The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 284
ARGUMENT FOR SAYYED AHMAD KHAN 283 of his unwavering devotion, determination, and fine authorship, would be so quick to make such statements that are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Furqān-e-Hamid [the Praiseworthy Discrimination; i. e. Quran]. I would have been so pleased if Sayyed Şahib-instead of making adverse and unjustified remarks against me and keeping silent after declaring a claimant of Divine communion to be insane and irra- tional-had demanded the arguments in support of my claim, as is customary with truth-loving and fair-minded people. Then, if I was in error, a clear verdict should have been given upon that error, and if, his revered self was in error, then he would have had a blessed opportunity to correct himself. In any case, the public would have benefited from this affair, and the daily controversies on which so much is being writ- ten these days would have been settled. But I feel saddened again and again that Sayyed Şāhib did not give so much as the slightest consider- ation to this straight path. I have contemplated much over the reason for his omitting to do so. It does not seem to be the case that Sayyed Şahib is averse to being thrown into controversy with all and sundry, for my claims are not ordinary claims. Rather, they are matters that are the subject of talk among hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. Apart from this, Sayyed Şahib makes a general denial of revealed prophecies and miracles, and as far as I can gather from his writings, even the Prophets are not outside the scope of his denial. It would have been much better, therefore, for him to get his doubts resolved on this occasion from me who not only believes in prophetic revelation as a matter of faith, but actually lays claim to have experienced it. In the event I was unable to substantiate my claim, I would have been ready to suffer whatever penalty Sayyed Şāhib prescribed, and, if on the other hand, I was right, Sayyed Şahib, at the time when his star of life was about to set, should not only have conceded that I was right, but should have also recovered his faith in prophetic revelation which he had lost. My dear sir, it is the path to ruin to ignore the voice of a crier who is inviting towards the truth, to look at him with contempt, to make