Gracious Prince! (may God enable you to accept the truth and may your end be in Islam and may you be numbered among the righteous!) I have so far related certain incidents out of the miraculous life of this prophet (on whom be peace and the blessings of God!) which in themselves are a testimony of his righteousness and the truth of Islam, and have briefly indicated his teachings without acting upon which man’s soul can make no progress at all. I shall now relate some of his signs which found their fulfilment in others, and which further illustrate that he was sent by God and that Islam, to which he called men, is a living faith.
But before I relate, by way of illustration, a few out of the thousands of signs shown by him, I desire again to make it clear that he brought no new dispensation, and as the first Messiah came to fulfil the law of Moses, this second Messiah came to fulfil the law of Muhammad (on whom be peace and the blessings of God!).
He repeatedly said: “I have come to establish the truth of Islam and to convince men of its beauty, and to lead them to the fountain of its teachings and to refresh their souls with its waters. I have brought no new law or command. The Holy Quran is the final code of Divine Laws and Muhammad (on whom be peace and the blessings of God!) is His last Law-bearing Prophet. I am His messenger but without a new law; and I am a Prophet but without a book, and the sole object of my advent is to serve Islam and to propagate it and to remove from its bright face the dust that has settled there as the result of the stormy thoughts of man during the latter days.”
Thus all his signs were testimonies of the truth of Islam and all his miracles were proofs of the superiority of the Holy Quran.
Exalted Prince! it is difficult to relate all the miracles and signs of this prophet in the space even of a voluminous work, and they were of so many and diverse kinds that an enumeration of those categories alone under which they fell would occupy many pages, let alone the detailed narration of them.
He showed moral miracles, that is, he performed such miraculous moral deeds that an intelligent person can clearly see God’s hand behind them, and these alone are sufficient proof of his truth. His courage, his valour, his affection, his sympathy, his friendship, his treatment of others and his dealings were all of a nature that every one who came in touch with him felt that a righteous man alone could possess them.
His miracles also consisted in this that he was sometimes vouchsafed the knowledge of the thoughts of those who were in his company and those who witnessed this believed that this knowledge was vouchsafed to him by God.
His miracles were sometimes of an authoritative nature, that is, when he said, such and such a thing shall come to pass, it happened accordingly, and when men saw that those things actually came to pass concerning which they had no hope, they felt that this man was beloved of God and that God fulfilled his words or caused His own will to be made manifest in his words.
His miracles were also of a literary nature and he was sometimes vouchsafed knowledge beyond human intelligence, which filled even his enemies with wonder.
Again, he healed the sick with his prayers, and he purified the thoughts of men. Very often men who desired to get rid of certain kinds of thoughts approached him with requests that he should pray for them and he prayed for them and those thoughts left them.
Very often his prayers effected the release of captives or helped to remove causes of misery and trouble.
Many of his miracles consisted in this that God disclosed the truth of his claims to his enemies and opponents in visions or by means of revelation, and they either accepted him or were condemned out of their own mouths.
Many of his miracles consisted in this that whenever an enemy of his strove to humiliate him in a particular fashion, he was himself humiliated in the same fashion, and many of them died sudden deaths in a manner which could not be attributed to human agency.
Many of his prophecies consisted in the reversal of the apparent laws of nature.
Many of his miracles consisted of prophecies which were fulfilled.
Many of his miracles consisted in the protection which God afforded him and his companions under dangerous circumstances.
In short, his miracles were of diverse kinds and there are thousands of instances of each, and if each of them were recorded they would fill volumes, but a few may be related by way of illustration and as testimonies to his truth.
Honoured Prince! this is a literary age and therefore one of the literary miracles of this prophet shall be first related. Your Royal Highness has already read that he had received very elementary education and that he had neither studied at any school nor read with any learned tutor. His father had engaged ordinary teachers for him with whom he read elementary books of lessons.
But when he claimed to be a prophet, his enemies taunted him with his ignorance and said that God could never have made such a one the Mahdi and the Messiah. God then granted him a vast knowledge of, and mastery over, the Arabic language, which contains the whole of Islamic literature, and in one day he was taught the roots of forty thousand words. Now, he had never journeyed to Arabia, nor lived with the men of that country, nor had he ever before written in Arabic, nor could he have acquired proficiency in the use of that language by following the methods of learning Arabic which were current in India; and it so happened that he began to write Arabic works full of sublime thoughts in the most beautiful and elegant style, and challenged his opponents, among whom were the greatest divines of the country, to write books of equal excellence.
But none dared to accept his challenge and several of his opponents said that he had hired the services of learned men of Arabia to write these books for him and was himself an ignorant man. Thereupon he extended his challenge to the whole world to produce the like of his books in the Arabic language, and in order to demonstrate that his books were no ordinary human compositions, he also proclaimed that if the books written by them were adjudged to be superior compositions than his own, then they would be at liberty to impose upon him any penalty they pleased, and he gave them leave to write books individually or collectively and to call to their aid the divines of Arabia and Syria whose mother tongue was Arabic.
Noble Prince! the magnitude of this challenge may be judged thus. Suppose, a Russian who has never visited England, America or any other English-speaking country, nor lived in the society of English-speaking people nor studied English at any University or academy, were to write books in excellent English and were to challenge English-speaking people to produce the like of them, either individually or collectively, and none were to come forward to take up the challenge, would not this be a wonder and a marvel?
Yet this was the case with the Promised Messiah. He repeatedly challenged the divines of Arabia, Egypt, Syria and India, but none dared to take up the challenge. Some of them, instead of writing books themselves, affected to find fault with his books, but while doing so they committed such glaring blunders that they earned everlasting disgrace.
He even offered large rewards, sometimes as much as ten thousand rupees, to those who would write books in Arabic as pure and chaste as his, and appointed a very fair and easy mode of adjudging these rewards, but none came forward to claim them, although we find that people daily undertake arduous and hazardous tasks for the sake of earning rewards of much smaller value. God took away their courage and they lost the fluency of their tongues and the charm of their pens.
This miracle shall ever serve as a sign for seekers after truth and as a condemnation of his enemies. He showed many miracles of the same kind on different occasions.
His second miracle which I desire to relate by way of illustration belongs to that class of miracles whereby diseases which were regarded as incurable by medical skill were cured as the result of his prayers.
He had started a school at Quadian with the object of imparting spiritual side by side with secular instruction to the youth of the community. One of the students of this school, Abdul Karim by name, who had come from Yadgir in the territories of His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad, a distance of several thousand miles from Quadian, was bitten by a mad dog. He was sent to the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli for treatment, but on his return from that place he was attacked by hydrophobia, and his condition became alarming. A telegram was despatched to Kasauli asking for instructions, but the specialist in charge of the Institute replied, “Sorry, nothing can be done for Abdul Karim.”
The Promised Messiah was much grieved to learn this, for the boy’s mother was a widow and had sent him to Quadian from such a long distance, merely out of her love for the faith; so he prayed for him and his prayer was heard and the boy recovered and is alive to this day and goes about his business.
This is a miracle which the scientific world is compelled to acknowledge as unique, for such a cure has never before been effected since the creation of the world. Hydrophobia may certainly be averted by appropriate treatment or may be avoided even without any treatment, but after its symptoms have appeared a cure is considered absolutely impossible.
This is such a mighty miracle, that having regard to the scientific progress made by the world during recent years, it may be said that God had specially appointed it for this age in order to demonstrate His Power and Glory and to prove to the worshippers of science that He alone has all Power and that He alone gives life and sends death.
Illustrious Prince! It is a fact that God never restores the dead to life in this world, for if it had been so, nobody could have doubted His Power and Mastery. It is written of Jesus that he restored the dead to life, but if that had really been so, can any intelligent person imagine that the Jews would have continued hostile to him and the Romans not have submitted to him?
Jesus himself explained that those whom he restored to life had not been really dead, but had either appeared so to the people or their lives had been despaired of. For instance, when he went to the house of the ruler who had asked him to restore his daughter to life, he said: “Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.”1
Thus, the restoring of the dead to life means the restoring of those to life whose life is despaired of, and many such miracles were performed by the Promised Messiah, one of which relates to one of the sons of Khan Muhammad Ali Khan. The latter is an uncle of His Highness the Nawab of Maler-Kotla, but has settled down at Quadian where he has made his home. Seventeen years ago his son, Abdur Rahim Khan, had a severe attack of typhoid fever, and his condition became very critical insomuch that the physicians in attendance declared the case hopeless.
The Promised Messiah then prayed for his recovery and was told that his prayer had been heard. Khan Muhammad Ali Khan was informed of this and the boy began to show signs of improvement, and in spite of the verdict of the medical men, he still lives through the grace of God and is now prosecuting his studies in England. This is how God restores the dead to life at the hands of His prophets.
His fourth miracle relates to atmospheric changes. When he found that people were obstinate in their denial of him, he prayed that the plague be sent to the wicked and the transgressors, so that the prophecy of Jesus be fulfilled and men might fear their Maker.
This prayer was published, and in his book the“Noor- ul-Haqq” he proclaimed that God had told him that if people persisted in their denial after the darkening of the sun and the moon, they would be severely chastised. He also proclaimed that the plague would visit every town, village and hamlet of the Punjab.
These visions and revelations were widely published by means of books and pamphlets. Then the plague appeared and raged with such fury throughout the country and specially in the Punjab, that it has already carried off three million men.
This indeed is a mighty sign, for no man hath power to bring about such changes in the atmosphere as would cause pestilential germs to multiply, and to prepare a whole country to succumb to their poison. From one end of the country to the other, one witnessed the effects of this pestilence. Ruined and deserted residences bear eloquent testimony to the fact that the denial of a prophet is a thing so fatal that even a Merciful God cannot tolerate it, for if He tolerated it men would advance in wickedness and would be shut out from eternal life.
I desire to relate another instance of the same kind, for being more recent it is more noteworthy. In order to establish the truth of his messengers God sometimes brings into existence new kinds of pestilences.
About 25 years ago, the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace and blessings of God!) published a revelation which he had received from on high that diseases would multiply and that lives would be lost: and then he proclaimed that God had told him that there would spread in this country (India) a new kind of epidemic to which the people of this country were strangers and that men would ask with wonder what was going to happen and that there would appear a severe and fearful kind of plague which would spread in India as well as other countries and would strike men with terror and that this pestilence would particularly visit Europe and other Christian countries.
The last influenza epidemic was a mighty fulfilment of this prophecy. Nearly twenty million men died of it. The epidemic first appeared in Europe and then spread into other countries mostly Christian or ruled over by Christians. It cannot be said that it is not a new disease, for many of its symptoms are entirely new and it has already appeared in several novel forms.
Every attack of the epidemic begins in Europe, and even at the present moment Germany, France and England are being ravaged by it. In London alone two hundred men had died of it in the week preceding the writing of this book. And recent cables indicate that at some places more than one-third of the medical men are down with it and that tramcar and other transport services are affected by it. Even the Pope2 is laid up with it.
Nor can it be said how long this prophecy will continue to be fulfilled and how long men will continue to fall victims to this epidemic.
The sixth miracle relates to the changes in the Earth.
Jesus had foretold that the Earth would be shaken by severe earthquakes at the time of his second advent. If, therefore, earthquakes had not occurred in recent years, people would have doubted the truth of the claim of the Promised Messiah. In order, therefore, to establish the truth of his claim, God told him that a severe earthquake would destroy both permanent and temporary dwellings.
This revelation was published in the Ahmadiyya papers. Sometime after this occurred the terrible earthquake of the 4th April, 1905, which destroyed twenty thousand lives, several towns and villages. Not only were permanent dwellings destroyed but even temporary dwellings, that is, barracks and cantonments were also destroyed. Dharmsala cantonment was completely destroyed and those at Dalhousie and other places were damaged.
This earthquake originated at a place with regard to which geologists had expressed the belief that it was no longer subject to earthquakes, but neither human knowledge nor human understanding can contend against God’s power.
After this earthquake, a Japanese geologist expressed his opinion that no severe earthquake could now occur in India for the next hundred years, and on a similar assurance being given to Government as regards Dharmsala by experts, the Government started rebuilding the cantonments. God then informed the Promised Messiah that another earthquake would follow in the spring, and it so happened that a severe earthquake occurred in February, 1906. At that time the people in the area affected were living in huts, so that many lives were not lost, but the restored buildings were destroyed and considerable loss of property was caused and Government had to postpone the restoration of several public buildings.
The Promised Messiah had also foretold that numerous earthquakes would occur in countries outside India. Consequently, we find that the number of earthquakes that have occurred during the last seventeen years and the loss of life and property which they have occasioned cannot be matched by the earthquakes which have occurred during any period of three hundred years, in the previous history of the world. This sign is a testimony of the truth that He Who sent the Promised Messiah is as powerful over the interior forces of the earth as over its surface, and that His knowledge is boundless.
His seventh miracle demonstrates the truth that God controls the increase or decrease of the human race, and the following instance is an illustration of it.
An enemy of the Promised Messiah, Maulawi Saadullah of Ludhiana, made a statement that after Ahmad’s death his Movement would come to an end, as there would be nobody to continue it.
On this the Promised Messiah received a revelation that his enemy would remain childless and that his own seed would multiply. At that time Maulawi Saadullah had a son, so the prophecy meant that Maulawi Saadullah would thenceforward beget no children and that his existing son too would die childless.
So it has come to pass. Saadullah died about fifteen years after the prophecy was published and though he was then in the prime of life, he begot no children after the publication of the prophecy. His son is still alive and though he is now above forty and has married twice, he has had no issue and is thus a living proof of the power of God to control the increase and decrease of the human race.
Proofs of the increase of the race may be found in the case of Ahmad’s own children concerning whom he had been repeatedly told that they would multiply, and in the numerous cases of childless men to whom children were born as the result of his prayers.
By way of illustration, I might draw attention to his prophecy concerning the partition of Bengal. When the partition of Bengal was carried out, and the Bengalis raised an outcry but the Government turned a deaf ear to it, God spoke to the Promised Messiah, saying: “As to the order that had been issued concerning Bengal, the Bengalis will now be conciliated.”
This revelation was received on the 11th February, 1906, and was published in several papers and journals at the time. As Your Royal Highness must be aware, this was a time when the Government was convinced of the wisdom of its policy and was not prepared to modify it at all. The Bengalis had tried every possible means to get the partition cancelled, but all their efforts had been in vain, and they had now determined to annoy and obstruct the Government. The wisest political leaders of the country had declared that although Government had made a mistake, the partition of Bengal was a settled fact, and it was useless further to agitate against it. When this prophecy was published some Bengali papers went so far as to ridicule the Promised Messiah on his presumptuousness in suggesting that that which the Bengalis had despaired of accomplishing would after all come about.
But God’s ways are inscrutable. Contrary to the hopes of the Bengalis and the intentions of the Government, He told His prophet that the Bengalis would be consoled. Even after this revelation was published, this question was repeatedly brought before Parliament and Government was requested over and again to cancel its previous order, but Government steadily refused to re-consider the question and the then Secretary of State for India, Lord Crewe, who was destined subsequently to fulfil this revelation, definitely stated in Parliament that this order could not be cancelled.
But God, in order to fulfil His words, so arranged matters, that on the occasion of the accession to throne of Your Royal and Imperial Father, our Gracious Sovereign, a proposal was put forward that His Majesty’s Coronation as the Emperor of India, should take place in India. Thus He selected His Majesty to fulfil His words with his own mouth.
The concessions granted to India on the occasion of His Majesty’s Coronation included the cancellation of the partition of Bengal, and His Majesty undertook a journey of several thousand miles, and by a proclamation made at Delhi, the new capital of India, himself declared the partition of Bengal cancelled, thus proclaiming, as it were, to the world that Governments and individuals are equal in the sight of God, and that He rules over Governments as He rules over individuals, and that when He decides a matter, then however improbable or impossible His decision may appear to be, it comes to pass, and that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement (May peace and the blessings of God be upon him!) is the Messenger and prophet of God and that Islam is His revealed Faith.
This again has a political significance. When the Russo-Japanese war began, the Promised Messiah received a revelation, “An Eastern power, and the critical condition of Korea.” The words of this revelation indicated that Japan would be victorious in the war, and that its victory would be so complete that it would obtain a hold over Korea, but that the Koreans would resent this and that the country would be ruined in the anarchy and disturbance which would ensue from the struggle.
At the time when this revelation was published, the most far-sighted political thinker and the most astute statesman could not imagine that Japan would obtain so complete a victory. Some people were not even willing to admit that Japan would gain a victory at all, and imagined that Russia had not yet grasped the full significance of the struggle, and that as soon as it realised the gravity of the situation it would crush Japan by the help of its unlimited resources. At any rate, nobody dreamt that even if Japan was victorious it would be able to enforce its demands.
Subsequent events, however, clearly established the truth of this revelation. Japan was victorious and Russia was faced with such grave troubles at home, that it had to concede Japan’s demands and to acknowledge its suzerainty over Korea. But the Koreans resented this bitterly and, perceiving Japan’s persistence, rose in rebellion against it, and the anarchy which resulted from this struggle and which lasted for several years and reduced the country to a critical condition, is a clear testimony of the truth of the revelation received by the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace and blessings of God!).
This is also a prophecy relating to political matters, which was fulfilled after the death of the Promised Messiah. In 1906, he published the revelation, “The palace of the Shah of Persia shall be shaken.”
At the time when this revelation was published nobody had any idea that such a strong wave of democracy would sweep over Persia. God’s words, however, are comprehended only when on being fulfilled they manifest the Power and Might of God.
In the year 1909, signs appeared of the fulfilment of this prophecy. A sudden wave of democratic feeling spread from one end of Persia to the other; the Shah was quite bewildered; consternation reigned in his palace; he was compelled to leave his palace and to fly the country with the ladies of his harem; and a democratic form of Government was introduced into the country.
This revelation shall ever remain a testimony of the truth of the Promised Messiah not only for Persia, but for all countries.
Lastly, Noble Prince, I desire to relate to Your Royal Highness a prophecy of the Promised Messiah, which was also fulfilled after his death and the witnesses of the fulfilment of which include His Imperial Majesty King George V, Your Royal Highness, the Kaiser of Germany, the Czar of Russia, and the Government and people of almost every country. This is his prophecy relating to the late War.
In 1905 he proclaimed: “God has warned me of a mighty earthquake: it shall make the young old, cities shall be ruined, rivers of blood shall flow, mountains shall be removed, men shall go mad of shock, the whole world shall be involved and the Czar shall be reduced to a miserable and a pitiable plight.”
Again he proclaimed that he had been told by God that ‘fleets would patrol the seas, seeking encounters’, that travellers would be detained in foreign countries and it would become difficult for them to reach their homes and that the Czar would have to surrender the reins of power.
He was also told that fleets would be kept in readiness to take the sea, the earth would be turned upside down, and God would descend with His hosts to punish the world for its transgressions; that the Arabs would strive for their national progress; and that has the world had forgotten God’s name and His remembrance, so would he destroy cities and provinces and their ruins would afford pitiable sights, and that all this would occur within sixteen years.
Elsewhere he wrote that as he knew not whether he would be alive at the time of that terrible conflict, therefore he had already prayed for the victory of Britain as a return for the religious freedom which was allowed under their Government.
The word “earthquake,” occurring in the prophecy, signifies a tribulation; and in the Holy Quran itself it is used as meaning war. The Promised Messiah, when publishing this prophecy, wrote that it meant some visitation which would destroy cities and fields.
Noble Prince! the words of this prophecy are sufficiently explicit and do not stand in need of any commentary.
We have seen how this war suddenly unfurled its wings and overshadowed the greater portion of the earth’s surface; fleets patrolled the seas and kept in readiness for action, mountains were literally blown up; cities and provinces were devastated and exhibited heart-rending spectacles; the whole world was involved in the conflict; travellers were detained for years and their near and dear ones yearned for them; rivers actually ran red with blood, the young became old and the sane became mad by the shell shock and thousands lost the use of their senses; the earth’s surface was so disturbed that an outlay of billions has not been able to restore it to its original shape; hundreds of towns have disappeared as completely as the remembrance and worship of God disappeared from Europe; the Arabs have asserted their national existence and have made united efforts for its realization, and Your Royal Highness has seen how in the hour of despair God heard the prayer of the Promised Messiah and vouchsafed victory to Britain!
All this occurred within the limitation laid down by the prophecy, that is, within sixteen years of its publication, which took place in 1905.
Again, Your Royal Highness has seen how the words relating to the Czar were literally fulfilled. I have mentioned this last, as this part of the prophecy is most significant. The prophecy indicated several things in respect to this portion: first, that the Czar’s Government would not be shaken by internal revolutions before the beginning of this war; secondly, that his Government would not survive the war, as it had been foretold that he would be reduced to a miserable plight during the war; thirdly, that he would be dethroned before his death; fourthly, that he would be the last Czar, for the words of the prophecy were directed against Czar as such, and not against any particular individual or monarch; and lastly, that he would not die suddenly but would be subjected to great humiliation, disgrace and torture.
Now Your Royal Highness will observe how literally these words were fulfilled and the Czar was reduced to straits so miserable that not only friends wept for him but even enemies pitied him.
In short, this prophecy was fulfilled so clearly and in so many of its aspects that taken alone it is sufficient testimony of the truth of the Promised Messiah.
His Majesty the King-Emperor and Your Royal Highness are witnesses of the fulfilment of this prophecy by virtue of the victory which was vouchsafed to Britain, as a result of the Promised Messiah’s prayers; the Kaiser is a witness of its fulfilment by virtue of the defeat sustained by him; and the Czar has sealed its truth by the misery undergone by him.
In short, every part of the world, and every country and every Government that joined in the war and every warship and every hill on which batteries were mounted or which was bombarded, and every river on the banks of which battles were fought and every trench that was dug, and every statesman who took part in its management, and every person who was affected by it is a witness of the fulfilment of this prophecy and of the truth of the Promised Messiah, whether, he would admit it or not.
1 Mathew ix, 24.
2 Subsequent cables report his death.