A GIFT FOR AN-NADWAH

1

God’s help comes with my every breath,
Where are the enlightened so that they might see?

Today, 2nd October, 1902, I received an announcement published by Hafiz Muhammad Yusuf, pensioner, which was addressed to me. According to him, he has long averred that certain persons who intended to mislead others by falsely claiming to be prophets or messengers sent by God, lived for 23 years or more [after making their claim]; (23 years being the duration of the Holy Prophet’s mission). He further writes that a close friend of his, Abu Ishaq Muhammad Din, has published a book, Qat‘ul-Watin, in which he has catalogued the names of such false claimants and the length of time of their 'mission' with reference to historical sources. It appears that Hafiz Sahib does not admit the validity of the Quranic verses 2 and 3 nor does he want to. Rather they are rejected in Qat‘ul-Watin and, in his and Muhammad Din’s view, the following verses are also abrogated and of scant significance:

4
5
6

All these verses, including the verse in which God says that if the Prophet(sa) had attributed lies to Him, He would have seized him and cut his jugular vein, are seemingly dismissed in Qat‘ul-Watin. Thus, according to Hafiz Sahib, the warnings God issued in them are invalid and even if some Prophets had made false claims— God forbid—they would not have been destroyed. He thus posits that there are no provisions in the governance of God against liars, creating a vacuum for all manner of deceit.7 Accordingly, had any of the Prophets spoken falsehoods about God, they would not have been held accountable for it in this life. This also carries the implication that the laws of man are superior to those of God; for they are at least framed with provisions to apprehend and punish those who produce false testimony. Consequently, as far as Hafiz Sahib is concerned, it is not a miracle that the Holy Prophet(sa) was granted a 23 year period for the completion of the revelation of the Holy Quran, that his life was safeguarded from the attacks of his opponents and that he died in accordance with the Divine Will once his life had been completed. It has been prophesied that I too will be granted approximately 80 years in order to complete my mission. But as far as he is concerned, the fulfilment of such prophecies cannot be considered a sign of a claimant’s truth. Under the dictates of his religion, no amount of Divine protection can establish the truthfulness of either the Holy Prophet(sa) or myself, because it is also possible for liars to fall within its purview. But, if this were accepted, the whole of the teaching of the Holy Quran, which declares that liars will be caught, disgraced, ruined and made to fail, would have to be considered false.

One’s intellect can readily accept the idea, as found in the earlier scriptures that a person who strives to destroy the works of God should himself perish. But, in Hafiz Sahib’s opinion, there have been many people who have falsely claimed to be Prophets and the recipients of Divine revelation and have persisted in their claim for as long as thirty years. During this time, they continuously asserted their truth and fabricated revelations until their dying breath and departed this life in a state of disbelief. God prolonged their lives and allowed their work to flourish and did not punish them. Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that they repented or publicly expressed their remorse so as to let the people know that they had returned to the fold of Islam.

Hafiz Sahib states that sufficient proof of this can be found in Qat‘ul-Watin. He also writes that he does not wish to receive the 500 rupee reward. Instead he desires that at the annual gathering of the Nadwatul-Ulema beginning on 9th October, 1902, in Amritsar, which will be attended by some of India’s most renowned scholars, I should promise to repent if the historical authenticity of the examples cited in Qat‘ul-Watin is accepted by the designated arbiters i.e. the Nadwatul-Ulema. That is, if they decide that my case is similar to that of other liars who claimed to have received Divine revelations, recorded them and spread news of them throughout the world and fabricated lies against God, and yet they were not destroyed. On the contrary, like me, they were blessed with a community of followers. If this be how they are persuaded I should repent before their gathering.

I would happily let the Nadwatul-Ulema arbitrate between Hafiz Sahib and myself if God had blessed them with the necessary foresight, if they were just, righteous and had sufficient time to thoroughly investigate our respective claims. But, since I am given to doubt regarding their [earnestness and judicial faculty], I have decided not to make the journey to Amritsar. In truth, I do not esteem any of them as righteous, (if in the future God brings a change to their character, it will be out of His grace), nor do I believe them to possess knowledge of Quranic truths, for such understanding rests on the Quranic principle 8. With this in mind, how can I accept their arbitration?

Instead, if some of their ulema were to come to Qadian, with the purpose of seeking the truth, I could communicate my message to them in person. Otherwise the work of God continues and cannot be halted by anyone. Surely there is no sense in seeking judgement from one’s adversaries.

Nevertheless, I will take the opportunity, which Hafiz Sahib’s announcement has provided me, to convey my message to the people of An-Nadwah. Hafiz Sahib should know that the less than cogent accounts found in Qat‘ul-Watin about false claimants of Prophethood, cannot be considered plausible until it is established that these liars remained vigorous and adamant in their claim and were unrepentant. This can only be proved through historical sources which show that they died in a state of falsehood, their funeral prayer was not led by a Muslim [on account of their being outside the pale of Islam], and that they were not buried in a Muslim cemetery. Furthermore, a book or record of their lies, which they considered to be the word of God, must be shown to exist somewhere so that one can inquire into whether their claims were categorical and whether they enunciated that they were Prophets in a real sense or as a reflection thereof. That is, in order to reach a proper understanding of how they perceived of their revelations, in so much as, whether they claimed that their revelations were from God every much as the revelations of past Prophets. If so, the verse 9 would also be applicable to them. It seems Hafiz Sahib is unaware of the fact that conviction and certainty are intrinsic to the injunction contained in this verse.

As I have stated numerous times before, the words I speak most certainly emanate from God, in the same way that the Holy Quran and the Torah emanated from Him. I am a Prophet of God in a Zilli and Buruzi10 sense. All Muslims are obligated to obey me in matters of religion and to accept me as the Promised Messiah. Those who have received my message but do not accept me as their arbiter or as the Promised Messiah nor believe in the Divine origins of my revelation will be accountable for this in the heavens even if they are Muslims. For they have rejected that which they should have accepted at its proper time.

Not only do I claim that if I had been a liar I would have been destroyed, but I also affirm that, like David(as), Moses(as), Jesus(as) and the Holy Prophet(sa) my claim is true and God has testified to it with over 10,000 signs. The Holy Quran too has testified in my favour as has the Holy Prophet(sa). The Prophets of the past and the Holy Quran have determined the time of my advent, which is this very age. Both the Heavens and the earth have borne witness to my truth and no Prophet has passed who has not testified for me. Ten thousand is a very conservative estimate for the signs I have just mentioned. Indeed, I swear by God, Who possesses my soul that if I were to write these signs in a tome, its pages would end but these signs would not. God says in His Holy scripture:

11

That is, 'If he is a liar, he will perish before your eyes on account of his lie. But if he is truthful, some among you will be the victims of his prophecies and will pass from this temporary existence before his eyes.'Why not test me and investigate my claim by the criterion found in the Book of God? Is it not true that the maulawis left no stone unturned in their attempts to have me destroyed? They have worn themselves out in preparing a verdict of apostasy against me and have used so many invectives against me in their announcements that the profanity of their language has surpassed even that of the Shiites. Not only did they bring me before the courts time and time again, I was even [falsely] accused of murder. Those who were drawn towards me were subjected to such persecution that apart from the instances of torture endured by the companions of the Holy Prophet(sa), there is no other example of the abuse and cruelty they have had to suffer. Some of my followers who belonged to foreign lands were martyred in their native countries. Who can deny that vigorous efforts have been made to crush me and prevent people from coming to me? Many of these very maulawis have been guilty of any number of shameful acts. They provided false information about me to the government in order to incite it against me. But what was the result of all this? Only my continued success. When my opponents rose to denounce me as a liar and an infidel and prophesied that they would soon destroy me, I did not have a large following. At the time, I had with me just a few people who could be counted on the fingers of a hand. Indeed, when Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah was being published, I was all alone. Who can show that I had even one follower? It was then that God blessed me with over fifty revelations in which I was told that despite my solitary state, the day beckoned when a whole world of followers would join me and I would attain such glory that kings would seek blessings from my garments for I was blessed. Holy is God, He does what He wills. [I was told] that He would spread my community throughout the world, that He would bless them, increase them and honour them in the earth for as long as they remained true to His covenant. Just think that I was alone when these prophecies that I have translated above were first published in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah. It was then that God taught me the prayer 12. That is, 'My Lord! Do not leave me alone and You are the Best of Inheritors.' This Divinely revealed supplication is also recorded in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah which thus became a witness to my anonymity at the time. But today, despite the best efforts of my opponents, over a hundred thousand people from all over have joined my Jama‘at. Is it not then a miracle that all manner of deceit was employed in order to oppose and defeat me and conspiracies were hatched by the maulawis and their ilk, but they failed in their designs? If this is not a miracle then let the pompously adorned maulawis of the Nadwah please tell us what constitutes a miracle.

If I cannot perform miracles, I am a liar. If the death of the Son of Mary cannot be substantiated by the Holy Quran, I am a liar. If the Hadith of the Mi‘raj13 does not show the Son of Mary residing among the souls of the dead, I am a liar. If the Holy Quran has not made it abundantly clear in Sura An-Nur that the successors of this umma will come from within the umma itself, I am a liar. If the Holy Quran has not referred to me as the Son of Mary, I am a liar.

Mortal souls! Is it not a miracle that, despite the best efforts of my opponents, the prophecies recorded in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah some twenty-two years ago have been fulfilled? No one can prove that even one person was with me at the time. But today, if all my followers were to come together and settle in one place, I am sure that that town would be larger than Amritsar.

What is more, this prophecy would not have been fulfilled as magnificently as it has been if I had not been so fiercely opposed by the maulawis. Not only have I been exonerated in the light of the verse 14 but my truth has also been established by the fulfilment of the prophecies published in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, twenty-two years ago, and by the manner in which thousands of blessed and capable persons have joined me since. Let us now turn to the second part of the afore-mentioned verse which says:

15

These words have been fulfilled in a brilliant manner. God spoke to me and said i.e., 'Whosoever insults you will not die before he sees his own humiliation.' One should ask these maulawis whether, by the Will of God, they have not been humiliated on account of their hostility towards me. Who among those who have hurled insults at me can say that the Quranic prophecy 16 has not been fulfilled in my favour? By using the word [some] the Holy Quran has demonstrated that the example of a few is enough to establish the truth of prophetic warnings. In this particular case there is no shortage of examples. Is it not disgrace enough for my opponents that Ghulam Dastagir met his end soon after cursing me in his book Fathi-Rahmani (p.27) and asking God to curse the one out of the two of us who was a liar.17

Muhammad Hasan Bhiń wrote 18 with reference to me in his book, but met his end before he ever had the chance to complete it. Pir Mehr ‘Ali Shah invoked the same curse on me. Soon after, he was accused of plagiarism for he stole the work of Muhammad Hasan after his death, and falsely passed it off as his own.19 He lied and named the book Saif-e-Chishtia’i.

Moreover, Muhammad Hasan’s critique of my book I‘jazul-Masih was also flawed. He had yet to revise the text when he died. But Mehr ‘Ali, who has no grasp of Arabic, blindly accepted his arguments as literal truths. How calamitous for him that his grand larceny was discovered. Despite professing to be the successor of a saint he told a deliberate lie and passed off as his own a book which contained mistakes so flagrant they verged on being offensive. Is the punishment of hell more furious than this shame and embarrassment?20

To extract my repentance, it will not suffice for Hafiz Sahib to produce a past tract authored by a false claimant who categorically enunciates that the revelations recorded in it are as certain and categorical as the verses of the Holy Quran, just as I claim with regard to my revelations. Hafiz Sahib will also have to show that the author of the work died before seeing the error of his ways, was not buried in a Muslim cemetery and was not punished by the Almighty. Here I must state that Hafiz Sahib will not under any circumstances be able to furnish these proofs. How can a false claimant of Prophethood be likened to me? I have been supported by numerous miracles. Know that if Hafiz Sahib were to endeavour to show that false claimants of the past published their revelations for a period of 23 years and swore in the name of God that their revelations were authentic and of Divine origin, in the same manner as I have done, he would most certainly be thwarted in his quest. Even if, until his dying breath, he spends his life in this search and commissions another Abu Ishaq Muhammad Din to write a thousand Qat‘ul-Watins, he will still be frustrated. As I have repeatedly said in my previous books, if I am a liar then let the curse of God befall me. How pitiful that I am compared to such liars. I have irrefutable evidence of my truth in the form of thousands of miracles which have been manifested and witnessed by thousands. The Holy Quran too is my witness. Then, have I no right to demand some sort of proof from Hafiz Sahib regarding these false claimants? In whose favour was the Hadith of Dar-e-Qutni regarding the eclipses fulfilled? For whom did the plague strike in accordance with [the prophecy found in] authentic Traditions? For whom did the comet appear? For whom was the sign of Lekhram and many others manifested? If the Nadwatul-Ulema wish to live commensurately with the grandiose name they have chosen for themselves and long for the truth, whether Hafiz Sahib himself desires it or not, they should at the very least ask him under oath to prove that the period of revelation of past false claimants of prophethood lasted for the same time as the complete revelation of the Holy Quran, i.e., 23 years. He should also be directed to show that those claimants swore that they were prophets and that their revelation was as indubitable as the verses of the Holy Quran. Moreover, he should provide evidence of whether or not such people were considered apostates by the ulema of the time. If not, then, why not? Were the ulema so iniquitous and corrupt that they showed such negligence in matters of religion? He should also be asked to produce evidence of where these false claimants were buried, i.e., whether they were buried in Muslim or non-Muslim cemeteries and whether they were executed under Muslim rule21 or lived a life of peace and tranquillity. After demanding these proofs from Hafiz Sahib, a select few ulema of An-Nadwah should come to Qadian to conduct an inquiry and to demand from me proofs of my miracles and the evidence found in the verses of the Holy Quran and the Hadith in support of my truth. If the evidence I present does not accord with the traditions and practices of the Prophets of the past, I will agree to have all my books burned. But the fact is that only men of God can go to such lengths [in their quest for the truth]. Why would the ulema of Nadwah inconvenience themselves in this way? Why should they fear God when they hold no anxieties regarding the afterlife?

The ulema of Nadwah, each and every one of them, should bear in mind that they will not dwell in this world forever. Death beckons them all. God watches from the heavens as they amuse themselves in the frivolities they call Islam, but He knows that this is not Islam. They delight in superficialities and are completely ignorant of the sublime profoundness [of faith]. This is not a service to Islam, rather a disservice. If they had eyes, they would see that a great sin has been committed in the world, for the Messiah sent by God has been rejected. Every last person will be made aware of this after they have passed away. And yet Hafiz Sahib would frighten me by suggesting that if I do not go to Amritsar the whole world will consider my claim false. Hafiz Sahib! Are the affairs of this world governed by you or by God? You already call me a liar; what more will you impute? What do I care for you or your world? God has power over every soul. Unfortunate Hafiz! What do you know of the support God extends to me? Even if those who are jealous of me struggle to within an inch of their lives, they cannot halt my progress. My success is from God and is a fulfilment of His promises. It is not within the control of any human being. God has filled the towns and cities of India and the Punjab with members of my community. In the space of a few short years, over 100,000 people have pledged their allegiance to me. Do you still not realise whom the Heavens support?

In my estimation, close to ten thousand people have joined me just by virtue of [the sign] of the plague, and I believe that in a few years hence the earth will be filled with my followers. Hafiz Sahib! Was it not you who once told me that Maulawi ‘Abdullah Sahib Ghaznawi used to say that a [Spiritual] light had descended on Qadian but his children had failed to see? How unfortunate that you have saddened the resting soul of ‘Abdullah Sahib. Must you have gone against his wishes? And is Muhammad Ya‘qub not your brother? Would it not have been prudent to confer with him? For almost ten years he has exclaimed that Maulawi ‘Abdullah Sahib Ghaznawi told him that a light had appeared in Qadian and that that light was Ghulam Ahmad. He has informed me that he stands by his testimony and I possess letters from him to this effect. You call yourself a Hafiz and yet you place no trust in God Who is the true Hafiz [Protector]. Out of fear of your people, you resort to lies and falsehood. At times I think about the visions and revelations ‘Abdullah Sahib received and how they have long since been buried with him. Even you, who are his eminent successor, attach no value to them. 22

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian
4th October, 1902