The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page xxviii
tion of the great work in laudatory terms. In consequence of the publication of the successive parts of Brāhīn-e- Ahmadiyya, its revered author had become the most re- nowned and honoured personage in the contemporary world of Islām. With the announcement of his claim that he had been appointed the Promised Messiah and Mahdī, a storm of bitter and abusive opposition was let loose against him from all directions. He was condemned as an apostate from Islām, who had put himself outside the pale of Is- lām and all sorts of opprobrious epithets were applied to him. He was called Antichrist and it was declared that his life was forfeit. In the estimation of the Muslim divines, he fell utterly from grace and no protestation or explana- tion on his part served to soften the bitterness of their hostility towards him. This continued all through the rest of his life, and though over ninety years have passed since his demise, he and his daily expanding Community continue to be the sharpest thorn in the sides of the Mus- lim divines. Bitter persecution breaks out from time to time against the members of his Community, but this only serves to furnish greater publicity to the Commu- nity, in consequence of which increasing numbers of reasonable and reflecting people continue to identify themselves with the Community. One of the earliest revelations vouchsafed to Hadrat Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad was: میں تیری تبلیغ کو زمین کے کناروں تک پہنچاؤں گا۔ [Urdu]:I shall carry thy message to the ends of the earth.