160. [One Hundred Sixtieth] Sign

At this moment I am holding a letter from Maulawi ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din of Lakhukay, written with his own pen which has just been handed over to me by my friend, the learned, the distinguished Maulawi Hakim Nur Din and I consider it a Sign from my God Almighty. Therefore, I reproduce below the copy of the actual letter signed by the above-mentioned Maulawi. Later, I will show how it is a Sign for me. The letter is as follows:1

Letter of ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din

[In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. We praise God and invoke His blessings.]

After this, ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din submits to all Muslims that this humble one prayed thus: ‘O the All-Knowing! Apprise me of the status of Mirza’. During sleep, I received this revelation Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts were mistaken. Surely, it is your enemy who is without issue’].2 In reply Mirza Sahib said that this revelation was subject to interpretation and that it did not contain his name and, [with] great emphasis claimed that I shall never be vouchsafed a revelation mentioning him by name.

Both the revelations mentioned above were received in the month of Safar. When Mirza’s answer came, thereafter, in the month of Safar, I received the revelation during the sleep i.e. Mirza Sahib [is] the Pharaoh. Allah be praised for this, now Mirza’s claim is falsified too and Mirza Sahib reached his aim. When I had received the first revelation, as soon as I woke up, the interpretation crossed my mind that the Pharaoh is Mirza Sahib and Haman is Nur Din. It was a duty on my part, in the interest of all the Muslims, to inform them about it:

O Brother, you too now gird up your loins to speak the truth; For, hypocrites are an evil visitation and mislead the people.

The servant,
‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din of Lakhukay
Signed in his own hand on 21 Rabi‘ul-Awwal 1312 Hijrah

This is the letter of Maulawi ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din and was returned, after it was copied, to my Honourable Maulawi Hakim Nur Din. He will keep it safe; and whoever wishes may see it.

In this ‘revelation’ he has designated me, in his opinion, as ‘Pharaoh’ as he himself has explained in this letter. It is surprising, though, that God should have addressed me so respectfully that instead of calling me ‘Mirza’, He has addressed me as ‘Mirza Sahib’. Perhaps they should learn etiquettes from God Almighty. The second wonder is that, despite my request that my name should appear in the revelation, God was too shy to mention my name and the overpowering effect of the shame prevented Him from uttering my name. Am I named Mirza Sahib! Is there no one else in the world called Mirza Sahib?

And the third surprise is that according to the ‘revelation’, I am supposed to be the Pharaoh and Muhy-ud-Din becomes a surrogate of Musa. As such, I should have died during the lifetime of ‘Musa’, not that ‘Musa’ himself should have died [in the lifetime of ‘Pharaoh’]. Muhy-ud-Din was continuing to pray against me and he had witnessed a number of ‘revelations’ concerning my death. How is it that all those ‘revelations’ reverted to him instead, and it was he who died instead of me! Is it not strange that he who was declared by him to be the Pharaoh is still alive and is the one speaking—nay rather, he progresses by the day—but the one who considered himself to be the like of Musa, had passed away from this world many years ago and he cannot be found anywhere in the world? What kind of Musa was he who departed this world while Pharaoh was living! Furthermore, another revelation of Muhy-ud-Din was meaning that, your maligner shall be destroyed and he shall remain issueless and shall die issueless. This revelation, in his opinion, indicated my perdition and destruction and death as issueless.3

Thus, Allah be praised that I am still alive. Miyań Muhy-ud-Din died some ten years ago and, after this ‘revelation’ of his, three more sons were born to me. If after this revelation, Muhy-ud-Din too was blessed with any son who is still alive, I pledge that I shall pay one hundred rupees in cash to his wife; otherwise, it is obvious that this revelation of his fits his own self. I have heard from a reliable source that after this revelation no son was born to him. On the other hand, an adult son [of his] passed away. Only one son is still alive. In short, this revelation, which was in the manner of a mubahalah, recoiled on his very self and its meanings as revealed by the events are just that the first to die is indeed the Pharaoh, and the one who is the surrogate of Musa is the subject of the other revelation, namely which means that, during his very lifetime, his enemy would die issueless, would remain bereft of all bounties and blessings, and would be totally uprooted.

Had Maulawi ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din not published both of these revelations, and had it not been his intent—as is clear from the very beginning of his letter—to humiliate me before the eyes of the entire nation of Islam and to make me be perceived as a ‘Pharaoh’ and, subsequent to my death, make people persist in cursing me eternally as an impostor and liar, God Almighty would not have caused him to die so soon; but by publicly announcing his revelation, he beguiled the entire world through means of this revelation to perceive that I am an infidel, a hypocrite, and accursed; that I should die in his lifetime along with all of my sons; that all of my affairs should be obstructed; and that he should be established as a man of God and a man of miracles. It is obvious that God Almighty does not tolerate such disgrace with regard to someone who is truly faithful and does not desire that a pure movement be ruined, because, in that case, He Himself would be the enemy of His movement. So God Almighty was pleased with the decision that He destroyed and ruined him [Muhy-ud-Din] instead, and no son was born to him after this prayer; on the contrary, one of the sons, which he already had, also died.

Thousands of people know that I have already published this revelation from God Almighty that:

[I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.]

Therefore, is there any ambiguity in the fact that Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din did not leave any stone unturned to humiliate me? He declared me to be Pharaoh, he made the prophecy about my extermination, and forecast the death of my progeny that all shall die. Thus, had I died prior to him, there is no doubt that all his friends would have considered my death to be his miracle. Had my children also died, two miracles of his would have been celebrated. But God Almighty blessed me with three more sons after this revelation of his. Moreover, He exposed the humiliation of Muhy-ud-Din by killing him in my lifetime in keeping with His promise:

[I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.]

That is not all. After his revelation He granted me three more sons, but He kept his wife issueless and, thus, showed thereby the proof of my honour to the world.

Who can be more jealous for His faithful servants than God Almighty? He demonstrated His jealousy for me. Alas! ‘Abdur- Rahman Muhy-ud-Din—despite his claim to being a maulawi and a recipient of revelation—did not fear God in the least and completely failed to heed the warning:

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Thereupon, he was seized by the promise of God Almighty:

[I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.]

Therefore, it is a great Sign for me that the man who presented a revelation for my destruction, perished and died himself. As ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din belonged to a family of scholars and held sway over thousands—on top of which he also claimed to be a lineal descendant of saints and the recipient of revelation—and he was quite renowned and popular in those regions, God did not desire that people should suffer ruin on account of his words. This is the secret why God, after his revelation in accordance with which he awaited my death and destruction, caused him to die instead, and showered hundreds of blessings upon me; and even cut off the line of his descendants after the revelation —yet blessed me with three more sons after his revelation.

What happened to his revelation ? Had his revelation been fulfilled and had he survived and I died instead, and had he been blessed with children and I been left issueless, who can doubt that hundreds of thousands would have celebrated him as a miracle worker? Already his was a family of ancestral saints; therefore, by such a miracle, Lakhukay Wala [resident of village of hundreds of thousands] would have become true to its name and hundreds of thousands [of miracle seekers] would have swarmed to Lakhukay Wala. That is why God, in a single instant, made him—as the Punjabi proverb goes—‘From hundreds of thousands to zero.’ Even the performance of Hajj [the Pilgrimage] did not benefit him and he died in transit from Makkah to Madinah, for the Khanah Ka‘bah cannot save the unjust.

This is the practice of God Almighty in relation to me that He eventually seizes the one who overzealously pursues his intention to humiliate me or, manifests a Sign for me in some other way in opposition to him. He invariably does at least one of these two things, or manifests His Sign of authority in both respects. Therefore, since ‘Abdur-Rahman Muhy-ud-Din issued a public circular to disgrace me before all the Muslims in the Punjab and asserted that I was an impostor, a liar, an infidel, a non-believer, a Pharaoh; and not only this, he also appended the revelation that God would ruin and kill me, and my children, too, would die, and none of them would survive. On account of his transgression, he became worthy of suffering disgrace in accordance with the divine revelation:

[I shall humiliate him who designs to humiliate you.]

So what could be a greater disgrace than his dying in my very lifetime? If, in accordance with his revelation, I was the ‘Pharaoh’, it would be expected that I should die in his lifetime; not otherwise. Moreover, his revelation had this stipulation that I would remain issueless. God was pleased to grant me three more sons after his death. This, too, bode his humiliation because it transpired contrary to his revelation.

I have written that whenever anyone intends to humiliate me, God Almighty sometimes shows my Sign in some other form too. This is illustrated by the incident that, when Atham died after the stipulated period, ignorant people raised a hue and cry that he did not die within the appointed time—despite the fact that he had fulfilled the condition laid down in the revelation because he had retracted in the presence of some sixty to seventy witnesses from calling the Holy Prophet(sa) the Dajjal [Antichrist]. Still those whose nature was not pure did not refrain from raising objections. Thereupon God Almighty showed the Sign of the assassination of Lekh Ram for my help and support.

Similarly, when my first son passed away, ignorant maulawis and their associates, as well as Christians and Hindus, expressed much jubilation. They were repeatedly reminded that the announcement of 20 February 1886 contained this prophecy that some sons [of mine] would also die. It was, therefore, necessary that some son should have died young. Even then, those people did not desist from raising objections. Thereupon, God Almighty gave me the tidings of another son. Thus, page seven of my Sabz Ishtihar [Green Announcement] has this revelation about the birth of that other son: ‘The second Bashir shall be granted who is also named Mahmud. He has not been born until now which is the first of September 1888, but he shall, most certainly, be born within its stipulated time period in keeping with the promise of God Almighty. Heaven and earth can move, but it is not possible for His promises to be held off.’ This is the wording on page seven of the Sabz Ishtihar, in accordance with which a son was born in January 1889, who was named Mahmud and who, by the grace of the Exalted, is still alive and is in his seventeenth year.