The Heavenly Decree — Page vii
V11 FOREWORD The Heavenly Decree is the first English rendering of Asmānī Faislah (Urdu) written by the Promised Messiah and Mahdias in 1891. In this book the Promised Messiah as primarily addressed Miyāń Nadhir Husain of Dehli and Maulawi Muhammad Husain of Batala, who were the two foremost, the bitterest and the most vituperative of all of his opponents. In fact, it was Miyāń Nadhīr Husain who first issued the fatwa of kufr (unbelief) or heresy against the Promised Messiahas, which opened the floodgates of the same fatwa given by numerous other Ulema. The grounds on which the fatwa was based were that the Promised Messiahas had claimed that according to the Holy Quran and Authentic Ahādīth Hadrat Masih ibni Maryamas, after he was saved from the Cross, died a natural death, and was not living somewhere in heaven and would return to the world in latter days-as believed by the Muslim and Christian clergy and laity-and that the prophecy of his Second Coming would be fulfilled by a person who would be like Masīh ibni Maryamas in his nature, but would be born in the Ummah of the Holy Prophetsa. Miyāń Nadhir Husain refused to enter into a debate with the Promised Messiahas on these issues on the lame excuse that as the Promised Messiahas was not a Muslim, there was no point in having a debate with him on this, or for that matter, on any other issue. Consequently, the Promised Messiahas invited, in this