Tadhkirah — Page 923
1906 923 [Arabic] ‘Ilmud-Darm a n 223 The Promised Messiah [as] said: ‘Ilm is an Arabic word and Darm a n is Persian. What follows is the number 223. I do not know what this might mean. [Badr, vol. 2, no. 42, October 18, 1906, p. 3 and al- H akam, vol. 10, no. 36, October 17, 1906, p. 1] October 16, 1906 I saw (a vision) that someone’s death was near, though I was not informed specifically whose death was meant. I supplicated in the course of my vision and received the revelation: received in 1906, but the Promised Messiah as passed away in 1908. That makes it one year and 223 days. Bear in mind that there are two reasons for it. One, that there is another revelation which followed closely: [The Arrows of death do not miss], which also proves that the revelation containing 223 is about death. Then another revelation was received: ** (See Review of Religions , November 20, 1906, page 2) meaning that your death was destined in 1907 but We have increased your appointed life and thus the calculation started after one year. The second reason is that the date appointed for his death was May 26. If he had died in 1907, some of his opponents would have raised the clamour that he died within the period given in their prophecies. Moreover, in that case his death would have been on the 27 th. Therefore it was necessary that he should pass away in a leap year (which would have 29 days in February) so that he would pass away exactly after 223 days on May 26. Thus his death would definitely be in 1908 which is a leap year, not in 1907 which has 28 days in February and the 223 days are completed not on 26 May, but on 27 May. [Tash- hi dh-ul-Adh-h a n, vol. 3, no. 6–7 June–July 1908, p. 216] ** Note by Maul ana Abdul Latif Bahawalpuri: In Tash- hi dh-ul Adh- h a n , volume 2, number 5, May 10, 1907, on page 23, is written Imm a instead of Inn a due to scribe’s error.