Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 159
Christianity Today 159 help. The books, epistles and treatises which he authored number around one hundred and ten. * 5 It was not just his literary works that won him such wide rec- ognition in the entire sub-continent but also his spiritual qualities played a vital role in winning him wide-scale fame and respect. In this twilight of his rising and widening reputation he was commissioned by God to bear the grave responsibility of being the Reformer of the latter days who was expected and awaited by almost all religions of the world. From the Muslims’ point of view he was Al-Mahdi as , the divinely guided reformer. From the viewpoint of both the Christians and the Muslims he was raised to the status of the Promised Messiah as to fulfil the prophecies of the second advent of Jesus Christ as. However, this appointment cost him all the fame and popularity that he had earned previously. Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the divinely appointed spiritual reformer of the age, was abandoned forthwith and rejected not only by the followers of other faiths but more strongly so by the Muslims of India themselves, the people whose cause he had been so competently and vehemently pleading. It was practically a new spiritual birth for him. As he had come alone to the world so he was to start a new life as a single man in the world of religion, practically abandoned by all around him. But God did not abandon him. He was repeatedly assured by * 5 This count does not includes the number of letters which he wrote to his followers and others and which run into thousands (Publisher)