With Love to the Muslims of the World — Page 13
13 one may not find another example of the entire Muslim umma joining their forces against one single Muslim community, it is not correct to claim that the entire Mus- lim umma has remained united even on the interpretations of the fundamental beliefs. Again it is wrong to conceive that no Muslim saints and scholars have ever been treated with such uncompromising hostility before as the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam a‘ at and as his adherents are being treated today. In fact, any impartial student of Islamic history is bound to draw the tragic conclusion that, in every period and every century of Islamic history the ulema of the time always picked as their target, some contemporary saints and scholars and treated them with such cruelty that even reading such accounts makes one shudder. Again it is a matter of great wonder that these persecuted scholars of each century later on emerged in the sight of posterity as the greatest sons of Islam of their respective times. Following are some examples to prove the case in point: 1 st Century Hijra The third Caliph, Hadrat ‘Uthm a n, the fourth Caliph Hadrat ‘Al i and Imam H ussain (may Allah be pleased with them) were all branded as heretics and apostates by the obsequious section of the ulema. 2 nd Century Hijra The great Sufi Junaid of Baghdad, Muhammad AI-Faq i h, Imam M a lik Bin Anas and Imam Sh a fi‘ i , all were learned