It is objected that the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, has said that he suffered from hypochondria (Badar, 7 June 1906), and that Hazrat Bashir Ahmed Sahib in Seeratul Mahdi, Vol. 1, p. 13, wrote that he was subject to hysteria and it is argued that a person suffering from hypochondria cannot be a prophet.

The Promised Messiah has nowhere stated himself that he suffered from hypochondria or hysteria. The statement in Badar of 7 June 1906 does not set out his own words. It is a statement by the diary writer, the accuracy of which could be open to doubt. There is a very clear statement by the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, concerning the Divine safeguarding of his health which is as follows:

In the same way God Almighty knew that if I were to be afflicted with some objectionable disease like leprosy, lunacy, blindness, epilepsy etc., my opponents would conclude that I was the subject of Divine wrath. Therefore, He gave me the good news in advance, as is mentioned in the Braheen Ahmadiyya, that He would safeguard me against every objectionable disease and would complete His favor unto me. (Arbaeen, No. 3, p. 30)

Thus, he was not at all afflicted with hypochondria, or hysteria, or epilepsy, or any such disease. It is true that Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmed Sahib mentioned in the Seeratul Mahdi that the Ummul Momineen had mentioned that the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, suffered from hysteria, but the Ummul Momineen was not a physician and she described migraine, to which the Promised Messiah was liable, as hysteria. No argument can be based on her mistaken use of this expression.

It is true that he was subject to migraine and in this connection it is worthy of note that there is high medical authority for the statement that the subjects of migraine are nearly always of an active, capable, and intelligent type (Price’s text book of medicine,p. 1502). Thus there is nothing objectionable about migraine.

This kind of objection is not new. Bigoted Christian ministers have been guilty of charging the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, with epilepsy. The Holy Quran has repeatedly mentioned that the opponents of the Prophets called them insane and sorcerers, etc. It was, therefore, necessary that the Promised Messiah, like other true prophets, should have been made the subject of such charges, which are a proof of his truth and righteousness.