Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 151
151 powers, secure its fulfilment? Qadian is a small town where it does not seem to be the concern of the Gov- ernment or of any other body to pay any attention to sanitation. People who live in Europe or America can scarcely conceive the filthy condition of the streets of an Indian village. It may be compared to that of the vil- lages of Syria where plague has, for a long time, made its home. The house of the Promised Messiah as was situated in the centre of the village and was on all sides surrounded by other houses, so that no special sanitary measures could be adopted, nor could a constant supply of fresh air be secured. The house was situated at a level lower than the rest of the village and the sewage of half the village passed under its walls. The village pond was only fifty yards away in which accumulated surplus rain water and other refuse of the town, and as there was no outlet from it the process of decomposition and putre- faction were endemic. (This pond has now been partly filled up). It was nothing short of a miracle for a man living under these conditions to assert that he and those who dwelt within the walls of his house would be secure against plague. This assertion, if borne out, would be an irrefutable proof of the ownership and mastership of God. But thus assurance of immunity was proved in circumstances much more alarming than those detailed above. At the time when this revelation was published, plague had not yet visited the neighbourhood of Qadian. If that tract had continued immune, it might have been said that the soil or the atmosphere of Qadian possessed such properties that the plague germs could not flourish therein, and that the Promised Messiah as had published