Readers would note in this book that I had, at one point, prophesied about Bishambar Das, a brother of Sharampat Khatri, that although he would not be acquitted outright in the criminal case in which he was implicated, the term of his imprisonment would be reduced by half.
Later when Bishambar Das was released after serving half the term of his imprisonment, as was intimated in the prophecy, his kin falsely announced that Bishambar Das had been acquitted. It was night-time and I had gone to our main mosque for offering Prayer when Ali Muhammad, a mullah, resident of Qadian, narrated it in the mosque that Bishambar Das had been acquitted and that he was being congratulated in the marketplace.
I was shocked when I heard the news and was rather apprehensive that the bigoted Hindus would now object and say: ‘You had prophesied that Bishambar Das would not be acquitted. Know now that he has, in fact, been acquitted!’ Under the stress of this grief, each rak‘at1 of the prayer felt as long as a year, and when I prostrated at the end of a rak‘at, my distress reached the extreme. Then, in that very state of prostration, God, addressing me aloud, said:
Meaning that, have no fear at all; you indeed are victorious.
After this, I waited as to how this prophecy would be fulfilled. But no Sign appeared. I enquired of the very same Sharampat over and over again if it was true that Bishambar Das had been acquitted. He would give the same answer: ‘Yes he has, in fact, been acquitted and why should I lie?’ In the village, anyone of whom I enquired, would invariably reply, ‘We too have heard that he has been acquitted.’
Meanwhile, six months or thereabouts passed. Mischievous people would mock and jeer as is their wont. But Sharampat did not mock or jeer which convinced me that he had behaved decently towards me on that occasion. Still I felt embarrassed in his presence, [thinking] how emphatically I had communicated to him the news of his brother’s non-acquittal! And now the situation had come to such a pass! Despite all this, I had firm faith in my God and I was certain that He would demonstrate some Sign of His providence and may be he would be apprehended again after acquittal. But I knew not that the very news of his acquittal was a mere fabrication. Then it so happened that one Tehsildar of Batala, Hafiz Hidayat ‘Ali whom I have mentioned earlier, came to Qadian at eight o’clock in the morning on an official visit to Qadian, for Qadian is part of Tehsil Batala. He came to our residence and had not yet dismounted his horse when a few Hindus, as is their wont, assembled to greet him, and Bishambar Das was among them. On seeing Bishambar Das, the Tehsildar said, ‘Bishambar Das, I was pleased to hear that you had been released from jail, but alas you were not acquitted.’ On hearing this, I fell in grateful prostration to God.
Immediately I summoned Sharampat and asked him why he had lied to me for so long that Bishambar Das had been acquitted and aggrieved me for nothing. He said he had to lie because of a consideration—namely, that his people are highly critical of even minor flaws when they choose to enter into new marital relationships, and it is very hard to obtain agreement from the girl’s side when someone is proven to be guilty of a wrongdoing. It was because of this consideration that he continued to misrepresent the facts and publicize this falsehood.
1 A single cycle of standing through prostration in the prescribed Islamic Prayer known as Salat. There are a set number of these cycles for each of the five daily Prayers. [Publisher]