On 11 April 1900, Eid-ul-Adha provided an opportunity to the assembled Ahmadis from Sialkot, Amritsar, Batala, Lahore, Wazirabad, Jammu, Peshawar, Gujrat, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bombay and Lucknow etc. to witness a historic occasion at the Masjid Aqsa which had recently been extended. It was, therefore, decided that the Eid prayers would be offered in the mosque. A night earlier, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) had sent a note to Hazrat Maulvi Hakim Nuruddin (ra) stating that he intended to engage himself in prayer and supplicating the whole day and a part of the night and those who had come to attend the Eid Congregation and also those present in Qadian, should write their names and places of their residence and send them on to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) so that he could remember them in prayer.
Early next morning, Hazrat Maulvi ‘Abdul Karim (ra) came to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) and requested him to address the Eid Congregation. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) said that “God had commanded him the night before to do so in Arabic.” (Life of Ahmad by A.R. Dard (ra), edition of 2008, p. 720).
After the Eid prayers, Hazrat Maulvi Hakim Nuruddin (ra) and Hazrat Maulvi ‘Abdul Karim (ra) both were asked to sit near Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) and takedown verbatim the speech that he was going to deliver in Arabic. It was a wonderful experience, and people sat around Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), and everyone was conscious of a striking change in the countenance of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as). There was a flow of eloquence, a Divine cadence and a depth of meaning, which one could see and read in his face.
After Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) finished speaking, Hazrat Maulvi ‘Abdul Karim (ra) conveyed to the audience the gist and substance in Urdu. While he was doing so, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) also was overtaken by a sudden sense of gratitude towards Allah, and he did Sajdah (prostrated on the ground), the audience also fell in Sajdah. Raising his head he told the people that he had just read the word Mubarak (congratulations) written in scarlet, it was a Kashf (vision) culminating in the acceptance of his prayers.
The Book
The Khutbah Ilhamiyyah (The Revealed Sermon) thus delivered has been documented in a book form. The excellence, the elegance, the beauty and the perfection of the Arabic used in the Khutbah Ilhamiyyah, makes one wonder at the Divine blessings Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) was being continually bestowed and endowed with. His opponents had first alleged that he had no knowledge of Arabic, and when he started writing books in Arabic, the like of which no scholar or authority in Arabic could produce, even the Arabs marvelled at the beauty of the language. Then it was alleged that some Arab was employed to write the books for him, then came this remarkable sermon delivered extempore before more than 200 people.
The Khutbah Ilhamiyyah comprises two parts. The first part beginning from pages 1 to 30, and the second part from pages 31 to 73. The first edition indicated the date of 25 August 1901, and the later edition 17 October 1902. It appears during the intervening period, four more chapters and some flyers were added during the period of May 1900 to October 1902, and then it appeared in the final shape in October 1902. The whole book is now known as Khutbah Ilhamiyyah, although the Khutbah itself consists of 30 pages. In the chapters added later, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) discussed at length the philosophy of sacrifice and other chapters relate to his advent as the Promised Messiah in the light of the Holy Quran and the Ahadith. An Ishtihar was also added to it as a supplement about the construction of a Minaret in fulfilment of the prophecy of the Holy Prophet (as) which says:
“The Promised Messiah will descend by the white Minaret to the East of Damascus.”
Qadian is situated to the East of Damascus - the significance of the word Damascus lies in the fact that the doctrine of the Trinity had its birth in that town. It was here that Paul conceived the unholy idea of Trinity and began to preach it.
(Taken from An introduction to the hidden treasures of Islam, pg 269-272)
