Fazl-e-Umar — Page 31
Fazle Umar 31 that they should obey you, thereafter even if they behave with childish mischief there is no fear. Hadhrat Ummul Momineen [ra_ha] would always say that my children do not tell lies. It was this trust that saved us from lies rather it made us averse to lies… And I remember that respect for my mother would increase further in my heart. “Another principle for the training of children that she used to state was that you should do your utmost to train the first child, then seeing this example others will automatically be good. ” 14 H I S C A PAC I T y TO A C C E P T M OR A L T R A I n I n G No matter how pretty, strong and permanent a dye is, a cloth cannot be dyed as long as its material lacks the quality to accept that colour. The hue of training also depends on similar requirements. If we study the life of Hadhrat Sahibzada Mahmud Ahmad [ra] from this point of view, we find this quality in him to its utmost degree. He was bestowed the capacity to accept good advice and beautiful colours at their most excellent level. Besides this he possessed perfectly the quality of rejecting wrong impressions. As a result of prolonged training by the Promised Messiah [as] not only did he accept good advice that was given gently but he would also accept without hesitation or confusion advice that was apparently bitter but was justified in its own right. In this regard an incident is especially worth considering when he not only accepted good advice given in bitter tone but felt throughout his life indebted to the one who gave him that advice: “I cannot forget the favour of a friend throughout my life. Whenever I see his children in some difficulty I feel shooting pain in my heart and I pray for their welfare… The incident occurred in 1903 when the Promised Messiah [as] was staying in Gurdaspur for pleading the lawsuit instigated by Maulvi Karam