92. Ninety-Second Sign

Is the mubahalah—the prayer duel— which was held eleven years ago with ‘Abdul-Haqq Ghaznavi at Amritsar. This, too, is a Sign from Allah the Exalted. ‘Abdul-Haqq had insisted a great deal on holding the mubahalah, whereas I was reluctant to hold the mubahalah with him because the late Maulawi ‘Abdullah Ghaznavi, under whom he claimed to have studied, was a pious person in my estimation. Had he lived long enough to witness my era, I believe that he would have accepted, and not rejected, me and my claim. But that pious gentleman passed away before my claim. He cannot be held accountable for any flaw in his belief as there is no penalty for an error of interpretation. Accountability begins after the claim has been made and its truth incontrovertibly established. But there is no doubt that he was righteous and truthful, that he was pre-eminently devoted [to God] and detached [from this world], and that he was among the righteous servants of God.

After he had passed away I once saw him in a dream during which I told him: ‘I have seen in a dream that I am holding a sword whose handle is in my hand and its point is into the skies. I am wielding the sword from right to left and with each of its stroke, thousands of opponents die.’ I enquired about its interpretation. At this, he said: ‘This is the sword of incontrovertible proof which shall reach out from the earth to the skies and no one will be able to stop it; when you saw the sword being brandished now on the right and now on the left, it signified that you will be vouchsafed both kinds of arguments; namely, rational and documentary as well as those of the fresh Signs from God Almighty. Thus in both ways, truth shall be incontrovertibly established in the world and finally the opponents shall be silenced by these arguments as if they were dead.’ He [Maulawi ‘Abdullah Ghaznavi] further said: ‘When I was in the world, I hoped that such a person would be born.’ These are the words he actually uttered [‘And the curse of Allah be upon the liars.’]

When he was alive, I met him once at Khairdi and then at Amritsar. I said to him: ‘You are a recipient of revelation. I have a wish, please pray for its fulfilment, but I will not disclose what the wish is.’ He replied [‘It is good to keep it secret. By God’s grace, I shall pray; but revelation is not by choice.’] What I wished was that Allah may help the Faith of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be blessings and peace, which was declining by the day. After this I returned to Qadian. A few days later I received his letter in the mail which read as follows:

[This humble one prayed for you and received the ilqa’—a flash across the mind—‘Do You grant us succour against a people who deny.’ It is very rare that my humble self has such prompt response. To my mind, it is because of your sincerity.]

[Letter of ‘Abdullah Ghaznavi]

In short, after great insistence on the part of ‘Abdul-Haqq, I wrote to him that I did not want to have a mubahalah [prayer duel] with any Muslim who recited the Kalimah [the declaration of faith in Islam]. He wrote back, ‘Since we have issued the edict of disbelief against you, we are therefore disbelievers in your eyes, so what is the harm in holding the mubahalah? In short, at his insistence, I came to Amritsar for the mubahalah. Since I had sincere love for Maulawi ‘Abdullah of blessed memory and I considered him a harbinger to this spiritual station of mine, quite like Yahya [ John] who appeared before ‘Isa—I therefore did not wish to invoke a curse against ‘Abdul-Haqq. Rather, in my view he was pitiable, for he did not realize who he was maligning. He thought he was showing his indignation for the sake of Islam and was unaware of what the will of God was in support of Islam.

Anyway, he said what he liked during the mubahalah. As for me, the sole object of my prayer was my own self. I only pleaded in the court of God that if I am a liar, I should be destroyed quite like liars; but if I am truthful, then, may God grant help and succour to me. Eleven years have passed since this mubahalah was held. The help and succour that God accorded me during this period is simply impossible for me to describe in this small treatise. It is no secret to anyone that at the time of the mubahalah, I only had a few followers who could be counted on fingers, but more than 300,000 persons have now entered into the covenant of bai‘at with me. Financial circumstances were so straitened that even twenty rupees were not received per month and I had to borrow. But now, the monthly income from all branches of the Community amounts to about 3,000 rupees.

After this (i.e. the mubahalah) God manifested mighty Signs. Whoever opposed, perished in the end. As would be evident from a glance at these Signs—some of which have been listed here by way of illustration—God helped me in a variety of ways. Thousands of similar Signs of Allah’s succour have already appeared, of which only a few have been mentioned here as an illustration. These Signs should suffice to testify to my truthfulness to anyone who has a sense of modesty and fairness.

Regarding the objection that Atham did not die within the stipulated time frame and that the Christians were so abusive and insolent [towards me] please consider: Don’t the Christians abuse the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and ridicule him; have they not written hundreds of thousands of books denigrating the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him; and have they not mocked him to the extreme? But did the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, become suspect by such mischief from these wretched people or was he disgraced by it? Allah the Exalted says:

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Meaning that, no Messenger has ever come who was not ridiculed by the ignorant. What needs to be considered is whether they were justified in their ridicule, or was it sheer devilish mischief and wickedness on their part? It is an established fact that Atham remained alive for a few days in accordance with the prophecy and then, in accordance with the prophecy, he died within fifteen months. The delay in his death was due to his retraction. It is common knowledge that Atham, in the presence of some seventy witnesses, retracted from his statement of using the word Dajjal [for the Holy Prophet(sa)]. Therefore, God delayed his death by a few months, but after a few days He caused him to depart this world because the second prophecy also stipulated that, even though it was delayed, still Atham would die within fifteen months. Thence, eleven years have elapsed since he died, but I am still alive. Did Atham not retract from his statement of using the word Dajjal [for the Holy Prophet(sa)] in the presence of some seventy persons? Therefore, was it not necessary that he should have been granted some respite?

I am utterly astounded as to why people deny such a clear and precise prophecy? In the end, one cannot help saying that those with flawed thinking cannot understand what is plain and simple. They call themselves Muslims, yet support the Christians and are not afraid of the warning [‘The curse of Allah be upon the liars’]. No one can succeed through falsehood and slander. Humiliation and disgrace is the fate of the liar, and truth does triumph in the end.

My books written after the mubahalah contain the detailed account of all the revelations of support and succour from Allah that I received after holding the mubahalah with ‘Abdul-Haqq, and of the majesty and glory with which they were fulfilled. Let anyone check it if he so desires. I need not repeatedly recount them. I only briefly state that, as soon as I returned home after the mubahalah, I began to receive revelations about Allah’s support and succour, and God gave me glad tidings repeatedly2, and, addressing me, He promised that He would bless me with great honour in this world, transform me into a large community, manifest great Signs for my sake, and open the door to all blessings for me. So, in accordance with these prophecies, many hundreds of thousands joined my Jama‘at who are eager to sacrifice their lives in this path. Since then more than 200,000 rupees have been received, and so many gifts poured in from all sides that if they were collected together, they would occupy quite a few buildings. And the opponents filed suits against me and tried to destroy me, but they, one and all, had to bite the dust. The end result in each litigation was honour for me and failure for them. After the mubahalah, three sons were also born to me and God blessed me with such fame and honour in this very world that thousands of respectable people joined my Jama‘at.

Remember for a certainty that everyone who knew my circumstances before the mubahalah—that is, what the level of my honour was, what the size of my Jama‘at was, what the magnitude of my income was, what the number of my children was, and what growth was experienced after it—will have to acknowledge, no matter how bitterly opposed they are to me, that after the mubahalah God testified to my truthfulness by bestowing blessings after blessings upon me.

Let ‘Abdul-Haqq be asked now what blessings, if any, he received after the mubahalah? The truth is that this miracle is so unmistakably manifest that even a blind person might well see it. Pitiable indeed is the condition of those who see at night but become blind during the day. Since the day of the mubahalah, bounties have continued to be showered upon me. As God Almighty had addressed me thus:

Look! I shall send for you from the sky and shall produce for you from the earth.

So has He treated me. He bestowed upon me such bounties and showed such Signs that I cannot count. And He gave me such honour that hundreds of thousands are submitting to me with the utmost humility.