The Essence of Islam – Volume IV — Page 3
Family and Personal Background 3 respected chieftains and rulers and that they had to leave their country on account of some tribal rivalry and conflict. On their arrival here, the reigning mon- archs granted them several villages by way of estate and they established a permanent state in this neighbourhood. In the early days of Sikh rule, my great grandfather Mirzā Gul Muhammad was a well-known chieftain in this area and his estate comprised eighty-five vil- lages. In consequence of continuous raids by the Sikhs, he lost several of his villages and yet such was his generosity that, as a gesture of sympathy, he gifted several of his remaining villages to some Muslim landlords who had been evicted from their land, and these remain in their possession till this day. In those disturbed times he was an independent chieftain and about five hundred people were enter- tained at his table. About one hundred scholars, divines and Huffaz stayed with him and were paid sufficient stipends. In his company the talk mostly revolved around religious subjects. All his depend- ents and relatives were regular in their worship of God. Even the maidservants who ground corn were regular in their five daily prayers and Tahajjud. The respectable Muslims of the neighbourhood, most of whom were Afghans, referred to Qādiān, which was then called Islāmpūr, as Mecca, because in those disturbed times this blessed town was a 4 Huffāz: People who have committed the Holy Qur'an to memory. [Publisher]