Life of Ahmad — Page 60
EARLY LIFE as 60 Kapurthala State but did not accept it. When his father asked the reason of his refusal, he said that he did not wish to entangle himself in worldly affairs and that all he needed was a couple of Khaddar garments and a little bread. His father was very much touched by this reply and said to an acquaintance, Ghulam Nab i , that, anxious though he was for Ahmad as as a father, yet he felt that Ahmad as was right in leading such a righteous and simple life. Ahmad as was once appointed an 'assessor' (juryman) at the Sessions Court but declined to serve. Jhanda Singh of Kahlawan, a village near Qadian, says that through him Ahmad as was once called to his father’s presence. His father wanted Ahmad’s as consent to get him an appointment. Ahmad as replied that he had already got one, meaning thereby that he had entered the service of God and would not like to accept anything else. As an expression of imaginative feeling, as the movement of an energy, as one of those great human forces which go to the development of the race, poetry in the wide sense has played as important a part as science. Hence the sincerity, the conscience, and the spiritual pathos of Ahmad as found expression in poetry. The divine spirit which surged within his bosom burst out in rhythm—not so much of art as that which art would fain catch, the rhythm of nature, of life itself. He did not write for profit, nor for pleasure and amusement. The world did not know until years afterwards that he used to write poems in Urdu and