Life of Ahmad — Page 500
END OF A THIM as 500 'If A thim does not take the oath, even then God will not let a culprit go unpunished who tried to deceive the world by hiding the truth. The days are near, not distant. ' Ahmad as tried to save A thim from the wrath of God and gave him every opportunity to speak out the truth and thus be a witness to the word of God. But he could not pluck up the courage, and the respite allowed to him by God gradually and imperceptibly confirmed him in his deceit until his long silence took the form of a veritable falsehood. To grant him further respite would have rendered the cause of raising all the Prophets of God absolutely vain. So he was stricken with death and the word of God was fulfilled. Having nothing better to say, the foul-mouthed Im a d-ud-D i n, the N u r Afsh a Ĕ of Ludhiana, and the Rewari missionary poured abuse on the Founder sa of Islam incessantly and wanted to cow the Muslims by wounding their susceptibilities. Ahmad as protested against this, refuted their objections and did what he could to defend Islam, but he could not stem the rising tide of abuse and vilification. He would have liked the British Government to take some interest in the matter just as Constantine I of old, who had gathered, in the fourth century, 250 Bishops from different parts of the world at Constantinople and listened to a religious debate with the result that he was converted to the Unitarian creed of Christianity. But the British did not want to dabble in religion. The cautious and hesitating policy of Sir E. Elgin did not even allow him to adopt