Life of Ahmad — Page 400
DEBATE WITH ATHIM as 400 Christians to bring those people to him; rather it was he who was entitled to present such people to them, and therefore with due acknowledgment of their kindness in collecting them he presented them to the Christians with the request that, in conformity with the teachings of the New Testament, if they had in them faith as a grain of mustard seed, they should place their hands on them and command them to be whole. If they were cured, then he would be convinced that their faith was true. If, however, they failed and could not act up to their own pretensions, then no one could possibly believe in their truth. The rejoinder made a great impression and the Christians were altogether dumbfounded and hastened to change the topic. Qazi Am i r Husain ra and Nab i Bakhsh Rafugar ra of Amritsar joined Ahmad’s as fold during the course of this debate. The Rev. G. L. Thakar D a s of the American Mission, Sialkot, reviewed this debate in the pages of the N u r Afsh a Ĕ (September 1893—April 1894). It was then produced in book-form ( Tanq ih Mub a hala , Punjab Religious Book Society, Lahore, 1895). While supplementing the Christian arguments, Rev. Thakar D a s could not help remarking that the debate in his opinion had not been satisfactory. The replies given by the Christian advocate were too brief (p. 3). He wrote that there was no need of keeping the contest a secret or of shutting themselves up in a cell. It should be all open. The acceptance of Islam, however, was a condition that such people did not like.