On the morning of 11 April 1900, the day of ‘Idul-Adha [the Festival of Sacrifices], I received a revelation:
Deliver an address in Arabic today, you have been bestowed the capacity.
And this revelation was also received:
[This discourse has been made eloquent by the Noble Lord.]
Meaning that, God has bestowed eloquence upon this discourse. Accordingly, this revelation was communicated right away to my dear, the Late Maulawi ‘Abdul-Karim, my dear Maulawi Hakim Nur Din, Sheikh Rahmatullah, Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, Maulawi Muhammad ‘Ali M.A., Master ‘Abdur-Rahman, Master Sher ‘Ali B.A., Hafiz ‘Abdul ‘Ali, and many other friends.
Then, I stood up after ‘Id Prayer to deliver the ‘Id sermon in the Arabic language. And God Almighty knows that a power was given to me from the unseen and such an eloquent address in Arabic was proceeding forth from my mouth extemporaneously that was quite beyond my capability. I cannot imagine that, except through special divine revelation, anyone in the world can deliver extempore, without writing it down on a piece of paper, a speech that comprises many sections, with this degree of eloquence and clarity.
When this Arabic address, which has been named Khutbah Ilhamiyyah [‘The Revealed Sermon’], was delivered to the people, an audience of perhaps two hundred was present at the time. Holy is Allah! It seemed as if a fountain had begun to flow from the unseen, and I knew not whether I was the one who was speaking or it was an angel addressing through my tongue, because I was aware that I had no part in this address. Preformed sentences kept proceeding from my mouth and every sentence was a Sign for me. All of these sentences have been preserved in published form under the name of Khutbah Ilhamiyyah. One will appreciate, by reading this booklet, whether it is in the capacity of any human being to stand up and, entirely extemporarily, deliver such a long speech in the Arabic language without thinking or contemplating. This is a literary miracle that God showed, and no one can present its like.