A Revealed Cure for the Bubonic Plague

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad assigned himself the task of creating a cure for the Bubonic Plague while declaring it to be a sign of his Messianic claims. At a cost of more than Rs. 2000, here is the recipe for the cure, together with its roots supposedly going all the way back to the ointment that was applied on Jesus' wounds.

It was published as an English pamphlet and the medical journal, The Lancet, in 1898, reviewed it:

Review in Lancet, 1898

A REVEALED CURE FOR THE BUBONIC PLAGUE

Under the above stimulating heading a gentleman of Gurdaspur, Punjab, named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who places in brackets by the side of his name as an alternative title "The Promised Messiah," has published a little pamphlet explaining that Almighty God has been pleased to choose him as a medium through which to reveal "by direct inspiration" the specific remedy for the plague. The following are the words in which Mirza Ghulam Ahmad makes his revelation :-

"The cure which I proclaim for the plague consists of two different medicines. One of them called the Tiryaq-i-Ilahi or the Divine treacle has been prepared solely by me, and it is to be taken as hereafter suggested. The other which is to be applied externally to the glands is an ointment called Marham-i-Isa or the ointment of Jesus. It would not be out of place to give a brief history of this wonderful ointment. It was originally made, about nineteen hundred years ago, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (peace be with him). It was prepared by the disciples of that prophet for applying it to the wounds on his hands and feet; and it turned out to be wonderfully efficacious in curing the said wounds within forty days. There is not the least doubt that Jesus did not die upon the cross. He had, however, received severe wounds which had rendered him so senseless when taken down, that he was generally believed to be dead. But it is a fact that the body was on account of the presence of the Sabbath taken down from the cross sooner sooner than it was usual -- so soon, indeed, that even Pilate marvelled if he (Jesus) were already dead, and moreover when one of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear, blood came out. These and such other circumstances go a long way to prove that Jesus came down alive from the cross. In short when this ointment, the Marham-i-Isa, had restored Jesus to complete health, he went out to preach the Gospel to these sects of the Jews that had scattered far and wide and had settled in other countries. It is for this reason that in Islamic Theological Literature Jesus is known under the name of Masih, a word which means one who travels much."

Then follows a lot of gibberish about the dosage of the "divine treacle," and at the end are placed half-a-dozen common-sense regulations as to domestic hygiene in the presence of infectious disease. The shrewdness which led Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to combine simple sanitary suggestions, bound to do good if followed, with the xxxxxxxxx from which we have quoted leads us to suspect him of being a designing scamp and not merely a blasphemous idiot. We note that he is receiving subscriptions.

Here is the pamphlet itself: