Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 26
26 AHMADIYY AT come forward to help him with its publication by subscribing to it in advance. But on account of the prevailing poverty of the Muslims, and their lack of enthusiasm for. the faith, the response was not encouraging. A few of the well-to-do Muslims, however, made donations in excess of the price of the planned volumes that enabled the author to start publica- tion of his work. The first two parts were published in 1880. The first part put forth a challenge that if a follower of any religion other than Islam would set forth on behalf of his religion one-half, or one-fourth or even one-fifth of the excellences that he himself proposed to formulate as the basis of Islam, he would make a present to him of all his property, which he valued at ten thousand rupees. The composition and publication of this great, compre- hensive work was a tremendous undertaking beset with difficulties of different types. The author himself was a pro- found scholar of Islam and of comparative religion and already enjoyed the experience of communion with the Divine. He was a constant recipient of revelation. He also had the advantage of access to the family library which, despite its destruction by the Sikhs in the time' of his grandfather, had been restored to a respectable size. But that was the end of the facilities available to him. As already' mentioned, Qadian, the place of residence of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was situated at a distance of eleven miles from the nearest railway station and telegra ph office. It was a small town boasting few amenities. The nearest printing press available for the printing of this book was situated at Amritsar, a matter of thirty-five miles from Qadian. There was no one at that time available in Qadian who could have in any way assisted the author in the writing and production of his great work. He wrote out the entire manuscript with his own hand and when the time came for committing it to the printing press, he had to take it himself to Amritsar and make suitable arrangements for its printing. This involved a journey of eleven miles on a dirt track studded with potholes, which it was easier to traverse on foot than by means of one of the uncomfortable and