Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 71
THE REN AISSANCE OF ISLAM 71 my claims are false. But I believe firmly that God will surely not so determine and will not let me be ruined. If the divines to whom this challenge of mine is addressed fail to respond to it no seeker' after truth and no just person would approve of their attitude. Indeed they would look upon it with deep regret [Asmani Paisalah, pp. 16-21]. It. is indeed a matter of deep regret that none of his opponents to whom his challenge was addressed dared to enter the field against him. By their failure to do so they set a seal upon his truth. There have been countless instances in the life of Ahmad of the acceptance of prayer in a. remarkable and extraordinary manner. Many of them have been mentioned in his writings. We would here draw attention to the period of his retreat, which he spent in Hoshiarpur, at the end of which he announced that as a result of his supplications God Almighty, out of His pure grace and mercy, had conveyed to him the grand news of the birth of a son who would be equipped with moral, intellectual and spiritual qualities of the highest order. That son was born on 12 January 1889, and in his illustrious career he manifested all the great qualities that Divine revela- tion had indicated as his characteristics. We shall return to that aspect of the prophecy of 1886 in due course. One of the earliest revelations (Urdu) vouchsafed to Ahmad was: 'I shall carry thy message to the ends of the earth. ' We have described earlier the circumstances and con- ditions of his life at the time. When he received this revelation he did not possess, nor had access to, even elementary means that he could have utilized for the purpose of conveying his message within the Province in which Qadian was situated. Yet today his message has been conveyed to the ends of the earth and branches of the Movement founded by him are strung around the globe in many different countries. Had he been an impostor his name would have been forgotten alto- gether by this time as one of the unregretted and unmourned. The revelation found fulfilment through his earnest supplica- tions.