Three in One — Page 179
further qualified in the context of the statement as of headache and cold feet syndrome] in that year, he did not fast throughout the Ramadhan and paid the fidya. On the commencement of the Ramadhan during the second year, he started to observe the fast but after eight or nine days, the attacks began again and therefore he stopped and paid the fidya. The following year, he had fasted for ten or eleven days but on account of these attacks, he had to stop fasting again and he paid the fidya. The year after, it was his thirteenth fast when he had an attack around the time of Maghrib and he had to break it. He did not fast during the rest of the. Ramadhan that year but he paid the fidya. After this, he observed all the fasts during Ramadhans, except during the last two or three years before his death. '241. Why may one ask Abdul Hafeez has he, rather than extract a few sentences only from this passage recorded in Hadhrat Mirza. Bashir Ahmad's Seeratul Mahdi, not cited the complete passage? Is it because the masses would have found out that. Hadhrat Ahmadas had a perfectly valid reason for not observing the fast on account of his ill health - a concession given to him by the Holy Quran when it states: 'O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may [learn] self restraint, - [Fasting] for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number [should be made up] from days later. For those who can do it [with hardship], is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent. " 1242. What does Abdul Hafeez find so objectionable about Hadhrat. Ahmadas not fasting during a period of illness when God. Almighty, in His wisdom, has permitted such concession. Did the author of Two in One not, when he allegedly read this 241. Ahmad, [Hadhrat] Mirza Bashir. Seeratul Mahdi, vol. 1, pp. 51/2 242. Al Quran 2. 183/84. English Translation, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, p. 72 179