The Afghan Martyrs — Page 79
brother, along with some other soldiers, was posted to guard the spot. The same evening there was torrential rain preceded by a terrific dust storm. All the soldiers on duty took shelter on a nearby veranda and while on the veranda, my brother and the other soldiers saw the spectacle described below. A column of lightning emerged from above the pile of stones that covered the martyr and began to rise towards the sky whilst a similar column began to descend from the skies. Eventually the two shafts met and appeared to be just one tall column of lightning from the earth extending all the way up to Heaven and the entire surrounding area was then brightly illuminated. This scenario lasted for a short while but the hearts of the soldiers began to sink and they seemed terribly frightened. They said, 'Obviously the martyred person was a sage and a friend of the Almighty. "1 (AI Fazal19th September 1928) Martin who was also an eye witness says: "About nine o'clock at night the day the moullah was killed, a great storm of wind suddenly rose and raged with violence for half an hour, and then stopped as suddenly as it came. Such a wind at night was altogether unusual so the people said that this was the passing of the soul of the moullah. Then cholera came, and, according to former outbreaks, another visitation was not due for four years to come, and this was also regarded as part of the fulfillment of the moullah's prophecy and hence the great fear of the Amir and the prince, who thought they saw in all this their own death, and it accounts also for the prince losing control of himself when his favourite wife died. The murdered moullah was a man with a large and powerful following, and the two moullahs who gave the verdict for his death lived in constant fear of the retaliation of his followers, who had sworn to avenge him. One of them got cholera, and almost died of it. 79