The third plague pandemic claimed millions of lives in India, and raged with particular intensity in the Punjab province. By 1902, it had encroached within a few miles of the environs of Qadian.

Twenty-two years earlier, the Promised Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^(as) of Qadian, had prophesied the outbreak of such a plague. He boldly proclaimed on the basis of the divine revelation that, as a sight of his truthfulness, God would safeguard Qadian — even though it lay directly in the path of this ravaging disease. The Promised Messiah^(as) also pointed out that God had foretold in previous holy scriptures that He would send a severe plague as a warning in the Latter Days, when the Promised Messiah would appear.

In Defence Against the Plague, the Promised Messiah^(as) reviews various proposals put forward to fight the bubonic plague, and then prescribes the true method for deliverance — that people should reform themselves and accept the Promised Messiah^(as) commissioned by God.