The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 342
BATALĀWI'S STATEMENTS & THEIR RESPONSES 341 Another one of these incidents occurred as follows: Approximately fifteen or sixteen years ago, or perhaps a little more, my humble self dispatched an article for printing in a press owned by a Christian by the name of Rallia Rām, who was also a lawyer and lived in Amritsar. He was also the owner and editor of a newspaper. This article was in sup- port of Islam and was a response to the Aryas. The article was sent in a postal packet open on both sides and I also placed a letter in the packet along with the article. Because this letter contained statements in sup- port of Islam and in refutation of other faiths and insisted that the arti- cle might be printed, the Christian [editor] became upset on account of religious differences. And quite by chance he got this opportunity to make a hostile attack because the placing of such a separate letter in a postal packet was an offence under the law which my humble self was not aware of at all. And such a crime was punishable under the postal laws with a fine of up to 500 rupees or imprisonment up to six months. Accordingly, he became an informant and got the postal authorities to file a case against me. Even before I received intimation of this case, Allah the Exalted showed me in a vision that Rallia Rām, the lawyer, had sent a serpent to me so that I might be bitten by it, but I fried the serpent as one fries a fish and sent it back to him. I know that this was an indication that the decision in that case by virtue of the way it came about, might set a precedent that would prove helpful to lawyers [in such cases]. In short, I was summoned to the headquarters of the District of Gurdaspur for this crime and all the lawyers with whom I consulted regarding the case, advised that there was no other way than to employ falsehood and counselled that I should make a statement to the effect that I had not put the letter in the packet and that Rallia Rām himself might have put the letter in the packet. Moreover, the lawyers said to me by way of assurance that by giving such a statement the case would be decided upon by witnesses and that I would be acquitted by produc- ing two false witnesses. Other than this the case was very difficult and there was no hope of my deliverance, but I told all of them that I did