Life of Ahmad — Page 799
as MIRACLE OF THE MESSIAH as 799 to come forward by August 22nd, 1900, it would be understood that God had farsaken them all and that the silence of his enemies was a heavenly sign in favour of Ahmad as. The names of eighty-six prominent mullahs were appended to the Ishtih a r and the rest were all invited in general. On July 9th, Maulaw i Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan reminded Mihr Ali Shah and also challenged him to hold a debate with him about the life or death of Jesus as , the subject of Mihr Ali Shah’s book. Ahmad as issued an Urdu leaflet ( Arba'in No. 1 ) on July 23rd, 1900, from which I quote below. He declared that it was not a Mub a hala nor was it meant to be a dreadful prophecy for any opponent. He also announced that he would go on publishing leaflets until the limit of 40 178 was reached or until an opponent came out in good faith in the field of contest to show a sign: 'To do my duty I have made up my mind today that I should publish 40 Ishtih a rs to invite the attention of opponents and disbelievers so that on the day of judgment it may be a proof of the fact that I have done all that I was sent to do. Most humbly and respectfully therefore do I send this Ishtih a r to the learned people of Muslims, Christians, Pandits, Hiudus and A ryas, and I declare that I have been sent to 178 Ahmad’s as idea was to issue small leaflets but the first four leaflets increased in volume, so he relinquished the original idea and declared that the proposed 40 leaflets were completed in four only.