Hazrat Ahmad — Page 59
HADHRAT AHMAD 59 weaker. 'Send for Maulvi Noor-ud-Din,' he said: and then, 'Wake up Mahmood (the present writer) and Mir Sahib (his father-in-law). '. I slept in a lower room at a slight distance from him. I was called up. . I found him very restless. The doctor had already come and given what help he could. But he did not rally. At last an injection was given. Then he fell asleep. When it was dawn he woke up and performed his morning prayers. His throat was completely hoarse. . He tried to speak but could utter no sound. He called for pen and ink, but could not write. The pen dropped from his hand. . He then lay down. Soon a drowsiness came upon him. At about half past ten, his holy spirit passed away to the presence of the. August Sovereign, to the service of whose religion he had devoted the whole of his life. To Allah we belong and to Him shall we return. All through there was one word upon his lips and that word was 'Allah'. . The news of his death spread like lightning over the whole of the city. The members of the community in different places were informed by telegram. The evening papers and those of the following morning carried the news of the departure of this great personage to all parts of India. The magnanimity which marked his conduct in dealing with his opponents will always be remembered: there will also live the memory of the joyous exultation with which his enemies hailed the news of his death. Within half an hour of his death a gathering of the Lahore public assembled in front of the house where his holy body still reposed and began to sing songs of triumph, while others gave expression to their emotions in fantastic masquerading. . The love which his followers bore towards him could be gauged by the fact that many of them, when they saw the holy remains before their eyes were ready to repudiate the evidence of their senses rather than yield to the realization that their beloved one had left them forever. The feelings with which the disciples of the two Messiahs regarded their respective masters thus diverged in that, while for the first the fact that their master had come down from the cross alive was a matter of intense surprise and amazement, for the latter what was most heart-breaking was the fact that their beloved master should depart from them forever. The