97. Ninety-Seventh Sign

This is a prophecy, namely:

[The leading ones will be driven to their graves.]

It was printed and published in the newspapers Al-Hakam and Al-Badr. Its understanding provided by God Almighty was that the chief maulawis of the Punjab, who are considered to have the authority to issue edicts and are the teachers and guides of the junior maulawis, will head for their graves after this revelation.

Following this, the doyen of all the clerics, Maulawi Nadhir Husain of Delhi bade farewell to this world. He was the first among those who issued the edict of kufr [disbelief ] against me. He was Maulawi Muhammad Husain Batalavi’s teacher and, upon the latter’s request for an edict, had written these sentences concerning me that such a person was misguided, misleading, and outside the pale of Islam and that such people should not be buried in Muslim graveyards. This maulawi had set the entire Punjab ablaze with these edicts [against me]. People were frightened to such an extent that they were loath to even shake hands with me lest even this much contact might make them disbelievers. Then Maulawi Ghulam Dastagir of Qasur was the renowned person who, with a view to proving my ‘disbelief ’, had procured edicts to this effect from Holy Makkah. He, too, died after declaring his unilateral mubahalah. What a pity that the Makkans were not apprised of his death, or they would have withdrawn their edicts. Similarly, Mufti Maulawi Muhammad, Maulawi ‘Abdullah and Maulawi ‘Abdul-‘Aziz—all belonging to Ludhiana—who by way of mubahalah had repeatedly invoked [‘The curse of Allah be upon the liars’], died after this revelation. Then there was Mufti Maulawi Rusul Baba of Amritsar who also passed away. Likewise, many a maulawi belonging to the Punjab and some belonging to [other parts of ] India departed from this world. If their names were listed here in all, it would occupy a whole volume. What has been recorded here should suffice to establish the truth of the prophecy. If anyone is not satisfied with this, I can provide a long list.