Dafi‘ul-Bala’ Wa Mi‘yaro Ahlil-Istifa’

Defence Against the Plague and a Criterion for the Elect of God

Background

The Promised Messiah(as) wrote this book on April 1902, at a time when Punjab was in grip of severe plague. He mentioned many of his revelations that he had about plague. The Promised Messiah(as) writes:

It is my sign that any opponent of mine, whether he lives in Amroh, or in Amrtitsar, Delhi or Calcutta, Lahore, Golra or Batala, if he swears that his own place will remain safe from plaque, then this very place would be hit by plague, as he had been rude to God.1

The plague broke out in the Punjab in its full fury in 1902. How intensely the plague had entrenched itself in the Punjab , the Promised Messiah(as) gave a pen-picture of the calamity in his letter to Seth ‘Abdur Rahman that he wrote on April 3, 1902. The plague was taking a heavy toll. About 20,000 people were dying of plague every week. All areas outside the radius of two miles around Qadian were contaminated with this calamitous disease. Qadian stood like a boat in the whole region.

The Book

It was against this background that the Promised Messiah(as) undertook to write this famous book, Dafi‘ul-Bala’ Wa Mi‘yaro Ahlil-Istifa’. In the book, the Promised Messiah(as) recalled the revelations that he had received about its spread at a time when the disease first broke out in Bombay. The Promised Messiah(as) was frank and candid. He declared that it was a Divine punishment. The plague had broken out because the people condemned and abused the Messiah sent by God as a reformer. The Messiah’s opponents had left no stone unturned in harassing him and went to the extent of conspiring to murder him. It has been foretold in the old scriptures that at the time of advent of the Messiah, a plague would break out. The only effective defence against the plague was to accept the Promised Messiah with a pure and honest heart and bring a change in their lives. The Promised Messiah(as) declared with a conviction of a prophet that this plague however long it might linger on, even for 70 years, Qadian would remain safe from the vagaries of its ravages. The Promised Messiah(as) issued a daring challenge to the heads of all faiths, stating with a majesty that comes only to a Divine reformer that Qadian would stand out as a place untouched by plague, he invited the leaders of all faiths to a similar assertion. The Promised Messiah(as) writes:

Let the followers of the Vedas pray to their Parmeshwar to seek a similar protection for Benaras—the birth place of the teachings of the Vedas. Let the followers of Sanatan Dharam seek protection for their city where cows are in great number. Let the Christians make a prophecy about Calcutta that plague would not contaminate it because the Bishop of India lives in Calcutta and let Shams-ud-Din and the members of the Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam make a prophecy about Lahore that it would remain safe from the plague and let Munshi Ilahi Bakhsh, who claims to be a recipient of revelations, make a revelation, and what could be a better opportunity to help the Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam that Lahore would remain safe from plague. Let ‘Abdul Jabbar and Khaliq make a prophecy about Amritsar and let Muhammad Nadhir Hussain and Maulavi Muhammad Hussain Batalvi make a prophecy about Delhi, as it is the seat of Wahhabia faction, that Delhi would stand out as a place protected against plague.”2

The Promised Messiah(as) then concluded this challenge with great force:

Every one of my opponents whether he lives in Amroha in Amritsar or Delhi or Calcutta, Lahore or Golrah or Batala, if he makes an assertion with an oath that his place would remain protected against plague, then let him know that that place would certainly be hit by plague, for he would be the one who had affronted God.3

Specimen of Writing

We know that the message that we intend to convey at this time to our brethren through this brochure will not be accepted. And we are sure, specially, keeping in view the age old tradition of how the prophets are ignored, and we know very well that no one would value and appreciate our sympathetic approach, and instead we would be target of abuses of Muslim clerics, Padrees of Christian religion, and Pundits of Hindu religion.

And we know we would be dubbed with various derogatory titles. And we know, and we can guarantee that it would happen. But we have placed the goodness of the mankind above all these considerations.

Knowing full well that we would be tormented with insults and cheekiness. Notwithstanding, it is possible that out of thousands of people who would abuse me, there may be someone who would read this brochure with all the seriousness, and does not get annoyed with his kind counselor, specially at a time when sky is unleashing a fire.4