The Holy War — Page 148
148 children of the King of Peace, and just as we seek good and mercy and forgiveness for ourselves, we seek, in lieu of curses, the same for you. We pray that Allah Almighty, through His limitless mercy, shows you the right path and keeps you in peace and faith so that when you pass away from this transitory world to the everlasting one, your end is good. I make a final request, Mirza sahib, that you have exceeded all bounds. Forgive me, but I say with a pure heart, you said that according to the revelation, with cause unknown, you will be vic- torious; you will have the victory in this war. Sir, you yourself can assess whether the situation described above is of victory or some- thing else. Sir, to think in terms of defeat and victory should never be the goal. Quite the contrary, let there be defeat—no matter— but, O Allah! Your truth should become evident. I am sorry that I have not noticed this in your behaviour. My dear sir, the Christian religion has been here for the last 1900 years, and it is like an anvil over which many a hammer have been worn out, and many will continue to be worn out in the future. Was a matter of 1900 years duration destined to be turned over—here and now—in these days? When I look at the opponents of Christianity, I recall a Greek fable. A snake entered an ironmon- ger’s house. It saw a file lying on the floor. Full of poison, the snake started to bite the file. The file said to the snake, carry on biting, as much as you desire, it is only your teeth that will be ground down. My dear sir, you really did try everything but failed to reply with either logical arguments or scriptural arguments. And the revela- tion and marvels that you were so proud of proved unsound and useless. Many efforts were made, but the result of this first part is evident to every reasonable person. My dear Mirza sahib, you kept on talking of victory loudly, but it did not become evident to anybody else. Dear Sir, in this war