Life of Ahmad — Page 807
as MIRACLE OF THE MESSIAH as 807 Mihr Ali Shah, however, did nothing and the other mullahs also kept quiet. Ahmad as , in spite of ill-health, wrote out a commentary on the first chapter of the Quran in elegant Arabic covering 200 pages. It was called I‘j a zul Mas ih and was printed at the D iy a ’ul Islam Press on February 20th, 1901 (17th Ramadan 1318 A. H. ). It was posted to Mihr Ali Shah and others on February 23rd, 1901. The work was produced within the period fixed and contained many more pages than originally planned. It is not for me to say anything here about its high quality and literary character. But it is undoubtedly a standing reproach upon the learned divines who merely declared Ahmad as to be an infidel and themselves knew nothing of the essence of Islam. It would be wrong to suppose that they were utterly ignorant of the Arabic language; nor would it be right to imagine that they thought too highly of themselves, because they never otherwise ignored 180 Ahmad as. They wrote articles and books against him, they delivered lectures and speeches against him and they issued leaflets and concocted all sorts of plans against him. They left no 180 The Alman a r criticised Ahmad’s as publication I‘j a zul Mas ih ; the adverse comment was reproduced in the Chaudhw i Ĕ S ad i and the Shahna’- e-Hind (supplement) Meerut. Ahmad as had sent I‘j a zul Mas ih to the editor of Alman a r among other Arabic speaking people. The Editor of Man az ir , Cairo, however, paid high tributes to Ahmad as for his fluency and mastery of Arabic. So did the editor of AI-Hil a l , Cairo. The Alman a r was really upset on account of the teachings of Ahmad as regarding jihad. Ahmad as pointed out these things in his Ishtih a r dated, November 18th, 1901, and also pointed out that Egypt was not the home of Arabic.