Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 191
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 191 his intellect ranged over a very wide expanse. He was in- terested in a variety of subjects and the range and depth of his scholarship surprised all those who came in contact with him. He was fond of books and had accumulated a very large store of them which included copies of many rare manuscripts which he had procured at great expense. Some idea of his all-embracing interest and scholarship may be gathered from the fact that, though his knowledge of English was elemen- tary, he had read the whole of Shakespeare in Arabic. He belonged to Bhera in the Shah pur district of the Pun- jab. In 1876 he was appointedPhysician-in-attendance upon His Highness the Maharaja of]ammu and Kashmir. He held this appointment till 1892. In 1884 he came to know ofHazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad through one of his announcements, and felt a strong urge to visit him. He travelled to Qadian and the moment he saw him he realized that he had been appointed by God for the revival of Islam. He offered to enter into the covenant of Ba'iat with him, but Hazrat Ahmad told him that he had had no direction from God to bind people to himself through such a covenant. Maulvi Sahib requested that if and when he should receive such a direction, he should give him the chance of being the first one to make the covenant. On his side Hazrat Ahmad conceived a very deep and high impression of him to which he gave expression sometime later in the following terms: Ever since I have been commissioned by God Almighty and have been revived by the Ever-Living and Self-Subsisting One, I have been eager to meet the special helpers of the faith. This eagerness is greater than the eagerness of a thirsty one for water. I supplicated God Almighty day and night: Lord who is my helper, for I am alone and am looked down upon? As my hands were lifted time after time in supplication and the atmosphere was filled with my prayer, God Almighty took note of my humility and heard my prayer and His mercy was roused and He bestowed upon me a sincere friend, who is the eye of my helpers and the acme of my friends who help me in the matter of the faith. His name, like his