The Descent of the Messiah — Page 317
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMADAS that Pir Mehr Ali Shah should have written clearly that this book was not his but had been written by Muhammad Hassan and that he was but a plagiarist, rather than deceptively attribute the writing to himself in the book's preface. In fact, he should have offered a portion of the earning from the book as living expenses for the widow of the unfortunate deceased. Since he had announced, merely as a boast, that he had distributed this book free of charge, it was necessary that he should have written at the beginning of the book that, even though he was giving up his own share of the proceeds, since the book was in fact the writing of Muhammad Hassan and he had only attributed it to himself through plagiarism, therefore, he should have demanded four annas per copy to support his widow, so that she may be saved from the calamity of grinding poverty. If he had adopted this way and had received four annas per copy and given them to the afflicted widow, he would have somewhat saved himself from this disgrace. However, it was essential that he should commit this shameful theft so that the word of God would be fulfilled that was vouchsafed to me many years ago: إِنِّي مُهِينٌ مَنْ أَرَادَاهَا نَتَكَ Meaning, "I shall humiliate him who intends to humiliate thee. " In his book Saif-e-Chishtiyā'ī, this man accused me of plagiarism, claiming that out of the nearly twenty thousand sen- tences of I jāzul-Masīḥ, there are a few that are the same as some well-known Arab proverbs or sentences from Maqāmāt-e-Hariri that were coincidental. Now his conduct has been so exposed that he has attributed the entire manuscript of Muhammad Has- san to himself without even acknowledging the unfortunate one. Is this not a sign of God that he accused me of the theft of a few sentences but was himself proven to be the thief of an entire 317