The Essence of Islam – Volume IV — Page 7
Family and Personal Background 7 faced ruin. They were taken captives like the Israel- ites, and all their belongings and properties were looted. Several mosques and fine houses were de- molished and gardens were cut down out of ignorance and bigotry. Some of the mosques were turned into Dharamsālass. One of these is still in their possession. A library belonging to our family was burnt down. It contained five hundred manual- script copies of the Holy Qur'an, which were disre- spectfully burnt. In the end, upon second thoughts, the Sikhs directed our family to depart from Qādiān and all men and women were seated in carts and ex- pelled, whereafter they took refuge in one of the Punjab states. After a short while my grandfather was poisoned by his enemies. Then, during the latter part of Ranjit Singh's rule, my father Mirzā Ghulām Murtadā returned to Qādiān and five of the villages, which had belonged to his father, were restored to him. In the meantime, Ranjit Singh had suppressed the smaller states and had consolidated them into a large state for himself. He had also captured all our villages and his rule now extended from Lahore to Peshawar and down to Ludhiana. Thus, after having been dispossessed of our estate, the remaining vil- lages were also taken over by Ranjit Singh and we were left with only five of them. Nevertheless, as head of an ancient family, my father Mirzā Ghulām Murtadā was a well-known Chieftain in this neighbourhood. . . . . Sir Lepel Griffin in his book 5 Charitable rest houses.