Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 132
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 132 express their agreement with it. For instance, Dr. A. George Baker of 404 Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia, USA, read about me in the Review of Religions, and wrote that he totally agrees with the views of this Imam, who has presented Islam to the world in exactly the same form as the Holy Prophet s as had done. And a woman from America wrote about me in her letter, ‘I love to look at his picture all the time; it appears to me to be exactly the pic- ture of the Messiah. ’ Similarly, an English lady, whose earlier name was Elizabeth and who is the wife of a friend of ours, has also entered this Jam a ‘at. Moreover, I constantly receive letters from America, England, Russia, and other countries, all of which I preserve in order to silence my bigoted critics. Not a single one of them has been discarded and day by day there seems to be a growing zeal among the people of these countries to establish contact with me. And the wonder is that they learn about our Jam a ‘at on their own and the Gracious and Merciful Lord is infusing their hearts with love and devotion and inspiring a good opinion to surge within them which shows that the people of Europe and America are preparing to enter our Jam a ‘at. They hold it in great esteem and are as happy to learn about it as one who—nearing death from hunger and thirst—suddenly discovers food and water. The fact is that in this age the image of Islam had been distorted by the raging tide of two extremes of aversion and exaggeration. There is one group that pays mere lip service to Islam. It no longer believes in the blessings of Islam at all, and not only denies miracles and prophe- cies but also ridicules them day and night. Failing to understand oth- erworldly phenomena, they treated these with denial and ridicule and wished to altogether abandon Islamic worship that actually opens the doors of spirituality. Thus, they were approaching very close to atheism and were Muslims only in name. They were completely ignorant of the distinguishing Signs of Islam which no followers of any other faith can ever make a part of their religion. This was the state of those who suffer from aversion. The other group had taken to the road of exaggeration by ascribing to their