Life of Ahmad — Page 456
GURU NANAK WAS A MUSLIM as 456 reply to this Ahmad as issued a leaflet on April 18th, 1897, in which he referred to historical evidence on the point; at the same time he declared that he had seen the Guru in a vision and was assured by him that he regarded Islam as the true religion. If, however, Rajinder Singh insisted upon what he had published, then he should come forward to declare the same in a public meeting under a most solemn oath, so that God might give His judgment 109 in the matter. Rajinder Singh, however, was not prepared for this and nothing was heard again about the matter. Mr. Thomas Patrick Hughes, B. D. , M. R. A. S. has published a Dictionary of Islam (W. H. Allen & Co. , London, 1895) and it is a significant fact that he has included in this work an article on Sikhism. In its Preface (p. vi) it is said that: 'Sikhism has been treated as a sect of Islam. ' The scholarly article has been written by Mr. Frederic Pincott, M. R. A. S. He says: "From these old books (the Janam Sakhis ) we learn that, in early life, Nanak, although a 109 Ahmad as did not know of any other way by which he could convince people of the truth of Islam and his own mission than to leave the matter finally in the hands of God. But the world was not prepared for this and the real reason seems to be that people had ceased to believe in God. They had no faith in Him. Even his own co-religionists were no better. Therefore he issued a leaflet dated May 19th, 1397, in which he addressed the mullahs by name in a final manner. He pointed out that his movement was spreading in spite of all opposition but that his heart was sore vexed at the internal dissenssions which had weakened Islam to the extreme. He suggested that they should all agree to pray to God that He might give His judgment by bringing disgrace upon the party which was wrong. But the mullahs would not accept this.