Malfuzat - Volume IX — Page xlvii
Foreword The Malf uza t are a compilation of discourses, letters, and narrations of the Promised Messiah as , Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. They offer a unique insight into the interactions between the Promised Messiah as and his eager audiences—great and small—and how his Divinely inspired wisdom and intellect quenched the souls of a world thirsting for guidance. These enchanting experiences compelled eye- witnesses to record them to seize those special moments for future generations, hoping they might somewhat behold the magnetic aura radiating from the long-awaited Imam of the Age. This present edition of Malf uza t is the complete English transla- tion of the Urdu Volume 9, covering the interval from 5 November 1906 through 23 October 1907. During this period the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continued its growth amidst witnessing many a great Sign, not the least of which was the 18 April 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, California, claiming over 3,000 lives and leaving 225,000 homeless as over 75% of the city was destroyed. Another deadly earthquake followed killing 1,000 in Kingston, Jamaica on January 1, 1907. Meanwhile, the plague continued to rage in India, claiming over 991,000 lives in the short five months from 1 January 1907 through 31 May 1907 (per the 8 July 1907 UK Parliament meeting records). British officials were puzzled why the Punjab sustained the highest death rate despite having the greatest inoculations. Complementing these earthly Signs, the celestial Signs continued to appear with the comet sightings in August 1907, following the sequence of Halley’s Comet in 1835 (the year of the Promised Messiah’s birth), the shooting stars (meteor show- ers) preceding the Promised Messiah’s claim, and the solar and lunar eclipses that occurred after his claim in 1894 and 1895. Another great Sign that unfolded before the global audience was the death of Reverend John Alexander Dowie on 7 March 1907 in the United States of America. In response to his anti-Islamic rhetoric