Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 349
349 ment but would also be safe from the oppression of the minor local officials and the public. 173 So far I have related the condition of the Ahmadis in Afghanistan, but as will appear from what follows, the condition of the Ahmadis in India is no better. It is true that under the British government no one dare openly put Ahmadis to death, but short of death they have been persecuted in diverse ways. They have been made the victims of cheating, trickery, false- hood and other similar practices. They are also sub- jected to diverse forms of physical persecution and they bear all these troubles with cheerfulness and resignation. Death is a great trial but that which sorely taxes the patience of a man is trouble that approaches slowly and continues for long. The Indian Ahmadis have had their full share of this latter kind of persecution. A vast majority of the followers of the Promised Messiah as have had to endure such persecution. There are many whose bodies bear marks of the beatings received by them for the sake of Ahmadiyyat. Many have been forcibly turned out of their homes and dispossessed of their properties and belongings. 173 It was, however, again in 1924, same year as that of the first publication of this book, that another Ahmadi, Maulaw i Ni‘mat Ullah Khan, was stoned to death in Afghanistan. This sentence was pronounced upon him by the Afghan government on finding him 'guilty' of preaching Ahmadiyyat in the country. Eye-witness accounts relate that, as this martyr of Islam was dug in the ground up to his waist for being stoned, he was again advised by the authori- ties to renounce his faith in order to save his skin. Maulaw i Ni‘mat Ullah Khan rejected this proposal and reiterated that under no conditions he could give up the truth with which God had blessed him through the Promised Messiah as. (Ed. )