17. [Seventeenth] Sign

The revelation received by Maulawi Sahibzadah ‘Abdul-Latif, the martyr, that this person [meaning me] is in the right, and he is also the Promised Messiah. And, along with it, there were many successive dreams which bestowed such steadfastness upon him that he ultimately gave up his life in the land of Kabul, on the orders of the Amir of Kabul, to attest to my truth. The Amir remonstrated with him a number of times that he would be honoured even more if only he were to forego his bai‘at [pledge of allegiance] to me. But he replied, ‘I cannot put my life above my faith.’

In the end, he sacrificed his life in this path, saying, ‘I prefer to give up my life for Allah’s pleasure.’ He was then stoned to death, and he displayed such steadfastness that not even a single sigh escaped from his lips. For forty days his corpse lay in the stones. After this, one of his disciples, by the name of Ahmad Nur, buried his dead body. It has been reported that his grave still smells of musk. A strand of his hair was brought here and it still smells of musk. It is displayed in a glass frame in a corner of my Baitud-Du‘a’ [A small chamber in the house of the Promised Messiah(as) where he used to pray].

It is obvious that had this enterprise been a mere fraud perpetrated by an impostor, why would the blessed martyr receive revelations about my truthfulness while he was living such a long distance away, and why would he see repeated dreams while he was even unaware of my name? Only God informed him concerning me that the Promised Messiah had appeared in the Punjab. It was then that he began to investigate the news coming from the Punjab, and when he learnt that, indeed, a person in Qadian, District Gurdaspur, Punjab, does claim to be the Promised Messiah, he hastened towards me, leaving everything behind, and stayed here for about two months.

Upon his return, he was arrested on the report of wicked informers. After his arrest, when he was told to meet his wife and children, he replied, ‘I need not meet them anymore. I entrust them to God.’ When the verdict was delivered that he would be stoned to death, he said, ‘I shall not remain dead for more than forty days.’ This was a reference to what is written in the Scriptures that a believer is brought to life a few days, or at the most forty days, after his death and is raised to Heaven.

This is the same controversy that continues to persist between me and my opponents regarding the rafa‘ [ascension] of Hadrat ‘Isa, peace be upon him. In keeping with the Book of God, I believe in his spiritual ascension, whereas they believe in physical ascension, in contravention of the Book of God and in defiance of the God’s injunction:

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And they say that I am the Dajjal [Antichrist] because it is written that as many as thirty dajjals will appear. They fail to realize that if thirty dajjals were to come, then, according to this measure, there should have come thirty Messiahs as well—one for every dajjal. What a travesty that thirty dajjals did appear, but there has not been a single Messiah. How unfortunate is this ummah that it only has dajjals in its lot and it is yet to see the face of a true Messiah, whereas hundreds of Prophets appeared among the Israelite dispensation.

In short, is it righteousness to criticize a Movement in which God raised people as truthful as ‘Abdul-Latif, the martyr, who were bestowed with revelation from God, who sacrificed their lives in this path, and who testified to my truth on the basis of the revelation received from God? How can a pious and righteous scholar show such loving fervour for an impostor?

No one dies or lays down his life for anyone else.
It is love [alone] that compels a person to perform this task with the utmost sincerity.

It is love that makes one sit in the raging fire.
It is love that makes one wallow in the dust of humiliation.

I do not believe that a heart could be purified without love.
It is love that hastens to rescue [us] from this [mundane] snare.

Sahibzadah Maulawi ‘Abdul-Latif the martyr, testified to the truth with his own blood [as is said] [‘Steadfastness has a higher status than a miracle’], but the practice of most of the ulema of today is that they are wont to alter their edicts for a paltry couple of rupees. They speak not out of the fear of God, but under the upsurge of their ego. On the contrary, ‘Abdul-Latif, the blessed martyr, was such a veracious and righteous man of God that he cared neither for his wife, nor children, nor his own dear life in the path of God. Such indeed are the true divines whose words and deeds are worthy of emulation and who proved true to their commitment in the path of God until the very end.

Do not seek to know the path to that Incomparable
One from the slaves of the self; Seek the rider wherever dust clouds appear.

One who feels restless because of that Beloved,
Let him go seek His company and find peace.

At the threshold of the one who lost himself for the sake of the Beloved,
Be like dust and seek in it the pleasure of the Beloved.

The enterprising ones reach out to Him after tasting great ardour and spite;
Go and court this ardour, and seek within it the conquest of the citadel.

The right way is not to be seated on the throne of arrogance;
Consume the lower self and seek the Beloved by doing so.