Life of Ahmad — Page 53
as EARLY LIFE 53 of this, whatever he earned did not meet all his expenses. His father used, therefore, to send him regular extra amounts. Once his mother sent him four suits of clothes through H ay a t, a local barber. Barbers in India used to go on such errands in those days. Ahmad as gave one of these suits to H ay a t, who was very pleased at the generous gift. This same barber asked Ahmad as how he was getting on in service at Sialkot. Ahmad as replied it was no bettter than a jail for him. In another place he says that he lived there, 'alone in company and single in a crowd. ' He lived in the town as if it were a jungle. He was in this world but not of it. Once people became curious as to why Ahmad as shut himself in a room every day. They were, however, profoundly impressed when they discovered him sitting on his prayer carpet with the Holy Quran in his hand, imploring God to grant him understanding of it. He had rented a house 9 belonging to Umra Kashmiri, in the Mohalla where Maulaw i Abdul Kar i m was born. He was always most usefully occupied and never wasted a moment of his life. Sometimes illiterate people came to see him on business after office hours; and he had to request the elder brother of his landlord, who was an influential man, to make them understand that he could do no more for them and that they should leave him alone. He wanted to be undisturbed 9 Later he shifted to another house in front of the J a mi‘a Mosque.