The Heavenly Decree is the first English rendering of Asmani Faislah (Urdu) written by the Promised Messiah and Mahdi(as) in 1891. In this book the Promised Messiah(as) primarily addressed Miyan Nadhir Husain of Dehli and Maulawi Muhammad Husain of Batala, who were the two foremost, the bitterest and the most vituperative of all of his opponents. In fact, it was Miyan Nadhir Husain who first issued the fatwa of kufr (unbelief) or heresy against the Promised Messiah(as), which opened the floodgates of the same fatwa given by numerous other Ulema. The grounds on which the fatwa was based were that the Promised Messiah(as) had claimed that according to the Holy Quran and Authentic Ahadith Hazrat Masih ibni Maryam(as), after he was saved from the Cross, died a natural death, and was not living somewhere in heaven and would return to the world in latter days—as believed by the Muslim and Christian clergy and laity—and that the prophecy of his Second Coming would be fulfilled by a person who would be like Masih ibni Maryam(as) in his nature, but would be born in the Ummah of the Holy Prophet(sa). Miyan Nadhir Husain refused to enter into a debate with the Promised Messiah(as) on these issues on the lame excuse that as the Promised Messiah(as) was not a Muslim, there was no point in having a debate with him on this, or for that matter, on any other issue. Consequently, the Promised Messiah(as) invited, in this book, Miyan Nadhir Husain, Muhammad Husain Batalawi and others of the same belief to a spiritual contest in which the question whether someone is, or is not, a true believer in the sight of Allah would be settled by Allah Himself on the basis of the four criteria of a true believer as laid down by Him in the Holy Quran; the Promised Messiah(as) also spelled out in detail the modus operandi of this contest and also fixed the period and time frame within which this contest would be decided by Allah. He stated that if he lost the contest he will "declare publicly in that very meeting that I am not from Allah and that all my claims are false. But I am certain—and I can see— that my God will never let this come to pass, and He will never allow me to perish." But he knew that his opponents would not take up this challenge—and so it happened. The book also covers other related topics of great interest.
Muhammad ‘Ali Chaudhry
Wakilut Tasnif,
Rabwah.
Friday, 19 May 2006