An Introduction to the Hidden Treasures of Islam — Page 194
194 Background On the death of Pandit Lekh Ram, the Promised Messiah as warned those who opposed him that they were in reality at war with God. He invited them to test his claim and believe in him. Maulav i ‘Abdul H aq Ghaznav i wrote a highly abusive poster against the Promised Messiah as in which he raised silly objections and challenged the knowledge of Arabic of the Promised Messiah as , and invited to hold a contest in Arabic with him so that the question could be established who knew Arabic better. The Promised Messiah as immediately accepted the offer of a contest and said that since he had no knowledge of Arabic and that he was an illiterate according to Maulav i ‘Abdul H aq Ghaznav i , if as a result of the contest he was overwhelmed in the debate, which would be nothing short of a miracle of God, then the Maulav i would have to offer his hand in bai‘at and join the Ahmadiyyah Jam a ‘at. Maulav i ‘Abdul H aq Ghaznav i and his friend, Shaikh Najf i , a Shia, remained silent and refused to honour his own invitation to hold a contest. The Book The Promised Messiah as offered them a fresh sign. He wrote this book in Arabic which he began on March 17, 1897 and completed on May 26, 1897, and asked his opponents, particularly Maulav i ‘Abdul H aq Ghaznav i and Shaikh Najf i , (both had written abusive letters to the Promised Messiah as and made assertions that he did not know Arabic) and Maulav i Muhammad Hussain Batalavi, to produce a book at least comparable to his Arabic and produce the like of it in the same manner within three or four months, then they can treat me as a liar. Further, they were welcome to enlist aid from anyone in producing a book of similar size, using prose and poem and invite Professor Maulav i ‘Abdull a h or any one scholar who can swear that their written book was superior or even equal to mine in quality and the scholar swearing in such manner will be seized by divine punishment within