A Gift for An-Nadwah — Page vi
Introduction vi Messiah as started publishing and widely circulating the rev- elations he received from God. He presented them as proof of his claim, arguing that if he had been an impostor, false- ly attributing hundreds of revelations to God, the Almighty would not have given him such a lengthy reprieve in keep- ing with the warning mentioned in the Holy Quran. In- stead, God Almighty had blessed him with countless signs of His support and brought disgrace upon his opponents. It was against this backdrop that Ha fi z Muhammad Y u suf published a public announcement contending that there was nothing unique in this claim, for there had been many liars and impostors in the past who had lived many years after making their false claims and died a natural death. In response to this announcement, the Promised Messiah as addressed the ulema of An-Nadwah through a short but incisive treatise entitled A Gift for An-Nadwah which was published on 6th October 1902. He forcefully rejected Muhammad Y u suf’s contention and argued that it contra- vened the clear purport of the Holy Quran. Not only that, but if Muhammad Y u suf’s thesis were to be accepted there would be no means by which to distinguish false claimants from true ones. The book opens with an Arabic preface entitled At-Tabligh in which the Promised Messiah as invites the ulema of An- Nadwah to the judgment of the Holy Quran and presents before them his claim of being the Promised Messiah and Mahdi as. In order to distinguish the preface from the main