The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 181
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI. AN INTELLECTUAL MIRACLE g. In December 1895, Hadhrat Ahmad the Promised Messiah proposed that an all religions conference be held at Qadian for three days in which learned representatives of all religions should participate. He announced that one important condition would be that all religious scholars must explain the excellence of their respective religions based upon their scriptures and not give offence to other religions by criticising and attacking them. He volunteered to be the host of such a conference bearing all expenses. This was a great proposal for the inter-faith dialogue by Hadhrat Ahmad. But his opponents declined. They did not like the idea of a conference under auspices of Hadhrat Ahmad, for selfish reasons. . However, later on this idea of conference was taken up by one Hindu ascetic Swami Shugan Chandra and the Conference of. Great Religions was convened at Lahore on 26, 27 and 28 December 1896. The condition proposed by Hadhrat Ahmad was followed that the speakers must not indulge in criticizing or attacking other religions. They were all invited to read their theses about the following five topics. 1. The physical, moral and spiritual condition of man 2. The state of man after death 3. The object of man's life on earth and the means for attaining the same 4. The effect of actions in this life and the next 5. What are the means for the attainment of spiritual knowledge?. Hadhrat Ahmad was also invited. He welcomed it and he readily agreed to write a paper for this conference. When he finished writing he received revelation that his paper will be declared supreme over all other papers. He wrote a poster about it which was distributed before the conference was held. He wrote: 181