Among the great signs of Allah, the Almighty, is the sign He manifested with regard to Deputy ‘Abdullah Atham, a Christian. It was occasioned by a debate between Islam and Christianity which took place at the urging of Dr. Martyn Clark in May and June 1893. The Christians selected Deputy ‘Abdullah Atham for this debate, and I represented the Muslims. A few days before the debate began, ‘Abdullah Atham had used the term Dajjal [Antichrist] with reference to our Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him), in his book Andruna-e-Bible, as I have mentioned on the last page of Jang-e-Muqaddas. His mischief and insolence during the entire debate is still fresh in my memory, and I earnestly wished that God should grant me some prophecy regarding his chastisement. It was with this in mind that I took a signed statement from Atham, so that when I announced the prophecy he should not rush to the court like other Christians and try to harm me. I was occupied in the debate for fifteen days and continued to pray privately for [a sign of] reprimand for Atham. When the debate was over, I was informed by God Almighty that if Atham would not repent of his audacity and insolence, and would not retract the word Dajjal, which he wrote in his book with reference to the Holy Prophet (sas), he would be cast in hawia [hell] within a period of fifteen months. Having received this revelation, I addressed ‘Abdullah Atham on the day that the debate was concluded. This was before a large gathering, which included Dr. Martyn Clark and about thirty other Christians, as well as about thirty or forty members of my Jama‘at. Among these were brother Maulavi Hakim Noor-ud-Deen, brother Maulavi ‘Abdul Karim, brother Shaikh Rahmatullah, brother Munshi Tajuddin (Accountant Railway Office, Lahore), brother ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Khan (clerk in the Office of the Examiner, Railway, Lahore), brother Khalifa Noor-ud-Deen, and others. I said to Deputy ‘Abdullah Atham: ‘Although this debate has ended in the intellectual and rational sense, there is still another ongoing contest that remains to be decided, and it has been ordained by God. It is as follows: In your book, Andruna-e-Bible, you have called our Holy Prophet (sas) Dajjal, whereas I believe him to be a true Messenger, and I firmly believe Islam to be from God. Now this is something that will be decided by heaven. The heavenly decree is that whichever of us is false in his statement and unjustly declares the true Messenger to be a liar and Dajjal, and whichever of us is an enemy of the truth, shall be cast in hawia [hell] within fifteen months from today, in the lifetime of the truthful one, unless he turns to the truth, i.e., desists from calling the Righteous and True Prophet (sas) Dajjal and refrains from impertinence and abuse.
I said this because the mere denial of a religion does not merit punishment in this world, it is audacious, impertinent and insolent vilification that makes one deserve punishment. Thus when Atham was apprised of this Prophecy in this gathering of more than seventy people, he blanched visibly, his face turned pale, and his hands started to tremble. He immediately took his tongue out of his mouth, touched his ears with both hands, and began to shake his head and hands just like frightened culprit who vehemently denies any wrongdoing, repents and shows great humility. With a quivering tongue, he kept saying, I repent! I repent! I am not guilty of any disrespect or blasphemy; and I have never ever called the Holy Prophet (sas) Dajjal. All the while he was trembling, and this spectacle was not only beheld by Muslims but his humble attitude was also witnessed by a large number of Christians. His denial seemed to signify that his statement in his book Andruna-e-Bible was not meant as an insult. In any case, he ended up retracting the word Dajjal before this gathering of about seventy people, and it was this one word that had occasioned the prophecy. He escaped death within a period of fifteen months, because he had recanted that blasphemous word on which the prophecy depended and God would surely never forget the condition that He Himself had attached. Although this should have been enough for Atham to avail himself of the condition of repentance, he not only retracted the word Dajjal but, from the very day that he heard the prophecy, he stopped attacking Islam altogether. The fear this Prophecy instilled in his heart continued to increase until he became a nervous wreck. All his peace and tranquillity was gone. He changed himself so much that he completely ceased to have debates with Muslims and stopped writing books against Islam, as had previously been his habit. He stopped uttering sacrilegious and insulting remarks, as though his mouth had been sealed. He became very quiet and depressed. Such was his depression that he despaired of his very life and, in a state of frenzy, began travelling from town to town to pay a last visit to his relatives. It was in the course of these travels that he finally met his death in Ferozepur.
The question is, why was he caught up by Divine punishment and why did he die shortly thereafter while he had repented publicly of his sacrilegious remark, and had more than once expressed aversion to using the word Dajjal? The answer is that since he had become the target of mubahala [prayer-duel], therefore, in keeping with the prophecies that were made fifteen months later, while Atham was still alive, and are recorded on the first page of the book Anjam-e-Atham, it was inevitable that he should die. It was clearly stated in these prophecies that Atham would die soon after his refusal to swear an oath and after concealing the testimony and after reverting to his impertinence. Since he was guilty of these offences, he died seven months after my last announcement was published. His death was also ineluctable because it was implicit in the prophecy that the liar would die before the truthful one.
[Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 18, pp. 541-545]
If any Christian still doubts Atham’s deception, then let him have his doubt removed through the Heavenly Testimony. Atham died in accordance with the prophecy, now let any person proclaim himself as his surrogate and swear that Atham was not overawed by the prophecy, and that he was in fact attacked four times, and if he who takes this oath survives for one year, I will declare publicly that my prophecy proved to be false. But this oath will have to be without any preconditions. In this manner the matter will be clearly resolved and the person who is false in the sight of God will be exposed.
If the Christians do firmly believe that this prophecy was false, then what prevents them from putting it to this test?
[Anjam-e-Atham, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 11, pp. 15-16]