Life of Ahmad — Page 255
as THE PHARISEE OF BATALA 255 himself at such a meeting, humbling himself like dust, and that he was prepared to hear even extreme abuse without uttering a word of complaint. He even begged Muhammad Husain to allow him to issue handbills notifying such a meeting. But Muhammad Husain did not agree to it. He just wanted to arrange a private meeting in which only the confirmed enemies of Ahmad as should confront him all together. None of them had the courage of seeing Ahmad as alone to have an exchange of views or to hold a discussion with him in public. A lie has no legs; it cannot stand alone. It appears that they were all afraid of Ahmad as and each one of them was conscious of the fact that by himself he could not defeat Ahmad as. None of them felt equal to him singly and they all wanted to raise only a hostile crowd against him. Anyhow, no meeting took place on the 23rd at Amritsar and Ahmad as issued a leaflet, dated March 26th, 1891, from Ludhiana, in which he proclaimed: 'Of a truth Jesus as , son of Mary, is dead, and his soul is resting with his cousin Yahya’s as soul in the second heaven. The Messiah for this age whose advent in the spiritual sense was foretold in the authentic traditions is myself. This is the doing of God. ' He also declared that he was prepared to hold a debate in writing on the subject. For this he invited all the mullahs, especially Muhammad Husain, Rash i d Ahmad Gangoh i , Abdul Jabb a r Ghaznavi, Abdur Ra h m a n Lakhooke, Sh. ‘Ubaidullah, Abdul ‘Az i z of