The Miracle of Ahmad — Page 170
170 HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD arrived in Qadian on 2 November 1902, it occurred to me that if I would ask my opponents to produce the like of I jāzul-Masih, they might say-as they always look for excuses-that in their estimation the book was not prepared in seventy days' time, as Maulawī Abu Sa'id Muhammad Husain had said about my speech at Mahotso, that it had been written prior to the convention and was written after much thought over a long period of time. So, I thought that this time too if they say that the book I'ʻjāzul-Masīḥ has not been written in seventy days, rather in seventy months, then in the eyes of the general public the matter will become dubi- ous. Over the next few days I remained quite anxious about what I should do. Eventually, on the evening of 6 November 1902, God put into my heart the notion that I should compose a qasidah [an Arabic ode] regarding the debate at Mudh, for the time of the composition of the qaşīdah is definitely clear and categorical, as no one can deny the fact that a debate was held at Mudh on 29th and 30th October, that on 2nd November my companions arrived back in Qadian, and that on the 7th of November 1902, I visited the court of Munshi Nasir-ud-Din, the judge at the court in Batala, to give my testimony in a case. I had probably composed a verse or two on my way to Batala, but I started composing the qaşīdah with full attention only on 8 November 1902 and finished the Arabic verses and the Urdu treatise in five days. Therefore, no doubt or suspicion was left regarding the time-frame in which the qaşīdah was composed, for the qaşīdah and the associated Urdu treatise speak of the details of the debate that was held on 29th and 30th October at Mudh. Hence, if the qasidah and the related Urdu treatise had not been prepared within this short span of time, and were prepared