Al Fazl, 31 March 1921
Brothers! Assalamo alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!
All members of the Jamaat will be delighted to hear this news that Master Abdur Rahim [Nayyar] Sahib, who was sent to carry out tabligh in West Africa, has achieved great success over there.
Christians in that country have converted millions of people to Christianity. More than one-third of the people have converted to Christianity, while some still practice their old religion of idolatry and some are Muslims.
In order to distract Muslims, the priests have been raising concerns in the European newspapers for a long time that the people of Africa are converting to Islam. However, in reality, this statement was a mere deception.
Most of the people of Uganda have become Christians and except for one, all of the chiefs have converted to Christianity. In West Africa, where Master Sahib has now been sent to carry out tabligh, 53 percent of the population was Muslim in the year 1901. By the year 1910, the population of Muslims had dropped to 49 percent. It shows that in the last 10 years, one-tenth of the Muslim population has become Christian. This means that if Christianity continues to progress at this rate, all the Muslims will disappear from that country in 70 to 80 years and the whole country will convert to Christianity. Christianity is spreading far more rapidly in the population of idolaters.
Hence, in a country with a population of about 3 million, Islam was in grave danger and on learning of this, I sent Master Abdur Rahim Sahib, a former Ahmadi missionary in London, to carry out tabligh over there.
I was certain that by the grace of Allah the Almighty, Islam would surely prevail in that country because the people there are divided into tribes like the Arabs. It was hoped that if one man would accept the truth, thousands of other people [of his tribe] would accept the truth as well, so this is exactly what happened. Today, this good news has been received from Master Abdur Rahim Sahib Nayyar by telegram that 4,000 non-Muslims have converted to Islam and they are requesting for bai‘at.
Thus, I am publishing this news as an announcement for the information of members of the Jamaat and to encourage them to pray.
Friends should especially pray for their missionary brothers and contribute as much as they can with a part of their wealth to the growing work of tabligh, for in this age, there is no other work more blessed and worthy of reward than this.
May Allah the Almighty provide the means for the dominance of Islam by Himself.
Khaksar, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad [Khalifatul Masih II]. 29 March 1921, Qadian.
(Translated by Al Hakam from the original Urdu in the 31 March 1921 issue of Al Fazl)