The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 358
LETTER FROM MUHAMMAD HUSAIN BATĀLAWI of yours the last one-which you mentioned with so much enthusiasm at your Jalsa, the annual fair, to your followers and to those who are caught in your net, mostly illiterate common people, some selfish rationalists, and some mere spectators who had no interest in finding out the truth about you. You may prove that it was indeed a revelation. Now, if you are a brave man, come into the battlefield; oth- erwise, be ashamed of such tall talk. You have spoken of your sea of abundant mercy, swelling and becoming agitated, there too, you have adopted your age-old habits of lies and decep- tion. What do you have to do with mercy? Sympathy and kind- ness are entirely lacking in you. Your actions, behaviour, and words clearly bear witness that you are an extremely cruel and selfish, sinning and conceited man. Your tongue and the sword of Hajjaj bin Yusuf are twins. You have called your opponents and objectors-whom you used to address as 'my revered sirs or brothers' and whose honesty of purpose you had acknowledged-by names such as 'shameless,' 'faithless, 'savage animals, 'mad with rage', 'dog', 'a dog who will die on the numerical value of dog [52], 'mean, 'petty', and 'barbarous, etc. , etc. Is this indeed the meaning of mercy and human sympathy? You have misappropriated more than 10,000 rupees from the Muslims by way of payment for the book Barāhīn- e-Ahmadiyya and by tempting them with promises of accept- ance of prayers while the book Barāhīn is still in your brain, and those who had put faith in your prayers are still looking up expectantly towards you. Is this indeed what is called sympathy and kindness? When I had a good opinion of you, believing that you might possibly be a saint, I repeatedly requested you to let me stay with you and show me the Signs of [Divine] mercy and blessings. You never replied in the affirmative. Once, I had even 357