Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 263
263 peace and the blessings of God be upon bimj is the most excellent of all prophets of^ God and Divine union cannot. be- attained ex- cept through him, but we are never arrested for saying these things against a Christian Government, nor have the authorities ever asked us why we propagate our religion so openly* If we do not praise the Government for all this freedom and peace which it has granted to us> we are ungiateful to God for His gifts and guilty of a great sin. We have shown the errors of the Christian religion in the strongest words, but the Gov- ernment has in respect of religious liberty shown wonderful neutrality. It has not withheld from us any right which it has given to the Missionaries of its own religion, and all the religious sects have the same freedom of opinion and freedom of propa- gation granted to them. " Though the Government has granted equal freedom to all sects and communities, yet its presence in this country is one of the signs which Almighty God has manifested for us particu- larly. The tree which it is the will of Almighty God should grow and give fruit is planted by Him in a place where its growth is not hampered in any way, but the tree whose growth He does not like is planted in a place where it soon withers awayi Now the seed of this heavenly dispensation which Almighty God has sent me to establish has been sowu in a land which is suitable for its growth, and no calamity can sweep it out of existence here. Ib is to a very large extent quite safe from its enemies. And as it is the British Government which has been made an instrument by Almighty God in the granting of these blessings, it behoves us, when we thank God for His gifts, to express our gratitude to the Government also, for Almighty God says in the Holy Quran, "Is aught but goodness the reward of goodness ?" It does not mean that you should do goodness in