt it from their teachings,
Even if he arrogantly refuses to admit it.

Those who have turned their backs on these holy ones,
Are a lost and unholy people.

Even though their eyes have not seen the face of the Truth,
They write volumes upon volumes arguing about it.

How unfortunate they are, taking pride in their eyes,
And turning their backs on the sun.

If eyes did not need the sun,
The bat would surely be the most sharp-eyed creature.

He who is blind and there are pitfalls in his way,
Woe on him if he does not take a guide.

There are another people who, due to their ignorance,
Are similarly beset by untenable beliefs.

[They believe that] in the whole world
God has not created a land better than theirs;

Moreover, they believe that no face pleases Him,
Other than their beautiful face.

That God has always been, and shall always remain,
Confined to their land;

That He is not in the least bothered,
If other people perish due to ignorance;

That He gave His Book to a small nation,
And left countless others without guidance;

That when He distributed good and evil among His creation,
To them alone did He grant truth; and falsehood to all others.

They say that among other nations,
There have only come hundreds of liars and pretenders;

That not one [Prophet] came,
To convey God’s message to them;

Or to show them the path to God,
Or to reveal the falsehood of every liar;

So that God’s argument would be complete,
Against every Muslim and Christian.

In short, they consider the Glorious God,
To be the most unjust of the unjust;

For He leaves whole nations steeped in misguidance,
At the mercy of every scheming imposter.

[They believe that] like a lover of this world,
He loves only one religion and cares not for any other.

Not only do they hold such absurd beliefs,
They are also naive enough to be proud of them.

The result of such evil doctrine and evil thinking is that,
They have become strangely blind and dumb.

They have closed their eyes to a hundred fresh springs,
And have fallen for a trough of dirty water.

They have gone to the extremes in their animosity towards the Prophets;
God save all from the enmity of such arrogant people!

One would not expect from the devil himself,
The enmity that these people harbour for the holy ones.

The donkey has no match in foolishness,
But they far exceed the donkey in folly.

They do not care for enquiry or evidence,
Nor do they seek the truth with sincerity.

They do not recognize a remedy from its effect,
Nor a tree from its fruit.

They neither ask others about the truth with humility,
Nor use their own judgment to find it.

They care not to investigate,
Which faith is better than the rest.

They are partial to one ( faith) and opposed to all others,
Unmindful of the difference between few and many.

They do not fear the Omnipotent God,
Nor dread the Day of Judgment.

These black-hearted people have sealed their eyes,
And are burning in their fury like a python.

They have intentionally turned their backs on the truth,
And fallen in love with this treacherous world.

In their ignorance they have declared their own house,
To be the pulpits for their senseless sermons.

Strange indeed is their god,
Who has deliberately neglected every other country;

Who has chosen a single tongue and a small land,
To send down his revelation.

How can such beliefs be considered right?
How can reason lead to such conclusions?

How can one, who is himself good and keeps good company;
Harbour such malice against the righteous?

For the moon there can be no greater abuse,
Than that it should be called good for nothing.

If a blind man were to say, ‘There is no sun,’
He would only be asking for more ridicule.

So doubt not the blazing sun,
If you do not wish to be derided.

If you seek God, do not transgress;
Do you not fear the wrath of the Subduer?

Why do you not dread the Day of Judgment?
Why do you not fear God who is Just?

How could you ever believe in their lies,
Or has God given you a book wherein it is all written?

The light (of the Prophets) has enveloped the entire world,
And yet you, who are blind, deny it with such vehemence.

If you call a brilliant ruby worthless,
The lustrous stone will not be any the less precious for it.

Reviling the virtuous affects them not in the least, It only reveals your own wickedness.

Harbouring malice against men of God is an act of cowardice,
A gentleman is he who has no mischief in him.

He who burns in the fire of malice and hatred,
Is a helpless prey to his baser self.

The eyes of a blind or one-eyed person,
Are much better than the eyes of the malicious.

Woe be on malice and prejudice,
Curse be on the malicious and the malevolent.

One cannot reach God the Great,
Except by sticking to the path of truth.

We are humble servants of all the Prophets,
Like dust we lie at their threshold.

May our lives be sacrificed for every Prophet,
Who showed us the way to the True God.

O my Lord, by virtue of the host of Prophets,
Whom You sent with Your abundant grace,

Grant me wisdom, as You have granted me a yearning heart;
Grant me wine, as You have granted me the goblet.

O my Lord God, for the sake of Mustafa [the Chosen One]
Whom You supported at every step,

Hold my hand with Your grace and compassion,
And be my friend and helper in all my affairs.

I put all my trust in Your power,
Even though I am like dust, or humbler still.

I would now like to make it clear to all seekers after truth that this book, entitled al-Barahinul-Ahmadiyya ‘ala Haqqiyyate Kitabillahil-Qur’an wan-Nubuwwatil-Muhammadiyyah, has been written so that everyone is made cognizant of the arguments for the truth of Islam and the divine origin of the Holy Quran, and of the grounds for the truthfulness and Prophethood of Hazrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ [the Seal of the Prophets], may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

This book is also intended to confound and silence, on the basis of rational arguments, all those who deny the unassailable Faith of Islam, the Holy Book [Holy Quran] and the Exalted Prophet, so that in future no one may have the temerity to attack Islam.

This book consists of a challenge, a preface, [the main text in] four chapters, and an epilogue. May God make it a source of blessings for seekers after truth and guide its readers to His true religion. Amin.