The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page xxv
Introduction XXV of His continuous bounties, which I find impossible to count. My father died the same day after sunset. This was the first day on which I experienced a sign of Divine mercy through revelation concerning which I cannot imagine that it would ever cease to have effect during my lifetime. I had the words of the revelation carved on a semi- precious stone and set in a ring, which I have with me se- curely. Nearly 40 years of my life passed under the care of my father, and with his departure from this life, I began to receive Divine revelation continuously. [Kitab-ul-Bariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, Vol. 13, pp. 192-195, footnote] This was Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's first experience of Divine revelation. As he has himself observed, he was 34 or 35 years of age at that time. As time passed, this experience multiplied progressively and gained in volume and scope, comprising Divine as- surances of security, progress, support and success, and became studded with grand prophecies and Divine signs. On his father's death, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad be- came entitled to half of his father's property, but he left the management of the whole of it in the hands of his elder brother and was content with the meagre and aus- tere provision that his brother made for his maintenance. The world was not his major concern and all his interest and attention were concentrated on communion with the Divine and winning His pleasure. His father had arranged his marriage at an early age, but even the responsibilities of marriage failed to wean him away from the pursuit of that which he had made the purpose of his life. From his first wife, he had two sons, Mirzā Sultan Ahmad and Mirzā Fadal Ahmad. Under Divine direction, he married a second time, in 1884, into