[And peace be upon him who follows the guidance.]
This announcement is being published to advertise the Sign of Almighty God, which, like other Signs, will fulfil a prophecy. In other words, this too is a Sign about which it was promised that it will surely be shown by the end of December 1902. The announcement that accompanied it regarding a cash prize of 10,000 rupees was to serve as a testament to the fact that I have so emphatically, and by spending a large sum of money, informed my opponents about the truthfulness of my claim. Maulawi Sanaullah of Amritsar had stated loudly at Mudh that he would not call my book, I‘jazul-Masih, a miracle, and that he too had the ability to write a book like it. In fact, if my opponents had the capability to come out and confront me and write a similar book within the stipulated period of time, how could my book have come to be considered a miracle? In that case, I am rather clearly proved to be a liar. However, a few days after my companions, namely Maulawi Syed Muhammad Sarwar Sahib and Maulawi Abdullah Sahib, arrived in Qadian on 2 November 1902, it occurred to me that if I would ask my opponents to produce the like of I‘jazul-Masih, they might say—as they always look for excuses—that in their estimation the book was not prepared in seventy days’ time, as Maulawi Abu Sa‘id Muhammad Husain had said about my speech at Mahotso, that it had been written prior to the convention and was written after much thought over a long period of time. So, I thought that this time too if they say that the book I‘jazul-Masih has not been written in seventy days, rather in seventy months, then in the eyes of the general public the matter will become dubious. Over the next few days I remained quite anxious about what I should do. Eventually, on the evening of 6 November 1902, God put into my heart the notion that I should compose a qasidah [an Arabic ode] regarding the debate at Mudh, for the time of the composition of the qasidah is definitely clear and categorical, as no one can deny the fact that a debate was held at Mudh on 29th and 30th October, that on 2nd November my companions arrived back in Qadian, and that on the 7th of November 1902, I visited the court of Munshi Nasir-ud-Din, the judge at the court in Batala, to give my testimony in a case. I had probably composed a verse or two on my way to Batala, but I started composing the qasidah with full attention only on 8 November 1902 and finished the Arabic verses and the Urdu treatise in five days. Therefore, no doubt or suspicion was left regarding the time-frame in which the qasidah was composed, for the qasidah and the associated Urdu treatise speak of the details of the debate that was held on 29th and 30th October at Mudh.
Hence, if the qasidah and the related Urdu treatise had not been prepared within this short span of time, and were prepared before it, then I should be acknowledged as a knower of the unseen, who spoke about all these incidents in advance.
In short, this constitutes a grand Sign and an easy method to decide the matter. What also has to be remembered, as I have just mentioned, is that the entire period of time mentioned above was not spent on the composition of the qasidah alone; rather, a part of the time was also spent on the Urdu treatise attached to this qasidah. Hence, the two together constitute a Sign from Almighty God. To compete with me in this and to acquire the cash prize worth 10,000 rupees, the necessary condition would be that the person who pens [a qasidah] in response to the one written by me should pen the refutation of the Urdu treatise as well, so as to disprove my arguments. In addition, the words of such an essay should not be less than the words of my treatise. And, if one fails to fulfil one of the two conditions, he will be considered to have failed to fulfil both. I do not want to impose on my opponents the hardship that I myself have not undergone. Evidently, the Urdu part, too, deals with the same debate and responds to the allegations made by Maulawi Sanaullah.
Under these circumstances, who can allege that the Urdu essay had been written in advance? It is, therefore, my right to demand from the people who consider these writings of mine to be imposture on the part of man, and thus deny their miraculousness, that they too should come up with a parallel to those writings in as extraordinarily small an amount of time as has been spent on the composition of the Urdu essay and the qasidah by me. I hereby swear by Almighty God that if they manage to write, in as little time as I have spent on the composition of the Urdu essay and the qasidah, an essay in Urdu that answers all my objections and leaves none of them unanswered; and, if, in the same way, they manage to write a qasidah, which is comprised of the same number of verses and recapitulates the same incidents, in refined and eloquent language and which is printed within the same amount of time, I will pay to them 10,000 rupees in cash. This is a solemn, bona fide declaration which will not be violated at all. They can pursue it even through a court of law. Now, if Maulawi Sanaullah and other opponents of mine turn away from this arrangement and persist in calling me a disbeliever and an antichrist, it will not behove them to show such temerity in the face of being vanquished and defeated; for in that case, the general public will consider them to be liars. I even allow them to join hands with each other and collectively pen an answer to the Urdu essay and the qasidah, shedding light on the events that have taken place. I will have no objection to this. And, if they manage to publish the qasidah and their response to the essay related to the qasidah, within the stipulated time, I will surely be proved a liar. What they must do, however, is that they should also give the Urdu translation of each verse under every couplet—just as I have concerning my qasidah. They should consider it a condition among other conditions. This competition will settle the dispute once and for all and, God willing, on 16 November 1902, I will dispatch this book, I‘jaz-e-Ahmadi, to Maulawi Sanaullah through Maulawi Syed Muhammad Sarwar. Moreover, the book will also be sent on the same date, through registered post, to all those who have been addressed in the qasidah. What is more, I have also agreed to give all my opponents a grace period of fifteen days to write and publish their response to the above-mentioned qasidah and the essay. For no matter how much they argue, if my qasidah reaches them by 18 or 19 November, they will have to accept that, starting from the first of November to the middle of the month, the total number of days would be fifteen. I have, however, out of mercy for their condition, and in order to clinch my argument against them, given five more days to them, and the days spent on the delivery of the post are not included in this period. Therefore, to quell the confusion, we presume that the post will take three days to reach them—that is, from 17–19 November 1902. They will surely have received the qasidah by these dates. So, the stipulated period of time for them will begin on 20 November and thus end on 10 December 1902. Now, if, within the twenty days’ time, which will expire in the evening of 10 December 1902, they will have published their response to the qasidah and the related Urdu essay, you may rest assured that I am absolutely ruined and destroyed and all my enterprise is rendered null and void. With an outcome like this, my entire community should abandon me and cut their ties with me.
Still, if my opponents intentionally stay away from this competition, they will not only deprive themselves of the cash prize worth 10,000 rupees, they will also continue to partake of the ten curses invoked against them. Out of the 10,000 rupees, Sanaullah will receive 5,000, while the remaining 5,000 will be distributed 1,000 per head, provided they emerge victorious.
[And peace be upon him who follows the guidance.]
Humbly,
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian