A Present to His Royal Highness - The Prince of Wales — Page 7
7 with the teachings of the Holy Founder of the Movement they did not believe in the legality of religious wars. One of these was among the foremost men of learning in Afghanistan, and was held in such high esteem that he was selected to perform the coronation ceremony of the late Ameer Habeebullah Khan. He was most cruelly stoned to death under the orders of that Ameer, for no others reason except the one above stated. Mr. Frank A. Martin, who for several years held the post of Engineer-in-Chief to the Afghan Government, refers to this tragedy in his book entitled “Under the Absolute Amir” in the following words:— “As he (the martyr) preached that Mussulmans must regard Christians as brothers and not infidels, this would render useless the Amir’s chief weapon ‘Jehad’ (religious war) in case of English or Russian aggression. So the Amir when he heard of all this sent word to the Mulla to return and the Mulla did so, preaching the new religion as he came, and as soon as he was well within the boundaries of the country he was made prisoner and brought to Kabul. Here he was examined by the Amir, but Amir could find in the Mulla’s clever replies nothing…which would make him…worthy of death. ” “He was then sent for examination to Sardar Nasrullah Khan who is regarded as more than a Mulla in the knowledge of his religion, but the Prince could not convict the man out of his own mouth, and so a jury of twelve of the most learned Mullas was convened, and even their examination of the accused could elicit nothing on which the man might be killed, and they reported this to the Amir.