It was also a Sign of God Almighty that after 1882 He prevented the publication of the final part of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya for twenty-three years for the fulfilment of His Word that He might make Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya as a Sign; for, it contained a number of prophecies that were yet to be fulfilled, and there were such promises about me as had not yet been realized. It was necessary that the fulfilment of all those Signs and those promises be shown in that very book so that the book Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya would become worthy of its name. Had Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya been completed before the fulfilment of those prophecies, it would have been an imperfect book. This is why God, whose works are all based on wisdom and appropriateness, was pleased to will that the printing and publication of the remaining portion of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya be postponed until the prophecies recorded in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya were fulfilled; because that book, as its name Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya suggests, has been written so that it would make manifest the proofs that Islam possesses, and the foremost among its convincing arguments are heavenly Signs which have nothing to do with the human power. Therefore it was essential that as many heavenly Signs be recorded in it as would suffice to clinch the argument vis-à-vis the enemy. As it was promised to document three hundred heavenly Signs in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, God was pleased to will the fulfilment of those words. The opponents, out of ignorance, continued to clamour and falsely accuse me to have stopped the publication of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya forever to misappropriate people’s money; however, what I have described is the very wisdom for the delay in the publication of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya. I am certain that no reasonable person would deny this, but only those will who are bereft of faith and honesty.
Allah the Almighty says in the Holy Quran:
Meaning that, the disbelievers ask why the Holy Quran did not descend all at once. It had to be this way so that We would comfort your heart from time to time, and so that those truths and verities which are connected to time should be manifested only at their own time, because it becomes difficult to understand something before its due time.
Due to this wisdom, God revealed the Holy Quran over a period of twenty-three years so that during that period the promised Signs would also become manifest. Therefore, I believe that before twenty-three years are completed for the delay in the book Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, its fifth volume will be published in the country; and God Almighty has alluded to twenty-three years in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya as well, for God says:
O Ahmad (this is the figurative name of this humble one)! God has infused you with blessing. The Gracious God has taught you the Holy Quran; meaning that, you are not indebted to any of your contemporaries. God is your Teacher. God has taught you the Holy Quran so that you may warn those whose forefathers were not warned and so that God’s argument be completed and the way of the sinners becomes manifest. Proclaim to them that I have been appointed by God and I am the foremost to believe in this matter.
And because the teaching of the Holy Quran to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was completed in a twenty-three year period before this, it was therefore necessary in order to establish a resemblance, that now the period for teaching the Holy Quran should also have been fixed at twenty-three so that all the Signs that were promised could be fulfilled. Rumi also speaks of this:
The composition of this Mathnavi has been delayed; Time is needed for the blood to turn into milk.
1 And the wrongdoers will soon know to what place of return they shall return (Surah ash-Shu‘ara’, 26:228). [Publisher]
2 Surah al-Furqan, 25:33 [Publisher]
