The Life of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad — Page 18
these to come and debate out the question in a public contest. which few were keen to accept. However, Maulvi Muhammad. Hussain of Batala and Maulvi Muhammad Bashir of Bhopal, did come out to face him at Ludhiana and Dehli. The proceedings of these meetings were later published and any fair-minded person can arrive at the conclusion that the two Maulvis were totally routed. They were unable to answer the sound arguments of the Hazrat that he based on the Holy Quran, the Traditions and the Sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w. s. ). . But, as is always the case in such matters, the maulvis banded together in carrying out a 'Fatwa' (ruling of 'Kufr' and apostacy) against the Promised Messiah, and their leaders shouted themselves hoarse in denouncing the Hazrat and his followers as renegades. But the moderate and sober thinkers like the famous poet Maulana Haali; Maulana Riaz of Khairabad; Sir Sayyad. Ahmad Khan; Maulvi Siraj-ud-Din, proprietor ‘Zamindar' and the father of Maulvi Zafar Ali; Maulana Shibli; Abdul Haleem. Sharar; Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk: Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali Khan and many other notables abstained from such dirty tactics and kept themselves aloof from the 'Fatwa-coiners'. . Maulvi Muhammad Hussain of Batala, who played the most prominent role in this matter and led the other bigotted maulvis, went like a whirlwind around the whole sub-continent gathering supporters, and published the infamous 'Fatwa' that the Hazrat was in actual fact an informer of the Government. He misled the officers of the British Government in believing that Mirza. Ghulam Ahmad, like the Mahdi of Sudan, was an extremely dangerous man and needed a very strict watch over him. For services rendered by the Maulvi, he was awarded four squares of land (100 acres). It was due to the patronage of the British. Government he enjoyed, that prompted him to declare arrogantly that it was he who had put the Mirza on the pedestal and he would now pull him down to the ground. . But having learnt from above, the Promised Messiah warned him in the following verse: 18. MUSLIM HERALD