Life of Ahmad — Page 508
PLEADINGS WITH SCRIBES as 508 seeking peace. He begs them to leave him alone for seven years. He entreats them to wait and watch. But they would not listen to him. Could his pleadings go further? Could his love after truth be demonstrated in a better way? In answer to the invitation to Mub a hala , Ghulam Dastg i r of Qasur issued a leaflet which Ahmad as received on January 24th, 1897, in which the mullah fixed 25th Sha‘b a n, 1314 A. H. , as the date of the Mub a hala. But he put forward the condition that the wrath of God should overtake him on the spot. In his letter the mullah had previously agreed to wait for the period of one year but he had laid down another condition i. e. , every Muslim in the world who did not believe in Ahmad as should die within one year of the Mub a hala. Ahmad as pointed out in a leaflet, dated Sha‘b a n 20th, 1314 A. H. , that the conditions under which Mub a hala should take place were laid down in Muslim scriptures and that he could not go against those conditions. This mullah used to execrate Ahmad as most vehemently and abusively. He had moved the mullahs of Mecca to issue fatwas excommunicating Ahmad as. In 1315 A. H. he wrote a book against Ahmad as. It was entitled Fat h -e-Ra h m a n i and was printed at the Ahmadi Press (owned by Kh. A h ad Shah), Ludhiana. In this book (p. 26) he prayed to God that Ahmad as and his followers might be all destroyed. He was, however, himself stricken with death within a month of this prayer and he could not live even to see his