The Need for the Imam — Page 68
68 vailed over all others, but this victory had been fore- told in a prophecy that had been published earlier in an announcement. If only Atham 64 had lived, Miy an Muhammad Husain Batalvi and his ilk would have some reason to indulge in some false interpretations, but Atham, with his hasty death, was the undoing of these people. He lived as long as he kept quiet, but the moment he opened his mouth he was overtaken by the condition stipulated in the revelation. God Almighty granted him respite in keeping with the conditions laid down in the revelation, but the moment he violate this con- dition, he was seized with terrible illness and it quickly put an end to his life. But since some of the ignorant Maulaw i s remained impervious to this hu- miliation, and, out of sheer mischief, regarded the conditional prophecy as if it was wholly uncondi- tional, they did not draw any honest conclusion from the obvious panic and silence which had taken hold of Atham during the time specified in the prophecy. Nor did they draw any lesson from the fact that I invited Atham to take an oath, and he was also incited [by his 64 Abdullah Atham: A prominent Christian cleric and preacher, who in his book Andr u na-e-Bible used vile language against the Holy Prophet sa. [Publishers]