The Light of Truth — Page xiii
FOREWORD Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, on whom be peace, published Part I of Nūrul-Haqq (The Light of Truth) in February 1894 as an Arabic language rejoinder and challenge to Padre 'Imad-ud-Din Lāhiz (1817-1900) and his associates. ‘Imād-ud-Din, an Indian Muslim convert to Christianity, employed intensely vulgar and abusive language against Islam and the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. He claimed mastery of Arabic-but in reality possessed none—and argued that the Holy Quran was neither eloquent nor even correct Arabic. In response, the Promised Messiahas took up the pen to compose, with special help from Allah, a forceful reply in masterful classical Arabic prose, including several eloquent Qaşā'id, or odes. Addressing 'Imad-ud-Din, Hadrat Ahmadas writes: If you regard yourself as an important person and fancy yourself a distinguished scholar, then behold, I have risen to test the spark of your torch and the sharpness of your sword. (p. 253) He boldly challenged Padre 'Imād-ud-Din and all Christians to pro- duce the likes of Nūrul-Haqq, even offering a then-enormous sum of 5,000 rupees as a reward if they did but none came forward. Hudūras employed a diverse palette of rhetorical devices, techniques, and embellishments in this book—a few of which are as-saj (rhythmic prose), at-takrār (repetition for effect), al-iltifat (grammatical shift),