Nasim-e-Da‘wat

An Invitation

Background

Sometime in the month of February 1903, some new Muslim friends, out of sympathy and goodwill, and without consulting the Promised Messiah(as), issued a poster, “Aryah Samaj Aur Qadian,” in which they very politely invited the Aryah Hindus and Sikhs to have a “Prayer Duel” with the Promised Messiah(as) or hold a religious conference to seek the truth about their religions.1 These unsuspecting Muslim friends never expected a vile provocation in response to it. On February 9, 1903, the Promised Messiah(as) had a revelation: “A war full of violent temper.” It was thought to indicate that the poster issued by the Muslim friends would evoke a violent response with vile and filthy abuses. The revelation came true when the same evening a highly vituperative poster of the Aryah Hindus reached the Promised Messiah(as). It was dated February 7, 1903. It bore the heading in Urdu “Retort to Tall Talk of the Disciples of the Qadiani Pope.” It was followed by a similar vile writing in an English newspaper of the Aryah Samaj. Another abusive poster was issued by one Tooti Ram. This was how an innocent invitation for holding a conference on the comparative truth of religions was treated by the Aryah Samaj. These posters and writings did not spare even the noble personage of the Holy Prophet(sa). And on top of it, the Aryah Samaj announced the holding of their annual gathering in Qadian on February 28, 1903. When the enemy was out with a vile, provocative and filthy language, the practice of the Promised Messiah(as) was to keep away from such contests but then the Promised Messiah(as) had a revelation. He was divinely informed that he should write a reply to this campaign of vilification. Therefore, the Promised Messiah(as) decided to write Nasim-e-Da‘wat. The Promised Messiah(as) mentioned this revelation in full on page 363-364: “In this special revelation, God addressed me and directed me to write a response to this and I am with you in this. Then I was encouraged by this glad tiding and that in writing a response to this I am not alone. So having found a power from my God, I wrote this and as God directed me, I ignored abusive language used against my (Holy) Prophet and me and I assumed a style and a language of politeness and left the result to God.”

The Book

The book was written on the basic thoughts of the Aryah Samaj that before conversion and change of a religion, one should be fully conversant with all the four Vedas and it was only in the light of the teachings of the Vedas that one should decide about conversion after comparing the Aryah Dharam with Islam. The Promised Messiah(as) tackled the objection in a methodical manner and discussed how much of knowledge was needed to effect a change in the faith. The Promised Messiah(as) maintained that for changing one’s faith, it was not necessary to go into minute details. One should keep only three principles in view:

1. What is the teaching that it furnishes about God, what does it say about the Oneness, Greatness and the Omnipotence of the Almighty and the conception about the punishment and mercy?

2. What teaching does it give in respect of the fellow-being?

3. That the religion does not project a dead, silent and mute God whose main support was old unreliable stories. Such a God cannot grant a pure life, nor can it remove lurking doubts of human beings. In this book, the Promised Messiah(as) also answered some allegations against Islam put forward by Aryas and commented on their belief in Niyog.

So, the seekers after truth, he contended, cannot find the satisfaction and solace from an image of God which cannot manifest its power. These principles, which the Promised Messiah(as) outlined for identifying a living religion, were explained in such an appealing manner that the reader had no option but to accept these basic truths as the touchstone for a living religion. These are found only in Islam, and all the rest of the religions, whether Aryah Samaj, Christianity or any other religion, are bereft of it. This book was written in one week and was ready for distribution before the annual gathering of the Aryah Samaj scheduled for February 28, 1903, in Qadian.

Specimen of Writing

The true purpose of adopting a faith is that one should acquire such certainty concerning God, Who is the fountainhead of salvation, as if one can see Him with one’s eyes. The wicked spirit of sin seeks to destroy a man and a person cannot escape the fatal poison of sin till he believes with full certainty in the Perfect and Living God and till he knows for certain that God exists, Who punishes the offender and Bestows upon a righteous one every lasting joy. It is a common experience that when one believes in the fatal effects of anything one does not have recourse to it. For instance, no one swallows poison consciously. No one deliberately stands in front of a wild tiger. No one deliberately thrusts his hand into the hole where theres is a serpent. Then why does a person commit sin deliberately? The reason is that he has not that certainty in this matter as he has in other matters of the kind that we have mentioned. The first duty of a person, therefore, is to acquire certainty with regard to the existence of God, and to adopt a religion through which this certainty can be acquired so that he should fear God and shun sin. How can such certainty be acquired? It cannot be acquired through mere stories. It cannot be acquired through mere arguments. The only way of acquiring certainty is to experience God repeatedly through converse with Him or through witnessing his extraordinary signs, or by keeping company with someone who has that experience.2