An Introduction to the Hidden Treasures of Islam — Page 334
334 Background Stating the raison d’etre of this book, why the Promised Messiah as wrote this book, Hadrat Jal a l-ud-D i n Shams ra provided this background of the projected debate. He describes that Mudd is a village in the District of Amritsar. It was the home town of the brother of a Companion of the Promised Messiah as , Mi an Muhammad Y u suf. When Mi an Sahib’s brother, Mi an Muhammad Ya‘q u b, became Ahmad i , it caused an uproar in the whole village of Mudd, he faced an opposition and it went to the extent of boycotting him. Mi an Muhammad Y u suf came from Mardan to help his brother and it was eventually settled that a debate be held between the Ahmadis and Maulav i San a ull a h Amritsar i who was fanning a lot of agitation against the Promised Messiah as in the District. This debate was to be held on October 29, 30, 1902. Syed Muhammad Sarwar Sh a h and Maulav i Abdull a h Kashmiri were to represent the Ahmadis at the debate, and Maulav i San a ull a h the other party. The debate was held in the open under a banyan tree. There were only three Ahmadis at the debate and over 600 non-Ahmadis were present. Maulav i San a ull a h Amritsar i fanned the feelings of the villagers by asserting that the Ahmadis were afraid of debates. As the tide had turned against him, he tried to spread this poison in a clever manner, so that after the Maghrib prayer, there would be a full-scale riot instead of a debate, because he found there were only three or four Ahmadis against overwhelming majority of non-Ahmadis. A tension had built up and everybody felt the situation had become very explosive. When the terms were being settled Maulav i San a ull a h insisted that nobody should speak for more than 20 minutes despite the protest by Syed Sarwar Sh a h that the time fixed (20 minutes) was woefully inadequate. The debate began on the issue whether Jesus Christ had died or was he alive in heaven. This debate continued for two days - October 29 and 30. The forceful speech of Syed Muhammad Sarwar Sh a h on the fact that Jesus died like other human beings, created such an