Life of Ahmad — Page 34
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD as 34 According to Biblical chronology Ahmad as was born in the latter part of the 6,000th year after Adam’s as birth, and this was also in accordance with prophecies. There were great rejoicings at his birth. Those who looked at the babe were struck by the divine halo that encircled the swaddling clothes, and thanked God for the manifold blessings that he had brought to the whole family. As he grew up the mother took him several times to her parents at Aima, in the Hoshiarpur district. Young and old in that little village took an interest in the boy. Ahmad as used to play about in the dry beds of the hill streams that during the rainy season flow down the plains of the Hoshiarpur district. He amused himself there in bird-nesting. He might also have, sometimes, enjoyed 'sparrow pies'. This was fitting in the life of one who, like Jesus as , was later to insist that the loving care of the Heavenly Father regarded man as of greater worth than many sparrows. Little did Ahmad as , however, know that his capturing sparrows was but a preparation for his later ministry as the fisher of men whose nets would eventually be filled with the souls of the greater part of the human race. Once Ahmad as was playing in the fields at Qadian and wanted to get something from home. A man was tending his goats nearby and Ahmad as asked him to fetch it for him. The man said that he was looking after his goats and therefore could not go. Ahmad as offered to look after them in his stead, whereupon the goatherd went and fetched the required article while