My dear and kind Reverend,
With due regards. How blessed is this hour that I am prepared to take part in the Holy War referred to in your letter. I am sending a few of my dear friends as representatives and hope that you will agree to accept me as a contender for this holy contest.
When I received your first letter addressed to some Muslims of Jandiala and read the sentence, ‘Is there anyone who dares to challenge us?’ at that moment, my soul spoke out, ‘Yes, it is I, at whose hands God Almighty will grant victory to the Muslims and manifest the truth’. The truth I have been granted and the sun that has risen among us will no longer remain hidden. Indeed, I see that it will shine with bright rays and will penetrate the hearts and draw them towards itself, but it needed an opportunity to manifest itself. Thus, your challenge to the Muslims is a greatly blessed and auspicious opportunity.
I do not expect you to insist that you will only deal with the Muslims of Jandiala and nobody else. You are well aware that there is no well-renowned scholar in Jandiala and it will not befit your grandeur to compete with lay people.
You are well informed of my situation. For the past ten years I have been thirsting to debate with the Christians and to quench this thirst I have even sent thousands of letters in Urdu and English to revered priests like yourself, but having received no reply, I was left disappointed. I am sending you some of these letters by way of specimen so that you may realise that I should be the first to deserve your attention in this regard.
I am ready to face any punishment if I am lying. I have been prepared for the past ten years and to me there is none in Jandiala who is eligible to enter this contest. I, therefore, respectfully request that if you desire to settle this debate once and for all, accept my challenge so that some of the distinctive signs of the divinely supported religion and of those who believe in the true God are manifested.
One of your major claims is that the Messiah, peace be upon him, was in fact God and the Creator of heaven and earth. We, on the other hand, believe that he was indeed a true prophet and messenger and was the beloved of God Almighty, but he was not God. Hence, this debate will be held in order to truly settle these issues. God Almighty has directly informed me that the teachings brought by the Quran are, in fact, the true path; every prophet has preached the same pure Oneness of God to their respective nations, but with the passage of time people became corrupted and accorded the status of God Almighty to humans. In short, this will be the objective of the debate.
I am certain that the time has come when the jealousy of God Almighty will demonstrate its power and I trust that due to this contest, useful and effective results shall display themselves to the world. It would not be surprising if the entire world, or a large part of it, would now accept the one true and living religion that is shaded by God’s cloud of mercy. The debate ought not to be limited to the earthly realm alone, but rather the heavens ought to participate in it as well. The focus of this contest should be around which religion possesses spiritual life, heavenly acceptance and enlightenment. It would be incumbent upon me and my opponent to demonstrate the effects of our respective books in our own beings. If later on, they so desire to reconcile these two doctrines on the basis of reason, this too is well and good; nevertheless, the heavenly and spiritual contest must take precedence.
Humbly,
Ghulam Ahmad
Qadian, District Gurdaspur
23 April 1893