Favours of the Gracious God — Page ix
FOREWORD Favours of the Gracious God is the English translation of Minanur- Rahmān. This was written by Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the Promised Messiah, peace be upon him, as a scholarly treatise in support of the monogenesis of language, such genesis as having originated from God Almighty Himself in the form of the Arabic language. It is a remarkable piece of literature which stands unique in the study of language. Written in Urdu and Arabic, the Promised Messiahas had intended for it to be published in 1895, but due to certain occurrences its publication was delayed. It was, in the end, posthumously published in 1915 during the initial years of the Caliphate of Hadrat Khalifatul-Masih IIta, though it became more commonly available for the public in 1922. Thus we have mentioned the date of publication as 1922. ra The entire book rests on the claim that Arabic is the Mother of all Languages-a phrase coined by the Promised Messiahas which laid the foundation for further supporting research into the origin of language. Moreover, it also advances the argument that Arabic is a language that issued forth from the tongue of God Himself and was not invented by man. For example, the Promised Messiahas uses Arabic root words to prove similarity with other languages, moreover, he dedicates many pages to exploring the innate qualities of Arabic words which carry the reasons to their own naming conventions as well as other philosophical truths. What is incredible is that one such word با ]Abun] - meaning father is used to argue how the meaning of this word, in all languages, becomes ix