Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) wrote this book on April 1902, at a time when Punjab was in grip of a severe plague. He mentioned many of his revelations that he had about the plague. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) writes:

"It is my sign that any opponent of mine, whether he lives in Amroh, or in Amritsar, Delhi or Calcutta, Lahore, Golra or Batala, if he swears that his own place will remain safe from plaque, then this very place would be hit by plague, as he had been rude to God." (Dafi‘ul-Bala’ Wa Mi‘yaro Ahlil-Istifa’, p. 18, Ruhani Khaza’in, v. 18, p. 238)

The plague broke out in the Punjab in its full fury in 1902. How intensely the plague had entrenched itself in the Punjab, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) gave a pen-picture of the calamity in his letter to Hazrat Seth ‘Abdur Rahman (ra) that he wrote on April 3, 1902. The plague was taking a heavy toll. About 20,000 people were dying of the plague every week. All areas outside the radius of two miles around Qadian were contaminated with this calamitous disease. Qadian stood like a boat in the whole region.

Against this background that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) undertook to write this famous book, Dafi‘ul-Bala’ Wa Mi‘yaro Ahlil-Istifa’. In the book, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) recalled the revelations that he had received about its spread at a time when the disease first broke out in Bombay. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) was frank and candid. He declared that it was a Divine punishment. The plague had broken out because the people condemned and abused the Messiah sent by God as a reformer.

(Taken from An Introduction to the hidden Treasures of Islam)