Hakeem Noor-ud-Deen – Khalifatul Masih I – The Way of the Righteous — Page 14
CHAPTER THREE In Quest of Knowledge Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Deen had a deep desire for higher learning, which prompted him to leave his hometown and family in order to visit some of the cities known for learning. Rampur was the first place he decided to visit. Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Deen described the visit in his own words in his book, Mirqaatul Yaqeen (p. 76-77): We were three - one of us was Maulavi Ghulam Mustafa, and the other was Maulavi Ala-ud-Din. We decided to elect a leader in order to work as a team, and to live in Rampur for three years to complete our education in Arabic. We selected Rampur mainly because there were many scholars, so that we may have access to them and thereby acquire education in different disciplines. On our way to Rampur, we hit Kandhla. There we met a pious scholar, Maulavi Nurul Hasan. He asked us to stay there for a while, but I was keen for Rampur, and was not keen to stay there. On our arrival in Rampur, we stayed in a deserted mosque. In the evening, while I walked through a street of Punjabis, I met Haafiz Abdul Haq, who asked us to stay in his mosque. I told him that I was not alone, that we were three, and he took the responsibility for all of us. Then I informed him that we had come to Rampur to acquire education. Haafiz Abdul Haq assured us that we would be taken care of, and he further assured us that we could remain in the city for a year. From the time of my arrival in Rampur, I was concerned whether my knowledge and study, already acquired, would be of any help to me. In the meantime, the person who motivated us to embark upon this journey left us as he felt that he was not doing anything worthwhile. During the three-year stay in Rampur, he attended lectures on different disciplines from a number of scholars. The Historian of Ahmadiyyat , Maulana Dost Muhammad Shahid, writing about his