Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page xxxv
Foreword The Malf uza t are a compilation of discourses, letters, and narrations of the Promised Messiah, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, on whom be peace. 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 experi- ences compelled eyewitnesses to record them in an attempt to seize those special moments for future generations, in the hopes that they might somewhat behold that 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 7, covering the period from October 1904 through September 1905. It was a period of Divine Signs—death, devastation, and destruction—all around. The Punjab was rocked by a massive earthquake in Kangra on 4 April 1905, killing over 20,000 people and destroying an estimated 100,000 buildings. Meanwhile, the plague continued to rage throughout British India with 100,000s suc- cumbing to it every year. It would eventually claim an estimated 10 to 12 million lives in India alone. The mighty empires of Japan and Russia clashed with each other during the Russo-Japanese War, claiming the lives of well over 130,000 people. Global tensions were on the rise as colonial powers competed with one another for material gains. Nevertheless, the Promised Messiah as continued to provide guid- ance to a Muslim Ummah suffering from centuries of internal conflict, chaos, and confusion. He introduced the concept of the Jihad of the Pen and clarified that his war was a war against ignorance and hypoc- risy. He continued to dispel the myth of Jesus’ alleged ascension to the heavens with his earthly body, proving through the Holy Quran,