Life of Ahmad — Page 399
as DEBATE WITH ATHIM 399 assembly. But on seeing these men he said to the missionaries: It is your books that speak of the blind being restored to sight and the lame being made to walk, and they also say that if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall heal the sick with the touch of your hands. It is well that you yourselves have brought these men together; now heal them therefore to prove your faith. When they heard the reply of the Promised Messiah as their joy changed into chagrin and self-reproach, and victory turned into defeat, and everyone applauded the readiness and appropriateness of the reply. The curing of such unfortunates by Jesus as was an assertion of the New Testament and formed no part of Ahmad’s as own conviction. In fact, to him the miracles of Jesus as bore an altogether different aspect. It had indeed been claimed by the New Testment that Jesus as used to effect the physical cure of such people and that simply by a touch of the hand, and not by medicine nor by prayer. And in the same book it is written that if the Christians have but a grain of faith, they can perform more wonderful miracles 86 than these. Therefore, it did not lie with the 86 Jaw a la Singh, a Christian missionary, later wrote to Ahmad as that he could show through Jesus as any sign that he liked. Ahmad as replied by saying that he need not fix any particular sign but that Jaw a la Singh should show a sign of his faith according as Jesus as had himself laid down. The Christian missionary, however, said that he would like to see a sign from Ahmad as first and that then he would show Ahmad as the same kind of sign. He suggested that both of them should shut themselves up in a cell where the signs should be shown. In his letter dated 31-6-93 Ahmad as said that he was prepared to show Jaw a la Singh a sign first provided he undertook in writing to accept Islam if he failed to show the same kind of sign. He also