The Descent of the Messiah — Page 70
THE DESCENT OF THE MESSIAH and effortlessly able to write, it would be a miracle nonetheless for them to immediately and eloquently express scholarly, intel- lectual, and factual matters in vibrant and refined passages, even if ten thousand sentences of other people's work appear in their writing in appropriate places. Can an ignorant simpleton do the same? If he can, then why is it that, despite the passage of such a long time, Pir Mehr Ali Shah has been unable to produce the like of Ijāzul-Masih? The most he could do was to point out a few sentences-out of a book of two hundred pages, consisting of four thousand lines and twelve and a half chapters that ap- pear similar to or coincide with some famous proverbs or phrases from Maqāmāt or other such sources. ¹ Tell me, what great feat has he accomplished by doing this? A fair-minded person can understand that if a person had not been able to produce even a few pages similar to Ijāzul-Masih after such a long respite and in seclusion, would this person have been able to write anything in the public contest at Lahore? A frail old man who cannot stand up even with support could hardly be expected to stand up without any help. Be sure that Pir Mehr Ali Shah is covering his ignorance with the help of lies, and that he is not just a liar but a blatant liar. I will never forget his previous lie, which he has also reiterated in his book that, “I came to Lahore as promised, but you did not venture out of Qadian”. However, those who have seen his announcement can, if they so wish, testify that he evaded the contest with great cunning. Was it honest of Pir Mehr Ali Shah to write in his announcement that: "I have arrived in Lahore to compete with you in writing the Tafsir in eloquent Ar- 1 He himself was unable to write even a few sentences as a fault-finding ex- ercise. Instead, he resorted to stealing them from the notes of Muhammad Hassan, who had himself died while attempting to nitpick in this manner. A detailed account of this will be provided shortly. (Author) 70