Lecture Sialkot — Page 60
60 L ECTURE S IALKOT This means that so many people will come to you that you will be surprised by their numbers. But you must neither to be impolite to them nor weary of them. Dear people! though you may not know the number of people who have visited me in Qadian, and how graphic was the fulfilment of this prophecy, you must at least have noticed how thousands gathered at the railway station to welcome me at my arrival in this city and how hundreds of men and women pledged allegiance at my hand. Indeed, I am the same person who lived in this very town for seven years prior to Br a h i n-e-Ahmadiyya, and no one knew me or my circumstances. Just imagine how this prophecy was made in Br a h i n-e-Ahmadiyya as much as twenty-four years ago, long before this fame and renown, when I was of little consequence in the eyes of the people. As I have said, even though I lived in this town for about seven years before the writing of Br a h i n-e-Ahmadiyya , only a few among you gentle- men could claim to know me, for I was then an anonymous person, a mere solitary soul among the multitudes, with no significance in the eyes of the people. Nevertheless, those were very sweet times for me because I enjoyed total solitude among the multitude, and I was a unity in diversity. I lived in the city like a dweller in the wilderness. I love Sialkot as I love Qadian because some of my early