Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 268
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I 268 XVII PERSONAL REMINISCENCES My father Chaudhr i Na s rull a h Kh a n ra , was a lawyer practising at Sialkot in the Punjab. In the beginning of the century he was retained to defend a civil suit in which interesting and intriguing questions had been raised for judicial determination. Some years earlier Maulaw i Mub a rak ‘Al i , Imam and Mutawall i of the large well-endowed J a mi‘a Masjid in Sialkot Cantonment, had joined the Ahmadiyya Movement. His identification with a set of doctrines that were vehemently condemned by orthodox divines, became a source of irritation and uneasiness for the bulk of the congregation at the mosque, which was gradually fanned into intolerance and hostility. A number of them finally instituted a representative suit seeking a declaration that by joining the Ahmadiyya Movement the defendant, Maulaw i Mub a rak ‘Al i , had ceased to be a Muslim and was no longer competent to function as Imam or Mutawall i of the J a mi‘a Masjid. There was at the time no Ahmad i lawyer at Sialkot, and my father was retained as counsel for the defendant. He made a thorough study of the doctrineal questions raised by the plaintiffs in support of their plea that an Ahmad i could not be considered a Muslim, and found himself in sympathy with the Ahmadiyya point of view. Another matter that impressed him deeply was that the plaintiffs and their witnesses in making their depositions on oath under examination did not hesitate to depose falsely or to twist facts if they felt that a straightforward answer might prejudice their case, while the defendant and Ahmad i witnesses