Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 211
Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I KHILAFAT 211 purpose of learning anything from me. I desire that you should all become righteous and virtuous, and should pay less attention to the world and its trappings. " 90 Hadrat Khalifatul Masih ra was summoned to Multan as a defence witness in a criminal trial in the Court of R a ’iy Kaish u D a s, for 26th July, 1910. He left Qadian on 24th July and stopped in Lahore for a day on his way to Multan. While he was in Lahore he received a letter from a Shia proposing a debate on some later date between him and a Shia divine who had arrived from Iran, and suggested that an umpire might be agreed upon who should give his verdict on the debate. He replied: "I am ever ready to seek after the truth. By Allah’s grace I am seventy years of age and I have not long to live. Nevertheless if I discover a way of truth I would not, if Allah so wills, persist in error. But of what persuasion would the umpire be and how would his impartiality be guaranteed?" 91 The Shia did not pursue the matter any further. The accused in the criminal trial in Multan was an ex-soldier who was charged with the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. His defence was that he was not of sound mind. About six months earlier he had gone to Qadian for treatment by H ak i m N u r-ud-D i n ra , and had stayed there for a week or ten days. When the august witness appeared in court, the magistrate extended every courtesy to him and treated him with great respect. He apologised to him that compliance with procedural requirements had necessitated his being summoned as a witness. He was not asked to go into the witness box and made