Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 283
283 Whichever of the two parties in this debate is deliberately adopting a false stand and deserting the True God and dei - fying a humble man will be severely afflicted within the number of months that correspond to the number of days of this debate. That is to say, within fifteen months he will be greatly humiliated unless he turns to the truth. 11 This prophecy consisted of two parts. (1) Abdull a h A tham (who sought to prove the divinity of Jesus) would die and go to hell because of his obduracy, bigotry and vilification. (2) However, if he should express penitence and realize his error, he would be saved from this punishment. If he did not change his attitude and persisted in hostility and fault-finding, and yet escaped punishment, the prophecy would be considered untrue. And if he did repent and still met his death within fifteen months, the prophecy would still be false. The words of the prophecy indicated that A tham would live longer than fif - teen months and that he would die within fifteen months only if he persisted in his hostility. A little reflection would show that the two steps of the second alternative lend greater weight to the prophecy than the two steps of the first alternative. The two steps of the first alternative were that if A tham persisted in hostility, he would die within fifteen months. For A tham to persist in hostility and opposition was natural and easy. He was a Christian scholar who had written books in support of Christianity and against Islam. He held a high social status and enjoyed valuable contacts with the British. In that particular debate between Christians and Muslims, he had been selected as the Christian exponent in pref - erence to other padres and preachers, and renowned Christian