Tadhkirah — Page xi
F OREWORD TO THE F IRST E NGLISH E DITION XI his claim must be accepted as true. The principle deduced from these verses is that God will not permit one who falsely claims to be a recipient of divine revelation to flourish at all and such a claimant would not survive for a period equal to that of the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. It is a well known fact fully publicised that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad maintained his claim of being a recipient of divine revelation for more than 30 years right till the time of his death. The whole life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was exemplary in every sense and there can be no doubt that since his early childhood he was being prepared to be a vehicle of the divine will. We read in the Quran concerning Moses: I surrounded thee with My love, so that thou mightest be reared under My care. . . We proved thee in various ways. . . then thou camest up to the standard, Moses, and I chose thee for Myself. (20:40-42) As with Moses so with every Prophet. The grant of revelation is a pure bounty of God. It is not the choice of a recipient however righteous and exalted he might be. There is a widespread notion in the west that revelation is an upsurge of the mind of a righteous human being. The Quran rejects that notion. For instance, it says of the Holy Prophet: He does not speak out of his own desire; the Quran is pure revelation sent down to him. (53:4-5). At another place it is said: His are the most exalted attributes. He is the Lord of the throne. He causes His Word to descend on whomsoever of His servants He pleases that He may warn people of the Day of Meeting. (40:16) In its wider connotation revelation might comprise dreams, visions and verbal revelation. The distinction between dreams and visions for this purpose is that a vision