In plain words
So every single person used to be terrified. That day too, everyone ran off just so. After a while Bābā called them all: ‘Come, come.’ By the time they came back, Bābā had gone inside. Balvant Kaijāk saw Bābā go inside. He went inside too. But Bābā was not to be seen there. In Bābā's place there was a child with three heads. Earlier Bābā had said, ‘I am in the pains of childbirth,’ had He not! There a child with three heads appeared, like Dattātreya. Balavant saw this form of Dattātreya. He called all the others. All went inside and saw. They closed their eyes. At once Bābā appeared there again. From then on everyone thought, ‘Bābā is God, an Avatāra of Dattātreya.’
Gradually many kinds of debate began: ‘Is Bābā a brāhmin, a Hindu or a Muslim?’ One minute Bābā would say, ‘Allāh Mālik, Allāh Mālik.’ At another time He would cry out like this: ‘Rāma Mālik, Kṛṣṇa Mālik, Dattātreya Mālik.’ Who is Bābā? A Hindu? A Muslim? Doubts like this came to many. When Bābā said ‘Allāh Mālik’, all the Muslims would gather round Him. To look at Bābā's dress, He was every bit like a Muslim. So many Muslims used to come and take refuge in Him. In the same way, when He uttered the names of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, Hindus too would come and offer incense, lamps and food. As this went on, the Muslims did not like the tradition of the Hindus and the Hindus did not like the ways of the Muslims, and hatred grew between them.
One day Mahalsāpati was sitting near Bābā, doing some service. He was the priest of the Khaṇḍobā temple in the village of Shirdi. So he was a Hindu. Because he had come and sat near Bābā, all the Muslims came carrying sticks and beat Mahalsāpati.