Noah's Ark: An Invitation to Faith — Page 90
HAZRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD (AS) fondly remembered. It was his good fortune that God chose him for this task. It must be extremely trying for a judge to confront two parties, one of whom is a missionary for his religion and the other holds a belief that is at variance with his own, especially when the judge has been informed that the latter holds stark religious differences. But this courageous Pilate resiliently took on this test, despite the fact that he was shown passages from my books, which owing to a lack of erudition, were interpreted as unduly hostile to Christianity. But, despite this opposing effort, his facial expressions remained impassive, for his enlightened conscience had already arrived at the truth. And because he pure- heartedly sought the truth behind the case, God helped him and revealed upon his heart the truth, and as a result the reality was disclosed to him. He was gladdened for having been able to find the path of justice. Indeed, it was only due to his fairness that he gave me a seat just as was given to the plaintiff. But, when Maulvi Muhammad Husain came to provide his testimony against me in the way that the High Priest had testified, he found that I was seated. As such, his eyes did not look upon me in the state of disgrace that he so desired. At this, he thought to himself that equal treatment would have to suffice and so he requested a chair for himself from our Pilate. However, he reprimanded him and loudly proclaimed that neither he nor his father had ever been given the right of a chair [in any government institution] and that there was no official instruction to provide him a seat. The 90