The Truth Unveiled — Page 25
25 25 Isl Iamns terliolP are that after hearing my claim to be the Promised Messiah and coming to know that I reject their barbaric depictions of a Mahdi who would cause rivers of blood to flow in the earth, a person from among the clerics, by the name of Muhammad Husain , who is the editor of the periodical Isha’at-us-Sunnah and a resident of Batala, District Gurdaspur, issued an edict of disbelief against me and obtained the signatures of a number of other Muslim clerics. I was denounced as a heretic and an antichrist. This was to the extent that the edict stated that I was deserving of death; that it was lawful to usurp our wealth and to forcefully seize our women and marry them. All this was deemed proper; rather, it was consid - ered a means of divine reward. ✩ Both these edicts were recorded as such in an announcement issued on 29 Ramadan 1308 A. H. from the Haqqani Printing Press Ludhiana and on the back page of Sayf-e-Maslul published by Egerton Press Rawalpindi at the behest of Muhammad Husain. However, when no one was able to act upon these edicts out of fear of the British government, Muhammad Husain contrived another plan, ✭ which was to constantly injure my sentiments through extremely abusive invectives and hurtful words, as he has done so at various places in an 1898 issue of Isha’at-us-Sunnah. ✩ Note: In truth, Muhammad Husain of Batala believes in the future ad - vent of a violent Mahdi but he only deceives the government by saying that he holds no such belief. Yet time and again his real beliefs have come to light. If the government were to gather the other Muslim clerics and ask them about his beliefs regarding the Mahdi, his misrepresenta - tion to the government and the actual belief, which he expresses to his brethren, i. e. other scholars , would soon become apparent. —Author ✭ See Isha’at-us-Sunnah, no. 5, vol. 18, p. 146, 154–155. —Author