Life of Ahmad — Page 263
as THE PHARISEE OF BATALA 263 4. The clerk or the parties should read out the papers to the meeting. 5. Each party should hand over a signed copy of the paper to the other party. But none of the mullahs came forward to hold the debate. In this leaflet Ahmad as also addressed Maulaw i Muhammad Hasan of Ludhiana, a leading member of the Ahl-e-Hadith, and asked him to bring, if he liked, his leader Maulaw i Muhammad Husain of Batala for the purpose of the debate. Muhammad Husain had alienated the sympathy of some of his friends at Lahore, and did not want to lose any more friends. So he reached Ludhiana on May 9th, 1891, and, without losing time, sent Muhammad Hasan to see Ahmad as. But he would not take any risk, so wrote a letter in the name of Muhammad Hasan and asked him to deliver it personally to Ahmad as and bring his reply in writing without having any conversation with him on the subject. In his leaflet Ahmad as had invited the mullahs to hold a debate with him as to whether Jesus as was alive or dead, but Muhammad Husain said in his letter that the debate should take place on the question of Ahmad’s as claim to be the Promised Messiah. Ahmad as wrote back that the subject of discussion should be the death of Jesus as because the revelation that he had received ran as follows: ' '