Life of Ahmad — Page 453
as GURU NANAK WAS A MUSLIM 453 given to him by God Himself from heaven (See Janam S a kh i 107 Bh a i B a l a , Muf i d-e-‘ A m Press, Lahore, 1896). Varan Bh a i Gurd a s (printed at the Mu s tafa-e- Press Lahore, 1947 Samat, page 12) says that Nanak went to Mecca dressed in blue clothes as a Muslim saint with a prayer mat in his hand. He called out the Adh a n and sat in the Mosque for prayers. The researches of Ahmad as also led to the discovery of the fact that Nanak performed Chill a s (Muslim form of spiritual purification) at various places. At Sirsa there is a small building which is known as 'Chill a Bawa Nanak'. He had it built as an adjunct to the tomb of the Muslim Saint, Shah Abdush Shak u r rh. Dr. Muhammad Ismael Khan was sent to Sirsa to investigate and his detailed report confirmed Nanak’s association with the place (See Gur Kh a lsa by Giy a n Singh). At Multan also Nanak peroformed a 40 day Chill a at the shrine of Shah Shams Tabriz. Ahmad as deputed Ni a z Baig ra to make full enquiries on the subject, and 107 From the time when Ahmad as declared in this book Surma Chashm A rya that Nanak did not believe in the Hindu doctrine of the transmigration of souls and that he offered the Nim a z also. Sikh priests have always remained more or less alarmed and their effort has been to omit from their books all such references as lend any support to the view that Nanak was a Muslim. In his desperation a modern Sikh writer, Karam Singh, has taken up an extreme position. He condemns the Janam S a kh i wholesale. The book, no doubt, is a human production and no sane person can blindly accept all its statements as true or correct; but it does not become a Sikh to destroy the only, or let us say the greatest original source which the Sikhs possess for their own sacred history.