May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.
My dear, who loves me and is sincere to me, I received your affectionate letter. As I read it, I perceived it to be written by one who is true, righteous, learned, intelligent, perceptive and bestowed by the All-Seeing Lord to me who has been preyed on as a disbeliever and rejected by all.
So, I thanked Allah for making you a source of solace for me. He has revealed that I will be loved by the virtuous. I have written a book for the honoured peoples of Arabia and Syria so that they may come to my aid. Your letter arrived during these blessed days [that is, as I wrote this work]. Thus I assumed you to be the first of the blossoming fruit and an omen of the coming reformation of the East and the West. In my heart I longed for God to take me to your land so that mine eyes might look upon you.
My brother! The ulema of my country call me a disbeliever, reject me and impute all manner of foul things. Time and again I have expressed my revulsion for them and their self-professed knowledge. I am among those who doubt their faith. I perceive their hearts to be like those Jews who succumbed to ill thoughts and showed impertinence before the Lord Who is worthy of worship. They persist in calling me a liar and have made every effort to hurt and offend me. Their discourses and addresses denounce one who is believer in the unity of God as a heretic and they are not ashamed of their impetuousness. Do they not understand that the time has come for the revival of the faith and the advent of the reformer who is to defeat Satan? Do they not see the spread of darkness, the cloud of uncertainty that obscures the path of rightness, the enemies of Islam besieging the religion and light having given way to darkness?
A people have arisen who worship the cross and take as their Lord a mere mortal. All are led astray by them and they possess nothing but lies, deception and material wealth. The blind are drawn towards them and people upon people are ensnared by their falsehood. It is possible that many Muslims may be destroyed at the hands of these deceivers.
Allah found this people [the Muslims] succumbed to weakness, so He sent one from among His servants to revive the faith and bring them victory.
My brother! A long night has settled over Islam and the right path lies untraveled. When Allah looked on the darkness of this evil and the mischief, disbelief and transgression of this age, He found the people standing on the brink of fire. So He gave to them a light from Himself to save them from this deception and to show them His signs and lead them to the right path.
I have related to you the weight of my woes so that you too may grieve over the plight of Islam, for I perceive that you are a righteous young gentleman, sincere and devoted. The love imbued in your words has gladdened the heart of one who has been rejected and reviled by his people.
May Allah reward you in turn, and have mercy on you, for He is most Merciful.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
1 In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. We praise Allah and invoke His blessings upon His noble Messenger(sa). [Publishers]