The Descent of the Messiah — Page 74
THE DESCENT OF THE MESSIAH The mubāhalah prayer is still written in his own hand on the margin of the book. This prayer was heard immediately, and he fell seriously ill, became delirious, and went to the grave within a few days, even as his book remained unpublished. The same ma- terial was then published by Pir Mehr Ali under his own name, and it was stolen from the man who, having incurred Divine wrath according to his own request in the form of the mubāhalah prayer, had wished against his own life and passed away. Sadly, even after the appearance of such a great miracle, Pir Mehr Ali did not desist from his mischief and stole the unholy property of the person who had died as a result of his mubāhalah prayer. I will now list some of the other objections and suspicions advanced by Pir Mehr Ali Shah-which are in fact those of the deceased Muhammad Hassan-with their answers, and expect that the readers will give fair testimony as to whether these objec- tions have been made with honesty, piety, and righteousness or if they have been written with dishonesty, impiety, deceit, injus- tice, and prejudice. Here I will quote all his objections verbatim so as to avoid any suspicions that may arise from summarising them. They are as follows: for men or women who are suspected of a crime, but there is no witness on whose basis they can be sentenced, that they take this kind of oath that entails a curse, the result being the same as the testimony of a witness, i. e. punishment and Divine wrath. (Author) 74