Life of Ahmad — Page 581
as ELEVATION OF RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION 581 The 'Anjuman H im a yat-e-Islam' at Lahore prepared and sent a memorial (No. 1348, dated 26-4- 98) to Government requesting that the book should be confiscated, but the Promised Messiah as said that the step contemplated was not right. He inculcated patience and advised that a reasonable reply 142 should be written. But the Anjuman did not listen to his words. Ahmad as was of the opinion that the memorial, even if accepted, was of no avail. The book had already been widely published, so there was no sense in confiscating it. The memorial itself amounted to an afflicted Muslim hearts by its shameful and disgraceful falsehoods and fabrications that its hurtful effect will extend to our posterity. ' 142 The Sir a jul Akhb a r , dated 13/6/1898; the Singh Sab a , Amritsar, dated 30/5/1898, and the Sat Dharam Parcharak, Jullundur, dated 15th Jeth, supported the course adopted by Ahmad as. Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan practically began to write a reply and a portion of it was even published in the Aligarh Institute , dated 6/4/1898, but he died and could not complete it. The Punjab Observer , Lahore, dated 6/5/1898, and the Paisa Akhb a r , dated 14/5/1898, differed from Ahmad as. So he wrote a book entitled Albal a gh or Fary a d-e-Dard in which he refused the objection raised by the Anjuman through the two journals. He also pointed out that Ummah a tul Mu’min i n was not the only publication which needed a reply. The A rya Sam a jists and the Christian missionaries had been attacking Islam for the last 60 years. Therefore it was necessary to make a joint effort to counteract the whole of the mischievious propaganda. He suggested that one man should be elected and put in charge of the work. He should choose his own assistants. But care should be taken to elect a man who should be spiritually qualified and really competent to do the job well. Like the prophet Joseph as , who offered to act as Treasurer in the days of the great famine, Ahmad as offered his own services for this purpose if the people cared to avail themselves of them. At the end of the book he also appealed to Muslims living outside India in Arabic and Persian. This book was printed in Urdu at, the D iy a’ ul Islam Press, Qadian, without its title and was published after Ahmad’s as death. But its English translation, printed at the Victoria press Lahore, in 1898, was published at that very time.