Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 82
SEEKER AND SOUGHT Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I 82 dozen students for the service of Islam and arranged for them to achieve high proficiency in one or two of several important languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Sanskrit and English. He spent a large sum of money on the project. But when the carefully selected students had completed their courses of training, not one of them was found willing to embark upon the design their benefactor had in mind. He was disappointed, but bore them no grudge; nor was he discouraged. On 20th February, 1886, Hadrat Mirza Sahib as published in an announcement a grand prophecy concerning the birth of a son who, by divine grace, would be equipped with extraordinarily lofty qualities and faculties, a part of whose description in the words of revelation was: "Son, delight of the heart, exalted, noble, a manifestation of the First and the Last, and of the True and the High, as if God had descended from heaven. " That son was born on 12th January, 1889. That year proved to be a landmark in the history of religion and of Islam, and in the life of Maulaw i N u r-ud-D i n. The Ahmadiyya Movement was inaugurated in that year, and certain events of great moment affecting Maulaw i N u r-ud-D i n ra occurred in that year, a brief mention of some of which may be made here. He had been married twice, but all his male children had died in their infancy. Hadrat Mirza Sahib as was keenly anxious that he should marry a third time, and supplicated for guidance and made enquiries about a suitable match. Finally, in his letter of 23rd January, 1889, he recommended that Maulaw i N u r-ud-D i n ra should consider favourably making a