The Noble Son — Page 10
– FULFILMENT OF A GRAND PROPHECY 10 signs shall begin from the start of September 1885 till the end of September 1886. ’ 8 Lala Sharampat Rai (a member of the Arya-Samaj of Qadian) had these letters printed in Amritsar in the form of public announcements at Riyaz-e-Hind Press with the following three persons as witnesses: Maulawi Abdullah Sannauri, Shahab-ud-Din Theh Ghulam Nabi Waala and Mir Abbas Ali. 9 After this, the Promised Messiah as proceeded to Hoshiarpur, cutting himself off completely from the public and prayed to his All-Powerful God in extreme humility, agony and self-abasement. He sought such a sign of His succour and assistance that would be beyond human powers. * Announcement of 20 February 1886 After this the Promised Messiah as published a public announcement on 20 February 1886, which was printed in a supplement of Riyaz-e- Hind dated 1 March 1886. In this, he stated: * It appears from the narration of (late) Hazrat Maulawi Abdullah Sahib Sanauri ra , written in Seeratul-Mahdi , that the Promised Messiah as had decided in 1884 to go to Sujanpur to devote forty days continuously to worship in isolation and this revelation that, ‘your purpose will be achieved in Hoshiarpur’, was also received at this time. Thus, it is not necessarily the case that the Promised Messiah as undertook the journey to Hoshiarpur because of the request from the Hindus for a sign. But this can be said to have been an additional cause for the undertaking of the forty days of worship in solitude. [J. D. S]