The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page xxvii
Introduction xxvii By the time he had arrived at forty years of age, his mind was possessed by a strong urge to undertake the champi- onship of Islām vis-à-vis all other faiths, and he finally announced that he had resolved to set forth the truth of Islām and the utter beneficence of its teachings in an ep- och-making book which he designated Brāhīn-e- Ahmadiyya. In the preface of the book he announced that if anyone, professing a faith other than Islām, would set forth a convincing refutation of the proofs and arguments expounded in the Brāhīn-e-Ahmadiyya and would fur- nish in support of his own faith even one-fifth of the proofs he had adduced in support of Islām, he would be rewarded with 10,000 rupees, at which figure Mirzā Ghulam Ahmad valued his entire property at the time. This challenge has not been seriously taken up for more than a century. While he was still occupied with the compilation of Brāhīn-e-Ahmadiyya, of which only four parts had yet been published, he received the revelation that God had commissioned him as the Reformer of the fourteenth century of the Hijra, and had entrusted the revival of Is- lām to him. In pursuance of this commission, he laid the foundation of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on 23 March 1889. Soon thereafter, it was revealed to him that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi (the Divinely Guided Leader) whose advent in the latter days had been prophesied by the Holy Prophet of Islam [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him]. The publication of the very first volume of Brāhīn-e- Ahmadiyya was acclaimed by the Muslims as an out- standing and matchless performance, and leading Muslim divines, newspapers, and journals acclaimed the publica-