Why Did They Become Muslims

the Word of Allah and that the Christians’ Holy Book, which they
call the Bible, is a history book which was written afterwards. In
addition, Idhâh-ul-merâm, written in Turkish by Hâdji Abdullah
bin Destân Mustafa Efendi of Bosnia (d. 1303 [1885 C.E.]) and
printed in 1288 [1871 C.E.] in the printhouse owned by Yahyâ
Efendi, who was the Shaikh of the convent of Mustafa Pâsha
situated immediately outside of Edirnekap›, is registered with
number 771 at the Nâfiz Pâsha section of the library of
Süleymâniyye. It proves with various documents that Christianity
is a religion mangled into utter heresy. Another book we have
borrowed from is Iz-hâr-ul-Haqq, by Rahmatullah Efendi of India.
That book delivered the severest blow on Christianity and
divulged the fact that it was a groundless religion.
It is written as follows on the three hundred and ninety-sixth
page of the Persian book Maqâmât-i-ahyâr: Fander, a Protestant
priest, was very famous among Christians. The Protestant
missionary organization selected a commission of priests under
the presidency of Fander and sent them to India. Their task was to
try and spread Christianity. In 1270 [1854 C.E.], scientific debates
were held between that commission and Rahmatullah Efendi, a
great Islamic scholar of Delhi. The most heated of those debates
took place sometime during the month of Rabî’ul-awwal and on
the eleventh of Rajab. By the end of the long discussions, Fander
was altogether beaten out. Four years later, when the British
forces invaded India, [after which they perpetrated horrendous
persecutions and torments on Muslims, and especially on the
Sultan and the men of religion], Rahmatullah Efendi migrated to
Mekka-i-mukarrama. In 1295 [1878 C.E.] the same commission of
missionaries came to Istanbul and launched a campaign
propagating Christianity. The Grand Vizier (Sadr-i-a’zam) Khayrud-dîn
Pâsha invited Rahmatullah Efendi to Istanbul. Seeing
Rahmatullah Efendi as their opponent was enough to frighten
away the missionaries. This time the debate was no more than a
brief act of formality, and the missionaries, unable to answer the
scholar’s questions, took to their heels. The Pâsha congratulated
the great scholar warmly and showed him great kindness,
requesting him to write a booklet telling about how he refuted and
beat down the Christians. So he began to write his book Iz-hâr-ul-
Haqq in Arabic on the sixteenth of Rajab and, completing it by
the end of Zi’l-hijja, he left for Mekka. Khayr-ud-dîn Pâsha had
the book translated into Turkish and then had both versions
printed. It was later translated into European languages, and
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