A Verdict Required — Page xi
FOREWORD A rising star of the Aryah Samaj, Pandit Lekh Ram, challenged the Promised Messiahas, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to make any prophecy against him as a Sign of the truth of Islam. The challenge was accepted and the Promised Messiahas prayed for a Sign, after which he received a revelation from Almighty God, which was pub- lished for all to see. That prophecy indicated that Lekh Ram would die within a period of six years from 20 February 1893, and it was further supplemented with details from other revelations. Although the Promised Messiahas staked his entire reputation on these proph- ecies, Lekh Ram dismissed them as mere folly and continued to brazenly ridicule Islam and insult the Holy Prophet Muhammad sas. In fact, there were several details in these prophecies—such as Lekh Ram's death occurring on a day close to Eid—that made the incred- ulous Aryah Samaj find the prediction even more implausible. However, when Lekh Ram was murdered on 6 March 1897, the day after Eid, by someone who had been staying with him for weeks-fulfilling every minute detail in the prophecies-the Aryah Samaj were riddled with disbelief. They could not come to terms that such an unlikely prophecy could come true with an assassination in broad daylight right before their very eyes. They refused to accept it as a Divine Sign, accusing the Promised Messiahas of conspiracy to murder. This was widely publicized through the incendiary editorials of Hindu newspapers which provoked numerous death threats against the Promised Messiahas. Upon further instigation, the home of the Promised Messiah was crudely raided and ransacked by the police on 8 March 1897 in search of any implicating evidence. One of the officers, Police Inspector Sheikh Muhammad Bakhsh, would later say, 'When I