Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 219
219 of political or financial superiority that would have made people accept him for their own vested interests. Even though his father arranged for tutors to teach him at home, this education was nothing compared to school learning and he was not recognized by religious clerics and scholars within or outside of his locality. Therefore, it cannot be said that people accepted him because he was respected as a religious scholar. He also did not come from a family of p i rs (hereditary saints) or sufis. Nor had he been appointed a successor to a sufi. Thus it cannot be said that he succeeded because of the people who revered his family or because of help from his fellow p i rs. Nor did the Promised Messiah as hold any prominent government position that he might have used to get people to follow him. The Promised Messiah as was a person of a retiring nature. He led a life of solitude and was not known even to the people of his own village. The few he had contact with were mostly orphans or the needy with whom he would share his meals. At times he would give away all his food and go hungry. The only other acquaintances he had were a handful of people with an interest in religious learning. No one else knew of him. He would not meet with people and people had no need to meet him. The answer to the second question is that all possible hurdles were placed in his path. Since the Promised Messiah as claimed to have been appointed by God, accepting him would bring an end to the power that the clerics had enjoyed over the masses for hundreds of years. For this reason, they were naturally antagonis - tic towards him. They saw his success as their defeat and his pro - gress as their decline. They knew that if someone stood up for the