The Descent of the Messiah — Page 316
THE DESCENT OF THE MESSIAH had notes written by Muhammad Hassan. By chance, I had the book Saif-e-Chishtiyā'ī with me, and when I compared the notes to the book, I discovered that whatever Muhammad Hassan had written had been copied verbatim in his book by Pir Mehr Ali Shah. In other words, Pir Mehr Ali Shah's book is nothing more than those stolen notes. I was shocked by his dishonesty and theft and how he had attributed all those notes to himself. This was such a serious matter that if Mehr Ali had even a little sense of honour, he would have died upon the exposure of his theft instead of continuing to insolently and shamelessly take credit for the writing of another person, in which he lost his very life, and not giving even the slightest mention to the writing of the late unfortunate one. " Miyan Shahab-ud-Deen goes on to write: "I can prove this dishonesty and this shameful theft on the part of Mehr Ali to anyone who wishes to see it. " In fact, he himself sent me a signed postcard from Pir Mehr Ali Shah in which he admits to the plagiarism but then tries to offer the absurd excuse that he [Muhammad Hassan] had in his lifetime given him [Pir Mehr Ali] permission to publish the book under his own name. This excuse, however, is worse than the sin, because if he had permitted Mehr Ali to present himself as the author of the book after his death, then why did Mehr Ali not mention this permission in his book and why did he instead claim that he had written the book himself? It is obviously an act of dishonesty to attribute the works of a deceased person to oneself and not even acknowledge him. Since Muhammad Hassan fought against God, and made himself so helpless in accordance with the prophecy written on the title page of Ijāzul-Masih: انه تندم و تذمّر Surely he shall be humiliated and shall fail] then, as a demonstration of the prayer duel mentioned on page 199 of Ijāzul-Masih, brought ruin upon himself, it was essential to express gratitude to this valiant opponent. Honesty required 316