The Plague

The Plague

The prophecy of the plague is also a prophecy of Ahmad^as which was brought many Muslims and non Muslims to the true teachings of Islam and into the Jamaat of Ahmadiyyat. This prophecy will also be explained in the words of Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad^ra who states:

” I have related prophecies of the Promised Messiah about Afghanistan and her neighbour Iran. I have also described four prophecies which may be said to have completed Islam’s argument against three important Indian communities, the Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. I now proceed to narrate a prophecy which completed the argument against all communities of India and eventually against the whole world. This prophecy has proved that God has power over the minutest causes. If He will He can turn them into the service of his Messenger. Many prophecies of Hazrat Mirza Sahib have been fulfilled already. Many await fulfilment. As an example of such prophecies I present an account of his prophecy regarding the onset of plague. There is an added point of interest in the prophecy, namely that this pestilence is mentioned in the prophecies of the Holy Prophet who foretold that this deadly disease would appear in the time of the Promised Messiah. When according to a prophecy of the Holy Prophet, a lunar eclipse occurred on the 13th of Ramadhan and a solar eclipse on the 28th of the same month. Hazrat Mirza Sahib was informed that if people did not heed this important Sign and did not accept him, they would meet with divine punishment on a considerable scale. Hazrat Mirza Sahib wrote:

‘The lunar and the solar eclipses were two grave warnings from God. Their occurrence in the same month should serve as an admonition and point to the divine punishment which those who persist in hostility must receive.’ (Nur-ul-Haq, part 11)

Soon afterwards, as a step towards the fulfilment of the prophecy, he was moved to pray for a pestilence. Thus in one of his Arabic poems (1894) he said:

When iniquity and ungodliness rose to a deadly height; even as flood reaches its dangerous level,

I wished from God that a pestilence should come and destroy;
For, according to the wise, it is better for people to die than to become involved in fatal misbelief and misguidance.

Than in 1897, in his book Siraj-Munir, he quoted a revelation of his:

O Messiah for men. rid us of our Pestilences.

Commenting on this he wrote:

‘Wait and see how and when these warnings fulfil themselves. There are times when prayers bring death, and times when they bring life.

When this last prophecy was published, plague had already made an appearance in Bombay. It stayed for a year and disappeared. There was a feeling of relief. Its spread had been prevented by the public health authorities. But a warning from God pointed the other way. When general complacency had been induced by the belief that the disease had come and gone, when the Punjab, except for one or two villages, seemed quite safe, when in Bombay its ravages had been more or less halted, the Promised Messiah issued a statement in which he said:

I am constrained to write about an important matter and this owing only to overwhelming sympathy. I know that those devoid of spiritual feelings will tend to ridicule my statement. Nevertheless, out of sympathy for them, it is my duty to warn people. The warning is this. Today, February 6, 1898, Monday, I saw in a dream that angels of God were planting black seedlings in different parts of the Punjab. The seedlings are ugly dangerous looking, black and stunted. I asked some of the angels about them. I was told that they were the seedlings of plague which was about to spread in the country. It did not become quite clear to me whether this was to be next winter or the winter after the next. But the scene and the experience were full of terror. I am reminded also of a revelation of mine about the plague. It said, ‘Verily Allah does not change the lot of a people unless they first change their hearts.’ It seems that the plague will not disappear unless extreme sin and transgression disappear first.

At the end of this warning the Promised Messiah added some Persian verse:

If my friends could see that which I see,
Tears of blood would they shed and say good-bye to the world.

The bright sun has become dark for the sins of men,
The earth has thrown up the plague to frighten and warn.

If you but knew, you would liken this calamity to the calamity of Doomsday,
There is no cure for it but the cure of good deeds.

I say all this out of sympathy for you: It is for you to think over,
Use then your wisdom today, you wise and alert.

It appears from these prophecies that in 1894 the Promised Messiah prophesied a general calamity. The description of this he himself elaborated into a pestilence. Then, when the plague first made its appearance in India, he issued a special warning to the Punjab against the impending destruction. He described the threatened calamity as the calamity of Doomsday and said that there was to be no escape from it unless there was a change of heart.

What happened subsequently is terrible beyond words. The plague started in Bombay as though its worst effects were to be there, but Bombay recovered and the Punjab became its centre. So deadly and so widespread was it that the death-rate rose to thirty thousand per week and several hundred thousand died in a year. Hundreds of doctors were appointed. Many different kinds of treatment were invented. But to no avail. Every year the plague flared up with added virulence. The Government authorities looked on helplessly. A general feeling arose that this was the consequence of denying the Promised Messiah. Then several hundred thousand persons believed. The epidemic continued to rage until the Promised Messiah was told by God that the plague was over, only fever remained. After this declaration the plague began to decline steadily. However, from some revelations it appears that it may break out again in our own country or in others. This clear prophecy compels assent by believers and deniers alike. If there are those who still refuse to believe this, they can only have our sympathy. Those who consider the facts with an open mind must agree that:

1. The warning about the plague was given a long time before its occurrence and a long time before medical science was able to predict its appearance anywhere.
2. When the plague made its first appearance people were warned that the attack would be repeated annually.
3. People were also warned that the attack on the Punjab would be the most virulent. It was in the Punjab that it was at its worst and that the largest number of deaths took place.
4. Doctors assured the people again and again that the epidemic had been controlled, but the Promised Messiah declared that the epidemic would not abate until God let it. As everybody knows the devastation continued for full nine years.
5. At last God Himself, out of compassion, promised to reduce its virulence. The Promised Messiah was told that the plague had disappeared, only fever remained. After this revelation the worst of the epidemic was over. However, a serious malaria epidemic broke out in the Punjab. Not a single household remained immune from it. Official reports admit that a malaria epidemic had never raged on such a scale.” (Invitation to Ahmadiyyat, Prophecy No.7)

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as stated:

” Since God Almighty knew that the plague would break out in this country on a large scale, and even Qadian would not remain completely immune from it, He had, therefore, already revealed to me twentythree years ago that anyone who would enter this mosque and this house, with sincerity and faith, would be saved from the plague. In the same context, He also said to me in those days:

This means: I shall safeguard all those who dwell in thy house from death by the plague, with the exception of those who are arrogant and think highly of themselves. And I shall particularly safeguard thee. Peace be on you from God, the Merciful. Let it be known that the word of God has divided His Will regarding Qadian into two parts: (1) The first concerns this village as a whole, which means that this village will remain immune from the severity of the plague that causes chaos and destruction and leaves the whole village in ruins. (2) The second Divine will is that the Merciful God will protect this house in particular, and will keep it safe from the torment suffered by the other dwellers of the village. The latter part of the Revelation constitutes a warning for those whose hearts are full of arrogance. Therefore, I advise my Jama‘at to eschew arrogance, for arrogance is most repulsive in the sight of our Glorious God. Perhaps you do not realize what arrogance is. Come and ask me, for I speak by the spirit of God.” (Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 18, Pages 401-402)

He also states:

” I had the following dream about the plague: I saw an animal which was as large as an elephant, but its face resembled that of a man and some of its limbs were like those of other animals. And I saw that the hand of Providence had created it just like that. I found myself sitting in a place and all around me were forests which were full of oxen, donkeys, horses, dogs, swine, wolves, camels, and so on. I was made to understand that all these were actually human beings who had been given these shapes because of their misdeeds. Then I saw that the animal, which was huge as an elephant and was a compound of various forms, and which had emerged from the earth by Providence, came and sat down near me with its face pointing to the north. It seemed to be a silent creature and modesty was apparent from its eyes. Every few minutes it would run into one of the forests, and, the moment it entered, cries like doomsday would be heard from there. It would start devouring the animals and one could hear it chewing their bones. After every such raid it would come back and sit down close to me for some ten or so minutes, after which it would charge into some other forest, and the same things would take place as before, after which it would again return to me. Its eyes were very large and I studied it carefully each time it came back. It would convey to me, by the expression of its face, that it was helpless in the matter, and was only doing what it was commanded. It appeared to me to be a gentle and pious creature, who did nothing on its own, but only did whatever it was commanded to do.

Then it was conveyed to me that this animal was in fact the plague, and was the insect of the earth, regarding which God had promised in the Holy Quran that He would bring it out in the latter days, and it would bite people because they did not believe in His signs. God Almighty says:

وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الْأَرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا لَا يُوقِنُونَ {83}

And when the sentence is passed against them, We shall bring forth for them a germ out of the earth, which shall wound them because people did not believe in Our Signs.(Chapter 27 Verse 83)

He again says:

وَيَوْمَ نَحْشُرُ مِنْ كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ فَوْجًا مِمَّنْ يُكَذِّبُ بِآيَاتِنَا فَهُمْ يُوزَعُونَ {84}

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوا قَالَ أَكَذَّبْتُمْ بِآيَاتِي وَلَمْ تُحِيطُوا بِهَا عِلْمًا أَمَّاذَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ {85} وَوَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ بِمَا ظَلَمُوا فَهُمْ لَا يَنْطِقُونَ {86}

And remind them of the day when We shall gather together from every people a party from among those who rejected Our Signs, and they shall be placed in separate bands. Till when they come, He will say, ‘Did you reject My Signs hastily while you had not yet gained full knowledge about them? If not this what else was it, that you were doing?’ And the sentence shall fall upon them because they did wrong, and they will not be able to speak (Chapter 27 Verses 84-86)

In short, the very insect of the earth mentioned in these verses had always been destined to appear at the time of the Promised Messiah. It was the same animal of many features that I had seen in my dream. And it was put in my heart that this was the germ of the plague, which God had named ‘the insect of the earth’ because this disease is caused by germs that come out of the earth. It first affects rats and then assumes various forms. Just as it affects people, so does it affect every other animal, and that is why it was shown to me in various forms in the vision.” (Nuzul-ul-Masih, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 18, Pages 415-417)