Ayyamus-Sulah

The Age of Peace

Background

The Promised Messiah(as) was divinely forewarned and therefore in his leaflet issued on February 6, 1898, he indicated that he had seen a vision in which he saw an ugly and dreadful disease being planted throughout the Punjab which would also threaten other vast areas of India. Therefore, the Promised Messiah(as) decided to hold a meeting of his followers on May 2, 1898, in Qadian. About a thousand people attended the meeting at which the Promised Messiah(as) threw light on the dreadful nature of the disease. The Promised Messiah(as) also gave the reason why he named the book Ayyamus-Sulah. He said in the time of the Promised Messiah, all religious wars will end and the Promised Messiah will be the harbinger of Peace. Promised Messiah further stated that the message contained in this book is divine and should be taken seriously.

The Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore (June 10, 1898), published a note about the meeting in the course of which it said: “The gist of the address was to the effect that the Government was moved solely by dictates of humanity in its measures for the suppression of the disease that those measures are necessary, and that the stories that the Government desires to poison the people, are both lies and foolish, and should not be believed for a moment by anybody with pretensions of being sensible, and to come out of the house into the open for segregation with the face properly veiled is no violation of the principles of Islam, specially in time of imminent danger, such as a visitation at the hand of God.”1

A detailed report of the meeting was published by the editor of al-Hakam, Qadian, in September, 1898. It was entitled al-Indhar. The attitude of the Promised Messiah(as) towards the plague was so reasonable that no sane person could possibly find fault with it, but corruption and wickedness vitiate human reason and cause moral and spiritual blindness. The objection which the Daily Paisa Akhbar raised in this connection was really a symptom of the real disease from which unbelieving people generally suffer. If the plague was a visitation from God, all precautionary measures and medicines could be of no avail, and if the cause of the pestilence lay in the physical world, moral and spiritual reform, then the prayer could remove it. So the Promised Messiah(as) thought it fit to clarify this apparent contradiction by writing a book entitled Ayyamus-Sulah.

In this book, the Promised Messiah(as) undertook to describe a fine link between Prayer and Planning (tadbir). It is proven by the laws of nature that there is a close link between Prayer and tadbir … The Promised Messiah(as) says:

It is through the prayer that one should seek the path of tadbir. Therefore, the Prayer and tadbir are two facets of the human endeavour and intellect. It is therefore necessary that man should seek the path of tadbir through prayer.2

Further, the Promised Messiah(as) devoted several pages in writing a fine commentary of on the wisdom of the first chapter, Surah al-Fatihah of the Holy Quran. By dwelling on each word of this chapter, the Promised Messiah(as) said this is a key to successful prayer, stressing the fact the very name of the chapter signifies.

The Promised Messiah(as) explained the significance and the use of prayer, because when the objection mentioned above is carefully examined, it only amounts to a doubt as to the efficacy of prayer. He pointed out that prayer was ingrained in the nature of man. His natural anxiety at the time of trouble and distress was to suggest only a kind of prayer in its crudest form. There was no contradiction between prayer and the adoption of necessary means to an end. A prayer is ordinarily a request addressed to God to enable man to find out the right means to an end. It is really a search for the right way.

Again, it is an effort to make the right use of the necessary means. The result, too, is in the hands of God. Islam does not teach, he says, that the universe is governed by an impersonal law or a mechanical force not controlled by the Supreme Being. God is not only the Creator of the Universe, but He is also the One Who controls and superintends all its affairs. The God of Islam is a Living and Merciful God, He answers prayer and listens unto those who knock at His door. The Promised Messiah(as) also explained the meaning of faith and how it is increased by prayer and the prophecies made by the prophets of God. Then he dealt with the prophecy of the second advent of the Messiah and how it had been fulfilled in his person. He says: “The book has been given the title of Ayyamus-Sulah because it is at his hand and through heavenly means men will be gradually reconciled among themselves and also with God. Thus peace will grow and be established throughout the world. “Come, he says, and enter peace. He who accepts the One Who has sent me, come ye, O men, purify yourselves. The plague is born out of uncleanness. Cleanse yourselves physically, morally, socially and spiritually and thus become reconciled with man and God in the right earnest.”3

The plague appeared first in Bombay in 1896, but during the first three months of 1897, it spread fast in the presidency of Bombay covering Poona, Karachi, Cutch. The total death in Bombay presidency alone amounted to 49,103.

It is noteworthy that the Promised Messiah(as), while engaged in writing Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, spoke of the visitation of plague; it was published in 1884.4

Specimen of Writing

… I saw in a dream that God’s angels were planting black trees in different parts of the Punjab. Those trees were very ugly, black in colour, terrifying and of small size. I asked some of those who were planting them: What kind of trees are these? They answered: These are trees of the plague which is about to spread in the country. It remained unclear to me whether it was said that the plague would spread during the coming winter or the winter after, but it was a terrible sight which I saw.5