A Verdict Required — Page 51
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD AS 51 these events, and even if I were to say tens of millions, it would certainly not be an exaggeration. At this moment, I cannot refrain from emphasising that the greater part of my life since the time Barāhīn-e-Ahmadiyya was compiled until now, has passed under [the weight of] these par- ticular three fitnas. No one can prove that alongside these three fitnas, there was another fitnah that should be called the fourth fitnah. Nor can anyone claim that these fitnas were not three but rather two. In short, the number three has become so definitive that it can neither be decreased nor increased. Even a stranger, when sitting down to write my biography and sifting through the events of my life for how many such unusual uprisings teem- ing with fury from various groups had been instigated against me from the time of Barāhīn-e-Ahmadiyya to the present which should be referred to by the term fitnah, he will not need any deep reflection to realize the fact that there were only three such disturbances which rise up to the level of a fitnah and manifested with full fury. The first [fitnah] was the attack by the Christian missionar- ies in the case of Atham, who, concealing the facts, stirred up a storm of allegations of falsehood throughout Punjab and India, insofar as the primary aim in their hearts was to somehow find an opportunity to accuse Islam of falsehood and malign it. ¹* Hence, 1. The Christian priests also employed numerous stratagems for Atham to somehow have me punished through the courts by filing a lawsuit against me. However, since Atham had in effect died due to the awe of truth, he paid no attention to this. On the contrary, he published a clear statement in Nür Afshān that the agitation against me by the Christian priests had transpired against his will. -Author