Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 356
356 AHMADIYY AT of hardship at their hands. At one time one of them erected a wall outside his residence, a part of which was used as a mosque, so as to block egress and ingress except by a round- about way which imposed great hardship both upon the members of his family and his visitors. This obstruction was fortunately removed through judicial action, but the appre- hension of recourse to some similar action in future lingered. In this situation he decided to sink a well in the courtyard of his residence so that a supply of water for drinking and domestic purposes might be assured. The cost of the sinking of the well was estimated at Rs 200 (£13. 33). He wrote to some of his followers inviting them to participate in provid- ing the amount that was needed. He assessed the contribution of one of them, who was a physician in easy circumstances at the equivalent of two pence of the then sterling currency! It will be appreciated that his entire dependence was upon God, in full confidence that He would provide the means whereby the purpose of his advent would continue to be fulfilled. How this happened is nothing short of the miracu- lous. His claim of being a recipient of revelation in an age steeped in materialism made him an object of ridicule in the eyes of the worldly. His announcement that he was the great teacher whose advent in the latter days had been foretold in all the great faiths, aroused against him the bitter hostility of all religious circles. Orthodox Muslim divines condemned him as a disbeliever and an apostate whose assassination would be an act of the highest spiritual merit. None of this caused him any perturbation. He had been divinely assured: 'God will safeguard thee against harm by people. ' Through- out his life he was exposed to the evil designs of his enemies, and throughout he was miraculously safeguarded. He had appointed no bodyguard and no one was assigned the task of watching over him. He led a wholly blameless, pure and beneficent life, which followed in the minutest detail the pattern that had been established by the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him. LIke the Holy Prophet he challenged his opponents to point to a single